• Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador - The Washington Post
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-revealed-highly-classified-information-to-russian-foreign-minister-and-ambassador/2017/05/15/530c172a-3960-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html?tid=a_breakingnews

    President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.

    The information the president relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said.

    The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said Trump’s decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. After Trump’s meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency.

    This is code-word information,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.

    • Foreign Policy - Situation Report
      http://link.foreignpolicy.com/view/52543e66c16bcfa46f6ced165qajs.2583/74c45049

      Top administration is denying the reports. Or at least is denying something. National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster delivered a quick statement Monday saying, “I was in the room — it didn’t happen.” He added, “at no time — at no time — were intelligence sources or methods discussed, and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known.” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued a similar statement. Problem is, none of the stories claimed that sources and methods were exposed.

      And then on Tuesday morning, Trump dive-bombed McMaster’s statement that “it didn’t happen,” when he took to Twitter to confirm that in fact he did share classified information with the Russians via Twitter. Trump said he has the “absolute right” to share with top Russian officials information about an Islamic State threat. McMaster is slated to brief the press in the White House Briefing Room this afternoon.

      As the New York Times said, “according to the officials, Mr. Trump discussed the contents of the intelligence, not the sources and methods used to collect it. The concern is that knowledge of the information about the Islamic State plot could allow the Russians to figure out the sources and methods.” One current administration official told the paper that Trump “shared granular details of the intelligence with the Russians. Among the details the president shared was the city in Syria where the ally picked up information about the plot, though Mr. Trump is not believed to have disclosed that the intelligence came from a Middle Eastern ally or precisely how it was gathered.

    • Après la crise, le chaos
      http://theconversation.com/apres-la-crise-le-chaos-77839

      L’atmosphère était devenue irrespirable quand Donald Trump a sifflé la fin de la récré par deux tweets, comme il en a le secret : à la surprise générale, il a tout revendiqué et absolument tout assumé :

      « Oui, comme Président j’ai partagé des informations avec la Russie, ce que j’ai absolument le droit de faire, pour des questions touchant au terrorisme et à la sécurité aérienne. C’était nécessaire pour des raisons humanitaires et pour permettre une plus grande coopération avec les Russes dans la lutte contre Daech. »

    • U.S. officials: Israel provided secret intelligence that Trump leaked to Russia - U.S. News - Haaretz.com
      http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.789647

      The New York Times report said Israeli officials refused to confirm that Israel was the source of the information. But BuzzFeed News quoted two Israeli intelligence officials as saying that Israel had shared information with the United States on an Islamic State plan to sneak explosive-laden laptops onto planes. The New York Times’ report that the U.S. president had shared Israeli intelligence with Russia was Israel’s “worst fears confirmed,” one of the officers was quoted as saying.

    • The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: So the ally is #Israel (about the ISIS plot)
      http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2017/05/so-ally-is-israel-about-isis-plot.html

      Is there any dirty scheme in which Israel is not involved? So the sources of intelligence about ISIS is now Israel? The country which enjoys excellent relations with both ISIS and Al-Qa`idah in Syria? Let me guess: it also is the source of information on all matters Syrian for the US government.