Thursday, October 22, 2015
Queen's University surveillance studies expert, David Murakami Wood, is available to comment on the release of the contents of CIA Director John Brennan's personal email account by WikiLeaks, following an alleged hack over the weekend. So far, emails released have included John Brennan`s application for national security clearance, memos relating to torture and the ongoing diplomatic challenges with Iran. Brennan became the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in March 2013, replacing General David Petraeus who was forced to step down after becoming embroiled in a classified information mishandling scandal.
"A lot of these recent stories, from the Snowden files onwards, should make us realise that even with the immense resources and technological capabilities of intelligence services, their employees at every level can still make the most basic mistakes," says Dr. Murakami Wood.
"David Petraeus, the predecessor of John Brennan, leaked classified documents to a woman with whom he was having an an affair. Now, we have the current CIA Director... even having an AOL account is pretty stupid for a man of his level of clearance, but actually using it for conducting discussions of issues of state... well, it's astonishingly stupid."
Dr. Murakami Wood is available for comment on Thursday, October 22.
To arrange an interview, please contact communications officer Chris Armes (613-533-6000 ext. 77513 or chris.armes@queensu.ca) or Anne Craig (613-533-2877 or anne.craig@queensu.ca) at Queen’s University News and Media Services Department in Kingston, Ont., Canada.
Follow Queen’s News and Media Services on Twitter: http://twitter.com/QueensuMedia.
Attention broadcasters: Queen’s has facilities to provide broadcast quality audio and video feeds. For television interviews, we can provide a live, real-time double ender from Kingston with HD-SDI. Please call for details.