President Donald Trump has issued a scathing attack at The New York Times, accusing them of deliberately protecting ISIS leader al-Baghdadi.
According to Trump, the failing newspaper prioritized their “sick agenda” over National Security, helping ISIS to thwart a US bid to kill the Islamic State chief.
‘The Failing New York Times foiled US attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist, Al-Baghdadi. Their sick agenda over National Security,’ Trump tweeted.
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https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/888711488717934592
Dailymail.co.uk reports: US media suggested that Trump may have been referring to a Fox News report about comments made by a top general at a security conference on Friday in Aspen, Colorado.
At that gathering, General Tony Thomas — head of the US military’s Special Operations Command — reportedly said that American forces at one point came ‘particularly close’ to Baghdadi after a 2015 raid recovered information about the Islamic State group.
Fox News reported that Thomas said US troops had ‘a very good lead,’ on the IS leader’s whereabouts.
‘Unfortunately, it was leaked in a prominent national newspaper about a week later and that lead went dead,’ Thomas reportedly said at the forum.
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Friday that he believes Baghdadi is still alive, following various claims in recent months that he has been killed.
‘We are going after him, but we assume he is alive,’ the Pentagon chief said.
There have been persistent rumors that Baghdadi has died in recent months.
With a $25 million US bounty on his head, Baghdadi has kept a low profile but is rumored to move regularly throughout IS-held territory in Iraq and Syria.
The Iraqi — nicknamed ‘The Ghost’ — has not been seen since making his only known public appearance as ‘caliph’ in 2014 at the Grand Mosque of Al-Nuri in Mosul, which was destroyed in the battle for Iraq’s second city.
The Times has become a favorite Trump target despite his penchant for reaching out to the daily, including this week, when he gave its reporters a major interview in which he criticized his own Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
In Saturday’s tweetstorm, Trump railed against The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, for its ‘illegal leaks.’
‘A new INTELLIGENCE LEAK from the Amazon Washington Post, this time against A.G. Jeff Sessions,’ he wrote on Twitter, adding ‘These illegal leaks… must stop!’
He also groused about some of his favorite targets: the failure of US lawmakers to repeal ‘dead’ Obamacare, Democratic ‘obstructionists’ and alleged ‘ties to Russia’ by Hillary Clinton, his defeated opponent in last year’s presidential election.
Sean Adl-Tabatabai
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