It’s the offseason. I just caught a ‘most impactful rookies at minicamp’ piece, and felt pity for those who MUST write on the Bears and solely the Bears. You think Loveland would’ve been on that list a year ago – How bout Trapilo?
Anywho, I love Mehdi Hasan. He calls it like it is, and as such, got booted from the mainstream media [much like Tucker Carlson, but from the other side – both are considered ‘anti-Israel’, so you make your own conclusions].
Hasan as such now has his own show. Here is one of the most fascinating ones with ex-CIA agent John Kiriakou
“The CIA will so ruin a person whose politics they don’t like, that he can never work again. I did 23 months in a federal prison. I paid my so-called debt to society.”
In this ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’ interview, Mehdi Hasan sits down with former CIA agent John Kiriakou, who was imprisoned for blowing the whistle on CIA torture, to discuss his life as an agent, Trump, Israel, Epstein and more.
After a career in the CIA, Kiriakou’s decision to blow the whistle on the secret torture program led him to imprisonment. Kiriakou explains how he thought the CIA was going to put him through Bush-era torture, and Mehdi probes into Kiriakou’s conflicting statements regarding the effectiveness of torture as an interrogation technique.
They also discuss if Jeffrey Epstein was an Israeli spy, the role of Israel in pushing the U.S. into war with Iran and why he chose to work for Russian state media after prison. He also details Trump’s phone calls, Rudy Giuliani’s fees, and whether or not he endorsed a racist far-right candidate.
Let’s be clear, Kiriakou is NOT a saint. I’m not sure anyone can be in the CIA/FBI/NSA or other alphabet soup agency AND be a good person. He retired from the CIA not out of some noble sense of morality, but because he wanted to spend more time with his family.
However, that didn’t mean Kiriakou was a complete psychopath. I often think about what Michael Irvin told HC Jimmy Johnson when they took local hookers with them on the road,
“We were trying to do the wrong thing in the right way.”
A lot of times, we’re thrown into circumstances, families, institutions, that are inherently corrupt, immoral, even evil, and if we even possess one monad of humanity, we KNOW it’s wrong and try to make the best of it. The truly evil don’t. They enthusiastically use the atrocious apparatus to self-serve, humanity be damned.
In 2019, Former CIA Director Mike Pompeo who went on to become Secretary of State, told a crowd at Texas A&M University, “What’s the cadet motto at West Point?
You will not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do
I was the CIA Director: we lied, we cheated, we stole. “
“I asked my dad, ‘who are those guys [Mobsters]?’”
“Those are bad guys, but they’re our bad guys.” – Sammy The Bull Gravano, credited with 19 hits
Kiriakou unlike the producers of “24” drew the line at ‘enhanced interrogation‘ i.e. water boarding and torture, which isn’t moral, legal or even effective. The Feds naturally prosecuted him for growing a conscience and whistleblowing. How dare he? He was staring at life behind fed ass-pounding prison, and in another interview reluctantly admitted, nearly committed suicided.
This was a bipartisan witchhunt, btw. Sometimes in history it takes one guy to put down the sword and take up a cross. This is his.
Another more insightful interview than Joe Rogan‘s.
OT. Oh, yeah, for shits and giggles. Kiriakou also relays a HEE-LARIOUS Brüno story. If you thought Kiriakou was brave for whistleblowing, dress up like a flamboyant gay Austrian fashion designer and interview actual Muslim terrorists IN the Middle East!