Israel provided the US with the classified information that President Donald Trump shared last week with Russian officials, according to officials with direct knowledge of the matter.
The intelligence came from a particularly valuable source of information about the Islamic State terrorist group’s ability to build sophisticated explosives that could evade aviation-security measures and be placed on aircraft, these officials said. The source of the information was developed before Mr. Trump’s election in November, they said.
The disclosure that Israel was the source of the intelligence adds a layer of complication to Mr. Trump’s sharing of the information with the Russians. Israel is among the US’s closest allies in the Middle East. The two nations’ intelligence services work closely on counter-terrorism operations in the region and routinely share information with each other.
But the information that Israel provided in this case was considered so sensitive that it wasn’t shared even with the closest US allies, known as the “Five Eyes,” a group of countries that includes Australia, NZ and the UK, the officials said.
Read the full article by Shane Harris of The Wall Street Journal at The Australian (subscription only).