# The Intercept's exposed sources

> **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 Intercept's exposed sources," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-intercept-source-exposures/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's charge that national security whistleblowers who take material to The Intercept end up in prison. He names Reality Winner and Terry Albury as sources whose identities the outlet exposed, says the same thing happened to Daniel Hale, and identifies the outlet's two national security reporters, Richard Esposito and Matthew Cole, as the journalists responsible for sending him to prison. His question is whether the pattern is incompetence or something worse.*

- **Named by Kiriakou:** Reality Winner (NSA), Terry Albury (FBI), [Daniel Hale](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-hale), and himself
- **The reporters he names:** Richard Esposito and [Matthew Cole](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/matthew-cole)
- **What he says they did to him:** 'The journalists responsible for sending me to prison'
- **His question:** 'Are they that unprofessional, or are they somehow connected to the national security establishment?'

**The Intercept's exposed sources** is the pattern [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) says makes the outlet dangerous to the people who bring it material.

## The pattern

Introducing [Daniel Hale](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-hale)'s decision to take [the Drone Papers](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-drone-papers) there, Kiriakou called the choice *"actually quite controversial, because many national security whistleblowers who have gone to The Intercept have found themselves to be sent to trial and then on to prison."*[1]

The cases he names are specific. *"NSA whistleblower Reality Winner, for example, went to The Intercept, they exposed her identity. FBI whistleblower Terry Albury went to The Intercept, and they exposed his identity."*[1]

His own is the third: *"the two national security journalists at The Intercept, Richard Esposito and [Matthew Cole](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/matthew-cole), were the journalists responsible for sending me to prison."* And the fourth is Hale, *"the same thing that happened to all of us happened to Daniel Hale at The Intercept."*[1]

## The question he leaves open

Kiriakou does not assert a motive. He puts it as an alternative and lets it stand: *"what is going on there? Are they that unprofessional, or are they somehow connected to the national security establishment?"*[1][2]

## See also

- [The Intercept](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-intercept)
- [Matthew Cole](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/matthew-cole)
- [Daniel Hale](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-hale)
- [The Drone Papers](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-drone-papers)

## Sources

1. Enema of the State (2023-03-05), at 7:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgGxUpHktUU&t=450s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-03-05-enema-of-the-state-enema-of-the-state/
2. Enema of the State (2023-03-05), at 8:02. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgGxUpHktUU&t=482s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-03-05-enema-of-the-state-enema-of-the-state/

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