The head of the NSA today reacted to a question about WikiLeaks by saying there was a clear effort by a nation––a nation he did not name––to achieve a specific goal with the document dumps over the past few months.

NSA Director Michael Rogers spoke at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council today and was asked about WikiLeaks’ actions during the 2016 election.

And, well, he did not mince words:

"A conscious effort by a nation-state to attempt to achieve a specific effect" NSA chief on WikiLeaks https://t.co/kvmrTyVE30 #WSJCEOCouncil pic.twitter.com/AT2pxK2ROR — Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) November 15, 2016

“There shouldn’t be any doubt in anybody’s mind. This was not something that was done casually. This was not something that was done by chance. This was not a target that was selected purely arbitrarily. This was a conscious effort by a nation-state to attempt to achieve a specific effect.”

Now, he didn’t say Russia, but considering the conventional intelligence community wisdom, it was very much implied.

On election day last week, Julian Assange himself released a lengthy statement in which he said, “The Clinton campaign, when they were not spreading obvious untruths, pointed to unnamed sources or to speculative and vague statements from the intelligence community to suggest a nefarious allegiance with Russia. The campaign was unable to invoke evidence about our publications—because none exists.”

Watch Rogers above, via WSJ.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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