There are very few people alive who have sat inside the machinery of American intelligence, witnessed what it does in the dark, understand the inner workings of it as an agency and was called to tell the truth about the Torture Program to verify it on national television, and paid for that truth with their freedom. John Kiriakou is one of them.
John Kiriakou is a 17-year CIA veteran, former Chief of Counterterrorism Operations in Pakistan following the September 11 attacks, senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and consultant for ABC News — Kiriakou became the first US government official to confirm publicly that waterboarding was used to torture prisoners at CIA black sites. He called it what it was. The government decided to call it espionage and tried to put him in prison for 45 years. He ended up serving 23 months in federal prison. There is no way anyone leaves this kind of a life experience and betrayal without wounding at the deepest levels of being, no matter how transformed their life ends up becoming.
You know what? History vindicated John Kiriakou. The Senate Torture Report confirmed that everything he said was true. Senator John McCain rose on the floor of the Senate and said the country owed him a debt of gratitude.
He is the author of The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA’s War on Terror, The Convenient Terrorist: Two Whistleblowers’ Stories of Torture, Terror, Secret Wars, and CIA Lies, Doing Time Like a Spy: How the CIA Taught Me to Survive and Thrive in Prison, The CIA Insider’s Guide to the Iran Crisis, Surveillance and Surveillance Detection, The CIA Insider’s Guide to Lying and Lie Detection, The CIA Insider’s Guide to Disappearing and Living Off the Grid, and the forthcoming Remains of the Day: The Definitive Guide to the Historic Cemeteries of Washington, DC.
A natural born storyteller of Master level proportion, he has educated & entertained audiences around the world. He’s also the host of a podcast called “Deep Focus”, “John Kiriakou’s Dead Drop”, and the co-host of a podcast called “DeProgram” with Ted Rall. John is a sought-after speaker, and professor of intelligence studies at the University of Salamanca and Bay Path University.
He has appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett, the Danny Jones Podcast, the Tucker Carlson Show, the PBD Podcast with Patrick Bet-David, and many other major platforms. His reach now spans millions.
He has a way of bringing a listener into real life events and stories in a way that engages them as if they are there at the scene. Kim believes he’s a gifted Storyteller and that it’s one of his many great talents.
It’s Rainmaking Time pursued this conversation for over a year across seven different channels before it came together.
What followed was one of the most unusual and revealing exchanges in this broadcast’s nearly 600-episode history; wide-ranging and at times turbulent, covering the weaponization of the Espionage Act, the affirmative defense that whistleblowers are legally denied, the surveillance state, the prison system, Jeffrey Epstein, and the boundaries of what a man shaped by 17 years of intelligence work and being falsely imprisoned is and isn’t willing to consider.
For the first time, an episode is presented with Kim’s commentary at very specific points. Where the factual record diverges from what was said, evidence is offered not as argument, but as information and clarification. The energetic exchange you will witness is what it is and yet the record is also what it is. Kim presents both and leaves the rest to you.
IN THIS CONVERSATION:
→ How John Kiriakou became the first US government official to publicly confirm the CIA used waterboarding on prisoners
→ Why the Espionage Act — written in 1917 to combat German saboteurs — has never been meaningfully updated and what that means for whistleblowers today
→ Between 1917 and 2012, three Americans were charged with espionage for speaking to media. Find out who they were.
→ Why there is no affirmative defense for national security whistleblowers in American law and why this must change
→ The weaponization of the Justice Department: how it works
→ What really happens inside a federal prison
→ Kim’s editorial inserts: where the documented record diverges from what John said
→ How the FBI gets your data from private companies without a court order using national security letters
→ Remote viewing, Project Stargate, and a direct disagreement between Kim and John with Kim’s editorial clarification of the documented record
→ What John thinks Donald Trump must do before the 2026 midterms
Podcasts: Deep Focus · John Kiriakou’s Dead Drop · DeProgram with Ted Rall
johnkiriaku.com | ivycyber.com
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