UK police suspend intelligence sharing with US over Manchester media leaks
© Oli Scarff, AFP | Flags fly at half-mast as British police patrol outside Greater Manchester police headquarters during a visit by Prime Minister Theresa May on May 23.
Text by
FRANCE 24
Latest update : 2017-05-25
Police have stopped sharing intelligence on the Manchester Arena attack with the United States after a series of leaks to the press that they say risked “undermining” the ongoing counter-terrorism investigation.
British police said Wednesday that such recklessness with sensitive information has jeopardised the mutual trust that underpins security cooperation between foreign partners.
“When that trust is breached it undermines these relationships, and undermines our investigations and the confidence of victims, witnesses and their families,”
said a National Counter Terrorism Policing spokesperson.
“This damage is even greater when it involves unauthorised disclosure of potential evidence in the middle of a major counter terrorism investigation.”
Twenty-two people were killed Monday night when a suicide-bomber targeted Manchester Arena shortly after a concert by US pop star Ariana Grande.
Forensic evidence gathered at the scene by British police was
published by The New York Times on Wednesday, including detailed descriptions and photos of the remains of the bomb, a detonator and a shredded backpack possibly used by the bomber.
Following a series of
unauthorised disclosures to US media earlier in the week, Britain believes US officials were also responsible for leaking the crime scene photos to the press.
The decision to stop sharing information with US authorities was made by the Greater Manchester police and not the prime minister’s office, a Downing Street spokesman
told the Guardian, adding that officers have a certain degree of latitude and calling it an “operational matter”.
One former senior intelligence official described the move in a BBC 4
interview on Thursday as an “unprecedented halt in intelligence-sharing”.
British Prime Minister Theresa May will address the leaks when she meets with US President Donald Trump at a NATO summit in Brussels later on Thursday. May said she would underscore that any shared intelligence "must remain secure".
A senior government source said the UK was "furious" over the breaches and that Britain had made its objections known “at every relevant level”.
“These images from inside the American system are clearly distressing to victims, their families and other members of the public,” the source said. “Protests have been lodged at every relevant level between the British authorities and our US counterparts. They are in no doubt about our huge strength of feeling on this issue. It is unacceptable.”
Previous warnings
The new round of US media revelations came even after US officials had been
warned over previous leaks involving the Manchester investigation.
Britain’s interior minister, Home Secretary Amber Rudd, said in an interview aired Wednesday that she made clear to US officials that such leaks "shouldn't happen again".
Rudd noted that it was important to control the flow of information on any ongoing investigation to ensure police maintain the advantage of an “element of surprise”.
"The British police have been very clear that they want to control the flow of information in order to protect operational integrity, the element of surprise,” she told
BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme.
"So it is irritating when it gets released from other sources and I have been very clear with our friends that that should not happen again.
You can listen to the full interview with the home secretary here
http://bbc.in/2rQjGcQ
7:17 PM - 24 May 2017
Manchester attack: 'It is likely suspect was not alone', Best of Today - BBC Radio 4
Home Secretary Amber Rudd on the Manchester terror attack
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham also denounced the leaks in talks with the acting US ambassador, Lew Lukens.
“It’s not acceptable to me that, here there is a live investigation taking place and we cannot have information being put in the public domain that is not in the direct control of the British police and security services,” Burnham told BBC
Newsnight on Wednesday.
Lukens also condemned the leaks and said US authorities were investigating the possible sources.
“These leaks were reprehensible, deeply distressing, we unequivocally condemn them, we agree absolutely with the chief constable and with the concerns of the United Kingdom,” Lukens said in an
interview with BBC Radio 4.
"We are determined to identify these leaks and to stop them.”
Asked whether such incidents would affect future cooperation between US and British intelligence agencies, Lukens said: “I hope not.”
Israel revises US cooperation
Recent indiscretions have raised questions about the US administration’s commitment to the confidentiality necessary to protect intelligence sources and ongoing operations. Trump dismayed both US politicians and foreign allies earlier this month when he revealed top secret intelligence on Islamic State (IS) group plans to threaten airliners in an Oval Office meeting with Russian officials.
He raised more concerns on Monday during a trip to Israel, when he announced to Israeli officials that he never identified Israel as having been the source of intelligence on the IS group plans.
“Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel',” Trump said. “Never mentioned it during that (Oval Office) conversation.”
But to many observers, the pronouncement seemed to be an admission that the source had, in fact, been Israel. "Donald Trump appears to have inadvertently confirmed that Israel was the source of intelligence he shared with Russia," the Guardian
observed.
TRUMP: "I NEVER MENTIONED ISRAEL."
News of the revelations was being taken very seriously by the Israeli spy community, a military intelligence officer
told USA Today last week. The officer, who asked not to be identified, said Israel had been warned months ago to be cautious about sharing information with the Trump administration and that it now looked like the warning was justified.
Israel appeared to take steps to address its concerns on Wednesday, with Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman announcing that Israeli officials had done a “
spot repair” of their intelligence-sharing arrangements with Washington.
“We discussed the issue with our friends in America,” Liberman told Army Radio. “We did our checks.”
Liberman did not specify what alterations had been made, saying: “Not everything needs to be discussed in the media; some things need to be talked about in closed rooms.” But he added that the US-Israeli alliance remained strong and that, overall, there is “unprecedented intelligence cooperation with the United States”.
Other US allies also appear to be on edge over the Trump administration’s penchant for disclosure.
A senior European intelligence official
told The Associated Press last week that his country might stop sharing sensitive information with the United States if it is confirmed that Trump shared classified intelligence with Russian officials, saying that to do otherwise “could be a risk for our sources”. The official spoke on condition of anonymity and declined to have his country identified.
Burkhard Lischka, a senior lawmaker from Germany’s Social Democratic Party, also expressed concern about the reports, telling AP: “
f it proves to be true that the American president passed on internal intelligence matters, that would be highly worrying”.
Lischka, a member of the German parliament’s intelligence oversight committee, observed that the US president has access to “exclusive and highly sensitive information, including in the area of combating terrorism”.
He said that if the president “passes this information to other governments at will, then Trump becomes a security risk for the entire western world”.
http://www.france24.com/en/20170525...rce=facebook&ref=fb_i&utm_utm_medium=facebook
Mike Arnold shared a link to the group: Global War on Terrorism is bogus.
13 hrs ·
“The Manchester leaks, however, are a bit more difficult to peg. Who, exactly, benefits?”
Anthony Zurcher rather than leaving the impression that these leaks might be for reasons that he does not understand (i.e. in some peculiar way that he does not understand the Intelligence Community benefits from these leaks) he reassures the greater general public with:
“If there's one lesson to be learned from the past year, it's there is often no need to look for complex explanations when simple individual pride or incompetence fits the bill.”
Incompetence and coincidences are always first candidates but in the words of Ian Fleming:
“Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, the third time it's enemy action.” (Auric Goldfinger)
Manchester bomber Salman Abedi was banned from a mosque and reported to authorities for his extremist views
Salman Abedi was banned from a mosque after criticising an imam for "talking bollocks"
BETH ABBIT
15:57, 25 MAY 2017
- Manchester terror attack- live updates
- The anonymous source told the M.E.N: “The attacker spent two years at Trafford College before going to university. Concerns were raised about him by fellow students at the time. I’m not sure this was followed up.”
But bosses at the college said there was no ‘flag’ against Abedi’s name on college records which would indicate any cause for concern
Who is the suspected suicide bomber Salman Abedi?
The college confirmed that Abedi joined in 2013 to study Business before leaving to further his studies at Salford University.
The 22-year-old’s father, Ramadan, and brother, Hashim, have been detained in Libya and another brother, Ismail, was arrested in Manchester on Tuesday.
In an interview before his arrest, Ramadan Abedi rejected claims he was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, but added that he supports the organisation, which is banned in the UK.
In the translated interview, shown on BBC, he said: “I condemn anyone who says I belong to Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.
“I commend them but I don’t belong to any organisation.”
Dad of Manchester Arena bomber paid tribute to 'lion' Al Qaida commander in chilling Facebook post
While Abedi was born and raised in Manchester, his parents had arrived in the UK having fled the Gaddafi regime in Libya in the early 1990s.
How he went from being a typical Mancunian schoolboy to a mass murderer seemingly linked to IS will be one of the major questions of the investigation.
Protesting his son’s innocence with regard to the
Manchester Arena explosion , Ramadan Abedi added: “I’m sure that Salman didn’t carry out such an act.”
Ramadan Abedi, father of Manchester bomb suspect Salman Abedi
The French interior minister said Abedi had “most likely” been in Syria, another claim his father dismissed, saying he had checked his son’s passport.
While Mr Abedi said his son had seemed “normal” when he spoke to him five days before the atrocity, Jamal Zubia, a member of the large Libyan community in Manchester, told the Times the parents were so concerned about their son’s apparent descent into extremism that they took his passport.
He said: “The father had all the passports with him and was holding them.”
But Abedi convinced them to return it, claiming he
wanted to make a pilgrimage to Mecca , Mr Zubia said.
It's reported he in fact came back to the UK, via Germany, from Turkey four days before the bombing.
Manchester Arena bomb maker at large and could strike again
A German magazine reported that he came through Dusseldorf, and said he had not been on any international watch list.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd confirmed Abedi had recently returned from a visit to Libya, and said the nature of the attack suggested he may have had support.
Akram Ramadan, 49, part of the close-knit Libyan community in south Manchester, said Hashim, who he described as “the little boy”, had lived in Germany.
Hashim Abedi, the brother of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi, has been detained in Tripoli along with their father Ramadan (Photo: Force for Deterrence in Libya/PA)
Salman Abedi had 'proven' links with Islamic State and had travelled to Syria
Mr Ramadan, who lived in the flat above Ismail, said of the incident when Abedi was banned from Didsbury Mosque: “There was a sermon about anti-Daesh (IS) and he stood up and started calling the Imam - ‘You are talking bollocks.’
“And he gave a good stare, a threatening stare into the Imam’s eyes.
“He was banned.”
Of Abedi’s motives for the attack Mr Ramadan said: “Something flipped him. Brain-washed, seen something, heard something. It is unbelievable.”
Abedi was previously a student at Burnage Academy for Boys and Manchester College, and had studied at Salford University but dropped out before finishing.
He was registered as living at Elsmore Road as recently as last year, where police raided a property on Tuesday.
Neighbours recalled an abrasive, tall, skinny young man who was little known in the neighbourhood, and often seen in traditional Islamic clothing.
He's thought to have lived at a number of addresses in the area, including one in Wilbraham Road, where plain-clothes police made an arrest on Tuesday.
A family friend, who asked not to be named, said they were known to the Libyan community in the city and described Abedi as “normal”.
A city centre flat was raided on Wednesday. A nearby bar owner said officers told him they believed Abedi had been in the flat before he carried out the bombing.
Just 15 minutes before he blew himself up, Abedi called his mother and brother, a spokesman for the Libyan government told the Times.
They claimed Hashim admitted, under interrogation, that he was aware of his brother’s plan.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...anchester-bomber-salman-abedi-banned-13092209