John Kiriakou described an incident from his posting as economic officer at the American Embassy in Bahrain, 1994 to 1996, in which he served as control officer for a visit by David Rockefeller and subsequently learned the real purpose of the trip.
The official visit
Ambassador David Ransom assigned Kiriakou to manage Rockefeller’s schedule and logistics for the duration of the visit — a control-officer role Kiriakou also filled during a Bahrain visit by Admiral William Crowe, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The stated occasion was an award from the US-Bahrain Banking Society, made up of American bankers posted to Bahrain and the heads of Bahrain’s own banks — a large state dinner hosted by the Emir at the Royal Palace, attended by the entire cabinet, to which Kiriakou describes serving as the tiny embassy’s economic officer given Bahrain’s status as the Middle East’s banking center at the time. Three days after the dinner, Rockefeller departed.[1][2][3] In the receiving line that night, Kiriakou — a subscriber to Art News magazine — recognized Rockefeller from a recent write-up honoring his 50 years of philanthropy and art-world humanitarianism, and congratulated him on the award; Rockefeller, he says, “lit right up.”[4] Retelling it, Kiriakou names the magazine as Art News, dates his recognition of Rockefeller to an article he had read there before the State Department cable announcing the visit even arrived, and gives the scale of the dinner: the Amir announced it as soon as he heard Rockefeller was coming, the entire cabinet, royal family and diplomatic corps attended, roughly 500 people were present, and it was “the biggest social event of the year.” He describes saving his congratulations for the receiving line as the manoeuvre of “a stupid kid” who thought he was being clever.[5][6][7] He notes in the same breath that he and the Bahraini prime minister “didn’t like each other very much”, exchanging nothing but a “Hello, Kiriakou” and a stare.[7] The episode is one he says he has thought about “a million times” since.[8]
The country-team debrief
At the country-team meeting the following day — attended by the ambassador, the deputy chief of mission, and senior staff — Kiriakou said he did not understand why a man of Rockefeller’s age and stature would fly halfway around the world to collect a meaningless trophy from an obscure banking society.[9]
The ambassador replied: “John, you’re supposed to be the smart one.” He explained: Rockefeller had not come for the award. The award was his cover stop. He was the secret liaison to Saddam Hussein. After appearing publicly in Bahrain — with his presence fully documented in the local papers — he had taken a military flight to Baghdad to deliver a message to Saddam Hussein: stop violating sanctions, or the United States would take military action again.[9][10][11]
Kiriakou used this account to illustrate the mechanics of back-channel diplomacy and how public figures are used as deniable intermediaries in sensitive communications with adversarial governments.[11]
Other Bahrain episodes
Kiriakou recounts personally telling the Bahraini Minister of Interior that Bahrain could not kill a 15-year-old boy for marching in a pro-democracy demonstration, warning that he would have to report it to Congress, which could suspend military sales to Bahrain for twelve months.[12] He also recounts the Amir of Bahrain telling him that the last American president to give Arabs “a truly fair shake” was George H.W. Bush, and before him Dwight Eisenhower.[13]