CIA Director: Wikileaks Is a 'Hostile Intelligence Service'

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mike-pompeo-cia-director-wikileaks-is-a-hostile-intelligence-service

by dates • 9 years ago

27 10 9 years ago

daxfohl• 9 years ago

Meh, in a way you could view it as the most important thing everything needs these days. Extra motivation to keep your secrets tight. And insight into what you've messed up.

leephillips• 9 years ago

Not sure what he means by “embedded by [sic] state actors like Russia,” but isn’t is clear by now that Wikileaks has, at the least, aligned its interests with Russia’s, and, quite likely, is largely controlled by the Kremlin?

helthanatos• 9 years ago

Does it matter who it's controlled by as long as it does some good? As far as citizens are concerned, it should be / is treason to keep these secrets. People say Snowden is terrible for doing what he did and he is hiding in Russia. They are wrong for thinking their thoughts about how "unAmerican" he is. WikiLeaks could start releasing nonsense, but when they do that, their purpose is at an end.

geofft• 9 years ago

Yes. If it does biased good, it may not be doing good at all. For instance, there are claims that Wikileaks had the opportunity to leak RNC emails, and decided not to. It is certainly one thing to say that the DNC and RNC don't get to have privacy (I'm not sure I'd agree, but I can see the argument). It is another thing entirely to say that one of these groups doesn't get privacy and the other one does. Both of them make sausage. Both of them are American political parties. It's unpleasant, there's undoubtedly rampant corruption in both, and people are sending internal emails without an eye to the fact that the general public might read and misinterpret them. But if only one group becomes the target of Wikileaks, the general public will get upset at them and not the other.

If Wikileaks is controlled by some entity with an agenda, it is very easy to attack and embarrass and cause political problems for other groups, opposed to that agenda, and refuse to attack groups aligned with that agenda. No lies are required. They can release selective truth, and generate public outrage directed in a particular way, thereby clearing the path for whatever groups they like. Those groups would probably generate as much outrage if they were the target of Wikileaks, and we have no way to verify what Wikileaks themselves might be hiding.

It's sort of a Richelieu "Give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man and I would find something in them to have him hanged" situation: they're hanging only the honest men they dislike.

(Also I'm sort of weirded out by your phrasing "They are wrong for thinking their thoughts" - I'm guessing you meant just "They are wrong to think" or something?)

marak830• 9 years ago

What's the reasoning behind this ? Honest question.

I'd like to think if that were true, WikiLeaks would be replaced with a new group that releases more.

DarkKomunalec• 9 years ago

But when the NSA breaks the constitution and lies to congress, they're not hostile? It's pretty obvious he doesn't mean hostile to the American people, but to the US government.

chalchal• 9 years ago

"Pompeo said Assange portrays himself as a crusader but in fact helps enemies of the United States, including aiding Russia’s interference in last year’s presidential election.

However, Pompeo did not comment on how Trump has previously lavished praise on Assange for the information he has made public.

Nor did Pompeo mention that he himself had cited and linked to WikiLeaks in a tweet attacking the Democratic Party. Pompeo at the time was a Republican congressman and member of the House Intelligence Committee.

The CIA declined to comment on that."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/14/cia-director...

davidgerard• 9 years ago

The other term for "non-state hostile intelligence service" is "free press".

LeeHwang• 9 years ago

I caught that as well. It really gives the fake news meme a horrific twist.

Especially in the light of the all the warmongering in the mainstream papers. https://theintercept.com/2017/04/07/the-spoils-of-war-trump-...

Yet everyone I know on the right and left is anti-war. The alt-right of all people even had a huge protest in DC.

Its beginning to feel like Iraq WMD's again. Sad times.

tdb7893• 9 years ago

If a newspaper was getting a lot of their information from foreign intelligence services and were using it specifically to try to weaken US organizations I think they would've gone past being "free press". The CIA seems to think that is what wikileaks is doing (whether intentionally or unintentionally)

CIA Director: Wikileaks Is a 'Hostile Intelligence Service'

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