# James Bond

> **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: "James Bond," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/james-bond/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The fictional spy who got John Kiriakou, and he says, half the Directorate of Operations, into the business. He asked for walkie-talkies at nine and told his father at sixteen that he wanted to be a spy in the Middle East; he concedes "literally none of it is true to life", but vouches for one scene: Bond always runs into the CIA officer at the party. The figure follows him to the end, too, a personality paper titled "Who is James Bond?" describes the officer type in terms he finds harsh, and federal prosecutors, he says, argued for his detention by talking about him "like I was 007."*

- **What:** Fictional British spy; the CIA's great recruiting poster
- **Kiriakou's childhood:** Walkie-talkies, disappearing ink and a code reader at nine; told his father at sixteen
- **Reality check:** Almost no officers carry weapons, Kiriakou was armed only in Athens and Pakistan
- **The true scene:** Bond meeting the CIA man at the party, happens constantly in real life
- **Studied as a personality:** 'Who is James Bond?', narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism
- **Used against him:** Prosecutors opposing bail 'talked about me like I was 007'

**James Bond** is the myth that shadows every real intelligence career, including [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s, from the Christmas presents he asked for as a boy to the language federal prosecutors used against him thirty-five years later.

## Wanting to be Bond

Asked whether he wanted to be James Bond as a kid, Kiriakou's answer is yes. At nine he told his parents he wanted to be a spy when he grew up; they thought it was cute and bought him walkie-talkies, a box with disappearing ink and a little code reader for Christmas.[1][2] He kept logs of what the neighbor kids were doing.[1]

He was still serious about it at sixteen, in a conversation he can still place on the road, driving down Old Plank Road past Frazier's Pond with a father who wanted him to take a science degree. *"I said, but dad, I'm not interested in science. I want to be a spy in the Middle East. And he said, why? After all these years, can't you just get this out of your system?"* The supply was television: Bond films and the spy comedy *Get Smart*. *"I really believed I was going to be James Bond. And in a lot of ways I was. We all were."*[3][4]

He loved the movies, the subterfuge, the excitement[5], and remembers the recruitment-era thrill of working against Soviet communism as *"a James Bond kind of thing... of course that turned out to be ridiculous."*[6] The pull is institutional, not just personal: *"It's in operations where everybody wants to be James Bond, and in some cases they actually achieve that,"* aspiring to the handful of legendary senior officers with many recruitments.[7][8] Asked directly whether the Bond aspect brings in a lot of recruits, his answer is *"oh, very much so"*, and the justification he offers is not glamour but itinerary: 65 countries in fourteen and a half years, several overseas tours totalling about five years abroad, and two attempts on his life, which he says is not unusual for an officer working counterterrorism.[9] Training delivered a taste: airplanes, mini-subs from the ocean depths, a shot-out windscreen that made him think *"this is awesome"*[10], along with surveillance and surveillance detection, [counterterrorist driving](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/counterterrorist-driving) and a multitude of weapons.[11] The way in, he notes, is no longer like that at all, since 1993 it has been *"far less sexy and clandestine"*, a matter of going to the CIA's website and clicking apply.[12]

## The reality audit

Rating Hollywood counterterrorism scenes, Kiriakou is blunt: *"Literally none of that is true to life, but that's what makes you love James Bond."* Almost no officers carry weapons; a post must be rated high or critical threat, and in his whole career he was armed only in Athens and Pakistan. Shooting one's way through a parliament is *"just not real life."*[13][14] But one Bond staple he certifies: James always runs into the CIA officer at the embassy party, *"that happens every day in real life. We always see each other and say hello."*[15][16]

The franchise even reached the org chart: the CIA's venture capital arm named itself [In-Q-Tel](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/in-q-tel), the Q inserted *"as kind of a wink-wink nod to Q from the James Bond movies"*, a piece of self-conscious cuteness Kiriakou reports with amusement in more than one telling.[17][18]

## Who is James Bond?

The character has also been used as a diagnostic instrument, and Kiriakou reports the results on himself and his colleagues with visible discomfort. A New Mexico State University professor, Peter Jonason, published a paper titled *Who is James Bond?* finding that successful intelligence officers share a triumvirate of traits: *"the stratospheric self-esteem of narcissism, the fearlessness, ruthlessness, impulsivity and thrill-seeking of psychopathy, and the deceitfulness and exploitiveness of Machiavellianism."* His response is two words: *"that's a little harsh."*[19]

He sets it against what a CIA psychiatrist told him, which points the other way: the agency does not want [sociopaths](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sociopathic-tendencies), who are too hard to control, but people comfortable working in ethical, moral and legal grey areas, *"I had no problem bending some rules if it was in the interest of national security."*[20] And an actual psychopath, on the definition he quotes, seeks reward at any cost and elbows risk aside, which is the opposite of the job: the officer *"tries to get the job done while not making waves or attracting undue attention."*[21]

## What became of Bond

Kiriakou uses the figure once more as a measure of decline, in the case of the MI6 officer he says he ran an operation with in London in the 1990s, Christopher Steele, at the time *"the guy at MI6 that all the other MI6 guys wanted to be, that's how highly respected he was."* His theory is that Steele *"went from the James Bond kind of officer that every MI6 guy wanted to be to this caricature"* not through any change in the man but through the loss of the machinery around him: inside a service, an operations officer passes whatever he collects to analysts who sort the rubbish from the possible, and the golden-showers claim would have died there for want of corroboration. In private practice there were no analysts.[22][23][24][25]

The myth was finally turned on him. Describing how prosecutors work to deny a defendant bail, Kiriakou says that when they came after him *"they talked about me like I was 007, you know, he's been to too many countries, he's worked for agencies, we can't…"* He got bail; it was set at $250,000.[26]

## See also

- [In-Q-Tel](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/in-q-tel)
- [Sociopathic tendencies](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sociopathic-tendencies)
- [Counterterrorist driving](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/counterterrorist-driving)
- [Christopher Steele dossier](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/christopher-steele-dossier)
- [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. David Gornoski Archives (2019-08-08), at 02:07. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFotqzActGI&t=127s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-08-08-david-gornoski-archives-david-gornoski-archives/
2. S1E0 Coming Very Soon (2025-10-08), at 03:58. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/68e6970853a5e2858f5ca021/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-08-dead-drop-s1e0-coming-very-soon/
3. S1E0 Coming Very Soon (2025-10-08), at 04:30. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/68e6970853a5e2858f5ca021/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-08-dead-drop-s1e0-coming-very-soon/
4. S1E0 Coming Very Soon (2025-10-08), at 05:02. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/68e6970853a5e2858f5ca021/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-08-dead-drop-s1e0-coming-very-soon/
5. HR News Channel (2022-09-13), at 06:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06-usYETsbo&t=410s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-09-13-hr-news-channel-hr-news-channel/
6. Art and documentary (2023-03-28), at 04:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzTHekWvcic&t=284s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-03-28-art-and-documentary-art-and-documentary/
7. “I exposed the CIA and went to prison” John Kiriakou (2025-04-27), at 08:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB6eyGtAD1c&t=504s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-27-the-dr-phil-podcast-i-exposed-the-cia-and-went-to-prison-john-kir/
8. PARDON HIM ALREADY! John Kiriakou (2025-09-04), at 09:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXSeAgvz3Yk&t=570s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-dr-phil-podcast-pardon-him-already/
9. The Sharin Hour 1/11/16: JOHN KIRIAKOU, ex-C.I.A. (2016-01-12), at 27:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rss4dc75908&t=1648s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2016-01-12-the-sharin-hour-the-sharin-hour-1-11-16-john-kiriakou-ex-c-i/
10. John Kiriakou about what can go wrong with spy agencies (2015-07-25), at 05:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXpClkw38CY&t=318s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-07-25-splendour-in-the-grass/
11. The Sharin Hour 1/11/16: JOHN KIRIAKOU, ex-C.I.A. (2016-01-12), at 28:01. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rss4dc75908&t=1681s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2016-01-12-the-sharin-hour-the-sharin-hour-1-11-16-john-kiriakou-ex-c-i/
12. Ex-CIA Whistleblower Reveals: How Australia Gets Classifie (2025-04-12), at 1:13:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxbw5cWqL9c&t=4436s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-12-the-clear-signal-with-stev/
13. CIA Officer John Kiriakou Rates 9 Counterterrorism Scenes In (2024-12-17), at 00:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXrxAMIULBo&t=36s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-12-17-insider-cia-officer-john-kiriakou-rates-9-counterterr/
14. CIA Officer John Kiriakou Rates 9 Counterterrorism Scenes In (2024-12-17), at 01:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXrxAMIULBo&t=66s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-12-17-insider-cia-officer-john-kiriakou-rates-9-counterterr/
15. Art and documentary (2023-03-28), at 30:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzTHekWvcic&t=1832s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-03-28-art-and-documentary-art-and-documentary/
16. Most Hated CIA Spy on Hunting Osama & INSANE Covert Disguises (Episode 249) (2024-11-07), at 2:25:57. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_FDZozJ9zE&t=8757s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-11-07-julian-dorey-249/
17. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou On JFK Files, Nathan Tan (2025-02-19), at 1:02:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iJ_1LNBBZA&t=3730s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-02-19-katie-halper/
18. Ask Ex-CIA Agent and Whistleblower John Kiriakou Anything (2025-10-16), at 46:57. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddbc2c676&t=2817s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-16-seymizzle-podcast-ask-ex-cia-agent-and-whistleblower-john-kiria/
19. Full Audiobook (2025-10-30), at 05:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz06eViSJdo&t=346s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-30-full-audiobook-full-audiobook/
20. Full Audiobook (2025-10-30), at 05:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz06eViSJdo&t=315s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-30-full-audiobook-full-audiobook/
21. Full Audiobook (2025-10-30), at 06:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz06eViSJdo&t=378s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-30-full-audiobook-full-audiobook/
22. #278 — MK Ultra, USAID, Overthrowing Governments (2025-02-25), at 56:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CFWmuIgQIE&t=3378s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-02-25-mk-ultra-usaid-overthrowing-governments/
23. #278 — MK Ultra, USAID, Overthrowing Governments (2025-02-25), at 56:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CFWmuIgQIE&t=3410s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-02-25-mk-ultra-usaid-overthrowing-governments/
24. #278 — MK Ultra, USAID, Overthrowing Governments (2025-02-25), at 57:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CFWmuIgQIE&t=3442s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-02-25-mk-ultra-usaid-overthrowing-governments/
25. #278 — MK Ultra, USAID, Overthrowing Governments (2025-02-25), at 57:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CFWmuIgQIE&t=3474s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-02-25-mk-ultra-usaid-overthrowing-governments/
26. Ex-CIA and Founder of Panquake John Kiriakou EP531 (2025-04-19), at 12:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud37ddfab6&t=754s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-19-the-big-mig-show-ex-cia-and-founder-of-panquake-john-kiriakou/

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