Sputnik: What is your view on this particular incident? Was it a lone wolf attack or is there a whole cell of terrorists behind this particular incident?
John Kiriakou: I think this is a lone wolf attack, but it’s impossible to say at this early stage. Certainly the joint terrorism task force in New York area is investigating this man’s contacts, the people that he lived with, the people that he socialized with. He came to New York from Tampa, Florida, so the FBI is active there, so I think they are not sure, but they are telling the press at least that it appears that he acted alone.
Sputnik: You as a person coming from a CIA background, what is your particular take in terms of possible defense against these low tech attacks?
John Kiriakou: It comes down to individuals. If something doesn’t seem right you have to say something to the authorities. There is a risk in that, of becoming something of a police state, but you have a friend, let’s say who has expressed hatred towards the United States or has expressed friendship with the Islamic State and is renting a truck. He tells you that he is renting a truck to drive to New York; maybe you should call the authorities.
Sputnik: What is your take on Julian Assange’s comments that the CIA should spend less time training and arming terrorists? Who does the blame for what happened in New York City really lie with?
John Kiriakou: I think one reason why we have so many terrorists in the world, who intend to do us harm, is because we are using drones to attack their countries and to attack their villages. I can tell you from firsthand experience that I have interrogated many terrorists over the years and they tell you that they didn’t have any specific problems with the United States until we bombed their villages, until we killed their brothers and sisters, their parents and cousins and destroyed the infrastructure of their country. That’s why they took up arms to get to the United States.
Sputnik: Trump has said that he wants to tighten the admission of refugees into the United States; would it help to strengthen security?
John Kiriakou: It probably will, in a little way anyway, but one of the things that most people don’t understand is that, for example, the country that we allow the most immigrants to come from is Ireland. It is not just the American doors are open right now for floods of refugees from Somalia or Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and some of those other places. It is mostly the people from Ireland, England or Canada that are immigrating to the United States. For good or for bad, I think the immigration will be further restricted because of this.
Sputnik: What other steps could Washington potentially take to tackle the security problem? Is there anything they can do or are they basically covering off all bases and to what lengths is Washington ready to do this?
John Kiriakou: I am not sure that law enforcements or intelligence has to do anymore; it has to come from the policymakers. We have to do something about these drone attacks. We have to do something about our foreign policy, which frankly is not equitable and not fair to a great many people. But in terms of responses on the ground, I think that Congress is the organizational body on the ground that has to make changes to policy, if we are going to make anything different, otherwise we are going to be chasing individuals all over the country between the FBI, the CIA and Department of Homeland Security. I don’t think there is anything else we can do.
Kiriakou gained international recognition as the only person the US government sent to prison for exposing the George W. Bush administration's torture program. After revealing classified information to ABC News in 2007, Kiriakou was sentenced to 30 months in prison, of which he served 23 months between February 2013 and February 3, 2015. He is also a Sputnik contributor.
