The former CIA analyst who spoke out against the agency\u2019s use of torture says he\u2019s been deemed a “threat to public safety\u201d and is serving his prison sentence in a crowded jail cell despite being promised admission to a federal work camp.<\/p>\n
\n John Kiriakou, 48, has been at Loretto Federal Correctional
\n Institution near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania since February after he
\n took a plea deal offered by the federal government. He was facing
\n decades in prison if convicted under the charge initially lobbed
\n by the US Department of Justice, violating the Espionage Act, but
\n the government allowed him last year to plead guilty to a single
\n count of disclosing information that identified a covert agent in
\n exchange for a lesser sentence.\n <\/p>\n
Kiriakou made headlines in 2007 when he spoke at length to
\n reporters at ABC News about the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s use
\n of waterboarding as an interrogation tool against suspected
\n terrorists. Prior to the interview he spent several years working
\n for the agency abroad following the terrorist attacks of
\n September 11, 2001, serving as head of counterterrorism
\n operations in Pakistan before leaving the CIA and condemning his
\n country\u2019s use of torture. Now three months into his prison
\n sentence, the website Firedoglake has published the first of
\n Kiriakou\u2019s \u201cLetters from Loretto.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\u201cI arrived here on February 28, 2013 to serve a 30-month
\n sentence for violating the Intelligence Identities Protection act
\n of 1982. At least that’s what the government wants people to
\n believe. In truth, this is my punishment for blowing the whistle
\n on the CIA’s illegal torture program and for telling the public
\n that torture was official US government policy,<\/i>\u201d Kiriakou
\n writes. \u201cBut that’s a different story. The purpose of this
\n letter is to tell you about prison life.<\/i>\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Despite being told by prosecutors and the presiding judge that
\n he\u2019d serve his sentence in Loretto’s Federal Work Camp, Kiriakou
\n says he has been held at the main facility because the Bureau of
\n Prisons deemed him a \u201cthreat to the public safety<\/i>.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\u201cMy cell is more like a cubicle made out of concrete block.
\n Built to hold four men, mine holds six. Most others hold
\n eight<\/i>,\u201d he writes.\n <\/p>\n
Kiriakou says he volunteered to teach fellow prisoners as part of
\n Loretto\u2019s GED program, but his counselor dismissed his request.
\n He now works as a janitor in the prison\u2019s chapel and makes just
\n over five dollars a
\n
month.\n <\/p>\n
In regards to the other inmates, Kiriakou says he\u2019s been largely
\n accepted into the prison.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cMy reputation preceded me, and a rumor got started that I was
\n a CIA hitman. The Aryans whispered that I was a ‘Muslim hunter,’
\n but the Muslims, on the strength of my Arabic language skills and
\n a well-timed statement of support from Louis Farrakhan have
\n lauded me as a champion of Muslim human rights. Meanwhile, the
\n Italians have taken a liking to me because I’m patriotic, as they
\n are, and I have a visceral dislike of the FBI, which they do as
\n well. I have good relations with the blacks because I’ve helped
\n several of them write communication appeals or letters to judges
\n and I don’t charge anything for it. And the Hispanics respect me
\n because my cellmates, who represent a myriad of Latin drug gangs,
\n have told them to. So far, so good,<\/i>\u201d he writes.\n <\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Kiriakou says that Loretto\u2019s Special Investigative
\n Service, \u201cthe prison version of every police department’s
\n detective bureau,<\/i>\u201d tried to convince him that a fellow
\n inmate, allegedly the uncle of an accused terrorist, was told to
\n kill him.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cBut the more I thought about it, the more this made no sense.
\n Why would the uncle of the Times Square bomber be in a
\n low-security prison<\/i>?\u201d he writes.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cIn the meantime, SIS told him that I had made a call to
\n Washington after we met, and that I had been instructed to kill
\n him! We both laughed at the ham-handedness by which SIS tried to
\n get us to attack each other. If we had, we could have spent the
\n rest of our sentences in the SHU – solitary. Instead, we’re
\n friendly, we exchange greetings in Arabic and English, and we
\n chat<\/i>,\u201d he says.\n <\/p>\n
He also says that his cell was ransacked by prison officials in a
\n shake-down after correcting a guard who mispronounced his name.
\n
\u00a0
\n
\u201cLesson learned: [Corrections officers] can treat us like
\n subhumans but we have to show them faux respect even when it’s
\n not earned<\/i>,\u201d he says.\n <\/p>\n
Kiriakou is expected to finish his sentence in August 2015.
\n Before going to Loretto, he said at an event in Washington, \u201cI
\n never tortured anybody, but I\u2019m heading to prison while the
\n torturers and the lawyers
\n
who papered over it and the people who deceived it and the men
\n who destroyed the proof of it\u2014the tapes\u2014 will never face
\n justice<\/i>.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
In 2012, Kiriakou was indicted on one count of violating the
\n Intelligence Identities Protection Act, three counts of violating
\n the Espionage Act, and one count of making false statements. He
\n pleaded to the IIPA violation last October, prompting then-CIA
\n director David Petraeus to hail the conviction.\n <\/p>\n
“This case yielded the first IIPA successful prosecution in 27
\n years, and it marks an important victory for our Agency, for our
\n Intelligence Community, and for our country<\/i>,\u201d Petraeus said.
\n \u201cOaths do matter, and there are indeed consequences for those
\n who believe they are above the laws.<\/i>\u201d Petraeus resigned two
\n months later after it was revealed that he had an extramarital
\n affair with his biographer.\n<\/p>\n