Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump said on Monday that someone leaked information regarding the status of the two American airmen who were shot down in Iran last week, allegedly jeopardizing the search and rescue operation for one of those two servicemembers who, at that time, was still behind enemy lines.
Both U.S. airmen were successfully rescued in a highly complex and large-scale operation over the Easter holiday, which engaged dozens of military aircraft and high levels of careful subterfuge.
“As you probably know, we didn’t talk about the first one for an hour,” President Trump said of the first pilot’s rescue. “Then somebody leaked something, which hopefully we’ll find that leaker…they basically said, ‘We have one.’”
The president strongly suggested that Iran was not aware that there was a second U.S. servicemember still on the ground after the initial rescue until the media reported on it.
“We’re going to go to the media company that released it and we’re going to say, ‘National security. Give it up or go to jail.’ And you know who we’re talking about,” President Trump said.
The president expressed frustration with the leak because it endangered the life of the U.S. airman still on the ground, as well as the U.S. servicemembers engaged in the rescue operation.
“When they did that, all of the sudden, the entire country of Iran knew that there was a pilot that was somewhere on their land and was fighting for his life,” President Trump decried. “And it also made it much more difficult for the pilots, and for the people going in to search for him. All of the sudden, they know that there’s somebody out there…it became a much more difficult operation because a leaker LEAKED that we…rescued one, but there’s another out there that we’re trying to get!”
The president said that this leak spurred Iran to offer a large reward to its people for the successful capture of the pilot, who was still on the ground. “So, in addition to a hostile, very talented, very good, very evil military, we had millions of people trying to get an award…we have to find that leaker, because that’s a sick person…They put this mission at great risk,” President Trump said.
