# The hundred-million-a-day briefing

> **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 hundred-million-a-day briefing," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-hundred-million-a-day-briefing/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*A story John Kiriakou tells from his time as a CIA analyst during the Gulf War: the president's morning briefer returned to the office and reported that the president had been shocked speechless on being told the United States was spending one hundred million dollars a day in the Gulf.*

- **When:** Shortly before the liberation of Kuwait
- **Where Kiriakou was:** [The CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia), as an analyst
- **Who reported it:** The president's morning briefer
- **The figure:** $100 million a day

**The hundred-million-a-day briefing** is an anecdote [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) tells from his years as an analyst at [the CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia), recalled when he was asked what the [2026 Iran war](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/2026-iran-war) was costing.

He was working at the agency during the Kuwait–Iraq war, shortly before the liberation of Kuwait began, when the president's morning briefer came back to the office and said that the president *"was shocked to speechless when they told him that we were spending 100 million dollars a day in the Gulf."*[1]

Kiriakou's point in retelling it is scale. A hundred million dollars a day was, at the time, enough to silence a president; adjusted for inflation alone it approaches the two billion a day being spent decades later.[2] The comparison is developed at [cost of the 2026 Iran war](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cost-of-the-2026-iran-war).

## See also

- [Cost of the 2026 Iran war](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cost-of-the-2026-iran-war)
- [Kuwait Liberation Day](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kuwait-liberation-day)
- [Iraqi invasion of Kuwait](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kuwait-invasion-intelligence)
- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)

## Sources

1. Kiriakou: Washington Has No Say in This War (2026-04-03), at 10:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Ar9pc_twk&t=654s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-04-03-unfiltered-with-s-a-m-kiriakou-washington-has-no-say-in-this-war/
2. Kiriakou: Washington Has No Say in This War (2026-04-03), at 11:26. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Ar9pc_twk&t=686s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-04-03-unfiltered-with-s-a-m-kiriakou-washington-has-no-say-in-this-war/

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