Meet the Former CIA Agent Who Wants to Abolish the CIA

“The CIA will so ruin a person whose politics they don't like, that he can never work again. I did 23 months in a federal prison. I paid my so-called debt to society.” In this ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’ interview, Mehdi Hasan sits down with former CIA agent John Kiriakou, who was imprisoned for blowing the whistle on CIA torture, to discuss his life as an agent, Trump, Israel, Epstein and more. After a career in the CIA, Kiriakou’s decision to blow the whistle on the secret torture program led him to imprisonment. Kiriakou explains how he thought the CIA was going to put him through Bush-era torture, and Mehdi probes into Kiriakou’s conflicting statements regarding the effectiveness of torture as an interrogation technique. They also discuss if Jeffrey Epstein was an Israeli spy, the role of Israel in pushing the U.S. into war with Iran and why he chose to work for Russian state media after prison. He also details Trump’s phone calls, Rudy Giuliani’s fees, and whether or not he endorsed a racist far-right candidate. Note: This interview was taped prior to the resignation of U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on May 22, 2026. This conversation was published on zeteo.com last week. If you want early, exclusive access to this kind of independent, unfiltered journalism — subscribe to our Substack here: https://zeteo.com/subscribe If you want to increase your financial support for our work and help us grow, donate to Zeteo! https://zeteo.com/p/donate-to-zeteo CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 02:04 CIA Career 10:04 Becoming a Personality 18:42 Jeffrey Epstein 24:06 The U.S., Israel and Iran 33:27 Cuba 35:51 AI and Tech in Warfare 39:57 Personal Politics 44:43 Working for Russia 48:48 Trump Subscribe to Zeteo to support independent and unfiltered journalism: https://zeteo.com/subscribe Find Zeteo: Twitter:   / zeteo_news   Instagram:   / zeteonews   TikTok:   / zeteonews   Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/zeteo.com Find Mehdi: Substack: https://substack.com/@mehdirhasan Twitter:   / @mehdirhasan   Instagram:   / @mehdirhasan   Tik Tok:   / mehdirhasan   To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/networ...