John Kiriakou Says the FBI Tried to Entrap Him and Charge Him With Espionage
The whistleblower alleges that when he was a Senate investigator, agents of the bureau cooked up a scheme against him involving an undercover agent posing as a foreign diplomat.John Kiriakou was one of the good guys when he worked as an intelligence operative for the CIA from 1990 to 2004. But after he blew the whistle on torture in 2007, the FBI started investigating him and, he says, even attempted to entrap him in a scheme involving a fake diplomat.
Kiriakou says he avoided the FBI’s trap, but he later got in trouble for revealing the name of a former non-covert CIA agent to a New York Times reporter. The disclosure led to his prosecution in 2012 for violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act—a 1982 amendment to the National Security Act of 1947—and Kiriakou served more than two years in prison as a result. He was released in 2015 and now is working to reform security abuses in America.
— Posted by Eric Ortiz
TRUTHDIG’S JOURNALISM REMAINS CLEARThe storytellers of chaos tried to manipulate the political and media narrative in 2025, but independent journalism exposed what they tried to hide. When you read Truthdig, you see through the illusion.
Support Independent Journalism.
Books
The recent book by John Dinges pursues the untold story behind the killings of two Americans by the Chilean military after the 1973 coup.
Books
Historian Jeff Schuhrke documents the AFL-CIO’s role in weakening left-wing labor unions around the world between the '40s and '90s.
Politics
Piecing together newly unredacted files and personal accounts, we know now there was a powerful shift against the agency's 'rogue autonomy.' Until there wasn't.
Media
Two decades after Webb’s death, the U.S. government hasn’t kicked the habit of wreaking lethal havoc at home and abroad.
TD Interview
The director of “JFK” on the Kennedy cover-up, why he was killed, and what the country—and the world—suffered as a result.
Ear to the Ground
Reports of rampant sexual abuse pile up at Langley headquarters.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.