Poster Series: John Kiriakou
Click here to see or download the second Indypendent Whistleblower Poster in full.
DATE OF BIRTH
August 9, 1964
HOMETOWN
New Castle, Pennsylvania
CAREER
Kiriakou served in the CIA from 1990 to 2004 as an analyst and a case officer. Following 9/11, he became the CIA’s chief of counterterrorism operations in Pakistan and led raids that captured a number of Al-Qaeda fighters. Kiriakou went on to work as a counterterrorism consultant for ABC News and serve as a senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The Indypendent’s Whistleblower Poster Series
This is the second in a series of four posters featuring whistleblowers who have taken great risks to expose the crimes and the misdeeds of our government.
July (Issue #188):
Edward Snowden
August (Issue #189):
John Kiriakou
WHAT HE LEAKED
In a 2007 interview with ABC News, Kiriakou became the first member of the CIA to publicly acknowledge that the agency was waterboarding prisoners and that this torture was officially sanctioned by the U.S. government.
KIRIAKOU IN HIS OWN WORDS
“My case was about torture. The CIA never forgave me for exposing the torture program and saying it was U.S. government policy.”
RETALIATION
Kiriakou was charged in 2012 with three counts of espionage and one count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA) for having provided the name of a former CIA colleague to a journalist who never published it, as well as one count of making false statements to the CIA Publications Review Board.
LEGAL STATUS
Facing up to 45 years in prison and soaring legal expenses that have left him almost $1 million in debt, Kiriakou pled guilty to one count of violating the IIPA. He began serving a 30-month federal prison sentence on Feb. 28, 2013.
FAMILY
Wife Heather, sons Max (8) and Charlie (19 months) and daughter Kate (6); two other children from a prior marriage.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TORTURERS?
No CIA employees have been charged with crimes for their role in the agency’s use of torture in the so-called War on Terror. Top CIA officials who ordered the 2005 destruction of 92 videotapes depicting prisoner abuse by the agency have also avoided prosecution for obstruction of justice despite flouting a court order — leaving Kiriakou as the only American to go to prison over torture.
PRISON ADDRESS
John Kiriakou 79637-083
Federal Correctional Institution
Loretto
P.O. Box 1000
Loretto, PA 15940
Kiriakou is permitted to receive mail from anyone, and soft-cover books and magazines only from individuals.
ON THE WEB
Kiriakou’s prison letters are being published at firedoglake.com