Jan 2013; Former CIA agent John Kiriakou speaks out just days after he was sentenced to 30 months in prison, becoming the first CIA official to face jail time for any reason relating to the U.S. torture program. Under a plea deal, Kiriakou admitted to a single count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act by revealing the identity of a covert officer to a freelance reporter, who did not publish it. Supporters say Kiriakou is being unfairly targeted for having been the first CIA official to publicly confirm and detail the Bush administration’s use of waterboarding. Kiriakou joins us to discuss his story from Washington, D.C., along with his attorney, Jesselyn Radack, director of National Security & Human Rights at the Government Accountability Project. “This … was not a case about leaking; this was a case about torture. And I believe I’m going to prison because I blew the whistle on torture,” Kiriakou says. “My oath was to the Constitution. … And to me, torture is unconstitutional.” [inlcudes rush transcript
As interpreted by whom? This guy seems blissfully unaware of what was acceptable at the time it was written and for quite a while afterwards until folks interested in overthrowing the country set to work in the courts protecting their backsides by trying to make sedition and treason and terrorism safer occupations. The modern definition of cruel and unusual would have made my ancestors laugh; at the time the constitution was written there were county courthouses that hand manacles attached to the porch posts for lack of a proper jail and most places had a town pillory.