
President Donald Trump tweeted an image of an Iranian space facility on Friday night that experts say was likely taken by a satellite or drone and could contain highly sensitive information and insights in the US military's capabilities.
The picture showed the aftermath of an accident at the facility and the President tweeted it alongside the words:
The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran. I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One.
Ankit Panda, an adjunct senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, told NPR:
The resolution is amazingly high. I would think it's probably below well below 20 centimetres, which is much higher than anything I've ever seen.
Panda concluded:
These are closely held national secrets. We don't even share a lot of this kind of imagery with our closest allies. The Russians and the Chinese, you're letting them know that these are the kind of things that the United States has the capability of seeing.
Unsurprisingly people were quick to point out the hypocrisy of Trump's previous record for accusing people of leaking state secrets
All those folks who were shouting lock her up for emails are conspicuously quiet about Trump tweeting a classified photo.— Christopher Bouzy (@Christopher Bouzy) 1567207993
@realDonaldTrump Didn’t you accuse @Comey of leaking classified? DOJ found no evidence of that, but you were kind enough to post yours.— Frank Figliuzzi (@Frank Figliuzzi) 1567208491
Not to mention the obvious risks that come with sharing such sensitive imagery
@realDonaldTrump Hurricane Trump just destroyed years of undercover work by US intel operatives by bragging that th… https://t.co/zXlfvinDHG— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@(((DeanObeidallah)))) 1567188078