# The minister of Awqaf compliment

> **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 minister of Awqaf compliment," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-minister-of-awqaf-compliment/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The moment John Kiriakou calls the highlight of his Bahrain tour and freely describes as an ego booster: interpreting for Ambassador David Ransom's first courtesy call on the only Bahraini cabinet member who did not speak fluent English, and being complimented on his Arabic on the way out, something he says he still thinks about thirty years later.*

The minister of Awqaf compliment is the small episode John Kiriakou singles out from his State Department tour in Bahrain, and the payoff for nearly a year of full-time Arabic instruction.

## How the Arabic came about

Kiriakou has said his Arabic was taught to him by the CIA.[1] He took a bachelor's degree in Middle Eastern Studies, but says he took the easy way out on the language requirement: he already spoke Greek at home, Greek was one of the approved languages for the degree, and so he chickened out and improved his Greek instead.[1]

After three years at the agency he applied for a State Department position in Bahrain as an economic officer, and was asked whether he wanted to take an extra year and go to Arabic training first. He said absolutely yes.[1] The course at [the CIA's language school](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-language-training) was hard: eleven and a half months, nine hours a day, Arabic and nothing but Arabic. He remembers telling his instructors at the end that he felt they owed him a master's degree, because he had never worked that hard in graduate school, and says he ended up doing really well.[2]

## The courtesy call

In [Bahrain](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bahrain-1994-1996-posting) Kiriakou even acted as the ambassador's translator.[2] He introduces what followed as one of the highlights of the tour while dismissing it in the same breath as just a silly little thing, an ego booster.[2]

The only member of the Bahraini cabinet who did not speak flawless, fluent English was the minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs. Kiriakou accompanied Ambassador David Ransom to interpret when Ransom made his first courtesy call on the minister.[3]

On the way out, the minister complimented Kiriakou's Arabic.[3] Kiriakou's own comment on the memory is the substance of the story: that was thirty years ago, and he still thinks about it.[3]

## See also

- [CIA language training](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-language-training)
- [Bahrain Posting (1994–1996)](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bahrain-1994-1996-posting)
- [Arabic and Greek](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/arabic-and-greek)
- [CIA Arabic hiring practices](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-arabic-hiring-practices)

## Sources

1. Ask Ex-CIA Agent and Whistleblower John Kiriakou Anything (2025-10-16), at 08:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddbc2c676&t=538s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-16-seymizzle-podcast-ask-ex-cia-agent-and-whistleblower-john-kiria/
2. Ask Ex-CIA Agent and Whistleblower John Kiriakou Anything (2025-10-16), at 09:29. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddbc2c676&t=569s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-16-seymizzle-podcast-ask-ex-cia-agent-and-whistleblower-john-kiria/
3. Ask Ex-CIA Agent and Whistleblower John Kiriakou Anything (2025-10-16), at 10:04. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddbc2c676&t=604s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-16-seymizzle-podcast-ask-ex-cia-agent-and-whistleblower-john-kiria/

---

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