# CIA disguise program

> **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: "CIA disguise program," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-disguise-program/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's account of the CIA's disguise and forgery specialists — including a master disguise maker recruited from a beauty academy who built him a custom bald-head mask over six weeks, and a master forger recruited off his college newspaper cartoons.*

- **Specialists (per Kiriakou):** Master disguise maker; master forger
- **Notable build:** A custom bald-head mask, six weeks in the making

The **CIA disguise program** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account of the agency's disguise and forgery specialists. On his first day he sat between two new hires: a woman recruited from the Falls Church Academy of Beauty to be trained as a master disguise maker, and a man, Sean, recruited to be a master forger because he had drawn a two-panel cartoon in every issue of his college newspaper.[1][2] He has told the same first-day story elsewhere, placing a hairdresser who trained at the Falls Church School of Beauty on one side of him — she became a master wig maker — and a college-newspaper cartoonist on the other, who became a master forger.[3][4] Twelve years later the disguise maker flew to Pakistan and spent six weeks building Kiriakou a bald-head mask, matching the color to his skin tone and inserting the hairs one at a time; clear-glass spectacles hid the single seam. The station chief and the ambassador, Kiriakou says, failed to recognize him until he pulled it off.[5][6][7][8]

Kiriakou says officers under deep cover could be assigned any invented identity — a State Department officer, a Pentagon civilian, a wildlife photographer, a museum curator, a businessman — created and maintained by headquarters, which also supplies the training needed to sustain the cover.[9] He says that every time there was a walk-in to the American embassy where he was stationed, he had to wear a disguise — usually a fake mustache and a wig, sometimes clear-glass spectacle frames — and describes one overseas post experimenting with the first-ever bald head and comb-over disguise, which took six weeks to place the hair one strand at a time.[10]

Asked about a viral photo showing a Fox News figure caught wearing a mask, Kiriakou said it was real but not representative of how CIA disguises are made: genuine CIA masks are glued prosthetics extending down to the mid-chest, not pull-on masks of the kind sold on Amazon.[11] He separately describes being recruited for a covert-action program because his height, weight, and body shape matched those of a foreign world leader the agency was targeting; the resulting mask required roughly six hours of daily work by two Emmy-winning Hollywood makeup artists.[12]

## See also

- [The Farm](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-farm)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [CIA spy tech from Amazon](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-spy-tech-amazon)

## Sources

1. John Kiriakou: Exposing Epstein, Mossad, CIA Torture & the Blackmail Playbook (2025-10-02), at 52:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kiHYQC6SXM&t=3129s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-02-truth-hurts-epstein-mossad-blackmail-playbook/
2. John Kiriakou: Exposing Epstein, Mossad, CIA Torture & the Blackmail Playbook (2025-10-02), at 52:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kiHYQC6SXM&t=3160s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-02-truth-hurts-epstein-mossad-blackmail-playbook/
3. Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou On Espionage Act Prosec (2023-04-14), at 41:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmY7r4ggP6o&t=2510s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-04-14-kevin-gosztola/
4. John Kiriakou Answers the Questions Everyone Wants to Ask (2026-07-06), at 44:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmH5nEr0MkI&t=2686s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-06-the-jason-jones-show/
5. John Kiriakou: Exposing Epstein, Mossad, CIA Torture & the Blackmail Playbook (2025-10-02), at 53:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kiHYQC6SXM&t=3192s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-02-truth-hurts-epstein-mossad-blackmail-playbook/
6. John Kiriakou: Exposing Epstein, Mossad, CIA Torture & the Blackmail Playbook (2025-10-02), at 53:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kiHYQC6SXM&t=3222s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-02-truth-hurts-epstein-mossad-blackmail-playbook/
7. John Kiriakou: Exposing Epstein, Mossad, CIA Torture & the Blackmail Playbook (2025-10-02), at 54:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kiHYQC6SXM&t=3252s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-02-truth-hurts-epstein-mossad-blackmail-playbook/
8. John Kiriakou Answers the Questions Everyone Wants to Ask (2026-07-06), at 45:17. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmH5nEr0MkI&t=2717s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-06-the-jason-jones-show/
9. Whistleblower John Kiriakou On the Rob Kall Bottom up Show (2017-06-29), at 15:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2t-xAWvn0g&t=918s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-06-29-rob-kall-bottom-up-show/
10. Inside the CIA and the Cost of Speaking Out (2026-02-13), at 15:27. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtonZWE2JWA&t=927s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-13-o-keefe-media-group/
11. John Kiriakou Answers the Questions Everyone Wants to Ask (2026-07-06), at 43:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmH5nEr0MkI&t=2624s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-06-the-jason-jones-show/
12. John Kiriakou Answers the Questions Everyone Wants to Ask (2026-07-06), at 47:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmH5nEr0MkI&t=2844s · 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/cia-disguise-program/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt