John Kiriakou

John Chris Kiriakou ( kee-ree-AH-koo; born August 9, 1964) is an American former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, whistleblower, journalist, and author. He was an intelligence analyst and operations officer for the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, and a senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was also a consultant for ABC News, a co-host of Political Misfits on Russian state-owned Radio Sputnik, and a columnist for Reader Supported News. Kiriakou was the first US government official to confirm in December 2007 that waterboarding was used to torture prisoners at CIA "black sites" during interrogations. He was later convicted for exposing the CIA's enhanced interrogation program, having passed classified information to a reporter. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. After his two-year imprisonment ended in 2015, Kiriakou received multiple awards recognizing his whistleblowing on the CIA torture program, including the PEN First Amendment Award. Afterwards, he became a public commentator on intelligence, whistleblowing, prison reform, civil liberties, and the American national security state in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. He has continued writing and appearing in independent and mainstream media, often discussing CIA operations, culture, mass surveillance, propaganda, and covert foreign policy. During the early 2020s, he gained a larger online audience through long-form interviews and podcast appearances, including on The Joe Rogan Experience and The Diary of a CEO. By the mid-2020s, edited clips of Kiriakou recounting intelligence operations, interrogations, prison experiences, and covert actions had gone viral across TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube. He is an internet personality associated with revealing and popularizing information about the American intelligence apparatus and post-9/11 security state. Kiriakou is a member of the organization Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).