Former CIA officer John Kiriakou returns to discuss the Iran war, Tucker Carlson’s political potential, the two-party system’s failures, and his lawsuit against Meta — all through the lens of a veteran intelligence insider who sees American governance in crisis.
John Kiriakou is suing Meta
Kiriakou’s UK speaking tour was selling out across 20 dates until Meta silently blocked ticket purchases — clicks went to a blank white screen, killing sales despite heavy ad spending.
A speaker bureau colleague’s ex-wife, who was Meta’s assistant general counsel, confirmed Meta deliberately blocked him because “we don’t like him” and told them to sue.
Kiriakou sued Meta in the Northern District of Texas on contingency, arguing they destroyed a major income source — he was making $25,000 per night.
His visibility surged after appearances on Rogan, Tucker Carlson, Patrick Bet-David, and Diary of the CEO, the last of which went viral on TikTok when a creator remixed clips in a chipmunk voice, leading to representation by Creative Artists Agency.
The Iran conflict is different
Kiriakou argues this war is harder to analyze than Iraq, Afghanistan, or Syria because AI-generated disinformation makes it nearly impossible to verify what’s real.
Netanyahu released suspicious videos during the conflict — coffee shop appearances, roadside rest stops — that Kiriakou believes were AI-generated, citing distorted ears, elongated heads, and a six-fingered hand.
Kiriakou sees the country as closer to internal upheaval than at any point in his lifetime, comparing the current moment to 1968 or even 1861.
America is on the verge of revolution
Kiriakou believes a revolution in America would not be left versus right but “the people versus the politicians,” driven by frustration with a two-party system that doesn’t work.
He notes that 100 years ago the US had multiple viable parties — Progressives, Bull Moose, Farmer-Labor — and politicians like Salmon P. Chase switched parties when theirs took positions he opposed.
He considers himself a libertarian and campaigned with Gary Johnson in 2016, who achieved the highest Libertarian vote share in history but couldn’t sustain it without billionaire patronage.
Tucker Carlson
Kiriakou considers Tucker Carlson the most brilliant and well-informed person he’s ever encountered — fearless, genuine, and someone the average American can connect with.
He believes Tucker could win the presidency but is conflicted because losing Tucker as an independent media voice would be a major loss.
Tucker brushes off presidential speculation and lives remotely in Maine without security, once arriving late to their podcast because of a moose encounter while fly fishing.
Libertarians & a third-party system
Kiriakou is skeptical third parties can work without a billionaire patron, noting the Libertarians’ inability to organize even basic events — their Christmas party was held in January.
He sees a strategic dilemma: build from the grassroots up (water boards, city councils) or rally around a big name like Ross Perot and work down — neither approach has succeeded.
He speculates that a ticket pairing a conservative libertarian like Thomas Massie with a progressive libertarian could be genuinely novel but has never been tested.
Joe Kent’s resignation
Joe Kent resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center because he opposed the Iran war, believed intelligence was ignored or fabricated by Israel, and was denied permission to investigate loose threads in the Charlie Kirk assassination.
Kiriakou, a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), believes Kent is genuine and received the Sam Adams Award for integrity in intelligence.
Kent was blocked from investigating whether foreign assets were connected to the Kirk shooting — he was not accusing Israel, only saying there were threads he wanted to run to ground.
The bullet recovered from Kirk’s autopsy could not be matched to the rifle allegedly used by Tyler Robinson, according to a court filing Kiriakou cites as exculpatory.
Kiriakou questions why the FBI is involved at all — Kirk was killed in Utah by a Utah resident with no state lines crossed, making it a state case unless there was a conspiracy.
We’re losing the Iran war
Kiriakou is blunt: the US is losing because winning requires occupying Iran and installing a pro-American government, while Iran only has to survive — and it has existed for 5,000 years.
Iran is 3.8 times the size of Iraq with more forbidding terrain, roughly the size of Western Europe. The US has only 50,000 troops in the region and two carrier groups — far short of the 170,000 used at the height of the Iraq War.
Netanyahu convinced Trump that Iran’s government would collapse “like a house of cards” after the first strike. Every CIA, State Department, and Defense Department analyst knew this was false.
The Joint Chiefs opposed the war, knowing there is never an exit strategy — the US is still in Syria, never left Afghanistan intact, and has no plan for Iran.
Trump’s war crimes
Trump posted on Truth Social telling countries to “take” the Strait of Hormuz themselves, which Kiriakou identifies as at least three war crimes: stealing another country’s oil, seizing sovereign territory without UN approval, and encouraging others to do the same.
Trump also falsely claimed NATO has never helped the US — Article 5 was invoked on September 12, 2001, the only time in NATO history, and members joined the US in Afghanistan.
Kiriakou believes Trump is frustrated because Netanyahu lied about Iran collapsing and because Israeli-supplied intelligence was false.
Risk of Iran getting nukes
Two National Intelligence Estimates — the highest-level analysis, requiring unanimous agreement across all 18 US intelligence agencies — concluded Iran has no nuclear weapons program.
Iran was enriching uranium for medical research and nuclear power, not weapons. Ayatollah Khamenei issued a fatwa in 2003 forbidding nuclear bombs as un-Islamic.
The “six weeks away” claim has been made by Israelis since 1985. Kiriakou calls it propaganda.
America’s lack of intelligence inside Iran
The US has been notoriously bad at developing human sources inside Iran — no embassy, difficult access, reliance on cutouts through third countries.
Kiriakou recounts a colleague whose “source” was a taxi driver in San Jose with a cousin in Tehran — not real intelligence.
Israel is better at recruiting spies but focuses on tactical targeting intelligence — paying Afghan refugees $100 a month to watch scientists’ apartments and using hacked traffic cameras — not long-term strategic analysis.
Israel sends the CIA fabricated intelligence with claims of sensitive sources that can’t be revealed, and the CIA often recognizes it as fabricated but is overruled.
2015 Iran Nuclear Deal
The JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) allowed random, unannounced inspections of Iranian nuclear sites by UN weapons inspectors, with sealed facilities monitored by 24-hour cameras.
It was working. Trump tore it up in his first weeks in office, claiming it made America weak, and moved the US embassy to Jerusalem — a move Kiriakou blames on Bill Clinton for signing a law with a waiver provision instead of vetoing it.
Sheldon Adelson personally paid for the Jerusalem embassy move; a brass plaque thanks him.
AIPAC’s pro-Israel strategy
AIPAC’s strategy of primarying anyone who strays even slightly from the pro-Israel line is backfiring — in a New Jersey race, the pro-Israel vote split between two candidates, allowing a pro-Palestinian candidate to win.
Similar dynamics may play out in Pittsburgh and St. Louis districts.
Younger candidates like Florida gubernatorial candidate Fishback are openly refusing AIPAC money and calling anti-BDS laws unconstitutional — a generational shift Kiriakou sees as significant.
John’s thoughts on Thomas Massie
Kiriakou considers Massie one of the most honorable people in Washington — honest even when they disagree politically.
Miriam Adelson dumped $100 million into a super PAC supporting Massie’s opponent, making it potentially the most expensive House race in US history.
Kiriakou fears Massie would fail as a Republican presidential candidate the way Ron Paul did — true believers who poll at 10% in Iowa and disappear — but could be viable as an independent.
Why Tulsi Gabbard didn’t resign
Kiriakou is surprised Gabbard didn’t resign after Joe Kent did, speculating she may have stayed because she needs the money and doesn’t come from wealth.
He contrasts this with Cyrus Vance, who resigned as Secretary of State in 1980 because he opposed Carter’s Iran hostage rescue mission on conscience, two weeks before the operation, without publicly explaining why.
Republican Party split between neocons & MAGA
Kiriakou sees a major split: neocons are ascendant again while MAGA supporters feel betrayed — “I thought we were running the place.”
He’s received calls from soldiers ordered to deploy who don’t want to fight, some of whom he’s referred to Quaker House at Fort Bragg for conscientious objector assistance.
Pete Hegseth’s claim that soldiers told him to “finish the job” is met with deep skepticism — a former Fox co-host called Hegseth “an incompetent boob and a serial killer.”
Declaring war without Congress
The US hasn’t formally declared war since December 8, 1941. Congress has ceded its constitutional authority to the executive branch for over 80 years.
The War Powers Act requires the president to seek funding approval after 30 days, but no member of Congress will vote to defund troops already deployed.
Kiriakou calls Congress “a collection of 535 cowards” who simply do whatever the president tells them.
Return of the death penalty in Israel
The Knesset passed a law reinstating the death penalty — only for Palestinians, not Jews. Israel abolished its death penalty in 1956 except for Adolf Eichmann.
National Security Minister Ben Gvir, a convicted felon for anti-Arab hate crimes, celebrated the vote.
Huckabee & Jonathan Pollard
Jonathan Pollard spied on the US for Israel, and Israel traded his stolen documents to the Soviet KGB in exchange for a plane load of Jewish refugees — meaning he effectively spied for the Soviets.
Mike Huckabee welcomed Pollard at the US embassy in Jerusalem like a hero. Pollard told Israeli journalists that American Jews should take up arms against the US government.
Trump proactively pardoned Pollard’s Mossad handler, who was never charged or imprisoned.
The Epstein connection to the Iran War
Kiriakou is skeptical the war was launched as an Epstein distraction, arguing there were easier ways to protect people named in the files.
He notes the convenient timing: the statute of limitations on most federal crimes is 5 years, and Epstein died just over 5 years ago.
David Boies reviewed all 3 million released Epstein documents and found no evidence of crimes by Bill Clinton or Donald Trump — raising the question of why the rest remain unreleased.
A New York Times piece revealed a New York socialite helped Epstein reintegrate into society after prison and sought Ukrainian “baby mothers” for him — suggesting he was planning to have children.
Epstein & the Trilateral Commission
Epstein told Steve Bannon he was invited to the Trilateral Commission alongside world leaders, despite being “just a good kid from Coney Island.”
A source told Kiriakou that all elite forums — Trilateral Commission, Davos, Shangri-La — are ultimately about selling weapons and weapon systems.
The Pentagon has manufacturers in all 435 congressional districts, which is why Pentagon budgets pass nearly unanimously.
Rothschild banker appointed to oversee Vatican Bank
François Pauly, a former Rothschild director with three decades of European finance experience, was appointed president of the Vatican Bank’s supervisory board.
Kiriakou notes that figures like the Rothschilds and Rockefellers were once dismissed as conspiracy theories but are now openly holding positions of global financial power.
John isn’t optimistic on Iran
Kiriakou’s best-case scenario is Trump declaring victory and leaving, which he hinted at by claiming Iran’s government has been “decapitated.”
Gulf royal families are reportedly urging Trump to see it through — Mohammed bin Salman allegedly begged Trump to destroy Iran completely during a White House visit.
The Gulf states fear Iran not because of nuclear weapons but because Iran’s IRGC and Ministry of Intelligence actively plot coups against Gulf monarchies — Kiriakou personally saw weapons caches wash up on Bahrain’s shore during his posting there.
He dismisses claims that Islam will become the majority religion in Western countries by 2030 as fear-based ignorance, noting that state-level bans on Sharia law target practices like inheritance rules and prohibitions on charging interest.
