# Supervised release travel restrictions

> **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: "Supervised release travel restrictions," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/supervised-release-travel-restrictions/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's account of the years of court supervision that followed his prison term, in which a judge refused him permission to travel abroad to give paid speeches while he was expected to earn a living, and in which he had to surrender his passport on returning from every trip he was allowed to take.*

- **Applies after:** Release from federal prison
- **Typical length per Kiriakou:** Three, five or ten years of probation; lifetime for people convicted of sex offences
- **Restriction described:** No foreign travel without court permission
- **Example refused:** A speaking engagement in Berlin worth five to ten thousand dollars
- **Condition when permitted:** Passport surrendered on return
- **His characterisation:** 'Even then, you're not really free'

Asked what he meant by saying that even after release you are not really free, John Kiriakou answered with the mechanics of federal supervision. You have three years, five years, ten years of probation, he said, and people convicted of sex offences have a lifetime of it. You are not free to travel; you are not free, really, to do anything without asking a court, multiple times, to allow you to go out and make a living. [1] [2]

## The Berlin speech

His worked example is a speaking invitation. He was trying to make a living after getting out, he said, and was invited to give a speech in Berlin for five or ten thousand dollars, and the judge said no travel. Kiriakou's objection was that the court was telling him he had to go and take a job at Safeway stacking shelves for eight dollars an hour rather than earn ten thousand dollars for one speech in Berlin, and that the only reason offered was that he was a bad guy and needed to be punished. Either you want me to make a living, he said he told them, or you don't want me to make a living, and by the way, I have five children. [2] [3]

The court relented, he says, but attached a condition: he had to turn his passport in as soon as he got back. He asked why, and calls it a constant fight. Constant. Told that he had done his time, his reply was that they do not care. They don't care. [3]

## Where it sits in his account

Kiriakou treats supervised release as part of a single continuous punishment rather than an aftermath, and it is the counterweight to the more benign story he tells about Virginia's restoration of his [voting rights and state pardon](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/virginia-pardon-and-voting-rights). It also underlies his standing objection to the phrase Club Fed, discussed in [the Club Fed myth](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/club-fed-myth): prison is prison, and what follows it is not liberty. [1]

## See also

- [The Virginia pardon and voting rights](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/virginia-pardon-and-voting-rights)
- [Club Fed Myth](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/club-fed-myth)
- [The halfway house](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/halfway-house)
- [Home confinement](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/home-confinement)
- [Kiriakou pardon request](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-pardon-request)
- [Bureau of Prisons](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bureau-of-prisons)

## Sources

1. Ep.82 — Choosing Truth Over Career (2025-09-06), at 18:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzDSowz83y8&t=1110s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-06-ep-82-choosing-truth-over-career/
2. Ep.82 — Choosing Truth Over Career (2025-09-06), at 19:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzDSowz83y8&t=1140s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-06-ep-82-choosing-truth-over-career/
3. Ep.82 — Choosing Truth Over Career (2025-09-06), at 19:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzDSowz83y8&t=1170s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-06-ep-82-choosing-truth-over-career/

---

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