Last week, the debate over waterboarding terrorists took a slippery turn when an obscure ex-CIA officer named John Kiriakou went public to disclose that the interrogation technique many consider torture was used to allegedly break the first Al Qaeda lieutenant nabbed after 9/11. Kiriakou’s remarkable media blitz began on network evening news broadcasts on Dec. 10 and continued the next day on morning shows and cable nets as he recounted how Al Qaeda associate Abu Zubaydah was broken within 30 seconds of being waterboarded after his 2002 capture in Pakistan.
But Kiriakou’s outpouring of details about one of the most highly classified programs in the U.S. government - possibly intended to nail a book deal - may get him into hot water. Informed sources flatly denied the accuracy of one news report that CIA and Justice Department officials last week decided against investigating Kiriakou for the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.
The publicity generated by the ex-operative, who a CNN anchor called the “man of the hour,” may have been intended to drum up interest in a book manuscript by Kiriakou awaiting clearance by the CIA’s publications review board.
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