John Chris Kiriakou (/kiriˈɑːkuː/ kee-ree-AH-koo; born August 9, 1964) is an American former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, author, and whistleblower who, in 2007, exposed the CIA's use of torture during the war on terror. He was an intelligence analyst and operations officer for the CIA's Counterterrorism Center and a senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Kiriakou joined the CIA in 1990 as an analyst. He became the chief of counterterrorist operations in Pakistan following the September 11 terrorist attacks and led the capture of Abu Zubaydah, who was then believed to be a high-ranking Al-Qaeda member. Kiriakou left the CIA in 2002, joining the private sector thereafter. In 2009, he rejoined government service as a U.S. Senate investigator under John Kerry.
In December 2007, Kiriakou became the first US government official to openly confirm that waterboarding was used to torture prisoners at CIA "black sites" during interrogations. In 2012, he was indicted for exposing the CIA's enhanced interrogation program and was later convicted for having passed classified information to a reporter, receiving a sentence of 30 months in prison. After his two-year imprisonment ended in 2015, Kiriakou received multiple awards recognizing his whistleblowing, including the PEN First Amendment Award and the Sam Adams Award. He was later hired by Russian state-owned Sputnik to host a podcast, before starting his own podcast shows. In 2026, edited clips of Kiriakou on podcasts such as The Joe Rogan Experience and The Diary of a CEO became viral on multiple social media platforms.
He is an author of seven books and is an activist on issues of intelligence, whistleblowing, prison reform, civil liberties, covert foreign policy, and the national security state in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
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