Trump advised to nail and prosecute intelligence community leakers
Britain has resumed sharing intelligence with the U.S., as police make progress in their search for bomber Salman Abedi’s terror network. On Thursday morning, United Kingdom officials angrily stopped handing over information relating to the bombing of the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester following a series of alleged leaks to the American news media by suspected members of the American intelligence community.
But following President Donald Trump’s reaction to the British complaint, Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism officer said this evening that the matter has been resolved after “receiving fresh assurances.”
“President Trump was visibly angry with this continuation of classified information being leaked by intelligence agency members designed to embarrass the administration. The Trump administration must track down these leakers and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law,” said former police captain Timothy Patrick. “The intelligence community appears to be out of control thanks to the politicizing of agencies — under the blabbermouths in the Obama White House — handling highly classified material,” added Patrick.
In a statement, National Police Chiefs Council Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said: “While we do not usually comment on information sharing arrangements with international law enforcement organizations we want to emphasize that, having received fresh assurances, we are now working closely with our key partners around the world.”
Commander Jane Connors, who is leading the London policing operation, said: “We will do all we can to protect the Capital that we serve at this unsettling time. All our work is designed to make our city as hostile an environment as possible for terrorists to plan and operate.
“The reality is that we must be prepared to be able to respond to and deal with armed and deadly attackers, so we must be in a position to respond with firearms officers who will use force to stop those attackers in their aim. That is why is we have increased the number of firearms who are on duty, both out walking and in roaming patrols, at fixed points and carrying out a range of operations.
“We are using every tactical option – not just through the use of armed officers but ongoing work by the Counter Terrorism Command; working with partner agencies and gathering community intelligence.
“Whilst some of what we are doing will be obvious to the public there is a huge amount of work happening day and night that the public will never know about.”
Commander Connors added: “At this time we need the people of London to remain calm but alert. If you see anything that causes you concern then let us know immediately, if you have suspicions about someone’s behaviour call us. We need your help to help us protect the capital and thwart the terrorists who seek to divide us and undermine our way of living.”
In a separate statement from Britain’s National Police Chiefs Council on Thursday, they stated:
“We greatly value the important relationships we have with our trusted intelligence, law enforcement and security partners around the world. These relationships enable us to collaborate and share privileged and sensitive information that allows us to defeat terrorism and protect the public at home and abroad.
“When that trust is breached it undermines these relationships, and undermines our investigations and the confidence of victims, witnesses and their families. This damage is even greater when it involves unauthorized disclosure of potential evidence in the middle of a major counter terrorism investigation.”
