CIA Director Mike Pompeo a no-show for scheduled Harvard talk, same day top official resigns over Manning hire

CIA Director Mike Pompeo was a no-show for a scheduled appearance Thursday at Harvard University — the same day a former top CIA official abruptly resigned as a senior fellow over the school’s decision to hire Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of leaking classified information.

In a letter published on Twitter, Pompeo confirmed he was cancelling his appearance at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum to protest Manning’s new position as a visiting fellow at the school’s Institute of Politics.

Pompeo, who called Manning a “traitor of the United States”, wrote, “However, after much deliberation….my conscience and duty to the men and women of the Central Intelligence Agency will not permit me to betray their trust by appearing to support Harvard’s decision [to hire Manning] with my appearance at tonight’s event.”

Minutes after the event was scheduled to begin, Douglas Elmendorf, dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, took the stage and told the audience Pompeo was not there and would not speak.

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“We will try to reschedule it as soon as we can, but the CIA director, is obviously, in charge of his schedule,” Elmendorf said. “We are not in charge of his schedule and he gets to decide when and where he speaks, of course.”

Earlier in the day, Mike Morell, former deputy director and acting director of the CIA, resigned as a senior fellow at Harvard in a resignation letter to Elmendorf.

Morell said he was resigning immediately over the school’s decision to invite Manning, explaining that he could not be part of an organization that “honors a convicted felon and leaker of classified information.”

“Manning was found guilty of 17 serious crimes, including six counts of espionage, for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, an entity that CIA Director Mike Pompeo says operates like an adversarial foreign intelligence organization,” said Morell, who was a non-resident senior fellow at Harvard.

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Pompeo also expressed his support for Morrell’s decision on Thursday, writing, “I am saddened, however, at Harvard’s loss. You have traded a respected individual who served his country with dignity for one who served it with disgrace and who violated the warrier ethos she promised to uphold when she voluntarily chose to join the United States Army.”

Manning shared Morrell’s resignation letter on Twitter and wrote, “good” adding winky face, rainbow and heart emojis behind her pithy response along with the hashtag #WeGotThis.

She also called for the abolishment of the CIA in an earlier tweet, and appeared to relish in the controversy, writing, “making very bad people very mad”.

The 29-year-old transgender woman, formerly known as Bradley Manning, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” in a recent interview that she was prompted to give the 700,000 military and State Department documents to WikiLeaks because of the human toll of the “death, destruction and mayhem” she saw as an Army intelligence analyst in Iraq. She told ABC that she has “accepted responsibility” for her actions.

Manning was released from a military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on May 17 after serving seven years of a 35-year sentence, which was commuted by former President Barack Obama in his final days in office. Obama said in January he felt justice had been served.

Harvard also invited former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

Harvard says Manning will be among fellows who will visit the campus for a “limited” number of events meant to spark campus discussion.

With News Wire Services

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