Trump Is on the Hunt… No Leaker Is Safe
As a general rule, President Donald Trump has been highly critical of leaks within the government and his administration. However, when someone leaked sensitive information about the Manchester terror attack, it was a bridge too far.
According to The Washington Post, Trump has launched an investigation into who leaked sensitive information about Monday’s attack to media sources, calling the security breaches “deeply troubling.”
British officials were so outraged over two leaks in particular — the sharing of a crime scene photo from the Manchester Arena with The New York Times and the release of the name of bombing suspect Salman Abedi to various media outlets — that they temporarily stopped sharing intelligence information about the attack with the United States.
However, on Thursday, British police said they had resumed intelligence sharing after “fresh assurances” from the United States, according to the U.K. Independent.
While British officials have not said that the leaks compromised the investigation into Monday’s bombing in any way, some have noted that releasing the bombing suspect’s name may have alerted individuals who were in league with Abedi and allowed them to evade law enforcement.
In a Thursday statement from the NATO summit in Brussels, President Trump said the “deeply troubling” leaks are a “grave threat to our national security.”
“There is no relationship we cherish more than the special relationship between the U.S. and the UK,” Trump said, according to the BBC.
Acknowledging that “(t)hese leaks have been going on for a long time,” Trump pledged a full Department of Justice investigation and said that “if appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted.”
The leaking culture inside the federal government apparatus needs to be put into check. A hunt into leaky pipes is long overdue, and prosecutions need to happen. Leakers should never be able to compromise our national security, especially when it involves one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in recent years.
Let’s hope that the culprits are found quickly.
H/T Newsmax
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