Espionage

'We're back in the business of stealing secrets': CIA director trashes Obama legacy and says Trump has ordered agency to be 'more aggressive'

CIA Director Mike Pompeo touted a 'more aggressive' Central Intelligence Agency at a session at CIA headquarters Tuesday night, using coded language to throw some shade at his predecessor.  

'We are back in the business of stealing secrets,' Pompeo boasted.  

Pompeo's comments, made to a small group of reporters and reported by Politico, came the same day as John Brennan, who served as CIA chief under President Obama, testified before Congress.

It was Brennan who said on National Public Radio in March of 2016 that the U.S. doesn't 'steal secrets.' 

'We uncover. We discover. We reveal. We obtain. We elicit. We solicit – all of that,' he said back then. 

Former CIA officers found Brennan's comments laughable. 

'Is he joking?' ex-spy John Sipher wrote in a column for his website, the Cipher Brief, according to NBC News. 

Sipher and other former CIA officials said stealing secrets is 'job one' overseas.