# The Italian schoolchildren

> **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 Italian schoolchildren," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-italian-schoolchildren/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*An encounter John Kiriakou described in July 2026 as a measure of how far his late-career fame had spread: walking down Fifth Avenue in New York, a bus pulled up, a boy of about thirteen shouted his name in Italian, and sixty-five Italian middle schoolers ran off the bus. The selfies took half an hour.*

- **Where:** Fifth Avenue, New York
- **When:** A week before 28 July 2026
- **How many:** About 65 Italian middle school pupils
- **Duration:** Half an hour of selfies

**The Italian schoolchildren** is an incident [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) recounted at the end of a broadcast in July 2026, having spent part of the previous week in New York meeting people who watch his show.[1]

## What happened

He was walking down Fifth Avenue when a bus pulled up and its door opened. A boy of about thirteen shouted, in Italian, *"Mo, John Kiriakou"* — and sixty-five Italian middle schoolers ran off the bus.[1] It took him half an hour to finish the selfies.[2]

## What he takes from it

Kiriakou's own comment is about the age of the crowd rather than its size: *"even people at that age are watching this show."*[2]

The encounter belongs to the same phenomenon as [the 2026 viral wave](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-2026-viral-wave) — an audience that is not merely large but younger than his material, and in this case not American either. He follows the story with the thanks he attaches to it, that the show exists only because of the people watching it, and the joke he says is not entirely a joke: that without them he and his team would be living in the back seat of their cars in a Walmart car park.[2]

## See also

- [Kiriakou's 2026 viral wave](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-2026-viral-wave)
- [Cameo](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cameo)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. SHOCKING: New Footage of Lindsey Graham Moments Before Death | Ep. 5 (2026-07-28), at 37:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddj51-ba1C0&t=2230s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-28-john-kiriakou-shocking-new-footage-of-lindsey-graham-moments/
2. SHOCKING: New Footage of Lindsey Graham Moments Before Death | Ep. 5 (2026-07-28), at 37:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddj51-ba1C0&t=2260s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-28-john-kiriakou-shocking-new-footage-of-lindsey-graham-moments/

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