# Alfreda Bikowsky

> **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: "Alfreda Bikowsky," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/alfreda-bikowsky/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Senior CIA officer who headed Alec Station and, before that, served as its chief of operations, overseeing the CIA's torture program; per John Kiriakou, "bad news from the get-go," and part of a failed attempt with Rich Blee to turn a San Diego al-Qaeda cell into double agents.*

- **Role:** Chief of operations, then head, of Alec Station
- **Per Kiriakou:** "Bad news from the get-go"
- **Failed operation:** Attempt with Rich Blee to turn the San Diego al-Qaeda cell into double agents

**Alfreda Bikowsky** is a senior [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) officer who headed Alec Station, the CIA's Bin Laden unit, and before that served as its chief of operations, overseeing the agency's torture program. [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) describes her as *"bad news from the get-go."*[1]

## The San Diego cell

Kiriakou says Bikowsky and Rich Blee tried to turn the San Diego al-Qaeda cell into double agents but failed, and "dropped the ball."[2]

## The clique of five

Kiriakou describes a group of five women in the [Counterterrorism Center](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/counterterrorism-center) around whom the detention programme was built, and says [Jennifer Matthews](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/jennifer-matthews) was the only one of them he did not hate; the others he calls bloodthirsty monsters.[3][4] Asked directly whether the officer he calls the red-headed devil had been trained in the torture techniques, his answer was that she had not merely been trained in them — she was the programme's founder and creator.[5]

## At the July 2001 briefing

Kiriakou places her in the room for [Cofer Black's warning to the liaison class](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cofer-black-pre-9-11-warning) on 6 July 2001. He had booked a junior analyst; Black arrived instead and brought with him the head of operations for the bin Laden unit — identified in the telling only as *"a woman we used to call the red-headed devil"*, with the aside *"She's lucky we were that nice about it, too."*[6]

## See also

- [Maher Arar](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/maher-arar)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. Ep. 5832 - John Kiriakou on the CIA, FBI, JFK and 9/11 - (2023-01-04), at 34:39. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1tRqZKo4q0&t=2079s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-01-04-scott-horton/
2. Ep. 5832 - John Kiriakou on the CIA, FBI, JFK and 9/11 - (2023-01-04), at 35:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1tRqZKo4q0&t=2111s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-01-04-scott-horton/
3. THE NEVER BROKEN PODCAST (2026-05-09), at 7:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il_KYmRx24Q&t=436s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-09-the-never-broken-podcast-the-never-broken-podcast/
4. THE NEVER BROKEN PODCAST (2026-05-09), at 7:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il_KYmRx24Q&t=466s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-09-the-never-broken-podcast-the-never-broken-podcast/
5. THE NEVER BROKEN PODCAST (2026-05-09), at 29:41. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il_KYmRx24Q&t=1781s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-09-the-never-broken-podcast-the-never-broken-podcast/
6. John Kiriakou Answers the Questions Everyone Wants to Ask (2026-07-06), at 52:03. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmH5nEr0MkI&t=3123s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-06-the-jason-jones-show/

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