# The liaison class

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

*The course John Kiriakou ran at the CIA for visiting officers of allied intelligence services — the setting for Cofer Black's warning weeks before 9/11, and the reason Kiriakou was in the counterterrorism chief's office to ask whether he had meant it.*

- **Run by:** [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- **Attended by:** Officers of allied foreign intelligence services
- **Guest speaker:** [Cofer Black](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cofer-black), weeks before 11 September 2001
- **What Black asked for:** Any sources they had inside al-Qaeda

**The liaison class** was a course [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ran at the CIA for officers of friendly foreign intelligence services — the sort of partner-training that underpins the agency's [liaison relationships](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/general-intelligence-directorate), and which he describes with a certain modesty as *"John's little liaison class."*[1]

Its place in his account is fixed by a single visit. Weeks before 11 September 2001, [Cofer Black](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cofer-black) — the head of the [Counterterrorism Center](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/counterterrorism-center), then meeting the president every day or every other day — made time to come and speak to the class. What he told them was that al-Qaeda members were saying goodbye to their families and that the agency was hearing code words for a massive attack: a honey salesman coming with vast quantities of honey, a great football match, an enormous wedding. He then asked them directly for any sources they had inside al-Qaeda.[2]

The class, in Kiriakou's account, *"just sat there and looked at him."* Black shook their hands and left.[1]

Kiriakou sent the visiting officers back to their hotel with an arrangement to collect them at seven for a steakhouse dinner — and used the gap to go to Black's office, ostensibly to thank him for coming and in fact to ask whether he had meant it. The answer he got was *"I was deadly serious. Something terrible is going to happen."*[1][3]

The episode is why the [warning](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cofer-black-pre-9-11-warning) is first-hand rather than institutional in Kiriakou's telling: he did not work on al-Qaeda, and heard it because he happened to be the officer running the room.[1]

## See also

- [Cofer Black's warning to the liaison class](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cofer-black-pre-9-11-warning)
- [Cofer Black](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cofer-black)
- [Counterterrorism Center](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/counterterrorism-center)
- [The Jordanian intelligence service](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/general-intelligence-directorate)

## Sources

1. S1E13 Hostages (2026-02-02), at 19:30. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/697663926c5100c2bb472a09/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-02-dead-drop-s1e13-hostages/
2. S1E13 Hostages (2026-02-02), at 18:57. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/697663926c5100c2bb472a09/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-02-dead-drop-s1e13-hostages/
3. S1E13 Hostages (2026-02-02), at 20:00. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/697663926c5100c2bb472a09/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-02-dead-drop-s1e13-hostages/

---

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