In a press conference on Thursday, CIA Director Mike Pompeo denounced WikiLeaks which is a change of tune from his attitude towards Wikileaks back in July.
During the CIA Director’s first press conference, Mike Pompeo publicly denounced WikiLeaks calling the entity a “hostile intelligence agency”.
Without mincing words, Pompeo, a former Republican congressman, said WikiLeaks, “walks like a hostile intelligence agency and talks like a hostile intelligence agency”.
Last month, WikiLeaks released nearly 8,000 documents that it says reveals secrets about the CIA’s cyberespionage tools for breaking into targeted computers, cellphones and even smart TVs.
Pompeo denouncing WikiLeaks today differs from his stance in July of 2016 when he praised the anti-secrecy group for publishing the private, damaging emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta.
LIVE: CIA’s Pompeo calls @wikileaks a non-state hostile intelligence service abetted by state actors like Russia. https://t.co/sAdCNFrozC pic.twitter.com/2tj5RS2U9K
— Reuters Live (@ReutersLive) April 13, 2017
Wikileaks responded by tweeting out Pompeo’s archived tweet from July of 2016 where he used Wikileaks as proof that ‘the fix was in from Pres Obama down’, ‘BUSTED: 19,252 emails from DNC leaked by Wikileaks‘.
Tweet sent by CIA Director Mike Pompeo on 24 July 2016 https://t.co/sTMHw2nvOG pic.twitter.com/Qd0mYRl5QF
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 13, 2017