Kiriakou’s Iran trips refers to John Kiriakou’s account of his own repeated, unfulfilled invitations to visit Iran, alongside the regular travel of his Iranian-American partner, who keeps an apartment in central Tehran. On one of his own visits, Kiriakou recalled noticing large numbers of women in the city with surgical tape on their faces after cosmetic nose surgery; his interpreter, Ali, explained that Tehran is considered “the cosmetic surgery capital of the Middle East,” with Iranian women looking to Western glamour magazines for the look they want.[1]
”Concerned about Colonel Sanders”
During an appearance on Iranian state television — Press TV, at its main studio in Tehran, which he notes the U.S. later bombed — Kiriakou was asked for his impressions of the country. After praising the food and the people, he added a warning: “You don’t really need to be afraid of General Schwarzkopf. You need to be concerned about Colonel Sanders,” predicting that American fast food would eventually bring obesity and heart disease to Iran if it took hold.[2]
A partner’s regular trips
Kiriakou says his Iranian-American partner, who holds dual citizenship and keeps an apartment in central Tehran, travels to Iran roughly twice a year. He recounts her meeting foreigners from Oman, Kazakhstan, and Eastern Europe who travel to Iran specifically for cheap cosmetic surgery — nose jobs, veneers, facelifts — rather than to Turkey, which he says has developed a reputation as a cut-rate destination for such procedures in the West.[3]
Kiriakou’s own unfulfilled invitations
Kiriakou says he has been invited to Iran a number of times himself but has never been able to make the trip, even as his partner has gone twice.[4]