# Running into former sources > **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: "Running into former sources," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/running-into-former-sources/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou has twice met people he once ran as agents by accident, years after leaving the CIA — once at an airport and once in the street — and both times they came to him with a bear hug. One of them was astonished to discover he spoke English.* - **Number of encounters:** Two - **Places:** An airport; a street - **Elapsed time:** About four years after leaving the agency; and about twenty years - **Who approached whom:** "They came up to me. I wasn't really paying attention" - **Manner:** "Big bear hugs and oh my god how are you doing?" - **One source's reaction:** "I can't believe you speak English" **Running into former sources** is something [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) says has happened to him twice, and he raises it immediately after describing [the vetting](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-operational-test) that once governed those relationships — with the aside that his prize source might not have survived the surveillance detection route he ran across an eight-lane highway.[1][2] ## The encounters *"I've actually run into sources twice. uh once at at an airport and uh and once on the street."*[2] The intervals were long and very different. *"In one case it was it was four years after I left the agency in the other case it was you know, 20 years after I left the agency."*[2] ## Who moved first Asked on the programme whether the correct response was a nod or a greeting, Kiriakou's answer described a situation in which he had no say. *"They came up to me. I wasn't really paying attention and they came up to me and it was big bear hugs and oh my god how are you doing?"*[2] The relationship, in other words, outlasted the operational reason for it, and the former agents felt no need for the discretion that had once been the condition of their survival.[2] ## The line he remembers The detail Kiriakou singles out is one that reveals how much of the original relationship had been managed. *"And one guy said I can't believe YOU SPEAK ENGLISH. I can't believe it."*[3] The source had run for years without ever learning that his case officer had a language in common with him — the meetings having been conducted, presumably, in the source's own. The concealment held so completely that its exposure came as a shock in an airport decades later.[3] ## The wider point The anecdotes sit directly against the question Kiriakou had just answered about whether officers regarded their agents as traitors. His position was that they did not — that a recruited source became *"one of the good guys"* and part of *"one big happy family"* — and that seven of the nine people he recruited were people he would gladly be friends with. The bear hugs are offered as evidence that the feeling was mutual.[4][5] ## See also - [Sources are not traitors](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sources-are-not-traitors) - [The operational test](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-operational-test) - [Kiriakou's first recruitment](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/first-recruitment-in-athens) - [Cover position](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cover-position) ## Sources 1. Greek Spies, Epstein, Aliens, CIA (2026-02-10), at 08:48. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwuKmPsXKPs&t=528s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-10-deprogram-ted-rall-greek-spies-epstein-aliens-cia/ 2. Greek Spies, Epstein, Aliens, CIA (2026-02-10), at 09:20. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwuKmPsXKPs&t=560s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-10-deprogram-ted-rall-greek-spies-epstein-aliens-cia/ 3. Greek Spies, Epstein, Aliens, CIA (2026-02-10), at 09:52. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwuKmPsXKPs&t=592s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-10-deprogram-ted-rall-greek-spies-epstein-aliens-cia/ 4. Greek Spies, Epstein, Aliens, CIA (2026-02-10), at 06:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwuKmPsXKPs&t=405s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-10-deprogram-ted-rall-greek-spies-epstein-aliens-cia/ 5. Greek Spies, Epstein, Aliens, CIA (2026-02-10), at 07:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwuKmPsXKPs&t=436s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-10-deprogram-ted-rall-greek-spies-epstein-aliens-cia/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/running-into-former-sources/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt