# Amir > **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: "Amir," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/amir/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The pseudonym John Kiriakou gives the Muslim, ethnically Arab domestic officer sent on temporary duty to Pakistan to help with the Abu Zubaydah hunt — the colleague who drove them into India by GPS, drank the roadside tea and had diarrhoea for six weeks, and invented the textile-baron cover story on the spot.* - **Name:** A pseudonym Kiriakou uses - **Role:** Domestic [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) officer on temporary duty to Pakistan, 2002 - **Background:** Muslim, ethnic Arab; had never served overseas - **Best known for:** *"We're textile barons"* **Amir** is the pseudonym [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) uses for the colleague who worked beside him through the operation that captured [Abu Zubaydah](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abu-zubaydah) in 2002. Amir was Muslim and an ethnic Arab, a domestic officer on temporary duty to Pakistan who had never served overseas before — and who was, Kiriakou says, thrilled to be part of it and *"very much into the spirit of things."*[1] ## The tea That enthusiasm had costs. Halfway along the road between Lahore and [Faisalabad](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/faisalabad), where the motorway turns into a dirt track, tea sellers pitch tents and travellers stop. Amir always got tea from them. Once he brought Kiriakou one with milk in it, and Kiriakou refused it — *"do you have any idea how long that milk has been sitting out?"* Amir drank his; Kiriakou threw his away. Amir had diarrhoea for the next six weeks, through the entire operation.[1] Kiriakou's own view of the matter is that being ill in Pakistan is simply part of the job: on many days you are expected to work fourteen, sixteen, eighteen hours with a raging fever, and you should be prepared for it.[2] ## Driving into India On their first drive to Faisalabad, Amir insisted on using one of the new handheld GPS units — devices the size of a large walkie-talkie. Kiriakou kept saying they were heading east; Amir insisted they were heading west. Then the unit announced: *approaching international border*. They had driven into India, and turned around under the gaze of Indian border guards coming out to see who was arriving down the dirt track — adding an hour to the trip.[3][4] ## Textile barons Amir's most consequential improvisation came when the estate agent selling the [Lahore safe house](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/lahore-safe-house) asked what the cash buyers did for a living. Exhausted and without a cover story, Amir said: *"we're textile barons."* Kiriakou agreed that yes, they were textile barons, and the agent — assuming they owned the factories outside town — blessed them for employing everyone in that part of the country.[5] It was Amir who drove with Kiriakou through Lahore twice in the small hours before the raids, rehearsing the [route by landmark](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/pakistan-without-maps) — shoe advertisement, traffic policeman, British school, McDonald's — because the city had no street signs.[6][7] On the night itself the two of them watched from the roof of the Faisalabad safe house, and it was to Amir that Kiriakou gave his estimate beforehand: *"I think we're going to catch somebody. I don't know if we're going to catch him. I'm going to call it 50-50."*[8] ## See also - [Abu Zubaydah](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abu-zubaydah) - [The Lahore safe house](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/lahore-safe-house) - [Navigating Pakistan without maps](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/pakistan-without-maps) - [Faisalabad](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/faisalabad) - [Site 13](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/site-13) ## Sources 1. S1E16 Captured (2026-02-23), at 05:21. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/698a608241bb4de4911a8235/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-23-dead-drop-s1e16-captured/ 2. S1E16 Captured (2026-02-23), at 05:57. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/698a608241bb4de4911a8235/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-23-dead-drop-s1e16-captured/ 3. S1E16 Captured (2026-02-23), at 06:30. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/698a608241bb4de4911a8235/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-23-dead-drop-s1e16-captured/ 4. S1E16 Captured (2026-02-23), at 07:00. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/698a608241bb4de4911a8235/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-23-dead-drop-s1e16-captured/ 5. S1E16 Captured (2026-02-23), at 18:01. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/698a608241bb4de4911a8235/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-23-dead-drop-s1e16-captured/ 6. S1E16 Captured (2026-02-23), at 20:07. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/698a608241bb4de4911a8235/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-23-dead-drop-s1e16-captured/ 7. S1E16 Captured (2026-02-23), at 21:46. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/698a608241bb4de4911a8235/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-23-dead-drop-s1e16-captured/ 8. S1E16 Captured (2026-02-23), at 31:50. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/698a608241bb4de4911a8235/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-23-dead-drop-s1e16-captured/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/amir/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt