# Embassy movie night

> **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: "Embassy movie night," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/embassy-movie-night/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The weekly diversion John Kiriakou remembers from his posting to Pakistan after September 11th, when the station worked seven days a week and fourteen hours a day: on Wednesday nights the ambassador hosted a film in the embassy's small theatre, and the audience shouted at the screen and threw popcorn at whatever they had managed to get hold of.*

- **Where:** The American embassy's mini theatre, Pakistan
- **When:** Wednesday nights, after September 11th 2001
- **Host:** The ambassador
- **Working week at the time:** Seven days, fourteen hours a day
- **House style:** Shouting at the screen; popcorn thrown at it

**Embassy movie night** is a detail [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) offered in July 2026, by his own description as an aside, about one of the very few bits of joy available during his posting to [Pakistan](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/pakistan-station-2002) after September 11th.[1]

## The routine

The station was working seven days a week and fourteen hours a day, which Kiriakou calls ridiculous. On Wednesday nights the ambassador hosted a film in the embassy's little mini theatre.[1]

They watched whatever they could get their hands on, and the viewing became a running joke: the audience shouted at the screen and threw popcorn at it. The example he remembers is a film he gives as *How Shantae Got Her Man Back*, at which the room was screaming *"don't take him back, Shantae, he's no good."*[2]

## Why he mentioned it

The memory arrived by association. Kiriakou had just said he would not want to watch the documentary footage of [Lindsey Graham](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/lindsey-graham) then in the news, and then corrected himself, he would force himself to watch it, and would end up shouting at the screen.[1]

He finishes the parallel explicitly: *"That's how I feel about Lindsey Graham. I'm going to shout at the screen."*[3]

## See also

- [Pakistan Station (2002)](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/pakistan-station-2002)
- [Lindsey Graham](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/lindsey-graham)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. SHOCKING: New Footage of Lindsey Graham Moments Before Death | Ep. 5 (2026-07-28), at 16:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddj51-ba1C0&t=1002s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-28-john-kiriakou-shocking-new-footage-of-lindsey-graham-moments/
2. SHOCKING: New Footage of Lindsey Graham Moments Before Death | Ep. 5 (2026-07-28), at 17:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddj51-ba1C0&t=1032s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-28-john-kiriakou-shocking-new-footage-of-lindsey-graham-moments/
3. SHOCKING: New Footage of Lindsey Graham Moments Before Death | Ep. 5 (2026-07-28), at 17:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddj51-ba1C0&t=1062s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-28-john-kiriakou-shocking-new-footage-of-lindsey-graham-moments/

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