Title: John Kiriakou On Bob Costello Pardon 4 Sale & Hunter Biden l
Show: The Opperman Report
Date: 2026-01-15
URL: https://youtu.be/zoMmrLQx934
Duration: 58:00

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[03:11] emailrevealer.com. Digital forensics, computer forensics, cell phone forensics, recover deleted text messages. Create a report that you can use in court. email revealer.com 800572-9762. It's the Operman Report. Join digital forensic investigator and PI Ed Operan for an in-depth discussion of conspiracy theories, strategy of new world order resistance, high-profile court cases in the news, and interviews with expert guests and authors on these

[03:43] topics, and more. It's the Operan Report. And now, here is investigator Oper. Okay, welcome to the Opperman Report. I'm your host, private investigator Ed Operman. You can find me at Operan Investigations and Digital Forensic Consulting, uh either through my website, emailrevealer.com. You could just email me directly at operin investigations@gmail.com. If you like our show, be sure and check out our Patreon, OperanReport, Patreon. I got up there pretty exclusively. They're

[04:14] circulating now, but we had some pictures of Stephen Avery uh that were exclusive when I first put them up in the free section on Patreon. So, be sure and check that out. I was also interviewed last night by Chuck Ochelli and that's going to be going up in the uh Patreon too as well. Uh, of course our archives are free and you can find them at spreaker.com and as a matter of fact if you go to Sper you could find our guest today John Kiri Kuryaku uh who was a former CIA agent was actually thrown in prison for whistleblowing about all that torture that went on uh over there in the Middle East. Uh so you

[04:45] can find our first interview we did with him which was a two-hour interview covered a lot of material. Uh, but today we're going to be talking about a CIA hitman named Rick Praau. Okay. Who John worked with and some other matters here. John, are you there? I sure am. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much. Now, did I butcher your name? No. Kiryaku. Perfect. Ah, I love you. Okay, great. Uh, remind the audience who is John Kuryaku. Well, I was a I was a CIA officer for 15 years. Uh, the first half of my career was in analysis on the Middle East. The second half was in

[05:16] counterterrorism operations. Uh after that I went into the private sector a little bit then went to the uh Senate Foreign Relations Committee as the uh senior investigator. I blew the whistle on the CIA's torture program in uh 2007. The CIA didn't appreciate that very much and uh so they filed uh many many charges against me. I ended up uh taking a plea deal, which is a story in and of itself, and did 23 months in prison.

[05:48] Proud of what I did. No regrets. Would do it again. And uh since I got out of prison, which was about seven years ago, a little bit more than seven years ago, I've been um writing, doing lots of radio. I've uh I've written seven books and um just trying to trying to stay relevant. Seven years. I can't believe it. I haven't had you John for seven years. Um, yeah. Right. And time flies, man. Uh, now one of the I guess the u side

[06:20] effects of getting busted, arrested, and convicted uh over these CIA charges was is you lost your CIA pension. Yes. Yeah. Right. And people don't even think of that. Yeah. That's that's been the hardest hit for me was losing the pension. I mean, as things stand right now, I'm going to have to work until the day I die, which I probably would have done anyway, but it would have been nice to have been able to rely on that pension. Yeah. Hopefully something can come, you know, get some kind of a pardon or something, you know, get beyond that. I sure hope so. I thought I

[06:52] was really close with Donald Trump. I had a I had a champion in Tucker Carlson and uh Tucker went to the mat for me a couple of times. I was on his show all the time and uh in the end uh it it just didn't happen. I I had a nice letter of support from from uh 70 former CIA officers, from the guy who wrote the law that I was convicted of violating. I had a floor statement from my congressman. I had a floor statement from Senator John McCain. Alan Dersowitz

[07:22] wrote a letter for me and um it it wasn't good enough. That's that's a shame. Hopefully something will come up. Uh, you know, you're still a young guy, you know. Uh, but now there was something in the paper though about Rudy Giuliani offering you a pardon in exchange for some cash, right? Yeah. Yeah. You know what I was doing was I I hired a Republican lobbyist to help me negotiate the Trump White House. The Trump White House was

[07:54] unlike any other White House I've ever experienced in Washington. and I've been in Washington for 40 years. Uh it it was just I mean they were just breaking the rules and making new policy every single day. So this Republican lobbyist said, "Look, we need to get in front of Rudy Giuliani. Rudy Giuliani can get you a pardon." And I said, "Well, I don't I don't know Giuliani, but I know some people close to him." So, um, I put out a couple of calls and, uh, was referred

[08:26] to a a friend and confidant of Giuliani who sort of works as his chief of staff. And, um, I called him and I said, you know, this is John Kuryaku. He knew who I was. And he said, let me guess, you're calling about a pardon. And I said, yes, I am, and I'd like to talk to uh, Mayor Giuliani about it. And he said, well, as it so happens, we're going to be in Washington next week. Why don't we meet up at the Trump Hotel? I said, "Great." So, we we got together at the Trump Hotel. You know, the funny thing is

