On Wednesday afternoon, one day after the release of over 8,000 pages of documents revealing the extensive hacking infrastructure established by the CIA to allow it to penetrate the privacy of virtually any US citizen, the CIA's Dean Boyd, Director at the office of public affairs, issued a statement in response to what Wikileaks has dubbed the biggest publication of confidential CIA material in history. In short, while the CIA does not deny that the documents are authentic, it defends itself by saying that its "mission is to aggressively collect foreign intelligence overseas to protect America from terrorists, hostile nation states and other adversaries. It is CIA's job to be innovative, cutting-edge, and the first line of defense in protecting this country from enemies abroad. America deserves nothing less."

It also adds that "that CIA is legally prohibited from conducting electronic surveillance targeting individuals here at home, including our fellow Americans, and CIA does not do so." Of course, the NSA said the same thing, most famously when James Clapper came to Congress, only for it to be revealed afterward that he lied. This time will probably not be any different.

It concludes by saying that "the American public should be deeply troubled by any Wikileaks disclosure designed to damage the Intelligence Community's ability to protect America against terrorists and other adversaries."

The irony in that statement hardly needs any commentary.

Full statement below:

We have no comment on the authenticity of purported intelligence documents released by Wikileaks or on the status of any investigation into the source of the documents. However, there are several critical points we would like to make: CIA's mission is to aggressively collect foreign intelligence overseas to protect America from terrorists, hostile nation states and other adversaries. It is CIA's job to be innovative, cutting-edge, and the first line of defense in protecting this country from enemies abroad. America deserves nothing less. It is also important to note that CIA is legally prohibited from conducting electronic surveillance targeting individuals here at home, including our fellow Americans, and CIA does not do so. CIA's activities are subject to rigorous oversight to ensure that they comply fully with U.S. law and the Constitution. The American public should be deeply troubled by any Wikileaks disclosure designed to damage the Intelligence Community's ability to protect America against terrorists and other adversaries. Such disclosures not only jeopardize US personnel and operations, but also equip our adversaries with tools and information to do us harm. Dean Boyd

Director, CIA Office of Public Affairs





As an aside, here is a comparison of the Samsung SmartTV privacy policy compared to the text of "1984"

Left: Samsung SmartTV privacy policy, warning users not to discuss personal info in front of their TV.



Right: 1984#Vault7 pic.twitter.com/1a7HKBtczP — wake up (@WakeUpMFers) March 8, 2017



And as a further aside, here - courtesy of Wikileaks - is a reminder what the CIA does with its hacking capacity: "Hacks Senators to remove reports on CIA torture", or as the CIA would call it, "protect America against terrorists and other adversaries."