# The applicant who invented a CIA career > **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 applicant who invented a CIA career," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-applicant-who-invented-a-cia-career/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The job interview John Kiriakou conducted in the private sector at which he took a candidate to lunch, asked two questions any real CIA officer could answer, and was told: "I'm really sorry. I really need this job."* - **Setting:** Private sector, competitive/business intelligence, after Kiriakou left the CIA - **Claim on the résumé:** Former CIA officer - **Question 1:** Directorate of Operations or Directorate of Intelligence? - **Answer:** A blank look - **Question 2:** Which counterterrorism division? - **Outcome:** "You made all this up, didn't you?" [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) says he has met a great many people over the years who claim to have been with the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia), and that "you can spot them from a mile away because they get the lingo wrong."[1] His standing illustration is an interview he conducted himself. ## The lunch After leaving the CIA he worked in competitive and business intelligence. A man applied for a job whose résumé said he had been a CIA officer. Kiriakou thought they might have friends in common and took him to lunch to see whether he was any good.[1] ## Two questions The first was neutral. Kiriakou said it was not clear from the résumé whether he had been from the [Directorate of Operations](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/directorate-of-operations) or the Directorate of Intelligence, and asked where he had worked. "Oh, both. I was I was both." "Well, that's kind of impossible. You have to be from one or the other." "I was operations." "Oh, okay. So where did you work?" "Oh, I was counterterrorism." "Well, that's great. I was counterterrorism. What division were you in?"[2] ## The blank look "And he just looked at me with this blank — this blank. And I said, you made all this up, didn't you? And he's like, I'm really sorry. I really need this job. And I said, okay, thanks. Nice meeting you. And that was the end of it."[2] ## The tell The diagnostic Kiriakou generalises from the episode is that impostors reach for vocabulary that sounds classified and means nothing. Of a television commentator later exposed as never having been with the agency, he notes the claimed title — "outside paramilitary special operations" — and observes that "those are just meaningless words. There is no such position." It sounds intriguing, "but it doesn't mean anything."[3] He gives a second example from the same private-sector period: a colleague who wanted very badly to be a CIA officer, finally got in as a contractor, and when asked what he was doing over there answered that it was "pretty hush-hush, but it's special intel ops, uh, support, uh, special weapons and tactics." Kiriakou's reply — "dude, you make yourself sound like a fool" — rests on the same point: none of those words mean anything.[4] ## See also - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) - [Spotting a CIA impostor](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/spotting-a-cia-impostor) - [The Fox News military analyst](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-fox-news-military-analyst) - [The Directorate of Operations](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/directorate-of-operations) - [CIA directorates](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-directorates) ## Sources 1. Pt1 Reluctant Spy / Pt2 Michael Bowe (probe: 2-part) (2026-01-15), at 45:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcNzPkfo6M&t=2754s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-15-opperman-report-pt1-reluctant-spy-pt2-michael-bowe-probe-2-pa/ 2. Pt1 Reluctant Spy / Pt2 Michael Bowe (probe: 2-part) (2026-01-15), at 46:27. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcNzPkfo6M&t=2787s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-15-opperman-report-pt1-reluctant-spy-pt2-michael-bowe-probe-2-pa/ 3. Pt1 Reluctant Spy / Pt2 Michael Bowe (probe: 2-part) (2026-01-15), at 46:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcNzPkfo6M&t=2818s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-15-opperman-report-pt1-reluctant-spy-pt2-michael-bowe-probe-2-pa/ 4. Pt1 Reluctant Spy / Pt2 Michael Bowe (probe: 2-part) (2026-01-15), at 47:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcNzPkfo6M&t=2850s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-15-opperman-report-pt1-reluctant-spy-pt2-michael-bowe-probe-2-pa/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-applicant-who-invented-a-cia-career/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt