“That Mark Zaid is involved in this case leads me to believe that the CIA whistleblower is either an idiot who has no idea what he’s gotten himself into or he’s been directed to make his ‘disclosure’.”
Former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou
Mark S. Zaid is a Washington DC attorney, with a practice focus on national security law.
October 25 2020 — In a piece posted on the Consortium News website, former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou points out that it is totally odd for the CIA “whistleblower” to have hired Mark Zaid. I could not agree more. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
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“The CIA advised that on February 24, 2003, it was contacted by Mark Zaid and Roy Krieger. They told the CIA on February 24 that a client of theirs [Jeffrey Sterling] had contacted them on February 21, 2003, and that that client, that unnamed client at the time voiced his concerns about an operation that was nuclear in nature, and he threatened to go to the media.”
Ashley Hunt — FBI witness at the Jeffrey Sterling trial
“Because he just formed a new whistleblower group with John Napier Tye, there as been renewed interest in allegations an FBI Agent made during the Jeffrey Sterling case about attorney Mark Zaid. But there was actually a second detail regarding Zaid released just after the trial that has not been publicly reported: Zaid was interviewed by the FBI, twice, and was even interviewed before Sterling himself was.”
Marcy Wheeler aka Emptywheel
Former CIA official and whistleblower John Kiriakou never minced his words regarding the “Ukraine whistleblower” so celebrated by most mainstream media.
“This person is not a whistleblower. His attorney — Mark Zaid — is one of these CIA insiders.
He is attached at the hip with the CIA. He represents a dozen of CIA people, he has a CIA security clearance.
If you are represented by Mark Zaid, and you are claiming to be a whistleblower, you are not.”
Only a minority (15%) of Intel Today readers believes that is Eric Ciaramella a real whistleblower.
RELATED POST: Eric Ciaramella : Whistleblower or Coup Plotter? [Poll]
The vast majority (75%) agrees with John Kiriakou.
The Jeffrey Sterling’s affair
Regarding the Jeffrey Sterling’s affair, Kiriakou writes:
“The second thing that interests me is the officer’s hiring of Mark Zaid to represent him, rather than one of more than a dozen A-list national security attorneys at three or four major law firms in Washington.
Zaid is literally the worst possible choice for any whistleblower in national security.
Zaid briefly represented CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling, who was accused of leaking classified information to The New York Times’ James Risen.
But while the FBI was looking at three different people as Risen’s possible source, Zaid sent a letter to the FBI saying, “I think my client is guilty.”
The FBI dropped the other two investigations and focused only on Sterling, who went to trial, consistently protested his innocence, was convicted, and spent three-and-a-half years in prison.”
The story of Jeffrey Sterling has never really made sense to me. I still feel that we miss a serious piece of this puzzle.
RELATED POST: Four Years Ago — Former CIA Jeffrey Sterling : “Letter From Prison” [Was there a Second Snowden?]
According to the official story, the FBI never looked at a crucial piece of information on a flash drive that still sits untouched in a safe at the FBI’s Washington Field Office. If you believe that, this blog may not be for you.
About John Kiriakou
Commenting on his own story, Kiriakou reminds you the following facts.
“Zaid briefly represented me in 2007, immediately after I blew the whistle.
But I fired him after two weeks because he was impulsive, unnecessarily confrontational and untrustworthy.
Four years later, he was representing Matthew Cole, the “journalist” who was secretly working for the Guantanamo defense attorneys, the man who ratted me out to the FBI, which led to my arrest and to two years in prison.
Cole told the FBI that I was his source who told him the name of a CIA officer involved in the torture program.
Not only did Zaid represent Cole, but both he and Cole testified against me in grand jury proceedings in 2012.
How this man still has a law license is an utter mystery to me.”
RELATED POST: Two Years Ago — Former CIA John Kiriakou : “Doing Time Like A Spy”
Lockerbie — Three Decades of Lies: J’Accuse…!
QUICK NOTES — To make it easier for the readers to retrieve various chapters of my book, I have created a special page “Lockerbie” where all the links to the chapters will be listed with a brief description. You can access that page directly as it appears at the far right of the top bar of this blog.
Lockerbie — Three Decades of Lies: J’Accuse…!
Zaid despises all whistleblowers : Manning, Snowden and Assange
The readers of this blog are probably familiar with this issue. On March 8 2019, Chelsea Manning was jailed for refusing to testify before an investigation into WikiLeaks.
On that day, Mark Zaid tweeted:
“Nothing disgusting about this at all. Typical grand jury contempt process. Witnesses can’t refuse to testify unless invoking 5th Amendment protections. USGOVT should always pursue unlawful leaking of classified information.”
On the same day, I wrote:
PS — On October 3 2017, I coined the expression “Havana Syndrome”. The expression is now universally used, both by the media and the research community. A Google search of the expression “Havana Syndrome” brings about 3.5 million results!
Why did I coin the expression “Havana Syndrome” and what does it mean? As soon as I heard about this rather unusual saga, I immediately made a connection between the Havana attacks and the old story of the Microwave Syndrome, thus the conflation Havana Syndrome.
I understand that a study conducted by the US National Academy of Sciences has recently reached the same conclusion. Stay tuned!
REFERENCES
JOHN KIRIAKOU: What was this CIA Officer Thinking? — Consortium News
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TRUMP WHISTLEBLOWER: CHOICE OF LAWYER RAISES SUSPICIONS
TRUMP WHISTLEBLOWER: CHOICE OF LAWYER RAISES SUSPICIONS [UPDATE — Former CIA John Kiriakou : “This is an insult to real whistleblowers!”]
Spy Quotes — Former CIA John Kiriakou
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