# The tier one walk-up

> **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 tier one walk-up," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-tier-one-walk-up/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The recruitment John Kiriakou calls one of the best operations of his career and credits entirely to his mentor Gust Avrakotos: an approach to an official of a tier one country, one of America's greatest enemies, made by the simple expedient of walking right up to the man's house, a technique Avrakotos had used himself in the 1970s.*

The tier one walk-up is John Kiriakou's account of the operation he rates among the best of his career, offered as an illustration of what he learned from his operations mentor, [Gust Avrakotos](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/gust-avrakotos).

## The personal lesson first

Kiriakou introduces Avrakotos's influence by naming the lesson he found most important, which was not operational at all. He was going through a divorce in 2000 and taking it very hard. Avrakotos had been in the same situation, his wife stepped out on him while he was stationed in Athens, and he went through a divorce of his own, and so, in Kiriakou's phrase, he bucked him up.[1]

## The operation

Operationally, Kiriakou says one of the best operations he ever did was an approach to a tier one country, which he glosses as one of the greatest enemies the United States has. He declines to get into details.[2]

The idea came from Avrakotos: to just walk right up to the man's house.[2] It ended up, Kiriakou says, being one of the best recruitments he ever made in his life.[2]

He is explicit that the method was not his. He would never have thought of it on his own, he says; Avrakotos had done it in the 1970s and it had worked, and so he told Kiriakou there was something he might want to try, and laid it out.[2][3] Kiriakou's summary of the result is two words: made me a star. He closes by saying he really misses the man.[3]

## Context

The episode belongs to the pre-September 11 operational culture Kiriakou describes elsewhere, in which an officer's career depended on completing [the asset recruitment cycle](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-asset-recruitment-cycle) rather than on paramilitary work, and in which the basis of a recruitment was a personal relationship. It also sits alongside his other Athens-era recruitment accounts, including [his first recruitment in Athens](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/first-recruitment-in-athens).

## See also

- [Gust Avrakotos](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/gust-avrakotos)
- [Kiriakou's first recruitment](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/first-recruitment-in-athens)
- [Walk-in](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/walk-in)
- [The Asset Recruitment Cycle](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-asset-recruitment-cycle)

## Sources

1. Ask Ex-CIA Agent and Whistleblower John Kiriakou Anything (2025-10-16), at 14:33. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddbc2c676&t=873s · 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 15:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddbc2c676&t=905s · 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 15:37. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddbc2c676&t=937s · 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-tier-one-walk-up/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt