“Never in my life have I seen so many Republican Presidential candidates promising to commit an impeachable act as soon as they’re elected President, and that impeachable act is to re-institute the torture program.”
John Kiriakou, a former CIA Agent, was indicted on three counts of violating the 1917 Espionage Act in 2012 and was sentenced to 30 months in a federal prison. He was the first government official to blow the whistle on the use of water boarding of Al Qaeda suspects. Kiriakou says recent comments by GOP Presidential candidates condoning the use of torture should raise alarms.
“Never in my life have I seen so many Republican Presidential candidates promising to commit an impeachable act as soon as they’re elected President, and that impeachable act is to re-institute the torture program.”
Kiriakou says the US has a moral and a legal obligation to end torture techniques “We have a federal torture act that specifically defines and bans torture. We are the original signatories and indeed the authors of the United Nations Convention Against Torture.”
Kiriakou says there is a legitimate role for National Security journalists to make sure the government abides by the law, but he adds that the Obama Administration clamping down on leaks and whistle-blowers harks back to Nixon.
“Even the Nixon Administration didn’t go to the lengths of threatening publicly to indict journalists or to identify journalists as un-indicted co-conspirators.”
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Spies or Patriots: John Kiriakou kgnu
John Kiriakou will discuss the U.S. Government’s campaign to stamp out dissent in Denver at The Alliance Center, 1536 Wynkoop Street #100, on Friday February 12th at 6:30 PM, and in Boulder Saturday February 13th, at the First United Methodist Church, 1421 Spruce Street at 6 PM. Find out more here.
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Spies or Patriots: John Kiriakou kgnu
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