John Kiriakou

And so I was not charged with a crime.

Three weeks later, Barack Obama became president, and he named John Brennan Deputy National Security Advisor for Counterterrorism.

John Brennan was one of the godfathers of the CIA's torture program.

And he sent a memo to Eric Holder saying, charge him with espionage.

Eric Holder wrote back and said, my people don't think he committed espionage.

And Brendan wrote back again to Holder saying, charge him anyway and make him defend himself.

I had no idea.

that my phones were tapped, that my emails were being intercepted, or that teams of FBI agents were following me everywhere I went for the next three years.

And finally, in January of 2012, I was arrested by the FBI and charged with five felonies, including three counts of espionage, which in many cases is a death penalty charge.

In a perverse way, 9-11 is one of the best things that ever happened to the CIA for a number of reasons.

A handful of teams that were sent to Afghanistan were sent there specifically to liaise with the Northern Alliance, to push the Taliban out of power and to capture or kill every Al-Qaeda fighter they could encounter.

that extended then to Pakistan by the end of the year 2001.

In the mid 90s,

President Bill Clinton, who was really no fan of the CIA, cut the CIA's budget.

And that was the first time that the CIA had had a budget cut since the Carter administration in the late 1970s.

On the day after 9-11, the CIA got a budget supplement of 10 figures.

The amount is still classified, but I actually went up to the counterterrorism center chief, Kofor Black at the time.

This was about five, six days after 9-11.

And I said, Kofor, I have an idea for an operation that I wanna put past you.

And he put up his hands and he said, whatever it is, just do it.