Where this was said
Life in Federal Prison: Gang Hierarchies and the Mob
At 1:45:30 · chapter starts 1:40:30
Kiriakou's federal prison experience turns out to be a rich source of storytelling. On his first day, two white supremacists with face tattoos walked into his cell and — after establishing he wasn't gay, a rat, or a child molester — invited him to sit with the Aryans. Months later, a Bonanno family captain asked why he was wasting time with 'Nazi retards' and adopted him. He describes Black inmates divided between Crips and Bloods in a fragile peace, and Hispanic inmates organized under an involuntary umbrella gang called Pisces with dozens of sub-factions. The Italian mob, though the smallest group, commanded universal respect. He then describes the most elaborate and darkly comic incident of his prison stay: manipulating a serial killer known as Truck into beating a fellow prisoner who'd called Kiriakou a rat, then walking out of the prison officers' interrogation by making counter-accusations — demonstrating the CIA rule 'admit nothing, deny everything, make counter-accusations.'
John Kiriakou served 23 months in federal prison after being charged with revealing the CIA's torture program to ABC News and the New York Times.
Kiriakou planted a lie with serial killer 'Truck' — telling him a fellow prisoner had called him a pedophile — and Truck beat the man nearly to death. Kiriakou sat watching the Steelers game through the whole thing. When prison officers called him in, he turned the tables with counter-accusations and walked free. His rule: let others do your dirty work.
