Open thread for night owls: Kiriakou feted at going-to-prison party

At Alternet, Adele M. Stan writes Former CIA Agent, Anti-Torture Activist John Kiriakou Toasted By Progressives as He Prepares For Prison:

It's not often that one receives an invitation to a 'going to prison reception,' and one taking place at an elite hotel, no less. But in the penthouse room of the Hay-Adams on Thursday, activists gathered to say farewell to former CIA agent John Kiriakou as he prepares to begin a 30-month sentence in federal prison for leaking classified information to reporters. Jon Kiriakou serenaded at his going-to-prison party. The party was sponsored by the activist groups Fresh Juice Party and CODE PINK, and underwritten by philanthropist Naomi Pitcairn, heir to the Pittsburgh Plate Glass fortune. The first person in 27 years to be convicted of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, Kiriakou views himself as a whistleblower who is being punished for shedding light on the government's policy of torturing terrorism suspects through the use of waterboarding and so-called 'enhanced interrogation techniques.' 'If this case were about leaking, the jails and the prisons in this country would be bursting with former CIA officers and White House officials -- and they're not,' Kiriakou told the partiers gathered for his send-off. 'This case was not about leaking; it was about torture.' [...]

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