Leakers Who Revealed Israel as Intelligence Source Did Far More Damage Than Trump

President Donald Trump has landed in Israel amid controversy over the disclosure that Israel was the source of highly classified intelligence on details of an Islamic State plot he reportedly shared with Russian diplomats, evidence, his critics say, that Trump cannot be trusted with U.S. secrets.One problem with that: Trump did not reveal to anyone that Israel was the source of the intelligence he shared with the Russians. So how did the New York Times, which broke the news of Israel's role, find out? According to the Times, its sources were "a current and a former American official familiar with how the United States obtained the information" who "spoke on the condition of anonymity" because they "were not authorized to discuss the matter." NBC News, meanwhile, reported that it had confirmed the Israeli role "with three government officials with knowledge of the matter."Ponder the irony: These geniuses were so appalled by Trump sharing sensitive intelligence with the Russians that they shared even more sensitive intelligence with the media in order to demonstrate that Trump cannot be trusted with sensitive intelligence. In so doing, these leakers possibly did far more damage to U.S. national security and intelligence-sharing between the United States and Israel than anything Trump may have revealed to the Russians.Don't take my word for it. That is the assessment of John Brennan, Barack Obama's CIA director, who said last week that "the real damage to national security is ... what was leaked in the aftermath, what was put in the media" adding that "these individuals who still stay within the government and are leaking this stuff to the press need to be brought to task."Amen.  Continue reading...