"He''s been ours since the ''70s"
=================================

Asked to convey the scale on which the United States government has foreign officials working for it, John Kiriakou answered with an episode rather than a number.

"I was at a cocktail party once, a diplomatic cocktail party, and I met a guy who I immediately recognised as a former prime minister. And I thought, ''oh my God, he''s a former prime minister, now he''s not just a member, he''s a founder of a less popular party. He''s probably not going to be prime minister again, but maybe he will be. Who knows?'' So I rush back to the embassy, I fill out a template for this cable, and I say, ''hey, I met the former prime minister. Give me a name trace on him. Looking for any vulnerabilities. I''m going to invite him to dinner, I''m going to try to get him.'' And then they send me a cable back the next day and they said: ''cease and desist. He''s been ours since the ''70s.''"

The procedure the story turns on is routine, an operational cable requesting a trace and a vulnerability assessment is the first step of any approach, and the point of the anecdote is that the answer came back not as a caution but as a collision. The man had been recruited before Kiriakou joined the agency.

See also

- The post-9/11 name traces
- The operational cable
- Asset acquisition cycle
- The botched pitch
- Agent payment mechanics
