Donald Trump has lashed out at former chief intelligence officials for what he called criticism of his tweet, which included a purported photo of Iran’s damaged space facility.
Trump singled out former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, and former CIA Director John Brennan.
“Being scolded by failed former ‘intelligence’ officials, like James Clapper, on my condolences to Iran on their failed rocket launch. Sadly for the United States, guys like him, Comey, and the even dumber John Brennan, don’t have a clue. They really set our country back,” Trump tweeted on Friday.
....but now we are moving forward like never before. We are winning again, and we are respected again!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2019
All three men are known to be strong Trump critics – Brennan recently said that foreign leaders thought the president to be “delusional”, and Comey is embroiled in a bitter row with the Trump administration over the leak of sensitive memos on his interactions with the president – but neither of them has commented on Trump’s tweet in public, so it wasn’t immediately clear what “scolding” he was referring to.
The Tweet of Discord
The POTUS on Friday tweeted what appeared to be a high-resolution aerial image of an apparently failed satellite launch at Iran’s space centre, which has yet to be confirmed by officials in Tehran.
In the tweet, he wished “Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened” – a line many said contained overtly sarcastic overtones.
Iran’s technology minister reacted to Trump’s comments with a provocative selfie alongside the satellite, which appeared undamaged.
Trump’s tweet raised eyebrows in the military and intelligence community, with some observers speculating that his intervention qualified as dissemination of classified military imagery.
Imagery analyst and US army veteran Allison Puccioni said: “Trump's tweeted image was not from any sensor we in the [open-source intelligence] community can access. The dissemination of this image seems out-of-step with the US policy regarding its publication of such data. Not sure what the political objective of dissemination was.”
Trump's tweeted image was not from any sensor we in the #OSINT community can access. The dissemination of this image seems out-of-step with the U.S. policy regarding its publication of such data. Not sure what the political objective of dissemination was.
— Allison Puccioni (@puccioni1) August 30, 2019
Cees Bassa, from the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, alleged that the image was taken by a classified US spy satellite.
The image shows the aftermath of an accident with an Iranian Safir rocket at the El Khomeini Spaceport. From the features of the launch pad, I find that the viewing directions of the camera match that of USA 224, a classified spy satellite.
— Cees Bassa (@cgbassa) August 30, 2019
Trump declined to disclose where the image came from but maintained that he had the right to post the image, telling reporters: “We had a photo and I released it, which I have the absolute right to do. And we’ll see what happens.”
