CIA chief calls WikiLeaks a 'hostile intelligence service'

[webfact]

CIA chief calls WikiLeaks a 'hostile intelligence service'

By Warren Strobel and Mark Hosenball

REUTERS

 

Mike Pompeo waits to be sworn in as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House in Washington, U.S. January 23, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - CIA Director Mike Pompeo on Thursday called WikiLeaks a "hostile intelligence service," using his first public speech as spy agency chief to denounce leakers who have plagued U.S. intelligence.

 

Pompeo, in an address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, called WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange "a fraud" and "a coward."

 

"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," Pompeo said.

 

He said Russia's GRU military intelligence service used Wikileaks to distribute material hacked from Democratic National Committee computers during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

 

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia stole the emails and took other actions to tilt the election in favour of eventual winner Donald Trump, a Republican, against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

 

Pompeo and President Donald Trump, who chose him to head the CIA, have not always been so critical of WikiLeaks. During a campaign rally last October, Trump praised the group for releasing hacked emails from the DNC by saying, "I love WikiLeaks."

 

In July, Pompeo, than a Republican member of the House of Representatives, mentioned it in a Twitter post referring to claims that the DNC had slanted the candidate-selection process to favour Clinton. "Need further proof that the fix was in from Pres. Obama on down? BUSTED: 19,252 Emails from DNC Leaked by Wikileaks."

 

WikiLeaks has published secret documents from the U.S. government and others and says its mission is to fight government secrecy and promote transparency. Pompeo said it has "encouraged its followers to find jobs at CIA in order to obtain intelligence."

 

Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012, after taking refuge there to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape, which he denies.

 

Two of Assange's lawyers and a Wikileaks spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Pompeo's remarks.

 

Pompeo's speech on Thursday follows a series of damaging leaks of highly sensitive CIA and National Security Agency material.

 

In March, WikiLeaks published thousands of pages of internal CIA discussions that revealed hacking techniques the agency had used against iPhones, Android devices and other targets.

 

Pompeo also had harsh words for Edward Snowden, the former National Security Administration contractor who downloaded thousands of documents revealing some of the electronic eavesdropping agency's most sensitive programs and shared them with journalists.

 

"More than a thousand foreign targets, people, groups, organizations, more than a thousand of them changed or tried to change how they communicated as a result of the Snowden disclosures," Pompeo said. "That number is staggering."

 

U.S. intelligence agencies have struggled to deal with "insider threats" - their own employees or contractors who steal classified materials and, in some cases, publicize them.

 

In response to a question, Pompeo disputed Russia's account of a chemical weapons attack in Syria that prompted retaliatory cruise missile strikes by Trump last week.

 

Moscow has said that Syrian rebels, rather than the Syrian government, were responsible.

 

"None of the (accounts) have an ounce of truth in them," Pompeo said, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin "a man for whom veracity doesn't translate into English."

 

(Additional reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Eric Beech and Bill Trott)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-04-14

 

[klauskunkel]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

CIA chief calls WikiLeaks a 'hostile intelligence service'

while the CIA is of course a benign intelligence service. Now that this is cleared up, all that's left to evaluate is: which is the more competent one, if all things (budget, man power, technology) were equal...

Edited April 14, 2017 by klauskunkel

[craigt3365]

45 minutes ago, klauskunkel said:

while the CIA is of course a benign intelligence service. Now that this is cleared up, all that's left to evaluate is: which is the more competent one, if all things (budget, man power, technology) were equal...

No arguments, but WikiLeaks is a hostile intelligence service.  Just ask the millions of Turkish women who had their private medical records put online.  Not good. 

[worgeordie]

Hostile intelligence Service, I suppose they call that to everyone

who puts the truth out there.when you have so many dirty secrets

to hide.

 

regards worgeordie

[craigt3365]

4 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

Hostile intelligence Service, I suppose they call that to everyone

who puts the truth out there.when you have so many dirty secrets

to hide.

 

regards worgeordie

Name one government that doesn't have dirty secrets.

[Reigntax]

26 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

Name one government that doesn't have dirty secrets.

That's exactly why its needed. Unless governments should be allowed to operate outside the law?

[Emster23]

Has wiki gone after Putin and his ruling mafia? Why not? hmmm......

[craigt3365]

32 minutes ago, Reigntax said:

That's exactly why its needed. Unless governments should be allowed to operate outside the law?

No argument.  But releasing classified info that isn't breaking the law isn't right.  Wiki doesn't vet the info.  Just releases masses of data.  Which is also against the law.  Since it is illegal to do so, shouldn't Wiki be pursued legally?  What's fair is fair.

[retarius]

For me, wikileaks are heroes, same as Ed Snowdon. They expose the outright lies and illegalities that governments do. If we had listened to Ed Snowden the world would be a better place with an intelligence service instead of a propaganda service. The CIA has brought more evil into the world and though its false flag and covert ops has caused more wars leading to more deaths than Hitler.

[worgeordie]

1 hour ago, craigt3365 said:

Name one government that doesn't have dirty secrets.

Its just some have more than others,

regards Worgeordie

[craigt3365]

2 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

Its just some have more than others,

regards Worgeordie

Agreed.  Can you just imagine the dirty secrets Russia and China have?  Would love to see those.

[craigt3365]

4 minutes ago, retarius said:

For me, wikileaks are heroes, same as Ed Snowdon. They expose the outright lies and illegalities that governments do. If we had listened to Ed Snowden the world would be a better place with an intelligence service instead of a propaganda service. The CIA has brought more evil into the world and though its false flag and covert ops has caused more wars leading to more deaths than Hitler.

To make this fair, all governments need to be exposed by Wiki.  Sadly, Assange just goes after the US.  Why not Russia?  China?  North Korea?

[tuktuktuk]

6 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

To make this fair, all governments need to be exposed by Wiki.  Sadly, Assange just goes after the US.  Why not Russia?  China?  North Korea?

I'll bet the answer has something to do with money.

[Reigntax]

37 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

No argument.  But releasing classified info that isn't breaking the law isn't right.  Wiki doesn't vet the info.  Just releases masses of data.  Which is also against the law.  Since it is illegal to do so, shouldn't Wiki be pursued legally?  What's fair is fair.

 

Releasing information is not against the law unless subject to supression laws from the country of origin. Those who provide confidential information to Wiki may be committing a crime based on the confidentiality requirement of employment but the receivers are not bound by the same law unless operating in the same country where the law exists.

 

Agree. Some information does not need to be known by the general public, some may be sensitive and embarrassing. Most is just garbage but inbetween there are examples of government agencies clearly operating outside a country's laws and in such cases, the public have the right to know what their governments are doing.

 

I suspect that whistleblower protection in countries where it exist are restricted by the same laws and Wiki would be used as a last resort due to lack of any action.

 

In any case I believe Wiki has benefit even if the potential threat of eventually being exposed may rein in some of the rogue operations. 

Edited April 14, 2017 by Reigntax

[craigt3365]

3 minutes ago, Reigntax said:

 

Releasing information is not against the law unless subject to supression laws from the country of origin.

Ummm...didn't somebody go to jail for releasing this info? LOL

[Reigntax]

14 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

Ummm...didn't somebody go to jail for releasing this info? LOL

 

He was an employee, had access to confidential information, breached his employment conditions and released it to Wiki in the country of origin. I believe that was the situation anyway.

[blazes]

1 hour ago, craigt3365 said:

To make this fair, all governments need to be exposed by Wiki.  Sadly, Assange just goes after the US.  Why not Russia?  China?  North Korea?

Why not Russia & co?  Well, the aims of these countries are fairly well known, so it would be difficult for them to take the West by surprise.

Whereas, the USA, protector of "democracy" and upholder of "human rights" will swing this way this week, that way next week, AND will propagandise their citizenry into believing that America is some frail maiden aunt who has no protection against those giant fleas out there.  

Can anyone for one moment imagine a NK small-penis missile being launched without the US shooting it down the moment it leaves the silo.?

[boomerangutang]

Trump loves anyone/anything that praises him (wikileaks, Putin, whatever)

 

........but hates anyone/any entity which doesn't lavish praise upon him (Wash.Post, NY Times, the Pope, Mexicans, Assad, liberated women).

 

That's the mentality of a little bully kid.   For any of my children, I'd hope they mature beyond Trump's level by about age 7.

