# James Morris

> **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: "James Morris," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/james-morris/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*A close friend of John Kiriakou's who served seventeen years of a twenty-year sentence for a crime committed at sixteen, found on release that a violent felony conviction closed off employment, made his own way to Turkey and across the border into Syria, spent two years fighting alongside the Kurds against ISIS, and later took his own life.*

- **Sentenced:** 20 years, at the age of 16
- **Served:** 17 years
- **Obstacle on release:** A violent felony conviction bars employment
- **Where he went:** Turkey, then across the border into Syria
- **With whom:** The Kurds, against ISIS
- **Duration:** About two years
- **Died:** By suicide

**James Morris** was a friend of John Kiriakou's whose life he recounted in January 2026, in answer to a viewer asking whether he had seen the documentary series *Hunting ISIS*, which follows American volunteers fighting alongside the Kurds in Syria.

## The sentence

Kiriakou's answer began not with the programme but with the man. Morris got out of prison after doing seventeen years of a twenty-year sentence for what Kiriakou calls a stupid crime committed at the age of sixteen, twenty years, imposed on a sixteen-year-old, of which he served seventeen.[1][2]

## What release did not give him

The next sentence in the account is the one Kiriakou uses whenever the subject is re-entry: *"You can't get a job if you have a violent felony conviction."*[2]

What Morris did instead was make his way to Turkey and then cross the border into Syria completely on his own, and spend two years with [the Kurds](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kurds) fighting ISIS.[2]

## What the documentary shows

Kiriakou said he had been fascinated by the series and thought it well made, and drew from it a general observation rather than a military one: it shows that there are a lot of desperate people out there, and a lot of bored people who are proficient with heavier weaponry and are looking for a cause, something to give their lives meaning.[2][3] Rall's amendment, *"Or to give their lives"*, was left standing.[3]

## The end

The story closes in a single line, delivered without elaboration: *"James ended up committing suicide, unfortunately."*[3]

The case sits inside Kiriakou's larger argument about what American sentencing does to people who enter the system as children and leave it in middle age with no lawful way to earn a living.

## See also

- [Kurds](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kurds)
- [The Second Chance Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/second-chance-act)
- [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. Is Trump Bidening Out? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-01-30), at 17:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDPkwpAs6Io&t=1039s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-30-deprogram-show-with-is-trump-bidening-out-deprogram-with-ted/
2. Is Trump Bidening Out? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-01-30), at 17:52. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDPkwpAs6Io&t=1072s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-30-deprogram-show-with-is-trump-bidening-out-deprogram-with-ted/
3. Is Trump Bidening Out? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-01-30), at 18:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDPkwpAs6Io&t=1102s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-30-deprogram-show-with-is-trump-bidening-out-deprogram-with-ted/

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