by News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
White House refuses to comment on reports that Israeli agent inside Islamic State supplied the intelligence the U.S. president shared with Russian officials last week • Trump tweets that he has "an absolute right" to share "facts pertaining to terrorism."
U.S. President Donald Trump
stands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and Russian
Ambassador Sergei Kislyak at the White House, Wednesday
|
Photo credit: AP  |
The life of an Israeli agent who infiltrated
the Islamic State group is in danger because of the sensitive
information U.S. President Donald Trump leaked to
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the
U.S. Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office last week, ABC News reported
Tuesday.
The report quoted current and former U.S.
officials, and said Israel had informed the United States about an
active Islamic State plot to bomb a passenger jet using an
explosive-rigged laptop computer. The information was shared on the
condition that the source remain secret.
The Buzzfeed website reported late Tuesday
that two Israeli intelligence officials said that Trump's leak of the
intelligence confirmed Israel's "worst fears" of privileged information
being released without coordination. The officials said that Israel and
the U.S. had an intelligence-sharing arrangement unlike any other in the
world.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said
Wednesday that Israel's relations with the U.S. are "deep, important and
unprecedented in their extent and contribution to our strength. That's
how it was and that's how it will continue to be."
The intelligence reportedly prompted the U.S.
to consider banning consumer electronics larger than cell phones on
inbound flights from Europe.
A U.S. official familiar with the issue said
that during his meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak, Trump boasted about his
access to classified intelligence. An excerpt from an official
transcript of the meeting reveals that Trump told them, "I get great
intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day."
After he spoke with the Russians, Trump was
informed that he had broken protocol and White House officials placed
calls to the National Security Agency and the CIA to try to minimize any
damage.
On Tuesday, in a White House briefing,
national security adviser H.R. McMaster cast some of Trump's revelations
as information that is publicly available via "open-source reporting,"
and said the president did not know the precise source of the
intelligence he had shared. He appeared to be suggesting that Trump had
not knowingly compromised a confidential source, but the statement also
indicated that the president had not asked his advisers for detailed
information about the intelligence report he had received.
"In the context of that discussion, what the
president discussed with the [Russian] foreign minister was wholly
appropriate to that conversation and is consistent with the routine
sharing of information between the president and any leaders with whom
he is engaged," McMaster said.
In a series of tweets, Trump declared that as
president he has "an absolute right" to share "facts pertaining to
terrorism" and airline safety with Russia.
The White House declined on Tuesday to comment
on the reports that an Israeli agent was the source of the intelligence
that Trump shared with the Russian officials.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer also
declined to say whether the White House would share transcripts of
Trump's meeting with Lavrov with lawmakers who have asked for them.
News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=42473
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