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The Cost of Telling the Truth | John Kiriakou | Ep. 446
Posted
May 4, 2026
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May 4, 2026
947,731
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3:20:23Now PlayingJohn Kiriakou spent 14 years at the CIA. He started as an analyst, went operational, and eventually ran counterterrorism work in Pakistan that led to the capture of Abu Zubaydah. He was the first U.S. government official to publicly confirm that the agency was waterboarding prisoners. For that, the Obama administration prosecuted him under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and sent him to federal prison for 23 months. He lost his pension. He lost his career. Most of his kids stopped speaking to him. Today he writes books, hosts a podcast, and teaches a course on the history of terrorism.
We get into how the agency really works. Recruiting spies. Breaking into a house in a foreign country to plant a bug. The mentor who told him to walk up to a target's front door and sell him out to his face. Then we get into the part nobody at Langley wants to talk about. Torture. Rendition. The innocent people who got grabbed off planes and buses and never got their lives back.
We also cover Section 702, the Patriot Act, Iran, Iraq, and why no agency ever gives the power back.
Enjoy.
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Timestamps:
[00:00:14] Charlie Wilson's War and Gus
[00:12:03] First tour success and Gus stories
[00:24:06] SDR tradecraft and surveillance humor
[00:28:27] Career plans and marriage strain
[00:33:30] Oversight failure and intelligence corruption
[00:47:12] Reauthorizing 702 and state power
[00:59:48] Budgets, Stingers, and endless wars
[01:07:17] Killing policy, media, and security
[01:19:39] Good people inside bad systems
[01:35:11] Rendition flights and innocent victims
[01:44:43] 9/11 shame and aviation lessons
[01:57:28] Domestic intelligence creep and contractors
[02:05:11] Iraq war origins and Iran policy
[02:28:24] Surveillance state and generational skepticism
[02:45:26] Fame, podcast growth, and reinvention
[03:17:51] Advice for future officers
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