Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

John Kiriakou the 48 year old American former CIA analyst and case officer, the first official within the U.S. government to confirm the use of water boarding of al-Qaeda prisoners as an interrogation technique, which he described as torture has been profiled by Peter Van Buren for TomDispatch in an article titled ‘The Persecution of John Kiriakou – Torture and the Myth of Never Again’. Van Buren states “The one man in the whole archipelago of America’s secret horrors facing prosecution is former CIA agent John Kiriakou. Of the untold numbers of men and women involved in the whole nightmare show of those years, only one may go to jail. And of course, he didn’t torture anyone. The charges against Kiriakou allege that in answering questions from reporters about suspicions that the CIA tortured detainees in its custody, he violated the Espionage Act, once an obscure World War I-era law that aimed at punishing Americans who gave aid to the enemy. It was passed in 1917 and has been the subject of much judicial and Congressional doubt ever since. Kiriakou is one of six government whistleblowers who have been charged under the Act by the Obama administration. From 1917 until Obama came into office, only three people had ever charged in this way. The Obama Justice Department claims the former CIA officer “disclosed classified information to journalists, including the name of a covert CIA officer and information revealing the role of another CIA employee in classified activities.”

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George Walker Bush the 64 year old former President of the United States of America has cancelled a planned visit to Geneva to address a Jewish Charity after being advised a human rights group is lodging in Swiss Courts criminal charges relating to the torture of terrorism suspects held in a CIA interrogation program he approved that authorized water-boarding, forced stress positions and sleep deprivation. A US based Center for Constitutional Rights along with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights has issued a preliminary “indictment” to prosecute Bush if ever he travels outside of the US. Bush’s planned trip to Geneva would have been his first trip to another country since his memoir was published in which he admitted authorizing the torture techniques.

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