Air India Flight 182
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Air India Flight 182 was a Boeing 747 destroyed by a bomb in 1985. John Kiriakou has attributed the attack to the government of India in remarks given in an interview with Chris Hedges and subsequently replayed and discussed at length by others.

The remarks

Kiriakou raised the case while setting out an objection to how the designation of state sponsors of terrorism is applied. Arguing that the label is attached to some states and withheld from others, he offered a series of examples, the Greek military junta, which he said carried out acts of terrorism against its own people, and Israel, which he said has carried out assassinations all over the world, before adding that one could "even point the finger at the government of India" for carrying out assassinations and terrorist attacks in Canada, "blowing up a 747, no less." 

He returned to the subject later in the same interview, unprompted. In that passage he grouped several claims together: that the Indians support their own Kashmiri separatist and extremist groups; that "it's the Indians that blew up the 747 in Canada"; and that it is the Indians who carry out hits or attempted hits against Sikh activists, Indian leftists or anti-Hindu nationalists in places such as Canada or the United Kingdom. He concluded that there is "plenty of blame to go around", and added that this was without beginning to discuss what the CIA does on a daily basis. 

The framing

In both passages the attribution is made in passing rather than as a disclosure, and as one item in a list assembled to make a general argument about the selective use of the terrorism label. Kiriakou offered no supporting detail, sourcing or dating for the attribution in either remark, and did not describe any personal involvement in the matter.

The remarks were subsequently taken up and amplified by Sikh commentators, whose analysis and additional claims are outside Kiriakou's own account and are not treated here.

See also

- Muslim Brotherhood terrorist designation
- John Kiriakou
- Central Intelligence Agency
