John Kiriakou

About

Journalist, author, and former CIA officer known for having served in the Central Intelligence Agency from 1990 until 2004, for working as both a Middle East analyst and then as a counterterrorism operations officer, and for being his role in the 2002 CIA operation connected to the capture of al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah in Pakistan. He is also known for becoming a prominent author and media commentator and writing books such as The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror, The Convenient Terrorist: Abu Zubaydah and the Weird Wonderland of America's Secret Wars, and Doing Time Like a Spy.

Before fame

He graduated from New Castle High School in 1982. He then attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he studied Middle Eastern Studies. He earned both a bachelor's degree and later a master's degree in Legislative Affairs from George Washington University. He worked briefly as a high school teacher before beginning his career in intelligence. He joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1990 as an analyst specializing in Middle Eastern politics and Iraq. He spent the first eight years of his CIA career analyzing developments in the Middle East and learning Arabic before he transitioned into the CIA's Directorate of Operations and served overseas assignments. He became the CIA's chief of counterterrorism operations in Pakistan after the September 11th, 2001, attacks where he helped coordinate intelligence efforts related to al-Qaeda and oversaw operations that led to the 2002 capture of suspected al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah. He released his first book he Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror in 2010.

Trivia

He became internationally famous on December 10th, 2007 when he appeared on ABC News and publicly confirmed that the CIA had used waterboarding on detainees. He was the first former CIA officer to publicly acknowledge the practice. He has received several awards recognizing whistleblowing and civic courage including the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage in 2012 and the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence in 2016. He has also appeared in documentaries about national security whistleblowers including the 2014 film Silenced.

Family life

He grew up in New Castle, Pennsylvania, after being born in nearby Sharon, Pennsylvania. He was raised in a Greek American family whose grandparents immigrated to the United States from Greece. His parents both worked as educators in the local school system. He has five children.

Associated with

He once taught high school classes that included future actor and musician Jared Leto as a student. He also worked as a senior investigator for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee under John Kerry.