Washington, DC: In a startling revelation that has caught the attention of American netizens, US president Donald Trump has claimed that someone in his administration ‘leaked’ critical information about the rescue mission of the second airman, downed in Iran, to the media.
Calling it an anti-national act, the president said that it jeopardised the mission. He was talking about the rescue of the weapons specialist of the F-15E who fell in Iranian territory amid the ongoing Operation Fury in the Middle East.
Trump’s statement sparked speculation on social media on who the source of the leak could be. The information on the mission was leaked to the media at a time when US forces had rescued one of the airmen while the other remained at large, he said, as reported by Hindustan Times.
The leak threatened national security, Trump said, add
ing: “We’re looking very hard to find that leaker.”
“They see all these planes coming in,” Trump said. “It became a much more difficult operation because a leaker leaked that we have one, we’ve rescued one, but there’s another one out there that we’re trying to get.
“So actually, the country Iran, put out a major notice – you all saw it – offering a very big award for anybody that captures the pilot,” he added. “So in addition to a hostile, very talented, very good, very evil military, we had millions of people trying to get an award, so when you add that to it, but we have to find that leaker, because that’s a sick person,” the Republican leader said.
He also seemed to target CBS News which first reported on April 2 that one airman had been rescued while a rescue operation was undergoing for the second, citing sources in the Trump administration.
Though he did not identify the media company explicitly, the president vowed to go after “the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘National security, give it up or go to jail.'”
The CBS News report was titled, “1 crew member from F-15E fighter jet downed over Iran rescued, US officials say”. This was subsequently confirmed by outlets like Axios and Reuters.