# Galls.com sponsor story

> **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: "Galls.com sponsor story," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/galls-com-sponsor-story/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's account of outfitting the CIA's post-9/11 Islamabad station for terrorist-safe-house raids by ordering roughly $50,000 of tactical gear from the law-enforcement retailer galls.com on his CIA credit card, shipped to Pakistan via State Department diplomatic pouch in under a week — a story he now retells as an ad-read for the retailer, which sponsors one of his podcast appearances.*

- **Setting:** CIA station, Islamabad, immediately after 9/11
- **Task:** Devise a standard operating procedure for raiding terrorist safe houses
- **Purchase:** About $50,000 of tactical gear from galls.com, on Kiriakou's CIA credit card
- **Delivery:** Via State Department diplomatic pouch, in under a week

[John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) says that on his first day running counterterrorism operations in Pakistan after September 11, the station chief told him to devise a standard operating procedure for taking down a terrorist safe house — and CIA headquarters had none of the specialized law-enforcement gear the job required.[1]

## The order

An "old-timer" colleague pointed him to the law-enforcement equipment retailer galls.com. From the basement of the American embassy in Islamabad, Kiriakou ordered roughly $50,000 worth of tactical equipment, charging it to his CIA credit card. The State Department shipped the order to Islamabad via diplomatic pouch, and it arrived in under a week — gear Kiriakou says changed the course of CIA counterterrorism operations in Pakistan after 9/11.[2]

## See also

- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)

## Sources

1. CIA Whistleblower Exposes Black Sites, Epstein Secrets & Bin Laden (2025-07-25), at 03:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyQimLepfL0&t=220s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-25-gold-shields/
2. CIA Whistleblower Exposes Black Sites, Epstein Secrets & Bin Laden (2025-07-25), at 04:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyQimLepfL0&t=282s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-25-gold-shields/

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