CIA Director Slams WikiLeaks: ‘Non-State Hostile Intelligence Service’ With Russia Ties (Video)
CIA Director Mike Pompeo ripped WikiLeaks, calling the organization a “non-state hostile intelligence service,” during a press conference on Thursday.
“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,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo was making his first major public appearance since taking the top intelligence post in the Trump administration and blasted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Pompeo said disclosures by Assange and former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have done “great harm to our nation’s national security and they will continue to do so in the long term.”
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“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,” Pompeo said of Assange and Snowden.
The primary target of WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign was Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton. The site publishing hacked emails from Clinton’s campaign chairman and the Democratic National Committee that resulted in various scandals.
At one point, Trump even declared that he loved Assange’s website but the president’s choice for the top position at the CIA doesn’t seem to care for it so much these days.
“WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service, and talks like a hostile intelligence service,” Pompeo said. “It has encouraged its followers to find jobs at the CIA in order to obtain intelligence.”
Check out the video above.
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