# Leon Panetta

> **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: "Leon Panetta," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/leon-panetta/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*CIA Director under President Obama (2009–2011) and subsequent Secretary of Defense; per John Kiriakou, the official who on arrival as Director shut down the Blackwater-operated CIA worldwide assassination program — and in the course of explaining the decision to the House Intelligence Committee publicly outed Erik Prince. Also one of Kiriakou's two go-to examples (with David Petraeus) of senior intelligence figures who disclosed the identities of covert CIA officers without consequence while Kiriakou himself was prosecuted for the same statute.*

- **Position:** CIA Director (2009–2011); Secretary of Defense (2011–2013)
- **Kiriakou's characterization:** "I never really liked Panetta just because he's not a nice guy, but Panetta was right to shut that down"
- **Key act per Kiriakou:** Shut down the Blackwater-operated CIA assassination program on arrival; outed Erik Prince to the House Intelligence Committee in the course of explaining the decision
- **Outed in his memoir:** The name of the Osama bin Laden shooter to filmmaker Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow; never charged

**Leon Panetta** was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President Obama from 2009 to 2011, and Secretary of Defense from 2011 to 2013. [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s assessment: *"I never really liked Panetta just because he's not a nice guy. But Panetta was right to shut [the Blackwater assassination program] down."*[1] Kiriakou made the same double-standard point as early as 2015, summarizing it in a single line: Panetta *"outed the Navy SEAL that led the bin Laden raid but he said, oh, my bad, it was an accident"* — faced no punishment, and kept a six-million-dollar book deal.[2]

## The Blackwater shutdown and the Erik Prince outing

On arrival at the CIA in 2009 Panetta terminated the [Blackwater](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/blackwater)-operated worldwide assassination program. In his memoir, and subsequently in testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Panetta described the program and in the course of doing so publicly identified [Erik Prince](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/erik-prince) by name as a CIA non-official-cover officer. Per Kiriakou: *"That's why Erik Prince lives in Dubai now and not in the United States."*[3][1]

## The IIPA double standard

Kiriakou's recurring point in interviews is that Panetta — alongside General [David Petraeus](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/david-petraeus) — disclosed the identity of covert CIA personnel without ever being charged under the [Intelligence Identities Protection Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mort-halperin), the same statute under which Kiriakou himself was prosecuted and sentenced to 30 months. Per Kiriakou: *"Leon Panetta, who outed the Osama bin Laden shooter to Hollywood writer Mark Boal and Hollywood producer Kathryn Bigelow — never charged with a crime."*[4]

## The Hollywood briefings + the book advance

Per [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou): *"What about [Leon Panetta](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/leon-panetta) — who after the bin Laden killing, not only told his deputy director and all of the associate deputy directors to cooperate with a Hollywood screenwriter and a Hollywood director, Katherine Bigelow and Mark Boal, and gave them classified briefings over a classified mockup of the bin Laden compound, but then revealed the undercover names of the Seal Team 6 operatives who had killed bin Laden — and then you said, 'oh my bad, sorry.' There was no prosecution for Leon Panetta. Got a nice little book deal out of it too — a six-million-dollar advance with his nice little book deal."*[5][6]

## Six names, no charge

[John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) says [Leon Panetta](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/leon-panetta) revealed the names of six covert CIA operatives and was never charged — one of the comparisons he uses to argue his own imprisonment was punishment for [whistleblowing](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-torture-program-whistleblowing) rather than for any leak.[7]

## The bin Laden award ceremony

Kiriakou uses Panetta's accidental disclosure of the name of the special forces ground commander who led the bin Laden operation as the central example in his argument that [Espionage Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/espionage-act) enforcement is selective. Panetta did not know that a Hollywood screenwriter was among the audience cleared to hear him speak, and a spokesman later said Panetta had assumed everyone present held the proper clearance.[8][9]

When the transcript of the speech was released, more than 90 lines had been redacted, which Kiriakou reads as implying that a great deal more than one name was disclosed. He also cites the CIA's own Office of Security, which concluded that agency security policy and administrative procedures were not followed in allowing a member of the media access to the classified ceremony.[9]

See [the Panetta bin Laden disclosure](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/panetta-bin-laden-disclosure) for the full argument.

## The room of uncleared people

Setting out the cases that produced no charges alongside his own, Kiriakou put Panetta's disclosure in the same category as [David Petraeus](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/david-petraeus)'s: *"Leon Panetta did exactly the same thing to a roomful of uncleared people, including journalists."* He wrote about it at the time in the *LA Times*.[10]

The room also contained the filmmakers then preparing [*Zero Dark Thirty*](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/zero-dark-thirty) — a film that, in Kiriakou's summary, ended up praising the agency and *"suggesting that torture, erroneously — lying, really — that torture was critical to the capture of bin Laden."* The implicit bargain he describes: *"if you defend torture, then you will be given the names"* of the team that carried out the raid.[11][12]

## See also

- [Blackwater](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/blackwater)
- [Erik Prince](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/erik-prince)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [Mort Halperin](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mort-halperin)

## Sources

1. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 1:03:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=3790s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
2. The Government Turned Me Into a Dissident (2015-04-02), at 9:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaiyVMRGE0M&t=572s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-04-02-vice-news-the-government-turned-me-into-a-dissident/
3. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 1:00:02. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=3602s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
4. CIA Terrorist Hunter on Surviving Assassination & Nailing Al-Qaeda's #3 | John Kiriakou • 250 (2024-11-13), at 3:01:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HuyORiWoDM&t=10870s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-11-13-julian-dorey-250/
5. CIA Spy on 9/11, Enhanced Interrogation, AI, Jeffrey Epstein | John Kiriakou | Part 2 (2023-11-19), at 2:15:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynMg7-QfL10&t=8118s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-19-dalton-fischer-kiriakou-part-2/
6. CIA Spy on 9/11, Enhanced Interrogation, AI, Jeffrey Epstein | John Kiriakou | Part 2 (2023-11-19), at 2:15:49. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynMg7-QfL10&t=8149s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-19-dalton-fischer-kiriakou-part-2/
7. John Kiriakou: The CIA Whistleblower Who Went to Prison for Telling the Truth (2026-01-21), at 38:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaaIoliCdHc&t=2304s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-21-scott-michael-nathan-prison-for-truth/
8. S2E11 Unfinished Business (2026-07-27), at 36:27. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a62505222500f71202ce878/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-27-dead-drop-s2e11-unfinished-business/
9. S2E11 Unfinished Business (2026-07-27), at 37:31. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a62505222500f71202ce878/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-27-dead-drop-s2e11-unfinished-business/
10. ScheerPost (2023-01-20), at 31:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT8DwRsee84&t=1872s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-01-20-scheerpost-scheerpost/
11. ScheerPost (2023-01-20), at 31:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT8DwRsee84&t=1903s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-01-20-scheerpost-scheerpost/
12. ScheerPost (2023-01-20), at 32:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT8DwRsee84&t=1935s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-01-20-scheerpost-scheerpost/

---

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