Trump’s intel reveal: New ISIS bomb

Official says president divulged advances on explosives in laptops

The intelligence finding that President Trump divulged to Russian officials in a meeting last week at the White House involved an advance in bombmaking developed by the Islamic State that could be used against commercial aircraft, according to a U. S. official.

Operatives from the Islamic State, or ISIS, have determined how to plant and mask an explosive inside the battery of a laptop computer, increasing the likelihood that a bomb could be slipped past screeners onto an airplane.

The battery with the explosive charge functions enough to allow airport security officials to power up the laptop, a standard test to determine whether the machine is safe, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because officials are not authorized to speak publicly about intelligence matters.

The release of classified information was described in a memo to government agencies after the meeting between Trump, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and was first reported by The Washington Post.

Such notices are standard operating procedure after classified material has been divulged, an event that is referred to as “spillage,” the official said.

ISIS determined how to plant and mask an explosive inside the battery of a laptop computer, increasing the likelihood that a bomb could be slipped past screeners onto an airplane.

Trump’s disclosure of the city where the plot was hatched was “code- word” information, a super- secret classification, the official said.

The official — and the White House — played down the value of the information Trump released.

It was known to many in the government, and given ISIS’ shrinking footprint, there are only a few cities where the information could have come from, the official said.

The New York Times reported that Israel was the foreign partner that passed along the intelligence.

Trump and national security adviser H. R. McMaster defended the disclosure of information to the Russians. Trump, in a tweet, pronounced “an absolute right” to informing the Russians of the threat. McMaster said the disclosure was “wholly appropriate” and added that Trump wasn’t aware of its source.

A senior congressional staffer confirmed that the information divulged by Trump involved laptop computers and batteries. This official said the disclosure harmed U. S. intelligence collection efforts and that Trump may have tipped the Russians off to other sensitive sources and methods for collecting information. The staff member spoke on condition of anonymity, because staffers are not authorized to speak publicly on intelligence matters.

In Brussels on Wednesday, U. S. Homeland Security officials and their European counterparts exchanged security information as U. S. officials pressed their plan to ban laptops and tablets from the cabins of trans- Atlantic flights.

The American plan would expand a ban established in March for in- flight laptops and other large electronics for U. S.- bound flights from 10 airports in eight countries in the Middle East and Africa. The expansion involves routes carrying up to 65 million people a year on more than 400 daily flights, according to Homeland Security.

The concern, officials said, was that explosives could be smuggled aboard in those consumer electronic devices.

The International Air Transport Association, which represents more than 250 airlines in more than 100 countries, estimated that the ban would cost more than $ 1 billion a year in lost time to passengers.