Report: Trump’s Russia Intel Disclosure Risks Life Of Israeli Spy Within ISIS
A masked Islamic State militant speaks next to U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff in this still image from a video authenticated by the White House. Image by Reuters
By Aiden Pink May 17, 2017
President Trump’s decision to share highly classified intelligence about an ISIS plot with Russian officials last week endangered the life of an Israeli spy embedded within the terror organization, ABC News reported Tuesday.
The information, which was provided by Israel to U.S. intelligence, was about an ISIS plan to blow up an airplane with a bomb hidden inside a laptop in a way that could evade airport security, ABC reported, citing current and former U.S. officials. The terror group killed more than 200 people two years ago when it blew up a Russian airliner with a bomb hidden in a soda can.
National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said Tuesday that the common threat that the U.S. and Russia face from ISIS justified the disclosure. But the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Matt Olsen, told ABC that the president’s actions were inappropriate.
“Russia is not part of the ISIS coalition,” he said. “They are not our partner.”
Former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro warned ABC that the incident would “inevitably cause elements of Israel’s intelligence service to demonstrate more caution” when sharing intelligence with its chief ally.
This may already be happening: Danny Yatom, the former head of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence organization, told CBS News that Israel “will think twice before conveying very sensitive information.”
Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink.
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