John Kiriakou: Ex-CIA Officer CONFRONTED Over Zionist Accusations | PBD Podcast #783
April 23, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readEx-CIA Officer John Kiriakou on FISA, the SPLC Indictment, and Why He Wants a Pardon
The episode opens with an unusual moment: Patrick Bet-David plays a clip of John Kiriakou calling him a "hardcore Zionist" and a "1,000% backer" of Reza Pahlavi. Kiriakou had said this on another podcast, and Bet-David wants to address it directly. Kiriakou admits he was wrong — he had been told by a major influencer that Bet-David was a Zionist, and he repeated it without checking. Bet-David then walks through each claim: the Zionist label, the 94% figure about Iranians opposing the regime, and the Pahlavi backing. He pulls up polling data from Grok and ChatGPT showing that 80–92% of Iranians do oppose the IRGC, and he plays a clip of Mohsen Sazegara — the co-founder of the IRGC — admitting on Bet-David's show that the Shah's regime killed only 3,000 political prisoners, not the 100,000 the revolution claimed. Kiriakou apologizes on air: "I was wrong."
The FISA Problem and the Intelligence Community's Political Turn
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Opening & Accusation Confrontation** - Patrick Bet-David confronts John Kiriakou about calling him a "hardcore Zionist" and a backer of Reza Pahlavi on a previous podcast.
- 2 (08:07) **Debunking the 94% Claim** - PBD challenges Kiriakou’s claim that 94% of Iranians support regime overthrow, using AI polls to fact-check.
- 3 (10:37) **PBD’s IRGC Founder Interview** - PBD reveals he interviewed Mohsen Sazegara, a co-founder of the IRGC, who admitted the Shah’s 100,000 political prisoner claim was false.
- 4 (14:00) **Defining Modern Zionism** - Kiriakou and PBD discuss how the definition of Zionism has shifted from its 19th-century origins to a more political, radical concept today.
- 5 (18:44) **Professional Jealousy & Online Attacks** - Kiriakou argues that much of the online criticism against influencers like himself, Tucker Carlson, and Sean Ryan stems from professional jealousy.
- 6 (24:40) **Predicting the Iran Attack** - Kiriakou explains how he correctly predicted the US would attack Iran in March 2025, three days before it happened.
- 7 (29:17) **Current State of US-Iran Conflict** - Kiriakou assesses the current situation, predicting the end result will look like a new JCPOA.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Patrick Bet-David confronts Ex-CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou after John called him a "hardcore Zionist."
From John's bombshell prediction of the U.S. strike on Iran days before it happened, to why Obama weaponized the Espionage Act against his own intelligence officers, to the deep state cover-ups John witnessed from the inside, to his face-to-face moment with Trump at Mar-a-Lago begging for a pardon, this conversation pulls back the curtain on everything the government doesn't want you to know.
Missing scientists, FISA surveillance, John Brennan's alleged soft coup, and a $780,000 pension stolen by the very people John was trying to protect, nothing is off limits.
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Ⓜ️ MINNECT WITH JOHN KIRIAKOU: https://bit.ly/44EhwQL
🎧 JOHN'S PODCAST: https://shorturl.at/yX245
📺 JOHN'S YOUTUBE: https://bit.ly/4lE1YmU
Ⓜ️ CONNECT ON MINNECT: https://bit.ly/4kSVkso
Ⓜ️ PBD PODCAST CIRCLES: https://bit.ly/4mAWQAP
👔 BET-DAVID CONSULTING: https://bit.ly/4lzQph2
🥃 BOARDROOM CIGAR LOUNGE:
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