Wolf Blitzer at CIA headquarters is the second of two episodes John Kiriakou offers to explain why he does not accept the standard picture of an arm’s-length relationship between the CIA and the American press.
What he saw
Kiriakou dates it to 1990, when he had been on the job only a couple of weeks. He saw the CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer walking the halls with a camera crew, no less — and with no security escort.[1]
Blitzer was doing a stand-up with his microphone directly in front of a sign reading CIA Historical Intelligence Collection, which Kiriakou identifies as an offshoot of the agency’s library.[1][2]
Kiriakou remembers looking at the scene, shaking his head and walking out, thinking that somebody ought to be arrested for this — probably Blitzer, and the CIA security officer who was not escorting him.[2]
The rule it broke
The episode is remarkable to Kiriakou because of the rule he had just been taught. One of the holy of holies at the CIA, he says, is that an officer never, ever talks to the media for any reason — a rule he says he obeyed even when ordered otherwise during Bob Woodward’s access to headquarters.[3]
Who gets the leaks
What he came to learn, he says, is that of course the agency talks to the media — when the media are willing to carry its water.[4] Officers know exactly who to leak to, and Kiriakou names them: Bob Woodward at the Washington Post, Joby Warrick at the Post, David Ignatius at the Post, half a dozen people at the New York Times, and a couple of others at NBC News and the Los Angeles Times — along with Wolf Blitzer at CNN.[4] The reason, he says, is that they are going to report exactly what the agency wants them to report.[4][1]
His conclusion is that this kind of thing happens all the time: Americans like to think there is a Chinese wall between the CIA — especially its senior officers — and the American media, and in fact the two are in bed together.[2][5]