CIA Secretly Plotted To Kidnap And Potentially Assassinate Julian Assange

[tabibito]

The minute he declared that they should be prosecuted for revealing classified info, he confirmed the story was essentially true.

Yup

[Ronson]

The minute he declared that they should be prosecuted for revealing classified info, he confirmed the story was essentially true.

That doesn't completely follow. I could report that Osama bin Laden is dead, that SEALs bumped him off in Pakistan, and that his body was shipped to Mars, my story would be partially true. I could still be concerned about a partial intelligence leak if the true part was classified.

[Sparko]

Pompeo in his reaction essentially confirmed it.

Not really. "The CIA declined to comment. Pompeo did not respond to requests for comment."

All that means is that they couldn't get him to bother answering them, if they could even get past his secretary.

How is this story any more reliable than the whole Russian conspiracy cooked up by Killary's campaign? Heck they at least had a fake dossier to wave around. All this story has is anonymous sources from "former US officials" whatever that means.

[Sparko]

True - but they also claim that Pompeo had confirmed that "parts of the story" are true.

Why would their claim about that be any more reliable than the story itself if they made it all up?

[Gondwanaland]

Not really. "The CIA declined to comment. Pompeo did not respond to requests for comment."

You didn't read the second article. Pompeo went on Megyn Kelley's show and basically confirmed it.

All that means is that they couldn't get him to bother answering them, if they could even get past his secretary.

How is this story any more reliable than the whole Russian conspiracy cooked up by Killary's campaign? Heck they at least had a fake dossier to wave around. All this story has is anonymous sources from "former US officials" whatever that means.

See above.

[Gondwanaland]

Why would their claim about that be any more reliable than the story itself if they made it all up?

Because he literally bloody confirmed it while on Megyn Kelly's show.

[Gondwanaland]

That doesn't completely follow. I could report that Osama bin Laden is dead, that SEALs bumped him off in Pakistan, and that his body was shipped to Mars, my story would be partially true. I could still be concerned about a partial intelligence leak if the true part was classified.

If it wasn't true he'd simply straight up deny it. But he didn't. Indeed, his full rant on the show he went on straight up confirms it and defends it.

“When bad guys steal those secrets we have a responsibility to go after them, to prevent [that] from happening,” Pompeo said. “We absolutely have a responsibility to respond. ... We desperately wanted to hold accountable those individuals that had violated U.S. law, that had violated requirements to protect information and had tried to steal it. There is a deep legal framework to do that. And we took actions consistent with U.S. law to try to achieve that.”

[Sparko]

Because he literally bloody confirmed it while on Megyn Kelly's show.

[going back to read it...]

So he confirmed parts of it.

“I can’t say much about this other than whoever those 30 people who allegedly spoke to one of these [Yahoo News] reporters — they should all be prosecuted for speaking about classified activity inside the Central Intelligence Agency,” Pompeo said.

At the same time, Pompeo declined to respond to many of the details in the Yahoo News account and confirmed that “pieces of it are true,” including the existence of an aggressive CIA campaign to target WikiLeaks in the aftermath of the organization’s publication of highly sensitive so-called Vault 7 documents revealing some of the CIA’s hacking tools and methods.

Doesn't mean the rest is.

I am not saying it isn't. Just that after the fiasco with the Steele Dossier and 4 years of liberals making up lies about Trump, I won't accept anything said by a liberal news outlet without actual proof, not rumors from anonymous sources.

[Gondwanaland]

[going back to read it...]

So he confirmed parts of it.

“I can’t say much about this other than whoever those 30 people who allegedly spoke to one of these [Yahoo News] reporters — they should all be prosecuted for speaking about classified activity inside the Central Intelligence Agency,” Pompeo said.

At the same time, Pompeo declined to respond to many of the details in the Yahoo News account and confirmed that “pieces of it are true,” including the existence of an aggressive CIA campaign to target WikiLeaks in the aftermath of the organization’s publication of highly sensitive so-called Vault 7 documents revealing some of the CIA’s hacking tools and methods.

Doesn't mean the rest is.

I am not saying it isn't. Just that after the fiasco with the Steele Dossier and 4 years of liberals making up lies about Trump, I won't accept anything said by a liberal news outlet without actual proof, not rumors from anonymous sources.

It does when you consider what else he said:
“When bad guys steal those secrets we have a responsibility to go after them, to prevent [that] from happening,” Pompeo said. “We absolutely have a responsibility to respond. ... We desperately wanted to hold accountable those individuals that had violated U.S. law, that had violated requirements to protect information and had tried to steal it. There is a deep legal framework to do that. And we took actions consistent with U.S. law to try to achieve that.”

That's about as close as one can expect to get from someone who did something like this. He's literally trying to defend it and unwittingly admits to it in all but exact words.


And I wouldn't call them a 'liberal news outlet'. The actual journalists involved aren't particularly liberal. One worked for the Army Times for years, another nearly broke the Monica Lewinsky story before his employer (Newsweek) at the time squashed it shortly before it went to press. The third worked for Foreign Police which is very centrist, as well as WSJ which leans right

[Sparko]

It does when you consider what else he said:
“When bad guys steal those secrets we have a responsibility to go after them, to prevent [that] from happening,” Pompeo said. “We absolutely have a responsibility to respond. ... We desperately wanted to hold accountable those individuals that had violated U.S. law, that had violated requirements to protect information and had tried to steal it. There is a deep legal framework to do that. And we took actions consistent with U.S. law to try to achieve that.”

That's about as close as one can expect to get from someone who did something like this. He's literally trying to defend it and unwittingly admits to it in all but exact words.

"There is a deep legal framework to do that. And we took actions consistent with U.S. law to try to achieve that"

[Gondwanaland]

"There is a deep legal framework to do that. And we took actions consistent with U.S. law to try to achieve that"

This is the dude that vehemently defended waterboarding and other EITs as legal. So..... no surprise he thinks kidnapping and assassinating people are legal as well..

[Sparko]

This is the dude that vehemently defended waterboarding and other EITs as legal. So..... no surprise he thinks kidnapping and assassinating people are legal as well..

sigh. You do you, Gond.

smh.

[Gondwanaland]

sigh. You do you, Gond.

smh.

Truth hurts, don't it.

[seanD]

I'm inclined to disbelieve this. Pompeo has sloughed it off, and it doesn't make sense anyway.

I'm inclined to believe it because for one: it's CIA, thus perfectly plausible (and the intelligence community absolutely hated him), and two: the political left has no reason to make something like this up since they now hate Assange, especially when Trump commended wikileaks at one of his rallies, hence, that was the moment the political left completely flipped against wikileaks. In fact, you even had Cenk and Ana of TYT claim he was working for Russia. If it had been about Trump, I might be a little suspect.

[Ronson]

I'm inclined to believe it because for one: it's CIA, thus perfectly plausible, and two: the political left has no reason to make something like this up since they hate Assange, especially when Trump commended wikileaks at one of his rallies, hence, that was the moment to political left completely flipped against wikileaks. In fact, you even had Cenk and Ana of TYT claim he was working for Russia. If had been about Trump, I might have been a little suspect.

It doesn't pass the smell test for me. Here's why:

1) Risk vs gain. If the CIA attempted to kill or kidnap Assange and anything went wrong and the operation was exposed, it could easily start a war. It would be a huge risk with little to gain. Assange wasn't causing much trouble while holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy. Why risk starting a war, alienating allies, just to get hold of some who was basically hamstrung?

2) Ridiculous planning. US agents crashing their car into a Russian vehicle to kidnap Assange? Seriously? Did the plan also call for Tom Cruise to hang onto the wing of a jet and shoot the pilot with his pistol? This is pure Hollywood stuff. Putin has Novichok slipped into their drink. As we've seen, that's the way it's done in the real world.

3) Anonymous sources. Admittedly, this is one case where I would expect anonymous sources - but 30 of them? And these are 30 people with classified security clearance and likely work for the CIA? Some Yahoo! reporters simply approached them and they all spilled their guts? This sounds more like some Deep Throat told them about a molehill, and then it evolved into a fanciful mountain from 29 other secret agents. I mean, where does one find 30 loose-lipped CIA agents anyway? And this isn't even going into the anonymous stinkhole that the NYT and WaPo pushes at us every day and what those usually amount to.

4) Who Benefits from This? Assange. The US is still trying to extradite him - and now his attorneys are crying "See! See! The Americans are going to kill our client!"

I am saying this as someone who sympathizes with Assange and feels he's being persecuted. And I have no love for Pompeo. But, again, it just isn't passing the smell test.