# Security, medical and finance > **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: "Security, medical and finance," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/security-medical-and-finance/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The warning John Kiriakou says his first station chief gave him and that he passed on in turn to a first-tour case officer in Pakistan: there are only three offices at the CIA that can wreck your career — security, medical and finance — and only finance can send you to prison.* - **The maxim:** 'There are only three people that can wreck your career: security, medical, and finance' - **The sting in it:** 'Finance can send you to prison' - **Source:** Kiriakou's first station chief - **Passed on to:** A first-tour case officer he made head of finance in Pakistan in 2002 - **The standard set:** Balance the books to the dollar when the operation closes - **The budget being tracked:** Literally unlimited When John Kiriakou is asked how easy it is to steal from a secret budget, he answers by describing the one control he says actually bites. ## An unlimited budget Even on a very small scale, he says, the temptation is there. When he was in Pakistan as head of CIA counterterrorism operations, his budget was literally unlimited, and he spent millions of dollars. [1] [2] So he took a young first-tour case officer under his wing and told her she was going to have the most important job in the station: she was going to be head of finance. Every dollar spent, and every dollar given to the Pakistanis, had to be accounted for; and when the operation — in this case the operation to catch [Abu Zubaydah](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abu-zubaydah) — was completed, the books had to balance to the dollar. [2] ## The three offices Then he gave her the line he says his own first station chief had given him: there are only three people that can wreck your career. Security, medical, and finance. Finance can send you to prison. [2] [3] ## Why the rule matters to his wider argument Kiriakou introduces the maxim in the middle of an argument about the [concealment of the CIA's budget](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-budget-concealment): the agency's budget is secret or in some cases top secret and has never been published in American history, with line items hidden inside other departments' budgets, so that an entry for a hundred million dollars to study the mating habits of Costa Rican snails may be a covert activity rather than a programme. [4] [5] Asked how hard it could be to steal from something already secret, he agreed the exposure was obvious — and then described the finance officer as the answer. [1] The rule's limits show up immediately afterwards in the same conversation, in [the General Muhammad equipment gift](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/general-muhammad-equipment-gift): the station's books balanced, and the equipment still disappeared. [6] ## See also - [Concealment of the CIA budget](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-budget-concealment) - [The General Muhammad equipment gift](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/general-muhammad-equipment-gift) - [Pakistan Station (2002)](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/pakistan-station-2002) - [CIA cash room](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-cash-room) - [Agent payment mechanics](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/agent-payment-mechanics) - [The polygraph](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/polygraph) - [Psychiatric evacuation](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/psychiatric-evacuation) ## Sources 1. co-branded personal channel — confirm real interview (2025-11-06), at 14:37. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtd4SW38irE&t=877s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-06-elizabeth-lane-tv-co-branded-personal-channel-confirm-real-inte/ 2. co-branded personal channel — confirm real interview (2025-11-06), at 15:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtd4SW38irE&t=910s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-06-elizabeth-lane-tv-co-branded-personal-channel-confirm-real-inte/ 3. co-branded personal channel — confirm real interview (2025-11-06), at 15:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtd4SW38irE&t=942s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-06-elizabeth-lane-tv-co-branded-personal-channel-confirm-real-inte/ 4. co-branded personal channel — confirm real interview (2025-11-06), at 13:35. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtd4SW38irE&t=815s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-06-elizabeth-lane-tv-co-branded-personal-channel-confirm-real-inte/ 5. co-branded personal channel — confirm real interview (2025-11-06), at 14:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtd4SW38irE&t=846s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-06-elizabeth-lane-tv-co-branded-personal-channel-confirm-real-inte/ 6. co-branded personal channel — confirm real interview (2025-11-06), at 17:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtd4SW38irE&t=1036s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-06-elizabeth-lane-tv-co-branded-personal-channel-confirm-real-inte/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/security-medical-and-finance/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt