John Kiriakou's Dead Drop
John Kiriakou & Alan Katz
Join ex-CIA officer John Kiriakou on a very personal deep dive into what makes a spy tick. One of the most famous spies in the whole world, John - a spy with a conscience - ratted out the CIA's torture program after the war on terror and spent 23 months in federal prison for it. As John explains, no spy is ever an "ex-spy". Why is that so? Listen to the podcast and you'll understand why.<hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
Rank History (30 days)
Recent Episodes
20 episodesS2E2 Rules Of The Game
THE BLURB: One thing about prison, there are rules upon rules. Upon rules. In this episode, John realizes that he's going to have to live by his own rules in order to survive. Those rules will be entirely based on the rules John learned - and had to live by - as a spy. As John keeps learning, there's an amazing amount of similarity between living life as a federal prisoner and living life as a spy.SHOW NOTESIf you are enjoying Dead Drop, please check out our other podcasts at Costard & Touchstone. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S2E1 Welcome To Loretto
THE BLURB: In season one, we told the story of how CIA counter terrorism officer John Kiriakou chose to tell ABC journalist Jonathan Ross the truth - that the CIA had tortured and waterboarded detainees like Abu Zubaydah. The CIA went on the warpath against John, finally forcing him to accept a plea deal of thirty months reducible to 23 months in federal prison. In season two, John arrives at Loretto Federal Prison and enters a world unlike anything he'd ever encountered before. Though John had expected to serve his sentence at a "Club Fed" style work camp, the Bureau of Prisons chose instead to put John in a more prison-like prison with drug dealers, mafiosi and child molesters. Every bit of John's training as a spy would serve him well as a prisoner.SHOW NOTESIf you are enjoying Dead Drop, please check out our other podcasts at Costard & Touchstone. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E27 Prisoner Ex
THE BLURB: Having been a prisoner despite not deserving that fate, John is extremely interested in others similarly incarcerated. To that end, back before the 2024 election, we put together an episode of a podcast called "Prisoner Ex" where we told the story of Donnie Reynolds, Jr, a young, ambitious Black entrepreneur who got swept up in the US government's failed attempt to catch and prosecute Mexican drug cartel leaders by supplying them with GPS-carrying firearms. Donnie and his whole family were law-abiding citizens going about their business before the DoJ's so-called "Operation Fast and Furious" forced itself into their homes and lives. SHOW NOTESIf you want to help Donnie Reynolds, Jr (and we urge you to join us in helping him), please send him a letter telling him you support him. Please address the enverlope this way: Donald Ray Reynolds, JrPrisoner Number 32349-074, FCI Cumberland14601 Burbridge Road SE Cumberland, MD 21502For more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E26 Did John Le Carre Invent The Modern Spy?
THE BLURB: In this episode, we ask a question: did author and ex-spy John Le Carre invent the modern spy by channeling his experiences as a Cold War spy into novels like "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold", "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", "The Night Manager, The Constant Gardner, Russia House and The Little Drummer Girl? What about real spies did le Carre capture that makes real spies respond to his fictional spies - and then imitate them and their language? We'll also talk shop about writing and the many challenges of repurposing a life in espionage as art.SHOW NOTESFor more information about Barry Eisler, visit barryeisler.com.For more information about Glenn Carle, visitFor more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E25 The Whistleblower
THE BLURB: As John's date with prison looms, he begins prepping - financially and mentally. In the end, John's plea deal would put him inside for 30 months reduceable to 23. At least it would be in a relatively benign, low security work camp setting. That was what the prosecution agreed to! Meanwhile, public opinion about John begins to shift; They go from seeing him as a pariah to a whistleblower - and an American hero. Still, prison is prison and John approaches his sentence more and more like a mission to continue speaking the truth, damn the consequences.SHOW NOTESFor more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E24 Moment Of Truth
THE BLURB: John demanding to see his lawyer saved him getting arrested on the spot. Almost all of the government's case against John was nonsense - which John and his lawyers wanted to prove in court. But, one of the government's charges against John had the very real potential to stick. In the end, the economic pressures won out. Still, if John was going to prison, he'd be doing it both in style and alongside the encouragemet of a growing list of celebrity friends. Still, can anything really prepare you for an absolute, picture definition "moment of truth"?SHOW NOTESYou can find John's ABC News interview with Brian Ross here. For more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E23 Good Company, Bad Company
THE BLURB: John wasn't the only CIA officer who refused training in the CIA's new "enhanced interrogation" techniques - despite assurances from the CIA's legal team. This episode's guest, author and former CIA officer Glenn Carle spent two decades in the agency. Like John, Glenn broke with the CIA over the subject of torture. Glenn was part of a team interrogating another high value Al Qaeda target, and, like John, came to appreciate that torture was completely ineffectiv"The Interrogator" heree as a way to procure information from a detainee.SHOW NOTESYou can learn more about Glenn's book "The Interrogator" here and you can purchase it here.For more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E22 The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
THE BLURB: John finds that working in the private sector (doing corporate intel at Deloitte and Touche) for big money, perks and benefits has its advantages over working a lot more for a lot less at the agency. Then one day - when everything's going gangbusters for John, he gets a call from Brian Ross at ABC News. And everything changes. But, how did Ross find John? And why was the news media so slow to take up and believe the torture story? By the time reporters like Ross found their way to John, they were in a feeding frenzy. In this episode, we'll tell you why that happened and how it contributed to what happened to John. SHOW NOTESFor more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E21 End Of Times
THE BLURB: Everything must end - including a CIA career. While John had planned to make a lifetime career of the agency, circumstances dictated otherwise. So, to a large degree, did his new immediate boss-from-hell. In this episode, John begins to suss out a new, post-CIA life just over the horizon. The problem will be getting out of the CIA in one piece.SHOW NOTESFor more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E20 Changes
THE BLURB: Returning from the mission in Pakistan, John decided his kids needed him to stay closer to home for a whie. He applied for and got a domestic assignment. The problem? His new boss, a pencil-pusher named Mary Margaret hated him and did everything she could think of to prove it.SHOW NOTESFor more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E19 Torture
THE BLURB: If this story has a heart of darkness, this is it. How did American policy find its way to legitimizing torture? In this episode, we'll take you down that terrible road. America became a torturer because certain people - including then Vice President Dick Cheney - wanted us to be that thing. We'll also describe how the Bush Administration's wordplay, dancing around the word "torture", made torture inevitable. SHOW NOTESFor more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E18 Cross Currents
THE BLURB: After John watched Abu Zubaydah's plane rendition him to what turned out to be a black site in Thailad, he still had lots of other terrorists to interrogate. He felt contrite after getting overly physical with a detainee - but no one else in the chain of command felt John had been out of line. Returning stateside, John is approached by the agency. They want to know if he's interested in learning enhanced interrogation techniques. He wasn't. And, so began the fracture that would ultimately set John apart.SHOW NOTESFor more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E17 Zain
THE BLURB: For 70 hours, almost three days, John was responsible for handling Abu Zubaydah, the terrorist the agency believed was Al Qaeda's number three. Though their time togeter was relatively short - and Zain (Abu Zubaydah's actual name) spent much of it unconscious - John did manage to build a human connection with him and began to appreciate the person inside the nom de guerre. Zain is renditioned elsewhere. John goes back to work interrogating all the other terrorists they'd grabbed alongside Abu Zubaydah while Abu Zubaydah begins to encounter the treatment that would ultimately lead to torture.SHOW NOTESFor more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E16 Captured
THE BLURB: The hunt for Al Qaeda's number three, an elusive terrorist with the nom de guerre Abu Zubaydah, intensifies but seems to go nowhere. The team scoops up lots of smaller prey, but can never seem to pin down Abu Zubaydah himself. And then an anonymous walk-in tip leads to a (literal) phone line which leads to... Abu Zubaydah? SHOW NOTESFor more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E15 The Hunt Begins
THE BLURB: John lands in Pakistan where the hunt for Al Qaeda's leadership begins with the hunt for the perfect safe house. John also begins to coordinate his team with Pakistani intelligence (not a very trusting relationship). And then a tip comes in: Al Qaeda's number three, a terrorist with the nom de guerre Abu Zubaydah, has been spotted in Pakistan. John is tasked with coming up with the plan to capture Abu Zubaydah.SHOW NOTESFor more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mini Episode 5 Betrayal
THE BLURB: Aldrich Ames was a CIA counterintelligence officer who was convicted of espionage on behalf of the soviet Union and Russia in 1994. Ames was responsible for the arrest and eventual execution of numerous Soviet and Russian officials secretly working on behalf of US intellifence, and had compromised more highly classified CIA assets than any other intelligence officer at the time of his arrest. What caused Rich Ames to betray his craft and his country? Why does any spy go rogue?SHOW NOTESFor more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E14 Game On
THE BLURB: With America - and the CIA - at war, everyone wants to fight, especially John. But, his skill sets aren't the required ones as the War On Terror begins. The CIA, it turns out, had an actual plan to deal with Osama bin Laden. After settling some old business back in Greece, John begins to work on the CTC's leadership, looking for a way to in to Afghanistan. And then one opens up... SHOW NOTESFor more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E13 Hostages
THE BLURB: After Joanne kidnaps John's two sons - instead of making them available for his six weeks summer vacation with them - John uses his espionage skills to track them all down. Hothead that he is, rather than wait for the legal system to work to his benefit, John nearly ruins everything by iniating a "hostage situation" of his own. At work, John's time in the penalty box is about to get truncated - as more and more Agency resources get focused on a terrorist quickly growing in prominence on the Agency's radar: Osama bin Laden.SHOW NOTESFor more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E12 The Grind
THE BLURB: Back in America, John settles in to a year or so "in the penalty box" because of what happened in Athens. John's divorce from Joanne gets complicated by Joanne's brinksmanship. But John does what he must to keep himself in his sons' life. Despite all the Life complications, John scores a small succuss at work. Whatever joy that produces gets undercut when Joanne kidnaps the boys. SHOW NOTESFor more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E11 Have Human Spies Become Obsolete?
THE BLURB: In this episode, John chats with former CIA officer turned wildly successful novelist BARRY EISLER about spying and how it lends itself to storytelling. After a three year stint as a covert officer in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, Barry worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earned a black belt at the Kodokan Judo Institute and began writing great, award-winning thrillers including the #1 bestsellers Livia Lone, The Night Trade, and The Killer Collective. John and Barry discuss the current state of spies, spying and spycraft - and whether it might be over for straight humint and the human spies who cultivate it.SHOW NOTESFor more information about Barry Eisler, please visit barryeisler.com.For more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.