[08:56] before the meeting, uh the guy called me back and said, "We should meet for lunch because Rudy really enjoys scotch." And by 2:00, he's enjoyed scotch a little too much and he's unable to get any business transacted. So, um I said that was fine. it actually worked better for me. So, we got together for lunch and um I'm sitting there with the two of them and two friends of mine who actually had

[09:28] some some other business with Giuliani. And uh finally during a lull in the conversation, I said, "So, about this pardon?" And as soon as I said it, Giuliani said, "I got to hit the head." And he gets up and he walks away. And I said to his friend, "What just happened?" And he said, "You never discuss business with Rudy. You discuss it with me and I discuss it with Rudy." And I said, "Okay." And the guy says, "Rudy's going to want $2 million to do this." And I

[10:00] laughed and I said, "First of all, I don't have $2 million. I'll likely never have $2 million. Secondly, even if I did, why would I spend $2 million to recoup a $700,000 pension? That's ridiculous. And then Giuliani came back from the men's room and we didn't discuss it again. And that was the end of it. And to tell you the truth, I just forgot about it until just before the end of the of the

[10:31] Trump administration. like just days before I was invited to a book party at the Republican um the Republican club up on Capitol Hill and I mentioned it to a friend of mine as you know, hey, get a load of this crazy story and my friend, unbeknownst to me, um reported it to the FBI. Wow. Yeah. And then the FBI called me and I said I said I I don't have any complaint. I said it wasn't a bribe. He

[11:01] wanted me to hire him as a quote unquote consultant because that's how Washington works. You know, you cash in on on the importance of your name. So, the FBI never followed up on it. I wouldn't have expected them to. And then I get a call from the New York Times and they wanted to hear the whole story. So, I ended up, you know, it's funny. On the very very final day of the Trump administration, I got a call from Tucker Carlson, who had

[11:31] been very, very kind to me and had actively helped me to try to get a pardon. And Tucker said, "Listen, I have bad news from the White House." I said, "Oh no, what's happening?" And he says, "He's going to pardon effing Wayne. Can you believe this? Little Wayne." And I said, "I'm not exactly sure who that is, but if somebody named Little Wayne can get a pardon, and certainly I can get a pardon." And he said, "Well, you can come back on the show tonight." So, I

[12:02] went back on the show the last day of the Trump administration, and I practically begged Donald Trump to pardon me, and nothing happened. I I tell you, the way you describe that, I have pictures of Michael Corleó saying he has to get up and go to the bathroom. Yeah. so melodramatic. It was just ridiculous. Now, the thing Okay, now I'm kind of familiar with this story. Was this the book launch party? Burkenfeld's uh uh the book about the Yes. Okay. It sure was. Okay. Did you know that? Because I

[12:32] had Burkenfeld on the show. Okay. And plus, I've I've known Betel for years. We don't we're not in contact now, but we used to be very close friends back in the 80s in New York City. He's a dear dear close friend. I I I love him. But uh but now Okay. So, because now at the Bergenfeld party also too, the figure of $2 million was being bounded about uh involving the sale of Hunter Biden's laptop. Oh, how interesting. I didn't realize they were asking for $2 million. Yeah.

[13:03] What I got the word I got was that uh um Abau's brother uh wanted to monetize the laptop at that same party for $2 million. So, but that's but that was like it was never offered to you like, "Hey, John, you go in and get this laptop for us." I see. Maybe that I could have pulled off. That's a catch. I I couldn't do it. You tunnel in there, right? It's your old CIA. Okay, man. Great. Okay, so nothing came out of that. Now, the friend who tipped off the FBI, is he still your friend? You know, it's funny. Um, he called me

[13:34] and he said, "Please don't hang up on me." And I said, "No, I'm I'm not going to hang up on you. It's not my nature." He says, "I'm calling to ask for your forgiveness." And I said I said, "Yeah, I forgive you, but why would you do something like that? I have enough problems in my life. Yeah, I don't need to be on the front page of the New York Times, you know, it's just too much." And he said that he was so outraged at what Giuliani had done. He just couldn't keep it to himself. And so he called the FBI and then he called the uh the New

[14:04] York Times. And he called the New York Times only because the FBI wouldn't prosecute Giuliani. I said, "Buddy, you got to back off. You got to back off. Let me do this the way I need to do it. Yeah. If you want to get something off your chest, tell your bartender. Don't call the FBI. Okay. You know what I'm saying? The time of the day. My god, what a story. Okay. What a fascinating story. Now, the other thing I've always wanted to get in touch with you and clear up, okay, so you can set the record straight is um there's this clip

[14:34] going around or before it's news article saying that John uh Kiryaku uh uh I pronounced that correctly. Right, Kuryaku? Sure did. Okay. Okay. John Kiryaku um says that the CIA is involved in sex trafficking of children, right? Okay. That that's a quote attributed to you. Yeah. What's the story? Absolutely untrue. Okay. Absolutely untrue. First of all, not only is the CIA not uh involved in the sex trafficking of children, but I most certainly never said any such thing. What that came from

[15:07] was I was giving a speech at American University about ethics and I said that at the CIA there are no ethics classes. You have to go into the CIA confident in your own moral compass because there's not going to be anybody to tell you what's right and what's wrong, what's legal and what's illegal. So, you have to be confident in yourself. And I said, for example, I'm going to use a hypothetical situation, and I do this

[15:39] all the time in my speeches, especially at colleges and universities, because I want the audience to really think about it. I said, "Let's say that you are a CIA case officer and you've recruited a penetration of a foreign intelligence service. Let's say it's al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hezbala, it doesn't matter, but they're the real deal and they're really dangerous." So, you've recruited a guy who's a bonafide terrorist and he's working for you for a year, two years,

[16:11] and he's giving you actionable intelligence that allows you to disrupt attacks and to save American lives. So, you meet with him once a month in a hotel room somewhere in the Middle East, Aman, Cairo, Damascus, wherever. And then one day you go to do the meeting and he says to you, "Listen, I've given you everything you've ever asked for and everything I've told you is true. Now you're going to do something for me. You're going to go get

[16:42] me a prostitute." I said, "How many here in the room would get him the prostitute?" And usually about half the hands go up. And I said, "The correct answer is yes. at the CIA, you would get him the the prostitute. This is a, you know, despicable thing to do, but you deal with scumbags. It's your job to cultivate relations with dirty, dangerous people. So, if he asks you for

[17:12] the prostitute, sure, go get him the prostitute. But what happens if he asks you for a child prostitute? How many would do that? And usually nobody raises their hand. Once in a while you'll get one or two people who very tentatively will put their hand up. And I said the answer is absolutely not. Not under any circumstances should you go out and seek a child prostitute to give to this

[17:44] man. But the problem is that there's no rule at the CIA saying you can't do this. You have to know in your heart that it's the wrong thing to do. I said, that's why you have to go in with your own level of ethics. That's what I said. It's the same speech that I give at every university I go to. And then the next thing I see is all over the internet and I'm getting emails, like dozens of

[18:16] emails thanking me for exposing child sex trafficking at the CIA, these cabals of child sex people in Washington. It's like what what the heck happened? I didn't even know where it came from. But I never did any such thing. This was just the basic standard speech that I've had cleared by the CIA's publications review board, by the way. Same speech that I give all the time. You know, it's a shame because these people that they're so well-meaning, you

[18:47] know, their hearts are in the right place. You know what I mean? You're you're absolutely right. and they're just being taken advantage by husters and you know um but no what about though like when you were working in the Middle East the stuff with that you hear about this the dancing boys in Afghanistan a lot of that was condoned by these at least by these contractors right absolutely yeah that absolutely happened and it was utterly disgraceful criminal was there any policies or procedures in place where you could report someone for that or

[19:19] Yes. Um, that's kind of a hard question to answer. The the Excuse me. The easy answer. Sorry. Oh, they they got him. They got to John. The poison pill. The easy answer is yes. You can report it uh back to your leadership. You can report it to the inspector general's office. And to the best of my recollection, those reports were about contractors and um military officials that were sort of allowing that to

[19:50] happen. And you know, I remember people defending that at the time and saying, "Well, this is a part of Afghan culture." Yeah, it is. It's a part of Afghan culture. It's a part of Yemen culture to marry eight-year-olds. Wow. Um but that's not cool either. So, we shouldn't have any role in this at all. It's just wrong. Yeah. I was supposed to have an attorney come on on the show once and talk about a lawsuit and along those lines and uh one of the things was you hear these stories about how people working on the base uh would turn

[20:20] against our soldiers and start shooting up the place and and then you'd find out that it was because the kid was one of those dancing boys when he was a kid, you know, and he was he was still scarred by this his whole life. So, yeah, I believe that. Yeah, I believe that. What do you make of this? What's going on in Ukraine real quick? Well, you know, I I work for a Russian uh radio network, Sputnik News. With that said, they've never ever asked me to say anything or to not say anything. I've never been asked to change an

[20:51] opinion or to squaltch my own opinion. So, I want to start my answer to your question by saying that I oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine unreservedly. The Russians were wrong to cross that border. This is a violation of international law. Um it's a violation of the human rights of all Ukrainians and they should get out immediately. Uh with that said, the issue is is complicated. You know, the the Russians the Russians were

[21:24] legitimately frightened about NATO expanding right up to its borders. Already the Baltic states are NATO members. Uh Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. And you in the 1990s, the early 1990s, Bill Clinton personally promised, he guaranteed that NATO would not expand eastward. And it it expanded eastward unchecked. You know, Poland joined. Uh like I said, the Baltic states, Romania,

[21:55] Bulgaria, and the next thing you know, here's Ukraine. Well, the Russians were tired of being lied to and uh and they put their foot down. Like I say, I'd like to see them get the heck out of Ukraine immediately. I think that uh that Vladimir Putin um has committed grave crimes by ordering and leading this invasion. And uh I'm I'm hoping for the best that it it ends quickly. and we were talking off the air and even

[22:26] despite this this pretty fair-handed uh description here, the position you're taking here, um you you were just recently deplatformed over everything. Yes. Yeah, we were deplatformed everywhere. You know, it's funny. This has been sort of a long time in coming. I do a a segment on my show every Thursday called Criminal Injustice. Uh, I've got uh the journalist Kevin Gustala and um a guy named Paul Wright, the director of the Human Rights Defense Center and the

[22:57] publisher and editor of Prison Legal News magazine. And every Thursday for 30 minutes, we talk about uh criminal justice issues, you know, prison conditions and solitary confinement and animal grade food that's fed to prisoners and and you know, medical care, stuff like that. The Washington Post ran an article about that segment and it said that by broadcasting that segment, I was weakening our democracy. If you can imagine such a

[23:28] thing, I was weakening our democracy by talking about the US prison system. And then the um uh uh CSIS, the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University did a uh a paper, an academic paper in which they said that that my broadcasting that segment uh showed the propaganda lengths that Vladimir Putin will go to to try to

[23:59] weaken um our democratic system. Well, nobody's none of them denied that anything I said was true. You know, I have firsthand experience with the American prison system. We should be ashamed of our prison system compared to our European allies at least. And so, I thought it was just so rich that they would declare that any criticism of the United States is automatically Russian propaganda. Like I talk to Vladimir

[24:30] Putin every day and plan out the show and how we're going to get the best propaganda benefit from the show. It's ridiculous. But in any event, once the Russians crossed the uh Ukrainian frontier, we were just deplatformed everywhere. We were thrown off of YouTube yesterday and then three weeks ago we were thrown off of Spreaker, Spotify, iTunes, iHeart Radio. Last week we were thrown off of uh TuneIn and so the only place where we appear now is is

[25:01] Rumble. It's it's crazy that that Rumble, which was set up as, you know, the right-wing uh alternative to YouTube, is the only place where people can really exercise their freedom of speech. Yeah. The real threat to democracy is this privatized censorship of the private sector. Amen. you know, and because just having you on the show now, it puts fear into my heart that that I don't want to get de demonetized and deplatformed, you know, so it has an a chilling effect on on freedom of speech and freedom of the press. It's just

[25:32] outrageous. And I think that's exactly what they want. I think Yeah. You think so? Yeah. Yeah. They're putting a lot of effort in. Now, recently, too, I had Barrett Brown on the show recently, and I've had terrific reality winner's mother. I had her on the show. I tried to get Reality Winner to come on the show and she tells me and I can't uh because they're they're all over me and I got to watch my back here. Yeah. You know, the the sad story about Reality Winner is they've gone after her for whatever reason. They've gone after her

[26:02] even more than they've gone after any of the other national security whistleblowers to the point where um they won't allow her to do interviews. Yeah. and she and I have talked about this and I I said I I really believe that this is challengeable in court like you know for example um when I first got out of prison I was offered a job at a think tank in Washington the Institute for Policy Studies. They offered me a job that would allow me to write about uh prison reform issues. And the Bureau

[26:33] of Prisons said that it would be inappropriate for inmate Kuryaku to write about prison reform issues. And I said inmate Kuryaku, and I wasn't an inmate at the time. Uh I was home. I said, "Inmate Kiryaku never gave up his First Amendment rights to freedom of speech." And so I took the job and I dared them to do something about it and they backed off. Were you still on parole? Well, there is no federal uh parole. Okay. I I I had uh two years of

[27:06] probation, but you know that is you you check in once a month and uh and assure your probation officer that you haven't been arrested in the previous month. Right. Right. Right. Right. Bureau of Prisons doesn't get to decide where I work and where I can't work. Yeah, that's right. Now, now the Bureau of Prisons made that comment, but what about the probation department? Did they have a comment on this? She she had approved it. Oh, boy. She had approved it and then the BOP came back and said, "No, no, no, no, no. Kiryaku is not allowed to criticize

[27:36] us." I said, "Yeah, that's what you think." It's kind of like what they did to Michael Cohen. They did the same thing to him, too. Very much. Very much so. Yes. Oh, boy. Um, I so I was going to ask you I have here in my notes. Was there have you had any retaliation from the CIA since your big whistleblowering episode? I has there been more retaliation or is this about it? You know what? If you had asked me a week ago, I'd say no. Nothing. Nothing. But just in the past week, um, I sent in, you know, I every time I write something that has to do with intelligence, I have

[28:08] to send it to the CIA's publications review board for review. They they're supposed to make sure that it doesn't reveal any classified information. So my publisher I I've I've published seven books now and contributed to an eighth. My publisher had asked me to write a series of four books. The CIA Insiders Guide to the Iran Crisis, the CIA Insiders Guide to Surveillance and Surveillance Detection, The CIA Insiders Guide to Lying and Lie Detection, and

