# The diplomatic stool collection

> **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 diplomatic stool collection," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-diplomatic-stool-collection/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's confirmation that visiting heads of state routinely carry their own faeces home rather than leave them in an American hotel — because, in his account, entities within the United States government will gladly collect the material for its DNA and health information, and the hotel employee who retrieves it is a CIA officer under cover.*

- **Practice:** Visiting leaders remove their own waste for disposal at home
- **Kiriakou's assessment:** Not at all uncommon
- **Collected for:** DNA and health information
- **Who collects:** A hotel employee who is a CIA officer under cover
- **Kiriakou on the job:** Would have refused it

The **diplomatic stool collection** is the practice, confirmed by John Kiriakou in August 2025, by which visiting foreign leaders remove their own bodily waste from the country they are visiting rather than leave it behind. He was asked about it after reports that Vladimir Putin had done so following a meeting in Alaska, and treated the story as unremarkable.

## The practice

Kiriakou's first response was flat: *"That is actually not uncommon."* Pressed, he repeated it — *"That is not That is not at all uncommon."* Many leaders who come to the United States collect their own faeces to take back and dispose of in their own toilets.[1]

## Why

The reason he gives is that there are entities within the United States government that will gladly and happily collect that material.[1] What they are collecting it for is DNA and health information — a point he and Rall arrived at together, and which Kiriakou confirmed without elaboration.[2]

The intelligence value of the second category is the more immediate one: the health of a head of state is among the most closely guarded and most sought-after facts about any government, and a biological sample answers questions that no amount of reporting can.

## Who does the collecting

Rall's assumption was that some unfortunate hotel employee is sent to scoop it out of the toilet. Kiriakou corrected the picture: *"Yeah, but the poor slob at the hotel is really a CIA officer undercover as a hotel employee."*[2]

Asked whether he would have taken that assignment or resigned, his answer was immediate and unhedged. *"No, I'd say no. You got to draw the line somewhere. You have to have some self-respect."* And then, on the range of what he did accept in twenty years at the agency: *"there are a lot of things that I did for my country, and that's that's not one of them."*[3]

The exchange is one of the few places where Kiriakou draws a personal line inside the trade rather than a political one — the objection is not that the collection is illegal or ineffective, but that he would not have done it.

## See also

- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)
- [Kompromat](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kompromat)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-18), at 1:00:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwweQtSlWCs&t=3632s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-18-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-18), at 1:01:04. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwweQtSlWCs&t=3664s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-18-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-18), at 1:01:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwweQtSlWCs&t=3696s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-18-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/

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