CIA Director Mike Pompeo blasted WikiLeaks Thursday as a “hostile” intelligence service often aided by questionable actors like Russia.
“It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is -- a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia,” the former Republican congressman from Kansas said in his prepared remarks, speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in his first major appearance since taking the post.
Pompeo said the intelligence community’s determination that Russian military intelligence used WikiLeaks to release data of U.S. victims obtained through cyber operations points to that conclusion, as does the intelligence community’s discovery that Russia’s “primary propaganda outlet,” RT, “actively collaborated” with WikiLeaks. The DNC hack in 2016 exposed thousands of emails of top Democratic party and campaign officials, possibly contributing to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s unexpected loss in the presidential race.
Pompeo also said in his prepared remarks the CIA finds the “celebration of entities like WikiLeaks to be both perplexing and deeply troubling.”
“Because while we do our best to quietly collect information on those who pose very real threats to our country, individuals such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden seek to use that information to make a name for themselves,” Pompeo said. “As long as they make a splash, they care nothing about the lives they put at risk or the damage they cause to national security.”
“WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service,” Pompeo continued. “It has encouraged its followers to find jobs at the CIA in order to obtain intelligence. It directed Chelsea Manning in her theft of specific secret information. And it overwhelmingly focuses on the United States, while seeking support from anti-democratic countries and organizations.
Pompeo decided to go public with his comments against WikiLeaks and Assange in the last few weeks, after WikiLeaks released CIA hacking tools last month. His intent, according to an intelligence official familiar with the matter, was to push back on the building narrative that Assange was an anti-secrecy crusader.
CIA director calls WikiLeaks Russia-aided "non-state hostile intelligence service" - CBS News
Analyst says WikiLeaks dump 'devastating' for CIA - CNNPolitics.com
WikiLeaks publishes 'biggest ever leak of secret CIA documents'
Julian Assange founder of Wikileaks has been hold'd up in the Ecuador Embassy in London for the last 4 years, surrounded by UK police avoiding extradition back to the United States to face charges for what he did to G.W. Bush. Basically putting a target on our soldiers back. If you look at the list of Wikileaks attacks--you'll note they never go after Russia, it's always the United States.
Why is Julian Assange still inside the embassy of Ecuador?
ROGER STONE a long time friend and senior adviser to the Trump campaign claims he had a back door into Wikileaks.
"In the final months of the 2016 campaign, longtime Donald Trump associate Roger Stone repeatedly discussed his backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and claimed knowledge of forthcoming leaks from the group, a CNN KFile review of his public statements shows.
Stone's comments about WikiLeaks have come under increased scrutiny as the FBI and congressional committees investigate whether Trump associates were involved in Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election."
Trump adviser Roger Stone repeatedly claimed to know of forthcoming WikiLeaks dumps - CNNPolitics.com
And who loves Wikileaks? Donald Trump & his supporters
“It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is -- a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia,” the former Republican congressman from Kansas said in his prepared remarks, speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in his first major appearance since taking the post.
Pompeo said the intelligence community’s determination that Russian military intelligence used WikiLeaks to release data of U.S. victims obtained through cyber operations points to that conclusion, as does the intelligence community’s discovery that Russia’s “primary propaganda outlet,” RT, “actively collaborated” with WikiLeaks. The DNC hack in 2016 exposed thousands of emails of top Democratic party and campaign officials, possibly contributing to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s unexpected loss in the presidential race.
Pompeo also said in his prepared remarks the CIA finds the “celebration of entities like WikiLeaks to be both perplexing and deeply troubling.”
“Because while we do our best to quietly collect information on those who pose very real threats to our country, individuals such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden seek to use that information to make a name for themselves,” Pompeo said. “As long as they make a splash, they care nothing about the lives they put at risk or the damage they cause to national security.”
“WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service,” Pompeo continued. “It has encouraged its followers to find jobs at the CIA in order to obtain intelligence. It directed Chelsea Manning in her theft of specific secret information. And it overwhelmingly focuses on the United States, while seeking support from anti-democratic countries and organizations.
Pompeo decided to go public with his comments against WikiLeaks and Assange in the last few weeks, after WikiLeaks released CIA hacking tools last month. His intent, according to an intelligence official familiar with the matter, was to push back on the building narrative that Assange was an anti-secrecy crusader.
CIA director calls WikiLeaks Russia-aided "non-state hostile intelligence service" - CBS News
Analyst says WikiLeaks dump 'devastating' for CIA - CNNPolitics.com
WikiLeaks publishes 'biggest ever leak of secret CIA documents'
Julian Assange founder of Wikileaks has been hold'd up in the Ecuador Embassy in London for the last 4 years, surrounded by UK police avoiding extradition back to the United States to face charges for what he did to G.W. Bush. Basically putting a target on our soldiers back. If you look at the list of Wikileaks attacks--you'll note they never go after Russia, it's always the United States.
Why is Julian Assange still inside the embassy of Ecuador?
ROGER STONE a long time friend and senior adviser to the Trump campaign claims he had a back door into Wikileaks.
"In the final months of the 2016 campaign, longtime Donald Trump associate Roger Stone repeatedly discussed his backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and claimed knowledge of forthcoming leaks from the group, a CNN KFile review of his public statements shows.
Stone's comments about WikiLeaks have come under increased scrutiny as the FBI and congressional committees investigate whether Trump associates were involved in Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election."
Trump adviser Roger Stone repeatedly claimed to know of forthcoming WikiLeaks dumps - CNNPolitics.com
And who loves Wikileaks? Donald Trump & his supporters
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