# "A policy support organization"

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: ""A policy support organization"," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/a-policy-support-organization/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Asked how the CIA workforce would be reacting to the war on Iran, John Kiriakou answered from the Iraq war: people put their heads down and did as they were told, after a boss told an assembled group, all of whom opposed the invasion, that the agency is not a policy organization but a policy support organization, and would do what the White House told it to do.*

- **The question:** How would most of the CIA be reacting, scared, excited, curious?
- **His answer:** "People put their heads down and did as they were told"
- **The precedent:** The Iraq war
- **Who said it:** His boss, to an assembled group
- **The formulation:** "We are not a policy organization. We're a policy support organization"
- **The group's own view:** "We all opposed the Iraq war"
- **His guess about 2026:** "They've had the same conversation today"

**"A policy support organization"** is the formulation [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) reaches for when asked what the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) workforce does about a war it does not agree with.

It came up on 28 February 2026, hours into the attack on Iran, when [Ted Rall](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ted-rall) asked how most of the agency would be reacting, *"Scared, excited, genuinely curious?"*[1]

Kiriakou called it a great question and answered from the last time. *"It was my experience um during the Iraq war that people put their heads down and did as they were told."*[1]

## The speech

What he remembers is a specific address to a specific room, and he supplies the room's own politics in an aside. *"I remember my boss telling a an assembled group, 'We're not here to take a political position one way or another,' because we all opposed the Iraq war."*[1]

The rest of it draws the distinction the phrase turns on. *"He said, 'We're not here to take a political position one way or another. We are not a policy organization. We're a policy support organization. And so, we are going to do what we are told by the White House to do.'"*[1][2]

## The same conversation

Kiriakou did not claim knowledge of what was said inside the building that morning, only that the institution repeats itself: *"And my guess is they've had the same conversation today."*[2]

The account is one of the few places in his record where he attributes the agency's wartime conduct to an explicit instruction rather than to inertia, and where he places himself among the dissenters who complied.

## See also

- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)
- [Iraq WMD intelligence](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/iraq-wmd-intelligence)
- [2026 Iran war](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/2026-iran-war)
- [The Indicator Hed Be Watching](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-indicator-hed-be-watching)

## Sources

1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2026-02-28), at 47:39. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryefwYfcDVY&t=2859s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-28-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2026-02-28), at 48:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryefwYfcDVY&t=2890s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-28-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/a-policy-support-organization/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt