# Bob Woodward's CIA headquarters access

> **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: "Bob Woodward's CIA headquarters access," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bob-woodward-cia-access/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's account of watching Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward walk the halls of CIA headquarters unescorted while researching a book, after the CIA director ordered staff to cooperate with him, an episode Kiriakou cites as evidence of how close the relationship between senior CIA officials and favored journalists really is.*

- **Witnessed by:** [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou), then executive assistant to the CIA's deputy director for operations
- **Journalist:** Bob Woodward, Washington Post
- **Per Kiriakou:** Walked CIA headquarters halls without a security escort, on the director's orders

**Bob Woodward's CIA headquarters access** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account of witnessing the *Washington Post*'s Bob Woodward move freely through CIA headquarters while researching a book. In his last CIA job, as executive assistant to the agency's deputy director for operations, Kiriakou was sitting in his office during a lull when he saw Woodward walk past unescorted. He asked a secretary whether that was really Bob Woodward walking the halls without a security escort; she told him he must have missed the director's email, Woodward had been given free rein to write a book, and staff had been ordered to cooperate with him.[1][2]

Kiriakou has repeated the anecdote in at least two separate interviews with essentially the same details each time, using it to illustrate that the wall Americans imagine exists between the CIA and senior journalists like Woodward, David Ignatius, and others does not, in practice, exist.[1][2]

## See also

- [Nord Stream pipeline sabotage](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/nordstream-pipeline-sabotage)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)

## Sources

1. Ukraine War, Mass Surveillance, Trump, UFOs & CIA Tortur (2023-08-09), at 16:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlIUEY1QiRA&t=976s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-08-09-london-real/
2. John Kiriakou - CIA, Blackmail, Whistleblowers - Bulwarg (2024-10-30), at 39:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNxH86ZdeSE&t=2383s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-10-30-bulwarg/

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