A couple of weeks back, John Kiriakou got a call from his 16-year-old niece who said, “Uncle John, you’re blowing up on TikTok.” Kiriakou, a 61-year-old ex-CIA officer who was incarcerated in 2013 for disclosing classified information about the agency’s torture program in the Middle East, was unaware of what she meant. He doesn’t use TikTok and mainly relies on Facebook. Nevertheless, excerpts from a podcast Kiriakou recorded in January with Steven Bartlett, the host of the Diary of a CEO show that boasts over 15 million YouTube subscribers, were going viral without any input from him.
For almost two decades, Kiriakou has been pursuing a presidential pardon. From 1990 to 2004, he served as a CIA analyst and counterterrorism officer, leading a 2002 operation to capture Abu Zubaydah, a figure linked to al Qaeda’s training camps. The CIA subjected Zubaydah to waterboarding during his detention. Kiriakou later revealed the agency’s torture practices in a 2007 ABC News interview, after which he worked as a terrorism consultant. Five years later, the Justice Department indicted Kiriakou, who confessed to leaking the identity of a covert operative to the media, who was involved in CIA interrogations.
Even though Kiriakou completed his prison term by 2015, he is still seeking a presidential pardon to restore his reputation and recover years’ worth of pension contributions. “I served 20 years with pride at the federal level. My pension was $700,000,” Kiriakou explains. “Without that pension, I’ll have to work until the end of my days. It was unjust for them to take it from me, and I want it back. A pardon is the only way I can reclaim it.”
Lately, he has explored official avenues and engaged with President Donald Trump’s informal and pricey clemency market. Thus far, his efforts have not yielded results. Now, he’s adopted a different strategy, appearing on some of the same podcasts Trump frequented during the 2024 election cycle. Clips of his conversations with Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan, among others, continue to circulate, and the internet is reveling in it.
When Kiriakou joined Bartlett for the January podcast, it was a profound discussion regarding his CIA experiences, whistleblowing, and his nearly two-year incarceration. However, the anecdotes Kiriakou shares, such as gathering intelligence in nations like Pakistan or discussing the CIA’s MKUltra program, have garnered millions of views in “brainrot”-style edits across platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels.
“Catch you in two scrolls,” one commenter quipped on a clip featuring Kiriakou, humorously noting the abundance of his videos on their For You page.
A user known as @_bamboclat has been credited by Know Your Meme for popularizing these edited clips of Kiriakou recounting remarkable stories from his time abroad. These excerpts have racked up around 50 million views on the account.
“I first learned about him through podcasts on TikTok. I believe the reason everyone is drawn to him is that he’s an excellent storyteller,” says @_bamboclat, who chose not to disclose his real name. “He’s been sharing these tales for 20 years. The sped-up, slowed-down meme format of him is quite popular with Gen Z and the TikTok demographic.”
This virality has transformed Kiriakou into a cultural icon. In light of his newfound popularity, the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) signed him on. Cameo—the platform where users order customized videos from famous individuals—enlisted Kiriakou last month. He has produced over 700 videos for fans, priced at approximately $150 each. In one Cameo video, Kiriakou was requested to promote a woman’s nail salon. The clip is now being utilized to advertise the salon on TikTok.
