> The top left portion of the image is redacted. Which suggests it was cleared for publishing. That's a rather peculiar interpretation that begs new questions,

> The top left portion of the image is redacted. Which suggests it was cleared for publishing. That's a rather peculiar interpretation that begs new questions, given that it was an image that was shown to POTUS in a briefing. Why would his briefings use the cleared/redacted imagery and/or information? Is the IC redacting information from presidential briefings? And if so, why such a remarkable change? It's not as if the briefers expected Trump to be the one to actually publish the image; you'd hand the redacted materials off to the communications team(s) to publish as part of whatever messaging strategy was decided on. > Lots of people saying this was not a good move by the USA to publish this image. But why? Yes, it's a fascinating image. But these high resolution capabilities are pretty well known and expected... There are a couple of alarming concerns. First, it's confirmation of imaging capabilities, the satellite that was used to capture it, and can be used to extrapolate a lot of information about its tasking. Analysts can pull a lot of unexpected insights from something like this. Even when some of those insights (or at least the top-level ones) are "well known and expected," confirmation of those expectations is something altogether different and can have far-reaching implications. It lets them go back through previous information, sources, etc. and revise previous conclusions in light of that confirmation. What might confirmation of this satellite's capabilities and purpose mean about other satellites, based on other information foreign intelligence services already have? Perhaps nothing. Perhaps a great deal. We don't know, because we don't know what information they already have. Second, what does this say about the current president and his handling of intelligence data? This isn't the first time Trump has apparently mishandled classified information and then defended himself by saying he has an "absolute right" to declassify information however he wants to. It's--arguably--the fourth known instance[0]. If you're an allied intelligence service, that's kind of terrifying and could have a chilling effect on cooperation. We also now know he's got one of his regular phones[1] with him during at least some of his briefings, and that he managed to take a photo during at least one of them. Plus, if staffers are routinely redacting information they show to Trump--if that's what this image is--that sends yet another very scary message about trustworthiness. Politics aside, there are a lot of reasons why this is alarming to people. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump%27s_disclosures_of_classified_information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump%27s_disclosures_o... 1. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/21/trump-phone-security-risk-hackers-601903 https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/21/trump-phone-securi...