Title: S1E25 The Whistleblower
Show: John Kiriakou's Dead Drop
Date: 2026-04-27
URL: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69e7c21366c3374f7edf356d/media.mp3
Duration: 0:56:45

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[00:30] The FBI called me. They needed help, they said, with a case similar to one involving a Japanese diplomat who had tried to recruit me.

[01:00] So I went into their offices, happy to be of service. In fact, my exact words were, anything for the FBI. The conversation started amicably enough, talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers, people we knew, chit chat. Then the topic turned to my book, The Reluctant Spy, and the questions began to get more pointed, more hostile. I began to realize this wasn't a conversation. This was an interrogation. Neither the good cop, FBI agent, nor the bad cop giving me a death stare gave a rat's ass about any Japanese diplomats. No, I was their

[01:35] focus. And the fact that I had ratted out the CIA's torture program to Brian Ross at ABC News, that's what they cared about. When they finally told me out loud that I was the subject of their investigation, I was shocked, but not too shocked to say the one thing that saved my ass and kept them from arresting me right then and there. I said, I want to see my lawyer.

[02:05] I'm John Kiriakou. Welcome to Dead Drop. What makes a spy tick? This is another episode in our series, What Makes This Spy Tick? and it's the last episode in this part of my story. But not to worry, there's a lot more story to come. And lots more stories. Plural. But before we get to any of that, first, we want to say thank you. Thank you for listening and thank you for liking, rating, reviewing, and commenting on the podcast on whatever platform you listen to us. You're kindness has us rubbing elbows with some of the biggest history podcasts in the world. And we

[02:41] owe that honor to you. So thank you again. As I said, the only thing that kept the feds from locking me up that day was my demanding to see my lawyer. And I mean right now, you see, the FBI had a plan, but me demanding my rights and imagine that I demanded my rights. Well, it ruined their plan. The FBI specifically tries to make its arrests on Thursday in Washington because the federal courts in Washington don't do arraignments on Fridays. And so you spend Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night in the DC

[03:16] jail, which is known for its violence and for its terrible, decrepit conditions. And it softens you up a little bit. Maybe you'll get beaten up. You'll have your clothing stolen. It's just a nightmare in the DC jail. And thank God I said I want to see my attorney because they had to stop the interview right then and there. And I hadn't implicated myself in anything. In fact, when I stood up and walked to the door and opened the door, Peter Strock, who ended up becoming infamous later by making comments about Donald Trump and preventing Donald Trump

[03:52] from becoming president, Peter Strock was standing right there outside the door. And he says to one of the FBI agents who was interviewing me, tell me he implicated himself. And the agent said, not really, no. And he says he wants to leave. And Strock said, let him leave. I called my attorney as soon as I got outside the building, he told me to come directly to the office. I was in a panic. He said, tell me what's happening. So I told him as best I could within that state of panic. And he said, okay,

[04:25] they're going to charge you under the US code 18.53 something. I don't remember the numbers. I said, what's the charge? He said, most likely it's espionage. I thought I was going to faint. So he said, listen, I'll call the FBI, you go home and try to relax. I called my wife, Catherine. As soon as she picked up the phone, she said the FBI is here. They're just ransacking the house. And I said, I think they're going to charge me with espionage. She said, what? Where are you?

[04:55] I'll pick you up. She sped over. And as soon as I got in the car, I burst into tears. I just couldn't believe this was happening. She was so level headed and so calm. She kept telling me, take it easy. You haven't done anything wrong. We're going to work through this. Don't worry. You're in good hands. Plato is the best lawyer in Washington. We got home and computers are all gone. They took her cell phone. They took my laptop. They took my mother's laptop. They took thumb drives.

[05:25] They even took, I had a great big binder of business cards. They took that. They took the calendar right off my desk. They just took everything. I felt very, very violated. She felt violated. These strangers were in our house ransacking the place. Our son at the time was three months old. One of the female FBI agents told her, why don't you just sit on the couch and spend some quality time with that beautiful baby? It was just so condescending and so mean spirited. She said, I prefer to stand. Thank you. They were in the house for a good five or six hours.

[06:00] They were just leaving as I was getting back. You say you take things one day at a time. I had to take them one hour at a time. I perceived the charges as trumped up. When Plato called the FBI, they told him that they were charging me with three counts of espionage. I hadn't committed espionage. It was absurd. They were charging me with making a false statement. We were never exactly sure what the false statement was supposed to have been. And they were charging me with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1981.

[06:34] They also threatened to charge me with obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence. Which was also absurd. I remember exactly what that was about. I was watching a baseball game one evening. My wife and kids were in Cincinnati visiting her family. I got an automated email from Apple saying that my disc was almost full and I needed to delete unnecessary programs or emails to free up space on the disc. So I deleted all the emails from the trash and

[07:05] all the emails from the sent folder. And they said that was obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence. And I said no, it was freeing up space on my hard drive. They threatened repeatedly to add two felony charges. And I said go ahead. And then I'll get on the stand and I'll say that I got an automated email from Apple telling me to delete emails because I needed space on my disc. And then they never added charges. One of the business cards that I had was for a former CIA colleague of mine

[07:37] who had resigned from the CIA and had gone to the private sector. Well, the private sector was the company owned by the two contract psychologists, Mitchell and Jessen, who were the creators of the torture program. This former colleague of mine had never, ever been undercover. In fact, on his LinkedIn page, it had his name and it said Central Intelligence Agency. And then I Google him just to make sure I wasn't crazy and seeing things. And here he's giving a speech at his alma mater as CIA targeting analyst and then his name.

[08:14] So this reporter for the New York Times and there was another one for ABC News besides Brian Ross, they asked me if I had contact information, this guy. And I said, I haven't talked to him in years, but I think I have his business card. And so I sent them his business card. And they charged me with two counts of espionage for sending the business card. Now, like I said, I hadn't committed espionage. They knew I hadn't committed espionage. And eventually, those charges were dropped. But one of the things that we found in the 15,000 pages of

[08:46] classified discovery was a memorandum from John Brennan, an old nemesis of mine, who had been the executive director of the CIA. And then under Barack Obama, the deputy national security advisor, and then CIA director, this memo was from Brennan to attorney general Eric Holder, saying, charge him with espionage. And then Holder wrote back, my people don't think he committed espionage. Brennan wrote back, charge him anyway and make him defend himself. The very

[09:16] definition of lawfare. And so they did. They charged me with three counts of espionage. Now, mind you, espionage is frequently a death penalty case. They didn't charge me with the death penalty version of it. Subparagraph D, I think is the death penalty version. I was subparagraph B. But each one of these charges carried 10 years in prison. And then another 10 years for the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and five years for making the false statement. And indeed, the Justice Department's first offer to me was a guilty plea under the espionage act.

[09:49] And I do 45 years. I told them I'm not doing 45 minutes. I'm going to fight. Of these 15,000 classified pages, we pulled out something like 150 that were relevant to my defense. We made 150 separate motions to have them declassified so that I could defend myself. We blocked off three days in court for the judge to hear all 150 motions. When we walked into the courtroom, she said,

[10:20] let me make this easy for everybody. I'm going to deny all 150 motions. I'm not declassifying anything. She looks at me and she says, Mr. Kiriakou, either you did it or you didn't do it. I think you did it. And she wrapped her gavel and we started walking out. I said to one of the attorneys, Bob Trout, what just happened? We just lost the case. That's what happened. What do we do now? He said, now we talk about a plea. And I knew I was screwed. The one issue that

[10:50] they had was a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1981. The IIPA was used only once in American history against a woman named Sharon Scranage in the 1980s. Sharon Scranage was a secretary in the CIA station in Ghana. She was having an affair with a Ghanaian intelligence officer. In the course of Pillow Talk, she gave him the names of all of the CIA case officers in the country, all of whom were expelled, and all of the recruited sources,

[11:27] most of whom were killed. And she got nine months in prison, nine months in prison. So they charged me, only the second person in American history, with violating the IIPA. So how did I violate the IIPA? Matthew Cole, who was briefly that journalist from ABC News before being fired, Matthew Cole emailed me and said, my name is Matthew Cole. I work for ABC News, but I'm not doing this for ABC News. I'm writing a book on the Abu Omar rendition.

[12:00] Abu Omar was an Egyptian cleric in Milan, Italy. The CIA kidnapped him and flew him to Egypt. In Egypt, he was tortured mercilessly. And it turned out he was innocent. He was just the wrong guy. And so the Egyptians let him go. The Italians were embarrassed. We had asked them to help us kidnap this guy. They said, no, and you better not do it. And we did it anyway. So they went back and they found all the CIA people. They found all their aliases. They were able to trace the aliases back to their actual names. A whole bunch of arrest warrants were issued.

[12:33] Everybody had to leave. It was a disaster for the CIA. So he said he was writing a book on the Abu Omar rendition, sent me a mock up of the cover. And he said, here are 12 names. Do you know any of these people? Could you introduce me to any of them so I can interview them for my book? I said, I don't know any of these 12 people. And then he sent me a second email with 12 more names. Do you know any of these people? And I said, I don't know any of these people either. You know this so much better than I do. All I know about Abu Omar is what I've read

[13:04] in the Washington Post. Kidnapping was not my thing at the agency. I don't know anything about the Abu Omar rendition. And then he said, what about the guy that you mentioned on page, blah, blah, blah, of your first book? So finally he emails me and he says, what about this guy that you mentioned on page XXX? I think his name is John. And I said, oh, you're talking about John Doe. I don't know whatever happened to him. He's probably retired and living somewhere in Virginia. But I uttered his last name. That was a violation of the Intelligence

[13:37] Identities Protection Act. But I did not have mens rea when I said it mens rea meaning I did not have criminal intent. I wasn't trying to out him. I just confirmed the last name. That was all they needed. When we went to court, my attorneys argued that I did not have mens rea. There was no criminal intent. And the name was never made public. The judge said, I'm not recognizing precedent in the IIPA. There have been other people who have confirmed

[14:11] names. David Petraeus did it. Leon Panetta did it. And none of them were ever charged with any crime. One of my attorneys said, Your Honor, are you saying that a person can accidentally commit espionage? That's exactly what I'm saying. The judge was a Ronald Reagan appointee by the name of Leonie Brinkema. She's a hanging judge. Everybody said it. Everybody knew it. And, you know, it's funny moving forward quickly. I was sitting in court on the day of my

[14:41] sentencing. And because I was such a high profile case, I went last. She sentenced a good 20 or 25 people before she sentenced me. And she was issuing some draconian sentences 20, 30, 50 years, mostly for drugs. After each sentence, she would say that sentence is fair and appropriate. After each one of them, they were draconian. She was breaking up families in court, children are crying, women are crying, half of the prisoners are standing there in chains and

[15:14] they're crying. And she's saying that sentence is fair and appropriate. And I remember thinking, this woman's a monster, a monster. She also had a bad habit of reserving all national security cases for herself. So she did Zacharias Mosawi, the 20th hijacker. She reserved Ed Snowden for herself. She reserved Julian Assange for herself. Any national security case, where she could get her name in the paper, she took, including mine. She even did Daniel Hale.

[15:46] She did Daniel Hale and she did the CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling. Daniel Hale being the drone whistleblower and Jeffrey Sterling being the whistleblower on race discrimination at the CIA. She sent all of us to prison, all of us. The real shame of all this is there was no book. Matthew Cole wasn't writing a book. He was secretly working for the John Adams project. The John Adams project on its face had a goal of strong legal representation for the Guantanamo

[16:17] detainees. They all had military attorneys as well as civilian attorneys. The John Adams project was one of the most fucked up human rights projects I've ever encountered in my life. This was a bunch of people who meant well, apparently, and then broke the law and ruined lives in order to achieve their goals. I agree everybody should have legal representation, including the Guantanamo detainees. But why do I have to get thrown under the bus so that they get their day in court? Why am I lied to? Why am I tricked so that these

[16:49] guys, these terrorists and murderers can get their day in court? What the John Adams project did was they were working with Human Rights Watch. They hired investigators to try to identify CIA torturers. Someone had said that the man that I referred to in my first book was one of the torturers. He was not one of the torturers. He was on the rendition flight. He was on the crew of the rendition flight, but he was not a torturer. I never said he was a torturer. They were looking to identify him, which they did because I confirmed his surname.

[17:22] Matthew Cole gave the name to an investigator for Human Rights Watch. The investigator, his name was John Sifton, then gave the name to the Guantanamo defense attorneys. And the defense attorneys asked the judge in a classified motion to allow them to depose this person. The judge immediately realized that the name was classified and called the FBI. The FBI went to the lawyers. Where'd you get the name? They said we got it from Human Rights Watch.

[17:53] They went to Human Rights Watch. Where'd you get the name? John Sifton gave it to us. They went to Sifton. Where'd you get the name? Matthew Cole gave it to us. And then went to Matthew Cole. Where'd you get the name? John Kiriakou gave it to me. And so the story of my arrest began. Matthew Cole ratted me out to the FBI. After Matthew Cole was the one who set me up to get the name. Because he was implicated in my case, he was fired from ABC News. He briefly went to the intercept where he almost immediately outed

[18:24] at least two other whistleblowers and then left the intercept. I even tweeted at one point. I tweeted at the intercept after he disclosed the identity of reality winner from NSA and Terry Albury from the FBI and also Daniel Hale from the US Air Force. I tweeted at the intercept and I said, hey intercept, serious question. You guys are just an FBI front organization, right? Because everybody who offers you information ends up in prison with felony national security

[18:54] charges. It's because you're really FBI agents, right? Right? They never bothered to respond. The Justice Department held steady at 45 years. They offered me 45 years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea to an espionage charge. And this horrible, horrible woman who later became the assistant attorney general for the criminal division said to me in that proffer meeting, take a guilty plea, Mr. Kiriakou, and you might live to meet your grandchildren. I just sat there and stared at her. Another monster in this process.

[19:27] They held steady for almost 10 months at 45 years. And then on a Monday, they offered me 10 years. I said no. On Wednesday, they offered me eight years. And I said no. And on Friday, they offered me five years. I said no. Plato Kicharis, who was the lead attorney coming out of that meeting, said to me, I've been a criminal defense attorney in this city for 52 years. And I've never seen them come down in time. Usually they offer you 10. You say no. The next offers 15.

[19:58] Then the next offers 20. They never come down. So why do you think they're coming down now? Because they have a shit case and they know it's shit. And that's why we're going to trial. And that was the first time I felt hopeful. I knew it was a shit case. I knew I hadn't done anything wrong. And I knew this was about my whistleblowing. So I hunkered down. We're going to trial. And we started rehearsing my testimony. What my attorneys did was to threaten something called gray mail. It's not quite blackmail. They went to the justice department and they said,

[20:30] look, we're going to go to trial. He's going to testify on his own behalf. And he might accidentally say something about the hideous crimes against humanity and war crimes that he's witnessed in 15 years at the CIA. And he might accidentally implicate a lot of people, including some household names. So how do you want to work this? They came back three and a half. He said, I'm not doing it. Best in final offer. Two and a half. You do 23 months. Now that's a far cry from 45 years in

[21:00] prison. Catherine and I stayed up all night, the night before, doing as much final research as we possibly could. Because that was only the second person ever to be charged with the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. There was no case law. Sharon's Greenwich had taken a plea. And again, her plea was nine months. What we did find was two Harvard Law Review articles, both of which said this law is unconstitutional and it should never have been passed. It's a

[21:31] violation of the First Amendment. DOJ needs an answer by noon or we go to trial. At six o'clock that morning, I emailed the attorneys. Catherine and I have been up all night. I decided to turn down the offer. I'm going to trial. I should add that same week I went bankrupt under the weight of $1,150,000 in legal fees. As soon as I went bankrupt, they dropped the three espionage charges and the false statement charge. Just drop them. Summertime and the living

[22:05] is easy. Am I right, John? That is one of the best parts of Summer Allen. Living really does feel easier. You're about to travel. Good thing you've got a couple of quints pieces going with you. They are as relaxed and comfortable as I want to feel. That's why, whether I'm traveling or staying at home, I reach for the same quints, go anywhere pieces again and again. Quints focuses on well-made essentials. They're the t-shirt I reach for first every time. In all seriousness, I just bought another one today. They're my favorite t-shirts too. When the ocean breeze kicks in at

[22:37] night, as it does here in LA, a quince lightweight cotton sweater is sublime. Perfect for travel too, which these days has all kinds of new challenges that impact how you pack. Versatility really matters. You got to pack smart like a spy. That's why a pair of quince's 100% European linen pants and a couple of linen shirts are coming with me. They're breathable and easy to throw on. Sometimes I add a t-shirt underneath for a whole other look. They're the summer upgrade anyone's rotation needs. Starting at just $34. That's not a typo. No, it's not. Everything

[30:09] watch TV. I can't sleep. I'm so upset so depressed I just can't sleep. I was going to go down into the garage and turn on the car and just lay across the backseat and I think she suspected that that's what I was gonna do and so she said no I insist. Come up to bed and even if you just lay there just lay there and so I went up to bed didn't sleep a wink. Dr. Post called me when my arrest was announced and he said come up and see me the next morning Saturday morning. Dr. Post was the grad school advisor who recruited me into the CIA. I dragged an entire caravan of FBI

[30:43] agents in four cars behind me to his office. He gave me a couple of ambient. He would only give me a prescription for three. I said I'm not gonna kill myself I promise. He said yeah I don't trust you. You're getting three. Make good use of them. And so I filled my prescription for three ambient. It was the only sleep I could get. The next day there was an article on the front page of the Washington Post about my case. There was an attorney quoted in the article Jaisalyn Radak who headed

[31:13] the national security division of a whistleblower group called the government accountability project. A friend of mine called me about six o'clock in the morning and said check out today's post there's an article about you but there's a woman quoted and she's really complimentary of you. You should call her. I called the office number at like it had to be 6 30 in the morning and she answered the phone. Hi Jaisalyn you don't know me but my name is John Kiriakou. Oh thank god you called. Please come into the office and I said oh thank god I need a friendly

[31:45] ear. I went into the office. I sat with her for two hours with her and with her assistant Kathleen McClelland two fantastic attorneys. Jaisalyn used to be the head of ethics at the justice department. She was driven out because she was a whistleblower in the John Walker Linde case the American Taliban. She told the FBI when they captured him read him his Miranda rights and they never ran him his Miranda rights and then he confessed to everything and they couldn't use it in court. They wanted to charge him with a death penalty case. He ended up doing I think

[32:17] it was what 20 years 15 years something like that 17 I don't remember but then they forced Jaisalyn out they tried to revoke her law license they put her on the no fly list and her career never recovered. So she went to the government accountability project for no money just to help other national security whistleblowers. On the way out of that meeting I was there for about two or three hours on the way out I said listen I want to thank you for taking my case I know that you only represent whistleblowers and I'm not a whistleblower. She said oh you're the

[32:49] poster boy for whistleblowers. No I'm just a guy who said something. She said let me tell you a couple of important things. Number one the reason for your whistleblowing is irrelevant. All that's relevant is that you blew the whistle. There's a legal definition of whistleblowing. It is bringing to light any evidence of waste fraud abuse illegality or threats to the public health or public safety. She said your picture is in the dictionary next to the word whistleblower. I couldn't thank her enough. Now she's not a courtroom attorney in this context. I had these

[33:24] legal titans behind me. Her job was to reach out to the media. Now this was critically important because the Justice Department was leaking like a sieve to make me look like the worst criminal since the Rosenbergs. Every time the Justice Department would say he put American lives in danger. Jestlin would say oh no he didn't and she would give my side of the story and then little by little the media started to turn around and come to my side of the issue. MSNBC always called

[33:59] me CIA leaker John Kiriakou. Always because MSNBC was the Obama network and it was the Obama administration that charged me. Fox News always called me CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou. CNN switched from leaker to whistleblower thanks to Christian Amanpour. She's the one who said wait a minute, wait a minute this guy's not a leaker. He exposed an illegality that makes him a whistleblower and so the whole network changed and began to call me CIA torture whistleblower John Kiriakou.

[34:32] That was thanks to Jestlin all of it and then funny enough there was another attorney named Jonathan Weiner. Jonathan and I met in Indonesia in 2008 where we were both hired to work on a political campaign as consultants. Jonathan was John Kiri's personal attorney so when I went to the hill to work for Kiri I would run into Jonathan all the time and then Jonathan became I forget what the the undersecretary of the treasury and then during Biden he became undersecretary of state

[35:06] for something or other. Jonathan called me and said are you free to meet and he was working for a lobbying firm at the time one of these big K street firms. I went up to his office and he said okay this conversation is protected by attorney-client privilege do you have a dollar? I gave him a dollar he said okay now you're my client for a dollar this is all protected so start at the beginning and tell me the whole story. I told him every detail he says I'm not seeing where the crime is. We went over it ad nauseam and then he called Plato, Bob and Mark and said

[35:42] whatever I can do let me know. They said yeah you can reach out to some of these political figures we could certainly use a supportive statement. Kiri wanted nothing to do with me. Kiri was in a panic but John McCain came through. John McCain was good to me from the day I met him until the day he died. We can disagree over politics but John McCain was tortured mercilessly at the Hanoi Hilton in North Vietnam after being shot down. He knew exactly what I was talking about and he was my biggest supporter on Capitol Hill. There were a couple of congressmen too.

[36:17] Congressman Jim Moran my own congressman from Northern Virginia Jim could not have been any more generous making statements on the floor of the house to release John Kiriakou and another one was Congressman Lloyd Doggett of Texas. I never met Lloyd Doggett and he spoke out repeatedly on my behalf just because he believed it was the right thing to do so I have this massive team of lawyers there were 11 of them all together and I just decided let the lawyers do what they do best they negotiated a deal for 30 months of which I would do 23 and I finally said okay.

[36:51] Four days before I left for prison two things happened one I decided to send a heartfelt email to John Kerry begging for his help I sent it to his private email and I said Mr. Secretary I'm begging you you know me you know I didn't do this please ask the president to commute my sentence DOJ would save face because the conviction would stand but I would be able to work and provide for my family I have five children two days later he responded with one sentence please do not ever

[37:26] attempt to contact me again four nights before I left the peace group Code Pink I used to call them my angels from Code Pink held a going away party for me on the roof of the Hay Adams hotel directly across the street from the White House it was it was one of the biggest celebrations that I've ever taken part in which is ironic because I was so depressed I was practically suicidal but I gave a speech there that night overlooking the White House good evening and

[37:59] thank you for coming last month I was sentenced to 30 months in a federal correctional institution for violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act the prosecutors and the judge insisted that my case was about leaking it was not I was targeted for prosecution for protesting torture before opposition to torture was kosher the government's purpose in prosecuting me was to frighten critics into silence as every American knows leaking classified information by marquee executive branch officials is as routine as the rising and setting of the sun if my case

[38:33] was about leaking we would have seen simultaneous prosecutions of people like former CIA director David Petraeus who provided classified information to his adulterous girlfriend like Defense Department Undersecretary Michael Vickers who federal investigators say leaked classified information to the producers of the film zero dark 30 like the Navy SEALs who divulged classified information for profit to the makers of a video game and like SEAL team six member Matt Bissonette who profited by publishing his classified account of the Osama bin Laden killing without clearance

[39:04] but none of them uttered a single word critical of the government my attorneys also found documentary evidence that another former CIA officer provided the names of some 10 covert officers to journalist Matthew Cole and classified information on counterterrorist operations but the FBI declined to investigate and the Justice Department declined to prosecute why because they didn't blow the whistle on torture a year ago the Justice Department at the insistence of the CIA's leadership charged me with three counts of espionage in addition to other felonies despite

[39:36] admitting privately that I had not committed espionage I became the sixth person charged by President Obama under the espionage act double the number of prosecutions made under all previous presidents combined so far every espionage case that has found its way into a courtroom has either been dismissed or is crumbled but the targets have still been destroyed in their careers and lives by the ordeal and the staggering expense of investigation and accusation former attorney general and supreme court justice Robert Jackson warned of cases like mine more than

[40:07] seven decades ago when he said quote with the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some act on the part of almost anyone in such a case it is not a question of discovering the commission of crime and then looking for the man who has committed it it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books or putting investigators to work to pin some offense on him it is in this realm in which the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires

[40:40] to embarrass or selects some group of unpopular persons and then looks for an offense that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies unquote let me be clear I am a patriotic American I love our great country I love the CIA I always will I believe that the CIA is largely made up of dedicated men and women who want nothing more than to protect the country but a true patriot as Thomas Paine wrote saves his country from his government certainly congress has neglected its oversight duties where are the voices of outrage when

[41:13] the new CIA director designee maintains a kill list with American citizens on it where's the outrage when those citizens are denied their fifth amendment rights to do process and instead are vaporized by drones without even a formal accusation of a crime didn't even the Nuremberg defendants receive a trial and Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem at the CIA we are taught that everything is a shade of gray that nothing is black or white but this is wrong torture is black and white and we as Americans should not be involved in it

[41:44] torture is a crime both in the U.S. and according to international law there is no excuse for it its use is never appropriate for civilized peoples but today I will be the only person to go to prison for any crime related to torture the torturers are free the men who conceived of the torture are free those who implemented the torture policy are free and those attorneys who justified the torture with warped legal opinions are free I took a plea to violating the intelligence identities protection act for five reasons their ages are 1916 8 6 and 1

[42:19] my wife and children are proud of me and that is what matters my whistleblowing also accomplish something very important despite the fact that I was prosecuted my protest against torture is now the law of the land I'm glad that I had a role in it I would like to thank my wife and family my attorneys my advisors jesselyn redak and bruce fine and the dozens of former and current CIA officers FBI agents and assistant U.S. attorneys who both publicly and privately encouraged me to stand up and fight thank you for your emails calls cards and donations to my

[42:50] defense fund my journey has just begun 30 months is not a long time when my sentence passes I will continue to speak out against torture and in support of the civil rights and civil liberties that we Americans have fought and died for at valley forge cemetery ridge oma ha beach and elsewhere as president obama so eloquently said earlier this week we the people still believe that our obligations as americans are not just to ourselves but to posterity thank you the response

[43:20] was riotous cheering my friends at code pink they know how much I I love Pete seager and folk music pete and I had become friendly and he was so important to me they found a grammy winning folk group that came to perform that night and they took a peter pollen marry song called have you been to jail for justice from the 1960s and they changed the words to do you know john kiriyaku well he's a friend of mine he stood up to the cia now he's doing time and everybody in the room

[43:53] knew the words it brought tears to my eyes I couldn't have made it without them and even more than that they knew that Catherine was probably going to lose the house not only was I not working but I was incarcerated we had a gigantic mortgage and a second mortgage they approached Roger waters the co-founder of the band pink Floyd and Roger very generously paid off my second mortgage he just wrote a check and paid it off so we were able to keep the house to go through life with one friend like that is a blessing to go through life with a hundred friends like that is a miracle

[44:30] this monday.com ad was created by a team of people and AI agents Reese our content agent wrote the copy based on our best practices like mentioning monday.com three times that was the second Johnny our coordination agent built the timeline and kept everyone aligned Olivia our human creative director stayed in the loop because agents are great but they don't always know when a joke lands she had one note tell listeners it only takes minutes to build an agent so minutes create your own AI agent today on monday.com still using the tournament with

[51:37] we all drive up there i go over to the work camp the work camps have no bars on the windows the doors are unlocked there are no fences or walls or anything you're free to come and go as you please you're just on your honor not to abscond most of the prisoners work in the village they sweep floors at the university there's a little catholic university there called st francis and then you just go back to the camp at night so i go to the camp and i literally knock on the door i said to the guard hi i'm john kiriyaku i'm supposed to turn myself in and the guy says oh yeah

[52:10] you have to go across the street to the prison they'll process you and then they'll just walk you back over here so everybody drives away my attorneys the documentarians my cousins they're beeping they're waving i wave back blowing me a kiss i wave they drive away there's something strangely peaceful about being resigned to one's fate as i walked across the street to check myself in my lawyer's words rang in my ears that work camp across the street was going to be no more than a blip it was not going to define me if the goal of the legal process in my case was to

[52:44] mitigate damage well then that damage mitigation needed to extend all the way through the blip i knock on the door of the actual prison with the double concertina wire and the fences and the big water tank and you know all that stuff knock on the door hi i'm john kiriyaku i'm here to turn myself in the guy has me go through a metal detector he frisks me i didn't have anything with me just the clothes that i was wearing and i was instructed to bring a driver's license and then he cuffs me and then he starts taking me around to the back of the prison and i said no no i'm

[53:16] supposed to be at the camp across the street and he kind of had chuckles not according to my paperwork you're not not according to his paperwork what the hell had he been told the guard walked me around to the back of the prison to a door marked r and d receiving and discharge there another guard told me to strip naked he boxed my clothes for shipping back to kathryn and issued me a prison uniform some well-used underwear and socks a second uniform two thread bear sheets a ratty nasty bath towel and a roll of institutional toilet paper no pillow

[53:52] we're out said the guard tough luck i bet i'd have a pillow if i was across the street i thought to myself my heart and my mind were racing each other this was just not computing i stood in that courtroom i heard what the prosecution said about being fine with me serving my time across the street in the work camp and not here in the actual prison the bureau of prisons isn't supposed to play politics with this assignment but what else would explain this and if that was the case that this was political making a scene right now or ever would just get me thrown into solitary suddenly even 23 months felt like an eternity like several

[54:28] eternities another guard walked me to my cell when we got there he gave me some advice it was the only thing he said to me he said if someone enters your cell uninvited that is an act of aggression welcome home and then he just walked away what monday dot com a i agents took over my work and i absolutely love it chasing deadlines writing status reports updating stakeholders agents handle the daily grind now i stay in the loop only when it matters create your own a i agent
