All posts by Chuck Fager

Memorial Minute for Katharine “Kat” Royal

In Lumberton NC they lived near a trailer park populated by people of modest circumstances. Kat made friends with many residents there, including a woman named Lori and her daughter Christie. One day in late 2006 or 2007, Christie knocked at the door to say a dying dog had been abandoned nearby. The animal was bloody, with cuts around its neck and ears, and so weak it couldn’t stand up.

What had happened? In the area around Lumberton, dog-fighting is widely practiced, and it appeared this dog had been bred to fight, but refused to do so; hence the abuse and abandonment. We can’t keep it, the neighbor explained: the landlord won’t stand for it. But he’s so sweet: will you take him?

Kat had already purchased a young German Shepherd, hoping to train it as a service dog; and their trailer was small. But she took in the nearly comatose canine anyway.

Among their other neighbors was an Iraqi family, refugees from the wars there. They were devout Muslims, and the woman of the house was studying to become a veterinary technician. Hearing of Kat’s new dog and its desperate condition, she came by and spent many hours helping save its life and nurse it back to health, all while steadfastly refusing any payment.

Kat often told this story in her sermons, or when she heard other so-called Christians bashing Muslims: here was a Muslim practicing their faith as kindness, Kat said, and providing a more representative example of it that the violent stereotypes fed to the American public day after day.

Thus arrived in their lives the dog many of us know as Isaiah, or Zay-Zay as Kat often called him. And as Isaiah recovered, a surprising pattern developed: the German Shepherd, which Kat was working to train, paid no attention to the commands she repeated and repeated. But soon, Isaiah did start following them, unbidden, and began to take up the role the shepherd so adamantly refused. Before long the shepherd had been passed on to a new home, and Isaiah had found a new family, in which he had a vital place.

Exclusive Interview: CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou — Part 3

AFL: Do you talk about politics? If so, considering the various presidential candidates: several have made comments about torture. What do you make of what you’ve heard from them so far? And related, do you think the Senate Intelligence report can survive the efforts of NC Senator Richard Burr to kill it and bury it?

John Kiriakou: I’m a big fan of Bernie Sanders, who said in an email to a constituent that had “done the country a great service.” I think that in the unlikely event that Bernie is elected president, he would pardon me. So would Rand Paul. He’s my favorite among the Republicans, although his positions on social issues frighten me.
To tell you the truth, I cast my final, pre-felony conviction vote for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party nominee for president. He’s been a great supporter of mine. I also like the Green Party’s Jill Stein very much.
Of the other presidential candidates, I’m not really sure I trust any of them on torture, even Hillary. On the Republican side, I’m comfortable calling just about all of them “pro-torture.” This, in my view, disqualifies them to be president.

Exclusive Interview With CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou — Part Two

AFL: Once in jail, what routines or practice helped you cope with the 22 months and its stresses? And what were some of the worst things about it for you there?

John Kiriakou: My third book, after Letters from Loretto, will be Doing Time Like a Spy: How the CIA Taught Me to Survive and Thrive in Prison. I expect that it’ll come out in a year. There were 20 “life lessons” that the CIA taught me that I used to remain at the top of the heap in prison. Most importantly was that I formed “strategic alliances,” mainly with the Italians. I was also friendly with the Aryans and the black gangs. That ensured my own safety and ability to operate in prison. The worst things in prison were the monotony and the loneliness. I missed my family terrible. The rest was relatively easy. Writing (letters and books) kept me busy and helped me pass the time quickly. I received nearly 7,000 letters from more than 650 people. And that support gave me great strength.

CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou: Interview – Part 1

AFL: You were very intensely involved in the anti-Al Queda work after 9-11. The book tells of much derring-do & “operations” in Pakistan. Which of those was scariest? How does that all look from this point 13 years later?

John Kiriakou: It’s funny to me in retrospect that I never felt in any personal danger in Pakistan, at least not until I was supposed to go to Karachi near the end of my tour there. I just had a “feeling” about Karachi. I never liked the place, and I found something to do in Islamabad, rather than to head south. On the day I was supposed to arrive there, the Consulate was bombed and 11 people were killed. I should have been there that morning. I’m glad I wasn’t.
Pakistan-and-terrorThat was the only time that I actually felt fear. I remember thinking, “Wow. If these guys really want to kill us, they’ll kill us. They just needed a slightly bigger bomb.” Thirteen years later, I still have fond memories of the country, which my wife thinks is crazy. I enjoyed Pakistan, I like the Pakistani people. I love their food. The country is beautiful. But the place is a basket case. The economy is in collapse. And, frankly, (and this may be controversial), I believe that religion holds Pakistanis back economically.

AFL: Also in the book, you describe being invited (recruited?) to take the interrogation training for what turned out to be the torture program. And you then turned to an older Agency wise person/mentor (one of many colleagues you don’t name) for advice about what to do. That mentor evidently advised you to steer clear of it. . . .

Exclusive Interview With John Kiriakou – CIA Whistleblower: Prelude

A few weeks later, having returned to Athens from an assignment elsewhere in the region, I was driving down Kifissias Avenue, a straight, ten-mile shot down the hillside from my house to my office. Traffic was always heavy, but on this day, it seemed as bad as anything I’d seen. The radio station was reporting a traffic incident of some sort and urging drivers to take alternative routes. But any alternative would have required a huge detour, so I kept moving forward as best I could. The next radio report described the scene ahead as a “criminal incident” that had closed two of the three lanes on my side of the road. . . .

As I drew closer, I could see the plate was YBH. For a moment, though, I forgot that the letters designated a British car; instead, I assumed a terrorist saw the transposed letters, mistakenly thought it was an American, and popped some innocent Greek instead of his imagined target. A second later, it dawned on me that it was a British car, a white Rover, and that it belonged to Stephen Saunders.

Saunders had been driving to work alone on Kifissias Avenue at eight in the morning when two masked gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire after Stephen stopped in heavy traffic. One of the weapons of choice was a .45 pistol, the Welch .45, and the gunmen got away by snaking their motorcycle through traffic. Saunders died at a nearby hospital later that morning. . . .