Intelligence leaks are why the U.S. media knew more about the Manchester attack than their British counterparts

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/05/24/intelligence-leaks-are-why-the.html

5 Likes

Nuke it from orbit. its the only way to be sure.

(i.e. don’t tell the ‘Muricans nuthin’)

3 Likes

Intelligence and tRump should not ever be used in the same sentence.

8 Likes

It’s a shame the Home Secretary didn’t say what she felt and announce that the American government and law enforcement were hampering an ongoing terrorist investigation.

5 Likes

Trump administration is a blabbermouth.

6 Likes

I don’t think it’s just the administration any more. I think it’s everybody and it’s becoming a serious problem. It’s not just pee games in Obama’s hotel room, and we’re damaging our credibility daily.

3 Likes

UK can’t do that cuz it’s nuclear program fell off its’ truck & broke.

(Sorry. Recycling a joke from a British comedy group seen on Johnny Carson show.)

3 Likes

1 Like

Its almost as if the alliances from 70 years ago are beginning to lose their value. One might think the world had moved on. (I couldnt possibly comment)

5 Likes

This cuts both ways… the American media published better informed reports about the Jo Cox assassination at the time, if I recall… my friends in the UK were either ignorant of the fact that she was killed by a pro-Brexit white supremacist or had to figure shit out from cnn.com and the New York Times until days after the fact.

Point being that if you’re always laggardly about declassifying information, even when such declassification is warranted, it will become the norm that others will do the declassifying for you and they may not show restraint even when warranted.

9 Likes

Leaks… A word or information used by those who think they should have total control of information even when it concerns us all.

3 Likes

Purge it with fire.

Or drop a colony.

Not all leaks are equal. A principled leaker disclosing evidence of official wrongdoing isn’t the same as an unscrupulous loudmouth who uses leaks to serve his own interests (or who simply doesn’t care about the repercussions).

The sieve that was the U.S. Intelligence community has holes drilled both by people trying to save it and by people trying to destroy it.

5 Likes

Yeah, but this is also an administration where White House staff have admitted that when they tell the president to not repeat something, that’s the first thing he does. We’re into some pretty surreal territory now.

3 Likes

Curious why you think that it’s not the administration, I don’t have enough information to agree/disagree wondering what you know.

If I were a foreign intelligence agency, I’d think long and hard about what I disclose at this point though, trust is hard to earn back.

So you totally dropped the ball and didn’t catch the Tweet that this was going to happen before it happened…and now you are going to crap on America bc our intelligence community slipped it to the media.

Can’t reasonably do that, as we are all together in dealing with small, dangerous enemy groups that are without compunction, cutting out the US would be dangerous for all of our interests.

Better to just be philosophical about it. It is true, many if not most US government agencies and their workers don’t respect non-US countries and their citizens. They don’t even do these leaks in the USAs’ interests, they do them for shits and giggles, just because they can, for momentary self aggrandisement.
However, as I said, we can be philosophical about it. The US government agencies and their workers don’t respect the US and its citizens either. It is no sort of shame to suffer the same insults and mistreatment as our Cousins Johnathan do, is it. Maybe we could all work together eventually, to do something about it.

oh. I beg to differ. They can. And I strongly suspect they will.

I said not JUST the administration. I think the intelligence services are leaking too and that’s pretty awful, a sign of abysmal morale.

1 Like

Its pretty much established that everybody with any experience in either intelligence, defense or diplomacy has zero respect for the Trump administration. Experts and analysts generally take grave offense to the notion of relying on them to justify decisions one already wants to make. Trump has been abusing his expert staff, throwing them under the bus, or making them look foolish from day one.

The leaking serves two purposes. 1) Its an act of professional ethics and integrity for the position. 2) It is sending Trump a message not to fuck with long serving experts.

1 Like