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Ethics, integrity and the CIA: Ex-agent tells his story
YOUNGSTOWN
John Kiriakou, former high-ranking Central Intelligence Agency officer who outed the CIA’s government-sanctioned policy of torturing political prisoners, spoke on “Ethics in Intelligence Operations” Tuesday at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
Kiriakou, a native of New Castle, Pa., in 2007 became the first CIA official to publicly say the CIA used waterboarding, a form of torture, on prisoners. He initially was charged with espionage, but after taking a plea deal was sentenced in 2010 to 2 1/2 years in prison. He eventually served 23 months, three months of house arrest and three years’ probation.
Under the plea deal, Kiriakou admitted violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act by confirming the identity of a CIA spy during an interview, though the operative’s name was not published.
For his first few years with the CIA, Kiriakou, who speaks Arabic and Greek, worked as an analyst in an office and then became a field operative.
“It was fun and exciting. I met kings and presidents from all over the world. I was a true believer, even in enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding.”
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, he volunteered to go to Afghanistan but was passed over twice before being sent to Pakistan.
Kiriakou was a leader of a joint operation that captured Abu Zubaydah, al-Qaida’s No. 3 leader, for which he was promoted, got a medal and was given his choice of assignments.
However, he began to doubt the value of and ethics of torture, but “kept his mouth shut for five years” until President George W. Bush told the American public that the United States does not torture prisoners.
“We will always need a CIA, but you have to go into the service with a personal moral compass, a set of ethics. There are no rules,” he said.
He said CIA operatives in his time did not receive any ethics training.
The question of torture is not whether it will work, but is it legal and moral, he said, adding, “America has to prove it has the high road.”