# The philosophy class > **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 philosophy class," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-philosophy-class/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The introductory philosophy lecture at Miami University of Ohio in which John Kiriakou's own whistleblowing was set as the ethical dilemma, unknown to the professor with Kiriakou's son sitting in the room — the episode Kiriakou offers when asked how he survived losing his career, his pension and his marriage.* - **Where:** Miami University of Ohio - **When:** Two weeks into his third son's first semester, autumn 2023 - **Class size:** About 300 students - **The dilemma set:** A loyal CIA officer who learns of the torture programme and knows what going public will cost him - **The professor's question:** *"How many of you would have gone public?"* - **What the son wanted to say:** *"That's my dad"* **The philosophy class** is the story [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) tells in place of an answer when he is asked how he came through the loss of his career, his pension and his marriage. Pressed on it in 2023 — the interviewer noting that he looked better than he had in years — he answered first in general terms: *"It's been a process and it's taken me years. But I have to be honest with you. I like myself. I'm pleased with the way I turned out. I'm never going to be wealthy. I'm never going to live in a giant house. But my children respect me."*[1][2] Then he gave the evidence. His third son had started at Miami University of Ohio two weeks earlier and rang home after walking out of his first-ever philosophy class.[2] > *"There are like 300 kids in the class and the professor starts talking about ethical dilemmas. And he said, 'There's this guy, John Kiriakou. He was a loyal CIA officer and he saw that the CIA was committing the crime of torture. And he knew what would happen if he went public, but he also knew it was wrong. And so he went public anyway.' And he said, 'How many of you would have gone public?'"* The son's account of his own reaction is the part Kiriakou repeats: *"I wanted to jump up and say, 'That's my dad.'"* His reply was to tell the boy to pass on the offer privately — *"tell him that next time I'm in town to visit you, I'm happy to talk to his class."*[3] What he draws from it is narrow and domestic rather than vindicatory: *"But that makes me proud. That makes me happy. My children respect me. I can sleep at night with a clean conscience. And you know, I'm fine. I don't need a new car every couple of years. I don't need the big fancy house. I like the way my life turned out."*[3][4] This passage survives in the corpus only because it was recovered from the transcript's sponsor sidecar, into which the caption normaliser had wrongly swept it. ## See also - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) - [CIA Torture Program Whistleblowing](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-torture-program-whistleblowing) - [Whistleblower psychology](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/whistleblower-psychology) ## Sources 1. Ex-CIA Officer Exposes the Torture Program (2023-09-22), at 29:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72EuwXMxSAQ&t=1790s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-09-22-ex-cia-officer-exposes-the-torture-program/ 2. Ex-CIA Officer Exposes the Torture Program (2023-09-22), at 30:23. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72EuwXMxSAQ&t=1823s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-09-22-ex-cia-officer-exposes-the-torture-program/ 3. Ex-CIA Officer Exposes the Torture Program (2023-09-22), at 31:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72EuwXMxSAQ&t=1884s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-09-22-ex-cia-officer-exposes-the-torture-program/ 4. Ex-CIA Officer Exposes the Torture Program (2023-09-22), at 31:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72EuwXMxSAQ&t=1914s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-09-22-ex-cia-officer-exposes-the-torture-program/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-philosophy-class/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt