# The Belgian intelligence director > **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 Belgian intelligence director," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-belgian-intelligence-director/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The brother of John Kiriakou's oldest friend, a Belgian exchange student at his high school, who rose to run Belgium's intelligence service and become deputy prime minister — and the exchange in which Kiriakou answered the standard defence of an intelligence chief's prejudices with his own experience.* - **The connection:** Brother of Pete, a Belgian exchange student at Kiriakou's high school - **The friendship:** Still close; in each other's weddings; godfathers to each other's children - **The brother's offices:** Director of the Belgian intelligence service and deputy prime minister - **Where the conversation took place:** Atlanta, at the wedding of a friend's son - **What Pete said:** "I never realised that my brother had a hatred for Arabs" - **The brother's defence:** "You don't see what I see" - **Kiriakou's answer:** "I used to have access to what you had access to, and I never wanted to kill anybody" **The Belgian intelligence director** is a figure John Kiriakou knows at one remove, described on the DeProgram programme in September 2025 when a viewer asked for his thoughts on Belgian intelligence. Kiriakou declined the obvious joke and offered a connection instead.[1] ## The friendship *"This is one of those small-world stories,"* he began. *"When I was a senior in high school, we had a foreign exchange student from Brussels, Pete Jambon. And Pete and I are still close buddies. He comes back to the States just about every year and we're all in each other's weddings and we're godfathers to each other's kids — Pete and my three other closest friends."*[1] The brothers took different paths: *"Pete went into private business, became very wealthy. His brother went into government and became the director of the Belgian intelligence service."*[2] ## The conversation in Atlanta They met at a wedding. *"The last time he was here in the States, we met up in Atlanta to go to another one of our best friends' son's wedding."* Kiriakou asked after the brother, and learned the portfolio had grown: *"they made him intel director and deputy prime minister. It's the craziest thing."*[2] His follow-up — *"how's he fitting in with intelligence?"* — produced the part of the exchange Kiriakou tells the story for.[2] ## The prejudice, and the defence of it *"He said, 'You know, I never realised that my brother had a hatred for Arabs.' And I'm like, 'What? You guys don't hate anybody.'"*[3] The brother's reply, whenever challenged, was the appeal to privileged information: *"Oh, you don't see what I see. If you could see what I see..."*[3] Kiriakou recognised the formula. *"Oh, Pete, I hear that all the time"* — the claim being that if you had the access, *"you'd want to kill everybody."* His answer was his own service record: *"Well, no. I used to have access to what you had access to, and I never wanted to kill anybody."*[3] ## His assessment of the service Kiriakou's professional judgement of Belgian intelligence follows from the same conversation and is narrow rather than dismissive: *"the Belgians are very good when it comes to Arabs, and they pretty much ignore everything else. It's all about the Arabs."*[4] Asked what drives the focus, he pointed to a fear of the country's Palestinian refugee population — *"they're panicked at the idea that ... they might be terrorists"* — a preoccupation the hosts traced back to the bombing campaigns that hit Western Europe in earlier decades.[4][5] ## See also - [Greek Intelligence Service](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/greek-intelligence-service) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) - [Ian Henderson](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ian-henderson) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 24:02. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1442s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 24:33. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1473s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 25:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1505s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 25:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1536s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 5. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 26:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1566s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-belgian-intelligence-director/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt