Former CIA officer John Kiriakou says a series of emails with investigative journalist Matthew Cole helped trigger the federal case that eventually sent him to prison for 23 months, and U.S. Marine veteran and YouTuber Jamesons Travels says the story raises serious questions about how Cole handled confidential sources.
In a recent video, Jamesons Travels reacted to clips of Kiriakou discussing his prosecution and his past dealings with Cole, who later became known for national security reporting, including work involving SEAL Team 6.
Kiriakou’s account is his version of events, and Jamesons Travels repeatedly pushed the theory further, openly wondering whether Cole deliberately drew sources into conversations before exposing them. Those suspicions were presented as commentary rather than established fact, but they formed the backbone of the video.
Kiriakou Says Cole Approached Him About A Book
Kiriakou said he knew Cole from their time working on Brian Ross’s investigative team at ABC News, although he described their relationship as professional rather than close.
According to Kiriakou, Cole contacted him in July 2008 and said he was writing a book about the Abu Omar rendition case.
Kiriakou described Abu Omar as a Muslim cleric in Milan who had been seized in a CIA-linked operation and taken to Egypt. He said the case later became deeply embarrassing for the CIA after Italian authorities pursued arrest warrants against officers connected to the operation.
Cole allegedly emailed Kiriakou a list of about a dozen names and asked whether he knew anyone who might be interviewed for the book.
Kiriakou said he told him he did not recognize any of them.
Cole then sent another list, according to Kiriakou, and received essentially the same answer.
“I don’t know any of these people,” Kiriakou recalled telling him, adding that the Abu Omar operation had not been his area at the CIA.
At first glance, the exchange sounds ordinary enough for a journalist searching for sources. What makes the story notable is what Kiriakou says happened next.
One Name Became The Critical Detail
Kiriakou said Cole eventually asked about a person mentioned in Kiriakou’s own book, referring to someone as “John.”
Kiriakou recognized the reference as “John Doe,” a former intelligence figure he had written about, and said he replied that he did not know what had happened to the man and assumed he might be retired somewhere in Virginia.
Kiriakou said he thought little of the exchange afterward.
Three and a half years later, he said, the FBI arrested him and charged him with five felonies, including three espionage counts. He said he was facing the possibility of 45 years in prison.
Jamesons Travels reacted with disbelief, saying he had previously understood Kiriakou’s case differently and had not realized how central Cole allegedly was to the sequence.
Kiriakou’s explanation was direct: he believes Cole was never genuinely writing the Abu Omar book he had described.
That is a serious accusation, and the video does not independently prove Cole’s intent. Still, Kiriakou’s account makes clear why he continues to view the contact as far more than a routine source conversation.
Kiriakou Traces The Name Through Investigators
Kiriakou said Cole was secretly working with defense attorneys representing Guantánamo detainees and passed the identity of “John Doe” along to them.
According to Kiriakou, those lawyers then filed a classified motion seeking permission to depose the person.
He said the judge recognized that the appearance of the name could indicate a leak and referred the matter to the FBI.
From there, according to Kiriakou, investigators began following the information backward.
The Guantánamo defense lawyers allegedly said the name came from Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch then pointed investigators toward one of its investigators, who in turn identified Cole as the source.
Kiriakou said the FBI then asked Cole where he had obtained the identity.
His answer, according to Kiriakou, was John Kiriakou.
“They arrested me and changed the course of the rest of my life,” Kiriakou said.
He added that he ultimately spent 23 months in prison and blamed Cole for having “ratted” him out.
Jamesons Travels said he could understand why Kiriakou still has what he called an enormous “axe to grind” over the episode.
Jamesons Travels Questions Cole’s Role With Sources
The video then shifted to more recent reporting involving Cole and SEAL Team 6.
Jamesons Travels discussed reporting about a failed, highly classified SEAL Team 6 operation in North Korea and noted that the Justice Department was reportedly seeking information about Cole’s sources for that story.
According to the material played in the video, investigators wanted roughly two years of information concerning Cole’s communications as they tried to identify who had provided details of the sensitive mission.
Jamesons Travels wondered aloud whether the people who spoke with Cole about that operation could eventually face the same kind of exposure Kiriakou says he experienced.
He repeatedly floated the possibility that Cole could be more than simply careless with sources, even suggesting that he might somehow be working on behalf of another organization.
There was no evidence presented in the video establishing that theory, and Jamesons Travels himself framed it as speculation, repeatedly asking viewers what they thought rather than claiming he could prove it.
That distinction matters. It is fair to scrutinize how a journalist protects sources, especially in national security reporting, but suspicion becomes much more serious when it turns into an allegation that someone is secretly working for an intelligence or law-enforcement organization.
Reality Winner Becomes Part Of The Argument
Kiriakou also brought up Reality Winner, the former NSA contractor who leaked a classified document to The Intercept.
He said the document reached Cole and was then sent back to the NSA for authentication.
According to Kiriakou’s description, the problem was that the physical document contained identifying printer information that could be traced back to the person who printed it.
Kiriakou argued that an experienced national security reporter should have understood that risk.
Jamesons Travels reacted strongly to that part of the story, asking how someone familiar with intelligence reporting could fail to recognize that a government document might contain tracking information.
He said the episode made him wonder whether Cole was merely careless or whether something more deliberate was going on.
Again, that conclusion remained speculation.
The broader point, however, is harder to ignore: source protection in national security journalism can have extraordinary consequences. A mistake involving metadata, printer markings or an unguarded communication can expose a source to prosecution in a matter of hours.
Kiriakou Says The Case Changed His Life
Kiriakou’s strongest criticism was not about journalistic technique but about personal consequences.
He said Cole identified him to the FBI and later to a grand jury, leading directly into the investigation that changed the course of his life.
Kiriakou described Cole as someone who later positioned himself as a defender of press freedom despite, in Kiriakou’s view, having failed to protect people who spoke to him.
Jamesons Travels was even harsher, calling Cole a “snake in the grass” and saying he no longer viewed him as simply a reporter who had made mistakes.
He also tied the Kiriakou case, the Reality Winner leak and the newer SEAL Team 6 controversy together as part of what he sees as a troubling pattern.
That interpretation depends heavily on Kiriakou’s account and Jamesons Travels’ suspicions, but the underlying story remains significant even without embracing the most dramatic theory.
Kiriakou says a short exchange with a journalist about one intelligence identity eventually became part of a chain leading to espionage charges, a possible decades-long prison sentence and 23 months behind bars.
For Jamesons Travels, the central question is whether that chain reflects ordinary investigative reporting gone badly wrong, reckless handling of sources, or something more intentional.
Kiriakou appears to have already made up his mind about who he blames.
More than a decade after his prosecution, he is still naming Matthew Cole as the person whose actions, in his telling, helped put him in federal prison.
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