Operation Stop Talking-When spies speak, they often draw trouble. (Mother Jones)

[kpete]

Operation Stop Talking

Washington Dispatch: John Kiriakou called it hypocritical for the White House and Congress to point fingers at the CIA for its harsh interrogation techniques. Now his former employer, with the help of the Justice Department, is trying to shut him up.

By Laura Rozen

December 21, 2007

When spies speak, they often draw trouble.

After news broke earlier this month that the CIA had destroyed video tapes showing agency operatives using harsh techniques to interrogate two terrorism suspects (among them Abu Zubaida), John Kiriakou decided it was time to step out from the shadows. Speaking to ABC News, among other news outlets, the 14-year veteran of the CIA, who retired in 2004, said he had been part of the team that interrogated Zubaida after his March 2002 capture in Pakistan. According to Kiriakou's account, Zubaida broke after being waterboarded for 35 seconds, providing information that "probably saved lives."

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Kiriakou was in a position to know about important debates inside the CIA, regarding interrogation techniques and other high-level matters...

In the summer of 2002, after returning from a posting as the Counterterrorism Center chief in Pakistan, where he was involved in the questioning of Zubaida, Kiriakou served as the executive assistant to Robert Grenier, then the CIA's Iraq mission manager. Grenier, a former station chief in Pakistan and director of the CIA's counterterrorism center, later was called as a witness at the trial of the vice president's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby—and his testimony proved damaging to Libby's defense.

According to a declassified document filed with the court after the Libby trial and obtained by Mother Jones, Kiriakou authored a June 10, 2003 email sent to several CIA officials. The message apparently was written in response to intense efforts at that time by the vice president's office to learn how Plame's husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had been selected to go on a CIA-sponsored fact-finding mission to Niger. The email makes clear that senior CIA officials, including Kiriakou's boss and the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, did not know who Valerie Wilson was at the time. Prodded by Cheney's office, they were seeking information on her role at the agency prior to a scheduled conversation with Libby the next day.

more at:
http://motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2007/12/john-kiriakou.html