[28:39] The CIA Insiders Guide to Disappearing and Living Off the Grid. So, the Iran book came out like two years ago. The the next three books are supposed to come out uh May 25th, and the CIA cleared all three of them. And then last week I get an email saying, "Oh, hey, by the way, that book that you wrote, this the uh insiders guide to surveillance and surveillance detection, we cleared it, but there's another governmental

[29:10] entity that uh wants to review it because they may have an objection." So, I wrote back and I said, "Well, I never signed any secrecy agreements with any other federal government entity. If you guys cleared it, then it's cleared and it's going to be published." And so, they called me, which they're not supposed to do because everything is supposed to be in writing so we can prove our side in court, right, if we

[29:42] have to go to court. But they called me and I said, "Look, at least be honest and tell me, was this the FBI harassing me?" And the guy said, "No, it was NSA." I said, "Why in the world would NSA care about a book that talks about conducting surveillance or surveillance detection, you know, where you're just driving around in a car following somebody or driving around making sure that nobody is following you." and he

[30:12] said, "I don't know, but they said they need it until April 22nd." So, I don't know if that's harassment or not. I I will add one other thing. When I was um in prison, I was I became very friendly with the Italian contingent. And when I say Italian, I mean Italians named Gambino, Lucasy, you know, you get the idea. Sure. So, um, somebody came to my door one night

[30:45] and, uh, rang the doorbell. It was about 7:30, and my youngest son, who was four at the time, ran to the door and opened it, and I could hear this sugary sweet voice say, "Hi, is your daddy home?" And I thought, "Oh, you sob." So, I went to the door and I was kind of rude. I said, "Um, may I help you?" And this guy in a suit shows me his badge and breathless breathlessly says, "Hi, Mr. Kuryaku. I'm

[31:18] Agent Smith with the uh FBI, and this is my colleague, Agent Jones." And I said, "You guys have some nerve coming here. You know, I'm represented by counsel. I don't talk to you guys." Oh, he says, "No, no, Mr. Kuryaku, it's not about your case. Uh, it's about something else. We were hoping we could get your help. Well, again, very gutsy to come and ask me for help. So, the guy says, "We know that when you were at Lorettto, you were friends with um Peter the rabbit

[31:49] Calibris." I said, "So, well, Mr. Kuryaku, uh we have reason to believe that uh that Pete is home now. He got out." I said, "Yeah, so good for good for Pete." Well, Mr. Kuryaku, we have reason to believe that Pete may have taken over leadership of the Banano crime family. And I said, "Oh, and you want me to rat out a five family's boss? Get off my property." And I closed the door and I

[32:21] called my lawyer. And then he called me back and he said, "Um, they said that they'll never come to your house again." And that's how we left it. Well, never a dull moment for John Keryaku. I'll tell you that, man. Now, but John, you mentioned that you you wrote all these books. I I actually went looking on Amazon for your books, right before the show because I said, you know, let me promote the books for him. I couldn't find any. Yeah, they're on Amazon. Name correctly? I I copied from Wikipedia.

[32:52] Huh. Let me look. While we're talking, I'm going to take a quick look. Well, we got to take a commercial break anyway, so this is a good time for John to to check on Amazon and see if they're screwing with him, too, in the past 24 hours. God forbid. I hope that that's not happening. I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news. But we're talking to John Kiryaku. You could find him at his website, which is john Kuryaku.com. Uh, and also too, we're going to be talking about uh this article he just wrote about Rick Praau in CovertAction Magazine. I actually I was so uh enjoyed the article so much I

[33:23] was so inspired I went and I purchased all the back issues of uh covert action which you could do be coming in the mail shortly. Uh, we'll be right. Right. Awesome. Right. I'm looking forward to it. So, we'll be right back with more of John Kyaku after these messages. And now, a word from our sponsors. If you find yourself in need of legal representation, it can be a very stressful time in your life. In my career, I have dealt with thousands of lawyers. I've dealt with thousands of law firms. And I can confidently recommend to you Keith M. Davidson at

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[34:27] Go to kmdlaw.com or call toll-free 8334KMD Law. If you're in for the fight of your life, stop screwing around and contact KMD Law. Thank you so much for listening to the Operan Report. I want to welcome all our new listeners at WWPR 1490 a.m. in the Tampa Bay area. We're brand new down here. We're getting a nice warm welcome. We have great advertising opportunities for local sponsors, local businesses, but also international websites and international companies too on our other stations in

[34:58] California, Nevada, Utah, and on the internet worldwide. But down here in Tampa Bay, Florida, we have some great opportunities for you to come in and get very, very affordable advertising rates. Get a hold of me at operanreportgmail.com and we'll cut you a good deal. A flooded home or business is never easy to deal with. You're left with a mess to clean up, having to deal with the insurance company to pay for the damages, not to mention the memories that are lost that you cannot replace. An aquedam can be another tool in your

[35:28] arsenal to protect your home or business from the floodwaters, a hurricane, storm surge, or the king tides. Give Aquedam a call at 7077642119, or look us up online at aquadam.net. We can help. We're also offering 10% off the price to anyone who mentions they heard this ad on the Operan Report. Email revealer.com. People ask me all the time, "Hey, Ed, are you still a private investigator?" I sure am. Go to

[36:00] emailrevealer.com. We handle adoption investigations, infidelity investigations, where you give us your spouse's email address. We trace it back to online dating websites. Catch them cheating online. Email tracing. Locate or identify somebody from as little as an anonymous email address. summon owe your money, back child support. We can find that deadbeat, locate his hidden assets, locate his hidden bank accounts, find his current place of employment, and even assist you in obtaining a judgment and recover that judgment for you. Emailrevealer.com. Digital forensics,

[36:31] computer forensics, cell phone forensics, recover deleted text messages. Create a report that you can use in court. Emailrevealer.com 800572-9762. It's the Operan Report. And now, here is investigator Ed Opperman. Okay, welcome back to the Opperman Report. I'm your host, private investigator Ed Opperman. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Opperman Report. Uh we're talking today former CIA agent, uh a convicted whistleblower, uh John Kurikawa, John

[37:02] Kuryaku. John Kuryaku. Uh and we did find his Amazon. He's got all these books up there. A bunch of dozen books he's written. Uh Doing Time Like a Spy, How the CIA Taught Me to Survive and Thrive in Prison. How to disappear and live off the grid. A CIA insiders guide. There's great stuff, man. Lying and lie detection. A CIA insiders guide. I would love to pick that up. Uh surveillance and surveillance detection is all great stuff. Convenient terrorist to whistleblowers stories of torture, terror, secret wars, and CIA lies. Uh so go to his website, John Kiryaku,

[37:32] and.com, and find that there. But we're talking today, too. I invited him to come on the show to talk about this piece he just wrote in Covert Action Magazine. I invite him on about this, then I bring up everything else in the world. CIA CIA shadow warrior covers up past as mob hitman as mob hitman in new memoir being celebrated across mainstream media. John, let it rip. Well, Rick Praau was a 30 plus year uh veteran of the CIA. He uh I I worked

[38:02] briefly for him when I was at the CIA in the counterterrorism center. He was the chief of operations there. And before that he did some work in something called the special activities division. You can draw your own conclusions as to what they do for a living. Uh but uh Rick Praau retired oh a while ago now about 10 years ago and uh retired to Florida and uh and wrote a book and the book is a very typical normal uh CIA memoir. He uh immigrated with his

[38:33] parents uh from Cuba uh immediately after the Cuban revolution. They fled communism. And through the the course of this book, he he tells you how much how viscerally he hates communism, you know, like I wanted to double tap those guys. We hung Marxists from the from the light posts and even the dogs hated Marxists. You know, stuff like that. It was just silly. And then there are like 120 pages of Afghanistan and what he did in

[39:04] Afghanistan. It's all fine and good, but the point of the of the book review was I I said there was something that he left out that that I think the the reader has a right to know. Uh there have been credible reports in um Florida newspapers and in Vanity Fair magazine that before joining the CIA, Rick Praau was a hitman for the Medí cartel. And um these articles said that he was being

[39:38] investigated by Miami Dade police for seven contract killings, including the stepson of Meer Lansky, who helped to found the modern American mafia with Lucky Luciano. And um Rick had uh covered his tracks so well that the Miami Dade police were never able to build a a case against him and he was able to pass the polygraph

[40:08] into the CIA and um and uh made a very long and successful CIA career. So I go on to say, look, I don't know if he was a hitman. I don't know if he was a drug trafficker. I don't know if he came to the CIA from the Medí cartel, but I do know that a CIA psychiatrist once told me that the CIA actively seeks to hire people who have sociopathic tendencies,

[40:39] not sociopaths. Sociopaths have no conscience. They're impossible to control and they blow right through the polygraph exam. People who have sociopathic tendencies do have a conscience but are comfortable working in moral and legal gray areas. The problem is when you're looking for people who have sociopathic tendencies, the actual sociopaths frequently slip through the cracks. So, I said, I don't know what he's done, but I think that if he's going to come

[41:11] out with a a memoir that is celebrated in the Washington Post and the New York Times and CNN and Fox News, he at least owes the reader an explanation of what in the world he was doing for a living through the 1980s. Okay. Now, now this is fascinating stuff. Okay. So, my first question is, you say he's living in Florida. Do you know where in Florida? Uh yeah, in uh St. Augustine. Okay, good. A little distance there because I haven't moved down to Florida myself. I got to wash my step down here, man. I just I just got

[41:43] here. I I don't I'm not quite set up yet. Okay. I got to wash my step. Now, you now you said too that you worked for this fellow for a short period of time. Hello, goodbye, good morning, that kind of stuff. Yes. Did were you aware of his reputation at that time? No. In fact, I even asked a colleague before before Rick was promoted to uh to chief of operations uh in the counterterrorism center. Uh we sat like

[42:14] 20 feet away from each other and every morning he'd come in and he'd say, "Hey, John." I'd say, "Hey, Rick, you know, how was your weekend?" "Good. How was yours?" "It was good." And then he'd go sit in his cube and I was sitting in my cube. And finally, I asked a colleague of mine, "What exactly does he do here?" And my friend looked at me and he says, "John, he works for the special activities division. What do you think he does here?" And I was like, "Oh, okay." I knew not to ask any more

[42:45] questions. Gotcha. Now, my understanding of CIA recruitment is they go to colleges, you know, like like American University, like you mentioned before, that's a hot spot, right? But but now, but to to get these other type of guys, where do they go searching them out? Well, post 911, um well, first of all, you're you're right. A a lot of recruitments are made at colleges. I would go so far as to say probably a plurality of the recruitments that the CIA makes are at colleges, right? I I

[43:18] was recruited in in graduate school, for example. Um, but post 911, a lot of those recruitments are from guys who are looking to get out of special forces. The CIA has a lot of Navy Seals, Army Rangers, you know, green berets, tough guys, guys who can parachute in, pop off a couple of shots, grab a target, and then get out. Uh, but even earlier, you know, there were there were a lot of people, how how should I say

[43:49] this? In certain parts of the world, there are indigenous ongoing low-level wars, right? Oftentimes, those wars uh center around the international drug trade. And CIA and DIA are competing agencies. The CIA's job is not to deal with international drugs. It's not to stop drug traffickers, for example. That's DEA's job. CIA's job is to

[44:20] recruit spies to steal secrets. Period. And so often times if you want to infiltrate a group like the Medí cartel or the Cali cartel um or any of the Mexican cartels for that matter, you need to get close to them and you know then you make your recruitment. Well, it's possible. It's conceivable that that's how it worked out in his case. Again, I don't know. I'm

[44:53] speculating. I'm not saying that Rick Praau was a a drug trafficker. I'm not saying that he was a hitman. I'm saying there are reports out there saying he was a drug trafficker and a hitman. Gotcha. So then, and more generalities because neither one of us want any problems, right? A couple old fat We're a couple old fat guys. Okay, we don't want any any be problem. Leave this one on top of Tell me about it. I know, man. But now I I had um uh Rick Ricardo Morales, the son on my show. His father

[45:23] was Monkey Morales, right? Uh CIA sniper training guy, right? And um uh it it just seems because the same allegations are around him, you know? Sure. Right. Coke smuggling, all this stuff. It seems that uh how does that work? like they're just no one questions them about it or they know they're doing it or um yes and yes. You know the the thing is too that really let's say let's say that you are

[45:55] a drug trafficker, right? But you have access to the to the head of a cartel. Well, we want to know what the head of the cartel is thinking, saying, planning, you know, where where is he going to expand? What's his network look like? Where does he launder his money? All all of those issues we'd be interested in knowing. So, I meet you. It turns out you work for this guy. So, I'm gonna start sch smoozing with you. I'm going to take you to dinner. I'm

[46:25] gonna introduce my wife to your wife. Maybe we're going to go on vacation together. I'm going to spend some money on you. Maybe a lot of money on you. And then I'm going to pitch you and I'm going to ask you to report back to me on, you know, what your boss is doing there. I've recruited you. Um, are you a nice guy? That doesn't really matter. You're probably a bad guy, but you're working for the good guys now. And so the CIA would be

[46:55] willing to overlook a lot of the problems that you bring to the relationship so long as you're productive, you know, so long as you give us actionable intelligence, so long as you expand our body of understanding of that cartel. You know, I I recruited a guy once that had that had committed a a murder. It was a coldblooded murder. And when it got time to the point of recruitment, he said to me, "Look, you know, I I killed this guy a couple of

[47:26] years ago." Well, I knew he had killed the guy. And I said, "I I'm not your confessor, right? You and I have a business relationship. I don't care what you've done in the past. It's none of my business. So long as you give me the information that I need and I pay you the salary that you earn, that's our relationship. I don't care what you've done before we met." And that's really the CIA view. So, okay, so they someone who has a a background in this area of drug smuggling goes to becomes an informant

[47:58] for central intelligence, right? And and they kind of say, "Okay, well, here's my business card. If you get pulled over, uh, don't worry about it. Just they have them call me up and we're going to get you out of this." No. No. Go ahead. uh you know, if if you get arrested for something like big and you're looking for or you're looking at like significant prison time, there are two ways that this can play out. Number one, the station chief might go to the head

[48:30] of your country's intelligence service and say, "Look, I'm going to ask for a favor. this guy you arrested over here, he's actually my guy. So, can you please let him go? 99 times out of a 100red, they're going to let you go. But there are some times where the CIA says, "Well, tough luck. You're on your own." And then we see people as they go to trial invoke something called the CIA defense, right? Where they say, "Hey, wait a minute. This isn't a crime.

[49:01] I was doing this on behalf of the CIA." which may or may not be true, but in cases like that, the CIA just walks away. They have no comment and you're on your own. Yeah. And you hear about that a lot, those cases with the stinger missiles and stuff, you know, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Um, do you regret ever getting involved with these characters? Yes. Yeah, actually. You know, it's funny. Nobody ever asks me that. People always ask me if I regret blowing the

[49:32] whistle. But nobody's ever asked me if I regret getting involved. Yeah. And uh so yeah, this is my opportunity to say, "Dang it, I should have gone to film school." Yeah. And and would you suggest, you know, recommend to kids, you know, at American University that hey, when they come around with that recruitment booth, just keep walking. You know, I that that's a little bit harder to um to answer because I consider myself to be anti-CIA, of course, but at the same time, I'm a

[50:02] realist and I know that there will always be a CIA. And the only way to change it, unless you're going to get yourself elected to Congress and sit on the on the uh intelligence committee, the oversight committee, the only way to really change the CIA is from the inside. you know, around 10 years of your career, or I should say year 10 of your career at the CIA, that's when people, some people's careers begin to take off and they begin to move into leadership positions. Well, if you've been at the CIA for 15 years

[50:34] and you're doing pretty well, you're going to find yourself in a position where you can actually affect policy, you can change policy, and you might be able to make the place, you know, better or more law-abiding. So, I I understand that the CIA is not going away. Congress isn't going to do away with it. It's not going to just cease to exist. If we're going to change it, it has to be changed from the inside. John, we're just about out of time.

[51:05] Uh, is there something I haven't answered about all this stuff that you'd like the audience to know about? Yeah, these are these are great questions. I'm glad you brought them up. Thank you. And thanks for allowing me the opportunity to, you know, clarify some of these uh these stories that have been out there. Yeah, it's amazing, right? That what the media does no homework. You know, they did but by the way, before they publish all that stuff about you quoting you saying this stuff, did anybody contact you to get a clarification? not a soul. And you know what's crazy? The original article um had attached to it a video of me

[51:38] giving the speech. It's like the guy who wrote the article didn't even bother to watch his own video that he attached to the article. But wasn't the first article like in Before It's News, something like that. Yeah. It was something ridiculous. Crazy. Yeah, exactly. Okay, John. Uh Kiryaku, thank you so much. Uh we got to have you come back and talk about some of these books, man. surveillance and the detection. I would love to have you come back and good luck with with the radio show and digging out from under this censorship. Now, if people want to support your

[52:08] work, how can they support John Kuryaku? Oh, thank you. Uh, you know what? You can go to johnkuryaku.com. Um, check it out there. Uh, some of the books are are on the site, the ones that are out of print or are for sale on the site. And um yeah, uh Amazon.com and listen to the show and drop me an email. And the show is on a Rumble now. You can hear it on Rumble. It's on Rumble. Yes. It's called Political Misfits. Like the Jets and the Sharks. Just think of that. Now it's John Kuryaku. K I R I A

[52:41] Ko.com. Uh John, thank you so much, man. Thanks for having me. Good night. [Music] And now a word from our sponsors. Hey, if you have something you want to promote, like a business or a website, you got a big event coming up, uh consider advertising on the Operan Report, uh we have excellent advertising rates for you. We're on KCAA on uh three different frequencies on AMFM in California, KSHP of 1400 AM

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[54:15] arsenal to protect your home or business from the floodwaters, a hurricane, storm surge, or the king tides. Give AquadamAM a call at 707764-2119 or look us up online at aquedam.net. We can help. We're also offering 10% off the price to anyone who mentions they heard this ad on the Operan Report. If you find yourself in need of legal representation, it can be a very stressful time in your life. In

[54:46] my career, I have dealt with thousands of lawyers. I've dealt with thousands of law firms. And I can confidently recommend to you Keith M. Davidson at kmdaw.com. Available 24 hours, 7 days a week. Just log into kmdlaw.com. That's kmdaw.com. Or you can call tollfree 8334kmdaw. That's 8334kmdaw. Personal injury, wrongful death, STDs, sexual assault, car accidents. They handle it all

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[56:20] reason, the book draws on academic resources, declassified documents, and other reliable sources and steers clear of conjecture. Such shocking true stories need no embellishment. emailrevealer.com. People ask me all the time, "Hey, Ed, are you still a private investigator?" I sure am. Go to emailrevealer.com. We handle adoption investigations, infidelity investigations where you give us your spouse's email address. We trace it back to online dating websites, catch him cheating online, email tracing, locate

[56:51] or identify somebody from as little as an anonymous email address, summon owe your money, back child support. We can find that deadbeat, locate his hidden assets, locate his hidden bank accounts, find his current place of employment, and even assist you in obtaining a judgment and recover that judgment for you. emailrevealer.com. Digital forensics, computer forensics, cell phone forensics, recover deleted text messages. Create a report that you can use in court. emailrevealer.com 8005729762. Hey guys, if you like the

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