Analysis by Kyle A. Lohmeier
The CIA is a joke.
Yesterday, news outlets like CBS and others reported that the CIA and FBI have begun a manhunt for the leaker who handed over a massive trove of classified data, including all the dirty tricks the CIA had for spying on Americans via their own smartphones and other devices, to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.
“In January of this year, our Intelligence Community determined that Russian military intelligence—the GRU—had used WikiLeaks to release data of US victims that the GRU had obtained through cyber operations against the Democratic National Committee. And the report also found that Russia’s primary propaganda outlet, RT, has actively collaborated with WikiLeaks,” CIA Director Mike Pompeo said.
Oops, wrong quote. I copied-and-pasted a quote from his remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on April 13 of this year above there.
“CBS News has learned that a manhunt is underway for a traitor inside the Central Intelligence Agency… Sources familiar with the investigation say it is looking for an insider — either a CIA employee or contractor — who had physical access to the material. The agency has not said publicly when the material was taken or how it was stolen,” Reads part of CBS News’ piece from yesterday afternoon.
Now, either Pompeo was lying less than two weeks ago when he addressed the CSIS and told everyone Russian intelligence was working with Assange, or new evidence recently came to light that indicates it was US intelligence that gave classified documents to WikiLeaks. At any rate, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the intelligence service can’t even keep its own secrets, which calls into question how good of a job it can possibly do learning the secrets of other nations and their intelligence services. That is, after all, what their job is, supposedly.
“So I’d now like to make clear what CIA doesn’t do. We are a foreign intelligence agency. We focus on collecting information about foreign governments, foreign terrorist organizations, and the like—not Americans. A number of specific rules keep us centered on that mission and protect the privacy of our fellow Americans. To take just one important example, CIA is legally prohibited from spying on people through electronic surveillance in the United States. We’re not tapping anyone’s phone in Wichita,” Pompeo told CSIS on April 13, despite the fact the service had just been exposed as sitting on technology hacks that allowed it to make Wichita residents’ phones and smart TVs tap themselves.
And while it’s clear CIA does whatever it wants to whomever it wants wherever it wants, Pompeo didn’t bother mentioning that its sister organization, the NSA, is the one that really handles domestic spying, bulk data collecting and the like. So, we’re being spied on, we just don’t necessarily know by whom, which is of course how they like it.
This is what makes the subject of this multi-federal-agency manhunt a true American hero of nearly Ed Snowden proportions. After all, it is only because of Snowden’s bravery that we know about the NSA’s evil programs. Now, somewhere out there, running for his or her life is another American hero who has risked everything to reveal the corrupt, evil machinations of the CIA and their tireless efforts to deprive all Americans of every last modicum of privacy they have.
“I know there will always be skeptics. We need to build trust with them. But I also know firsthand, from what I saw as a member of a Congressional oversight committee and from what I see now as Director, that CIA takes its legal restrictions and responsibilities with the utmost seriousness,” Pompeo continued.
“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false,” the late William Casey said just after assuming the CIA directorship in 1981.
If CIA says it isn’t engaged in domestic spying, it’s engaged in domestic spying. If CIA says Russian intelligence was behind the recent leaks, American intelligence was behind it. If it says it never intended to use the technology exploits revealed in the most recent leaks against Americans, it was already using them against Americans. Everything the agency tells us is a lie.
“WikiLeaks has said it obtained the CIA information from former contractors who worked for U.S. intelligence. The CIA has not commented on the authenticity of the WikiLeaks disclosures or on the status of the investigation,” reads the last graph of CBS News’ piece.
That CIA is mum on this manhunt is a pretty good indication that it’s actually happening and that one of their own people was responsible for the leaks.
Whoever that person is: Godspeed. May you successfully get out of the country and find asylum somewhere safe.
Leave a Reply