14 March 2018
DEMOCRACY NOW — Former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou personally knew CIA director nominee Gina Haspel when he worked at the CIA. But their careers have taken very different paths over the past decade. Haspel, who was directly involved in torture at a secret CIA prison in Thailand, has been promoted to head the agency. Kiriakou, who blew the whistle on the torture program, ended up being jailed for 23 months. For more, we speak with John Kiriakou, who spent 14 years at the CIA as an analyst and case officer.
Transcript
AMY GOODMAN: As we continue to talk about the latest shake-up in the Trump administration, let’s bring into this conversation former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who personally knew CIA director nominee Gina Haspel when he worked at the CIA. But their careers have taken very different paths over the past decade. Haspel, who was directly involved in torture at a secret CIA prison in Thailand, has been promoted to now head the agency. Kiriakou, who blew the whistle on the torture program, ended up being jailed for almost two years.
John Kiriakou, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you respond to President Trump’s decision to fire Rex Tillerson and replace Tillerson with Pompeo as secretary of state? Pompeo, head of the CIA, would be then replaced by the deputy director of the CIA, Gina Haspel.
JOHN KIRIAKOU: Well, so many of us believed a year ago that Rex Tillerson was going to be the adult in the room at the White House. That turned out to be the case, in a way, but he was so disrespected by this president and those around him that he was probably doomed from the beginning. […]
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