Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Mike Pompeo said that the “worship” of leakers like Edward Snowden is to blame for the recent uptick in security breaches and leaks.
“It’s tough. You now have not only nation states trying to steal our stuff, but non-state, hostile intelligence services, well-funded – folks like WikiLeaks, out there trying to steal American secrets for the sole purpose of undermining the United States and democracy,” Pompeo said.
“In some ways, I do think it’s accelerated,” he said in a recent television interview. “I think there is a phenomenon, the worship of Edward Snowden, and those who steal American secrets for the purpose of self-aggrandizement or money or for whatever their motivation may be, does seem to be on the increase.”
Pompeo told reporters that the United States needs to redouble its efforts to stem leaks of classified information and that the Trump administration is cracking down on all offenders in an effort to ensure security.
In the past, Wikileaks has published hundreds of thousands of logs from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan that highlighted a litany of issues that embarrassed both the Obama Administration and the Department of Defense.
In other instances, such as the case regarding the Army private formerly known as Bradley Manning, involved the leaking of more than 700,000 secret military and other government documents to WikiLeaks.
There has yet to be a proven connection that those leaks resulted in the deaths of U.S. service members overseas.
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