# Kiriakou's Greek citizenship

> **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: "Kiriakou's Greek citizenship," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-greek-citizenship/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The Greek nationality John Kiriakou acquired in 2010, after his CIA career and before his prosecution, offered, he says, by the Greek ambassador who asked what could be done to help when his troubles began, and granted when he answered "you could give me Greek citizenship." Held by his children too, it made him a Greek national at the moment he became, in Greece, a national hero; it brought him the commission to write the country's whistleblower protection law, and the Athens job that turned out to be a money laundering operation.*

- **Acquired:** 2010
- **Basis:** Grandson of immigrants from Greece
- **How:** Offered by the Greek ambassador, who asked what would help
- **Also held by:** His children
- **Language:** Fluent Greek before the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) hired him

**Kiriakou's Greek citizenship** dates from 2010. [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) is the grandson of immigrants from Greece and grew up in a Greek-American household in western Pennsylvania, fluent enough in the language that his Greek was, as he puts it, *"a given"* by the time the CIA needed someone who spoke both Greek and Arabic.[1][2]

## How it was offered

He describes acquiring the nationality with evident pride: *"so I acquired Greek citizenship and I am proud to say that I am a Greek national, a Greek citizen."*[3] The offer, in his telling, came from the Greek state rather than the other way round. When his trouble with the U.S. government began, the Greek ambassador approached him and asked what could be done to be helpful. Kiriakou answered that he could be given Greek citizenship, and he was.[4][5]

The receptiveness had a cause. Greeks have always been fascinated by the CIA, and here was a Greek-American CIA officer who had made good, blown the whistle and taken it on the chin because he wanted to do the right thing and tell the truth, a national hero in Greece for having stood up to the American government.[6][7] Greek newspapers came to the prison so often he lost count.[8] His children are Greek citizens too; the family holds dual nationality.[9]

## What it was worth

Kiriakou calls it the thing that really saved him, and is explicit that this is luck no other whistleblower had. The years after prison were bad: he bounced from job to job, ran crowdfunding campaigns to pay his own salary and could not clear minimum wage, took a radio-hosting job that suited him and carried the best health insurance of his life but not enough money to live on, and his wife left. He was in his mid-fifties, starting over.[10][11]

What the passport produced was work. The Greek government hired him to write a new whistleblower protection law; he travelled to Greece five times in 2015, and the [law](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-greek-whistleblower-law) was drafted and presented.[6][7]

It also produced one spectacular misfire. In August 2020 he was offered what he calls the job that dropped out of heaven into his lap and his big comeback, chief operating officer of a private equity firm based in Athens, for more money than he could ever have dreamt of. He took it gladly. Six weeks in he realized it was a money laundering operation, resigned, and called the FBI.[12][13]

The passport is not merely sentimental in smaller ways either. Discussing travel restrictions he has faced as an American felon, Kiriakou notes that he could have gone through Cancún on his Greek passport anyway, *"so it was no skin off my nose."*[14]

## Divided loyalty

The timing matters for one recurring question put to him. Asked about divided loyalty, the charge he levels at Americans he considers primarily loyal to another state, Kiriakou's answer is that he was born in the United States and became a dual citizen only in 2010, decades after he began serving the American government.[2]

## The vote he cast

The citizenship is not only nominal. Naming the Greek prime minister as the leader he would put in Donald Trump's place, Kiriakou volunteered his own voting record against him: *"I will admit that I did not vote for him the first time. Uh but I have been very pleasantly surprised."*[15]

It is the clearest indication in the corpus that Kiriakou participates in Greek elections rather than simply holding the passport, and it sits with the other habits the citizenship carries, chief among them reading [the Greek press](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/greek-intelligence-service) daily, which he treats as a working source and which he checks on air against claims he cannot otherwise verify.[16]

## See also

- [Greece's whistleblower protection law](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-greek-whistleblower-law)
- [The Greek Orthodox Church](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/greek-orthodox-church)
- [CIA language training](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-language-training)
- [Revolutionary Organization 17 November](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/revolutionary-organization-17-november)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. HR News Channel (2022-09-13), at 09:29. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06-usYETsbo&t=569s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-09-13-hr-news-channel-hr-news-channel/
2. John Kiriakou Podcast (2026-05-29), at 20:20. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW4mclDzLnk&t=1220s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-29-john-kiriakou-podcast-john-kiriakou-podcast/
3. John Kiriakou with Stelios Kouloglou (2017-11-23), at 43:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAwSZzldvuE&t=2620s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-11-23-stelios-kouloglou/
4. John Kiriakou — Whistleblower Protections, Torture, and Ju (2020-11-23), at 48:47. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7Uq2aYrR5w&t=2927s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2020-11-23-revolutionary-change/
5. Revolutionary Change (2020-11-24), at 15:03. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOKugb7jZl0&t=903s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2020-11-24-revolutionary-change-revolutionary-change/
6. John Kiriakou — Whistleblower Protections, Torture, and Ju (2020-11-23), at 49:17. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7Uq2aYrR5w&t=2957s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2020-11-23-revolutionary-change/
7. Revolutionary Change (2020-11-24), at 15:37. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOKugb7jZl0&t=937s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2020-11-24-revolutionary-change-revolutionary-change/
8. John Kiriakou — Ep 133 (probe dup vs 6kmi7Tkpf7Q) (2023-02-08), at 30:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LThb4bBpGUw&t=1846s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-08-fortress-on-a-hill-john-kiriakou-ep-133-probe-dup-vs-6kmi7tkpf7q/
9. CIA Spy Breaks Silence On Elon Musk's Twitter Files — John (2023-04-12), at 3:01:57. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmPpOps1yeI&t=10917s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-04-12-danny-jones/
10. John Kiriakou — Whistleblower Protections, Torture, and Ju (2020-11-23), at 48:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7Uq2aYrR5w&t=2896s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2020-11-23-revolutionary-change/
11. Revolutionary Change (2020-11-24), at 14:33. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOKugb7jZl0&t=873s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2020-11-24-revolutionary-change-revolutionary-change/
12. The Bitter Truth with Abe (2021-02-01), at 02:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ETk7Q-8Ez4&t=125s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-02-01-the-bitter-truth-with-abe-the-bitter-truth-with-abe/
13. The Bitter Truth with Abe (2021-02-01), at 02:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ETk7Q-8Ez4&t=158s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-02-01-the-bitter-truth-with-abe-the-bitter-truth-with-abe/
14. CIA Spy Breaks Silence On Elon Musk's Twitter Files — John (2023-04-12), at 2:46:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmPpOps1yeI&t=9984s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-04-12-danny-jones/
15. DeProgram (Ted Rall) (2026-02-25), at 32:17. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI7gFn7KjzI&t=1937s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-25-deprogram-ted-rall-deprogram-ted-rall/
16. DeProgram (Ted Rall) (2026-02-25), at 20:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI7gFn7KjzI&t=1222s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-25-deprogram-ted-rall-deprogram-ted-rall/

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