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The pillow talk leak case

A 1990s CIA disclosure John Kiriakou witnessed from the next desk: a colleague passed classified information to a retired senior officer she was involved with, who repeated it on CNN as a terrorism consultant. The agency traced it to her within days and punished her administratively — a letter in her file, two weeks without pay, a year without promotion. Kiriakou holds it up as the correct way to handle mishandled classified information.

John Kiriakou uses this case as his benchmark for proportionate treatment of a classified disclosure, and he watched it happen from the adjacent desk.

“At the CIA in the 1990s I sat next to a woman who was having an affair with a man who used to be a senior CIA officer. He had retired and he had gone to CNN as a terrorism consultant — and in the course of pillow talk she relayed classified information to him. He went on CNN and repeated the classified information.”[1][2]

The investigation was quick and the outcome was administrative. “The CIA began an investigation. They immediately tied it right back to her. She was not charged with espionage. What they did was they wrote a strongly worded letter and put it in her personnel file. They suspended her without pay for two weeks, and she was ineligible for a promotion for a period of one year.”[3]

His conclusion is stated as a rule: “that”s how you handle the misuse of classified information.” He applies it in both directions — to the boxes in Joe Biden”s garage and to the documents at Mar-a-Lago alike: “shame on you, you should have a strongly worded letter put in your personnel file. But espionage? Sorry.”[3][4][5]

See also

References

  1. Kevin Gosztola (The Dissenter), 2024-02-1916:00 on YouTube · Transcript
  2. Kevin Gosztola (The Dissenter), 2024-02-1916:34 on YouTube · Transcript
  3. Kevin Gosztola (The Dissenter), 2024-02-1917:05 on YouTube · Transcript
  4. Kevin Gosztola (The Dissenter), 2024-02-1917:36 on YouTube · Transcript
  5. Kevin Gosztola (The Dissenter), 2024-02-1918:09 on YouTube · Transcript

Sourced from John Kiriakou's on-record public statements. See his profile for the full body of his interviews, podcast appearances, and short-form video.