Thread: CIA Director Pompeo Calls WikiLeaks A ‘Hostile Intelligence Service’

CIA Director Pompeo Calls WikiLeaks A ‘Hostile Intelligence Service’

Apr 13 2017, 4:42 pm ET
by Robert Windrem

CIA Director Mike Pompeo blistered WikiLeaks in a speech Thursday, calling WikiLeaks a "hostile intelligence service" aided by Russia and accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of making "common cause with dictators."

The former Kansas congressman was speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., his first public address since becoming director. He lamented the leak of classified materials, and criticized Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, but levelled his harshest criticism at Assange and his organization.

"It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is," he said, "a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia. In January of this year, our Intelligence Community determined that Russian military intelligence — the GRU — had used WikiLeaks to release data of U.S. victims that the GRU had obtained through cyber operations against the Democratic National Committee. And the report also found that Russia's primary propaganda outlet, RT, has actively collaborated with WikiLeaks."

Pompeo did not mention that U.S. intelligence also found that Russia was using its cyber operations against the DNC as part of a campaign to harm candidate Hillary Clinton and aid Donald Trump, who appointed Pompeo to his current job after winning the presidency.

"“I am quite confident that had Assange been around in the 1930s and 40s and 50s, he would have found himself on the wrong side of history.”"

"WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service. It has encouraged its followers to find jobs at 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 said he and his colleagues at the CIA found the celebration of 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."

"Assange and his ilk make common cause with dictators today. Yes, they try unsuccessfully to cloak themselves and their actions in the language of liberty and privacy; in reality, however, they champion nothing but their own celebrity. Their currency is clickbait; their moral compass, nonexistent."

"I am quite confident that had Assange been around in the 1930s and 40s and 50s, he would have found himself on the wrong side of history."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...ervice-n746311

What a totally strange speech. Why would the Director of the CIA attack Ed Snowden and Julian Assange at some meeting of some outfit called the "Center for Strategic and International Studies?

About Us

Established in Washington, D.C. over 50 years ago, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to providing strategic insights and policy solutions to help decision-makers chart a course toward a better world.

In late 2015, Thomas J. Pritzker was named Chairman of the CSIS Board of Trustees. Mr. Pritzker succeeded former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA), who chaired the CSIS Board of Trustees from 1999 to 2015. CSIS is led by John J. Hamre, president and chief executive officer since April 2000.

From left to right: CSIS Chairman Thomas J. Pritzker, and CSIS President and CEO John J. Hamre.

Founded in 1962 by David M. Abshire and Admiral Arleigh Burke, CSIS is one of the world’s preeminent international policy institutions focused on defense and security; regional study; and transnational challenges ranging from energy and trade to global development and economic integration. For the past five years consecutively, CSIS has been named the world’s number one think tank for international security by the University of Pennsylvania’s “GoTo Think Tank Index.”

CSIS co-founders David M. Abshire (left) and Arleigh A. Burke (right).

The Center’s 220 full-time staff and large network of affiliated scholars conduct research and analysis and develop policy initiatives that look to the future and anticipate change. CSIS is regularly called upon by Congress, the executive branch, and the media to explain the day’s events and offer bipartisan recommendations to improve U.S. strategy.

https://www.csis.org/about-us

What in the world? Why would Pompeo be over there dancing around with these globalists attacking Ed Snowden and Julian Assange? These guys are just people. Ed Snowden believed and I think he was right to inform the American People about a lying government spying on US. We don't want that. Julian Assange is just a smart guy from Australia who came up with a great idea to leak information and keep the sources anonymous, but not just the dribbles you see in the newspaper, but volumes of documents. It's amazing.

No US government official should ever fear the truth. And that is all that Wikileak leaks best I can tell from what little I've seen on it. You can't stand up there and call Julian Assange a "hostile intelligence service" and not call NBC and CNN the same thing when they publish "leaks". Free press means free information. Public domain means you got it you can publish it. It just has to be true. Wikileaks has never published a lie. Can our free press state the same? No.

I'm just stunned by the portion of Pompeo's speech that I listened to, it was so bad I had to change the channel, but wanted to post this news article about it in case others missed it.

DNC doesn't like what assange exposed on hillary, podesta, main stream media fed debate questions & slanted news etc. The people needed to know the truth though - their actual words in emall showed what sleezeballs they really are.

Our intel services do not like what snowden exposed but guess what, the people needed to know what he exposed. They can get out of hand and needed a reckoning.

There will always be those that call for their heads though to prevent any further exposure of their malpractices.

Snowden & Assange are totally different from chelsea manning's treason.

I agree 100%, artist. Why do you suppose Pompeo is going after two people like Ed Snowden and Julian Assange in such a way at this type of meeting? Doesn't make any sense to me. Sounds like "Thou Doth Protest Too Much."

Very strange.

A question:

How in the world do the people of this country get back some control? We have none right now - none.

How do we reverse such manipulation by media, think tanks, greedy manipulators, corporations, etc?

Obviously, we don't do it by voting Republican -we've been there recently -Reagan, Bush II, and now Trump.

So, how do we, or do we just sell out and try to find some other country with a little common sense? It would have to be one these power hungry people don't want. If not, there will be a 'civil war', or some such thing and the big guys will rush in to 'help' - read that destroy and take over.

Do we just give up, back into our bunkers and hope we can last for a while until some miracle happens?

What exactly do we do?

nntrixie wrote:

What exactly do we do?

We support the miracle that already occurred on November 8th who was sworn in as our 45th President on January 20, 2017.

Originally Posted by Judy

nntrixie wrote:



We support the miracle that already occurred on November 8th who was sworn in as our 45th President on January 20, 2017.

Granted, maybe I am expecting too much too soon, but so far I am not getting a good feeling.

The wars we weren't supposed to be in, we are escalating.

Personally, I think the idea of the poison gas attack was not true - and I think our reaction was a very, very bad one.

I think the President's speech about 'those beautiful babies', was really horrendous. It sounded more like a snowflake, Hillary type speech than the speech of the President of the US. I didn't like it at all. I want adult, sensible, reasonable speak from this President. He can be as bombastic as he likes, but don't try to 'play' people with such talk.

Rounding up illegals is a good thing - I would like to see a daily/weekly report on how many are being deported. They are not gone - until they are gone and kept gone.

To drop such a huge mega bomb in Afghanistan just looks a little, well ludicrous.

Maybe some military suppliers wanted a real test for their weapon and the President did it for them. I don't know. It just seems like overkill.

It's the CORRUPT MEDIA and NEVER-TRUMPERS. If we allow it, they will beat US down. Fight it off. It's their INFORMATION WARFARE against US.

I totally agree on the "babies" .... speech. Horrible. But after I thought about it, I realized what he was doing. Just be patient. You'll see why he really did it, it wasn't about the pictures and videos, they just ironically enabled a plan, it's about something much bigger and more than anything to do with Syria. Just let his plan play out. I think you'll like the result.

We need the help of brave souls like Assange and Snowden, otherwise the manipulation of TRUTH continues. Where would we be w/o their disclosures of actual emails & procedures?

trump is now a front man unfortunately, He swayed the people with his rhetoric but he is not fulfilling his promises - he made deals to get in the WH & he will be richer $$$ all the rest of his days. If he were true to his words, ryan would not have the speaker's position and dacas would be gone, E-verify would have been mandated day one.

Originally Posted by artist

We need the help of brave souls like Assange and Snowden, otherwise the manipulation of TRUTH continues. Where would we be w/o their disclosures of actual emails & procedures?

trump is now a front man unfortunately, He swayed the people with his rhetoric but he is not fulfilling his promises - he made deals to get in the WH & he will be richer $$$ all the rest of his days. If he were true to his words, ryan would not have the speaker's position and dacas would be gone, E-verify would have been mandated day one.

Yes, we owe Assange and Snowden a great debt. I think anyone who speaks otherwise is concerned there might be others
of their ilk out there with secrets yet to be disclosed - perhaps against the speaker.