# The Air Force One bomb threat

> **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 Air Force One bomb threat," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-air-force-one-bomb-threat/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The bomb threat telephoned to the classified telephone aboard Air Force One as Bill Clinton's aircraft lifted out of Athens in November 1999, disclosed by the ambassador at the embassy's after-action review, a detail John Kiriakou withheld from years of tellings of that visit until 2026.*

- **When:** November 1999
- **Where:** Ellinikon, the old Athens airport
- **Aircraft:** Air Force One, departing with President Bill Clinton aboard
- **The caller:** Unidentified, using the aircraft's classified telephone number
- **Who answered:** A low-level aide, not the president
- **Disclosed:** By the ambassador at the embassy hot wash

**The Air Force One bomb threat** was a threat telephoned directly to President [Bill Clinton](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bill-clinton)'s aircraft as it took off from Athens at the end of his November 1999 visit to Greece.[1]

The visit had ended in the basement of the Intercontinental Hotel, where Clinton gave a raucous and wildly popular speech to the Greek American Business Women's Association before driving to Ellinikon, the old Athens airport, and flying back to Washington.[2][3] [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou), who had drawn the note-taker's job for the presidential meeting in the lottery run by Ambassador [Nicholas Burns](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/nicholas-burns), returned to the embassy for the hot wash, the after-action review at which everybody involved goes through every detail of a visit, what went right, what went wrong and what was learned.[4][3]

The ambassador opened it with a question: *"Do you want to hear something crazy?"* Just as the aircraft was taking off, he said, the telephone inside Air Force One rang. Somebody in Greece had obtained the top secret number for it, and the call was a threat to blow up the aircraft. Clinton did not answer; a low-level aide took it.[3][1]

Kiriakou, who describes the episode as a side of the Athens story he had never told before, uses it as the argument against dismissing warnings out of hand. Discussing the Israeli intelligence behind [the catering truck transfer](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-catering-truck-transfer), which he does not believe, he adds that *"you have to take every shred of information like this seriously just in case it's legit."*[2][1][5]

## See also

- [Bill Clinton](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bill-clinton)
- [Nicholas Burns](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/nicholas-burns)
- [The catering truck transfer](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-catering-truck-transfer)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. They used WHAT to hide the President? | Ep. 10 (2026-08-13), at 22:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T7J-jzEo9Q&t=1370s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-13-na-they-used-what-to-hide-the-president-ep-10/
2. They used WHAT to hide the President? | Ep. 10 (2026-08-13), at 21:48. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T7J-jzEo9Q&t=1308s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-13-na-they-used-what-to-hide-the-president-ep-10/
3. They used WHAT to hide the President? | Ep. 10 (2026-08-13), at 22:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T7J-jzEo9Q&t=1339s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-13-na-they-used-what-to-hide-the-president-ep-10/
4. They used WHAT to hide the President? | Ep. 10 (2026-08-13), at 21:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T7J-jzEo9Q&t=1276s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-13-na-they-used-what-to-hide-the-president-ep-10/
5. They used WHAT to hide the President? | Ep. 10 (2026-08-13), at 23:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T7J-jzEo9Q&t=1402s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-13-na-they-used-what-to-hide-the-president-ep-10/

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