# Arianna Huffington

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Arianna Huffington," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/arianna-huffington/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Founder of the Huffington Post and the accidental amplifier who turned John Kiriakou's prison writing into a phenomenon. His first Letter from Loretto went to his attorney, then to a friend running Firedoglake who, unknown to Kiriakou, was close to Huffington; she plastered it as a banner headline and it drew over a million hits, bringing CNN and 60 Minutes to the prison gates. She published his open letter to Snowden, ran the diesel-therapy exposé that triggered the "hands off John Kiriakou" campaign, and came to Loretto herself with two young journalists.*

- **Who:** Founder of the Huffington Post
- **Role in Kiriakou's story:** Published the Letters from Loretto as banner headlines
- **First letter:** More than a million hits in its first week
- **Also published:** The open letter to Edward Snowden; the diesel-therapy exposé

**Arianna Huffington**, founder of the Huffington Post, is the person who, largely by accident, gave [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s prison writing its audience.

## The accidental pipeline

Kiriakou's first [Letter from Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/letter-from-loretto) was never meant for the world: he sent it to his attorney, who passed it to the proprietor of the website Firedoglake, Jane Hamsher. What Kiriakou didn't know was that Hamsher was good friends with Arianna Huffington, who put it on the Huffington Post under a banner headline. It went, in his words, completely crazy: more than a million hits in the week it published, followed by CNN and 60 Minutes coming to the prison and a press wave that took on a life of its own.[1][2][3][4] *"I thought, my God, I have a soapbox here. I can reach people."*[3]

In his fullest account of the chain, the letter went from Kiriakou to his attorney, from the attorney to Jane Hamsher of firedoglake.com, an alternative news site slightly left of centre, whose writers he rates highly, Kevin Gosztola in particular, and from Hamsher, who published it there, on to Huffington, who gave it the banner headline.[5] The newsletter itself was modelled, *"very arrogantly,"* on Martin Luther King's letter from Birmingham Jail, and in describing daily life it inadvertently exposed two crimes committed against him by guards, one of them a felony.[6]

Within 24 hours of the Huffington Post publication it had gone, in his word, crazy; within another 24 the prison, not Kiriakou, was fielding interview requests from CNN, Fox, ABC News, NPR, *Time*, *The Week*, *The Atlantic Monthly*, *The New Yorker*, *The Economist* and *Playboy*.[7] His conclusion at the time was the same one he draws now: *"this is going to be my superpower."*[8] The traffic figure varies between tellings, from more than a million hits to over two million.[9]

The distribution was deliberately redundant and entirely unglamorous. Each letter went out in four copies, to Hamsher, to his lawyer, to his wife, and to his publisher, because he intended to turn the letters into a book. The prison could not work out how he was getting them out, and he let the staff believe he was running a sophisticated smuggling operation: *"in fact I was just put an envelope and put a stamp on it and sent it."*[10]

The prison's response was an investigation, of Kiriakou, and how the blog got out.[11]

## The platform

Huffington's site became the launch pad for the letters that followed. His open letter to [Edward Snowden](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/edward-snowden), written expecting a few hundred readers, started at the Huffington Post and was republished everywhere.[12] His exposé of guard corruption led to a Department of Justice inspector general investigation.[13] And when the prison moved to silence him, stripping him to pen and paper, floating diesel therapy, he wrote about that immediately, *"and she immediately published it... it went viral."* Oliver Stone and John Cusack tweeted *"hands off John Kiriakou,"* and [Code Pink](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/code-pink) mobilized its members to call the [Bureau of Prisons](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bureau-of-prisons).[14]

Huffington also came to Loretto in person, bringing two young journalists with her.[15] Kiriakou had blogged for the Huffington Post before prison,[16] and he credits her outlet, alongside The Intercept, with running stories the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post wouldn't touch.[17]

## See also

- [Letter from Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/letter-from-loretto)
- [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto)
- [Bureau of Prisons](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bureau-of-prisons)
- [Edward Snowden](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/edward-snowden)

## Sources

1. John Kiriakou & Brian Ross — Doing Time Like a Spy (2017-05-17), at 21:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iSfm1yeJUA&t=1284s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-17-strand-book-store/
2. The Zero Hour (RJ Eskow) (2017-03-17), at 05:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JUqRcpwkS0&t=319s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-03-17-the-zero-hour-rj-eskow-the-zero-hour-rj-eskow/
3. Whistleblower John Kiriakou On the Rob Kall Bottom up Show (2017-06-29), at 49:49. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2t-xAWvn0g&t=2989s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-06-29-rob-kall-bottom-up-show/
4. Internet Party (2017-08-21), at 33:23. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6dljiI06es&t=2003s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-08-21-internet-party-internet-party/
5. S2E6 Use Your Words (2026-06-22), at 06:57. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a2ddfd9e6540bec0f3128d0/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-22-dead-drop-s2e6-use-your-words/
6. S2E6 Use Your Words (2026-06-22), at 06:26. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a2ddfd9e6540bec0f3128d0/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-22-dead-drop-s2e6-use-your-words/
7. S2E6 Use Your Words (2026-06-22), at 07:31. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a2ddfd9e6540bec0f3128d0/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-22-dead-drop-s2e6-use-your-words/
8. S2E6 Use Your Words (2026-06-22), at 08:02. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a2ddfd9e6540bec0f3128d0/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-22-dead-drop-s2e6-use-your-words/
9. Internet Party (2017-08-21), at 33:53. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6dljiI06es&t=2033s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-08-21-internet-party-internet-party/
10. Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou Turned Whistleblower Talk (2021-10-17), at 30:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiAb3oiaZ58&t=1842s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-10-17-la-progressive/
11. John Kiriakou, CIA Whistleblower, Doing Time Like a Spy, (2017-05-23), at 1:05:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twDSUsMh2ws&t=3906s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-23-podcast-ufo-live-shows/
12. John Kiriakou, CIA Whistleblower, Doing Time Like a Spy, (2017-05-23), at 49:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twDSUsMh2ws&t=2998s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-23-podcast-ufo-live-shows/
13. Unity4J vigil (2018-06-04), at 24:02. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkdGNyIicEU&t=1442s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2018-06-04-suzi-3d-unity4j-vigil/
14. RDAP DAN (2018-06-26), at 03:49. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_oIObeqj6U&t=229s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2018-06-26-rdap-dan-rdap-dan/
15. Savage Joy and JOHN KIRIAKOU (2023-02-18), at 36:49. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWsbNCBI434&t=2209s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-18-savage-joy-marie-mann-savage-joy-and-john-kiriakou/
16. awakeradio1 (2015-05-09), at 01:07. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okR1rm1B_qY&t=67s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-09-awakeradio1-awakeradio1/
17. Interviews from Washington DC - Whistleblower Denounces CIA (2015-11-17), at 22:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk9q6OCiFXY&t=1326s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-11-17-telesur-english-interviews-from-washington-dc-whistleblower-d/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/arianna-huffington/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt