SAN FRANCISCO — Two Israeli intelligence officials confirmed to BuzzFeed News Tuesday that Israel had shared specific intelligence with the US regarding ISIS plots to smuggle explosive laptops onto planes, under the unique intelligence-sharing agreement the two countries maintain.
The revelation that Trump had shared that intelligence with Russian officials was Israel's "worst fears confirmed," said one of the intelligence officers.
"We have an arrangement with America which is unique to the world of intelligence sharing. We do not have this relationship with any other country," said the officer, who spoke to BuzzFeed News on condition of anonymity as he was not granted permission to speak to the press.
"There is a special understanding of security cooperation between our countries," they said. "To know that this intelligence is shared with others, without our prior knowledge? That is, for us, our worst fears confirmed."
The officer previously spoke to BuzzFeed News in January, when he said that Israeli officials had specific concerns about what Trump would share with Russian officials. Israel, he added, routinely shared intelligence which included sources of information and asset names, he said, the type of information which could endanger the lives of those providing the raw intelligence.
Israel's role in obtaining the intelligence passed on to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was first reported by the New York Times on Monday. Lavrov and Trump's discussion last week has been the subject of rapid pushback from an embattled White House, who have said that the president's disclosure was "wholly appropriate."
"There has to be trust for this sort of arrangement. I cannot speak for Israel's entire security apparatus, but I would not trust a partner who shared intelligence without coordinating it with us first," said the officer.
A second intelligence officer, who spoke to BuzzFeed News via encrypted app and also spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Israel had shared specific intelligence with the US regarding an active threat to US-bound planes. Speaking to BuzzFeed News via a military base in northern Israel, he said Israeli intelligence officers were "boiling mad and demanding answers" as to whether Israel's military would continue its current intelligence-sharing agreement with the US.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/sheerafrenkel/israeli-official-trump-sharing-intelligence-with-russia-is?utm_term=.eg5WnD54J#.ngQrjm1Mk
You can bet that right now Israel is doing everything it can to protect or pull it's agents out of (most likely) Syria or any other location where ISIS is operating where they may have spies in, because Trump has guaranteed that they will die if they don't. You can also bet that, in spite of what the Israeli Ambassador has said about our intelligence sharing being unchanged (what else would he say publicly?), Israeli Intelligence is not going to give anything to Trump that they think may fall into the hands of the Russians and then, of course, into the hands of Assad, Iran and Hezbollah. He screwed the pooch badly this time.
Oh and by saying today that he had he right to do it after denying that he did it yesterday through H.R. McMasters he has now thrown him (McMasters) under the bus too. Loyalty for Trump is a one way street. McMasters no longer has any more credibility then Bannon. Though whoever leaked this information is an American hero.
The timing is remarkable; Trump will be in Israel next week. I wonder how this new dynamic effects this upcoming visit?
If Bibi is smart (and even though I hate his polices no one has ever accused him of being stupid) he will hold a private meeting with Trump and scream at him for about an hour. Not that it will do any good as there was a report out of the White House last night that some staffers are saying that sometimes Trump can't remember what he said the day before. Keep in mind Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.
Dear Friend Larry Hampton: The relationships between the USA and Israel, including intelligence sharing run very deep.
They transcend individual leaders and their administrations.
My best guess is this.
Israel, as professionals in such matters will down play the damage done here.
Israel needs America.
America needs Israel.
That said, the USA does not have agents correctly placed everywhere in the world. No nation does or can.
The USA, like Israel depends on a network of colleagues who can obtain and share information of value with each other in an atmosphere of mutual trust and discretion.
This was indisputably violated here.
Israel's assets on the ground among ISIS are now mortally and effectively compromised.
Russia and Assad's forces and other allies can reverse engineer where the assets are.
They can deduce from which areas this data was obtained.
One can expect lots of beheading and torture videos to be shown on youtube. hulu, etc.
Many who will die will be innocent.
That is neutral to the recruitment and propaganda value this will have for ISIS, Assad nd others.
There is no way Mossad or any other agency in Israel can control President Trump.
They have to and will take the good with the bad.
He will be warmly welcomed in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on his trip there.
There will be photo opts and hand shaking.
There will still be information shared between the US Department of Defense, US Intelligence and Israel's counter part organizations. They all need each other.
In this imperfect world you take the good with the bad.
Play the hand dealt you to the best of your ability.
It will be harder for Israel to obtain vital information for its defense if not survival by having its operative agents compromised.
Israel will find a way to reverse as much of the damage this has done as is humanly possible. It always does.
Onward and Upwards.
Enoch.
In this imperfect world you take the good with the bad.
Or Trump can resign or be impeached and we can all move on to more promising days.
That said, the USA does not have agents correctly placed everywhere in the world. No nation does or can.
The USA, like Israel depends on a network of colleagues who can obtain and share information of value with each other in an atmosphere of mutual trust and discretion.
This was indisputably violated here.
Israel's assets on the ground among ISIS are now mortally and effectively compromised.
Russia and Assad's forces and other allies can reverse engineer where the assets are.
They can deduce from which areas this data was obtained.
One can expect lots of beheading and torture videos to be shown on youtube. hulu, etc.
Many who will die will be innocent.
Dear Enoch,
The above is what many who are defending Trump over this either don't understand or are purposely closing their eyes to. Israel is in the best position to infiltrate terrorist groups such as ISIS or Hezbollah, though at great risk, because they can blend in much better with customs and language etc., then the average American Agent can. Once Russia reverse engineers this information and gives it to Assad he will not be too picky about trying to find the exact Israeli Agents involved and will simply slaughter everyone from the part of the particular town or city that Trump told the Russians where the information came from. I am afraid that you are right, many innocent people will die in Assad's efforts to ensure the undercover Israeli Agents are killed, though I suspect Israel is doing everything they can to get them out, if they haven't already. Though that will certainly not stop the slaughter.
Trump's bragging to the Russians about knowing this information will cost many innocent people their lives. That is what makes this so bad. What he did was legal under American law, but monumentally stupid and deadly.
Your friend,
Randy
Thank you Enoch for your reasoned reply; we have an awful lot to be grateful for.
My hope is that Trump doesn't overthink things there too much, and plays the role of the smiling, photo-op president. Anything else would be asking too much I fear.
Dear Friend Larry Hampton:You are most welcome.
We can only hope for the best.
E.
McMasters
Excuse me, McMaster. I don't know where that "s" keeps coming from. Blasted typos. For years I used to spell "they" as" theye" when typing and I don't know why. Also type "my" as "me" sometimes. Took me a long time to break the habits.
I thought Trump was pro-Israel. Oops.
The New York Times outed Israel as the source, not trump.
The New York Times? No surprise to me - Israel's enemies are not only in the Middle East.
If, as Trump's minions have said, the information revealed was already known to the rest of the world, then nothing would be lost or damaged if the exact information as passed by Trump to the Russians were openly published. That would end the speculation of how damaging it could possibly have been. However, if the administration refuses to release to the public ANY of that information that they provided to the Russians, then probably it had NOT already been known to the rest of the world, and in that case probably WILL be damaging. At the very least, not publishing it will cause speculation that will most likely be beyond reality, and that speculation will be the killer.
What bothers me the most with this is, if the revealed information was already known to the rest of the world, then why was it necessary to tell it to the Russians? Doesn't that make one think that perhaps something was said that should NOT have been said? And if that is so, I am deeply disturbed by this.
From what McMaster said, no sources or operations were discussed, which would be the primary concern. It's almost certainly related to these stories that were already made public:
The outing of the source of the intelligence, Israel, was done by the New York Times.
When Obama shared classfied information with the Russians and got people killed, the media yawned:
Back in the summer of 2016, the Obama administration provided some information to the Russians about some of the things happening on the ground. Guess what happened? The Russians then attacked some of those sites of our allies, our proxies that we were working with. And that’s a problem...
This whole story is flakey. Trump told the Russians about "specific" ISIS plots to smuggle laptop bombs on planes. Of course there's nothing wrong with that in principle because both Russia and the US are fighting ISIS (as is Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and lots of others). The Russians would certainly appreciate knowing about plots against their planes as much as we'd like to know about plots against ours. So that's no big deal.
The real problem is that it supposedly indirectly exposes Israel's involvement. But then a high level leak makes the story public, informing ISIS that their plots have been uncovered, and suggests that we got the information from Israel who obtained it from their ISIS spy. Just to make sure that ISIS knows Israel has a spy in its midst, Israel steps up and exposes itself. Israel then acts like our information sharing agreement is at risk when, in fact, Israel would have the life span of a housefly if we stopped helping them.
I don't see any serious threat here. What I see is a leaked story, picked up by the anti-Trump media, and then used to highlight the democrats' talking point that Trump is a dope and/or dupe. And this is not about defending Trump; it's about examining the media.
As I tried to point out, the speculation is more damaging than the facts.
The news
It would be no surprise to me if the story has been blown up to be more than it is, knowing that the American media ie out to "get" Trump, but if it is not, I am, as I said before, deeply disturbed. Intelligence from Israel is unique, and I would not be surprised if Israel were a hell of a lot more careful about what they shared with the US in the future.
MSNBC just reported that they have a report that there is a MOSSAD Agent with ISIS who is in trouble and that Israel is trying to get him out right now. That is all their source knows right now. The source doesn't know where he is or anything else about him or have any other information.
If all of this is true, and Israel loses its agent - an invaluable source of intelligence, the fault will lie with the USA, and I don't know if the fault will be that of Trump or the American intelligence organization or the American media or any combination thereof. Israel has already lost from this, whether any of it is true or not, and I would not be surprised if America will also lose because Israel will be a lot more careful about what it shares.
I am looking all over the internet that I know to find out more information. There is nothing in The Times of Israel about it and it was just a short blurb on a news show called The 11th Hour with Brian Williams. If I hear or find anything else out I'll let you know.
If Israel loses an Agent then it really doesn't matter whose fault it is. They'll stop or be a lot more careful about letting the US know any more highly classified information and that a real shame because both nations need each other when it comes to international terrorism like ISIS.
If there is an Israeli agent in trouble (from the press publishing classified information), then why doesn't the media just finish the job and put a bullseye on his back by posting his name, picture, and last known location?
There is no way to know if it's the fault of the media, because THEY never said where the town or city was or that ISIS was involved, only Trump did when he told the Russians! So the ultimate fault is a braggart moron in the Oval Office who needs to have his tongue cut out!
There is o way to know if it's the fault of the media.
I don't actually know what Trump did but I do know what I've read in the media and they're drawing a roadmap for ISIS. All of this started with a leak that suggested the information came from Israel. Then Israel (uncharacteristically and stupidly) quickly confirmed it. Now the Israeli agent is (predictably) running for his life. Is the media reporting the news or crafting it? I'll wait and see.
The media did not report the location to anyone or mention ISIS. Trump told both of those things to the Russians. So I disagree.
The media did not report the location to anyone or mention ISIS. Trump told both of those things to the Russians. So I disagree.
And you know that from the media and now so does ISIS.
Oh for Pete's sake. I know that from the White House! The Media said that the White House said the location, the city, but they never said which city. Hell the media STILL hasn't reported it! Only Trump told that to the Russians and only Trump told the Russians that it concerned laptop bombs and ISIS. THEY said THAT!! The White House said that part to the media!!! The media just reported what THEY said!
And before you even DARE to ask me to prove it, look it the fuck up for yourself! I'm not your fucking secretary!
I dare. As far as I know, the original story was in the Washington Post and its source is unnamed officials i.e. a leak. So, unless you have proof to the contrary, the media put the story out there not the White House.
Oh grow up. Are you going to triple dog dare me next, Schwartz? If the media reported the city, what city is it? The White House said it was the Islamic State. That's ISIS. That's all I'm going to help you with.
I'm not sure what you're talking about but the Washington Post is the initial means by which the information became public, and once it was public, ISIS can read it just like you can.
Just trying to get this straight..... Your position is that it's everyone else's fault but the big fat liar in the oval office who can't keep his fucking mouth shut, correct?
Just trying to get this straight..... Your position is that it's everyone else's fault but the big fat liar in the oval office who can't keep his fucking mouth shut, correct.
No, I'm saying that the media made it public and, if an Israeli agent was put at risk (something I doubt), then it's directly due to the publication of an intelligence operation by the media. I say that because Russia and Assad don't have a fucking thing to do with ISIS (they're at war with each other) and wouldn't pass information to them so ISIS would only know about an Israeli spy by reading it in the media. Is that clear?
No, it's not clear. It's as muddy as the Mississippi River.
First, maybe if the fucking republicans would have done their job as Americans first and taken Trump's antics serious from the beginning we wouldn't have to rely on REAL PATRIOTS via leaks. This is the complete and utter fault of the Trump supporters and enablers. They put this fucking idiot into office and they continue to give him cover in every area. Not demanding he release his taxes, Not demanding he divest his investments/properties, Not demanding that he tell the truth, Not demanding that he follow ethic rules, Not demanding that he not put his family in key government roles. This lack of action on the part of republicans and Trump supporters have created an environment in which it's clear that our intelligent community either leak information and force republican to react now that the public has been informed. Republicans and trump supporters have proven that they can't be trusted to put America first.
It's patriotic to leak intelligence sources like the NYT just did? That's a pretty stupid comment.
No, it's pretty stupid that the Republicans and trump supporters are so anti american to have FORCED our intelligence community to protect the country through unconventional methods.
I hope they continue to leak information since the white house and Trump's administration have actively lied and deceived the country.
Only anti-Americans would support Trump at this point. So what are you Cerenkov, an American or a Trump supporter?
"So what are you Cerenkov, an American or a Trump supporter?"
I reject your false choice. I'm an American who supports the duly elected POTUS. You however encourage espionage and anti-American actions. How unpatriotic...
Ah..... I think I understand where you're coming from. So, the educated people who follow the constitution and try to fight those usurpers from within are unpatriotic but the uneducated hillbilly thugs who took over the wildlife preserve were patriots. hahahahahahaha
Republicans and trump supporters have proven that they can't be trusted to put America first.
Well over a year ago I said that one day America would have to confront the "phenomenon" of support for Donald Trump to be president. In other words, America would have to confront the reality of people who would support and vote for someone who was utterly unqualified to be president. We would have to confront the people who had become so misled by conservative media, people who has so lost their way and their principles that they would support this clown, con man, crook, braggart and fool.
It is not liberals fault, it is not Hillary Clinton's fault, it is not Barack Obama's fault, it is the fault of those who support the unsupportable. They are the ones who have to look in the mirror and say "oh god, what have I done?"
The issue is Trump's incompetence and recklessness, notwithstanding the denial of such that we see here daily and on this very thread.
The issue is Trump's incompetence and recklessness, notwithstanding the denial of such that we see here daily and on this very thread.
Trump's an ignoramus but, given the democrats' penchant for lying and the media's collusion, I have to question everything they say.
You are confused
I am awake.
This just makes me ill and I pray there is no loss of life because of Trump. Those supporters who continue to deny any wrong doing are enabling him. He is destroying America and damaging our role around the world.
Too late - he already got a US commando killed in Yemen.
He has a long way to go the catch up to the thousands Obama got killed.
I think that, unfortunately, Enoch got it right (above), many innocent people will die because of what Trump told the Russians. He is a wise man and I trust his analysis on this. Also, unless they get them out out Syria in time, undercover Israeli spies will be executed. Unfortunately many Trump supporters either refuse to believe it or intentionally close their eyes to it.
"many innocent people will die because of what Trump told the Russians."
Empty, fear mongering speculation.
Dear Friend Cerenkov: Let's agree to disagree about "many innocent people will die because of what Trump told the Russians".
My take on this is that the forces of Bashar al Assad, Russian, Iranian Iron Guard and other troops and/or terrorist groups backed by Iran and other Shi'ite states have already used any and all information to kill anyone, including innocent civilians to hold up Mr. Assad's regime.
Military activity in such Syrian localities as Aleppo, Latakia, Damascus, Idlib, Khan Sheikhoun and other smaller places. Schools, hospitals, businesses including mom and pop shops, residential housing and even religious institutions such as Mosques and Madrasas were bombed and shot up in many well documented attacks.
It is not at all empty fear mongering to be concerned about the fate of those caught up in a bloody brutal conflict whose are at risk because of revelations of secret intelligence information disclosed to those who have blood on their hands, and those allied with them.
As the U.S. Navy used to say in WW II, "Loose lips sink ships".
Respectfully,
Enoch.