# The George Mason confrontation > **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 George Mason confrontation," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-george-mason-confrontation/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The videotaped encounter at George Mason University in which former CIA director John Brennan poked a questioner in the chest — an incident John Kiriakou says at least a dozen friends sent him, and which showed him, for the first time in thirty-five years of knowing the man, a frightened John Brennan.* - **Where:** George Mason University - **When:** The 30th, per Kiriakou's account on 5 November 2025 - **Who:** John Brennan and a man named in the question as Thomas Bial - **What Kiriakou saw:** Brennan physically poking him in the chest - **Kiriakou's reading:** The first time in 35 years he had seen Brennan scared - **How he came by it:** At least a dozen friends sent him the video **The George Mason confrontation** was a videotaped exchange between former [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) director [John Brennan](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-brennan) and a questioner at George Mason University, raised with [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) by a viewer on 5 November 2025. Kiriakou treated the clip less as a story about bad manners than as a diagnostic reading of a man he has known for most of his adult life. ## What he was asked, and what he saw The question came from the audience: *"what's my reaction to John Brennan's interaction with Thomas Bial at George Mason University on the 30th?"* Kiriakou answered that the video had reached him many times over. *"I'm not exaggerating when I tell you at least a dozen friends of mine sent me the video, and I watched it at least a half a dozen times."*[1] He described what was on it plainly, with a legal aside he immediately set down again: Brennan *"physically poking him in the chest, which by the way is assault, but that's beside the point."*[1] ## Thirty-five years of acquaintance The point, for Kiriakou, was the expression rather than the gesture. *"I've known John Brennan for 35 years. That's the first time I've ever seen him scared."*[1] He read the fear as anticipatory rather than situational — not fear of the man in front of him, but of what was coming. *"I think he's genuinely scared of what's going to happen to him. You know, the drain is open and I think the water is starting to circle."* His summary was four words long: *"I'm glad I'm not John Brennan today."*[2] ## Why the reading carries weight Kiriakou's assessments of Brennan are not neutral, and he does not present them as such; he has elsewhere described Brennan as central to the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) torture program he himself went to prison over. What distinguishes this account is its narrowness. He does not claim to know what Brennan is afraid of, does not name a prosecution or an investigation, and offers no prediction beyond the metaphor of a draining sink. The claim is only that a man he has watched for thirty-five years looked, on this occasion, unlike himself. The surname of the other party is given here as the auto-captioned transcript renders it; Kiriakou repeats it only once, in reading back the viewer's question. ## See also - [John Brennan](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-brennan) - [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-11-05), at 10:02. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mebPnYD1ko&t=602s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-05-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-1mebPn/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-11-05), at 10:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mebPnYD1ko&t=634s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-05-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-1mebPn/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-george-mason-confrontation/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt