As a student at
George Washington University, Ciralsky began work in the Pentagon's Office of Non-Proliferation Policy where, among other things, he served as a representative to interagency working group on the
United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM).
CIA Described as "a wunderkind of the national security establishment" Ciralsky's work caught the attention of the
Central Intelligence Agency, which offered him a slot in its Legal Honors Program. During his tenure at the CIA, Ciralsky handled a variety of sensitive matters involving
CIA operations and officers and was honored with an Exceptional Performance Award from Director of Central Intelligence
George Tenet.
Lawsuit In July 1997,
Richard Clarke, then
President Clinton's Counter-Terrorism Czar, offered Ciralsky a rotational position at the
National Security Council (NSC). However, the CIA's Counterespionage Group (CEG) blocked the rotation citing concerns about Ciralsky's “Jewish roots”. Ciralsky fought the allegations and, in so doing, unearthed many documents, including, an incendiary memorandum from a top CIA official: " I'd like to know if he admits his family has actual contacts with right wing politicians like Prime Minister Netanyahu. If not contacts, then maybe his family has donated money to Israeli government causes. From my experience with rich Jewish friends from college, I would fully expect Adam’s wealthy daddy to support Israeli political or social causes in some form or other, perhaps though the United Jewish Appeal.” While under investigation by the CEG, Ciralsky was subjected to a polygraph test which – one of the Agency's own documents suggests – was rigged: "[CIA Director] Tenet says this guy is out of here because of his lack of candor…subject is scheduled for a poly…Once that's over, it looks like we'll be waving goodbye to our friend." Ciralsky subsequently passed a polygraph test administered by the former chief of the FBI polygraph lab. Ciralsky subsequently sued the CIA for discrimination. The case prompted a CIA investigation of the CEG and led the Agency to hire the
Anti-Defamation League to provide "sensitivity training" to CEG employees. During the case, it was revealed that Ciralsky's CIA
polygraph administrator referred to him as “that little Jew bastard” when speaking to a colleague. Tenet conceded that the Agency's actions were “insensitive, inappropriate and unprofessional,” and could be construed as anti-Semitic. Ciralsky's 2010 deposition of CIA director
George Tenet is considered unprecedented.
Victoria Toensing, the former chief counsel for the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said that she had not heard of any such thing happening before. “Usually the agency tries to
circle the wagons and protect the director from ever having to provide facts,” she said, “The fact that he was privy to the gross violations that occurred here is what is significant.”
60 Minutes Following his departure from the
CIA in December 1999, Ciralsky was hired by the CBS Newsmagazine
60 Minutes. His first story, "Death by Denial", which dealt with the scourge of HIV/AIDS in Africa, won a
Peabody Award for Significant & Meritorious Achievement in Broadcasting & Cable. While he was at
60 Minutes, Ciralsky's stories were nominated for three
Emmy Awards. During that time, he also helped track down and interview the only participant in the
1993 World Trade Center bombing to remain at large.
NBC News In 2004, Ciralsky joined
NBC News where his work covering the
2006 Lebanon War earned him his first
Emmy. His multi-part series entitled
Trophy, about
U.S. Army efforts to scuttle an
Active Protection System designed to shoot down
rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), earned Ciralsky his second
Emmy as well as the
George Polk Award for special achievement in journalism; specifically for “investigative and enterprise work that is original, requires digging and resourcefulness, and brings results.” Ciralsky followed
Trophy with another multi-part series about the
U.S. Army's decision to ban
Dragonskin, a flexible form of body armor, and instead force soldiers to wear Army-issue body armor called
Interceptor. The body armor series won Ciralsky his third
Emmy award. • “Will It Fly?”, a detailed exposé of the mismanaged development of the
Joint Strike Fighter, also known as the
F-35 Lightning II. (September 2013) • “Did Israel Avert a Hamas Massacre?” on how
Israeli intelligence officials “may have narrowly averted their nation’s own 9/11.” (October 2014) • “Documenting Evil: Inside Assad’s Hospitals of Horror” about a military crime-scene photographer and archivist from
Syria who amassed and defected with photographic and archival evidence of war crimes by the
Assad regime. (June 2015) • “Man of Her Dreams," recounting a relationship between world-renowned surgeon
Paolo Macchiarini and
NBC News producer
Benita Alexander, which began on a professional level, became romantic, and later unearthed widespread fraudulent claims by the surgeon. (January 2016) • "Frenemy of the State,” about billionaire
Peter Thiel’s national security work for the
Trump Administration. (November 2017) • “Harveygeddon: Inside Harvey Weinstein’s Frantic Final Days” (February 2018), which was chosen as one of the "Best Vanity Fair Stories of 2018." • "The Y Squad,” chronicling the secret history of the world's most elite and elusive counter-terror force. (November 2018) • “How a High-Tech Dragnet Nabbed the Alleged Financier of the Rwandan Genocide—After He’d Spent 26 Years on the Lam,” examining how sophisticated intelligence gathering—and the COVID-19 lockdown pause—led to indicted war criminal Félicien Kabuga’s capture in a dawn raid north of Paris. (May 2020)
P3 Media In 2008, Ciralsky started his own production company, Physics Package Productions, which in 2008 became P3 Media. The series was canceled because of bad ratings after two episodes domestically and six episodes internationally. The show's premiere focused on
Mullah Krekar, an Iraqi refugee living in
Norway since 1991 who is also one of the founders and early leaders of the
Ansar al-Islam organization, an Islamist group considered a terrorist organization by
U.N. authorities as well as by the
European Union. In 2003, the deportation of Krekar from
Norway to
Iraq was ordered, but the order was suspended due to concerns about the human rights situation in Iraq, particularly the risk that Krekar would be tortured or executed. In November 2014, a motion picture adaptation of Ciralsky's “Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy” was announced, with Ciralsky,
Nicolas Chartier, and
Craig Flores as producers. Two months later,
Stuart Beattie signed on to write the script. Ciralsky's
Vanity Fair piece, "Harveygeddon: Inside Harvey Weinstein’s Frantic Final Days," was optioned in March 2018 by
Ryan Murphy and
Fox 21 Television Studios. The film's world premiere took place at the
Tribeca Film Festival in 2013. It was also shown that year at film festivals in
Vancouver,
Bergen and
Austin, where it was nominated for the award for Best Documentary Feature.
The Recruit Ciralsky is an executive producer and inspiration for the
Netflix series
The Recruit (2022), which was created by Alexi Hawley and directed by fellow executive producer
Doug Liman.
The Recruit follows a lawyer (
Noah Centineo) who starts working for the CIA and immediately gets in over his head. According to
Variety, the series “centers on Centineo’s Owen Hendricks, a rookie attorney at the CIA who quickly realizes that if he wants to succeed in the Office of the General Counsel, he must learn how to navigate the complicated, overlapping worlds of law and espionage.” According to
Vanity Fair: “Ahead of the premiere, Ciralsky set up a meeting at the real CIA headquarters in Virginia, where Centineo met real CIA attorneys and analysts and peppered them with questions about their jobs.” For Ciralsky, the visit to the CIA felt like a “homecoming.” In January 2023 Netflix announced that it had renewed
The Recruit for a second season. ==See also==