# Al Qaeda Software

> **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.
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> Cite as: "Al Qaeda Software," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/al-qaeda-software/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*A claim raised on a Kiriakou-appearance podcast that "Al-Qaeda" is also the name of a terrorist-tracking software, alongside its use as the name of the terrorist organization.*

During a conversation with [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) and author Ian Trottier on the Michael Jaco show, one of the speakers raised the claim that "Al-Qaeda" is, by his understanding, also the name of a terrorist-tracking software, distinct from — but overlapping in name with — its use as the name of the terrorist organization.[1]

The claim was raised in the context of discussing the Analysis Corporation, a database created in 1990 to track terror movements following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, during the wider Mujahideen-era discussion of the conversation.[1]

## Al-Qaeda's origins, per Kiriakou

Separately from the software claim, Kiriakou has discussed the historical origins of [al-Qaeda](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abu-zubaydah) the organization. He says al-Qaeda was not deliberately created by the CIA, though the agency could be said to have "accidentally" created it as blowback from its anti-Soviet war effort in Afghanistan. He credits this dynamic to his mentor at the CIA, Gust Avrakotos — later dramatized by Philip Seymour Hoffman in *Charlie Wilson's War* — whose single-minded focus was killing as many Russians as possible, whatever the consequences of arming the fighters who did it.[2] One tactic used to motivate Osama bin Laden and other fighters during the anti-Soviet campaign, per Kiriakou, was portraying the Soviets as anti-religious Communists.[3]

Kiriakou traces a chain of blowback from that campaign: al-Qaeda formed, and when the U.S. began killing al-Qaeda members, ISIS emerged from within an American military prison in Iraq — created, he says, because some detainees considered al-Qaeda insufficiently radical — followed later by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and al-Qaeda in the Sahel.[4] He also recalls that a year before the Khobar Towers bombing, al-Qaeda bombed the OPM-SANG building in Riyadh — a location where he used to grocery shop — killing several Third Country Nationals, in part, he says, because the building sold pork.[5]

## Sources

1. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou and High Stakes Treason Author Ian Trottier on criminal John Brennan (2026-02-07), at 07:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqZj-EtpO1E&t=450s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-07-michael-jaco-cia-whistleblower-john-kiriakou-and-high-stakes-treason-/
2. EP:22 [GUEST] John Kiriakou : Inside The CIA: Torture, Cov (2025-12-09), at 44:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kopDfgn8Bas&t=2655s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-09-the-unfettered-speech-podc/
3. The Ripple Effect Podcast #129 (John Kiriakou — CIA-Whistl (2017-05-31), at 25:52. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkuwsEURRGw&t=1552s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-31-the-ripple-effect-podcast/
4. EP:22 [GUEST] John Kiriakou : Inside The CIA: Torture, Cov (2025-12-09), at 45:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kopDfgn8Bas&t=2718s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-09-the-unfettered-speech-podc/
5. Ep. 5832 - John Kiriakou on the CIA, FBI, JFK and 9/11 - (2023-01-04), at 27:52. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1tRqZKo4q0&t=1672s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-01-04-scott-horton/

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