# CIA and the UFO question

> **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 and the UFO question," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-ufo-question/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's consistent answer that UFOs and alien technology are a Pentagon matter, not a CIA one, though he says nearly every former fighter-pilot friend of his has seen something inexplicable, sometimes emerging from the ocean.*

- **Kiriakou's answer:** Aliens are a Pentagon matter, not CIA
- **First-day question:** "So, where are the aliens?"

**CIA and the UFO question** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s consistent framing that unidentified craft and alien technology are a Pentagon matter, not a CIA one. On his first day he asked his boss *"where are the aliens?"*; the boss laughed that it was everybody's first question, but *"that's all at the Pentagon."*[1] Kiriakou adds that nearly every one of his former fighter-pilot friends, flying F-16s, F-18s and F-35s, *"has seen something,"* sometimes a ship emerging from the ocean, *"completely inexplicable."*[2] The CIA, he stresses, recruits spies and steals secrets; it is *"not beaming waves at your head."*[3]

He has repeated the same first-day anecdote and its answer in numerous other interviews. His question was always some version of *"Where are the UFOs?"* or *"So, where are the aliens?"*, and the answer was always the same: everyone asks that on their first day, and *"there's nothing in the system"*, all such information sits at the Pentagon.[4][5] He says he agrees with a retired CIA officer's claim that the Pentagon, not the CIA, holds all UFO-related information.[6] He recalls that when he started at the CIA the agency was still transitioning from typewriters to computers, with files kept in floor-to-ceiling rotating card files on 5-by-8 cards, and found nothing indicating the CIA held UFO information outside special compartmented channels.[7] Kiriakou also says that within the CIA, UFO matters were always understood to be a Department of Defense issue, joking that the only things in the Langley basement are *"the gym, the boiler room, and the supply room."*[8] A retired CIA officer separately told him the agency once built an internal, Wikipedia-like intranet system, and that on the day it launched the number one search term was "UFOs and extraterrestrials."[4] He says the CIA would never lead a project to reverse-engineer a crashed UFO, DARPA would take the lead, bringing in the CIA and other, probably DOD, agencies to assist.[9]

## Kiriakou's own sighting (Jay Dyer)

[John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) recounts that at 17, driving through Pennsylvania Amish country with his father, they watched a silent orange trapezoid *"in the shape of a saucer"* hover 1,500 feet up, then shoot off *"at a fantastic speed that defied the laws of physics."* His father refused to report it, *"people are going to think we're insane."*[10][11][12][13][14] In a separate telling he places the family home in New Castle, Pennsylvania, with the restaurant they were driving to in nearby Sharon.[12] Years later a cousin, an F-15 pilot, told him Air Force pilots *"see stuff like that all the time,"* sometimes *"coming up out of the water off the coast of Norfolk"*, filing a form the Pentagon never answers.[15][16][17]

Kiriakou also says he personally saw a UFO alongside his father, an elementary school principal of 44 years, describing an object that flew in a way defying the laws of gravity.[18] He separately recounts that a Pentagon-frequenting F-14 pilot, at his uncle's Alexandria, Virginia restaurant, told him he once watched an unidentified craft dive into the ocean and shoot back out about ten seconds later.[19] He also cites Harvard physicist Avi Loeb, who led an undersea expedition off Papua New Guinea and retrieved BB-sized metal fragments whose composition, Loeb says, does not match any known Earth alloy.[20]

## See also

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

## Sources

1. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou Exposes Torture, Assassinations, and the Epstein Files (2026-03-01), at 53:47. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cHt3dZqn6c&t=3227s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-01-the-inquiry-torture-assassinations-epstein/
2. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou Exposes Torture, Assassinations, and the Epstein Files (2026-03-01), at 54:20. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cHt3dZqn6c&t=3260s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-01-the-inquiry-torture-assassinations-epstein/
3. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou Exposes Torture, Assassinations, and the Epstein Files (2026-03-01), at 55:21. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cHt3dZqn6c&t=3321s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-01-the-inquiry-torture-assassinations-epstein/
4. 03-25-25 CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou — UAP Governmen (2025-03-26), at 06:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T8VEkYn_2A&t=370s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-26-podcast-ufo-live-shows/
5. Former Spy Reveals the Brutal Survival Rules Inside the (2026-05-20), at 32:52. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf8xsrnBBs0&t=1972s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-20-covert-operations-insight/
6. 03-25-25 CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou — UAP Governmen (2025-03-26), at 06:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T8VEkYn_2A&t=402s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-26-podcast-ufo-live-shows/
7. 03-25-25 CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou — UAP Governmen (2025-03-26), at 08:47. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T8VEkYn_2A&t=527s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-26-podcast-ufo-live-shows/
8. #05 CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou: The Truth They Trie (2025-05-05), at 27:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ZUFCx1omA&t=1636s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-05-05-austin-and-matt/
9. 03-25-25 CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou — UAP Governmen (2025-03-26), at 46:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T8VEkYn_2A&t=2810s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-26-podcast-ufo-live-shows/
10. John Kiriakou Unleashed: The Real CIA History, Sexpionage, Black Ops & More (2026-05-08), at 1:15:53. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ZPb1UuC7k&t=4553s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-08-jay-dyer-real-cia-history/
11. John Kiriakou Unleashed: The Real CIA History, Sexpionage, Black Ops & More (2026-05-08), at 1:16:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ZPb1UuC7k&t=4614s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-08-jay-dyer-real-cia-history/
12. John Kiriakou: THEY Really Did THIS — Jay Dyer Show (2026-04-29), at 1:21:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqx0uSr1yYk&t=4903s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-04-29-jay-dyer-they-really-did-this/
13. #05 CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou: The Truth They Trie (2025-05-05), at 28:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ZUFCx1omA&t=1699s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-05-05-austin-and-matt/
14. Former Spy Reveals the Brutal Survival Rules Inside the (2026-05-20), at 29:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf8xsrnBBs0&t=1782s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-20-covert-operations-insight/
15. John Kiriakou Unleashed: The Real CIA History, Sexpionage, Black Ops & More (2026-05-08), at 1:17:57. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ZPb1UuC7k&t=4677s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-08-jay-dyer-real-cia-history/
16. John Kiriakou: THEY Really Did THIS — Jay Dyer Show (2026-04-29), at 1:24:17. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqx0uSr1yYk&t=5057s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-04-29-jay-dyer-they-really-did-this/
17. Former Spy Reveals the Brutal Survival Rules Inside the (2026-05-20), at 32:21. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf8xsrnBBs0&t=1941s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-20-covert-operations-insight/
18. Ex-CIA Officer: Americans Have No Idea What's Actually Happening (2026-02-09), at 53:53. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-WgZKfDTvw&t=3233s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-09-epic-real-estate/
19. #05 CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou: The Truth They Trie (2025-05-05), at 31:31. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ZUFCx1omA&t=1891s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-05-05-austin-and-matt/
20. #05 CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou: The Truth They Trie (2025-05-05), at 30:29. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ZUFCx1omA&t=1829s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-05-05-austin-and-matt/

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