John Kiriakou about what can go wrong with spy agencies | Splendour Forum 2015

What happens when a few good men (and women) stand up to wrongdoing in the world’s most secret agencies?

In his first address to an Australian audience, Kiriakou is joined by lawyer and former ACT Attorney, General Bernard Collaery who is defending “K” an ASIS agent who revealed Australia used its state spies to bug the cabinet room of one of the world’s poorest nations, East Timor. The pair chat to whistleblower expert, academic and author, Dr Suelette Dreyfus who wrote Underground with Julian Assange about what can go wrong when spy agencies can hide behind their veils of secrecy.

John Kiriakou was a director of CIA counterterrorism operations in Pakistan after the September 11 attacks and led raids that resulted in the capture of 52 Al Qaeda fighters. He later worked as the senior investigator for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In 2007, he became the first CIA officer to confirm the use of torture against CIA prisoners. The FBI investigated Kiriakou and the Justice Department eventually charged him with espionage. Kiriakou took a plea to a reduced charge and served 23 months in federal prison. He was released from prison in February 2015 and now is active in peace and anti-torture circles.

#SITG2015

[rdpowai]

Appalling! Hats off to you sir! You made a big difference on this planet at a great personal cost 🙏💐😭🌺

[nightowl]

They put that poor honest guy in federal prison! What the hell is wrong with our country!!

[ron]

John comes across as a likeable guy, and couple that with being a good storyteller makes him the ideal person to reveal the true CIA. I hope to buy all his books on Amazon kindle editions. Fast forward to 2024 and you can see him on dozens of Youtube videos. Very interesting stories.

[dannyhfisher]

Amazing speaker very interesting you won’t be bored I’ll say that much…

[UdiDol]

John tried to impose a separate characteristic to the Agency, as we can infer from his narrations. It is not the training, every agent and case officer receives, but the creativity and adaptation to situation is what matters. The fearlessness to expose himself for explosive situations and quick and firm action must have taken hi this far. I have listened to a few of his conversations and I should say that he refers to the same incident in a different way at different occasions, giving the message to the viewer. So creative story teller, a unique reality experience.

[specag]

When I went to work for the guvmint my dad, retired military and intell type, said never volunteer for anything and complain anonymously.

[dragonslayer]

Wow! that was incredibly informative.Incredible to think that we are ruled by such ideology.Elitism is the future of the world.

[nattydreadlocks]

She said and ummmm about one thousand times.

[dannyhfisher]

Amazing speaker very interesting you won’t be bored I’ll say that much…yo lady why are you on laughing gas?

[philnleblanc]

Our founding fathers would be so disappointed in what our government has become. Such a shame how quickly a country has been ruined. For those involved, history will always remember you as a disgrace and traitors.

[mohaosman]

You telling me a big CIA guy who worked for his country within a week he was fired couldn’t afford food and he got food stamps. The system is a joke

[texicon]

This seems so quaint given the state of the world today and the situation in the West. It’s considerably worse and there seems to be no stopping it…

[tatianalyulkin]

Oh, is that what happened? Then how do you explain Pavel Gubarev, Gonzalo Lira and the Gestapo/SBU?

[marshalllapenta]

Don't Tug On Superman's Cape
If you fly too close to the sun, it will get too hot

[rooooooby]

Technically black and white are also shades of grey

[sarahbanks]

Torture enables the demonology, , has anyone thought or felt that ❤ Banksy 🇬🇧

[tatianalyulkin]

No. The NKVD used to arrest people in the middle of the night and you know it.

[RodneyBrown-fu]

I feel bad for John but i feel u signed those papers vdid u read the John ?

[avus-kwf]

12:49 WOW imagine what the CIA has done without their own members knowing what they did (But somehow people on the Internet know(Porsche))

[ambassador]

His story changes depending on what crowd he is in front of. I’d never think a CIA company man would be that dishonest. 😃