# The Kiriakou children

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

*The five children of John Kiriakou, and what they do — a bond trader, an elementary school music teacher, a college junior studying supply chain economics, a sophomore who has not yet decided, and a fourteen-year-old. None of them, to their father's declared relief, has any interest in the CIA.*

- **Number:** Five
- **Eldest:** A bond trader
- **Second:** An elementary school music teacher
- **Third:** A college junior studying supply chain economics
- **Fourth:** A college sophomore, subject undecided
- **Fifth:** Fourteen years old

**The Kiriakou children** are the five children of [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou), whose occupations he set out in July 2026 while answering a question about whether he would join the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) again.[1]

## What they do

His eldest son is a bond trader. His second son is an elementary school music teacher. His third son was, at the time, a junior in college studying supply chain economics. His daughter was a sophomore, and had not settled on a subject. The fifth was fourteen.[2]

## The prohibition

The list is offered as evidence for a point he had just made. Kiriakou says he has told all of his children that he absolutely, positively does not ever want to hear the words *I want to work for the CIA* come out of their mouths — and adds *"thank God they don't."*[1]

The generational frame recurs elsewhere in his answers. Asked what he is rarely asked about, Kiriakou has named the respect of one's children: he was sixty-one, neither of his two married sons yet had children of their own, and he wants generations he will never meet to be able to look back and say that their great-grandfather was confronted with an ethical dilemma and did the right thing.[3]

## See also

- [I should have gone to film school](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/i-should-have-gone-to-film-school)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)

## Sources

1. John Kiriakou Podcast: Inside FBI Recruiting, CIA Secrets & Human Behavior (2026-07-03), at 20:41. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkAf70JgQBI&t=1241s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-03-the-jk-report-john-kiriakou-podcast-inside-fbi-recruiting-cia/
2. John Kiriakou Podcast: Inside FBI Recruiting, CIA Secrets & Human Behavior (2026-07-03), at 21:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkAf70JgQBI&t=1271s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-03-the-jk-report-john-kiriakou-podcast-inside-fbi-recruiting-cia/
3. John Kiriakou Podcast: Inside FBI Recruiting, CIA Secrets & Human Behavior (2026-07-03), at 13:31. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkAf70JgQBI&t=811s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-03-the-jk-report-john-kiriakou-podcast-inside-fbi-recruiting-cia/

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