# The bug in the bedroom > **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 bug in the bedroom," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-bug-in-the-bedroom/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The listening device John Kiriakou says fell out of an air conditioning vent onto his bare chest while he read in bed in Bahrain — planted, his chief told him, because he was writing the embassy's human rights report.* - **Where:** Kiriakou's house in Bahrain, during his posting as the embassy's human rights officer - **How it was found:** It fell from the air conditioning vent onto his chest as he read in bed - **Description:** Wires sticking out; a small watch battery - **What he did with it:** Put it in a Ziploc bag and took it to the embassy the next day - **The chief's verdict:** "Yep, it's a bug" - **The explanation given:** "It's 'cause you're writing that damn human rights report. They don't like you one bit." - **Kiriakou's wife:** A ballet teacher, not cleared, never told anything **The bug in the bedroom** is John Kiriakou's account of finding a listening device in his own house during his posting to [Bahrain](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bahrain-1994-1996-posting), told on the DeProgram programme in September 2025 during a discussion of embassy surveillance.[1] ## The discovery Kiriakou sets the scene with the country's alignment: Bahrain *"is like joined at the hip with the United States, defence and foreign policy wise"*, and he was *"the human rights officer in Bahrain."*[1] The find was accidental and physical. *"One night I'm lying in bed with my wife and I'm reading a book and it was really, really hot. I had no shirt on. So I'm reading a book and this thing falls onto my chest. I'm like, 'What the fuck is this?'"*[1] He traced it upward: *"So I look up. The air conditioning vent is directly above me."* The object identified itself: *"I pick this thing up. It's clearly a bug. It has wires sticking out of it. There's a little battery, a little watch battery on it."*[2] ## Reporting it Kiriakou's handling was improvised. *"So I put it in a Ziploc bag. And the next day I took it into the embassy and I took it to my chief."*[2] The confirmation was immediate and unceremonious: *"He's holding it up. He goes, 'Yep, it's a bug.'"*[3] Kiriakou's own question was practical — *"Well, now what am I supposed to do?"* — and his reconstruction of the entry ran through his wife's rare absences: *"My wife almost never leaves the house, but she must have gone grocery shopping or something, or took our son to the park or whatever. And they immediately went in and planted this bug in the bedroom, no less. In the bedroom."*[3] ## What it was for Kiriakou is emphatic that the household contained nothing to listen to. *"My wife was a ballet teacher. She wasn't a CIA officer. I would never, ever discuss anything with her because she wasn't cleared."*[3][4] The explanation his chief supplied located the motive elsewhere: *"It's 'cause you're writing that damn human rights report. He said, 'They don't like you one bit.'"*[4] ## The other sign of disfavour In the same breath Kiriakou described the Bahraini custom of sending departing embassy officers a Rolex — a gift that, exceeding the twenty-five-dollar limit, had to be declared to the Treasury Department and either surrendered or bought back at auction.[4] He was, he says, the only person in the entire embassy who did not receive one when he left. *"I didn't even get a 'thank you, come again.' Nothing."* Told bluntly that they hated him, he agreed: *"They hated me."*[5] ## See also - [Bahrain Posting (1994–1996)](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bahrain-1994-1996-posting) - [Ian Henderson](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ian-henderson) - [The Embassy Swap](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-embassy-swap) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 29:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1785s · 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 30:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1815s · 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 30:47. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1847s · 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 31:17. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1877s · 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 31:49. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1909s · 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-bug-in-the-bedroom/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt