# The 2016 research pitch > **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: "The 2016 research pitch," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-2016-research-pitch/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *An approach made to John Kiriakou in October 2016, roughly eighteen months after his release from prison, by a caller claiming to be a former CIA colleague who offered him five thousand dollars a month to conduct classified research. Kiriakou reads it as a second entrapment attempt, mounted after his sentence was already served, and says he identified it by the caller's mistakes with agency vocabulary.* - **Approximate date:** October 2016 - **The cover story:** A former colleague from overseas, now living abroad, needing a researcher - **The offer:** $5,000 a month for classified research - **Kiriakou's status:** Out of prison; no security clearance - **The tell:** Repeated mistakes with CIA vocabulary - **How he checked it:** Telephoned a former colleague named by the caller **The 2016 research pitch** was an approach made to [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) about three weeks before an interview he gave on 7 November 2016 — roughly eighteen months after his release — which he reads as a second attempt to entrap him, distinct from [the Japanese diplomat FBI sting](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/japanese-diplomat-fbi-sting) of 2011. The caller claimed that he and Kiriakou had been colleagues overseas about twenty years earlier, said he no longer worked for the agency, and said he was living abroad and wanted to hire Kiriakou to do research for him.[1] The name did not ring a bell, though the caller used the names of a couple of people Kiriakou had been friendly with. Two things did not fit: *"the story just didn't make any sense to me,"* and the caller *"kept making mistakes with some of the CIA lingo, which made me think that the guy's not a CIA officer."*[1][2] The check turned on one of the names. The caller mentioned someone Kiriakou had worked with at an overseas post he declines to identify; Kiriakou telephoned her, and her first question resolved it — *"which John Smith?"* — establishing that the man named was an FBI agent rather than the CIA colleague the caller had implied.[2][3] The offer was $5,000 a month, and Kiriakou describes the work requested as going back to his former CIA colleagues to draw classified information out of them. He no longer held a security clearance.[4] His conclusion is that the object was another [Espionage Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/espionage-act) charge: *"here they are, after I've done my time, I've finished my sentence, still trying to entrap me."*[3] He places it in a pattern rather than treating it as personal, naming [Tom Drake](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/thomas-drake), Kirk Wiebe, Bill Binney, [Jeffrey Sterling](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/jeffrey-sterling) and [Chelsea Manning](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/chelsea-manning) as others who face the same thing: *"even after you're convicted, even after your case is over, they still come after you."*[4] ## See also - [Japanese diplomat FBI sting](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/japanese-diplomat-fbi-sting) - [FBI](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fbi) - [Espionage Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/espionage-act) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. We should all be afraid: A whistleblowers report on the price of secrecy and surveillance (2016-11-07), at 17:47. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soundcloud291911748&t=1067s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2016-11-07-this-is-hell-we-should-all-be-afraid-a-whistleblowers-repo/ 2. We should all be afraid: A whistleblowers report on the price of secrecy and surveillance (2016-11-07), at 18:20. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soundcloud291911748&t=1100s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2016-11-07-this-is-hell-we-should-all-be-afraid-a-whistleblowers-repo/ 3. We should all be afraid: A whistleblowers report on the price of secrecy and surveillance (2016-11-07), at 18:51. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soundcloud291911748&t=1131s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2016-11-07-this-is-hell-we-should-all-be-afraid-a-whistleblowers-repo/ 4. We should all be afraid: A whistleblowers report on the price of secrecy and surveillance (2016-11-07), at 19:23. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soundcloud291911748&t=1163s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2016-11-07-this-is-hell-we-should-all-be-afraid-a-whistleblowers-repo/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-2016-research-pitch/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt