The release of a high-resolution picture of the launch by the US president increases issues about disclosure of classified information.
President Donald Trump published a picture of an allegedly unsuccessful Iranian missile launch and said that the US had nothing to do with it, raising worries about the disclosure of confidential data.
Tehran did not make any formal comments on the aerial photo signs that the rocket crashed on Thursday at the launch pad at the Semnan Space Center in northern Iran.
But on Friday, Trump tweeted a high-resolution image of the place, announcing destroyed cars and launching gantry, stating it engaged Iran’s Safir satellite rocket.
The event follows months of tension between Iran and Washington. Last year, Trump unilaterally withdrew from the landmark 2015 international agreement that put boundaries on Tehran’s nuclear operations in return for the lifting of sanctions and re-imposed crippling economic penalties.
“The United States of America was not engaged in a disastrous incident during the initial deployment of the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran,” Trump said in a tweet.
Publicly accessible satellite pictures also show what appears to have been the rocket explosion on its launch pad.
U.S. thought Tehran has planned a third effort to loft a satellite into space after two flights in January and February that did not put satellites in orbit.
“The third effort to bring the satellite in orbit has been ineffective. In reality, Nahid 1 is all correct, and it’s in the laboratory right now. Reporters can also arrive to visit the laboratory,”. he tweeted.
Washington’s concerns
Washington is keeping a close eye on Iran’s space operations as a sign of progress in its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Iran claims it designs its rocket program for human use in space. However, because rockets use comparable technology too long-range ballistic missiles, Washington is skeptical about the country’s operations.
Satellite photographs from Planet Labs earlier this week showed that they had attached a new layer of black paint to the launch pad at the Imam Khomeini Space Port, part of the Semnan Center, showing that the flight was in readiness.
Photographs made Thursday reveal the paint scorched from half of the sheet.
But the business photos did not show any of the details that Trump did.
Shadows and glare on Trump’s image proposed that it was a snapshot of the image made with a cell phone, probably in a safe setting like the White House Situation Room, which has various video displays for intelligence briefings.
CNBC revealed that the government officer affirmed that they had included the picture of the launch pad in the White House intelligence meeting on Friday.
Trump’s statements
Speaking to journalists late Friday, Trump said he had the power to publish the photo.
“They’ve had a large issue,” he said of Iran’s launch.
“We had a picture, and I published it, which I had the right to do.” Allison Puccioni, an animation expert at the Stanford University Center, said on Twitter that such a resolution is not accessible to individuals in the open-source or public intelligence community.
“The dissemination of this picture appears to be out of touch with US policy on the disclosure of such information. Not sure what the political goal of dissemination was,” she said.
The New York Times revealed this week that the US launched a secret cyber-attack in June against a database used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to plan raids on oil tankers in the Gulf, the newest in the continuing cyber conflict between the US and Iran.
Source: The Guardian
