CIA Director: Wikileaks Is a ‘Hostile Intelligence Service’ Aided by Russia

‘It’s Time to Call Out Wikileaks for What It Really Is’

 

CIA Director Mike Pompeo has just labeled WikiLeaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service” that is often helped by countries hostile to the U.S., including Russia. Pompeo, who was nominated by President Donald Trump after having served as a U.S. Congressman, called WikiLeaks head Julian Assange a “fraud” and a “narcissist” lacking any  “moral compass.”

WikiLeaks “walks like a hostile intelligence service, and talks like a hostile intelligence service,” Director Pompeo said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan defense and security foreign policy think tank. 

Pompeo accused WikiLeaks of having “encouraged its followers to find jobs at the CIA in order to obtain intelligence.” 

“It overwhelmingly focuses on the United States while seeking support from anti-democratic countries and organizations,” the former Kansas Congressman said. “It’s time to call out Wikileaks for what it really is: a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.”

Candidate Donald Trump was a huge fan of WikiLeaks, but he wasn’t alone, as this Huffington Post foreign affairs reporter notes:

Last year, Trump friend and former advisor Roger Stone bragged about having communicated with WikiLeaks:

Stone is on Meet the Press right now:

If you’re wondering what all this means, so are many people. Stay tuned — this is likely the first of many steps.

UPDATE:
ThinkProgress has more on Pompeo’s WikiLeaks history:

Pompeo was grilled about that tweet during his confirmation hearing to become CIA director. Though he touted the hacked emails published by Wikileaks in July, Pompeo told Sen. Angus King (I-ME) he “never believed that Wikileaks was a credible source of information.”

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