Silenced Page #8

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of cover

because nobody's gonna care,

and so i violated it.

-okay, well, let me

tell you why it matters,

because this is why they want

you to bargain on this count.

they know

that they are weak.

they know that iipa

is written so narrowly

that it's virtually

impossible to prove.

-we talked about this

all night long.

that's why i come home,

i take the kids to school,

i come back, and i sleep

on the couch for an hour,

'cause i've been up

all night long.

she doesn't make enough money

to support our household.

we can borrow enough

for two years to keep her going,

probably without

filing for bankruptcy,

but if i were to be found guilty

and got more than two years,

i mean...

we think we're ruined now,

we'd be ruined permanently

after that.

"l."

"m."

-and i'm missing two, but...

-tom drake thinks

i should fight it,

and, you know, in my gut,

i want to fight it.

but i have kids,

and i just can't risk...

...them losing me

for 6 to 12 years.

-good afternoon.

i just have a brief statement.

john kiriakou

is a loyal american

who loves his country deeply.

he served for many years

in the cia

as an agent in challenging

and often dangerous assignments.

and nothing that happened today

and this plea does not diminish

in any way

the value of his service

to the country

or the contributions he made

to the security of our nation.

-mr. kiriakou, are you at least

happy that it's resolved?

-obviously,

i'm persona non grata

within the government

if you don't have

a security clearance.

and so, i'm unemployed.

so, i did look for work.

i spent a lot of time

looking for work.

i applied for a part-time

position with apple,

and several months later,

i actually got a phone call.

you know, i ended up working

at an apple store

in the greater d.c. area

as an expert.

-a number of retaliatory steps

were taken.

i was made the target

of a federal criminal leak

investigation.

i was referred by the justice

department to the state bars,

in which i'm licensed

as an attorney.

it is a big deal

if you're referred to the bar.

you could lose

your license to practice law.

they referred me

based on a secret report

to which i did not have access.

a justice department

investigator

called my new law firm,

a private law firm

where i worked,

and told them that they

had just hired a criminal,

that i was going

to steal attorney/client files,

and that they should

really think about firing me.

so, they put me

on administrative leave,

which was paid, briefly,

and then suddenly,

they stopped paying me.

so, i applied for unemployment.

[ cellphone rings ]

soon afterwards,

the investigator called me

and started asking questions

about the newsweek article.

he grew very antagonistic.

he said, "did you ever send

e-mails to michael isikoff?"

and he's like,

"if you don't tell me,

we're gonna search

your computer."

and i'm like,

"well, you know what?

i have to go.

i'll call you back later."

and instead,

i called a lawyer.

i mean, i was devastated.

i had lost my dream job

and what i wanted to do.

i was incredibly anxious

'cause i felt like

i was now under attack

and under investigation.

i also

have multiple sclerosis,

which is a neurological disease

exacerbated by stress.

-part of the purpose of doing

what they've been doing

for the last several years

is to destroy you.

-prosecutors charged him with...

-the stress is hard to describe.

they leak information,

for example, to the press

that puts you

in the worst possible light.

-the justice department called

me a traitor and a turncoat

in the new york times.

-you're not loyal,

you're not a good american,

you're a terrorist sympathizer.

-10 felony charges filed

against a former executive...

-it was at the top of the news

at 6:
00,

it was at the top of the news

at 11:
00 locally,

and it was at the top

of the news the next morning.

-coworkers would not talk to me,

and a few of them said,

"do not call me at work."

-"you've betrayed your country.

where there's smoke,

there's fire.

you did something.

why would the government

raid your house?

why would they do that?"

-i was caught up in this

kafkaesque nightmare.

-i have to try

to protect my children

from being exposed to it.

i've got the fbi surveilling me

on and off

for the last seven months.

they followed us

grocery shopping.

they followed me into church

on sunday morning

and sent fbi agents

to sit behind me in church

and watch me.

i had neighbors

calling me, saying,

"you know, there's a car

at the end of the block,

and the guy's looking

at your house with binoculars."

one woman who was parked

and just watching my children,

and i went up to her van

and i knocked on the window

and i said,

"what do you want?"

and she kind of

got nervous

and put the car in gear

and took off.

-i was trying to be honest.

i was trying

to do things by the book.

and yet, i'm the one who ends up

having to hire

a team of lawyers.

-you have to mortgage

your house.

you have to empty

your bank account.

i went from making

well over $150,000 a year

to a quarter of that.

-the groups that i thought

would want to get involved

in helping me,

like the aclu, did not.

so, i was paying

for private counsel on my own.

-the cost alone, financially --

never mind the personal cost --

is approaching $1 million

in terms of lost income,

expenses, and other costs

that i incur.

-i was told

that i was blacklisted.

-my wife resigned

because the agency

threatened her

with a security investigation.

and so, both of us

have been out of work

for seven months, at this point.

it's surreal, is the word.

a couple of weeks ago, my wife

and i had this conversation --

it was on a sunday night,

and she said,

"we can't afford food

for the next week."

and she said, "i don't know

what we're gonna do."

so, very reluctantly, we went

to the county welfare office.

we explained our situation.

and they said, "yeah, you guys

qualify for everything --

food stamps, medicaid,

cash payments, job training.

everything."

-the pregnancy, in a way,

kept me really grounded,

like the kids did...

because i knew there was

something so much larger

than all this crap

that was going on.

and it was something

i could focus on protecting.

and somehow,

by protecting the baby,

i could protect myself

in some kind of way.

i had gone...to work.

i was still -- i had gone

into hawkins delafield & wood,

the law firm where i worked.

and my boss told me, he's like,

"you should know

that the managing partner

in new york and agent powell

are walking around

the office right now,

and agent powell had said,

'something really big

is gonna happen.'

it sounds like you're

gonna be arrested tonight."

and so, i was just...

so scared by that.

and nighttime,

it was the worst time for me.

that's when i always

kind of had my night demons.

you know, i'm imagining

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