# The twenty-seven cousins

> **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 twenty-seven cousins," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-twenty-seven-cousins/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou has said Daniel Ellsberg was a hero in his family before he was six years old — because seven of his twenty-seven first cousins on his mother's side fought in Vietnam believing what they had been told, and it was Ellsberg who showed the family that all of it had been a lie.*

- **First cousins on his mother's side:** 27
- **Who fought in Vietnam:** Seven
- **When his father explained Ellsberg:** When Kiriakou was six
- **Told to:** CODEPINK, 5 May 2023

Kiriakou's admiration for Daniel Ellsberg is not something he arrived at as an adult, or as a fellow defendant. He has described it as inherited.

## The lesson at six

Ellsberg, he says, was a hero in their family. He remembers his father explaining to him, when he was only six years old, that this man — this one man — had decided to tell the American people the truth when everybody else was lying about the truth.[1]

## Why it landed in that household

The reason the lesson had weight is a matter of arithmetic. Kiriakou's mother came from a very large family: he has twenty-seven first cousins on her side alone. Seven of those twenty-seven fought in Vietnam.[1]

And they went, he says, thinking they were fighting in Vietnam for the right reasons. They believed what they were being told: that they were the good guys, that they were on the side of righteousness, that they were there to protect the American people and the American way of life, and that they were winning.[1][2]

All of that, in his summary, was a lie — and the family did not even know it was a lie until Daniel Ellsberg told them.[2]

## Revelatory

Kiriakou calls the effect revelatory, and says his parents made sure the children understood, even at those young ages, that Ellsberg was a bona fide American hero.[2]

The account is unusual in his repertoire for what it leaves out. Kiriakou generally describes his family's politics through the frame of public service and obligation — the debt owed to a country that took his grandparents in. This story runs the other way: the same family learning, through seven of its own, that the government could ask them for that service on a false account of what it was for, and that the correction would have to come from someone who broke the law to supply it.

## See also

- [Daniel Ellsberg](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-ellsberg)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [Kiriakou's father and grandfather](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-father-and-grandfather)

## Sources

1. John Kiriakou on Daniel Ellsberg #shorts (2023-05-05), at 00:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgZoLf-Dwpg&t=0s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-05-05-codepink-john-kiriakou-on-daniel-ellsberg-shorts/
2. John Kiriakou on Daniel Ellsberg #shorts (2023-05-05), at 00:31. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgZoLf-Dwpg&t=31s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-05-05-codepink-john-kiriakou-on-daniel-ellsberg-shorts/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-twenty-seven-cousins/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt