John Kiriakou was convicted in January 2013 for disclosing classified information about a fellow CIA agent involved in torture operations, which he said was retaliation for “blowing the whistle on the CIA’s illegal torture program and for telling the public that torture was official US government policy.”
In an interview with Russia Today, Kiriakou said “what really bothers me, is that there is no prosecution of CIA officers who obviously violated the law; those CIA officers who were conducting interrogations in which prisoners were killed,” Kiriakou said.
“I have no idea why there is no outrage, and why those officers are not being prosecuted.”
Kiriakou called for the prosecution of those responsible for CIA torture, declaring, “no one went to jail but me.”
He says the spy agency`s harsh torture techniques, like waterboarding, were personally approved by former president George W. Bush.
The former CIA officer said he was proud to have helped expose torture by the US government and “would do it all over again” despite the great cost to him personally. “You know, I really do believe that it was worth it. I’m proud to have played a role, however small, in the outline of torture in the United States.”
He also described the inhumane conditions he suffered while in prison.
“American prisoners aren’t even fed human-grade food,” he said. “And the medical care was even worse. There were almost half a dozen deaths of prisoners when I was there in prison, and almost every one of those deaths was preventable.”
The former CIA officer was released on February 3. He now faces a further three months of house arrest and another three years of probation. Following his release, Kiriakou said his conviction was not about leaking classified information but about exposing torture.
The Obama administration has indicted seven whistleblowers on espionage charges, more than twice as many as all previous administrations combined, despite promising to be the most transparent presidency in US history.
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