Donald Trump didn’t just spill any source to Russia in his effort to show what a big man he is. He pilled a source that was key to dealing with ISIS.
These officials, who are privy to intelligence about the terrorist group’s efforts, said the source of information was particularly valuable for tracking Islamic State’s attempts to place explosive devices on commercial airplanes.
The most valuable source on ISIS, one that has the inside knowledge and connections to understand how that terrorist group is trying to strike out against travelers around the world. It was information from this source that caused the international alert about carrying laptops and other electronic devices earlier this year. And how did Donald Trump’s loose lip affect this ship?
One official said now that the Russians are aware of the source, there is greater risk the source could be compromised in some way. That makes it less likely that the intelligence community will trust future information, the official said.
Visibility on a key piece of information about ISIS, lost. Future sharing of information, damaged. And there’s one more thing that took a beating …
All the officials agreed that the president’s impromptu revelation had shaken career intelligence officers’ confidence in Mr. Trump’s ability to keep secrets and exacerbated long-standing tensions between him and the intelligence community.
But then, faith in Donald Trump was never that high.
During the presidential transition, Mr. Trump accused intelligence officials of leaking information that was politically damaging to him. His first official stop as president was at CIA headquarters, where he stood in front of a memorial and spoke of the size of the crowd at his inauguration a day earlier.
Donald Trump is calling investigations into his campaign a “witch hunt” at the same time as he is actively giving the Russians information that degrades the nation’s safety and damages relationships with allies. He’s asked Comey to back off investigating Flynn, even though Flynn had knowingly acted to hold back a US attack on ISIS to please his paymasters in Turkey.
Trump acted to help ISIS. Flynn acted to help ISIS.
Whose side are these guys on?