integrity. despite assange and his ilk, the cia continues to aggressively collect foreign intelligence overseas. we should note, a senior intelligence official confirmed to nbc news that the more than 8,000 documents posted by wikileaks include authentic material about cia hacking methods. some of it is classified and top secret. for more now, i want to bring in nbc news pentagon correspondent hans nichols and jeremy bash, former senior of staff at the cia and department of defense and a contributor here. thanks for being with us. hans, let me start with you. what are we hearing from administration officials about this claim from assange that the cia has lost control of its arsenal? there s very little confirmation, kate. very little denial. you heard that in the cia statement. that seems to be true at the pentagon as well. i think there s a distinction that needs to be made, though. when assange is talking about an arsenal, that implies offense. most of the cyber offensive capabilit
julian assange hacking methods. assange says it does not the. the stories in the press, do they revelations shed light on what is possible in this regard, has the cia does that, this material does not comment on whether or not it has done it to president trump. he should have told the american public that the documents were leaked. it s interesting who was told and when. did it tell barack obama. did he conceal that during the election after the election. does was president trump
that was julian assange making an explosive charge today against the cia, accusing the spy agency of historic incompetence. assange speaking about wikileaks recent release of thousands of cia hacking methods. what do we do now and what questions remain? first, the biggest question, who do it? was it a disgruntled agency employee? could it be a contractor? like an edward snowden. or was it russian hackers once again meddling in u.s. affairs? two u.s. intelligence officials tell nbc news they, right now, are the major focus, or option d, all of the above? what was leaked? the first batch was 8,000 documents of alleged cia hacking methods but wikileaks says only 1% of what they hacked was of that. some of the information is classified as top secret. lastly, what does it all mean? it showed terrorists and other adversaries how the cia does
wikileaks editor is a fugitive, said the cia had lost control of of the majority of its hacking arsenal. this is the worst security breach since edward snowden. he was a contractor for the nsa, which traditionally the agency past with this type of packing. the cia s mandate is to perfume intelligence. it didn t disclose all of the nsa s tools, which would have been far far more than the cia s four who this is sort of a secondary mission. these leaks come at a time when president trump had been critical of leaks inside the intelligence services. among other disclosures, some cia hacking methods were perpetrated by other countries. it is not a surprise at the cia has the capability, but the scarab it is the big surprise.