Jack Ryan (FBI agent)

This article is about the FBI agent. For other people with the same name, see Jack Ryan (disambiguation).

John C. Ryan (born 19 June 1938) is a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent and police officer.[1] He had been an FBI agent between 1966 and 1987 before being fired for refusing to investigate nonviolent activists.[2] He lost his job in September 1987 ten months short of retirement.[1] He was thus ineligible for a full pension.[3] In a report by the LA Times, he stated his belief that the Bureau could reinstate him to a position which would not conflict with his personal beliefs that U.S. involvement in Central America is "violent, illegal and immoral."[4]

He was also a critic of COINTELPRO.[5]

  1. ^ a b Antony Schmitz, The Spy Who Said No, Mother Jones Magazine, April 1988, pp. 16-19.
  2. ^ Bud Schultz, Ruth Schultz: The price of dissent: testimonies to political repression in America p. 372 [1]
  3. ^ Zinn, Howard, 2003, The Twentieth Century: A People's History, HarperCollins Publishing, New York, NY
  4. ^ FBI Agent Fired for Beliefs Tries to Reclaim Job - Los Angeles Times Dec. 1987
  5. ^ Hodge, James and Linda Cooper, 2004, Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY