# The unswept roof > **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 unswept roof," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-unswept-roof/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's two security observations after the killing of Charlie Kirk: that drone surveillance of outdoor events is cheap, easy and has no reason not to be used; and that the building the shooter is said to have fired from had been closed for renovation since April and supposedly locked up tight, yet nobody in the campus police department appears to have walked up to the roof to check.* - **On drones:** Cheap, easy, "no reason not to" - **The building:** Closed for renovation since April - **Its stated condition:** Supposed to be locked up tight - **The failure:** No sweep of the building or its roof - **Precedent Kiriakou's co-host raises:** A gunman on a roof at Butler, Pennsylvania - **Kiriakou's framing:** Should by now be standard operating procedure Two viewer questions about event security drew from John Kiriakou a pair of observations about basic protective practice, made without reference to any theory of the killing itself. ## The drone question A viewer asked why security for outdoor events does not use drones for surveillance. Kiriakou's reaction was immediate agreement that it was a good question, and [Ted Rall](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ted-rall) called it a good one too.[1] The assessment that followed was brief and unanimous. It is cheap. It is easy. "There's no reason not to," Kiriakou said.[1][2] Rall qualified the point by wondering how much security there really was at the event, noting that the subject was not being protected like a president and that he did not blame anyone for that.[2] Kiriakou's answer began by conceding the qualification and then setting it aside: "But still, Ted."[2] ## The building His substantive objection concerned a specific structure. The building from which the shooter was reportedly firing, Kiriakou said, "closed down for renovation in April and was supposed to be locked up tight."[2] From that he drew the question he clearly regarded as unanswerable: "Did it not occur to anybody in the campus police department to just, you know, sweep the building, walk up to the roof, just make sure nobody's up there?"[2] The complaint is about a routine, not about a conspiracy. A closed building on the perimeter of an event is a known category of risk, and clearing it is a task requiring one officer and a staircase. ## The precedent Rall supplied the reason the failure ought to have been foreseeable, pointing out that a gunman on a roof had figured in a very recent and very prominent case at Butler, Pennsylvania, and that by now this should be standard operating procedure.[3] Kiriakou did not dispute it, and the conversation moved to the physical evidence recovered at the scene.[3] ## Note on scope Kiriakou's remarks here are confined to protective practice. Elsewhere in the same broadcast he explicitly refused a conspiratorial reading of the killing, cutting off a man at lunch who wanted to attribute the shot to a foreign intelligence service, and he treated the marksmanship involved as unremarkable rather than professional. ## See also - [The 9/11 truth honorarium](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-nine-eleven-truth-honorarium) - [Ted Rall](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ted-rall) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-11), at 29:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cAlUaDXSuI&t=1746s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-11-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-11), at 29:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cAlUaDXSuI&t=1778s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-11-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-11), at 30:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cAlUaDXSuI&t=1809s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-11-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-unswept-roof/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt