U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson apologized to the United Kingdom Friday after details of the Manchester bombing were leaked to U.S. media outlets.
“We take full responsibility for that and we regret that that happened,” Tillerson said in a joint appearance with U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. He continued, “This special relationship that exists between our two countries will certainly withstand this particular unfortunate event.”
The U.K. temporarily suspended Manchester bombing intelligence sharing with the U.S. Thursday after photos of the crime scene appeared in The New York Times. British Prime Minister Theresa May considered the leak so serious that she said she would raise the matter with President Donald Trump to stress that information shared between the two allies must remain secret.
President Donald Trump pledged in a Thursday statement to get to the bottom of the leaks and suggested that he may even prompt prosecution of the leakers. Intelligence sharing resumed Friday after May’s warning to Trump.
“They have an absolute right to do what they did. It should be a lesson for us,” former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden lamented Thursday. “This is British information that is shared on the condition that we will follow British rules.”
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