JOHN KIRIAKOU: CIA Sex Crimes

Why aren’t there hearings or investigations about these sex crimes at the C.I.A.? Why aren’t the House and Senate Judiciary Committees investigating, why do U.S. attorneys refuse to take up the cases?

C.I.A. lobby, Langley, Virginia. (Central Intelligence Agency, Released into the public domain/Wikimedia Commons/Global Panorama)

By John Kiriakou
Special to Consortium News

Buzzfeed reported on Dec. 1 that over the past 14 years, the C.I.A. has amassed credible evidence, including confessions, that 10 employees and a contractor committed sex crimes against children and that only one was ever charged with a crime.

The evidence the C.I.A. released to Buzzfeed in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit shows that the 10 employees and one contractor committed crimes including child rape, the purchase of violent child pornography, and viewing as many as 1,400 photos of nude children on a C.I.A. computer while overseas on a work assignment.

The contractor had arranged to have sex with an undercover F.B.I. agent who he thought was a child. The only C.I.A. officer prosecuted for child sex crimes had also mishandled classified information. Four of the other accused employees and the contractor were fired, four were “disciplined administratively,” and the status of one is unknown.

Obtained by Buzzfeed through FOIA. (Buzfeed)

Let’s be clear about these crimes. These were not “he said, she said” allegations. They were serious sex crimes against children.

The Buzzfeed information, which includes both internal C.I.A. documents and a declassified Inspector General’s report, say that besides the contractor, C.I.A. officers admitted to, “using a government laptop to view photographs and videos of girls as young as 10 being abused by an older guy;” having sexual contact with two girls, ages two and six, and downloading illicit photos of other children; downloading 63 videos of sex between adults and children between the ages of 8 and 16; and distributing lewd photos and videos of children to other pedophiles.

Obtained by Buzzfeed through FOIA. (Buzfeed)

One C.I.A. officer told investigators that he “did not know it was a violation of Agency policy to access child pornography.” He was not prosecuted.

For its part, the Justice Department elected to do practically nothing, notwithstanding a statement to Buzzfeed that, “The occupation or employer of the suspect does not factor into that evaluation” (of whether or not to prosecute.) “While we cannot comment on the reasons why specific cases were declined, we do take very seriously any allegation that our prosecutors declined a potential case based on an improper assessment of the relevant factors.”

The wordmark of the Central Intelligence Agency, released as part of a 2021 rebrand. (CIA/Wikimedia Commons)

That’s nonsense. The truth is that the Justice Department was afraid of graymail. That’s the threat of a C.I.A. officer on trial “accidentally” saying something classified or something that compromises sources and methods. It’s not worth the risk to the C.I.A. to prosecute most cases. And the bottom line is that the C.I.A. doesn’t care one whit about the children.

I spent 15 years at the C.I.A. It is a highly-sexualized environment full of type A personalities, sociopaths, and psychopaths. We had an old joke that, when you went into a meeting, you should never touch the conference room table because you didn’t know who was having sex on it the night before.

There was one incident in a war zone overseas while I was there where C.I.A. officers were passing around to each other a sexually-transmitted disease unique to the C.I.A.. A C.I.A. doctor had to fly to the country to tell them to stop and to remind them to practice safe sex.

Obtained by Buzzfeed through FOIA. (Buzfeed)

Further afield, it was a common occurrence for C.I.A. case officers developing foreign officials for recruitment to offer them trips to southeast Asia, where both could partake of prostitutes and indulge in whatever sexual fantasies they had.

I note in my first book, The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the C.I.A.’s War on Terror, that one of my senior bosses, with whom I had had a dispute, tried to lighten the mood by telling me to take some money out of petty cash to pay for oral sex. I declined, angrily.

It’s accurate to say that I was “shocked but not surprised” when I read the Buzzfeed allegations. All Americans should be sickened by them. I know that I sound like a broken record when I ask, “Where is the Congressional oversight?” Why aren’t there hearings or investigations about child sex crimes at the C.I.A.? Why aren’t the House and Senate Judiciary Committees investigating, why do U.S. attorneys refuse to take up the cases? Why are children not being protected?

It’s easy enough to say that we get the government we deserve. But somebody has to stand up for children. The C.I.A. won’t do it. The Justice Department apparently won’t. Now that the cat is out of the bag, where do we go next?

John Kiriakou is a former C.I.A. counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act—a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration’s torture program.

 

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9 comments for “JOHN KIRIAKOU: CIA Sex Crimes

  1. robert e williamson jr
    December 16, 2021 at 13:51

    “The cat is out of the bag!” Sure and now every parent needs to wake up and smell the roses.

    If any parent supports this government of ours with no criticisms, of either DOJ or CIA they have no idea of what is good for their children.

    I say we go directly to veterans, especially Vets for Peace and VIPS, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and start pumping funds to them instead of worthless political parties. In other words priorities must change.

    Congress must be compromised by CIA and DOJ why else give them so much power.

    As for lawyers not taking cases maybe that is a question that needs to be put to the congress.

    This is a rigged game, CIA is caught up in this horror of their own making and they are caught. The same is true with the Off Shore Banking scandals. Unless all Americans want to lumped into the same seething putrid mass of cowardly behavior as those who hide in the shadows to escape their crimes it is time to act.

    Come on Americans can you fathom what the rest of the world is thinking? They sure as hell are watching. We talk of dignity and respect the exceptionals feel they deserve it is time to talk the talk and walk the walk.

    Otherwise all this exceptional talk is trash. I will be writing my Senator soon. He seems to be Schumer’s buddy.

    Thanks John and CN

  2. Matrix
    December 14, 2021 at 15:32

    This is when you wish Dexter Morgan was a real person. And omnipotent.

  3. torture this
    December 14, 2021 at 09:51

    I’m sure John knows why there’s never any congressional oversight. It’s illustrated well by the head coward of the Senate:
    “Schumer warns Trump: Intel officials ‘have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you'”
    hXXps://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/donald-trump?source=%2Fschumer-warns-trump-intel-officials-have-six-ways-from-sunday-at-getting-back-at-you

    • robert e williamson jr
      December 16, 2021 at 12:01

      My friend you sure as hell got this right. Schumer should know better the stress must have gotten to his. His quote here sounds like we expect Trump to say. You know saying the silent part out loud.

  4. Vera Gottlieb
    December 14, 2021 at 09:07

    Because ‘they’ would have to admit to be as guilty as the rest.

  5. michael888
    December 14, 2021 at 09:05

    At one time the CIA/FBI could control people, including their own operatives, by blackmailing them with their adulteries or homosexuality. How quaint. Now it’s pedophilia (and necrophilia?) Evidently Epstein was more mainstream in DC and Power Elite circles than we realized.
    I had heard that spying on spouses, significant others and ex-spouses was a big problem early on at NSA. Now the rumors are that they are breaking into banking accounts (mostly foreign, so far).
    It’s an age old human problem.
    Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?– Juvenal

  6. Hector Sanchez
    December 14, 2021 at 00:49

    Drain the swamp ?

  7. Ian McWethy
    December 13, 2021 at 18:14

    Yes please, where indeed. This is, as you said, not surprising but horrifying…… how low does it go…. what part of the government isn’t there.

  8. evelync
    December 13, 2021 at 17:23

    OMG :(

    Our tolerance of crimes committed by our secretive national faux security state is starting to make our government look like a Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator and sleaze bag .

    We throw honest reporters into prison
    We coddle the criminals because we’re afraid of being exposed as complicit in wrongdoing.

    Fear of exposure has Washington hogtied. No wonder trust in our elected officials is so very low….

Comments are closed.