Episode 571: The Ripple Effect Podcast (Ex-CIA John Kiriakou | War On Whistleblowers: The High Cost of Speaking Truth To Power)

About this episode

John Kiriakou discusses the consequences of whistleblowing and his experiences as a former CIA officer.

John Kiriakou, from a decorated high-ranking CIA counter-terrorism chief who led the 2002 capture of al-Qaeda’s Abu Zubaydah, to a federal inmate, John Kiriakou ’s life is a masterclass in the high cost of speaking truth to power. In 2007, he became the first CIA official to publicly confirm the agency’s use of waterboarding , explicitly calling it torture—an act of whistleblowing that eventually led to him being the only person imprisoned in connection with the torture program. After serving 23 months, he reinvented himself as a sharp-witted author and commentator, hosting the Deep Focus podcast and penning books like The Reluctant Spy, and the gritty survival manual Doing Time Like a Spy , effectively using his intelligence background to critique the very systems he once served. JOHN KIRIAKOU Website: https://johnkiriakou.com/ X: https://x.com/JohnKiriakou IG: https://www.instagram.com/realjohnkiriakou Deep Focus Podcast (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@DeepFocuswithJohnKiriakou DeProgram Podcast (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@DeProgramShow Dead Drop Podcast (iTunes): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-kiriakous-dead-drop/id1844905790 Substack…

People in this episode

Host: Ricky Varandas

Guest: John Kiriakou

Topics covered

• whistleblowing
• CIA
• torture
• truth to power
• counter-terrorism
• personal transformation

Keywords

• whistleblower
• CIA
• waterboarding
• torture
• John Kiriakou
• Deep Focus Podcast
• truth to power

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: CIA, Deep Focus

Products: The Reluctant Spy, Doing Time Like a Spy

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