# The 2007 death threats

> **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: "The 2007 death threats," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-2007-death-threats/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The immediate personal consequence of John Kiriakou's December 2007 television appearance confirming CIA waterboarding: hundreds of pieces of hate mail, and three threats against his life that the FBI classified as credible, one of which named his children and gave his home address. On the Bureau's advice he took his family out of the country for a week; the FBI then interviewed the senders, judged them local cranks, and told him to come home.*

- **Trigger:** Going public on the [torture programme](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-torture-program-whistleblowing) in December 2007
- **Volume:** Hundreds of pieces of hate mail and hate email
- **Escalation:** Three threats the FBI described as credible
- **One threat included:** His children and his home address
- **Response:** The FBI urged him to leave town; he took the family to Cancún for a week
- **Resolution:** Senders interviewed and assessed as local lunatics; no real threat

**The 2007 death threats** were the first personal consequence of [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s December 2007 decision to [speak publicly about the CIA's torture programme](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-torture-program-whistleblowing), five years before his prosecution.

## The mail

*"When I went public on torture in December of 2007 I got hundreds — literally hundreds — of pieces of hate mail and hate email."*[1]

## The three the FBI took seriously

The FBI telephoned him one day to say they had what they described as three credible threats on his life. *"One of them actually mentioned my children and my address,"* and the Bureau urged him to leave town.[1] He took his family to Cancún for a week. The FBI then called to say they had taken care of everything: the senders had been interviewed, they were *"just local lunatics,"* and there was no real threat. The family came home.[2]

## As a measure of the climate

Kiriakou raised the episode in 2019 as a baseline, not as a grievance. Asked what would happen if [the Ukraine call whistleblower](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ukraine-call-whistleblower) were named, he answered by comparison: *"we're in a far, far more politically charged environment now than we were in 2007,"* with rally-goers assaulting journalists and protesters and the president encouraging it.[2][3] The implication he leaves is that a 2019 outing would draw worse than three letters the Bureau could dismiss in a week.

## See also

- [CIA Torture Program Whistleblowing](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-torture-program-whistleblowing)
- [The Ukraine call whistleblower](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ukraine-call-whistleblower)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [The chilling effect of whistleblower prosecutions](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/chilling-effect-of-whistleblower-prosecutions)

## Sources

1. Discusses Ukraine Phone Call (2019-10-03), at 17:49. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCZWqXneXfY&t=1069s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-10-03-rob-kall-bottom-up-show-discusses-ukraine-phone-call/
2. Discusses Ukraine Phone Call (2019-10-03), at 18:21. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCZWqXneXfY&t=1101s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-10-03-rob-kall-bottom-up-show-discusses-ukraine-phone-call/
3. Discusses Ukraine Phone Call (2019-10-03), at 18:53. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCZWqXneXfY&t=1133s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-10-03-rob-kall-bottom-up-show-discusses-ukraine-phone-call/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-2007-death-threats/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt