The Mallios argument
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John Kiriakou describes Gust Avrakotos, the officer made famous by Charlie Wilson's War, and portrayed in the film by Philip Seymour Hoffman, as a father figure and one of the most controversial men in the CIA: a man who "killed a lot of Russians, a lot of medals, promotions, couldn't get along with anybody. Everybody hated Gust and Gust hated everybody. But he was a sweetheart deep down. You just had to know how to deal with him."

The story he offers as evidence of what "knowing how to deal with him" meant is an argument about a dead policeman.

The remark

The two were working the 17 November task force together. Kiriakou mentioned offhandedly that the group's second victim, the former chief of the Hellenic National Police, Mallios, had been a torturer during the junta.

The reaction

Avrakotos grabbed him by the lapels and slammed him against the wall. "Mallios was my friend."

Kiriakou's answer, as he gives it: "you better get your hands off of me, old man, or I'm going to make you sorry."

When Avrakotos let go, Kiriakou did not retract the substance. "What's wrong with you? Mallios was a torturer. I'm sorry if he was your friend, I'm sorry he got shot in the head, but he was a torturer. And keep your hands to yourself next time."

The aftermath

The outcome was not an apology but an assessment. Afterwards, Kiriakou says, Avrakotos told him: "I really respect you for the way you reacted."

"So anyway, we were friends."

The friendship mattered operationally. It is the reason Kiriakou telephoned Avrakotos when he could see no way to reach the incoming intelligence representative of a hostile state, and it is the reason he was given the manoeuvre that became the broken side-view mirror, a trick Avrakotos said he had used himself in the 1950s.

Kiriakou does not resolve the disagreement about Mallios in the retelling. He states his own view of the man as a fact and reports Avrakotos's as an affection, and lets the two stand alongside each other.

See also

- John Kiriakou
- Gust Avrakotos
- Revolutionary Organization 17 November
- The broken side-view mirror
- Greek Intelligence Service
