An investigation is now underway to find the person who leaked to the press that one of the two American airmen who were shot down over Iran during Operation Epic Fury was still missing, according to an official from the White House and a statement made by President Donald Trump during a recently held press conference.
While much of what the president had to say focused on the success of the mission, which ended up being highly complex with a lot of moving parts, the president said that his administration was working “very hard” to find out the identity of the leaker, which he said put the missing pilot and his chances of survival in great danger.
“But these two extraordinary rescues, because it was two, and as you probably know, we didn’t talk about the first one for an hour, and then somebody leaked something which will hopefully find that leaker,” President Trump said during the press conference. “We’re looking very hard to find that leaker.” Trump then discussed how the leaker revealed that there was a second person missing, information that soon fell into the hands of the Iranian regime.
“And talked about there’s somebody missing, they basically said that we have one and there’s somebody missing. Well, they didn’t know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information,” he told members of the press. “So whoever there was that we think we’ll be able to find it out, because 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 we know who, and you know who we’re talking about.”
President Trump then explained that there are just some things you can’t do, noting that allowing that information to go public put the pilot’s life and those sent in to rescue him in serious danger. “There’s some things you can’t do, because when they did that, all of a sudden, the entire country of Iran knew that there was a pilot that was somewhere on their land that was fighting for his life, and it also made it much more difficult for the pilots and for the people going in to search for him,” he said.
“All of a sudden, they know that there’s somebody out there. They see all these planes coming in. It became a much more difficult operation because a leaker leaked that we have one. We’ve rescued one, but there’s another one out there that we’re trying to get,” Trump explained to the members of the media attending the press conference.
“So actually, the country of Iran put out a major notice. You all saw it, offering a very big award for anybody that captures the pilot. So in addition to a hostile, very talented, very good, very evil military, we had millions of people trying to get an award. So when you add that to it, but we have to find that leaker, because that’s a sick person,” The president further elaborated.
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“And the person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say. And that doesn’t last long. And I think everybody would understand they put this mission at great risk. They put that man at great risk, and they put the hundreds of people that went in looking for him, because everyone now knows that we’re going in,” he concluded in a now-viral clip taken from the press conference, not mincing words about the fate of the reporter who broke the story should they refuse to cooperate.
Featured Image: screenshot from an embedded video