John C. Ryan (born 19 June 1938) is a former

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

(FBI) agent and police officer.Antony Schmitz
The Spy Who Said No

Mother Jones Magazine ''Mother Jones'' (abbreviated ''MoJo'') is an American progressive magazine that focuses on news, commentary, and investigative journalism on topics including politics, environment, human rights, health and culture. Clara Jeffery serves as edito ...

, April 1988, pp. 16-19. He had been an FBI agent between 1966 and 1987 before being fired for refusing to investigate nonviolent activists. He lost his job in September 1987 ten months short of retirement. He was thus ineligible for a full pension. In a report by the ''

LA Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', 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 Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

is "violent, illegal and immoral." He was also a critic of

COINTELPRO COINTELPRO ( syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program; 1956–1971) was a series of covert and illegal projects actively conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrati ...

.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

References

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Living people 1938 births {{US-gov-bio-stub