# The hotel bar operation

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

*The night a visiting foreign delegation's security detail was expected in a boutique hotel bar and every seat in it turned out to be occupied by a CIA officer — an episode John Kiriakou offers as an example of bad leadership, and which left his colleagues personally out of pocket for their espresso martinis.*

- **Setting:** A boutique hotel bar, on an overseas assignment
- **Target:** The intelligence detail escorting a senior enemy leader
- **What Kiriakou found:** Every seat taken by a CIA officer
- **Aftermath:** The chief refused to reimburse alcohol outside an operational meeting

**The hotel bar operation** is a story [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) tells to illustrate what bad management looks like inside a CIA station.

A senior enemy leader was coming to the country and was expected to stay at a boutique hotel with a bar in the lobby, bringing a large contingent of intelligence officers with him. The station chief's suggestion to the officers was that anyone who wanted a piece of it should go to the bar, since the escorts were said to be drinking there.[1]

Kiriakou did not want to go: it was not his area of expertise, he did not speak the language and he did not care about the country. His wife, herself a CIA officer, told him he should — *"you know how they are. If you don't go, they're going to criticize you."*[1]

So he went. The bar was smaller than he expected, and every seat in it was taken by a CIA officer. *"I was just like, 'you guys.'"* He turned round and walked out.[2]

## The bill

The next day the others were complaining, because the [chief of station](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/chief-of-station) had found, after the fact, an obscure rule that alcohol is not reimbursed unless one is conducting an operational meeting. Officers who had sat there ordering twenty-dollar espresso martinis were about a hundred dollars out of pocket each — for an evening spent hoping somebody from the delegation might wander in, and then competing over who could claim a conversation with him.[3][4]

Kiriakou's verdict has two halves. Of his colleagues: *"bunch of bums."* Of the arrangement that put them there and then refused to pay: *"it was bad leadership is what it was."*[4]

The same accounting rules produce the [cover stop](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cover-stop) expense fraud he describes elsewhere — officers inventing receipts for the five to twenty dollars allowed at each stop.[5]

## See also

- [Chief of station](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/chief-of-station)
- [Cover stop](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cover-stop)
- [Fabricated intelligence reporting](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/intelligence-fabrication)

## Sources

1. The Most Secret CIA Unit Ever (2026-05-24), at 02:35. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQKwm0KKqnM&t=155s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-24-john-kiriakou-podcast-the-most-secret-cia-unit-ever/
2. The Most Secret CIA Unit Ever (2026-05-24), at 03:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQKwm0KKqnM&t=186s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-24-john-kiriakou-podcast-the-most-secret-cia-unit-ever/
3. The Most Secret CIA Unit Ever (2026-05-24), at 03:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQKwm0KKqnM&t=218s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-24-john-kiriakou-podcast-the-most-secret-cia-unit-ever/
4. The Most Secret CIA Unit Ever (2026-05-24), at 04:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQKwm0KKqnM&t=248s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-24-john-kiriakou-podcast-the-most-secret-cia-unit-ever/
5. The Most Secret CIA Unit Ever (2026-05-24), at 01:33. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQKwm0KKqnM&t=93s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-24-john-kiriakou-podcast-the-most-secret-cia-unit-ever/

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