What happened in this episode?
Julian Dorey interviews former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou on intelligence culture, US politics and current national security debates. Kiriakou discusses his past counter-terrorism work, including efforts to pursue leads in long-running “Greek terrorism” files and coordination with UK services in London, where he says he worked alongside MI6 officer Christopher Steele years before the Steele dossier. Kiriakou argues the dossier process lacked the normal analytical checks that exist inside government.
A substantial segment focuses on the Five Eyes alliance, with Kiriakou describing extensive information-sharing and claiming partner officers were embedded with desks inside US agencies. The conversation then turns to US government reform efforts: Kiriakou claims President Donald Trump has tasked Elon Musk, as a presidential adviser, with deep federal cuts, including an unprecedented instruction to reduce the Pentagon budget by 8% annually for five years, and he asserts CIA employees have been warned layoffs are coming.
On foreign policy, Kiriakou disputes mainstream attribution for a Syrian chemical attack, alleging UN whistleblowers and inspectors concluded it was carried out by al-Qaeda-linked actors rather than Assad’s government. He also argues US sanctions are producing unintended consequences by encouraging alternatives to US payment networks and dollar settlement, citing Chinese card systems and a claimed first yuan-denominated oil payment by China to Kuwait. The episode includes lighter diversions into memorabilia collecting and media/journalism anecdotes.