[boomerangutang]

1 hour ago, retarius said:

For me, wikileaks are heroes, same as Ed Snowdon. They expose the outright lies and illegalities that governments do. If we had listened to Ed Snowden the world would be a better place with an intelligence service instead of a propaganda service. The CIA has brought more evil into the world and though its false flag and covert ops has caused more wars leading to more deaths than Hitler.

I saw a taped interview with Snowden which took place in Russia.  He seemed to be a v. reasonable fellow.

[craigt3365]

12 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

I saw a taped interview with Snowden which took place in Russia.  He seemed to be a v. reasonable fellow.

She....LOL

[blazes]

2 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

She....LOL

She??????   Are you mistaking him for (the now) Chelsea Manning?  Man up....

[craigt3365]

3 minutes ago, blazes said:

She??????   Are you mistaking him for (the now) Chelsea Manning?  Man up....

oops...wrong traitor. LOL

 

Apologies

Edited April 14, 2017 by craigt3365

[elgordo38]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

using his first public speech as spy agency chief to denounce leakers who have plagued U.S. intelligence.

 

Praise be to de Lord for leakers. Otherwise we would truly believe our beloved government is on our side. Stand up Assange and Snowden and take a bow. 

[retarius]

11 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

To make this fair, all governments need to be exposed by Wiki.  Sadly, Assange just goes after the US.  Why not Russia?  China?  North Korea?

Craig this is simple so as even you can understand it. Wikileaks releases what it gets in from whistle blowers. Soooooo if it gets a wikileak from the USA it publishes that. If it gets a leak fro Denmark or Tibet it publishes that. There was a massive Saudi leak recently…it is reported daily on Middle Eastern news sits but not in the world as you read it. You need to stop swallowing the US propaganda and search out things for yourself. Otherwise you will always end up believing in The USA being Father Christmas.

[Shaunduhpostman]

Whereas the CIA who was headed at its inception by none other than the head of Nazi Germany's head of military intelligence Reinhard Gehlen and which has been behind the non-democratic overthrow of some 84 governments are not a hostile non-state enity?

 

 

[Trouble]

 

"U.S. intelligence agencies have struggled to deal with "insider threats" - their own employees or contractors who steal classified materials and, in some cases, publicize them."

 

I have to wonder why there is such a large problem with the employees "stealing" information.  Could it be that maybe some of them find the intelligence agencies go to far and violate the Constitution?  There is no doubt that no one is safe from how much the intelligence agencies gather on Americans and others.  It is not always about national security threats but goes further into spying on your friends and allies. It's like reading your friends email, listening to their calls, etc.  It is obvious that it's all too late and Congress will never assert their oversight and reign in what the intelligence agencies are doing. 

[craigt3365]

8 hours ago, retarius said:

Craig this is simple so as even you can understand it. Wikileaks releases what it gets in from whistle blowers. Soooooo if it gets a wikileak from the USA it publishes that. If it gets a leak fro Denmark or Tibet it publishes that. There was a massive Saudi leak recently…it is reported daily on Middle Eastern news sits but not in the world as you read it. You need to stop swallowing the US propaganda and search out things for yourself. Otherwise you will always end up believing in The USA being Father Christmas.

Sorry, but BS.  The data from the DNC servers came from Russian hacks.  Hardly whistle blowers.  Your argument is wrong.

 

You should read this:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/23/wikileaks-posts-sensitive-medical-information-saudi-arabia

 

Stop with the US propaganda thing.  As I've heard from so many people, if they hear somebody say "lame stream media", you know they've lost the plot.  The rest of their message isn't worth reading.

[SamuiLoner]

Why does everyone want to shoot the messenger..?

 

These so called leaks are information about elected Governments and political entities operating illegally. Try reading the content of the information being released and then make up your mind.

[tuktuktuk]

2 hours ago, SamuiLoner said:

Why does everyone want to shoot the messenger..?

 

These so called leaks are information about elected Governments and political entities operating illegally. Try reading the content of the information being released and then make up your mind.

The problem for me is that some of the things they leak are things I expect my government to be doing to protect me.

[mrwebb8825]

On 4/14/2017 at 10:02 AM, craigt3365 said:

Name one government that doesn't have dirty secrets.

Brunei :)