# The car pickup meeting

> **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 car pickup meeting," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-car-pickup-meeting/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*A clandestine meeting technique in which an agent is collected from a street corner and ducks out of sight, and the occasion when a French intelligence officer used it on John Kiriakou, a colleague rather than an asset, and was refused.*

- **Purpose:** Collecting an agent unobserved
- **Elements:** A surveillance detection route, an intersection on a 'black' road, a quick right turn
- **The agent's part:** Jump in and duck down
- **The incident:** Used on Kiriakou by a French officer; refused

A **car pickup**, or CPU, is the technique by which a case officer collects an agent without the meeting being observed. Kiriakou describes the sequence: the officer runs a surveillance detection route to reach a specified intersection *"on a black road. Black meaning not a main road, so nobody can see you"*, makes a quick right turn, and *"the agent jumps in your car, and ducks down, and you continue on. So, even if you are being followed, nobody saw the agent get in your car."*[1]

## The French incident

Instructed to meet a French intelligence officer, Kiriakou telephoned and proposed lunch. The Frenchman instead named an intersection, *"I'm like, okay, that's odd"*, and Kiriakou went, only to find a car turning off a side street and the officer telling him to jump in.[2][3]

He refused, and the refusal was about status rather than security: *"you set me up for a car pickup meeting?… I am not your asset. We're colleagues. I said, I'm walking down to this restaurant down here. I'll meet you there, but I'm not getting in your car. I'm offended."*[3] Asked why the offence, his explanation is that the technique itself carries the insult, the whole apparatus is designed for a recruited agent, and the meeting was to discuss a joint operation between services: *"Well, buddy, we're having lunch to discuss some joint operation. I'm not getting in your car. Yeah, I'm not your recruited asset."*[1][4]

## Bumping into the competition

The anecdote comes from a broader answer about foreign services, in which Kiriakou confirms that a film cliché is accurate: *"you know the scene in every James Bond movie where James bumps into the CIA guy… that's in all the movies is because that happens every single day."*[5][6] His illustration of the etiquette is a pair of greetings and a warning off, *"Hello, John. Hello, Nigel… Stay away from the Deputy Prime Minister, Nigel. He's mine."* It happened to him in Kuwait, where he and a British officer were pursuing the same target: *"He comes up to me, he's like, hello John. I said, hello Ian."*[6][2]

## See also

- [CIA liaison relationships](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-liaison-relationships)
- [The liaison class](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-liaison-class)

## Sources

1. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 50:59. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=3059s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/
2. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 49:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=2998s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/
3. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 50:29. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=3029s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/
4. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 51:29. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=3089s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/
5. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 48:55. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=2935s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/
6. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 49:27. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=2967s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-car-pickup-meeting/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt