The Washington Colander.

Since even before his inauguration unelected members of the US intelligence community and media have been waging a campaign against US President Donald Trump.

In the immediate term the objective of this campaign has been to bind President Trump to the failed, pro-terrorist policies of former US President Barack Obama. These are the same policies of former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who voters rejected in favour of President Trump.

In the longer term the objective seems to be to oust President Trump entirely. A Coup de'tat.

As part of this campaign anonymous sources within the intelligence community - normally the FBI - will leak a benign piece of information about President Trump and Russia.

For example members of Trump's transition team met with the Russian Ambassador to the US - an example of the system of diplomatic relations between nations that has existed for hundreds of years functioning perfectly normally.

The media then intentionally use these benign pieces of information to try and whip their audiences into a paranoid frenzy.

On Monday (22/5/17) night the US broadcaster CNN faced a particular publish backlash. They took the editorial decision that it was more important to continue their anti-Trump campaign then to report on the unfolding terror attack in Manchester, UK.

You may remember that on May 15th (15/5/17) the Washington Post newspaper reported that President Trump had privately shared classified intelligence with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a meeting on May 10th (10/5/17).

No information about the nature of this intelligence nor a source for the claim was provided. The following day the New York Times newspaper - again citing anonymous sources - claimed that the source of the intelligence had been Israel.

This sent the US media's anti-Trump campaign into hyperdrive. They claimed that this would end the US' intelligence sharing with the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - the "Five Eyes" - and that it would destroy the US' relationship with Israel because Trump had put the life of an Israeli spy in danger.

Israel of course was supremely relaxed about this. They weren't the source of the intelligence but it had been provided to them by one of the Five Eyes on the understanding it would be shared with Russia. After all if another Russian civilian aircraft is bombed it will likely be one of the ones flying tens of thousands of tourists between Russia and Israel.

It was only on the evening of the 16th that the New York Times figured out that condemning Trump for sharing intelligence in secret with Russia while at the same time demanding that intelligence be presented in open Court made them appear more than a little hypocritical.

So the New York Times rapidly tried changing the subject. Again citing anonymous sources they claimed that recently fired FBI Director James Comey had been keeping an almost daily diary of how much he hated President Trump. Weirdly they thought that harmed Trump rather than vindicating his decision to fire Comey.

On Tuesday (23/5/17) those anonymous sources were at work again. A source within the FBI leaked the identity of the Manchester bomber - Salem Abedi - to the broadcaster NBC. NBC then promptly broadcast that information globally.

This is an utterly appalling thing for the FBI to do. In fact it is so appalling that I can't even tell you the reason why it is so appalling.

I can though tell you another story that might help illustrate my point;

There is a blog and Twitter account called; "Mosul Eye" which currently has around 20,000 followers. This is operated by a resident of the Iraqi city of Mosul who was lucky enough not to be in Mosul when it was overrun by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the summer of 2014.

Mosul Eye's main objective has been to preserve Mosul's cultural heritage which ISIL have tried to destroy. Just today they've held an event at Mosul University library to allow people to donate books to replace the ones ISIL burned.

Back on April 20th (20/4/17) Mosul Eye arranged for a classical violinist to be smuggled into Mosul. This violinist performed at Jonah's Tomb allowing the music that ISIL had long banned to return to the city.

As the operation to liberate Mosul has been underway Mosul Eye have also Tweeted and live-blogged the events of the battle. This has included incredibly detailed information about the location of ISIL snipers. That information has allowed those snipers to be resolved by airstrikes from the US-led coalition - Combined Joint Task Force: Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTFOIR).

Obviously Mosul Eye is more of a librarian than a solider. So at times their tactical analysis has left a lot to be desired. However their local knowledge and local contacts has been absolutely vital in the liberation of Mosul. In short if they hadn't been doing their job I simply couldn't do mine.

The thing is though that Mosul Eye's immediate family - parents, siblings etc - have continued to live in Mosul under ISIL's rule. Specifically they lived in the 17 Tammuz neighbourhood which is one of the last to be liberated. Thankfully they were finally rescued on Saturday (20/5/17).

If Mosul Eye's identity had been revealed before then or even if information which allowed ISIL to connect the dots those family members would most likely be brutally murdered.

To give you an idea of how brutally it was through Mosul Eye that I found out that on Friday (19/5/17) had set fire to houses containing eight families in 17 Tammuz simply out of spite. The 23 members of those eight all Kurdish families were buried in a mass grave yesterday (24/5/17).

So although I feel we all owe them a great debt I do not know Mosul Eye's true identity. As I do not need to know their identity I'm still not sure that I want to know it.

Yesterday (24/5/17) the UK Home Secretary (Interior Minister) Amber Rudd publicly said that Britain was; "extremely irritated" by these FBI leak.

This is an example of that famous British understatement. To put it in more American terms Britain is "Absolutely F*cking Furious" at the FBI.

Personally I consider the FBI's leak to be a wilful attempt to obstruct the British investigation into the Manchester bombing. The only possible intention can be to allow any possible wider terror cell the freedom to conduct more attacks against the UK.

The FBI's response to this British criticism was to leak even more information.

Yesterday (24/5/17) evening the New York Times publish crime scene photographs of the Manchester bombing scene including crucial pieces of physical evidence. These had been provided by an anonymous FBI source.

Although the information revealed by the second FBI leak is not as sensitive the nature of the leak is much more serious.

While I think it's unlikely it is possible that NBC found out the bombers identity simply by overhearing a conversation by FBI agents.

I actually made a similar mistake just prior to US hostage Kayla Mueller being murdered by ISIL. Kayla Mueller's identity was being openly discussed in anti-ISIL circles. So I published it not realising it was a technically still a secret. In doing that I may well have contributed to her death.

However in the New York Times leak someone in the FBI has chosen to make copies of photographs and documents that are labelled as secret. They have then chosen to give those copies to someone without security clearance in the full knowledge they would be published globally.

In response to this second FBI leak the British is no longer sharing information about the Manchester bombing with the US under the Five Eyes agreement. It will though continue to share it with Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

I suspect that British Prime Minister Theresa May is currently making her position very clear to US President Trump at today's NATO Summit.

However I would be very surprised if the UK resumes intelligence sharing before acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe has been fired.

Personally I would also like to see McCabe, the FBI agents who leaked and the journalists and editors who published the leaked information prosecuted for terrorism offences.

The US response to the UK suspending intelligence sharing has been interesting.

Last night Greg Gianforte the Republican candidate in Montana's special Congressional election was cited by police for misdemeanour assault on a journalist. This assault is alleged to have taken place in the city of Bozeman - around 200km (120 miles) south of the Montana town of Manchester.

The journalist who is alleging the assault - Ben Jacobs - actually works for the British newspaper The Guardian. This was founded in the British city of Manchester in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian. Its local affiliate the Manchester Evening News sponsor the arena that was attacked.

Rather than reporting on the UK suspending intelligence sharing with the FBI the US media are currently united in disgust that an American could launch such a violent assault on the Guardians of Manchester.

It seem then we've finally found one thing the Democrats think should be discussed only in code.

16:20 on 25/5/17 (UK date).