US
President Donald Trump acknowledged Tuesday that he shared intelligence
information with top Russian envoys at an Oval Office meeting last week.
His
early morning tweet appeared to fly in the face of repeated White House denials
of a Washington Post report on Monday.
The
newspaper reported that Trump revealed highly classified information about the
Islamic State terrorist group during his talks with the Russian foreign minister
and ambassador to the US on May 10, citing current and former administration
officials.
Trump
called it his "absolute right" to provide the Russians with facts
that could help in the fight against terrorism.
"As
President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting)
which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining ... to terrorism and
airline flight safety," Trump wrote.
Late
Monday, the White House released several statements that blasted the story as
"false." The Russian Foreign Ministry called the story
"fake."
According
to the Post, Trump discussed details with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and
ambassador Sergei Kislyak of a suspected plot by Islamic State involving laptop
computers to target aircraft.
The
newspaper alleged that by sharing the information with a US adversary, Trump
had jeopardized a key intelligence source in the US-led fight against Islamic
State militants in Syria and Iraq.
Trump's
revelations to the Russians included the city within Islamic State-held
territory where the unnamed US partner had gleaned the threat information. The
Post said it was withholding the city and other details of the plot on the
advice of US officials.
The
partner that provided the now-exposed information in an intelligence-sharing
arrangement had not agreed to the United States passing the information to
Russia, it said. (DPA)
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