CIA director says Wikileaks is “a non-state hostile intelligence service, often abetted by state actors like Russia” https://t.co/Okz2bwUl4f pic.twitter.com/e8tHrkxnCe
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 13, 2017
On Thursday, CIA Chief Mike Pompeo delivered harsh words about Wikileaks that added more fuel to the existing timeline of Trump-Russia ties. This information arrives on the same day as a Guardian report that that alleges a few major things: (1) British spies were among the first in the intel community to call attention to these ties; (2) U.S. intelligence allegedly has found “specific concrete” evidence to prove the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia. Pompeo now brings things full circle to finger WIkileaks’ role in Russia’s U.S. election interference.
Although dramatic, this announcement has been a long time coming. Back in early January, U.S. intelligence found “conclusive” evidence that Wikileaks hacked the Democratic National Committee and delivered relevant materials to Wikileaks via a third party. This followed a few months after, the Eduadorian Embassy in London cut off Julian Assange’s internet service because they already didn’t want to be accused of aiding such interference. Now, Trump’s appointed CIA director isn’t messing around:
“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. 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.”
The CIA has reason for a beef of their own volition after Wikileaks recently leaked their hacking tools to the world. This does, however, present some awkwardness where Trump is concerned (but what else is new?). The president once thought Wikileaks deserved the death penalty but decided he loved Assange once the DNC emails started leaking. Now, his CIA director has essentially labeled Wikileaks as a Russian tool.
Anyway, big news day. Trump dropped the MOAB in Afghanistan and green lit the defunding of Planned Parenthood, but the Russia developments keep on coming.
(Via CBS News)