Title: Why CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou Almost Took His Own Life
Show: Katie Halper
Date: 2025-02-25
URL: https://youtu.be/Bu8Hww81wTc
Duration: 1:00

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[00:00] My wife and I split up. I lost my pension. I lost my security clearance. I lost my job. I would do the whole doggone thing over again. Really? Because it was the right thing to do. And torture is outlawed in this country now. And I'm proud to have played a role in that. You come to some issues where you know that you're right and they're wrong. And eventually everybody else is going to see that. You know, and this is one of the things when you apply for a pardon, you have to show proof that you showed contrition. And I'm not contrite.

[00:30] Are you sorry for the crime you committed? No, I'm not. I would do it again. Did you ever have regrets? Were you ever like, "God, why did I do the principal thing?" Yeah, when the Justice Department offered me 45 years in prison and told me that was the best deal I was going to get, I intended to commit suicide that night. And my wife and I were up watching TV and she said, "Let's go to bed." And I said, "No, I'm going to stay up late. I'm going to just watch TV." I wasn't going to watch TV. I was going to go down to the garage and just, you know, put a pipe in my mouth. And she said, "No, we should go to bed." And she kind of talked me out of it. So,

[01:03] yeah, there were times when I I thought, "Oh my god, what have I done? What have I done?" And then, yeah, the more I thought about it, the more I thought, "No, somebody had to do it. We're led by a cabal of criminals. And somebody had to say something."
