# Steve Kappes

> **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: "Steve Kappes," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/steve-kappes/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency; encountered by John Kiriakou in the lobby of the Sanaa Marriott during Kiriakou's final Yemen trip as a Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigator.*

- **Role:** Deputy Director, [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)
- **Identification by Kiriakou:** Sanaa Marriott lobby, ~2010, on a Yemen visit

**Steve Kappes** is a former Deputy Director of the [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia). [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) encountered him in the lobby of the Marriott hotel in Sanaa, Yemen, during his final Yemen trip as a Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigator in approximately 2010. The presence of the *"package is moving"* protective-detail call-out alerted Kiriakou to the presence of a senior visitor; Kappes greeted him by name on emerging from the elevator.[1][2]

## Delivering the ultimatum to Gaddafi

Kiriakou says that while he was serving as executive assistant, Kappes — then CIA deputy director — flew to Tripoli and personally told Muammar Gaddafi to give up his weapons of mass destruction programs; Gaddafi complied, giving up his nuclear energy program as well as his chemical and biological weapons programs.[3]

## The Feinstein condition on Panetta's confirmation

Kiriakou describes Senator Dianne Feinstein as one of the CIA's foremost cheerleaders on Capitol Hill, and says that when Barack Obama struggled to find a CIA director willing to take the job, she told Leon Panetta she would vote to confirm him only if he chose Kappes — one of the "godfathers" and creators of the CIA torture program — as his deputy.[4]

## See also

- [Yemen](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/yemen)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 3:21:55. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=12115s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
2. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 3:22:57. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=12177s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
3. Ex-CIA Officer: Americans Have No Idea What's Actually Happening (2026-02-09), at 22:51. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-WgZKfDTvw&t=1371s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-09-epic-real-estate/
4. Ep. 5150 – John Kiriakou on the Brutal CIA Torture of Abu (2019-12-30), at 35:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmUsmRQO_cQ&t=2115s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-12-30-scott-horton/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/steve-kappes/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt