Kiriakou is an author, journalist and former CIA officer specializing in the Middle East. He was the first U.S. government official to confirm in December 2007 that waterboarding and other forms of torture were used to interrogate prisoners captured overseas. He was also the first CIA officer to be convicted for passing classified information to a reporter and served a 30 month prison sentence. He will address the following questions:
Are CIA and State Department officials who understand Israel's negative role in the Mideast able to impact policy? Or even hang on to their jobs?
While at CIA Kiriakou received "many warnings regarding covert Israeli intelligence maneuverings within the U.S." What kind of warnings and maneuvers, and what is done about it?
Kiriakou is noted for refusing to undertake CIA "enhanced interrogation" training (water boarding, sleep deprivation) to be used against terror suspects, and then blowing the whistle. What doed he make of reports that the CIA justified and adopted techniques based on Israel's use of torture?
The 9/11 report found that two major motivations for the 9/11 attacks were the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia and U.S. government support of Israel. Have these factors been at all mitigated as a motivating factor for attacks on the U.S.?
During his career Kiriakou often approached potential agent recruits telling them they could join "the good guys." Are Israel and the U.S. the "good guys" and Palestinians the "bad guys”? Does such black-and-white separation continue within agencies claiming to advance "national security”? Where does that simplified view come from?
Will the U.S. be sucked into a war with Iran? How could that happen?
Other Speakers Include:
Hanan Ashrawi
Sut Jhally
Gideon Levy
Joseph Massad
Radhika Sainath
Don Wagner
Roger Waters
And More to Come!
Tickets to our first-ever gala dinner on March 3 and our March 4 conference are available!
