After decrying leaks, Trump shares sensitive details on Baghdadi raid

[babylonsister]

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/after-decrying-leaks-trump-shares-sensitive-details-baghdadi-raid


After decrying leaks, Trump shares sensitive details on Baghdadi raid
10/28/19 08:45 AM—Updated 10/28/19 01:05 PM
By Steve Benen


snip//

First, if the White House was determined to limit the number of lawmakers aware of the mission for security reasons, it doesn’t explain why Republican members of Congress – including one GOP lawmaker outside the Gang of Eight – were notified and Democrats weren’t. This was not supposed to be a partisan exercise.

Second, given the frequency with which Trump blurts out sensitive information – including, in one instance, his decision to leak highly classified intelligence with Russians for no reason – it was kind of hilarious to hear him whine yesterday about leaks, as if others have been careless.

And third, as part of the same White House event in which he suggested Democrats might not be trustworthy to be discreet with sensitive intelligence, Donald Trump shared all kinds of operational details that he could’ve easily kept to himself, including the precise number of commando helicopters used and the route they took to the raid.

Politico reported:

Throughout the rest of the news conference, Trump eagerly divulged operational details that would normally be reserved for expert officials to share at their discretion. The move immediately drew criticism from national security analysts who said they were alarmed by the volume of information he shared regarding the location and specifics of the nighttime raid.

Over the course of his remarks, Trump revealed that Baghdadi had been “under surveillance for a couple of weeks”; the number of helicopters involved in the mission and their time of liftoff; how special forces teams managed to penetrate the compound where Baghdadi was found; how lab technicians administered a “genius” DNA test after he killed himself by detonating a suicide vest; and which “element of the attack [U.S. forces] were most afraid of.”

A separate Politico report added, “Taken together, some of the details Trump revealed could help terrorist groups piece together new information about how U.S. counterterrorism forces gather intelligence and execute such dangerous missions, said veterans of previous operations.”

For Trump to divulge these operational details was unsettling. For him to divulge these operational details while complaining about leaks and suggesting others lacked discretion was ridiculous.

[shanti]

1. this:

"...including one GOP lawmaker outside the Gang of Eight..."

Hmm, I wonder who that was?

[HipChick]

2. Even Russia was notified before the Democrats..