John Kiriakou is an intelligence and counterterrorism consultant for ABC
News and a former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, focusing on the Middle East, South Asia, and international
terrorism.

Mr. Kiriakou served in the Central Intelligence Agency from 1990 until
March 2004, first as an analyst, and later as a counterterrorism operations
officer. As a senior operations officer, Mr. Kiriakou became chief of
counterterrorist operations in Pakistan immediately following the September
11 attacks. This tour culminated in the March 2002 capture of Abu
Zubaydah, al-Qa’ida’s third-ranking official, in a raid led by Mr. Kiriakou in
Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Upon his return from Pakistan, Mr. Kiriakou was named Executive Assistant
to the CIA’s Deputy Director for Operations, where he was intimately
involved in the planning for the Iraq war, and where he served as principle
Iraq briefer for the Director of Central Intelligence.

Mr. Kiriakou gained nationwide attention in December 2007 when he
became the first CIA officer to acknowledge the waterboarding of al-Qa’ida
prisoners in US custody.

Mr. Kiriakou earned a BA degree in Middle Eastern Studies and an MA
degree in Legislative Affairs from The George Washington University in
Washington, DC.

He is the author of “The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA’s War
on Terror,” which rose to #5 on the Washington Post bestsellers list. His
op-eds on the Middle East and Afghanistan have appeared in more than 80
newspapers in a dozen countries.

Show full bio

Hide full bio