Field loadout — what a CIA operations officer physically carried — is something John Kiriakou says he had never been asked before a listener put the question to him in 2026. His answer begins with a caveat that recurs throughout: “It actually depends on the day… and the assignment.”[1]
Athens
The heaviest configuration he describes was in Athens. He carried a fully loaded 9mm semi-automatic handgun “in a tearaway fanny pack on my waist,” and a fully loaded Smith & Wesson .38 snub-nose revolver on his ankle. A Buck knife went in his back pocket “just in case things turned to shit.”[2]
Two spare magazines went in the fanny pack, bringing him to “47 — it was either 47 or 49 rounds of ammunition for the 9mm, another six bullets in my .38, and my knife.” His summary of the posture: “and hoped for the best.”[2][3]
Pakistan
Pakistan was lighter but not safer. He carried only a 9mm with a single extended magazine — seventeen rounds — in a waist holster.[3]
What he adds about it is the line that gives the entry its weight, and he flags that he is not being flippant: “honest to God, I’m being completely serious in saying this — I would pray to God every morning that I didn’t have to pull it out and shoot somebody that day. That’s the kind of place Pakistan was.”[3]
Cash
The money varied with the day’s work. Running a surveillance detection route to meet a source meant carrying “the source’s monthly pay plus expenses,” and separately money for his own route. On a normal day that came to “between say $2,000 and $5,000 in cash on me.” He notes the figure is dated — “this is 25 years ago, so it would be a lot more now” — and gives the underlying reason it is carried at all: “intelligence is a cash business.”[4][5]
Operations could run far higher. He recounts requisitioning a van from the embassy motor pool in Islamabad with a colleague, travelling toward Faisalabad, carrying “$2 million in cash in two duffel bags.”[5]
His closing qualification is the same as his opening one: “depends on the day, depends on the op. It changes wildly.”[5]
See also
- John Kiriakou
- Pakistan