Months after joining other Republicans in praising leaks about Democrats from the internet site Wikileaks, CIA Director Mike Pompeo blasted the group in a Washington, D.C. speech as a "hostile intelligence service," charging that the overriding aim of Wikileaks is to help Russia and others in further anti-American goals.
"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 in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service," the CIA Director added, saying Wikileaks, "overwhelmingly focuses on the United States, while seeking support from anti-democratic countries and organizations."
It was a marked turnaround for the CIA Director, as back when Pompeo was a GOP Congressman from Kansas during the 2016 elections, he joined many others in Donald Trump's campaign, including the President, in praising the leaks of Democratic emails by Wikileaks.
"BUSTED: 19,252 Emails from DNC Leaked from Wikileaks," Pompeo tweeted - though that tweet has since been deleted.
But - Wikileaks was happy to send out the original, just in case you couldn't find it.
The U.S. Intelligence Community has long made clear that it believes there are distinct ties between Russian Intelligence and Wikileaks, though no formal evidence on the release of Democratic Party emails has been made public.
"They didn't deal directly with WikiLeaks," FBI Director James Comey said in Congressional testimony last month, as he told the House Intelligence Community that there was "some kind of cutout," an intermediary that the U.S. believes delivered the emails to Wikileaks for release.
"I love Wikileaks," Mr. Trump said last October on the campaign trail.
But that view is clearly not shared inside the Intelligence Community, as demonstrated by Pompeo's speech:
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
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