Joe Kent
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Joe Kent is a former director of the National Counterterrorism Center whose public departure from government Kiriakou has discussed. Kiriakou says that as soon as Kent went public, he called a producer he knew to obtain Kent's contact information on behalf of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), a group of retired CIA, FBI, NSA, and DOD officials of which Kiriakou is a member, in order to give Kent the group's Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence. Kiriakou says the producer sent him Kent's information and the award was given, even though Kiriakou says he has never personally spoken to Kent.

Kiriakou disputes journalist Whitney Webb's characterization of Kent as a "top spook," saying that description doesn't fit "any definition of the word spook." He also says he personally opposed Kent's nomination to head the National Counterterrorism Center a year before Kent's resignation, believing Kent was too young and unqualified for the post, essentially the head of an independent agency.

Kiriakou says Kent resigned because of his personal opposition to the Iran war, believing the intelligence supporting it was either ignored or was false intelligence supplied by Israel. Kiriakou reiterates this elsewhere, agreeing that Kent resigned over his personal opposition to the war and believed the intelligence used to justify it was ignored in favor of false intelligence supplied by the Israelis. Kent stated on Tucker Carlson's podcast that he still had full access to classified information right up until his resignation, meaning, Kiriakou argues, he could not have been under investigation beforehand, and reports of an investigation were a media narrative that emerged only afterward. Kiriakou explains the underlying mechanism: a "crimes report" is filed with the Department of Justice by the CIA or the Office of the Director of National Intelligence whenever someone discloses potentially classified information, but 99% of such reports are ignored, with DOJ pursuing an actual investigation only in egregious cases. Kiriakou says he sees no evidence any serious investigation of Kent is underway, calling this standard operating procedure for how the government treats whistleblowers. He adds that Kent was quietly removed from the Charlie Kirk shooting investigation because superiors believed he could not conduct adequate research into whether a foreign asset was involved, without Kent accusing any specific country.

See also

- John Kiriakou
- Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
- Charlie Kirk shooting
- Iran 12-Day War
