Aafia Siddiqui
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Aafia Siddiqui is a Pakistani-American scientist arrested in Afghanistan in 2008. John Kiriakou says he covered her arrest as a terrorism consultant for ABC News, the first story he covered in that role, when she was described as the most dangerous terrorist captured since Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

The shooting claim

At the time, Sadiki was said to have shot at two FBI agents attempting to debrief her, and was shot twice in the stomach and nearly killed in return; she was convicted and sentenced to 86 years in prison. Kiriakou says that as of 2025, evidence has emerged indicating she never fired at any FBI agent and never had a gun, that one agent had set his own gun down, she picked it up, and a soldier shot her.

The bullet-hole photo

Prosecutors introduced at trial a photograph of the interrogation room showing bullet holes in the wall, presented as proof she had fired at the agents. Kiriakou says Sadiki's attorneys have since found a photograph of the same room, with the same bullet holes, taken days before her arrest.

The missing child

Sadiki has said the CIA took her three children at the time of her arrest. Per Kiriakou, two were eventually located and returned to her sister; the third, who would now be 18 years old, has never been found, and Sadiki has said she was told he was dropped and killed en route to an orphanage.

See also

- John Kiriakou

Kiriakou's account of the case (2026)

Introducing a 2026 interview on the case, Kiriakou set out her credentials first: a bachelor of science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a PhD from Brandeis University, and work in neuroscience. She returned to her native Pakistan for a period after the 9/11 attacks, and again around the 2003 invasion of Afghanistan.

The allegations against her he presents as allegations. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed named her as an al-Qaeda courier and financier, after which she was placed on the FBI's Seeking Information, Terrorism list. Kiriakou's caveat is explicit: "We don't know if she was a courier for al-Qaeda. And just because Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said so doesn't make it true."

Around 2003 she and her three children were allegedly kidnapped in Pakistan. She reappeared five years later in Ghazni, Afghanistan, was arrested by Afghan police and held for FBI questioning. The FBI's account is that she took a rifle from someone in the room and aimed it at an agent, Kiriakou quotes the agent's testimony that "I could see the barrel of the rifle... that indicated to me that it was pointed straight at my head", and shouted at them in English before being taken to the floor. He applies the same caveat: "Again, we don't know if that's true." She received 86 years.

He notes a large movement in Pakistan for her release or commutation, and that after so many years "there are a lot of Americans that would like to see Aafia Siddiqui released on humanitarian grounds."

The missing child

The part Kiriakou treats as more important than the conviction is what happened to her children. Two of the three were taken in by her sister. The youngest disappeared. His statement on responsibility is unhedged: "We know now that it was the CIA that took custody of Aafia Siddiqui's children." The question he built the episode around is simply "what happened to the youngest?"
