rant · moment 8 of 25
John Kiriakou's Torture Whistleblowing Backstory
from Our Best Episode (Inside the CIA with John Kiriakou) · #136
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
4 minTim previews the CIA episode by summarizing John Kiriakou's history: waterboarding Abu Zubaydah 83 times, the Mitchell/Jessen torture program, Kiriakou's ABC News disclosure, and his prosecution and imprisonment for blowing the whistle.
- 25:31John Kiriakou was the first person to publicly state that the United States was using waterboarding as torture.
- 25:49The government disclosed that Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times, not once as initially reported.
- 26:16The CIA set up a torture program designed by two doctors, Mitchell and Jess, that exploited cultural taboos against Arab detainees.
- 26:53The torture program willfully violated the Geneva Conventions, with doctors involved in designing and implementing torture that sometimes killed detainees, many of them innocent.
- 27:22Tim argues that George Washington said during the Revolutionary War that anyone who tortures will be tried, questioning whether post-9/11 America faced greater danger than a nascent nation at war.
- 27:57Kiriakou spent about 18 months in low security prison for being the whistleblower who exposed the torture program.
- 28:22This episode is notable because Kiriakou is the only person from the intelligence services the show has had on as a guest.
George WashingtonJohn KiriakoutortureCentral Intelligence AgencyGeneva ConventionsJane MayerAbu ZubaydahThe Dark SideIraq War