CIA Director Mike Pompeo Blasts Assange and Lies Through His Teeth
By Tim Preuss
If Julian Assange were alive in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, he would have been on the wrong side of history. That’s what the new CIA Director, Mike Pompeo, would have you believe, at least. In an address Thursday afternoon, Pompeo blasted Wikileaks for its supposed ties to foreign governments, and the fact that Wikileaks targets American secrets more than other nations. Much of what he accused Wikileaks, Julian Assange, and Edward Snowden of were flat out falsehoods. Let’s break it down.
“Let me assure you. When it comes to covert action, there is oversight and accountability every step of the way.”
That’s the case if you believe Congress actually does a good job of holding the CIA accountable. Recently Wikileaks released the largest dump of CIA files – known as Vault 7 – showing how the CIA was creating tools to hack virtually any devise that has internet capabilities and make it look like someone else did the hacking. The reactions by those in Congress of shock and horror would have us believe that either a) they knew about it and are faking surprise, or b) Congress has no clue what the CIA is up to. Take your pick – liars or idiots. Neither should be trusted to hold the CIA accountable.
“The times in which we have failed to live up to high standards of our fellow citizens have been cataloged well.”
Wait a minute. I thought the CIA was held accountable. What are these times you have failed to live up to Americans’ high standards? Was it when former CIA Director James Clapper was caught lying to Congress regarding the bulk collection of data of millions of Americans? Must be. Was he held accountable for perjury before Congress and tried? No. Last month he was trotted out before the House Intelligence Committee to testify about Russia.
“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.”
Ah yes. Everyone knows of the immense popularity of Mr Assange. You know, hanging out on Sunset Blvd, throwing wild Hollywood parties, getting to attend the Golden Globes with his new girlfriend Pamela Anderson. Oh wait, he’s been stuck in the Ecuadorean embassy for nearly 5 years, afraid to leave the building or even stand near a window for too long. As for Edward Snowden – he isn’t exactly living the dream either. Stuck in Moscow of all places, because he fears the Russian government less than his own.
“[Wikileaks] directed Chelsea Manning in her theft of specific secret information.”
This one just isn’t true. Sure, Wikileaks published the documents Manning obtained, but Pompeo has his timeline mixed up. It was only after Manning saw the targeting of innocent civilians in Iraq and the numerous examples of war crimes that she came forward to Assange.
“[Wikileaks] overwhelmingly focuses on the United States.”
While American news coverage of Wikileaks obviously focuses on American leaks, Wikileaks has a history of releasing documents from governments and organizations around the world. For instance, the Trade-in-Service Agreement which involved the US, EU, and 22 other countries, emails from the ruling party of Turkey, countries gobbling up Africa’s uranium, and IMF documents with relation to Greece’s debt problem. Wikileaks isn’t centered on the U.S. If it seems that way, perhaps we should question the U.S. more than we do.
“In January of this year, our intelligence community determined that Russian military intelligence, the GRU, had used Wikileaks to release data… against the Democratic National Committee.”
We’re still on the Russian collusion thing, ey? Since the big hub-bub started, various accusations have been made, but the CIA, FBI, and NSA have never provided proof to the American people. We are simply to take the CIA at its word, which, unlike Wikileaks – which has a near 100% perfect record for publishing only authentic documents – has a long history of lying to the public, going back all the way to its inception following WWII.
“Assange compares himself to Thomas Jefferson, Dwight Eisenhower, and the Pulitzer Prize winning work of legitimate news organizations such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.”
And we’ll just wrap it up there. Yes, he actually called the New York Times and the Washington Post “legitimate”. He has officially lost all credibility.