Today’s quote comes to us from Mike Pompeo, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Here is what Mr. Pompeo has to say about wikileaks, and others with a similar taste for putting out what ever classified information they can get their hands on:
“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. 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. 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.”
“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.”
Is Director Pompeo correct? Is this a fair commentary on Assange, Snowden, et al? Are they great people when they expose the material you want out there, and despicable scum when they expose the material you think should remain secret? Do they care about the consequences of what they make public?
I’ll leave it to you to make those calls. But Mike Pompeo wins Quote Of The Day honors for bringing these issues to the fore and laying out the basis for thinking about them.
One last thing. Is his reference to Russia as a hostile actor in all this not another demonstration – to add to the already-large pile – that the Trump administration and Russia are not in cahoots with each other?
When do media start talking about this….and, finally, after over a half-year without hard evidence, do they start admitting their obsession with the claim that Russia colluded with Trump last year has yet to be supported by facts?
