Blueprint Whistleblowing Prize Winner, CIA Whistleblower Kiriakou in Greek Book Launch
He spent two years in jail not for committing a crime, but reporting one – that of torture – and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou’s story of how it happened, turned into a book also launched in Greece, had an audience riveted.
In the Greek capital, he outlined his tale of intrigue – catching terrorists – and how the agency turned on him for refusing to be trained in how to torture them. Speaking in April at a public panel event entitled ‘Whistleblowers: Heroes or Renegades?’ with leading Greek journalists, Kiriakou mesmerized the audience at the packed Athens event hall.
Kiriakou won the 2016 Blueprint International Whistleblowing Prize for ‘bravery and integrity in the public interest’ from Blueprint for Free Speech NGO. The public panel coincided with the launch of the Greek language edition of his most recent book.
Fylakismenos Praktoras, by Patakis Publishers, is the Greek version of ‘Doing Time Like A Spy: How the CIA Taught Me to Survive and Thrive in Prison’, which gives the whistleblower’s account of his two-year sentence at a low-security Federal prison near Loretto, Pennsylvania. It provides a stark window into the high price whistleblowers may end of paying for speaking up.
He was the first CIA officer to be convicted for passing classified information to a reporter – he confirmed the name of a former colleague – although the reporter did not publish the name.
Kiriakou had been instrumental in a number of key CIA operations and working as a counter-terrorism officer in Athens after the group November 17 killed five Americans.
He related the pressure after he’d captured a key terrorist in Pakistani before discovering the man had been waterboarded.
‘President (George) Bush went on TV and said ‘We … do … not torture!’ Kiriakou said he recalled while watching the press conference.
Kiriakou said he was invited on a TV news show to discuss that and his experiences and realized the journalist had a high-level source likely in the White House.
‘I knew they were going to try to pin it on me,’ he said as he and his wife, also a CIA agent, were watching.
He said that was the tipping point where he decided to reveal what he had learned about the torture. The torture was, he said, authorized by the President.
Ironically, while he was cleared during Bush’s tenure, it was President Barack Obama who reopened the investigation.
Kiriakou said that GI’s in WWII and Vietnam were prosecuted for waterboarding. He said after racking up $1.1 million in lawyers’ fees, and up against the combined efforts of the CIA, FBI, and Obama, who wanted to make an example of him, he had only one choice.
That was to fight and face 45 years in prison if convicted – the government had a near 99 percent conviction rate, he said – or plead guilty to a lesser count and spend two years in prison and get out to be with his family.
While doing his time – meeting mobsters, white supremacists and an array of very bad people – he wrote the prize-winning ‘Letters from Loretto’, a blog smuggled out through his attorney.
After earning praise, as well as scorn and threats and being portrayed as a traitor by detractors, Kiriakou, 53, now has a radio show.
But he has yet to find a benefactor, especially in the Greek-American community of many wealthy people, none offering him a job.
In November 2013, Kiriakou was awarded the Peacemaker of the Year by the Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County and a month later got the 2013 Giraffe Hero Commendation, awarded to people who stick their necks out for the common good.
In 2016, he won the PEN First Amendment Award by the PEN Center.