Trump & his team ‘blab too much,’ might be a security risk for West – German MP
The German government should reconsider sharing intelligence with the US, as President Trump and his team “blab too much” and could provide sensitive information to Moscow, according to a high-ranking German lawmaker, as cited by local media.
“I have an impression that Donald Trump and his team blab too much,” Thomas Oppermann, the leader of the Social Democrats (SPD) in the German parliament said, according to various German newspapers.
The official, whose party is part of the ruling coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), said that their intelligence services might receive more harm than good from cooperation with the US.
“It should be taken into account that Trump is a president, who – one should assume – passes sensitive information to Russian representatives,” Oppermann said. He did not, however, provide any concrete evidence to back the claim.
The lawmaker also stated that such handling of classified information is a “security risk for the West,” warning that German intelligence should be aware of it.
“It cannot continue as it is. This endangers the information exchange and can be dangerous for both sides,” Oppermann said.
Earlier in May, some Western media accused US President Donald Trump of leaking highly classified data during his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Washington. Russian President Vladimir Putin referred to the allegations as “political schizophrenia.”
Trump defended his right to share with Russia “facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety” in a meeting on May 10.
Following the reports, another German lawmaker, the head of the parliament intelligence oversight committee, Burkhard Lischka, condemned Trump, calling him “a security risk to the Western world.”
UK Prime Minister Theresa May said that the alleged leaks would not affect their intelligence exchange with the US, as the countries “are working together to deal with the threats that we face.”
Following the Manchester terrorist attack, however, US media outlets published leaked pictures from the bombing site, causing outrage in Britain.
Following the leaks, which allegedly came from US government agencies, the British police temporary stopped sharing information about the attack with Washington.
Donald Trump criticized the “deeply troubling” leak and asked the relevant government authorities to persecute the perpetrators “to the fullest extent of the law.”
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that Europeans can no longer rely on each other and must take their fate into their “own hands.”
“The times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I've experienced that in the last few days,” Merkel said at campaign rally in Munich on Sunday, AFP reports.
