A former CIA agent has revealed that the agency pursues people with certain mental disorders because it makes them the best agents.
John Kiriakou, who has had a 14-year career as a CIA officer, says the agency “actively tries to hire people with sociopathic tendencies” but avoids individuals with serious disorders.
A “sociopath” is someone who lacks empathy, disregards the feelings of others, and can manipulate or harm people without remorse, often for their own personal gain.
“Sociopaths are impossible to control,” Kiriakou said. 'They slip through the cracks because they have no conscience and they pass the lie detector very easily because they don't feel guilty.
Someone who possesses some of these qualities tends to rise to the highest levels of the CIA.
'People who sociopathic tendencies do have one conscience, but are still perfectly happy to work in moral legal and ethical gray areas,” Kiriakou said.
Kiriakou admitted that he falls into the category of sociopathic tendencies, explaining that he “liked to break into people's houses and plant insects.”
The former officer used the idea that he was part of the good guys and that his country needed him as a way to feed his sociopathic tendencies.
John Kiriakou, who had a 14-year career as a CIA officer, said the agency “actively seeks to hire people with sociopathic tendencies” but avoids individuals with full-blown disorders.
The CIA has admitted that spies have pathological personality traits that help them in their espionage efforts, such as a sense of entitlement or a desire for power and control.
While employed by the CIA, Kiriakou was involved in crucial counter-terrorism missions following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He was involved in the capture of terrorist Abu Zubaydah.
However, he refused to undergo training in so-called 'enhanced interrogation techniques'.
Kiriakou has claimed that he never approved or participated in these techniques.
After leaving the CIA, he appeared on ABC News, where he said the CIA had subjected detainees to waterboarding and labeled the action as torture.
The interview led to Kiriakou being arrested in 2012 and charged with one count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act for allegedly illegally disclosing the identity of an undercover officer.
He was also charged with two counts of violating the Espionage Act for allegedly illegally disclosing national defense information to persons not authorized to receive it, and one count of making false statements for allegedly lying to the The CIA's Publications Review Board in a failed attempt to trick the CIA into including classified information in a book he wanted to publish.
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
After leaving the CIA, he appeared on ABC News (pictured) where he said the CIA was waterboarding detainees and labeled the action as torture.
Jim 'Mad Dog' Lawler, who spent 25 years in the CIA, said he would do just about anything legal to get people abroad to become spies for the US, but admitted to being extremely empathetic
“A CIA psychiatrist once told me that the CIA wants to hire people with sociopathic tendencies — not sociopaths because sociopaths have no conscience,” Kiriakou told The Real News Network.
Asked if he thinks the CIA saw that in him, he replied, “I think they probably did.”
Kiriakou gave a question he was asked during the CIA job interview.
“They said, 'You know Mr. You need it. And you're working to recruit him so he eventually hands that file over to you.”
“But he hasn't been recruited. And finally, when you ask him for the file, he says, no. What are you doing?'
“I said, I'll break in and take the file.” It seemed like a completely logical answer to me.'
The former CIA officer explained that Mr.
Another former CIA agent, Jim “Mad Dog” Lawler, has echoed Kiriakou's comments about sociopathic tendencies within the agency.
The CIA has admitted that spies have pathological personality traits that pave the way for espionage, such as a sense of entitlement or a desire for power and control, but noted that a calm temperament or a strong sense of responsibility are desirable.
Lawler had a 25-year career at the agency as a nuclear weapons expert and spy.
He was a specialist in the recruitment of foreign spies, and he spent more than half of his CIA career fighting the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
During his career, Lawler served as head of the AQ Khan Nuclear Takedown Team, which resulted in the disruption of a nuclear weapons network led by Abdul Qadeer Khan.
The network was active in the 1980s and 1990s and included Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Lawler recently said that the CIA wants people who are dangerously high stakes or borderline sociopath.
“A good friend of mine, he was an operational psychologist at the CIA and he was looking at the criteria for hiring more people like me and he wondered if you knew how much sociopathy we're dialing into,” he said while speaking at the Julian Dorey Podcast.
'What I did is quite sociopathic. I manipulate people. I exploit people. I discovered that it was a lot of fun to compete against foreigners.
“It's that sociopathic part where we enjoy breaking people's laws because that's what we do: we break the laws of other countries. We convince people to become Traders.'
He also explained that he would do almost anything legal to get people abroad to become spies for the US.
Lawler admitted to using his “special skills” only three times, including to avoid a traffic ticket and get an upgrade to first class on a plane.
The former CIA officer said he is also extremely empathetic, which is the opposite of a full-fledged sociopath.
