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 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 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]