# American shoes

> **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: "American shoes," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/american-shoes/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The detail by which the chief of the Greek intelligence service identified John Kiriakou as an American within minutes of meeting him — not his Greek, which was fluent, but his footwear — and which sent Kiriakou straight to a shoe shop before working the anarchist quarters of Athens.*

- **Said by:** The chief of the Greek intelligence service, a four-star general
- **The tell:** *"No Greek would ever wear shoes like that"*
- **Kiriakou's response:** Bought all new shoes
- **Related tell:** He was told he speaks Greek with an Australian accent

**American shoes** is the tell that, in [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account, exposed him in Athens before he had done any operational work at all.

On his second or third day in the office, his chief took him to the Greek intelligence service to be introduced to its head, a four-star general. Kiriakou wore a good suit, thinking the occasion formal and the rank deserving of respect. The meeting was friendly; the general welcomed him back to *i patrida mas* — our fatherland — and remarked that he looked Greek. Kiriakou agreed that he was Greek: his family are all from Rhodes, and his blood, he says, is a hundred per cent Greek.[1][2]

The general then said he could nonetheless tell that Kiriakou was not Greek, and asked whether he knew how. He did not. *"No Greek would ever wear shoes like that. Those are American shoes."*[2]

Kiriakou took it to heart and made *"a beeline for a shoe store"*, buying all new shoes — so that when the time came to work the communist and anarchist neighbourhoods where he hoped to [find a source](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/first-recruitment-in-athens), he was, as he puts it, dressed like a Greek.[2][3]

## The other tell

The shoes were fixable; the voice was not. Kiriakou reports being told later that he speaks Greek with an Australian accent, which he cannot account for — he believes he speaks it with an American accent, even when he tries to cover it — and that his American accent in Greek has become more pronounced as he has got older.[3] The Greek Australian identity became the cover legend for his first approach in any case.[4]

## See also

- [Kiriakou's first recruitment](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/first-recruitment-in-athens)
- [The Greek Orthodox Church](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/greek-orthodox-church)
- [CIA language training](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-language-training)

## Sources

1. S1E9 The Hothead (2026-01-05), at 12:38. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6951d0bf30165a956d618669/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-05-dead-drop-s1e9-the-hothead/
2. S1E9 The Hothead (2026-01-05), at 13:11. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6951d0bf30165a956d618669/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-05-dead-drop-s1e9-the-hothead/
3. S1E9 The Hothead (2026-01-05), at 13:41. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6951d0bf30165a956d618669/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-05-dead-drop-s1e9-the-hothead/
4. S1E9 The Hothead (2026-01-05), at 18:29. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6951d0bf30165a956d618669/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-05-dead-drop-s1e9-the-hothead/

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