A former CIA whistleblower no longer believes in what he calls the "whole hope and change silliness" brought by the Obama administration, he said in a lecture at UNC’s Carroll Hall on Tuesday.
John Kiriakou, a retiree from the CIA as of 2004, said his life changed when he sat down with CBS in Dec. 2007 — an interview in which he revealed the CIA’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
- Kiriakou is the first CIA officer ever to be convicted about leaking information.
- He served 23 months in prison after being charged with five felonies in 2012 — three of which were counts of espionage.
- One of these charges dealt with his confirmation of a CIA colleague’s name to a New York Times reporter, which he said he regrets.
Despite the difficulty of the past couple of years, Kiriakou said his decision to expose the government’s use of torture in interrogation was the right one.
“It was worth it; I can sleep at night,” he said in the lecture.
Though once optimistic about the potential for change in the CIA and federal government’s policies, his hopes for an overhaul of the system by the Obama Administration were unmet.
“With Bush, all of the tortures went free,” he told The Daily Tar Heel. “With Obama, all of the torturers are going to stay free, and we’re going to clamp down on all these other whistleblowers, too.”
As new presidents and leaders in the legislature have been elected, Kiriakou said he believes national security whistleblowing is a policy issue — not necessarily related to partisan affiliation or politics.
Cathy Packer, a professor and co-director of the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy, said she finds it appalling the Obama administration would revive the Espionage Act — often considered a low point in the history of First Amendment rights.
