Kevin Gosztola

26 Sep, 22 tweets, 8 min read

Journalists for Yahoo! News finally confirmed a narrative around Mike Pompeo and the CIA's war on WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, which I outlined back in October 2019. It's an important report.

Thread. news.yahoo.com/kidnapping-ass…

WikiLeaks' publication of "Vault 7" materials from the CIA was hugely embarrassing. Even though the CIA had increased spying operations against WikiLeaks, they still were surprised the media organization obtained a trove of the agency's extremely sensitive files.

CIA director Mike Pompeo was afraid President Donald Trump would learn about the "Vault 7" materials and think less of him. "Don’t tell him, he doesn’t need to know."

But it was too important. Trump had to be informed.

The CIA was already engaged in ramped up operations against Assange and WikiLeaks because the media organization assisted NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

We learn that US intelligence officials lobbied the White House under Obama to redefine WikiLeaks—and high-profile journalists like Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras—as "information brokers." This could help CIA argue they were "agents of a foreign power" and valid targets.

"More than 30 former U.S. officials — eight of whom described details of the CIA’s proposals to abduct Assange," were sources for the report.

One of these officials professes to lobbying for a redefinition of journalists—a clear attack on principles of press freedom.

Pompeo and the CIA seized on a "carveout" to authorize operations against Assange and WikiLeaks over "Vault 7" publication.

They'd treat WikiLeaks as a spy service and anything conducted would be "offensive counterintelligence" activity.

Recall, CIA director Mike Pompeo's speech at CSIS, a Washington think tank, where he labeled WikiLeaks "a non-state hostile intelligence service."

That was all to fuel a climate for aggressive action targeted against Assange, WikiLeaks staff, and associates.

The CIA could not prove WikiLeaks was working at the behest of the Russian government. So rather than claim authority to target WikiLeaks that way officials sought to reframe the organization as a "hostile entity." Then it wouldn't matter that they weren't working for Russia.

Here is why I've said for the past couple of years the CIA was out to destroy WikiLeaks. The "hostile entity" designation allowed them to target the media organization for disruption.

This is a list of activities they believed they could engage in at any time:

The Yahoo! report appears to confirm Andy Müller-Maguhn, a former spokesman for Chaos Computer Club in Germany and friend of Assange, was targeted for disruption by the CIA.

He is a German citizen. A key question is whether German intelligence operatives were aware.

We can now say CIA Director Mike Pompeo wanted to kidnap WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Pompeo wanted to put him on a rendition flight to the United States.

The US intelligence operatives UC Global Director David Morales and others referenced worked at the highest levels.

Note key detail related to the proposal of kidnapping Assange. Pompeo was not raising a fresh and crazy idea.

"...the notion of kidnapping Assange preceded Pompeo's arrival at Langley..."

So under Obama there were meetings where kidnapping Assange was discussed.

President Donald Trump reportedly "spitballed" on whether the CIA could kill WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

And "agency executives requested and received 'sketches' of plans for killing Assange and other Europe-based WikiLeaks members with access to Vault 7 materials."

John Eisenberg, who was a top lawyer for the National Security Council under Trump, apparently opposed rendering Assange to US without criminal charges. He urged DOJ to accelerate drafting of charges and was concerned Pompeo was freezing out lawyers from Assange discussions.

British government agreed not to drop bail-jumping charge against Assange after Swedish investigation into sexual allegations was dropped in May 2017.

This bail-jumping charge helped keep him in Belmarsh during extradition hearing and after prevailed in district court.

At the conclusion of the report, it reads: "Spy services are increasingly using a WikiLeaks-like model of posting stolen materials online."

Trump administration gave the CIA "aggressive new secret authorities" for hack-and-dump operations.

For further context, this is the narrative around the CIA's war on WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, which I put together back in October 2019.

medium.com/discourse/the-…

To sum this all up: The Justice Department was afraid the CIA might kidnap or kill WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. They abandoned any hangup they had over "the New York Times problem" of charging a publisher and drafted an indictment.

I'll do a live broadcast on the new revelations confirming major details around the CIA's war on WikiLeaks at 3pm ET/8pm London Time.

Former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou will join me.

Full interview with former CIA officer and whistleblower @JohnKiriakou on the revelations around CIA plotting to destroy WikiLeaks and kidnap/kill Julian Assange

https://twitter.com/kgosztola/status/1442203558334525443

To keep up on latest on Assange and WikiLeaks, subscribe to The Dissenter Newsletter (thedissenter.org).

I'll be covering the US appeal hearing in the extradition case on October 27-28.

Sign up: thedissenter.org/#/portal/signup

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Kevin Gosztola

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