# Kiriakou's television pilots > **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 television pilots," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-television-pilots/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The eight television pilots John Kiriakou has sold since 2007 as a hobby, beginning with Bomb Squad, a procedural about the New York City bomb squad built around a statistic that almost no bomb threat has anything to do with terrorism — alongside a parallel career as a script adviser on The Bourne Ultimatum, Kill the Messenger and CBS's True Lies, an MGM pilot conceived in prison, and a History Channel series developed with Oliver Stone from one chapter of his first book.* - **Number sold:** Eight — seven as of 2019, eight from 2023 onward - **Writing them since:** 2007 - **Script adviser on:** *The Bourne Ultimatum*, *From Paris with Love*, *Kill the Messenger*, CBS's *True Lies* - **Developed with:** [Oliver Stone](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/oliver-stone), for the History Channel - **First:** Bomb Squad, a procedural - **Subject:** A day in the life of the New York City bomb squad - **Source:** A friend assigned to the squad - **The statistic:** Fewer than one in a hundred bomb call-ins concerns terrorism **Kiriakou's television pilots** are, in his own framing, a hobby rather than a second career: "I as a hobby I like to write television pilots. And I've been, knock on wood, I've been very successful in the last 15 years. I've sold eight of them."[1] The first he sold was *Bomb Squad*, a procedural following a day in the life of the New York City bomb squad.[1] He wrote it because of something a friend assigned to the squad told him, which he equates with the lesson of surveillance: fewer than one in a hundred bomb threats called in to the police has anything to do with terrorism, maybe one in a thousand. Almost every bomb threat, bomb scare or actual device is a jilted spouse or lover, an insurance scammer, or a mafia hit.[2] The conclusion [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) draws from that is the same one he draws about [situational awareness](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-situational-awareness) generally: it means the victims are ordinary people going about their normal daily business, so everybody has to be aware of their surroundings and personally responsible for their own safety.[3] The pilots sit alongside his nine published books and a tenth commissioned as his first novel.[4] ## The other side of the credit Alongside the pilots he has sold runs a second line of work, advising other people's productions. Kiriakou lists himself as script adviser on *The Bourne Ultimatum*, on *From Paris with Love* and on *Kill the Messenger*, as security adviser on another production, and — having just finished its first season when he described it — as script adviser on the CBS series *True Lies*, based on the James Cameron film of the same title.[5][6] The point of listing them is not vanity but standing: it is the basis on which he says he is *"acquainted with the way these things play out in Hollywood"* before making his argument that the CIA learned from the FBI, decades late, that the thing to control is the narrative.[6] ## The one written in prison He dates the hobby to 2007 and by 2019 had sold seven.[5][7] The idea he rates highest came to him while he was incarcerated — *"my best idea ever"* — and he sold it to MGM, which ordered a pilot. It was the first time one of his scripts had made it to pilot stage; he described finishing a fifth draft and preparing to fly to Los Angeles to pitch it to the networks.[7] A second project began the moment he was released. [Oliver Stone](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/oliver-stone) telephoned as soon as Kiriakou got home and proposed working together; Kiriakou went to Los Angeles, and the two took the idea to the History Channel, which optioned a single chapter of his first book — the chapter about life inside the CIA immediately before, during and after 9/11, and how an organisation of thousands of smart, patriotic people became what it became.[8] Not every pitch went as far. One idea, unusually for him, was for a news programme; a friend named Rich, who had gone to high school with the man who was by then president of NBC News, offered to pitch it to him directly.[9][10] ## Representation, and the point of it By 2026 the hobby had acquired an agent and a schedule. Kiriakou described meetings booked over the following weeks with household names — *"multiple Oscar winners"* — and was direct about why it mattered to him: *"I'm not ashamed to finally, for the first time in my life, make a couple of bucks. I'm tired of being poor. I'm tired of renting."*[11][12] ## See also - [Situational awareness](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-situational-awareness) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) - [Oliver Stone](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/oliver-stone) - [Burn Notice](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/burn-notice) ## Sources 1. How to Spot Danger Before It's Too Late (2026-07-09), at 28:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Hz6bUAiHI&t=1692s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-09-byrna-how-to-spot-danger-before-it-s-too-late/ 2. How to Spot Danger Before It's Too Late (2026-07-09), at 28:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Hz6bUAiHI&t=1724s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-09-byrna-how-to-spot-danger-before-it-s-too-late/ 3. How to Spot Danger Before It's Too Late (2026-07-09), at 29:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Hz6bUAiHI&t=1756s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-09-byrna-how-to-spot-danger-before-it-s-too-late/ 4. Part 2: How Well Do You Really Know Him? (2026-07-09), at 04:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKx-CsyO_zI&t=282s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-09-part-2-how-well-do-you-really-know-him/ 5. John Kiriakou — Ep 133 (probe dup vs 6kmi7Tkpf7Q) (2023-02-08), at 39:25. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LThb4bBpGUw&t=2365s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-08-fortress-on-a-hill-john-kiriakou-ep-133-probe-dup-vs-6kmi7tkpf7q/ 6. John Kiriakou — Ep 133 (probe dup vs 6kmi7Tkpf7Q) (2023-02-08), at 39:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LThb4bBpGUw&t=2398s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-08-fortress-on-a-hill-john-kiriakou-ep-133-probe-dup-vs-6kmi7tkpf7q/ 7. 2019-03-04-a-good-place-with-ella-a-a-good-place-with-ella-a.sponsors, at 1:35:45. Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-03-04-a-good-place-with-ella-a-a-good-place-with-ella-a.sponsors/ 8. 2019-03-04-a-good-place-with-ella-a-a-good-place-with-ella-a.sponsors, at 1:36:16. Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-03-04-a-good-place-with-ella-a-a-good-place-with-ella-a.sponsors/ 9. John Kiriakou — CIA Whistleblower — Episode 83 — The Georg (2024-09-03), at 52:21. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfbf9gSVdJM&t=3141s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-09-03-george-peyrouton/ 10. John Kiriakou — CIA Whistleblower — Episode 83 — The Georg (2024-09-03), at 52:52. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfbf9gSVdJM&t=3172s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-09-03-george-peyrouton/ 11. The Cost of Telling the Truth | John Kiriakou | Ep. 446 (2026-05-04), at 2:59:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JeTlw4Zy3o&t=10762s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-04-cleared-hot-446-cost-of-truth/ 12. The Cost of Telling the Truth | John Kiriakou | Ep. 446 (2026-05-04), at 2:59:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JeTlw4Zy3o&t=10794s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-04-cleared-hot-446-cost-of-truth/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-television-pilots/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt