CIA Director Mike Pompeo: Julian Assange Is a ‘Fraud – a Coward Hiding Behind a Screen’

CIA Director Mike Pompeo slammed WikiLeaks, calling founder and editor Julian Assange the leader of a hostile intelligence service that threatens the U.S. The remarks, which are a far cry from the praise the anti-secrecy group has received from his boss, came  on Thursday during his first public speech since becoming head of the Central Intelligence Agency.

“It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is — a non-state hostile intelligence service,” Director Pompeo said, adding a claim that it is often aided by nations such as Russia. “WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service.”

WikiLeaks played a not-so insignificant role during the 2016 presidential election, obtaining and publishing damning revelations relating to Hillary Clinton that the liberal-dominated corporate media refused to cover. In fact, hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta revealed deep collusion, coordination and corruption between the media and Democrats.

Among the worst offenders were CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, POLITICO, and NBC News.

The group recently published documents they claimed to be the full hacking capacity of the CIA. The 8,761 documents and files–released as “Vault 7 Part 1” and titled “Year Zero”–were allegedly obtained from an “isolated, high-security network” at the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI) in Langley, Va., according to the press release.

The treasure trove of intelligence documents revealed the CIA “recently” lost control of the majority of its tools in the hacking toolbox, to include malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized “zero day” exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation. WikiLeaks said its source leaked the files because they believed questions surrounding the CIA’s reach “urgently need to be debated in public.”

By the end of 2016, CCI had produced more than a thousand hacking systems, which are now “loose.”

Director Pompeo told the audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that WikiLeaks has encouraged followers to pursue jobs at the CIA in order to obtain intelligence.

Director Pompeo said Mr. Assange is not a champion of government transparency, but rather a “narcissist” and a “fraud — a coward hiding behind a screen.”