John Kiriakou

How The CIA Destroys Its Own

March 30, 2024 Robert Scheer, Scheer Post. Resistance Report CIA, John Kiriakou, Surveillance, Whistleblowers, Worker Rights

In light of recent developments in the Julian Assange extradition case, former CIA officer John Kiriakou joins host Robert Scheer on this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast, to delve deeper into the contradictions within the United States government and intelligence agencies regarding the disclosure of classified information and the veil of secrecy they maintain. As highlighted in earlier episodes, John Kiriakou’s role as the whistleblower who exposed the U.S. torture program vividly illustrates the consequences of airing the government’s dirty laundry—it unleashes its full might upon you.

Is The Intercept A Deep State Success Story?

October 8, 2023 Diego Ramos and Max Jones, Scheer Post. Resistance Report Edward Snowden, John Kiriakou, Propaganda, The Intercept

Max Jones and Diego Ramos welcome former CIA analyst and torture program whistleblower John Kiriakou. After bringing a much needed reminder of the history of the torture program following the latest 9/11 anniversary on the Scheer Intelligence podcast, we wanted to ask John about the state of the media’s relationship with whistleblowers and taking the case of the Intercept’s controversial handling of multiple whistleblower accounts as a shining example of the eroding ethics and competence of journalism in the US. John takes us through his personal history with the media, shedding his wisdom on where we’re at in the grasp of the national security state.

The Chris Hedges Report: John Kiriakou, We Don’t Need The CIA

August 13, 2022 Chris Hedges, The Real News Network. Resistance Report Accountability, Chris Hedges, CIA, John Kiriakou

The CIA, from its inception, carried out assassinations, coups, torture, and illegal spying and abuse, including of US citizens, many of which were exposed in 1975 by the Church Committee in the Senate and the Pike Committee in the House. Congress attempted to enact laws to curb the widespread criminal activity by the CIA. Senate and House intelligence oversight committees were created, and after the Iran-Contra scandal a statutory Inspector General at the CIA was appointed. But this oversight has largely collapsed following the attacks of 9/11 and the so-called war on terror. The activities of the CIA have once again reverted to the shadows. The CIA, at the same time, has transformed itself into a paramilitary organization, with its own armed units and drone program.

John Kiriakou: ‘I Work For Sputnik News’

March 10, 2022 John Kiriakou, Consortium News. Educate! John Kiriakou, Journalism, Media, Russia

Torture, whistleblowing, extraordinary rendition, secret prisons, solitary confinement and corruption in the justice system. Those are Kiriakou’s subjects and he is happy to talk about them anywhere. I work for Sputnik News. There. I said it. I’m not embarrassed or ashamed. I’m also not a Russian propagandist, despite what you may have read in the “mainstream” media. Sputnik approached me in 2017 and offered me a job as a radio talk show host. I turned them down. Friends told me that it would be a mistake working for the Russian Bear. They said that I would attract attention from the government, maybe even the FBI. Did I really want to do that? About eight months passed, and Sputnik offered me a job again.

Scheer Intelligence: A Traitor To Torture

September 10, 2021 Robert Scheer, ScheerPost.com. Educate! CIA, John Kiriakou, Torture

Once upon a time, a keystone of American exceptionalism was the claim of a moral high ground when it came to how our forces operated abroad, in war or peace, especially when it came to the use of torture, that hallmark of enemies we stamped as evil, primitive and sadistic. The ends were not supposed to justify the means, lest we be no better than our rivals and predecessors. Yet, within months of the 9/11 attacks, frustration with the interrogation of a single alleged enemy agent led to the creation of a sprawling, global CIA-run torture program using violence, sleep deprivation and isolation on more than 100 men. While the program was eventually outlawed and deemed a massive strategic and moral failure, nobody was held legally accountable — except, in a terrible irony, a whistleblower who risked everything to expose it.

People For Bernie Kicks US Whistle Blower Off Panel

November 12, 2017 Staff, www.rt.com Educate! Bernie Sanders, CIA, John Kiriakou, People For Bernie

By Staff for RT. John Kiriakou, a former CIA counterterrorism officer, has told RT that he was kicked off a panel at the European Parliament because a fellow panelist objected to his association with Russia as a Sputnik Radio host. Kiriakou, who spent two-and-a-half years in jail for exposing the CIA’s torture program in 2007, was invited to address the European Parliament on national security whistleblowing Wednesday. However, he was bounced from the panel at the last minute, because one of the other panelists objected to his presence. Kiriakou told RT he “thought it was a joke” when Winnie Wong, co-founder of the progressive organization, People for Bernie, refused to appear on the panel with him, because “she didn’t want the appearance of Bernie Sanders appearing to endorse the Russian media.” “I laughed when she first said it because it was so ridiculous that I thought she was joking,” Kiriakou said. “Then she walked away, and one of the aides handed me an updated schedule, and my name then, was not associated with the first panel.”

Pardon Jeffrey Sterling, CIA Whistleblower

February 18, 2016 Reporters Without Borders, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! CIA, Jeffrey Sterling, John Kiriakou, Whistleblowers

By Reporters WIthout Borders. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) delivered yesterday with the wife of CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling a petition for his pardon to the White House. The petition has now gathered over 150,000 signatures. Sterling, a former C.I.A. operative and the latest victim in the Obama administration’s war on whistleblowers, was convicted in January 2015 of divulging classified information to New York Times journalist James Risen. Jeffrey Sterling was convicted under the Espionage Act for merely communicating with New York Times journalist James Risen. He’s now serving a 3.5-year prison sentence in a federal correctional facility in Colorado.

Imprisoned Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou Speaks About Torture & Prison

December 21, 2014 Natalia Megas, www.washingtonian.com Educate! CIA, Criminal Justice and Prisons, John Kiriakou, Political Prisoner, Torute

A jailhouse interview with the man whose disclosures prompted this week’s damning torture report. In 2007, 15-year CIA veteran John Kiriakou told an ABC News reporter that his agency had waterboarded an Al Qaeda detainee, Abu Zubaydah, whom Kiriakou was involved in capturing in 2002. His revelation confirmed to the American public the CIA’s torture program and helped spur a years-long Senate investigation and a damning, 6,000-page report, the abstract of which was released this week. Kiriakou pleaded guilty in 2012 to disclosing classified information, including the name of a fellow CIA operative, to a New York Times reporter. In early 2013, he reported to the a federal prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania, to begin serving a 30-month sentence. Kiriakou, along with supporters that include his congressman, Virginia Democrat Jim Moran, says the real point of his prosecution was to silence him and others from talking about torture. (Kiriakou case is the subject of the documentary Silenced, which screened last summer at AFI Docs.)

Daily movement news and resources