John Kiriakou's Dead Drop
John Kiriakou's Dead Drop

S2E14 The Torture Report

August 17, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In December 2014, after six years of investigation and a six-year delay before publication, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a 525-page executive summary of its report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. The full report, running more than 6,700 pages, remains classified. Its central finding was that the CIA’s use of enhanced interrogation techniques was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence, and that the agency repeatedly misled the Justice Department, the White House, Congress, and the public about the program’s nature and results. John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer who blew the whistle on the torture program in 2007 and was later convicted under the Espionage Act, narrates the history of the report and what it revealed.

From Abu Ghraib to Site Green

Kiriakou draws a distinction between two kinds of American torture after 9/11. At Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, abuses documented in 2004—including the famous photograph of a hooded detainee standing on a box with wires attached to his body—resulted from what Major General Antonio Taguba’s investigation called “systemic problems within the brigade and a lack of clear standards, proficiency, and leadership.” Kiriakou describes this as “carelessness coupled with poor training.”

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (02:14) **Kiriakou's Whistleblowing and the Abu Ghraib Context** - John Kiriakou recounts his 2007 ABC News revelation that the CIA was torturing prisoners, then sets the stage by detailing the earlier Abu Ghraib scandal, the Bush administration's semantic evasion of the word "torture," and the Taguba Report's findings of sadistic abuses.
  • 2 (07:30) **Distinguishing Abu Ghraib from CIA Torture Policy** - Kiriakou draws a critical distinction between the "carelessness and poor training" at Abu Ghraib and the "total intentionality" behind the CIA's systematic torture of prisoners like Abu Zubaydah, who was waterboarded 83 times.
  • 3 (09:26) **Jose Rodriguez's Defense and the Senate Report's Findings** - Kiriakou refutes former CIA official Jose Rodriguez's public defense of torture, citing the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) report that found torture was ineffective, misled the media, and damaged U.S. global standing.
  • 4 (12:23) **Obama's Legacy and Kiriakou's Selective Prosecution** - Kiriakou argues President Obama's legacy is tainted by failing to prosecute torture architects, while he himself was selectively investigated and charged for whistleblowing on the program.
  • 5 (14:47) **The Legal Gymnastics of the Torture Memos** - Kiriakou explains how the Bush administration, influenced by the failed prosecution of John Walker Lindh, used John Yoo's legal memos to justify "enhanced interrogation techniques" and circumvent normal legal protections.
  • 6 (15:51) **The Destruction of the Videotapes** - Kiriakou details how Jose Rodriguez destroyed 92 videotapes of interrogations in 2005, over the objections of CIA and White House legal staff, demonstrating how incriminating the evidence must have been.
  • 7 (18:39) **The Senate Investigation and CIA Obstruction** - Kiriakou recounts the formation of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 2007, the review of 6.3 million pages of documents, and the CIA's aggressive efforts to obstruct the investigation.

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Guests on this episode

John Kiriakou

Show Notes

IN THIS EPISODE At Loretto Federal Prison, John can almost see the light of his release date in the not-too-distant future. Returning to the Outside World will mean having to shed the prison persona John worked so hard to create - if only for survival purposes. Meanwhile in the outside world, the suibject of John's whistleblowing - the CIA's torture program - is finally getting its day in the court of public opinion as the Senate finally gets up the nerve to release its damning report on torture. Things are coming to a head.


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John Kiriakou's Dead Drop

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