John Kiriakou

And I was like, oh, it never even occurred to me that that might be illegal.

So the FBI does kind of pay closer attention, at least they're supposed to, to what's legal and what's not legal.

But with the CIA operating overseas, you know, who cares what's legal and what's not legal?

Wonderful show.

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

That show was written and created by Joe Weisberg.

Joe was a colleague of mine in the CIA's Counterterrorism Center.

He was a brilliant writer.

And I went to the office one day and he walked up to me and he said, hey, listen, I quit this morning.

And I was like, what?

Why would you do that?

And he said, this job is just not for me.

I'm not married.

I don't have any kids.

I'm going to go to Hollywood and find my fortune.

And he went to Hollywood and he created the Americans.

And the reason why it was so successful was because it was completely real.

Just in the last two years, I happen to live in Arlington, Virginia.

In the last two years, one of my neighbors was arrested.

She was an elementary school substitute teacher.