John Kiriakou's Dead Drop

THE BLURB: John Kiriakou knew when he was 9 years old that he wanted to be a spy. Plenty of people want to be spies but only a few ever actually become spies. In E1, John tells his origin story. Where he and his family came from had a lot to do with his success as an intelligence officer working in dangerous places. From wanting to be James Bond to actually becoming something a lot like Bond. It's "How To Be A Spy, Part 1".

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THE BLURB: After a graduate class professor recruits John, he throws himself into a mystifying series of tests all seemingly designed to trip up his desire to become a spy for America. How exactly does an institution like the CIA train people to spy for it? Welcome to your first class!

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THE BLURB: Talk about getting thrown into the deep end of the pool! When Iraq and Kuwait - John's new "area of expertise" - suddenly go to war (Iraq invaded Kuwait), John unexpectedly finds himself called to the White House - where, as a 25 year old newbie - he's asked to brief President George H W Bush, Vice President Dan Quayle and the the intelligence chiefs on what Saddam will do next. That's what happens when you become the CI...

THE BLURB: Having been recruited into the CIA by legendary CIA officer Jerry Post - and by applying himself completely - John's CIA career took off with a bullet. If ever there was a CIA Golden Boy, John was it. That fact that he came up as a golden boy would prove ironic in the end. In this episode, John goes from briefing the President in the Oval Office to the theatre of war itself: Iraq. It's good to be a "Golden Boy". But it i...

THE BLURB: From the time he was 5 or 6 and became aware of him, John always admired and wanted to know folk singer and activist Pete Seeger. In fact, John vowed to become friends with the legend - which, in fact, John did: he and Pete did become friends. How an event that echoed across Pete's life also echoed across John's.

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THE BLURB: Among the things that make spies tick is fear. Fear of being caught - and then tortured and/or killed. Stories like Beirut Station Chief Bill Buckley's are what keep spies like John Kiriakou up at night. Buckley came to the CIA from the US Army where he was a highly decorated special forces officer. Once recruited by the CIA, Buckley served successfully in places like Cambodia, Egypt and Pakistan. Beirut was another stor...

THE BLURB: At first glance Bahrain was a good starting assignment. It was a veritable paradise, a great place to learn without much pressure. The US Navy was based there. And, it was a literal paradise. Working (on the surface) for the State Department, John pissed off Bahrain's Prime Minister while charming its Emir. The days of no pressure ended with a literal bang when terrorists blew up the Khobar Tower, a building housing US A...

THE BLURB: In this episode, we preview a new podcast series that we'll start dropping in Spring 2026 - "A Spy's Guide To" which will look at the great cities of the world (and the not-so-great) entirely from the perspective of spies and spying. It'll be like a travel guide for spooks. Since spies have to live in these cities (in addition to working them), we'll approach and appreciate our first city guide - to SOFIA, BULGARIA - as ...

THE BLURB: When his assignment to Bahrain ends, John finds himself back at CIA HQ in Langley, settling in to life as an analyst - a bored drone at a boring desk. It doesn't take long for John to hanker instead for something more satisfying: something in operations - out in the field. Something a little more dangerous...

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THE BLURB: Both spying and the subject of this episode - cemeteries - piqued John's youthful curiosity at roughly the same age. Spying, of course, became John's vocation. But John's love for cemeteries - especially for the people buried in them - became a very happy ridealong. Working around the world for the CIA meant visiting cemeteries around the world. In this episode, we preview "GRAVE CONCERNS", a new podcast series that we'l...

THE BLURB: On the one hand, being assigned to handle counter-terrorism in Athens was a dream job. On the other, it had nightmarish implications and very real dangers up to and including assassination. That's what happened to a former Athens station chief, the highly regarded Richard Welch. A Greek terrorist group assassinated Welch outside his residence after he attended a Christmas party. In this episode, John comes face to face w...

THE BLURB: When John turned his back on being a deskbound analyst in favor of risking his neck out in the field, he knew he'd made the right decision. Blowing things up - including cars - and playing spy games made him incredibly happy. Who wouldn't be happy? In this episode, John takes you way behind the scenes at the CIA's "James Bond Academy" - an actual place (just not with that name) where the CIA trains its agents how to be t...

THE BLURB: The very things that made Athens a great counter-terrorism assignment also made it incredibly dangerous. John's intensive training was designed to make him paranoid. It succeeded. Not all threats were terrorism. Some were just local criminals being criminals. Still, living in Athens was mostly a joy. There was ample good food and culture. But the threat of violence was both persistent and pervasive. So was the paranoia.

THE BLURB: John's assignment in Athens comes to a head when an assassination attempt on him goes awry with tragic results. But that merely compounds the situation at home when John learns - from his 6 year old son - that his wife's been cheating on him.

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THE BLURB: In this episode, John chats with former CIA officer turned wildly successful novelist BARRY EISLER about spying and how it lends itself to storytelling. After a three year stint as a covert officer in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, Barry worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earned a black belt at the Kodokan Judo Institute and began writing great, award-winning thri...

THE BLURB: Back in America, John settles in to a year or so "in the penalty box" because of what happened in Athens. John's divorce from Joanne gets complicated by Joanne's brinksmanship. But John does what he must to keep himself in his sons' life. Despite all the Life complications, John scores a small succuss at work. Whatever joy that produces gets undercut when Joanne kidnaps the boys.

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THE BLURB: After Joanne kidnaps John's two sons - instead of making them available for his six weeks summer vacation with them - John uses his espionage skills to track them all down. Hothead that he is, rather than wait for the legal system to work to his benefit, John nearly ruins everything by iniating a "hostage situation" of his own. At work, John's time in the penalty box is about to get truncated - as more and more Agency re...

THE BLURB: With America - and the CIA - at war, everyone wants to fight, especially John. But, his skill sets aren't the required ones as the War On Terror begins. The CIA, it turns out, had an actual plan to deal with Osama bin Laden. After settling some old business back in Greece, John begins to work on the CTC's leadership, looking for a way to in to Afghanistan. And then one opens up...

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THE BLURB: Aldrich Ames was a CIA counterintelligence officer who was convicted of espionage on behalf of the soviet Union and Russia in 1994. Ames was responsible for the arrest and eventual execution of numerous Soviet and Russian officials secretly working on behalf of US intellifence, and had compromised more highly classified CIA assets than any other intelligence officer at the time of his arrest. What caused Rich Ames to bet...