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posted by on Wednesday May 17 2017, @11:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the leakers-are-everywhere dept.

President Donald Trump disclosed highly classified information to Russia's foreign minister about a planned Islamic State operation, two U.S. officials said on Monday, plunging the White House into another controversy just months into Trump's short tenure in office.

The intelligence, shared at a meeting last week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, was supplied by a U.S. ally in the fight against the militant group, both officials with knowledge of the situation said.

The White House declared the allegations, first reported by the Washington Post, incorrect.

[...] One of the officials said the intelligence discussed by Trump in his meeting with Lavrov was classified "Top Secret" and held in a secure "compartment" to which only a handful of intelligence officials have access.

After Trump's disclosure of the information, which one of the officials described as spontaneous, officials immediately called the CIA and the National Security Agency, both of which have agreements with a number of allied intelligence services around the world, and informed them what had happened.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-idUSKCN18B2MX

Also at The Washington Post and The New York Times.

[Update.] According to Ars Technica, President Trump then proceeded to Tweet information about this meeting:

Statements from President Trump on Twitter and from White House National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster did not directly contradict details initially reported by the Washington Post late on Monday. McMaster said that no sources or methods were exposed in the conversation. However, the unnamed officials cited in the Post report were concerned that Trump's citing of the exact location "in the Islamic State’s territory where the US intelligence partner detected the threat" could expose the source. Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted:

As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017

...to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017

Trump also lashed out at the intelligence community for leaking about his actions:

I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:32PM (3 children)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:32PM (#511239) Homepage

    Fuck Israel. They should be next on the nuking block.

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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:44PM (2 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:44PM (#511245)

    Do we have the right nuke granularity, thought?
    You need to decide if you want to nuke the 20% of Israeli Palestinians, the 80% of Israeli Jews, both, or the 50-50 including the Occupied Territories and colonies.
    Would you rather nuke Greater Israel or just Green-line Israel? How about Gaza and the Golan Heights?

    Nothing's ever easy down there. We need better Apartheid and formal Bantustans, so we can carpet-bomb more efficiently.