President Trump revealed highly classified intelligence information to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in a meeting last week, The Washington Post reported Monday, citing current and former U.S. officials. The Post reported that Trump "went off script" in the meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak, "describing details about an Islamic State terrorist threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft":
Trump went on to discuss aspects of the threat that the United States only learned through the espionage capabilities of a key partner. He did not reveal the specific intelligence gathering method, but described how the Islamic State was pursuing elements of a specific plot and how much harm such an attack could cause under varying circumstances. Most alarmingly, officials said, Trump revealed the city in the Islamic State's territory where the U.S. intelligence partner detected the threat. [The Washington Post]
One official told the Post that Trump "revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies," characterizing the material as "code-word information," which is one of the highest levels of classification used by American intelligence agencies. Another individual, a former U.S. official who is "close to current administration officials," said Trump "seems to be very reckless and doesn't grasp the gravity of the things he's dealing with." The newspaper said it was withholding details of what Trump revealed "at the urging of officials who warned that revealing them would jeopardize important intelligence capabilities."
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who was present at the meeting, said the men "reviewed common threats from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation. At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly." The CIA declined to comment to the Post, while the National Security Agency did not respond to comment requests.
The Department of Homeland Security has reportedly been considering a ban on laptops or tablets in carry-on luggage on flights to the U.S. from Europe; such a ban is already in place for direct flights from 10 airports in eight Muslim-majority countries. Trump welcomed the Russians to the Oval Office just one day after firing FBI Director James Comey, which he told NBC News was spurred in part because of the FBI's investigation into his potential ties to Russian operatives. Read more at The Washington Post. Kimberly Alters
"Saudi Arabia is once again a radioactive political football in the U.S., and President Donald Trump can't resist grabbing it," Politico reports. Trump's implication Sunday that Saudi Arabia would dictate the U.S. military response to Saturday's aerial attack on a Saudi oil facility "prompted fury in Washington, where the Saudis have faced an increasingly hostile climate in recent years," in fact "almost as politically charged as in the years immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when it was revealed that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis."
Trump administration officials have said Iran is behind the attack on the major oil facility, though Trump and Saudi Arabia are publicly less definitive on the culprit. In a telephone briefing Monday, Brian Hook, Trump's special representative to Iran, told congressional staffers that Saudi Arabia views the attack as "their 9/11," CNN and The Washington Post report, citing two people familiar with the call.
The comparison to the Saudi-linked terrorist attacks, less than a week after the 18th anniversary of 9/11, "rankled several staffers," the Post reports. People also felt the comment was inappropriate, CNN reports, "because there have been no reported deaths as a result of the Saudi oil field strikes yet nearly 3,000 Americans were killed in New York, Washington, and outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in the 9/11 attacks." An official used the same 9/11 comparison on Trump during a briefing on the Saudi oil explosions, a source tells The Daily Beast, and Trump appeared "unmoved."
"From an American perspective, it seems like a trivialization of the tragedy of 9/11, and perhaps offensively so," Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute, explains to The Daily Beast, "but from a Saudi point of view it is a way of explaining their shock to Americans." Peter Weber
The bond between pediatric nurse Claire Mills and her patient, Jackson, was instant.
Jackson was born five weeks early via emergency C-section, weighing just 3 pounds, 10 ounces. Mills, 25, works in the neonatal intensive care unit at a hospital in Texas, and she knew that Jackson's mother was struggling. Mills became a pediatric nurse because she was also a preemie, and she told Inside Edition she felt an "instant connection" with Jackson.
After several weeks, Jackson was discharged, and because it happened when Mills was off duty, she didn't have a chance to say goodbye. Mills called the social worker who had been assigned to work with Jackson's mom, and let her know that she was available to help the woman in any way possible. She soon heard back from Jackson's mom, who said she wouldn't be able to provide her son with the life he deserved, but Mills could.
Mills worried about raising him as a single mom, and talked to her own mother about it. Her mom encouraged her to follow her heart, and soon after, Mills started the adoption process. Jackson, now 4 months old, is all settled into his new home. He has gained weight and is in good health, and is "so happy," Mills said. Catherine Garcia