WikiLeaks publishes CIA director’s e-mails

WASHINGTON: The WikiLeaks organization posted material from what appears to be CIA Director John Brennan’s personal e-mail account, including a draft security clearance application containing personal information.
The material presumably was taken in a compromise of Brennan’s e-mail 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.
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 e-mail 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.