Aug 24, 2026 · 1 hr · 18 segments
IN THIS EPISODE When John first entered the gates of Loretto Federal Prison, his goal was to use all his training as a spy to survive prison. But, just as with spying, prison can be very…
John KiriakouHost
As I've mentioned here, the thing that scares most spies is whatever they don't know.
I didn't know, I hadn't a fucking clue that the guy I thought had my back was in fact stabbing it repeatedly.
I was there working counterterrorism for the CIA, looking for Al-Qaeda's leadership.
We knew each other very briefly at best, but there was evidence backing up a claim.
Well, he had told me a story, a very detailed, very elaborate story about how he ended up being charged with unauthorized access of a secure database and hindrance of national security.
Though he maintained his innocence, and believe me, I could relate, the federal government did what they usually do and piled lots of other charges on him, all designed to make him give up, and I could definitely relate to that, too.
Facing 54 years in prison, Dave, so he told us, took a nine-year plea deal instead.
And then we bumped into each other again at Loretto because, you know, small world, and became friends.
Every time I wrote one of my Letters from Loretto blog posts, I would make several copies, one for the publishers of firedoglake.com, one for my attorney, one for myself, and one for Dave.
I made one for Dave because he said that he would keep a copy of each letter for me at an undisclosed location so that in the event that I was shaken down by the COs and my copies of the letters were confiscated, I would still have Dave's hidden copies at my disposal.
Because I wouldn't know where Dave had stashed his copies, I couldn't betray them.
Had he been hiding them, that's probably where he would've done it, but that wasn't the case.
In reality, Dave was passing them to the unit manager, a former SIS officer, who then passed them on to the SIS.
As I've mentioned here, the thing that scares most spies is whatever they don't know.
I didn't know, I hadn't a fucking clue that the guy I thought had my back was in fact stabbing it repeatedly.
I was there working counterterrorism for the CIA, looking for Al-Qaeda's leadership.
We knew each other very briefly at best, but there was evidence backing up a claim.
Well, he had told me a story, a very detailed, very elaborate story about how he ended up being charged with unauthorized access of a secure database and hindrance of national security.
Though he maintained his innocence, and believe me, I could relate, the federal government did what they usually do and piled lots of other charges on him, all designed to make him give up, and I could definitely relate to that, too.
Facing 54 years in prison, Dave, so he told us, took a nine-year plea deal instead.
And then we bumped into each other again at Loretto because, you know, small world, and became friends.
Every time I wrote one of my Letters from Loretto blog posts, I would make several copies, one for the publishers of firedoglake.com, one for my attorney, one for myself, and one for Dave.
I made one for Dave because he said that he would keep a copy of each letter for me at an undisclosed location so that in the event that I was shaken down by the COs and my copies of the letters were confiscated, I would still have Dave's hidden copies at my disposal.
Because I wouldn't know where Dave had stashed his copies, I couldn't betray them.
Had he been hiding them, that's probably where he would've done it, but that wasn't the case.
In reality, Dave was passing them to the unit manager, a former SIS officer, who then passed them on to the SIS.
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