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John Kiriakou is a former CIA analyst and case officer, former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former counterterrorism consultant. While employed by the CIA, he was involved in critical counterterrorism missions following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, but refused to be trained in so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques."
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Kiriakou became the chief of counterterrorism operations in Pakistan. CIA officials offered to train him in "enhanced interrogation techniques," but he refused. While serving in Pakistan, Kiriakou led the CIA team in the March 2002 raid and capture of Abu Zubaydah, who was considered al Qaeda's third-ranking official at the time. The CIA later distributed disinformation internally that Zubaydah had been waterboarded one time, and that as a result, he had "cracked." It was later revealed that the CIA waterboarded Abu Zubaydah 83 times, and the waterboarding had not resulted in any actionable intelligence. Although Zubaydah's interrogations were videotaped, the CIA later destroyed the videos despite a judicial order to preserve them, claiming it was done to protect the identities of agents shown in the footage.
Following Zubaydah's capture, Kiriakou became Executive Assistant to the CIA's Deputy Director for Operations, where he served as the Director of Central Intelligence's principal Iraq briefer.
Kiriakou left the CIA in March 2004. He later served as a senior investigator on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as senior intelligence advisor to Committee Chairman Senator John Kerry. Kiriakou also authored a bestselling book, "The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror," and worked as an intelligence consultant.
Throughout his career, Kiriakou received 10 CIA Exceptional Performance Awards, the CIA's Sustained Superior Performance Award, the Counterterrorism Service Medal, and the State Department's Meritorious Honor Award.
In 2007, Kiriakou appeared on ABC News in an interview with Brian Ross, during which he became the first former CIA officer to confirm that the agency waterboarded detainees and label waterboarding as torture. Kiriakou's interview revealed that this practice was not just the result of a few rogue agents, but was official U.S. policy approved at the highest levels of the government.
The government started investigating Kiriakou immediately after his media appearance. Five years later, the government finally succeeded in piecing together enough information to criminally prosecute him. He became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act - a law designed to punish spies, not whistleblowers.
Eventually, in order to avoid a trial that could have resulted in separation from his wife and five children for up to 45 years, he opted to plead guilty to one count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act in exchange for a 30-month sentence.
Kiriakou is the sole CIA agent to go to jail in connection with the U.S. torture program, despite the fact that he never tortured anyone. Rather, he blew the whistle on this horrific wrongdoing.
Even more troubling is the fact that CIA agents who actually engaged in torture after 9/11 have never been prosecuted, nor have the officials who condoned or ordered torture, or the attorneys who wrote memos justifying the torture. Similarly, the officials who destroyed the videotapes that provided clear evidence of torture have never been held accountable for their wrongdoing.
Kiriakou became, and remains, widely viewed as an American hero who bravely served his country and blew the whistle on torture. In 2012, for example, Kiriakou was honored with the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civil Courage, an award given to individuals who advance truth and justice despite the personal risk it creates.
Kiriakou was formally sentenced on January 25, 2013 to 30 months in federal prison. Two days prior to sentencing, Kiriakou was honored by inclusion of his portrait in artist Robert Shetterly's series "Americans Who Tell the Truth," which features notable truth-tellers from American history.
Kiriakou reported to federal prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania on February 28, 2013 to begin serving his sentence, where he has continued to speak out in a series of "Letters from Loretto," including his first, which provided a stunning portrait of prison life. In November 2013, the Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County, California honored Kiriakou as its "Peacemaker of the Year."
He was released from prison in February 2015.
