ASPEN, Colo. \u2014 CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Thursday that Russia has no plans to leave Syria and will continue to try to meddle in U.S. affairs to \u201cstick it to America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He reiterated his belief that Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election and described the U.S.-Russia relationship as \u201ccomplicated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think they find anyplace that they can make our lives more difficult, I think they find that\u2019s something that\u2019s useful,\u201d he said<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pompeo also said he has seen only minimal evidence that Russia has pursued a serious strategy against Islamic State militants in Syria. He said any suggestion that Russia has been a U.S. ally in Syria is not borne out by what\u2019s happening on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Pompeo said he was hopeful there will be places in the world where the U.S. and Russia can cooperate on counterterrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said it\u2019s difficult to imagine a stable Syria with President Bashar Assad still in power. He called Assad a \u201cpuppet of the Iranians,\u201d who now have a \u201csignificant foothold in Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia will stay in Syria, he said, because it loves its naval port in Tartus, off the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CIA director spoke in a wide-ranging conversation at the Aspen Security Forum, an annual gathering of intelligence and national security officials and experts in Aspen, Colorado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the Trump administration is working on ways to push back against Iran, which wants to be a \u201ckingpin\u201d in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pompeo continued his criticism of the Obama administration\u2019s nuclear deal with Iran. The Trump administration recently confirmed that Iran had met its obligations under the deal but warned it would face consequences for breaching \u201cthe spirit\u201d of the accord \u2014 a reference to Iran\u2019s continued pursued of a ballistic missile program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to Iranian compliance with the agreement, Iran is a \u201cbad tenant,\u201d Pompeo said. He likened their compliance with a renter who doesn\u2019t pay rent until the landlord demands it and then sends a bad check. He noted that President Donald Trump has been working with Gulf states and Israel to find a common way to push back against Iranian aggression in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What won\u2019t work is appeasing Tehran or forcing them into compliance, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen we have our strategy in place, I\u2019m confident you will see a fundamental shift in policy\u201d toward Iran, Pompeo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pompeo also addressed the threat from North Korea and said Trump asks questions about Pyongyang nearly every time he sees him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is at the front of his mind,\u201d Pompeo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s one thing for North Korea to have a missile that can harm the United States and another for it to have an arsenal of such weapons, he said, adding that things can be done to narrow its capacity to develop a stockpile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While some people believe North Korea\u2019s leader is irrational, Pompeo said he is convinced Kim Jong Un understands his core mission \u2014 \u201cwhich is to keep himself in power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While he avoided saying the U.S. might favor a regime change, Pompeo said he\u2019s \u201chopeful that we will find a way to separate that regime\u201d from its nuclear capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe North Korea people \u2014 I\u2019m sure are lovely people \u2014 and would love to see him go as well. You know they don\u2019t live a very good life there,\u201d Pompeo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On another issue, Pompeo said he believes WikiLeaks will \u201ctake down America any way it can.\u201d He noted that the anti-secrecy group\u2019s website urges students to become CIA interns so they can become whistleblowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pompeo acknowledged that Donald Trump said during the presidential campaign that he loved WikiLeaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t love WikiLeaks,\u201d Pompeo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who leaked documents revealing extensive U.S. government surveillance, WikiLeaks has released nearly 8,000 documents that it says reveal secrets about the CIA\u2019s cyberespionage tools for breaking into computers. WikiLeaks previously published 250,000 State Department cables and embarrassed the U.S. military with hundreds of thousands of logs from Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CIA Director Mike Pompeo says that Russia has no plans to leave Syria and will continue to try to meddle in U.S. affairs to \u201cstick it to America.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":97594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[23,12,62],"tags":[],"coauthors":[948],"class_list":["post-60700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"ZLNWX7TEXFD7RER6I7LJO2BYTI","arc_canonical_url":"\/2017\/07\/21\/cia-director-moscow-loves-to-stick-it-to-america\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n