# Meeting Elon Musk in 2009 > **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: "Meeting Elon Musk in 2009," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/elon-musk-2009-meeting/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The evening in 2009 when John Kiriakou, waiting to pitch a television idea to an incoming NBC president in a Washington bar, was introduced to a friend the executive had brought along — asked him what he did for a living, and listened to him talk about Mars all night.* - **Where:** A bar across from a White House fundraiser, Washington - **Occasion:** A pitch meeting for a news-based television series - **Kiriakou's reaction:** *"The Thomas Edison of our time"* - **Subject all evening:** Colonising Mars **Meeting Elon Musk in 2009** is a story [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) tells against himself. He had an idea for a news-based television series and mentioned it to a friend who was active in that world. The friend's best friend from school had just been named president of NBC, so a pitch was arranged: the executive would be in Washington for a fundraiser at the White House, and they would meet afterwards at a bar across the street. At nine he called to say he would be fifteen minutes late and asked whether he might bring a friend. *"The more the merrier."*[1] The two men arrived, and the executive introduced his companion simply as *"my friend Elon."* Kiriakou said hello, and sat while the old schoolfriends talked about high school and the girls they had dated.[2] ## The question Bored, Kiriakou turned to the stranger and asked what he did for a living. The answer, as he tells it, arrived like a switch being thrown: a passion for technology, a company called PayPal sold for about a billion dollars, the money put into another company, a company called Tesla bought, a space company started — *"and we're going to go to Mars. And we're going to colonize Mars."*[3] *"Wait a minute. Are you saying you're Elon Musk?"* He was. Kiriakou's response — *"the Thomas Edison of our time"* — got the answer *"I guess so."*[4] The rest of the evening was Mars: the first people up there probably would not make it, others would follow, and eventually the planet would be colonised. *"All night long. That's all he talked about was Mars."* Kiriakou's conclusion at the time, before anyone in tech knew the name, was that this was somebody special.[5] The assessment is one he has held to and complicated since. He describes [Musk](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/elon-musk)'s companies as among those the [Directorate of Science and Technology](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/directorate-of-science-and-technology) now works with at the cutting edge, and lists his organisations among the contracts the CIA's general counsel negotiates.[6][7] ## See also - [Elon Musk](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/elon-musk) - [The Directorate of Science and Technology](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/directorate-of-science-and-technology) - [Kiriakou's television pilots](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-television-pilots) - [Palantir Technologies](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/palantir) ## Sources 1. Skinwalker Ranch, UFOs, USOs and Secret Projects (2026-02-18), at 47:04. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqY21KZDOzg&t=2824s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-18-elizabeth-lane-tv-and-john-skinwalker-ranch-ufos-usos-and-secret-project/ 2. Skinwalker Ranch, UFOs, USOs and Secret Projects (2026-02-18), at 47:35. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqY21KZDOzg&t=2855s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-18-elizabeth-lane-tv-and-john-skinwalker-ranch-ufos-usos-and-secret-project/ 3. Skinwalker Ranch, UFOs, USOs and Secret Projects (2026-02-18), at 48:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqY21KZDOzg&t=2888s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-18-elizabeth-lane-tv-and-john-skinwalker-ranch-ufos-usos-and-secret-project/ 4. Skinwalker Ranch, UFOs, USOs and Secret Projects (2026-02-18), at 48:39. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqY21KZDOzg&t=2919s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-18-elizabeth-lane-tv-and-john-skinwalker-ranch-ufos-usos-and-secret-project/ 5. Skinwalker Ranch, UFOs, USOs and Secret Projects (2026-02-18), at 49:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqY21KZDOzg&t=2951s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-18-elizabeth-lane-tv-and-john-skinwalker-ranch-ufos-usos-and-secret-project/ 6. The Most Secret CIA Unit Ever (2026-05-24), at 06:14. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQKwm0KKqnM&t=374s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-24-john-kiriakou-podcast-the-most-secret-cia-unit-ever/ 7. Iran's Future Explained, CIA Background Checks, U.S. Revolution? | DEEP FOCUS with John Kiriakou (2026-03-17), at 21:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xurIn4RlhkM&t=1290s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-17-deep-focus-irans-future-cia-background-checks-us-revolution/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/elon-musk-2009-meeting/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt