# The BBC and the sanctions coverage > **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 BBC and the sanctions coverage," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-bbc-and-the-sanctions-coverage/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's assessment of the BBC, that it has a long history of offering both sides, which American broadcasters do not, set against his memory of watching it from inside the CIA in the run-up to the liberation of Kuwait, when its reporting on starving Iraqi children under sanctions drove him mad, because food was not sanctioned and Saddam Hussein was refusing to distribute it.* - **His assessment:** "The BBC has a long history of offering both sides" - **The contrast:** "Which we we don't do here in the United States" - **The asymmetry Rall proposed:** Less trustworthy on Britain, less biased on America, Kiriakou agreed - **When he watched it:** Inside the CIA, "getting ready to liberate Kuwait" - **The coverage that angered him:** "The poor starving Iraqi children, the sanctions are killing them" - **His objection:** "Food's not sanctioned… it's just that Saddam won't distribute the food" **The BBC and the sanctions coverage** is a two-part judgement [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) gave on 3 March 2026, when a viewer in the United Kingdom observed that the BBC is seen as biased at home and comparatively neutral in America, and asked how that could be. [Ted Rall](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ted-rall) proposed the asymmetry, that the BBC is less trustworthy about British domestic affairs and less biased about the United States, and Kiriakou agreed with it, then gave the reason. *"The BBC has has a long history of of offering both sides. Which we we don't do here in the United States."*[1][2] The assessment is consistent with the reading habit he prescribes elsewhere, in which the BBC is one of the outlets he samples daily precisely because it is not domestically aligned with him. ## What it sounded like from the inside The endorsement is not uncritical, and the qualification comes from his own service. *"And you know what? When I was in the CIA and we were getting ready to to to liberate Kuwait, it would drive me crazy to watch the BBC."*[2] What drove him mad was a specific line of coverage, which he reproduces as an argument he had to sit through: *"yeah, the the Iraqis invaded Kuwait, but the poor starving Iraqi children, the sanctions are killing them."*[2] His objection was factual rather than editorial. *"But but food's not sanctioned. It's this It's just that Saddam won't distribute the food. That drove me nuts."*[2][3] ## The two positions together Kiriakou does not reconcile the two halves, and the article does not either. The same institution earns his approval for the structural habit of putting both sides on air and his lasting irritation for what that habit produced in one case he had standing to check, a broadcaster giving airtime to a humanitarian claim he believed misassigned the blame from [Saddam Hussein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saddam-hussein) to the sanctions regime.[2][3] ## See also - [Critical Analytic Thinking](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/critical-analytic-thinking) - [The death of investigative journalism](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/death-of-investigative-journalism) - [Saddam Hussein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saddam-hussein) - [Kuwait Liberation Day](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kuwait-liberation-day) - [Ted Rall](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ted-rall) ## Sources 1. Regime Derange / DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-03-03), at 57:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Fa5y2PaKY&t=3435s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-03-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-regime-derange-deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jo/ 2. Regime Derange / DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-03-03), at 57:47. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Fa5y2PaKY&t=3467s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-03-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-regime-derange-deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jo/ 3. Regime Derange / DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-03-03), at 58:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Fa5y2PaKY&t=3498s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-03-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-regime-derange-deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jo/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-bbc-and-the-sanctions-coverage/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt