I'm NOT blaming Trump (this time) but America, you are out of order
By Boingboing
@boiboing (13153)
Northampton, England
May 25, 2017 5:00am CST
Today the news is all about how our 'special relationship' partners, the USA, have been doing their utmost to totally mess up the investigation into the Manchester bombing - just as they apparently did back when we had the London bombings on 7/7.
UK intelligence on the bomber and the details of his attack have made it into the New York Times BEFORE they've been made public in the UK. The bomber's name was released in the USA without permission from the UK authorities, thereby compromising the security of the operation to round up potential collaborators. Now today we hear somebody in the US 'intelligence' (and I use the word very loosely) has leaked details about the bomb to the NY Times against all protocols.
I'm not blaming Trump since they've done this before and he's well out of the way at the moment but this is so unacceptable. The US so-called intelligence services wouldn't want the UK press leaking information about American security operations, so why would they imagine it's OK to put people at risk in other countries.
As the slogan used to be in WW2, Loose lips sink ships - but these days leaked news kills.
10 people like this
7 responses
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
25 May 17
I was appalled when I heard this and I thought that they had been suitably rapped over the knuckles but now I read that further information has been leaked to the US press since we made an official complaint about it!
It makes one wonder whether we should share sensitive information with opposite numbers in other countries, especially the US and France.
1 person likes this
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@scheng1 (24650)
• Singapore
25 May 17
They sure follow their leader Trump.
If Trump can give out sensitive and classified information to the Russia without caring about the safety of the source, it paves the way for the civil servants to give out information to the press.
America has to learn to stop meddling into the affair of other countries.
@scheng1 (24650)
• Singapore
25 May 17
@boiboing That is why China can get rid of the CIA assets in their midst.
Someone leaked out the information to China, and China proceeded to kill all those who fed information to CIA.
Now CIA has no human intelligence in China, and definitely not in North Korea.
US government has so many big-mouths.
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
25 May 17
Well, we've been trying to tell everyone that the leakers in the intelligence agencies and the White House are a danger to national and international security, but since a lot of what they "leak" to the unscrupulous press has been salacious stories about President Trump, everyone has really just been in a feeding frenzy. They gobble up whatever anonymously sourced story that the New York Times and the Washington Post can manage to publish. All the leakers are a danger, the intelligence agencies shouldn't be leaking information of any kind to the press. They need to be routed out. Anyone who cannot put the security of the nation or the world ahead of giving a reporter a juicy tip isn't fit to be in the intelligence agency and is also a less than reliable source of information since that person doesn't have a firm set of moral priorities.
@JudyEv (325759)
• Rockingham, Australia
25 May 17
This is very bad indeed. We heard about it earlier today. Not good.
@topffer (42156)
• France
25 May 17
True, you cannot blame Trump, he has often said that the New York Times was a source of fake news
.
The newspaper did its job, perhaps a bit too early. Maybe they would have thought twice about it if the NYT was based in UK, to not cut the link with the authorities, but there is no law to forbid to publish this kind of information when they put the hands on it, and it is the role of a newspaper to inform.
Now for the CIA, it is another story, and they should seriously investigate about their leaks
. Or make everything they receive directly available on Wikileaks
.
.
The newspaper did its job, perhaps a bit too early. Maybe they would have thought twice about it if the NYT was based in UK, to not cut the link with the authorities, but there is no law to forbid to publish this kind of information when they put the hands on it, and it is the role of a newspaper to inform.
Now for the CIA, it is another story, and they should seriously investigate about their leaks. Or make everything they receive directly available on Wikileaks.