# The code room and the buried weapons > **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 code room and the buried weapons," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-code-room-and-the-buried-weapons/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *What John Kiriakou demanded when the officer he had cold-pitched in Athens agreed to meet him — access to his embassy's code room and all of its weapons — and the meeting in a hotel coffee shop, surrounded by armed CIA officers at every table, at which the terms were set.* - **Venue:** The coffee shop of the Hilton hotel, Athens - **Notice:** Two hours - **Conditions set:** Come alone, come unarmed - **Kiriakou's precautions:** Six security officers at surrounding tables; a bulletproof vest under his suit - **What he demanded:** Access to the code room and all the embassy's weapons - **Where the weapons were:** Buried in an underground bunker outside the embassy The morning after [the broken side-view mirror](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-broken-side-view-mirror) pitch, the target telephoned [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) and asked what he proposed. ## The meeting Kiriakou told him to meet him in the lobby coffee shop of the Hilton hotel in two hours, alone and unarmed.[1][2] The venue was chosen for exposure rather than privacy — "I wanted it to be in as public a place as possible so that if all hell were to break loose I might have a little bit of safety, safety in numbers." Six security officers were placed at tables around the café; Kiriakou says [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) people were at every table, all of them armed, and that he wore a bulletproof vest under his suit.[3][2] That, he says, was itself part of the pressure: the target was a professional, "so he knew that every one of these white guys that's sitting at every table around him is armed to the teeth and is working with me."[4] ## The demand The man asked how it would play out. Kiriakou named two things: "I want access to your code room and I want all your weapons."[5] The target answered that he had no idea how hard that was. Kiriakou's reply turned the difficulty into the argument for asking him specifically: "yes, I also know how important you are, and I know that of anybody in the embassy besides the ambassador, you have the access."[5] ## The terms Asked what he would get in return, Kiriakou answered in order: "number one, you get to live. Number two, I can make you rich beyond your wildest dreams."[5] In the English-language telling he is blunter about the balance of the negotiation: the target made a demand, Kiriakou made a counter-offer, and then told him, "you're not in a position of strength to negotiate here. I'm telling you what it is that you're going to do." Money could be discussed later; first he had to prove his bona fides.[6][7] ## What was taken They negotiated a deal and made a plan. The codes were taken. The weapons were buried in an underground bunker outside the embassy; six men went in the middle of the night with shovels and took all of them.[7] Then the agent disappeared — into resettlement, and eventually into [seven restaurants](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-restaurants-in-witness-protection). Kiriakou's summary of the outcome is that the man "did literally everything that we wanted him to do," and that the operation shut down what he says would have been a real threat to Americans from that embassy.[8] ## See also - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) - [The broken side-view mirror](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-broken-side-view-mirror) - [The Restaurants In Witness Protection](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-restaurants-in-witness-protection) - [Gust Avrakotos](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/gust-avrakotos) - [Agent payment mechanics](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/agent-payment-mechanics) ## Sources 1. Dalton Fischer Podcast (2023-11-16), at 06:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZy-TRd1yY0&t=372s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-16-dalton-fischer-podcast-dalton-fischer-podcast/ 2. كيف قمت بتجنيد رجل استخبارات شرق أوسطي؟ - جون كيرياكو (Arabi (2026-02-08), at 04:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFn6we3pR7U&t=251s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-08-arabi/ 3. Dalton Fischer Podcast (2023-11-16), at 06:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZy-TRd1yY0&t=405s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-16-dalton-fischer-podcast-dalton-fischer-podcast/ 4. Dalton Fischer Podcast (2023-11-16), at 08:17. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZy-TRd1yY0&t=497s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-16-dalton-fischer-podcast-dalton-fischer-podcast/ 5. كيف قمت بتجنيد رجل استخبارات شرق أوسطي؟ - جون كيرياكو (Arabi (2026-02-08), at 04:41. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFn6we3pR7U&t=281s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-08-arabi/ 6. Dalton Fischer Podcast (2023-11-16), at 07:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZy-TRd1yY0&t=436s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-16-dalton-fischer-podcast-dalton-fischer-podcast/ 7. كيف قمت بتجنيد رجل استخبارات شرق أوسطي؟ - جون كيرياكو (Arabi (2026-02-08), at 05:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFn6we3pR7U&t=312s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-08-arabi/ 8. Dalton Fischer Podcast (2023-11-16), at 07:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZy-TRd1yY0&t=466s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-16-dalton-fischer-podcast-dalton-fischer-podcast/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-code-room-and-the-buried-weapons/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt