Britain blasts US security services
ANGER: AMERICANS RELEASED BOMBER’S IDENTITY
Details could have compromised efforts to identify terror network.
London
Furious British officials scolded their US counterparts on Wednesday following repeated leaks of shared material about the investigation into the deadly Manchester terror attack. Home Secretary Amber Rudd roasted the US department of homeland security and other intelligence branches after the bomber’s identity and details of the probe leaked out to US media before British officials felt ready to disclose them.
But shortly after the interior minister complained, The New York Times again scooped British authorities and other media by publishing photographs from the scene of remnants of the bomb.
The pictures were apparently taken by police investigators and leaked by US counterparts they had been shared with.
“We are furious. This is completely unacceptable,” a government ministry source said.
“These images leaked from inside the US system will be distressing for victims, their families and the wider public.
“The issue is being raised at every level by the British authorities with their US counterparts.”
The row provided an awkward backdrop to Prime Minister Theresa May’s meeting with US President Donald Trump at the Nato summit in Brussels yesterday.
Rudd revealed the frustration going on inside the probe to find the suspected network behind bomber Salman Abedi.
“The British police have been very clear they want to control the flow of information in order to protect operational integrity... the element of surprise,” Rudd said.
“So it is irritating if it gets released from other sources and I have been very clear with our friends that that should not happen again.” – AFP