# Defense Intelligence Agency > **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: "Defense Intelligence Agency," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/defense-intelligence-agency/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The Pentagon's intelligence arm, of which John Kiriakou holds a low opinion he states plainly and expects to be criticised for. He attributes the targeting data behind the 2026 Iranian elementary school strike to the agency.* - **Kiriakou's assessment:** Staffed largely by people who could not get through the CIA process - **Case cited:** [The Iranian elementary school strike](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/iran-elementary-school-strike) - **His own framing:** *"I know people are going to complain but I'm going to say it anyway"* The **Defense Intelligence Agency** is the Pentagon's intelligence organisation. Kiriakou's view of it is unflattering and he has been asked about it more than once; put to him that he had *"had dim things to say about the DIA in the past"*, and asked whether it was routine for the agency to be this bad, he flagged the criticism before making it: *"listen, I know people are going to complain but I'm going to say it anyway."*[1][2][3] The criticism is about who ends up there rather than about method: *"DIA is largely made up of people who just couldn't make it through the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) process. Like they really, really, really want to work in Intel. They're not very bright but by God, they want to work in Intel and they end up at DIA. Yeah, it happens all the time."*[4] The occasion was [the Iranian elementary school strike](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/iran-elementary-school-strike), whose map information appeared to have come from the agency, and whose underlying error — data listing a school as a Revolutionary Guards facility a decade after the conversion — Kiriakou treats as a failure of the checking discipline rather than of the imagery itself.[2][4] Asked whether it is routine for targeting data to be that old, his answer is unhedged: *"Yep. It is. It's very, very old."*[5] ## The 2026 all-hands email on Israeli espionage In August 2026, per [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s reporting on the [Young Turks](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-young-turks), *"the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency released an all-hands email to all Defense Intelligence Agency employees, telling them to be especially careful right now because the Israelis have ramped up their espionage activities against DoD and specifically DIA."* Kiriakou places the notice against the earlier operational rule he lived under — *"when I was at the CIA, we had to keep the Israelis at arms length, rather long arms length, because they were spying on us"* — and treats the fresh warning as evidence that the underlying espionage has not changed while U.S. political leverage over it has.[6][7] ## See also - [Iran Elementary School Strike](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/iran-elementary-school-strike) - [Targeting analyst](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/targeting-analyst) - [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) ## Sources 1. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 11:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=692s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/ 2. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 12:03. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=723s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/ 3. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 12:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=754s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/ 4. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 13:04. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=784s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/ 5. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 13:35. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=815s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/ 6. John Kiriakou Discusses BOGUS Israeli Intel & Civilian Slaughter COVERUP (2026-08-14), at 17:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEMsJi2P6PA&t=1029s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-14-the-young-turks-discusses-bogus-israeli-intel-and-civilian-slaughter-coverup/ 7. John Kiriakou Discusses BOGUS Israeli Intel & Civilian Slaughter COVERUP (2026-08-14), at 17:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEMsJi2P6PA&t=1062s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-14-the-young-turks-discusses-bogus-israeli-intel-and-civilian-slaughter-coverup/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/defense-intelligence-agency/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt