Only hours after UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd gave an unprecedented rebuke to US intel sources for leaking the name of the suicide bomber who carried out the atrocities in Manchester on Monday night, thereby compromising ongoing investigations and potentially alerting accomplices, it has happened again. Who is in charge here? Who has control over these serious international breaches in intel security?
This evening The Guardian reports, incredibly:
US officials disclosed fresh details of the investigation into the Manchesterbombing to journalists within hours of Amber Rudd warning them to stop the leaking.
The steady drip of details from the US – as well as from France – is hampering the investigation by British police, who are trying to control the release of information for operational reasons.The home secretary reflected the frustration and dismay of the UK security services in a series of interviews on Wednesday morning. She described the leaks as “irritating” and said she had made it clear to the US that it should not happen again.
However, within hours, American reporter Richard Engel of NBC tweeted details not released by the UK. Engel said US intelligence officers told him family members of the the killer, Salman Abedi, had warned UK security officials about him and had described him as dangerous.
Engel also reported that US intelligence officials said Abedi had a bank card in his pocket showing his name, and his identity had been confirmed by facial recognition. He added that Abedi probably had help in making a “big and sophisticated bomb”.
The intelligence community has long been uncomfortable about revelations from its recent past made in books and articles, but the release of details of a live investigation on the scale of those by the US and France is a relatively new phenomenon.
It comes on top of Donald Trump’s release of intelligence to Russia that had been passed on by Israel, which had obtained it from an Arab country.
The leak of the British information, as well as demonstrating a lack of respect for a US ally at an emotional time, will have hindered the investigation, where it is essential to control the release of details.
UK counter-terrorism specialists said this week they needed to keep secret the name of a perpetrator or suspect for at least 36 hours to ensure there was an element of surprise in approaching relatives, friends and others.
American officials in Washington briefed US journalists early on Tuesday about the number of dead, confirming that it was a suicide bombing and – hours later – the name of the killer. The UK had not been planning to release the name on Tuesday.
So here we have a White House engaged in a war with the press when it comes to its own endlessly spiralling crises and corruptions — but whose officials seem fine with briefing journalists on information about another country’s ongoing and unfolding investigation, potentially jeopardising arrests, lives, and efforts to prevent further and imminent attacks.
This presidency has set back the US and international trust in intel sharing as no other has ever done.
