Watching Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation hearing in early 2025, John Kiriakou said he was surprised by the vehemence directed at her over Edward Snowden — “especially surprised to see it coming from Republicans. I would expect it from Democrats.”[1]
He stated his own position first: “I think Ed Snowden is a bona fide American hero, and I was proud of Tulsi Gabbard for standing up for him and standing up for her own beliefs. She would not allow herself to be bullied.”[1]
Then he made two corrections.
”Traitor”
“One of the things that bothered me the most was the use of the word traitor. There is a constitutional definition of the word traitor. It is a person who provides aid and comfort to the enemy in a time of war.”[1]
Neither limb is satisfied, on his reading. Snowden did not provide aid and comfort to an enemy, and “we are not in a time of war — there has not been a declaration of war by Congress since December the 8th, 1941. So he’s not a traitor."[1]
"Defected”
The second correction is factual. Kiriakou attributes the claim to Senator Angus King, whom he also reports as saying that Snowden should be hanging from a tree, and who said Snowden had defected to Russia.[2]
“That is absolutely not true. He was in the transit lounge of Moscow airport on his way to Ecuador when John Kerry revoked his passport and he was not able to fly.”[2]
His conclusion is directed at the committee rather than at Snowden: “so let’s keep the honest people honest up there on Capitol Hill.”[3]
The pattern he is describing
Both corrections concern vocabulary rather than facts in dispute, and that is the point Kiriakou makes about his own case as well: he was called a leaker rather than a whistleblower for years, and the label did work that the evidence did not. He has given Snowden advice on the same premise — that a case is won or lost partly on who gets to describe it — and did so from prison in an open letter whose third and most emphatic instruction was never to speak to the FBI.