One of the few times leaks really are the story.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/23/trump-administration-manchester-bomber-name-leak
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-40026413
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/23/trump-administration-manchester-bomber-name-leak
US leak of Manchester attacker's name strikes new blow to intelligence sharing
American officials have been criticised for leaking the identity of the Manchester bomber before British police officially named him.
Salman Abedi was identified in media reports that attributed US officials as the source even as their British counterparts remained tight-lipped.
Although UK journalists had Abedis name, the UK government and Greater Manchester police declined to confirm it more than two hours after it appeared in the US press. Earlier in the day, the government indicated it might not release the name at all on Tuesday because the investigation was continuing.
On Monday night, a correspondent for Americas ABC network tweeted: Leading theory is Manchester was a suicide bomber, US senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation tells @ABC.
On Tuesday, CBS and NBC were quick to name the suspect believed to have blown himself up following an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena as 22-year-old Salman Abedi. The Reuters news agency, an international organisation with headquarters in London, also published the name, citing three US officials, before British police made it public.
Thomas Sanderson, director of the transnational threats project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies thinktank in Washington, said the disclosures would be irritating to the British. Suddenly youve got 10,000 reporters descending on the bombers house when maybe the police wanted to approach it more subtly, he said.
Sanderson warned of ill judgment and lack of discipline in the White House. This is a leaky administration. What does that mean for sharing information we need to going forward? The UK and Israel are probably our two biggest sources of intelligence. Now theyre thinking, Is this going to cause us damage every time we share? Then you have to calculate every piece of information.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-40026413
Home Secretary Amber Rudd has said she is irritated with the US for releasing information about the Manchester bomber before UK police would have liked.
Ms Rudd said the British had wanted to control the flow of information to "keep the element of surprise".
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme she had been very clear with Washington "that it should not happen again".
Information about the bomber's identity first emerged in the US, and Ms Rudd was asked whether she would be looking at how information sharing may have resulted in the premature release of details the British police and security services had not wanted in the public domain.
The home secretary told Today: "Yes, quite frankly.
"The British police have been very clear they want to control the flow of information in order to protect operational integrity - the element of surprise - so it is irritating if it gets released from other sources, and I've been very clear with our friends that that should not happen again."
Pressed on whether the Americans had compromised the investigation, she said: "I wouldn't go that far, but I can say they are perfectly clear about the situation and that it shouldn't happen again."
She had been concerned that this "might have compromised aspects of the investigation", namely that it may have "alerted associates" of the bomber "that the security forces here knew who they were looking for".
He added: "Ms Rudd, I'm told, got on the blower to US officials and gave them a piece of her mind. Officials say they are in no doubt about our views on that."