# Saddam and the journalists > **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: "Saddam and the journalists," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saddam-and-the-journalists/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's comparison, drawn from fifteen years working the Iraq target at the CIA, between a dictator who hated the press and did not kill it and a government that he says kills journalists deliberately and in numbers.* - **Kiriakou's claim to standing:** Worked on Iraq for the greater part of 15 years at the CIA, through two wars - **His account of Saddam Hussein:** Hated journalists but "never went out and killed them" - **The contrast drawn:** Benjamin Netanyahu kills them "on purpose, en masse" - **The occasion:** Israel's stated killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif and four colleagues - **The reason he gives:** "He doesn't want the truth coming out" - **The host's framing:** That the argument was "an op-ed right there" **Saddam and the journalists** is a comparison John Kiriakou drew on the DeProgram programme in August 2025, after the host put to him the killing of the Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif and four colleagues, which the host said the Israel Defense Forces had acknowledged as deliberate on the grounds that al-Sharif led a Hamas cell.[1] ## The claim to standing Kiriakou grounds the comparison in his own career. *"I worked on Iraq for the most part of 15 years at the CIA, through two wars against Iraq."*[2] ## The comparison On that basis he offers [Saddam Hussein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saddam-hussein) as a benchmark, and one that the present case fails: *"Saddam Hussein hated journalists, but he never went out and killed them."*[2] The contrast he draws is with the Israeli prime minister: *"Benjamin Netanyahu kills them — on purpose, en masse."*[2] His explanation of the motive is one sentence: *"He doesn't want the truth coming out."*[2] The host, an editorial cartoonist, told him the formulation was publishable as it stood — *"that's an op-ed right there"* — and separately observed that he did not remember Pol Pot or Saddam Hussein ever asserting a right to do it.[3][2] ## The case that prompted it Kiriakou returned in the same passage to an earlier killing he says he remains angry about, that of [Shireen Abu Akleh](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/shireen-abu-akleh) — the Al Jazeera correspondent he describes as a Greek Orthodox Palestinian Christian who was *"at every event in Washington"*, shot in the face by a sniper while wearing a marked press vest and helmet and sheltering behind a tree.[2][4][5] He traces the shifting Israeli explanations — a mistake, then collaboration with Hamas — and describes the funeral at a [Greek Orthodox](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/greek-orthodox-church) church in the West Bank, where he says Israeli forces entered mid-service and beat the pallbearers until the coffin was dropped and opened.[5][6] What has changed since, in his account, is not the conduct but the pretence: *"now they don't even bother. They just kill the whole group ... because what's going to happen? Nothing ever does."*[7] ## See also - [Saddam Hussein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saddam-hussein) - [Shireen Abu Akleh](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/shireen-abu-akleh) - [Church of Saint Porphyrios](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/st-porphyrios-church-gaza) - [Benjamin Netanyahu](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/benjamin-netanyahu) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 16:41. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=1001s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 17:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=1063s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 17:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=1031s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 18:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=1095s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 5. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 18:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=1125s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 6. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 19:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=1156s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 7. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 19:49. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=1189s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saddam-and-the-journalists/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt