# The Pondiki cartoon > **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 Pondiki cartoon," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-pondiki-cartoon/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The satirical Greek newspaper that ran a doctored photograph of the American ambassador Nicholas Burns naked in a dog collar, being whipped by the education minister, and John Kiriakou's account of the ambassador's official protest, and of the staff who taped the page above their desks where he could not see it.* - **The paper:** Pondiki, "little mouse", a left-wing satirical weekly - **The image:** A doctored photograph of Ambassador Nicholas Burns, nude, on hands and knees, in a dog collar - **The second figure:** Education minister Vaso Papandreou, holding the leash and a whip - **Where it ran:** The back cover - **The ambassador's response:** An official protest - **The staff response:** They bought copies and taped them up in front of their desks - **Why he never saw it:** As ambassador he had no access to the station **The Pondiki cartoon** is an episode from John Kiriakou's Athens posting, told on the DeProgram programme in September 2025 as an aside during a discussion of American ambassadors to Greece.[1] ## The paper Kiriakou introduces it by name and translation: *"there used to be, there may still be, a newspaper called Pondiki, which means little mouse, and it was a left-wing satirical newspaper."* Offered the French comparison, he agreed the two might be *"sister papers."*[1] ## The image The subject was the sitting American ambassador. *"They had a photoshopped picture once of a nude Ambassador Burns on his hands and knees with a dog collar on."*[2] The second figure was a Greek minister Kiriakou makes clear he disliked, *"the minister of education, Vaso Papandreou, who I never liked. I never could stand her"*, depicted with the leash in one hand: *"She has a whip and she's beating him on his naked butt with a whip while she's got him by the dog collar."*[2][3] ## The protest, and the desks The ambassador took it up formally. *"He was so angry he lodged an official protest."* Kiriakou's view of that is unsympathetic: *"It's like, dude, it's a satirical newspaper. What, you never heard of freedom of speech and freedom of the press?"*[3] The reaction inside the mission ran the other way. *"So we all went out and bought these newspapers. It was the back cover of the paper that day, and all of us taped them up in front of our desks."*[3] The display was safe because of an access restriction Kiriakou states and then immediately qualifies. *"He didn't have access to the station because he was the ambassador. He's not a station employee. So he never saw it."*[3] The qualification is the standard one he applies to any such reference: *"and I'm not confirming or denying the existence of a station in Athens. I'm just saying, of course..."*[4] ## Burns Kiriakou's dim view of the ambassador is not confined to the cartoon. Listing the succession of American envoys to Athens, he says Greece has had *"a long string of popular ambassadors going back to, and not including, Nicholas Burns,"* and adds that the dislike was not only local: *"even those of us who worked for Nick Burns hated Nick Burns."*[5] He returned to him a second time when assessing a later appointment, saying of the incoming ambassador that *"we could have done worse. We could have had Nick Burns come back, God forbid."*[1] ## See also - [Kimberly Guilfoyle In Athens](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kimberly-guilfoyle-in-athens) - [Kiriakou's Athens house](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-athens-house) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) - [The Greek Orthodox Church](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/greek-orthodox-church) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 20:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1222s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 20:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1256s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 21:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1288s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 21:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1318s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 5. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 18:21. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1101s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-pondiki-cartoon/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt