# George Habash

> **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: "George Habash," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/george-habash/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Co-founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; as a young Lebanese medical student he was the college roommate at the American University of Beirut of Ahmed Khatib, the doctor whom Iraq installed as occupation governor of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, a connection John Kiriakou carried into the Oval Office that day.*

- **Co-founded:** Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
- **Nationality:** Lebanese
- **Trained at:** American University of Beirut
- **College roommate:** Ahmed Khatib (later Iraq's installed governor of occupied Kuwait)

**George Habash** was the co-founder of the [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/pflp), and in [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account a young Lebanese man at the time the group was formed.[1] He and [Ahmed Khatib](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ahmed-khatib), the medical doctor whom Iraq installed as occupation governor of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, were college roommates at the American University of [Beirut](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/beirut), where they together founded the PFLP.[2][3][4][5][6]

## The Beirut roommate

Kiriakou's tellings reach Habash by way of Khatib's biography. Khatib was a black Kuwaiti whose mother had been a Sudanese slave in the household of the royal family, slavery persisted on the Arabian Peninsula until 1955, in his account, and who grew up resentful of that family and a minority in his own country. He was also, Kiriakou says, very bright, and the royal family gave him a scholarship to study medicine at the American University of Beirut. It was in medical school there that his roommate was Habash, and it was there that the two created the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.[7][1][8][9][10] Khatib returned to Kuwait, declared his support for communism, and remained a thorn in the royal family's side.[7]

## The Leadership Review profile

The connection reached the CIA's files by an incidental route. Kiriakou has said that in the month before the invasion he needed to get published to have any hope of promotion, and the [Directorate of Intelligence](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/directorate-of-intelligence) had an in-house magazine circulated to analysts called the *Leadership Review*. He chose Khatib as his subject simply because the man interested him, and wrote a one-page biographical piece noting that Khatib had studied in Beirut, had lived with Habash, that the two created the PFLP together, and that Khatib was a physician and a communist.[11][12][13][10] When Iraq invaded and named Khatib governor, the piece was pulled from publication and Kiriakou took it with him to the White House.[14]

## "Jesus Christ"

Asked in the [Oval Office briefing](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/oval-office-briefing-1990) whether the United States knew anything about who was now running Kuwait, Kiriakou answered that it knew a great deal: Khatib had earned a medical degree at the American University of Beirut, his college roommate was George Habash, and together they had founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.[6][15] In every telling the reaction is the same: the vice president said *"Jesus Christ,"* and [George H. W. Bush](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/george-hw-bush), who by Kiriakou's account genuinely did not know what to do, closed the meeting.[16][9][17] In one account it was CIA director Judge [William Webster](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/william-webster) who stood and thanked the room, which Kiriakou took as his cue to leave.[1]

## See also

- [PFLP](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/pflp)
- [Ahmed Khatib](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ahmed-khatib)
- [Oval Office briefing, 1990](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/oval-office-briefing-1990)

## Sources

1. Mini Episode 1: Sadam's Shrink (2025-10-27), at 06:15. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/68ffcca3ffe4007c05da18d8/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-27-dead-drop-mini-episode-1-sadam-s-shrink/
2. Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou Explains the Part Everyone Missed (2026-04-27), at 4:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-wc8tRNoJk&t=280s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-04-27-carlos-watson-part-everyone-missed/
3. Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou Explains the Part Everyone Missed (2026-04-27), at 5:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-wc8tRNoJk&t=310s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-04-27-carlos-watson-part-everyone-missed/
4. INSIDE THE CIA: What They Aren't Telling You — John Kiri (2024-12-21), at 15:14. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYx6oycyKww&t=914s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-12-21-not-a-grayman/
5. Why CIA Torture Was Illegal and Ineffective (2026-06-26), at 1:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQYGh8EnFag&t=92s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-26-the-kiriakou-report-why-cia-torture-was-illegal-and-ineffective/
6. "NOT SILENCED" - Part-1: The CIA and John Kiriakou - Stories Untold (2025-06-01), at 37:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8paaOJyEaU&t=2220s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-06-01-not-silenced-part-1/
7. Mini Episode 1: Sadam's Shrink (2025-10-27), at 05:45. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/68ffcca3ffe4007c05da18d8/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-27-dead-drop-mini-episode-1-sadam-s-shrink/
8. John Kiriakou on Jeffrey Epstein: Was He a Spy, and Did He Really Die by Suicide (2026-02-17), at 09:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdbi6wUsDV4&t=540s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-17-carlos-watson-epstein-spy/
9. John Kiriakou on Jeffrey Epstein: Was He a Spy, and Did He Really Die by Suicide (2026-02-17), at 09:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdbi6wUsDV4&t=570s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-17-carlos-watson-epstein-spy/
10. S1E3 Golden Boy (2025-11-03), at 20:28. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69078c0f47e14fea24c45efe/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-03-dead-drop-s1e3-golden-boy/
11. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account (2026-02-26), at 14:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=870s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-invasion-kuwait-intelligence/
12. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account (2026-02-26), at 15:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=900s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-invasion-kuwait-intelligence/
13. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 14:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=880s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
14. S1E3 Golden Boy (2025-11-03), at 21:30. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69078c0f47e14fea24c45efe/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-03-dead-drop-s1e3-golden-boy/
15. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account (2026-02-26), at 30:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=1830s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-invasion-kuwait-intelligence/
16. The CIA Officer Who Exposed America's Torture Programme / Mi (2025-06-22), at 04:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v55tpm11J8&t=284s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-06-22-ladbible-stories-the-cia-officer-who-exposed-america-s-torture/
17. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account (2026-02-26), at 31:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=1860s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-invasion-kuwait-intelligence/

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