Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, sentenced last week to 30 months in prison for disclosing classified information to journalists, gave an in-depth interview to HuffPost Live on his upcoming prison term and how he perceives himself as a whistleblower on torture. As part of a deal with federal prosecutors, in October Kiriakou pled guilty to the leak, which revealed the name of a covert CIA officer.
Speaking to hosts Alyona Minkovski and Jacob Soboroff Wednesday, Kiriakou said that he feels "a sense of relief knowing it's over. But at the same time I'm sickened by the political atmosphere that has surrounded this case."
Kiriakou is the only individual associated with the 'enhanced interrogation' program facing jail time, pointing out that even Jose Rodriguez, who destroyed evidence of torture, was not charged. "It's ironic and it's sad to me that I'm the only one going to prison," said Kiriakou. He went on to say "I consider myself to be a torture whistleblower and am I sad that I spoke out and blew the whistle on torture? Absolutely not. I may have done it differently the second time around, but I'm glad that I did it."
Kiriakou also weighed in on the controversy surrounding Kathryn Bigelow's film "Zero Dark Thirty" and its representation of torture, saying "what I fear is that the film is going to perpetuate this myth, this lie, that torture eventually led to Osama Bin Laden. It's just simply not true."