John Kiriakou

And if they thought that prison would silence me, they didn't know me at all.

So I did my 23 months, and I've been a vocal critic of the CIA and of torture and of human rights abuses ever since.

Well, I'll tell you something that's more out there.

When I was nine years old,

My father took me to an auction and he bought a box of junk.

I still remember he paid 50 cents for it.

It was just a box of just junk that was left over.

But that junk happened to include a shortwave radio and it opened up an entire new world for me.

And I told my parents when I was nine years old that I wanted to be a spy when I grew up.

Wow.

And they thought that was cute, and they bought me a set of walkie-talkies that year for Christmas.

And then when I was 16, I told them I wanted to be a spy in the Middle East.

And my father said, come on, still with the spy thing?

Can't you be a dentist or something?

And I said, Dad, I'm serious.

I want to be a spy in the Middle East.

And so I became a spy in the Middle East, and I loved every minute of it.

I learned to speak fluent Arabic.

I immersed myself in the culture, the history, the poetry, and the literature, and...

And succeeded there.