# The Snickers bar

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

*The ritual in John Kiriakou's Athens station: when an officer made a recruitment, the boss announced it in the staff meeting, everyone applauded, and he threw the officer a Snickers bar.*

- **Where:** The Athens station staff meeting
- **Awarded for:** A completed recruitment
- **Kiriakou's first:** His recruitment of a Greek petty criminal
- **Wider practice:** An email to the training-course cohort; *"hugs and applause"* back

**The Snickers bar** was the reward for a recruitment in [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s Athens station. His boss had a habit, he says, of announcing any recruitment at the staff meeting; everyone would applaud, and he would toss the officer a Snickers bar.[1]

Kiriakou earned his first with the recruitment of a Greek petty criminal he had tracked down through a coffee shop — an operation whose payoff he summarises as: *"he took the 500 bucks and I got a Snickers bar."*[2][1]

## The wider ritual

He was excited enough to send a classified email to one of his instructors at [the Farm](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-farm) reporting that he had made his first recruitment and that *"it was exactly like it was in training"* — adding that it had been the best training he ever had. He also pasted the recruitment announcement cable he had sent to headquarters and forwarded it to the classmates from his training course.[1][3]

Kiriakou was the first of the dozen or so in his class to make a recruitment, and the practice stuck: from then on, anybody in the group who recruited let the others know by email, and the group would send back *"hugs and applause."*[3]

## See also

- [First Recruitment In Athens](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/first-recruitment-in-athens)
- [The Farm](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-farm)
- [Asset acquisition cycle](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/asset-acquisition-cycle)
- [The operational cable](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/operational-cable)

## Sources

1. S1E9 The Hothead (2026-01-05), at 19:00. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6951d0bf30165a956d618669/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-05-dead-drop-s1e9-the-hothead/
2. S1E9 The Hothead (2026-01-05), at 18:29. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6951d0bf30165a956d618669/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-05-dead-drop-s1e9-the-hothead/
3. S1E9 The Hothead (2026-01-05), at 19:32. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6951d0bf30165a956d618669/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-05-dead-drop-s1e9-the-hothead/

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