# The disappearance of Daniel Hale > **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 disappearance of Daniel Hale," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-disappearance-of-daniel-hale/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's account of losing touch with the drone whistleblower Daniel Hale after his release from prison, a brief reappearance on social media, a shut-down account a week later, and a circle of friends none of whom has heard from him since.* - **Released:** About a year to eighteen months before September 2025, per Kiriakou - **The reappearance:** Briefly on Twitter, greeted by Kiriakou as "American hero Daniel Hale" - **What followed:** The account was shut down a week later - **Since:** "Nobody's heard from Daniel" - **Kiriakou's state of knowledge:** "I don't know what happened to him" - **His assessment of Hale:** "A bona fide American hero" who sacrificed everything **The disappearance of Daniel Hale** is John Kiriakou's account of what became of the drone whistleblower after his release, given on the DeProgram programme in September 2025 during a discussion of drone warfare.[1] ## His view of Hale Kiriakou's estimate of [Daniel Hale](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-hale) is unreserved. He is *"an especially heroic whistleblower"* who *"went to prison for four and a half years after blowing the whistle on the drone programme"*, and who *"was extraordinarily brave by refusing to take a plea deal"* and going to trial.[2][3] Kiriakou attended the sentencing, and the contrast he draws is between Hale's self-assessment and his own. *"If you ask Daniel about it, Daniel will say, 'Oh, I'm weak, I'm soft, I buckled, I'm this, I'm that.' This guy is a hero, a bona fide American hero who sacrificed literally everything in his life so that the American people could have the truth about the drone programme."*[3][4] ## Afterwards Hale was, in Kiriakou's account, suicidal at the time of sentencing, and Kiriakou tried to reduce the sentence's apparent length for him by explaining the credits available.[4] The release came *"a year, year and a half ago"* by his reckoning, which places it in 2024, and produced a brief public reappearance. *"He was on Twitter for a minute and I was like, 'Oh my god, Daniel Hale, welcome home. American hero Daniel Hale.'"*[1] It did not last. *"A week later, he had shut down his Twitter account and he's disappeared."*[1] ## The silence since Kiriakou places himself among a group of people all asking the same question and none of them answering it. *"And all of my friends are like, 'Have you heard from Daniel?' No, nobody's heard from Daniel."*[1] He offers no theory. *"I don't know what happened to him."*[1] ## The argument it interrupted The story was told inside a broader case Kiriakou was making about drone warfare, that killing by drone is morally identical to killing in person, and that its frictionlessness is the danger. His conclusion after the account of Hale was that *"if you kill people by drone, it's the same as walking up to them and shooting them in the head."*[1][5] ## See also - [Daniel Hale](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-hale) - [Thomas Drake](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/thomas-drake) - [Signature strikes](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/signature-strikes) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 11:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=688s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 08:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=530s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 10:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=624s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 10:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=656s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 5. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 12:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=720s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-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/the-disappearance-of-daniel-hale/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt