Who is Israel’s mole in Raqqa?

The article in the Washington Post accusing Trump of revealing “highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador” has been widely dismissed as yet more fake news trying to build a case for impeachment of President Trump. But as Alexander Mercouris points out, the article in itself may be far greater a breach of security than anything Trump may ever have told the Russians.

The obvious conclusion to draw from the WaPo article is that Israel has a mole embedded high up in ISIS leadership in Raqqa. If I can draw such a conclusion, so can everyone else.

When I first read about the story, I thought the “city”; where the plan was discovered was in Turkey or Saudi Arabia, both U.S. allies. But when I read the exact quotes, I realized the source of the information must be Israel.

“Most alarmingly, officials said, Trump revealed the city in the Islamic State’s territory where the U.S. intelligence partner detected the threat”.

WaPo also makes it clear this ISIS city is in Syria, not Iraq. What other US ally would have agents secretly working in Syria? Saudi Arabia and Turkey do, but their presence in Syria is no secret. The New York Times now confirms that the source is Israel. Israeli sources speak about a mole inside ISIS.

But is the Israeli agent actually a mole?

A mole would by definition be someone trying to undermine ISIS. Israeli policy seems to be the opposite, using ISIS in its war against the Syrian state. There has been much speculation about Israeli-ISIS cooperation, but little concrete facts. But if one considers the hysteria surrounding the alleged leak and takes at face value every statement in the newspaper of record, far reaching speculation becomes possible.

The Washington Post suggests that the source embedded in ISIS is actually working against Russia and its ally Syria. Why else would Russia want to identify or disrupt it?

“Officials said the capability could be useful for other purposes, possibly providing intelligence on Russia’s presence in Syria. Moscow would be keenly interested in identifying that source and perhaps disrupting it”.

If I may speculate about the true secret behind the WaPo story, it is this: ISIS military activity is lead by Israeli military advisors. It would be natural for them to report on real threats to Israeli and US security. Leaking such information will not expose them as Israeli agents, but will put a strain on ISIS-Israel relations.

I understand this is pure speculation, but why – if Russia and the West are actually on the same side on the war on ISIS – does the possibility of cooperation with Russia raise such hysteria?