The "spell your name" briefing
==============================

The "spell your name" briefing is John Kiriakou's account of his first professional engagement with the Israeli government, which came about eight weeks after he started at the CIA. He has said he has recounted it on podcasts a number of times.

The briefing

Kiriakou was assigned to a liaison briefing of the Mossad and Shin Bet representatives in Washington. Because the Israelis were not admitted to headquarters, the meeting was held in rented space outside the building, the arrangement described in the Israeli listening devices ban.

Eight or ten analysts were giving a comprehensive briefing on Iraq, and as the junior-most analyst Kiriakou went last. He was an overt employee at the time, not under cover, so he used his real name, which he says was how it was done. He introduced himself and said he would brief them on Saddam Hussein's state of mind.

The Mossad representative, in Kiriakou's telling, looked at him over the top of his glasses and said: spell your name. Kiriakou spelled it. The Israeli then told him, in front of all his colleagues, that he was Jewish. Kiriakou says he was furious that the man would even say such a thing, and answered that he was not recruitable and that the Israeli should not even think about it. He then went on with the briefing.

Afterwards

Back at the office his boss asked how it had gone. Kiriakou told him what had happened, and the boss laughed and said the Israelis do that to all of us.

Kiriakou uses the episode as the opening item in a longer account of Israeli conduct toward American intelligence personnel, which continues with the Jerusalem harassment campaign against a colleague posted to Israel, and with his general verdict that the United States gets nothing out of the liaison relationship while Israel gets everything.

A later retelling

Kiriakou returned to the episode during the 2026 Iran war, asked what his own experience of the Israelis had been. His answer, "It was universally negative", introduced the same story with a few details differently placed: he had been an Iraq analyst for six weeks rather than eight, and his boss framed it as a group briefing of a Shin Bet representative and a Mossad representative.

In this version the eight participants are itemised, the senior Iraq analyst, the military analyst, the political analyst, the econ analyst, the oil analyst, "everybody's doing their thing", with Kiriakou last as the most junior. His reply to the question about his religion is given more fully: "I am not recruitable. Don't even think about trying to recruit me. Shame on you."

So is the aftermath. He went back to the office and told his boss "I'm so angry right now I could explode," reporting that the Israeli "practically pitched me right there in the meeting." The boss laughed: "They've done that to every single one of us."

See also

- MOSSAD
- The Israeli listening devices ban
- The Jerusalem Harassment Campaign
- CIA liaison relationships
