# Kandahar

> **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: "Kandahar," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kandahar/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The southern Afghan city and province that recurs across John Kiriakou's Afghanistan material — site of one of the two al-Qaeda training camps Abu Zubaydah founded, whose commanders were captured in the same March 2002 raids; the town Bill Clinton said he would have had to destroy, killing 300 innocents, to kill bin Laden in the 1990s; and a stop on Kiriakou's Senate-era heroin-poppy investigation, when the military helicoptered him down before refusing to let him walk the poppy fields.*

- **What:** City and province in southern Afghanistan; Taliban heartland
- **Al-Qaeda:** One of the two training camps founded by Abu Zubaydah
- **March 2002:** Its camp commander captured alongside Abu Zubaydah
- **Heroin:** With Helmand, source of almost all of Afghanistan's poppy crop
- **Taliban:** Birthplace and stronghold of the movement
- **Hijacking:** Indian Airlines 814 was taken there in the 1990s

**Kandahar** — city and province in southern Afghanistan — threads through [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s accounts of al-Qaeda's infrastructure, the hunt that followed 9/11, and the heroin economy.

## Al-Qaeda's Kandahar

[Abu Zubaydah](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abu-zubaydah), in Kiriakou's telling, founded and managed both of al-Qaeda's training camps in southern Afghanistan — one in Kandahar province, the other in Helmand — along with the [House of Martyrs](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abu-zubaydah) safe house in Peshawar: the logistics man who smuggled recruits from Karachi to Kandahar to start their training.[1][2][3] The camps were created on his order, by his subordinates, once the fall of the pro-Soviet government and the arrival of a Taliban government left al-Qaeda free to do as it liked; when the hunt began the agency knew only that Zubaydah was somewhere in Afghanistan, probably in Kandahar.[4][5] The March 2002 raids that took Zubaydah also captured the commanders of both camps — the Kandahar camp and the Derunta camp — along with dozens of other men.[6][7] Among the camp's foot soldiers Kiriakou describes: a non-Arabic-speaking Australian recruit handed a gun and told to stand guard at the Kandahar base — later shipped to [Guantanamo](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/guantanamo-bay) and *"tortured mercilessly."*[8]

## The town too costly to bomb

Kiriakou cites Bill Clinton's own words on the 1990s chance to kill [bin Laden](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/osama-bin-laden): *"I nearly got him and could have killed him, but I would have had to destroy a little town called Kandahar and killed 300 innocent people."*[9] He has also always believed the Taliban's protection of bin Laden operated under the auspices of Pakistani intelligence.[10]

Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban and was the movement's stronghold, which is why Kiriakou treats the destination of the 1990s hijacking of Indian Airlines flight 814 as the significant fact about it: by landing there the hijackers believed they would get everything they asked for, because they were mujahideen among their own.[11][12] After the invasion the province became one of the working areas for the joint teams — CIA officers, military special forces and local hires — sent around Kandahar and Helmand to carry out operations in the south.[13]

## The poppy study

As chief investigator for the [Senate Foreign Relations Committee](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/senate-foreign-relations-committee), Kiriakou ran a study on heroin poppies: the military flew him by helicopter first to Kandahar, then onward — almost all of the country's heroin came from Helmand and Kandahar.[14][15] On a later trip his request was simple — *"I want to go to Kandahar and Lashkar Gah and I want to go into the poppy fields"* — and the answer was absolutely not.[16]

The fuller telling dates the trip to 2011 and supplies the numbers behind it: Afghanistan was then producing 93 per cent of the world's heroin, having produced none of it under the Taliban government that preceded the invasion.[17][18][19] He flew from Dubai to Bagram with the Missouri National Guard, having cabled his requirements ahead, and was told at Bagram that Kandahar and Lashkar Gah were too dangerous.[19][20] It produced the only occasion in his career on which he pulled rank: a senior congressional investigator holds the rank of a brigadier general, and he told the officers that if he said they were going to Kandahar and Helmand, they were going to Kandahar and Helmand.[21][22][23]

They flew him, and made their feelings known en route with a spiralling descent of the kind used where Stinger missiles are a threat — there were none in the area, and Kiriakou's reading is that they were trying to make him sick.[24][25] Kandahar itself turned out to be a day of meetings on the base with Afghan officials he describes as liars, criminals and narco-traffickers, after which they went on to the provincial reconstruction team at Lashkar Gah.[26]

## The tribe rotation

Kandahar also anchors his standard example of a cultural mistake made from Washington. While he was still at the CIA the American military decided to fight Afghan corruption by barring men from serving in the police or army in their own area: a man from Herat would head the police force in Kandahar, a man from Kandahar would be posted to Jalalabad or the Tajik border. The effect, in his account, was that local residents refused to recognise an officer who was not of their family, tribe or district, and inter-tribal resentment deepened.[27][28]

## See also

- [Abu Zubaydah](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abu-zubaydah)
- [Afghan heroin policy](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/afghan-heroin-policy)
- [Osama bin Laden](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/osama-bin-laden)
- [Tora Bora](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/tora-bora)

