Nuclear Weapons

Former CIA Officer Kiriakou Sentenced for Leak

01.25.13 | 3 min read | Text by Steven Aftergood

Updated below

Former CIA officer John Kiriakou was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act after he pleaded guilty to one count of identifying a covert agent.

Although the sentence is less than that prescribed by federal sentencing guidelines, the government said that it considers the reduced penalty “reasonable.”

In a presentencing memorandum for the defense, Mr. Kiriakou’s attorneys said that his offense should be seen in the context of his lifelong commitment “to public service and the defense of America’s national security.”

“In the course of his service to the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency, Mr. Kiriakou placed himself in harm’s way on countless occasions, earning the CIA’s Exceptional Service Award no fewer than ten times,” the defense memorandum said.

Although Mr. Kiriakou accepted full responsibility for his actions, the defense said that he had been duped into making the unauthorized disclosure that led to his prosecution.

“In 2006, Journalist A told Mr. Kiriakou that he was working on a book about the Abu Omar rendition in Milan. That was false. Journalist A has never published a book on that subject and the defense is aware of no evidence that he was ever working on one.” [But see update below].

“In reality, unknown to Mr. Kiriakou, Journalist A was acting as a private investigator on behalf of lawyers representing terrorist detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and was forwarding the information he received from Mr. Kiriakou, as well as information he received from many other individuals, to another private investigator working with the detainees’ lawyers. Mr. Kiriakou now realizes that he made a very serious mistake in passing any information to Journalist A, but he would not have done so had he known how Journalist A would make use of that information,” the defense memorandum said.

The defense noted that “Mr. Kiriakou has fully and forthrightly accepted responsibility for his actions and recognizes the seriousness of the crime to which he has pled guilty.  Yet while many will never know Mr. Kiriakou apart from this prosecution, the incident that led to this moment cannot undo the reality of Mr. Kiriakou’s life in full– a life dedicated to the values of freedom, decency, public service, and love of country.  As the government concedes, although Mr. Kiriakou’s crime was unquestionably serious, he was never motivated by any desire to harm the United States, national security, the CIA’s critical mission abroad, or any individual person.”

A petition asking President Obama to pardon Mr. Kiriakou or commute his sentence has already been signed by thousands of supporters.

After Vice Presidential aide Scooter Libby was convicted of perjury in connection with the unauthorized disclosure of the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame in 2007 and sentenced to 30 months in jail, his sentence was promptly commuted by President George W. Bush.

Update: Although the Kiriakou defense team said it knew of no evidence that Journalist A was working on a book about rendition, Josh Gerstein noted that there is such evidence here and here.

publications
See all publications
Nuclear Weapons
Report
Nuclear Notebook: Russian Nuclear Weapons, 2023

The FAS Nuclear Notebook is one of the most widely sourced reference materials worldwide for reliable information about the status of nuclear weapons, and has been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since 1987.. The Nuclear Notebook is researched and written by the staff of the Federation of American Scientists’ Nuclear Information Project: Director Hans […]

05.08.23 | 1 min read
read more
Nuclear Weapons
Blog
Video Indicates that Lida Air Base Might Get Russian “Nuclear Sharing” Mission in Belarus

On 14 April 2023, the Belarusian Ministry of Defence released a short video of a Su-25 pilot explaining his new role in delivering “special [nuclear] munitions” following his training in Russia. The features seen in the video, as well as several other open-source clues, suggest that Lida Air Base––located only 40 kilometers from the Lithuanian border and the […]

04.19.23 | 7 min read
read more
Nuclear Weapons
Blog
Was There a U.S. Nuclear Weapons Accident At a Dutch Air Base? [no, it was training, see update below]

A photo in a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) student briefing from 2022 shows four people inspecting what appears to be a damaged B61 nuclear bomb.

04.03.23 | 7 min read
read more
Nuclear Weapons
Blog
STRATCOM Says China Has More ICBM Launchers Than The United States – We Have Questions

In early-February 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) had informed Congress that China now has more launchers for Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) than the United States. The report is the latest in a serious of revelations over the past four years about China’s growing nuclear weapons arsenal and the deepening […]

02.10.23 | 6 min read
read more