# The false volunteer

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

*A walk-in at an American embassy who claimed access to a high-priority target, was placed under surveillance and found to be a restaurant dishwasher, and whom John Kiriakou deliberately intimidated into never approaching an American embassy again.*

- **Setting:** An American embassy; location withheld
- **Claim:** Access to a high-priority target
- **Asked for:** Money and resettlement in the United States
- **Actual occupation:** Dishwasher at a restaurant
- **Outcome:** Warned off every American embassy in the world

**The false volunteer** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account of the one occasion he deliberately intimidated someone in the manner of the wrist-grabbing scene in *Meet the Parents*. He declines to say where it happened.[1][2]

A man walked into the American embassy volunteering information on someone the station was very interested in. He treated it as a social meeting; for Kiriakou it was a work meeting.[1] Asked for the information, the man instead named his price: money, resettlement in the United States, and more. Kiriakou agreed to all of it if the access was real, took his driver's licence and passport for a name trace back at headquarters, and told him to come back in twenty-four hours.[2][3]

What the man did not realise was that surveillance was put on him for the rest of the day. He was a dishwasher at a restaurant with no access to the target at all — someone who thought he could lie his way into the United States.[3]

He returned the next day in a suit. Kiriakou took his wrist, would not let go, and threatened him; the man began crying, and was told never to come back to that embassy or to any other American embassy anywhere in the world. A colleague walked up and photographed him mid-sob, and he left as quickly as he could.[4] Kiriakou's summary afterwards was of the cost rather than the theatre: "I can't believe I had to waste two hours on that guy" — an hour each day.[5]

## See also

- [Surveillance detection route](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/surveillance-detection-route)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. Part 2: How Well Do You Really Know Him? (2026-07-09), at 19:49. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKx-CsyO_zI&t=1189s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-09-part-2-how-well-do-you-really-know-him/
2. Part 2: How Well Do You Really Know Him? (2026-07-09), at 20:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKx-CsyO_zI&t=1219s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-09-part-2-how-well-do-you-really-know-him/
3. Part 2: How Well Do You Really Know Him? (2026-07-09), at 20:51. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKx-CsyO_zI&t=1251s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-09-part-2-how-well-do-you-really-know-him/
4. Part 2: How Well Do You Really Know Him? (2026-07-09), at 21:21. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKx-CsyO_zI&t=1281s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-09-part-2-how-well-do-you-really-know-him/
5. Part 2: How Well Do You Really Know Him? (2026-07-09), at 21:53. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKx-CsyO_zI&t=1313s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-09-part-2-how-well-do-you-really-know-him/

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