The General Assembly circus is John Kiriakou’s characterisation of the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York, which he encountered from both sides of his CIA career.
Why he hated it
Asked about it in July 2026, Kiriakou was unequivocal: as an analyst and as an operations officer alike, the General Assembly was one of the things he hated the most. It takes place every September and it brings the city to a screeching halt.[1]
The complaint is partly logistical and partly personal, because his last tour in his CIA career was at the United Nations in New York. During the session it is hard even to get within blocks of the American mission to the United Nations — “it’s just ridiculous.”[2]
The theatre
What draws the crowd, in his framing, is not the diplomacy but the stage. World leaders descend on New York from all over the planet: “It’s the Super Bowl for global politics. It’s also a big deal in terms of global drama, where international leaders love to get the chance to stage on the world stage.”[3]
He reaches for three canonical performances to make the point: Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe on the table, Fidel Castro giving a six-hour speech, and Muammar Gaddafi coming to New York and sleeping in a tent in Central Park because he wanted to be like one of the common people.[3]
The feud he expected to dominate the 2026 session was between Benjamin Netanyahu and the mayor of New York, who had said publicly over the preceding ten days that he would try to have Netanyahu arrested.[4]