Ex-CIA officer accused of terror leaks

(CBS/AP) 

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - An ex-CIA agent who has claimed he helped interrogate a top suspected terrorist was charged Monday with leaking classified secrets about fellow officers to the media.

John Kiriakou, 47, of Arlington is charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and the Espionage Act. He is scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court in Alexandria on Monday afternoon.

According to authorities, Kiriakou told a New York Times reporter about a fellow officer who participated in interrogating suspected al Qaeda financier Abu Zubaydah in 2002. That information was classified at the time. Zubaydah was captured in Pakistan in 2002. He was reportedly waterboarded 83 times. His case has been made an example by those who believe the interrogation technique should be outlawed.

According to an affidavit, FBI agents interviewed Kiriakou last week, and he denied leaking the names of covert CIA officers. When specifically asked whether he had provided the Abu Zubaydah interrogator's name to the New York Times for the 2008 article, he replied "Heavens no."

Prosecutors started their investigation after defense attorneys for suspected terrorists filed a classified legal brief in 2009 that included details that had never been provided by the government. Authorities concluded that Kiriakou had leaked the information to reporters, and that reporters had provided the information to the defense.

The charges also state that Kiriakou leaked information about the identity of another CIA officer who participated in Zubaydah's interrogation.

In a December 2007 interview with CBS News, Kiriakou said that waterboarding was used — effectively — to break down Zubaydah (see video below). He said that he considered the practice torture, but sometimes necessary.

Kiriakou has worked in recent years as a consultant to ABC News. He worked at the CIA as an intelligence officer from 1990 to 2004.

According to a court affidavit, the photographs of the CIA officer who participated in the Zubaydah interrogation were found in the possession of terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

The charges also accuse Kiriakou of lying about his actions in an effort to convince the CIA to let him publish a book. The book's title is "The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror."

"Safeguarding classified information, including the identities of CIA officers involved in sensitive operations, is critical to keeping our intelligence officers safe and protecting our national security," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "Today's charges reinforce the Justice Department's commitment to hold accountable anyone who would violate the solemn duty not to disclose such sensitive information."

[berlinfoto-2009]

(Quote)
"The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect. Newspeak is Ingsoc and Ingsoc is Newspeak", he added with a sort of mystical satisfaction. "Has it ever occurred to you. Ensoh, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are hiving now?"
"NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR" written by George Orwell

[berlinfoto-2009]

"GOVERNMENT HARASSMENT IS ABOUT KEEPING SECRETS"
The secret, that a person is being harassed about, is always, a crime or crimes, that the government has committed against that individual, or his family, or someone close to him.
This is classic "SECRET POLICE TECHNIQUES", probably introduced into the United States by Charles Joseph Bonaparte, and coming direct from the Oppression of Napoleon Bonaparte. This is extremely Un-American.

[joesapper]

well he has done this these are the facts. he id others that live because of their id is not known , and their buddy turns their id to the world through the media. why is he still talking. put him away and get this thing off the streets.

[berlinfoto-2009]

"CIA Murder Incorporated", the agents are allowed to do anything to an American Citizen who expresses the slightest amount of dissatisfaction, with his government, harassment beyond belief, and even murder.
The first few time I was approached by CIA personnel, they asked me, why I was against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan? I told them I did not really have an opinion. my problem was constant harassment, by federal agents in the U.S.
The rule of law does not apply to anyone in government any more.
If a American citizen only knows who a CIA Agent or Operative is by being, harassed by this Agent, then does the American Citizen have any rights?
Does not self-defense, play a part in this, does not a person have the right to expose those who harass him, in seeking to get the harassment stopped?

[imnho]

Plume was in fact a legal covert agent of the CIA when she was outed. It wrecked the covert network she had spent years building. It was a very bad move on Bush's part. Anybody who had anything to do with her was suspect by ther country and lost acess to any classified information they may have had. In some of these countries a known association with a CIA agent can be hazardious to your health.

It turns out that her husband confirmed that sixteen words in the SOU address were totally incorrect

[robert1129]

It took a while but it looks like the system is just trying to retaliate for an ex employee telling the truth.

[nancy_naive]

Same sentence as Cheney for the same crime as Cheney.

[raymailhot]

America has a history of state department employees acting for political gain.

Now it appears we have the same problem in the CIA!

[irreverentasever]

Unlike Private Manning this guy will get a good scolding and the CIA and congress will try to sweep it under the rug.

[nvr1]

Former Vice President Dick Cheney outed CIA agent Valarie Plame so where is the government's legal action against that?.

[raymailhot]

Do you have a clue? First he didn't, it was Dick Armitage. Second, she was not an undercover operative. No harm, no foul (no crime)!

But she was behind the use of her husband to undermine President Bush's administration.

[robert1129]

to raymailhot....what rock did you crawl out of under. There have been numerous sources that proved that Plame was a covert operative, that outing her jeopardized the lives of many foreign nationals, that outing her did extensive damage to our relations with foreign intel services. Outing her by whichever source did a tremdous damage to USA intel operations and was an act of treason.