HUFFINGTON
07.01-08.12
AP PHOTO/JACQUELYN MARTIN
SQUELCHING SECRETS
Bush administration.
The final count of the indictment
charged Kiriakou with lying to the
CIA’s publication review board in
order to get permission to write in
his book about an electronic scanning device — dubbed a “magic
box” — that the Times had already
described in newspaper articles.
Kirakou’s supporters, including many open-government advocates, said he’s being punished
for his whistleblowing. The CIA
— through Fitzgerald and the Department of Justice — is trying to
chill critical speech, they said.
“This prosecution came about
after a years-long multi-milliondollar investigation that basically
produced nothing,” said Radack.
“Does it really make sense that it
landed on John Kiriakou?”
“I just think that this is too
much on Kiriakou,” said Plato
Cacheris, Kiriakou’s attorney and
one of Washington’s top defense
lawyers. “He’s apparently being
singled out, and he has had no intention to violate the law.”
Randall Samborn, Fitzgerald’s
spokesman, declined to comment
about the case to Huffington.
The name of the covert operative
that Fitzgerald accused Kiriakou
of disclosing has never been made
public. According to a criminal
complaint filed in January, the
name ended up in the hands of the
defense attorneys because Kiriakou
revealed it to Cole. Cole turned it
over to the terror suspects’ defense
attorneys, but never published it,
the complaint said.
So of the 70 names and 25 photos that the Guantanamo defense
attorneys had in their possession,
Kiriakou is alleged to have had at
most an indirect role in the discovery of one name. And the other
charges against Kiriakou have
nothing to do with Fitzgerald’s
original investigation.
Kathleen McClellan, a lawyer
at the Government Accountability
Project, has a theory about why
Kiriakou is being singled out.
“Whoever gave them the other
Former CIA
officer John
Kiriakou,
right, leaves
Federal Court
with his
attorney in
January.