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President Obama has opposed waterboarding as torture since the 2008 campaign – so why is he sending the man who helped shed light on that practice to prison?
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who helped expose the Bush administration’s torture program, recently plead guilty to sharing the name of a colleague to journalists to use as a source. He is expected to receive a sentence of 30 months in prison.
It’s a cruel irony that the first agent connected to the CIA torture program to go to prison is the whistleblower who spoke out against the heinous practices of our government. From Bradley Manning to Aaron Swartz to John Kiriakou, the government’s pattern of overzealously prosecuting activists and whistleblowers has ruined too many lives already. If President Obama wants to show he opposes torture and supports government transparency he should pardon Kiriakou immediately.
In fact, the Justice Department has refused to pursue any of the people who sanctioned and carried out the torture Kiriakou helped expose. Yet they have gone after whistleblowers and activists with a zeal unmatched by any administration in history. Bradley Manning faces life in prison. Aaron Swartz took his life in the face of unrelenting prosecution. Thomas Drake, Shamai Leibowitz, the list goes on and on.
Kiriakou is the sixth person to be indicted under the Espionage Act by the Obama administration. It’s time the president end this war on whistleblowers. He can start by pardoning John Kiriakou.
Kiriakou served his country in the CIA for over 15 years, risking his life as an undercover agent chasing Al-Qaeda overseas — he does not deserve this treatment. Kiriakou says he engaged in rendition that resulted in the torture of detainees. He did not personally carry out torture. His leak was not even made public and presented no harm to the country.
Compare this to the reckless and very public outing of Valerie Plame — a case that resulted in four felony convictions for Scooter Libby, but not a single day in jail. It is unconscionable that Libby could avoid punishment, while Kiriakou must face years in prison for exposing the illegal and inhumane actions of the government — actions the Obama administration claims to oppose.
President Obama should not punish, but pardon John Kiriakou for his exceptional patriotism in speaking out against torture.
Sign our petition demanding President Obama pardon CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou.
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For people who think that what happened to Aaron Swartz was prosecutorial overreach run wild, the same thing is happening to John Kiriakou. As Kevin Gosztola wrote, he’ll be the only CIA agent imprisoned for torture — blowing the whistle on torture, that is.
Please let people know about what’s happening and add your name. We’ll be giving the names to Kiriakou who will be sentenced on January 25 to show support.
I signed, but only because I view the petition as part of the movement against the persecution of people like Bradley Manning. Notwithstanding the glorification of the CIA in two recent movies that won some Golden Globes and are up for Oscars too, it has amounted to a criminal gang at least since the 1953 overthrow of the democratically-elected government in Iran.
Kiriakou should have known better than to join it in the first place.
The portrait of Kiriakou is by Robert Shetterly who has done a series of portraits called ‘Americans Who Tell the Truth’. More about this one here.
I signed …….
Ah, yes… the “real work”
petitioning our murderer-in-chief…
forgive me if I don’t hold my breath waiting for the psychopath in the WH – for whom you had no energy to campaign against – to do something moral and right
Obama to much of a chicken shit to pardon this guy, he afraid fox news or a republican might say something…..i signed and donated
In this country, committing war crimes isn’t a problem, but exposing those very same war crimes is punishable with a prison term.
What a country!
“President Obama has opposed waterboarding as torture since the 2008 campaign…”
For a silver forked-tongue smoothie like BO, voicing purty words and righteous-sounding slogans fulfills the expectations of his voting-public. Follow-up in practice and policy implementaion is politically unnecessary, and would become troublesome for the elite interests he gladly serves.
Wow. Well-said.
CIA director implements torture, wins Medal of Freedom.
CIA agent blows whistle on torture, goes to prison.
I signed.
President Obama Should
Pardonpraise, Not Imprison CIA Torture Whistleblower John Kiriakou.And imprison the criminals he revealed.
fixed it…
No chance for a pardon. Obama is all in on the primacy of institutional loyalty above all things. Above the law or the nation. Institutional loyalty, to company or party is what defines those who succeed.
Every single thing Obama does shows total deference to entrenched institutions be they military/intelligence, corporate/financial or any other class you can name. The war on whistle blowers is a foundation of Obama’s governance.