They’d figure it out when Russian bombs dropped on them. Russia has had a tendency to bomb some of the people fighting ISIS. If this source happens to be one of those groups, and they get made dead because of [del]Supreme Leader Snoke[/del] President Trump’s big mouth, how likely are other groups going to be to help out the US?
New reports say that the source of the intelligence was Israel. If that is indeed the case, as an Israeli, I’d like to thank the Washington Post for giving my country a heads up.
An excellent article in the Atlantic, written by the director of the Strategic Studies Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies:
The Terrible Cost of Trump’s Disclosures
The consequences of the president’s reported divulgence of top-secret codeword information to the Russians are only beginning.
He also has something to say about the statements of Tillerson, Powell, and McMaster. He calls them “not quite lies, but they are the kind of parsed half truths that are as bad, and in some cases worse.”
This is the most clear and helpful article I’ve seen. Definitely worth reading.
Right. What’s good for Israel isn’t necessarily what’s good for the US, and vice versa.
I do understand where you are coming from, Fotheringay-Phipps, but I simply cannot agree that the “greatest damage” is the diplomatic damage nor can I accept that the only way Israeli intelligence could find out about this fuckup is through a WaPo article.
Multiple, independently confirmed anonymous leakers. The Washington Post’s rules for leaked information and confirmation and very well known.
A better analogy would be that I asked you to check on my plants, and told you where I hid my spare key. Then you go to the local bar, and blab to everyone around where I keep my spare key. One of the people at the bar then posts on facebook “Frotheringay just blabbed about where someone told him a spare key was.”
This alerts me to the fact that my key has been compromised, without actually compromising it further, and makes me aware that I can no longer trust you in the future.
The only person it hurts is you, and your credibility.
Good point, and trump has made that obvious, which is why they will no longer be sharing intel with us.
Not even that.
This is a breach of trust, yes. But not because an ally expects that the US will ask its consent to share.
The expectation is that the US will treat sensitive information sensitively. That is, the breach is not a failure to ask for explicit consent. It’s the failure to treat the information as a valuable asset and disclose it after careful consideration. There is no etiquette rule that says, “Ask us before you pass this on.” But there is one that says, “Use this carefully, protect it,” and Trump’s conduct appears to have violated this.
in meme-speak: when Grandma cashes in a savings bond to give you a graduation check, and you use it for hookers and blow.
Are you suggesting that the Trump administration should have kept the disclosure a secret? Would this not endanger the intelligence operation by the country that provided this information? Shouldn’t the US at least try to contain the damage by informing the allies that the Russians now have this information?
Also, if I remember correctly, a Tass reporter was in the room, with a video camera.
Multiple news reports I’ve heard stated that this is in fact the etiquette. Whoever comes up with the intelligence gets to dictate whom it can be shared with. If the US shares its intelligence with the UK, the UK doesn’t get to pass it on to any country it wants, it’s supposed to get approval from the US first.
That seems in opposition to all reporting and this isn’t the first time I have heard of this long standing etiquette.
Putin has to be loving this, they really pulled one over on us - they tricked their way into the Oval Office, with their top spy and a photographer in tow, published a lot of chummy looking photos and then used their spycraft skills to worm some classified info out of Old Dickory. Right in the middle of the Comey firing scandal, to boot.
Once again, Trump is sitting in front of a burning house demanding to know who had the temerity to call the fire department.
This didn’t require a “trick” or “spycraft skills.” This required a guy with a camera saying “photo op. It’ll be in all the Russian papers. It’ll be huge.” followed by a compliment on the new Oval Office curtains.
The man is not a vault.
Then cite it, please. A specific claim, not a vague set of sentences that use etiquette in one sentence and then invite the reader to infer the etiquette.
There’s this:
OK, found one from the New York Timese:
(bolding mine)
The officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Israel previously had urged the United States to be careful about the handling of the intelligence that Mr. Trump discussed.
and
Israeli officials, however, said it was “highly unusual” and “highly inappropriate” to share information without prior coordination.
and
A second intelligence officer, who spoke to BuzzFeed News via encrypted app and also spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Israel had shared specific intelligence with the US regarding an active threat to US-bound planes. Speaking to BuzzFeed News via a military base in northern Israel, he said Israeli intelligence officers were “boiling mad and demanding answers” as to whether Israel’s military would continue its current intelligence-sharing agreement with the US.
More from that article:
"There is aspecial understanding of security cooperation between our countries," he said. “To know that this intelligence is shared with others, without our prior knowledge? That is, for us, our worst fears confirmed.”