Donald Trump has pledged to track down the source behind the leak that disclosed the U.S. military’s ongoing search for a second missing airman after a fighter jet was downed over Iran.
During a briefing on Monday, the President stated that the media outlet responsible for the report would be compelled to reveal their source, warning that failure to do so could result in imprisonment.
“We’re going to confront the media company that published this information and tell them: ‘National security is at stake. Either disclose your source or face jail time,'” Trump declared.
The incident involved two airmen who went missing when their F-15E fighter jet was shot down over hostile territory on Good Friday. The pilot was successfully rescued within hours, but the jet’s weapons system officer remained unaccounted for until Sunday morning.
An Israeli news source reported on Friday that the second airman was still missing, a revelation that was rapidly echoed by American media outlets.
Trump criticized the media reports, claiming they tipped off the Iranians about an ongoing classified operation to locate the missing airman, thus endangering the lives of U.S. personnel.
‘They didn’t know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information,’ Trump said. ‘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.’
Trump added: ‘We have to find that leaker, because that’s a sick person.’
President Donald Trump warned that his administration is hunting for a leaker who told the press about the successful rescue of a US pilot in Iran on Friday. The report tipped of Iran that there was another service member still at-large, Trump said, adding it endangered the individuals life
An F-15 airman was rescued in a daring mission on Saturday evening after the fighter jet was shot down by Iranian forces. The pilot was safely ejected and rescued by two military helicopters that same day, but the airman remained missing
Following the crash, Iranian military forces put a $60,000 bounty on the airman’s head, prompting Iranian militants to hunt for him in the mountains. (Pictured: Bakhtiari tribes in Khuzestan headed into the mountains, rifles in hand, searching for the missing American F-15 jet pilot)
A White House official later confirmed to the Daily Mail that an investigation is underway.
The news of the rescued F-15E pilot appears to have first been reported on X by an Israeli journalist, who works for Tel-Aviv-based outlet Channel 12.
‘Western source: One of the American crew members was successfully rescued,’ the reporter Amit Segal posted Friday around 11.20am ET.
‘I’m not sure I was the first,’ he told the New York Post. ‘And anyway — I will protect my sources.’
Tommy Vietor, a former spokesman for Barack Obama, noted that the reporter was based in Israel, which could complicate Trump’s efforts.
‘Does that mean Trump is going to prosecute Israeli journalists or media execs, including ones close to Netanyahu?’ Vietor posted on X. ‘What if the source was Netanyahu himself or his team?’
The initial report was quickly followed by confirmations from Axios, CBS News and Reuters.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment about which outlet and reporter will be targeted for jail time.
The WSO spent nearly 48 hours in Iran, the majority of them on the ground evading Iranian hunting parties who were offered bounties for the airman’s capture.
The unnamed service member, who alongside the pilot flew under the call sign ‘Dude 44,’ landed far away from his crew member and was injured early on after ejecting from the F-15E.
Neither the US military nor intelligence agencies were able to get ahold of the WSO for a long period of time, whereas the F-15E pilot was rescued by special operations commandos within a few hours.
Eventually the WSO radioed in ‘God is good,’ and US forces began tracking and planning for his extraction.
Trump on Monday described an all-hands-on-deck operation that employed 155 aircraft – including 64 fighter jets, 48 refueling tankers, 13 rescue aircraft, three helicopters ‘and more.’
Trump lauded ‘a breathtaking show of skill and precision, lethality and force’ as US forces swooped on mountainous terrain in southern Iran to rescue the weapons systems officer whose F-15E fighter jet went down on Good Friday.
‘He scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, contacted his platoon, treated his own wounds and contacted American forces,’ Trump said of the officer, who was rescued on Easter Sunday.
‘God was watching us,’ the President said of the successful, odds-defying operation.
