Jesus, this guy.
The day after Trump went after Comey, Comey being the man cleared by the Justice Department I.G. from criminal wrongdoing in handling classified material, Trump may well have just released a classified photo of the Iranian launch site, upon which a rocket had exploded. Trump released the picture on mother ffffffing Twitter!
To wit:
The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran. I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One. pic.twitter.com/z0iDj2L0Y3
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2019
If you have trouble believing he was actually dum … traitorous enough to release secret intelligence capability, listen to Bill Kristol. Kristol is a despicable human being for fomenting war across the Middle East, but we do presume he knows classified pictures, and their capability, when he sees them.
Presumably this photo was at one time classified? Did the president consult with DNI and NSA and CIA before deciding to release it? Even if he was told most of our adversaries think we can take such photos and have the intelligence capabilities to label them, why confirm? https://t.co/uBLlYP3xf6
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) August 30, 2019
So, we are at 135 Democratic Representatives for impeachment, according to the story I just saw on MSNBC, could they look into whether Trump broke the law in releasing this picture? Yes, I do know that the “President” can declassify any material he wants, but I do not believe that the House should be limited to technical legality when it comes to ass-hat insanity that threatens our security. Just add it to the list.
Was this a gift to Russia? Showing the Russians what we’re capable of?
I am thinking “no.” I have to believe that the U.S. intel community, the NRO and NSA, have satellites that can read the license plate on that truck that we see so clearly in the photo. Additionally, I am willing to bet that the intel community never shares the top top stuff with Trump anymore, for this very reason, they presume it could/will go anywhere he damn well pleases, including to Trump’s landlord, Vlad.
Doesn’t mean the photo wasn’t classified at one point. I am willing to believe Kristol on that. Just because it isn’t the top technology doesn’t mean it wasn’t classified.
Jesus, this guy.
I have said before, and will continue to note it, there appears to be no bottom. I am not speaking of Trump, there is no “appears” about him, he definitely can go as low as he needs. No, I am speaking of the Republicans that allow Trump to remain in the White House, and not the big house. So far, nothing Trump has done has broken any senator (the ones able to remove him). I haven’t heard a single Republican senator even threaten to vote “yes” on articles of impeachment.
Have a great weekend, all. Try to forget this. I will publish some sort of farm/dog/old south story tomorrow. Anything to get away from … Jesus, this guy.
****
Peace, y’all
Jason
Yes, try to have a nice weekend. Seriously, just add it to the rest of the bullshit train.
And that, Jason, is the other dangerous aspect of Trump’s narcissism. Specifically, it illustrates his constant need to “be” the best, “have” the best, which always leads to intemperate bragging that makes fiascos like this predictable. Even scrubbed of truly classified data, that picture still gives the Iranians (and by extension their allies, the Russians) some data to work with. And all this just because DT’s ego is a little bent by recent events…
I suspect that Iran, like every other country in the world, assumes we do have spy satellites than can take pictures this good (and that Russia has similar capabilities). Their capabilities aren’t that much of a secret any more – the only secret is what the latest generation can do.
But, as I said, PJ, it still likely gave them data they didn’t have before vis-a-vis the specs.
Whoever took the cell-phone pic of the original (possibly Himself), and whoever tweeted it (probably not Himself), should both be charged and prosecuted. Not that it’s going to happen….
Oh, assuming there’s a second person besides Mr. Tangerine Man, I wouldn’t be so sure about the facilitating party not being charged.
Probably Himself taking the pic, but not Himself writing the tweet. I doubt he can even spell “determining” or “catastrophic”, and there aren’t enough random caps or praise for Himself.
It gives them the general time the Sats go over. There is a lot of information that can be gleaned from that. That’s why they classify them in the first place.
And he gave it away just because he’s having a bad week! Asshole…
It gives them a better idea of current resolution than they would have from the older satellites. They’re up to KH-230 or 240, so they’re a long way from KH-11, which got a lot of attention.