"This is more of a political witch hunt to target groups whose politics the concerned senators don't like," Kiriakou, a former CIA case officer who served in Syria said.
On Tuesday, a group of US Senators led by Mike Lee called on Secretary of State Tillerson to investigate US funding political factions within other sovereign nations such as Macedonia and Albania, including through a George Soros-backed organization funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
According to the letter published on Tuesday, one of the group’s involved in such activities with the US government is the USAID multi-grant recipient, the Soros-backed Open Society Foundation.
Funds distributed through USAID programs in Macedonia and Albania have been used to influence politics, media and civil society, affecting bilateral relations with the United States, the lawmakers claimed in the letter.
Kiriakou, however, the inquiry sought by the US senators was unlikely ever to be held.
"I don't think this is feasible because ‘left wing movements" are in the eye of the beholder," he said.
He noted that similar attempts have taken place under former President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
Kiriakou was previously a CIA analyst and case officer, a senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an author.
