Imprisoned Whistleblower John Kiriakou Needs Readers’ Help

Catherine J. Frompovich
Activist Post

It seems when government officials make a deal, they apparently don’t keep to their part of a bargain! Or, at least that’s what happened to John Kiriakou, the CIA whistleblower who President Obama prosecuted about waterboarding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Prison in Cuba under the Bush-Cheney Administration.

John used to write “Letters from Loretto” about life in the federal pen. He filed complaints about the prison staff. Both those activities clearly provoked prison officials to enter into a deal with John, if he would stop those activities. The deal apparently was that he would get released from the federal pen earlier to a halfway house rather than spending the full 30 month sentence at Loretto. John kept his part of the bargain: he stopped writing his letters detailing life at Loretto and he refused interviews from the press. But, it seems he’s not getting out of the pen any sooner and so he’s asking for the public’s help to lobby prison officials on his behalf, as a decision about his release will be made at the end of this month, January 2014.

John wrote his latest “Letter from Loretto” December 8, 2013, which readers can read at Firedoglake’s website. In it John asks for everyone’s help in making his case to the Bureau of Prisons Residential Reentry Office Director, Erlinda Hernandez, for his receiving nine (9) months of half-way house, something John thought he had ‘negotiated’ by stopping his “Letters from Loretto,” etc.

Below is a sample letter drafted by the folks at the Government Accountability Project (GAP) in their eAlert “Join Us in a Letter Writing Campaign for CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou!” that this writer receives daily as a GAP subscriber.

Help John Kiriakou Action Plan

Please write your letters ASAP, as the decision about John’s half-way house release date will be decided by the end of January 2014. Hopefully, readers who want to write letters with a copy going to Mr. Charles Samuels, the Director of Bureau of Prisons in Washington, DC, will make certain they get them in the USPS mail by January 15th so letters can be received, processed, and tabulated in enough time to help make up someone’s mind about John’s release.

Please, let’s get thousands upon thousands of letters on John’s behalf to Ms. Hernandez’s and Mr. Samuels’s offices.

Remember, John never tortured anyone and never was involved in waterboarding anyone! Yet, he’s the one in prison, not those who authorized or carried out the torture. Where’s justice?

Sample Letter on John Kiriakou’s Behalf 

Erlinda Hernandez, Director
Bureau of Prisons
Residential Reentry Office
PO Box 7000
Butner, NC 27509

cc: Mr. Charles Samuels
Director of Bureau of Prisons
320 First St. NW
Washington, DC 20534

Dear Ms. Hernandez:

I write to urge you to allow John Kiriakou (inmate 79637-083 at Loretto) to serve the last nine months of his sentence in a halfway house, so that he may resume productive contributions to society.

Kiriakou served in the CIA for over 14 years. During that time, he was involved in critical counterterrorism missions following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Throughout his career, Kiriakou received 10 Exceptional Performance Awards, the Sustained Superior Performance Award, the Counterterrorism Service Medal, and the State Department’s Meritorious Honor Award.

In 2008, Kiriakou confirmed the name of a former CIA colleague to a reporter writing a book on the Agency. The name wasn’t made public as a result of the confirmation, and Kiriakou, under threat of more severe terms and financial ruin, pled guilty to violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

But the real reason Kiriakou was prosecuted is because he is an anti-torture whistleblower who was brave enough to speak out against the agency’s practices. He never tortured anyone – yet he is the only person to be prosecuted in relation to the torture program under the George W. Bush administration.

Kiriakou is an honorable and patriotic American. He does not deserve to be made an example of wrongdoing. I ask that he be granted at least nine months of halfway house time so that he may begin his life again as a valuable member of society and as a father to his five children.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this message.

Regards,

YOUR NAME

Resource:

CIA/Torture Whistleblower John Kiriakou http://www.whistleblower.org/program-areas/homeland-security-a-human-rights/torture/ciatorture-whistleblower-john-kiriakou

Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.

Two of Catherine’s more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008).