Episode notes
CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou and political cartoonist Ted Rall interview whistleblower Reality Winner. Reality Leigh Winner is a former U.S. Air Force veteran, linguist, and NSA contractor whose life took a dramatic turn in 2017.
Raised by a politically engaged family—her father, a brilliant but unstable philosopher, ignited her passion for ancient languages like Pashto and Farsi—she enlisted post-9/11, driven by unyielding patriotism. Deployed to support U.S. operations in Afghanistan, she honed her skills as a translator, facilitating intelligence missions.
At 25, working for the NSA in Augusta, Georgia, Winner stumbled upon a classified report detailing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election via cyberattacks on voting systems. She leaked the document to The Intercept, believing it vital for democracy. Instead, ...