Moscow blasts CIA head: He also used WikiLeaks

by Nikita Vladimirov - 04/20/17 3:11 PM ET

Moscow on Wednesday blasted CIA Director Mike Pompeo for labeling WikiLeaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service” that is often utilized by Russia.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized Pompeo’s remarks, accusing the CIA head of also using WikiLeaks for political purposes.

“What’s interesting is that the CIA director has used WikiLeaks resources with much success — I am not even mentioning the fact that he used them for official purposes — even though, in his opinion, all these internet resources and related people are traitors and do other countries’ bidding,” Zakharova said in an official Foreign Ministry briefing.

{mosads}”For example, he wrote in his Twitter post of July 24, 2016, that WikiLeaks-published [Democratic National Committee] emails were ‘evidence’ that President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party favored Hillary Clinton during the primaries,” she said, referring to Pompeo’s tweet that has since been deleted.

“Given this he should sign up as a traitor himself, if he used and quoted this material in support of his views, or sort it out in some other way.”

In his first major public appearance last week since taking the top intelligence position, Pompeo slammed WikiLeaks, stating that the platform is often “abetted” by Russia.

“It’s time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: A non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia,” he said.

Pompeo also accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked a trove of information about the NSA’s surveillance operations, of doing “great harm to our nation’s national security.”

WikiLeaks responded to the accusations by posting a picture of Pompeo’s old tweet that cited leaked emails that were published on the website.