Who is John Kiriakou?
John Kiriakou worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for 14 years (from 1990 to 2004), serving as the Chief of Counterterrorist Operations in Pakistan. Kiriakouâs resignation was primarily due to his moral objection to the CIAâs âEnhanced Interrogationâ techniques, which included forms of torture such as waterboarding, that had been prohibited by several international human rights laws.
In 2007, Kiriakou decided to âblow the whistleâ on the CIAâs use of torture. Kiriakou confirmed to the public the use of waterboarding in the interrogation of foreign detainees. This had contradicted statements previously made by the Bush administration. While the administration maintained its innocence throughout Bushâs time in office, the former president did eventually admit to having knowledge of the illegal tactics in his 2010 memoir. In an interview with ABC News, Kiriakou exposed the governmentâs misdeeds. At the time, he was the only agent or former agent to do so.
Unfortunately, instead of the people responsible for the resurgence of waterboarding and torture of prisoners going to jail, the only person related to the scandal that faced legal repercussions was, ironically, Kiriakou himself. Kiriakou served 30 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 via the leaking of classified information. After the trial, Kiriakou stated, âI believe I was prosecuted not for what I did but for who I am â a CIA officer who said torture was wrong and ineffective and went against the grain.â
Life Post-Incarceration
Kiriakou, hailed as a hero by many, has had a much more successful post-incarceration than the vast majority of convicted felons. He started his sentence in 2012 and completed it in 2015. After being released, he began making an abundance of appearances in the media, frequently doing interviews with sources such as Democracy Now! and Al Jazeera. Kiriakou released one book in 2010 titled The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA’s War on Terror. Since 2015, Kiriakou has authored several more books, such as Doing Time Like a Spy: How the CIA Taught Me to Survive and Thrive in Prison and Surveillance and Surveillance Detection: A CIA Insider’s Guide. Kiriakou has become an advocate for justice and the reformation of intelligence policies. He co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and has won several awards, including the Sam Adams Award for his work.
Memification
Why bring up a Bush administration scandal in 2026? Because John Kiriakou has become one of Februaryâs biggest memes. According to the popular website, Know Your Meme, which is dedicated to explaining popular memes and their origins. On February 3rd, 2026, TikToker @_bamboclat posted an edit of Kiriakou talking to an interviewer on the Diary Of a CEO YouTube channel about a time when the CIA told him to “act gay” to get information on someone, garnering over 1.5 million views in a week. The edit is captioned, “What is the CIA bro”
Since then, there have been thousands of videos posted on TikTok of edited clips of Kiriakouâs recent interviews where he tells not only the story of whistleblowing and his time in prison, but also, just interesting stories from when he was in the CIA. Kiriakou tells his stories in a dry manner, not necessarily attempting a joke but clearly not taking himself too seriously. His occasional quips and descriptions of the absurd events he witnessed in the â90s and early 2000s have caused these interview clips to go viral.
The majority of videos posted are edited to intermittently speed up and slow down whatever Kiriakou is talking about. This adds an extra layer of humor that only Gen-Z would appreciate. Heâs had many different clips go viral, including one describing different torturous interrogation methods used by the CIA involving cockroaches and hummus. Other popular clips have been of him recounting an argument with his wife, who assumed he had been unfaithful when really he had been out, sitting in a dumpster, waiting for someone to throw confidential files into it. Maybe his most viral clip is of him describing his first day in prison, where he was intimidated into joining an Aryan prison gang.
The scenarios Kiriakou describes vary from the type of thing you would see in a Jason Bourne movie or on an episode of American Dad, with little in between. The outlandishness of his stories, combined with how freely he speaks about things the CIA would most likely prefer not become public knowledge have caused TikTokers and netizens to question the legitimacy of his stories. Despite this, as of February 24, no one has been able to discredit Kiriakouâs words.
While this meme, like all others, will likely fade away as quickly as it arose, it was able to offer a cynical public a humorous view of its recent governmentâs most corrupt moments. And for that, we thank you, John Kiriakou.