Ret. Col. Cedric Leighton warned on Friday that billionaire Elon Musk represents a "potential counterintelligence risk" given his deep business ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
During an interview about reported plans to give Musk a briefing about top-secret plans for war with China, Leighton said it was "very unusual" for someone in Musk's position to be given a briefing on such information.
"It certainly does happen that CEOs of defense contractors do come to the Pentagon, but they never get briefings that would involve war planning in minute detail," he said. "They don't get access to those kinds of things unless it directly pertains to something that they're building for the Pentagon. And it's very rare for someone like that to come in, and especially given his status now."
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Leighton then explained why he was worried about Musk having such sensitive information.
"Yes, he he is potentially a counterintelligence risk," he said. "And that doesn't mean that he is going to deliberately provide information to the other side, although that would be the quintessential counterintelligence risk. But he has a lot of dealings, especially with China. But he's also had some dealings with Russia. He, you know, has a global business. And quite frankly, the more you know about certain things, the easier it is sometimes to, you know, buttonhole somebody like that and get information from them."
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