The rogue officer remark
========================

The rogue officer remark was an answer President George W. Bush gave to a shouted question about torture in late 2007, which John Kiriakou has identified across many accounts as the moment he decided to go public.

The sequence

Kiriakou has said that Brian Ross of ABC News telephoned him at home, saying he had a source claiming Kiriakou had personally tortured Abu Zubaydah. Kiriakou denied it categorically, telling Ross that he had never laid a hand on Abu Zubaydah or on any other prisoner, and that his source was either grossly misinformed or a liar. Ross replied that he was welcome to come on the programme and defend himself; Kiriakou, who had never spoken to a journalist, said he would think about it and has since said he did not recognise this as a standard reporter's technique. 

In the days that followed, Bush was asked about torture at a press conference and answered by looking into the camera and saying that the United States did not torture. Kiriakou has described telling his wife, herself a senior CIA officer, that the president was looking the American people in the eye and lying to them. 

The remark

Two days later, by Kiriakou's account, Bush walked out of the South Portico of the White House toward the helicopter that would take him to Camp David. A reporter shouted a question about torture. The president stopped, turned, and said that if there was torture, it was because of a rogue CIA officer.  

Kiriakou has said he told his wife that Brian Ross's source was at the White House and that they were going to try to pin this on him. 

The decision

He then telephoned Ross and agreed to the interview. In the four or five days between the call and the broadcast he decided that whatever he was asked, he would tell the truth and let the cards fall where they may.  

The interview aired on 10 December 2007. In it Kiriakou made three statements: that the CIA was torturing its prisoners, that torture was official United States government policy rather than the act of a rogue officer, and that the policy had been personally approved by the president. 

See also

- Brian Ross
- George W. Bush
- Abu Zubaydah
- The Declination Letter
- John Kiriakou
