Welcome to Pushback. I'm Aaron Mate. My guest is Jeffrey Sterling.

He is a former CIA officer who was imprisoned under the Espionage Act, accused of leaking classified information, an allegation he denies.

And he wrote about his experience in the memoir called Unwanted Spy,

the Persecution of an American Whistleblower. Jeffrey Sterling, welcome to pushback.

Thank you very much for having me on.

So it's interesting when you are referred to as a whistleblower because by your own telling,

you are not a whistleblower because by your own telling, you are not a whistleblower

for what the government accused you of. You had an actual initial case against the CIA

that came well before you were indicted by the US government. So let's start there.

You served as a CIA officer,

and at a certain point, you brought a complaint

against the agency.

Tell us that story.

Well, the complaint that I brought against the agency

was for racial discrimination.

When I joined the agency, I, of course,

was given the promises of acceptance and equality and equal opportunity that did not turn out to be the case.

Years into my career at the CIA, it became apparent that only because of the color of my skin, I was being denied opportunities.

My supervisors even had the compunction,

no standoffishness about it at all

to tell me flat to my face that I kind of stood out

as a black guy speaking Farsi,

...