The January 6 pipe bomber report
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John Kiriakou opened a broadcast by asking for five minutes on a story he said had gone almost entirely unnoticed, one he had posted to Facebook two days earlier and which, as far as he could tell, "literally nobody else has picked up."

The report

The Blaze, he said, was reporting that the FBI had zeroed in on the January 6 pipe bomber, "that person seen in security footage placing pipe bombs in front of the RNC and the DNC."

The identification he relayed has two features that made it newsworthy to him. The person is "a female Capitol police officer, now former Capitol police officer," and she "had been on rotation to the CIA doing physical security."

The method of identification was gait. She had been injured in college sports and so has a limp, and investigators were "able to deduce from her limp" that she was the bomber.

The caveats

Kiriakou was careful about the status of the claim, and said the outlet had been careful too. "The Blaze was very clear that this woman has not been charged with a crime. She has not had this case turned over to a grand jury for indictment." What investigators had done was use the technology to determine that it is likely her, and "they put that likelihood at 94%."

The precision drew comment from Ted Rall, and Kiriakou agreed it was precise, attributing it to computation: "I think they did it, you know, using computers."

The only corroboration he offered was observational. When The Blaze sent a reporter to look at the woman's house, "they saw immediately that the house is under surveillance, and that surveillance is likely the FBI."

The questions

Asked why it would matter, Kiriakou did not answer with a theory but with a list of open questions. If it is true that it was her, "did she do it on behalf of the CIA, or did the CIA know she was doing it even if she was acting independently?" Was it "some kind of a task from the Capitol police"? Was she "a rogue that had infiltrated the Capitol police and then asked for a CIA transfer"?

His summary was an admission of ignorance: "Who was doing what in this situation? We don't know anything." He then reached for the standard newspaper hedge and named it as one, the report "does, in the weasel words of newspapers, raise questions, doesn't it?"

Kiriakou flagged it as "a story to watch" rather than a conclusion, and the broadcast moved on to the government shutdown.

See also

- Central Intelligence Agency
- Ted Rall
- John Kiriakou
