# The Israelis were off limits

> **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 Israelis were off limits," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-israelis-were-off-limits/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's flat denial, given on a televised panel, that the CIA collected against Israel in return — 'the Israelis were off limits to us at the CIA. We were not permitted' — and Alan Dershowitz's refusal to believe it.*

- **Claim:** CIA officers were not permitted to collect against Israel
- **Stated by:** John Kiriakou
- **Disputed by:** Alan Dershowitz
- **Occasion:** Televised panel, 2025

**"The Israelis were off limits"** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s statement of an internal [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) rule barring collection against Israel — offered on a televised panel as the answer to the objection that American complaints about Israeli espionage are hypocritical.

## The exchange

Having given his account of Israeli officers operating clandestinely in the United States, Kiriakou was asked whether the United States does not steal secrets from Israel too. A voice on the panel answered for him — *"Of course they do"* — and Kiriakou cut across it: *"No, actually, no. The the Israelis were off limits to us at the CIA. We were not permitted."*[1]

[Alan Dershowitz](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/alan-dershowitz) rejected it immediately and twice over: *"I don't believe that for I don't believe that for one second. I have information definitely that the United States has stolen secrets. I know it for a fact and I don't think you can credibly dispute that."*[2] Kiriakou did not withdraw the claim and did not argue it further; he changed the subject to the FBI's own counterintelligence rankings, recorded at [the counterintelligence report that stopped](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-counterintelligence-report-that-stopped).

## What the rule is offered to explain

The prohibition does the load-bearing work in Kiriakou's account of the relationship. If American services were forbidden to collect against Israel while Israeli services were running officers against American defence contractors, Capitol Hill and the intelligence community, then the traffic he describes at [the hundred and eighty-seven Israeli officers](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-hundred-eighty-seven-israeli-officers) is not mutual espionage between allies but one-way collection — which is why he calls the Israeli effort redundant rather than merely unfriendly.[1]

On the same panel a former Mossad director gave a different account of the same period, dating the end of Israeli operations on American soil to the Pollard affair: *"Once the polar affair happened … the Mossad stopped working on an American soil,"* and describing the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) as the Mossad's best ally.[3] Kiriakou did not accept that framing either.

## See also

- [The hundred and eighty-seven Israeli officers](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-hundred-eighty-seven-israeli-officers)
- [MOSSAD](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mossad)
- [Alan Dershowitz](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/alan-dershowitz)
- [The Israelis are free agents](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-israelis-are-free-agents)
- [The Counterintelligence Report That Stopped](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-counterintelligence-report-that-stopped)

## Sources

1. clip ("Scott Horton x Kiriakou DESTROY Dershowitz on Piers") (2025-08-28), at 10:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5qHlmDHnDE&t=658s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-28-yusefs-report-clip-scott-horton-x-kiriakou-destroy-dershowi/
2. clip ("Scott Horton x Kiriakou DESTROY Dershowitz on Piers") (2025-08-28), at 11:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5qHlmDHnDE&t=688s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-28-yusefs-report-clip-scott-horton-x-kiriakou-destroy-dershowi/
3. clip ("Scott Horton x Kiriakou DESTROY Dershowitz on Piers") (2025-08-28), at 12:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5qHlmDHnDE&t=750s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-28-yusefs-report-clip-scott-horton-x-kiriakou-destroy-dershowi/

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