Leaks on Manchester strain BritainAmerica ties
UK not to share info with US, Trump orders probe
LONDON/WASHINGTON: Two leaks of classified information related to the Manchester terror attack strained close relations between Britain and the US on Thursday, as the number of arrests in “intense” counter-terror operations rose to eight.
LONDON/WASHINGTON : Two leaks of classified information on the Manchester terror attack strained UK-US ties on Thursday as the number of arrests rose to eight.
The leaks from US were considered so serious that Prime Minister Theresa May took it up with President Donald Trump during a Nato summit in Brussels. Trump ordered a review of the leaks , describing them as a grave threat to national security. “I am asking the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to launch a complete review of this matter, and if appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he said in a White House statement.
An irate Greater Manchester Police is said to have stopped sharing information with the US, which has now annoyed two of its closest allies, Israel and the UK, by its recent inability to keep secrets.
Before leaving for Brussels, May chaired another meeting of her government’s emergency committee (“Cobra”), and confirmed she would make clear to Trump that intelligence shared between law enforcement agencies “must remain secure”.
US officials had named the suspected suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, hours before the GMP did so. Another widely publicised leak included images and details of shrapnel and remains of a backpack used by Abedi in the attack that killed 22 people and injured 75.
GMP chief constable Ian Hokins said families of victims have been told that intelligence had been leaked and published in The New York Times, adding this had caused “much distress”.
A Whitehall source described the second US leak of images of shrapnel and remains of the suicide bomber’s clothing as “on another level”, and told BBC it caused “disbelief and astonishment” across the British government. Hopkins said the “fastmoving investigation” at a number of addresses across the UK had led to eight arrests, all men. A woman arrested on Wednesday was released.
On Wednesday, Israel said it had altered information-sharing protocols with the US after Trump passed on information from its informant, embedded in the Islamic State, to Russians, probably endangering the source’s life.