US Attack on Transparency Continues:  CIA Whistleblower Indicted

John Kiriakou, former C.I.A. officer, is accused of giving classified information to the news media. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press)

US Attack on Transparency Continues: CIA Whistleblower Indicted

Former CIA officer, Kiriakou, faces years in prison

Washington continues its attack on whistle-blowers today as CIA whistle-blower, John Kiriakou, has been indicted in court for charges of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and three counts of violating the Espionage Act.

Former CIA officer, Kiriakou, allegedly leaked information to journalists about classified CIA operations and included classified information in his 2010 book, "The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror."

Kiriakou had become a well know whistle-blower after he became the first US official to reveal the use of waterboarding, a torture technique used by the US.

Kiriakou's indictment allows the case to proceed to trial without an evidentiary hearing.

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'Reluctant Spy' indicted for leaking US secrets (Agence France-Presse):

A CIA intelligence officer between 1990 and 2004, Kiriakou was accused in the indictment of leaking information to reporters anonymously identified as "Journalist A" and "Journalist B."

The charges stem from an investigation into classified information, including photographs of a CIA official, that found its way into classified filings by defense lawyers representing detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, the US naval base in southern Cuba.

The indictment claims Kiriakou was a source of information for a June 2008 New York Times article that identified a CIA operative and revealed other classified information.

Kiriakou also was alleged to have lied to a CIA review board while he was seeking permission to publish a book about his experience.

In the book, Kiriakou sought to include information about a "magic box," which was said to be a CIA scanning device allowing the agency to track Al-Qaeda suspects in Pakistan through their mobile phones.

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