Somebody leaked CIA secrets. Why?

WASHINGTON — It’s not just who did it, but why.

WikiLeaks’ release of nearly 8,000 documents that purportedly reveal secrets about the CIA’s tools for breaking into targeted computers, cellphones and even smart TVs has given rise to multiple theories about who stole the documents and for what reason.

Perhaps it was a U.S. spy or contractor who felt jilted. Maybe the CIA was exposed by a foreign country that wanted to embarrass U.S. intelligence. Could it have been a CIA insider worried about Americans’ privacy rights?

Some possible motives behind the disclosure:

FROM THE SOURCE

In a statement released with the documents, the anti-secrecy group launched by Julian Assange in 2006 said the source told the organization that there are policy questions in urgent need of public debate. Among them were “whether the CIA’s hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers” and the “problem of public oversight of the agency.”

Robert Chesney, a national security law expert from the University of Texas School of Law, said WikiLeaks could have put the material online to damage the reputation of U.S. intelligence agencies.

“Julian Assange is in the business of trying to reduce American power. That’s just fact,” he said.

Assange said during an online news conference Thursday that it was “not true” that WikiLeaks was focused on the United States. He cited recent publications dealing with Germany and Turkey and numerous references to Russia and China.

“People raise this for distracting reasons, to try to question the messenger because the content itself is so powerful,” he said.

JILTED CONTRACTOR

Spies go rogue for many reasons: money, a quest for fame, ego, they are coerced or compromised.

WikiLeaks said the material came from an “isolated high-security network” inside the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence. The group said the material “appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner” and that one of them gave WikiLeaks part of this cache.

Traditionally, money has been a key motive. But Frank Cilluffo, who directs the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University, thinks leakers might leak for different reasons today. “If they were doing it to make money, why would they go to WikiLeaks?” he asked.

FOREIGN MEDDLER

It’s not impossible to imagine an insider walking out of the CIA with the data, said Bob Ayers, a retired U.S. intelligence officer currently working as an international security analyst based in England.

But Ayers, who appeared opposite Assange in a debate over whistleblowers in London several years ago, said his instincts are that a foreign country is involved. “I think the Russians are behind it, I really do,” he said.

James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, also suspects a sleight of hand by the Kremlin, which he said has used WikiLeaks in the past.