# The Faisalabad cash run

> **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 Faisalabad cash run," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-faisalabad-cash-run/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The drive John Kiriakou made to Faisalabad, Pakistan roughly two weeks before the capture of Abu Zubaydah, with two million dollars in cash in two duffel bags in the van, and the exchange with his colleague about why anyone would cheat the CIA out of twenty dollars.*

- **Destination:** Faisalabad, Pakistan
- **Timing:** About two weeks before the capture of Abu Zubaydah
- **Cargo:** $2 million in cash, in two duffel bags
- **Travelling with:** One colleague
- **The exchange:** "If you're going to steal, steal millions"

The **Faisalabad cash run** is John Kiriakou's account of a drive he made in Pakistan in early 2002, roughly two weeks before the capture of Abu Zubaydah, carrying two million dollars in cash.

## The drive

Kiriakou has said that he and a colleague set out to drive to Faisalabad with two million dollars in cash in the van with them, in two duffel bags. [1] In a separate account of the same period he describes carrying ten million dollars in cash through the Khyber Pass, together with a large quantity of weapons. [2]

## The exchange

During the drive, by Kiriakou's account, his colleague remarked that he could never understand why anyone would falsify accounting paperwork for twenty or thirty dollars — that if you were going to steal, you should steal millions. The two men looked at each other and laughed, and Kiriakou answered that he would not even steal the millions. His colleague replied that neither would he. [1] Kiriakou's interviewer observed that it would be difficult to pass a polygraph on that, and Kiriakou agreed. [3]

## Accounting practice

Kiriakou has used the episode to illustrate the handling of operational money. He describes paying a source his monthly stipend in cash against a signed receipt, on which the source never signs his real name — Kiriakou says it is perfectly acceptable for him to sign *"Mickey Mouse"*, so long as he picks a name and keeps to it. [4] The control on the officer is the polygraph, where the standard question, as he recalls it being put to him, was whether he had ever misappropriated more than twenty dollars. [5]

He has said that in his entire career he never saw or heard of anybody taking a single dollar, and attributes that to patriotism and duty rather than to fear. [4]

## See also

- [Abu Zubaydah](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abu-zubaydah)
- [Pakistan Station (2002)](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/pakistan-station-2002)
- [Security, finance and medical](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/security-finance-and-medical)
- [The polygraph](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/polygraph)
- [Renting Afghan warlords](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/renting-afghan-warlords)

## Sources

1. likely = ingested ev1ozulvly8 (2025-04-16), at 35:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B70zQHKcSxE&t=2140s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-16-the-dr-phil-podcast-likely-ingested-ev1ozulvly8/
2. Episode 572 Blowing the Whistle with John Kiriakou (2021-09-25), at 11:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=audd3a7d0e6&t=665s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-09-25-abe-lincoln-s-top-hat-episode-572-blowing-the-whistle-with-john-kir/
3. likely = ingested ev1ozulvly8 (2025-04-16), at 36:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B70zQHKcSxE&t=2171s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-16-the-dr-phil-podcast-likely-ingested-ev1ozulvly8/
4. likely = ingested ev1ozulvly8 (2025-04-16), at 34:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B70zQHKcSxE&t=2076s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-16-the-dr-phil-podcast-likely-ingested-ev1ozulvly8/
5. likely = ingested ev1ozulvly8 (2025-04-16), at 35:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B70zQHKcSxE&t=2108s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-16-the-dr-phil-podcast-likely-ingested-ev1ozulvly8/

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