The WikiLeaks organization posted
material Wednesday from what appears to be CIA Director John Brennan's
personal email account, including a draft security clearance application
containing personal information.
Brennan was seeking a security clearance while
applying for a job as White House counterterrorism adviser. It was not
immediately clear whether any national security information was
compromised in the release of the clearance application, which includes
his wife's Social Security number and the names of people Brennan worked
with over a long prior career at the CIA.
A CIA statement called the hack into Brennan's personal email account a "crime."
"The Brennan family is the victim," the agency said in an unattributed statement, in keeping with agency policy. "This attack is something that could happen to anyone and should be condemned, not promoted. There is no indication that any the documents released thus far are classified. In fact, they appear to be documents that a private citizen with national security interests and expertise would be expected to possess."
The material
presumably was taken in a compromise of Brennan's email account by a
hacker who told The New York Post he is a high school student protesting
American foreign policy. The hacker claimed he posed as a Verizon
employee and tricked another employee into revealing Brennan's personal
information.
A CIA statement called the hack into Brennan's personal email account a "crime."
"The Brennan family is the victim," the agency said in an unattributed statement, in keeping with agency policy. "This attack is something that could happen to anyone and should be condemned, not promoted. There is no indication that any the documents released thus far are classified. In fact, they appear to be documents that a private citizen with national security interests and expertise would be expected to possess."
The
documents all date from before 2009, when Brennan joined the White
House staff; before that, he was working in the private sector. Aside
from the partially completed clearance application, none of the
documents appears to be sensitive.
In a section of his security
clearance application covering foreign contacts, Brennan writes that in
August 2007: "I have had lunch twice and dinner once with Alan Lovell, a
U.K. colleague with whom I worked closely during the last three years
of my government career. Alan is currently posted at the U.K. Embassy in
Washington."
The
documents include a partially written position paper on the future of
intelligence, a memo on Iran, a paper from a Republican lawmaker on CIA
interrogations and a summary of a contract dispute between the CIA and
Brennan's private company, the Analysis Corporation, which had filed a
formal protest after losing a contract dealing with terrorist watch
lists.
In a post-election
memo, purportedly written to Obama, Brennan laid out a pragmatic roadmap
on dealings with Iran. His suggestions are similar to the
carrot-and-stick approach the administration would eventually use in
nudging Tehran toward joining negotiations over slowing the momentum of
its growing nuclear reactor program.
"The
United States has no choice but to find ways to coexist — and to come
to terms — with whatever government holds power in Tehran," Brennan said
in the three-page memo. He added that Iran would have to "come to
terms" with the U.S. and that "Tehran's ability to advance its political
and economic interests rests on a non-hostile relationship with the
United States and the West." the memo, Brennan advised
Obama to "tone down" rhetoric with Iran, and swiped at former President
George W. Bush for his "gratuitous" labeling of Iran as part of a
worldwide "axis of evil." Brennan also said the U.S. should establish a
direct dialogue with Tehran and "seek realistic, measurable steps."
Although he didn't specifically call for the regime of financial
sanctions that the Obama administration, along with Europe, Russia and
China, pushed against Iran, Brennan told the president-elect to "hold
out meaningful carrots as well as sticks."
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