12+ John Kiriakou Quotes On Friendship, Education

John Kiriakou is a former CIA officer and whistleblower who became a journalist and public speaker. He is a regular contributor to The Intercept, and has written for The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and other outlets. He is also a frequent guest on news and media outlets, including MSNBC, Democracy Now, and Al Jazeera. Following is our collection on famous quotes by John Kiriakou on love, life, friendship.

The truth of the matter is, we can certainly fight against terrorism and fight terrorist groups around the world without having to give up our own civil liberties. They're not mutually exclusive. — John Kiriakou

If the CIA is going to disrupt future terrorist attacks, it needs to recruit spies to infiltrate those groups in order to disrupt the terrorist attacks. Not to rely on what you and I are putting in chat messages on Google or Apple. — John Kiriakou

The CIA has transformed from an organization created to recruit spies to steal secrets, into a paramilitary organization, a paramilitary force. It's not supposed to be a paramilitary force. It's not good at it. It needs to return to its roots. — John Kiriakou

I can remember only a small handful of instances in which I talked about politics with my parents. I remember my parents telling me that Daniel Ellsberg was a hero when I was six years old. — John Kiriakou

I had never really given any thought to working for the CIA, but graduation was upon me; I was getting married just a week or two after graduation; I had no job, no prospects for a job. And so I said sure, I'd be interested in working for the CIA. — John Kiriakou

The big issue is this incremental whittling away of our constitutional rights, our most important constitutional rights, including freedom of speech. This is something that we really have to put our foot down on, and we have to fight it at every step of the way. — John Kiriakou

Immediately after the September 11th attacks, I volunteered to go to Afghanistan in any capacity that the CIA wanted me. Four months passed before I was able to go overseas, just because my skill set was not one that was important in those really early days after the attacks. — John Kiriakou

I've never heard a White House staff say that the president was too stupid or too ill-informed to have broken the law. And that's really what it comes down to. The truth is, he leaked highly classified information that he shouldn't have leaked. It's one thing to say, "Hey, I'm the president. Nobody can punish me for that." It's another thing entirely to just deny that he did it. We know that he did it. And he really ought to own up to it. — John Kiriakou

Even if torture works, it cannot be tolerated -- not in one case or a thousand or a million. If their efficacy becomes the measure of abhorrent acts, all sorts of unspeakable crimes somehow become acceptable. I may have found myself on the wrong side of government on torture. But I'm on the right side of history. There are things we should not do, even in the name of national security. One of them, I now firmly believe, is torture. — John Kiriakou

It's much less romantic in that you have to go to www.cia.gov and click "Apply Now." For me it was much more clandestine. — John Kiriakou

It's not up to Google, it's not up to Apple to turn over our personal communications in order to save the country. It's up to the CIA and it's up to the FBI to recruit foreign - I mean to recruit human sources, rather, to penetrate these groups. — John Kiriakou

I think the president, very simply, has never read a copy of the Constitution. I think that that's true. He's just never bothered to read the Constitution, and he just has no understanding and appreciation of the First Amendment's protections for freedom of speech. — John Kiriakou

Life Lessons by John Kiriakou

1. John Kiriakou's work demonstrates the importance of speaking out against injustice and standing up for what is right, even when it is difficult.
2. His willingness to challenge the status quo and take a stand for his beliefs can be an inspiration to us all.
3. We can learn from his example that it is possible to make a difference, no matter how small, and that it is worth taking a stand for what we believe in.