John Kiriakou

I went back downstairs.

I said, listen, I have a moral and ethical problem with this.

I think it's illegal and I don't want any part of it.

The funny thing is I had just captured Abu Zubaydah, who we believed was the number three in Al Qaeda.

And I got passed over for promotion.

And the reason I got passed over, they said, was because I turned down the training.

The head of the counterterrorism center said in my promotion panel that I had displayed a shocking lack of commitment to counterterrorism.

And then the guy who had given me the advice

saw that my name wasn't on the promotion list and he promoted me out of cycle.

So I realized then I was up against something that was gonna be tough.

And then there was a psychiatrist at the agency whom I had known for years.

We earned the same men's group, we went to the same church, and he happens to be both a brigadier general in the army and a CIA psychiatrist.

And he said to me one day, buddy, you know they call you the human rights guy behind your back.

And I said, yeah, I don't care.

And he said, you know that's not a compliment, right?

And I said, Steve, they're wrong about this.

And I'm right about it.

I said, I'm comfortable with the decision that I made.

And I just left it at that.

I didn't realize though how much I had pissed them off until later on.