Published on Friday, January 25, 2013 by  Common Dreams CIA Torture Whistleblower Sentenced to 30 Months Sentencing exemplifies the 'second McCarthy era' against US whistleblowers by the Obama administration - Jacob Chamberlain, staff writer CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou was  sentenced  to 2 ½ years in prison on Friday for what critics of his prosecution are calling trumped-up charges by the Department of Justice for his exposure of the spy agency's torture program established by the former Bush administration.   (Associated Press)  In a letter urging President Barack Obama to pardon the whistleblower, several high profile civil rights defenders including Ralph Nader and retired CIA officer Raymond McGovern  stated : Kiriakou is an anti-torture whistleblower who spoke out against torture because he believed it violated his oath to the Constitution. He never tortured anyone, yet he is the only individual to be prosecuted in relation to the torture program of the past decade. ... The interrogators who tortured prisoners, the officials who gave the orders, the attorneys who authored the torture memos, and the CIA officers who destroyed the interrogation tapes have not been held professionally accountable. Please, Mr. President, do not allow your legacy to be one where only the whistleblower goes to prison. "He was prosecuted not by the Bush administration but by Obama's,"  added  Robert Shetterly, an artist and ac