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John Kiriakou, born on August 9, 1964, is recognized as an American whistleblower, author, journalist, and former intelligence officer. His work as a columnist for Reader Supported News and his courageous act of revealing the CIA’s controversial torture techniques have marked his career.
Kiriakou held significant roles within the intelligence community, having served in the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center as both an intelligence analyst and operations officer. He also brought his expertise to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a senior investigator. Beyond government work, he shared his insights as a consultant for ABC News and co-hosted the “Political Misfits” program on Radio Sputnik.
In December 2007, Kiriakou made headlines as the first U.S. official to confirm the use of waterboarding on al-Qaeda detainees, a revelation that sparked widespread debate about interrogation practices. This bold disclosure ultimately led to his 2012 conviction for sharing classified information with a journalist, making him the only CIA officer to be prosecuted for exposing the agency’s enhanced interrogation techniques. He accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
John Christopher Kiriakou’s roots trace back to Sharon, Pennsylvania, where he was born to a family of educators on August 9, 1964. Raised in nearby New Castle, he grew up with a rich cultural heritage, as his grandparents had immigrated from Greece.
John Kiriakou Biography
John Christopher Kiriakou was born on August 9, 1964, in Sharon, Pennsylvania, the son of elementary school teachers, and grew up in adjacent New Castle. His grandparents had emigrated from Greece.
Kiriakou graduated from New Castle High School in 1982 and later attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern studies and a master’s degree in legislative affairs.
Career
Jerrold Post, a well-known CIA psychologist and George Washington University professor, recruited Kiriakou into the CIA right after he finished graduate school. Kiriakou spent the first eight years of his career as a Middle East analyst, focusing on Iraq.
He held a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance. He acquired Arabic and worked as an economic officer at the American Embassy in Manama, Bahrain, from 1994 to 1996. He returned to Washington, D.C., to work on Iraq until 1998, when he was assigned to the CIA’s Directorate of Operations.
He became a counter-terrorism operations officer and served in Athens, Greece, where the CIA targeted 17N and other leftist Greek terrorist groups, as well as secular Palestinian revolutionaries.
Kiriakou was nearly slain by leftists in Greece after recruiting foreign spies to spy for the US. In 2000, Kiriakou returned to the CIA headquarters. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, Kiriakou was appointed Chief of Counterterrorist Operations in Pakistan.
In that role, he oversaw a series of military operations on al-Qaeda safehouses, capturing dozens of fighters. On the night of March 28, 2002, Kiriakou spearheaded an operation in Faisalabad, Pakistan, that captured Abu Zubaydah, al-Qaeda’s third-ranking official at the time. He left the CIA in 2004 to pursue a consulting career.
From 2004 to 2008, Kiriakou was a senior manager in Deloitte & Touche’s competitive intelligence practice. Kiriakou worked as a terrorist consultant for ABC News between September 2008 and March 2009. Following Senator John Kerry’s (D-MA) appointment as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2009, Kiriakou became the committee’s top United States Senate investigator, focused on Middle Eastern, international terrorism, piracy, and counter-drug concerns.
In 2011, he left the committee to become a managing partner at Rhodes Global Consulting, a political risk research firm based in Arlington, Virginia. From April 2011 until April 2012, he provided counter-terrorism advice to ABC News. He frequently speaks at schools and institutions across the country about the CIA, terrorism, torture, and ethics in intelligence operations.
John Kiriakou Awards
Kiriakou got ten CIA Exceptional Performance Awards, a Counterterrorism Service Medal, and the State Department Meritorious Honour Award. Following his whistleblowing activities, he received the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage in 2012, the Sam Adams Award in 2016, and the PEN First Amendment Award the same year.
Controversy
Kiriakou was accused on January 23, 2012, of exposing secret material to the media, including the name of a covert CIA operative and details about another CIA employee, Deuce Martinez, who was involved in classified activities.
In addition, Kiriakou was accused of lying to the CIA to get his book published. His criminal defence attorney was Robert Trout. Jesselyn Radack, Kiriakou’s other lawyer, told Politico that the administration was wrong to refuse him whistleblower status.
On April 5, 2012, Kiriakou was charged with one count of breaking the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, three charges of violating the Espionage Act, and one count of making false statements for allegedly lying to the CIA’s Publications Review Board.
Kiriakou first pleaded not guilty to all counts and was free on bond. Beginning September 12, 2012, the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia held closed Classified Information Procedures Act proceedings in Kiriakou’s case.
On October 22, 2012, Kiriakou agreed to plead guilty to one count of giving classified material to the media, thus violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act; his plea arrangement prevented journalists from testifying in court. All remaining charges were dropped.
Kiriakou was sentenced to 30 months in prison on January 25, 2013, becoming the second CIA employee to be imprisoned for disclosing classified information about CIA undercover identities in violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (the first was Sharon Scranage, a CIA secretary arrested and convicted in 1985).
When New York Times reporter Scott Shane told NPR in February 2013 that Obama’s prosecutions of journalism-related leaking were limiting national security coverage, he mentioned the Kiriakou case.
In January 2013, Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst and intelligence assistant to Barack Obama, addressed the president a letter signed by eighteen other CIA veterans urging him to shorten Kiriakou’s sentence.
John Kiriakou Wife
Kiriakou is married to Heather Kiriakou, a former CIA analyst. They married on August 16, 2003, and have two children. Heather resigned from the CIA while her husband was in legal problems. Despite all odds, their marriage has endured, and she has consistently supported her husband’s campaigning and public activities.
John Kiriakou Accident
Kiriakou was injured in a Vespa accident in Washington, D.C., when she collided with a car that came to an abrupt halt. He crushed six ribs, fractured his clavicle, and a vertebra was repaired at George Washington University Hospital, with pain management ports installed.
John Kiriakou Net Worth
John Kiriakou’s net worth is estimated to be at $2 million. His revenue is generated through a variety of avenues, including consulting, public speaking, and book sales.
Social Media
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