## Sources

1. Foresight with Ken Weaver--John Kiriakou, Whistleblower (2019-03-14), at 14:03. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcTHv1zLD7M&t=843s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-03-14-salem-access-tv-public/
2. Guest John Kiriakou Greek American Author, Journalist, a (2020-11-30), at 20:49. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d82Vejn9a30&t=1249s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2020-11-30-crossing-faiths/
3. 018 — State Sanctioned Torture, Whistleblowing & 9/11 — (2023-01-13), at 18:25. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiWoQ0Y86DE&t=1105s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-01-13-the-open-forum-podcast/
4. The CIA Officer Who Exposed America's Torture Programme / Mi (2025-06-22), at 16:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v55tpm11J8&t=975s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-06-22-ladbible-stories-the-cia-officer-who-exposed-america-s-torture/
5. The CIA Officer Who Exposed America's Torture Programme / Mi (2025-06-22), at 16:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v55tpm11J8&t=1006s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-06-22-ladbible-stories-the-cia-officer-who-exposed-america-s-torture/
6. Ex-CIA Officer Exposes the Torture Program (2023-09-22), at 11:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72EuwXMxSAQ&t=660s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-09-22-ex-cia-officer-exposes-the-torture-program/
7. “CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou: Torture, Truth & Traum (2025-07-17), at 19:23. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Oi61wpeGnA&t=1163s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-17-barracks-media-inc/
8. Ex-CIA Officer Exposes the Torture Program (2023-09-22), at 59:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72EuwXMxSAQ&t=3574s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-09-22-ex-cia-officer-exposes-the-torture-program/
9. 20 Years After 9/11 / Inside America with Ghida Fakry (2021-09-12), at 07:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCNk9IqON4k&t=435s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-09-12-trt-world-years-after-9-11-inside-america-with-ghida-fa/
10. The Real News Network (2015-05-04), at 01:48. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E82OrQF9nkY&t=108s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-04-the-real-news-network-the-real-news-network/
11. CIA Officer John Kiriakou Rates 9 Counterterrorism Scenes In (2024-12-17), at 20:25. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXrxAMIULBo&t=1225s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-12-17-insider-cia-officer-john-kiriakou-rates-9-counterterr/
12. CIA Officer John Kiriakou Rates 9 Counterterrorism Scenes In (2024-12-17), at 20:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXrxAMIULBo&t=1256s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-12-17-insider-cia-officer-john-kiriakou-rates-9-counterterr/
13. Does the CIA Control American Presidents and Media? (2026-01-01), at 22:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0dum00g0fs&t=1320s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-01-fair-observer/
14. SND#40 Gulf Mines & Incubator Babies w/John Kiriakou (2019-06-14), at 39:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM85ukUYXm8&t=2394s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-06-14-slow-news-day/
15. Talk Afghanistan (2021-09-01), at 09:01. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4cxV2fz6ks&t=541s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-09-01-garland-nixon-talk-afghanistan/
16. John Kiriakou – Enhanced Techniques & Whistleblowing (2024-12-10), at 06:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCF5MN7R66g&t=403s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-12-10-jon-leon-guerrero-john-kiriakou-enhanced-techniques-whistleblowing/
17. Guest: John Kiriakou — CIA Whistleblower on America’s Secret Drug Wars (2025-05-19), at 41:59. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=audd5604ade&t=2519s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-05-19-the-free-thought-project-podcast-guest-john-kiriakou-cia-whistleblower-on-amer/
18. John Kiriakou: The CIA's Tortures and Crimes (2025-12-08), at 19:47. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qVZ2KGc9-g&t=1187s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-08-judging-freedom-cia-tortures-and-crimes/
19. John Kiriakou – Enhanced Techniques & Whistleblowing (2024-12-10), at 06:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkkqwGDDbE0&t=403s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-12-10-pete-a-turner/
20. Ex-CIA Agent: We Enabled Cartels, Lied About Torture & Rigged Elections (2025-04-07), at 13:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfT8jrjLNiE&t=786s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-07-ironclad/
21. John Kiriakou – Enhanced Techniques & Whistleblowing (2024-12-10), at 07:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkkqwGDDbE0&t=435s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-12-10-pete-a-turner/
22. Ex-CIA Agent: We Enabled Cartels, Lied About Torture & Rigged Elections (2025-04-07), at 13:39. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfT8jrjLNiE&t=819s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-07-ironclad/
23. "All My Stories Have a Bad Ending for the Good Guy" - John (2025-09-25), at 16:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s41zksLari8&t=1002s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-25-joe-mkhitaryan/
24. John Kiriakou: Exposing Epstein, Mossad, CIA Torture & the Blackmail Playbook (2025-10-02), at 56:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kiHYQC6SXM&t=3405s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-02-truth-hurts-epstein-mossad-blackmail-playbook/
25. John Kiriakou: Exposing Epstein, Mossad, CIA Torture & the Blackmail Playbook (2025-10-02), at 57:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kiHYQC6SXM&t=3435s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-02-truth-hurts-epstein-mossad-blackmail-playbook/
26. "All My Stories Have a Bad Ending for the Good Guy" - John (2025-09-25), at 17:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s41zksLari8&t=1032s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-25-joe-mkhitaryan/
27. John Kiriakou – US Espionage and Foreign Policy (2025-12-17), at 17:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6pirxcMhK8&t=1056s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-17-pete-a-turner-john-kiriakou-us-espionage-and-foreign-policy/
28. Held Captive 100+ Days by the Taliban w/ Safi Rauf (2025-12-19), at 11:35. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4aXSSD0_Zs&t=695s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-19-the-deep-focus-show-held-captive-100-days-by-the-taliban-w-safi-r/

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