The past few days have been dominated by multiple reports that Russia offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. troops. President Donald Trump has denied that he was briefed and tweeted Sunday night the intel agencies “did not find this info credible.”

On Monday night, the Director of National Intelligence and the head of the CIA both put out statements decrying intelligence leaks.

DNI John Ratcliffe, who said Saturday that the president was not briefed “on any intelligence alleged by the New York Times in its reporting,” put out a new statement saying:

“U.S. and coalition force protection is a critical priority for both the President and the Intelligence Community. The selective leaking of any classified information disrupts the vital interagency work to collect, assess, and mitigate threats and places our forces at risk. it is also, simply put, a crime.”

Ratcliffe says they’re still “investigating the alleged intelligence referenced” in the reports before adding, “Unauthorized disclosures now jeopardize our ability to ever find out the full story with respect to these allegations.”

DNI Ratcliffe issues statement on impact of unauthorized disclosures on force protection pic.twitter.com/Pr7PbWk443

— Office of the DNI (@ODNIgov) June 30, 2020

Around the same time, CIA Director Gina Haspel put out a statement that also criticized intel leaks:

“When developing intelligence assessments, initial tactical reports often require additional collection and validation. In general, preliminary Force Protection Information is shared throughout the national security community — and with U.S. allies — as part of our ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of coalition forces overseas. Leaks compromise and disrupt the critical interagency work to collect assess, and ascribe culpability.”

Just in: New statement from CIA Director Gina Haspel pic.twitter.com/e3JQ1EcH7N

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) June 30, 2020

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/3dM7Ua0