GUEST OVERVIEW: Author, Journalist, and Co-Host of Political Misfits on Sputnik Radio. He was formerly an analyst and case officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John was the first U.S. government official to confirm in December 2007 that waterboarding was used to torture al-Qaeda prisoners while being interrogated. He was subsequently targeted for prosecution for making these revelations, eventually pleading guilty to a single charge, to spare journalists from being forced to testify at trial. He spent just under two years in federal prison. John has since worked with an organization of former whistleblowers dedicated to supporting and protecting current and future whistleblowers in exposing corruption and criminality in government which he spent two-and-a-half years in federal prison.