Dave Phillips
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Dave Phillips, a name John Kiriakou uses rather than the man's own, was a prisoner at FCI Loretto who claimed to have been a CIA officer. Robert the Australian introduced the two men shortly after Kiriakou's arrival, describing Phillips as CIA and directing Kiriakou upstairs to meet him.

Kiriakou says he doubted the claim from the outset, because Phillips was not exactly sure of the lingo, a thing Kiriakou treats as very important, and the way he says he can spot a CIA phony from a mile away. The full test is set out in spotting a CIA impostor. Phillips answered the first two questions correctly, naming the Directorate of Operations by its initials and Africa Division as his division, but he did not know who the deputy director for operations had been, and he inverted the two halves of the name of a secret training facility. Kiriakou's conclusion was that Phillips obviously had some sort of exposure to the CIA at some point but had never been a CIA officer. Phillips also described an elaborate operation he claimed to have taken part in and a medal he claimed to have won, not realising there were multiple intelligence medals and that half of them are awarded only posthumously.

Possessiveness

Kiriakou describes Phillips as incredibly jealous of his time, actively hostile when other prisoners wanted to stop by or walk the track, and trying very hard to isolate him, an effort Kiriakou says he resisted. Several people warned him. Mark Lanzalotti, who became Kiriakou's closest friend inside, was the first, telling him something just did not sit right about the man. Kiriakou's verdict is blunt: Dave Phillips did not make his circle of friends.

He was also, in Kiriakou's account, willing to take risks that were unacceptable. Kiriakou describes himself as a major risk taker but draws a line at things that are plain stupid.

Phillips features elsewhere in Kiriakou's prison stories as a companion who escalated. Kiriakou recounts walking with him when a guard demanded to know whether he was the man whose name she could not pronounce, and Phillips remarking "classy" at Kiriakou's reply. He also describes Phillips insisting on a confrontation over library films that ended with Phillips knocked down by a single punch, and then complaining about it all day, the occasion for Kiriakou's advice that if the face does not hurt any more, the matter is over.

The shanks

The break came over the planting of two homemade weapons on a pedophile with whom the group was in dispute. Phillips made a slashing weapon from a razor blade dug out of a disposable razor and a stabbing weapon from an uncoiled spring, and asked Kiriakou to come with him to plant them. Kiriakou refused, saying he did not want to be within a hundred feet of shanks because he was going home in a year.

Phillips planted them and then anonymously informed on the pedophile. Guards raided the cell, found the weapons, not particularly well hidden, and arrested the pedophile, but they also arrested Phillips, because they knew about the dispute. The pedophile was sent to a prison in New Jersey and Phillips to a prison in Ohio. Kiriakou was called to the lieutenant's office and told that the only reason he had not been sent to solitary and transferred was that he had not been seen on the security cameras going to the pedophile's housing unit. He denied all knowledge, applying his rule to admit nothing, deny everything, make counter accusations.

See also

- Spotting A Cia Impostor
- Shank Planting Incident
- FCI Loretto
- Robert the arsonist
- Mark Lanzalotti
- "Admit nothing, deny everything, make counter-accusations"
