# The Warren, Ohio tail > **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 Warren, Ohio tail," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-warren-ohio-tail/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's account of being followed around Warren, Ohio in January 2012 — to his grandparents' old house, to their graves, and to the Packard Museum car park — while he assumed the car behind him belonged to a private investigator hired by his ex-wife, and of realising four days later, in an FBI conference room, that the Bureau had followed him from Virginia.* - **When:** January 2012, days before his arrest - **Why he was there:** An aunt's funeral in Pennsylvania and a family-court hearing in Ohio - **Who he assumed it was:** A private investigator hired by his ex-wife - **Who it was:** The FBI, having followed him from Virginia - **How he learned:** In an FBI meeting four days later **The Warren, Ohio tail** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account of a weekend of physical surveillance in January 2012 that he misread completely at the time.[1][2] ## Why he was there His mother's sister had died in western Pennsylvania. He rented a car and drove to the funeral, and because he also had a child-support hearing at family court in Warren, Ohio, he drove on from the funeral to Warren and checked into a hotel to wait for the Monday afternoon hearing.[1][3] ## The morning With the Monday morning free, he decided to go and look at his grandparents' old house, which he had not seen in fifteen years, and to drive through the neighbourhood.[3] Crawling past the house at two miles an hour, he noticed a Toyota behind him, waved an apology and pulled over to let it by. It did not pass. He drove to the intersection and made a wide U-turn; the car made the same U-turn. His conclusion at the time was that the driver was either a carjacker or a private investigator hired by his ex-wife.[4] Knowing the neighbourhood, he cut through it on what he calls [a surveillance detection route](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/surveillance-detection-route), then drove to the cemetery where his grandparents are buried and stopped near their graves. He got out. The car passed him, parked about a hundred feet away, turned around, and simply watched him.[5] He telephoned his wife: *"this is going to sound crazy, but I'm under surveillance."* She agreed with him that it was probably a private investigator — though to catch him doing what, neither of them could say.[5][6] From there he drove to the Packard Museum, noting that the car had been built in that town and that the museum stands next to the Packard Music Hall. He turned in the car park; so did the tail. He waited for a red light, ran it, and left the car caught in traffic, then made his way back to the motel — concluding that some local private investigator had simply got too close and not known what to do while Kiriakou was driving erratically.[6][2] ## What it was Four days later, in a meeting he had been invited to under the pretext of helping with a case, he understood. The FBI had followed him the whole way from Virginia — and he attributes the surveillance to the Bureau's own phone call having alarmed them: *"they probably thought I was running to Canada or something, because their call had tipped me off. I didn't know."*[2][7] ## The meeting The pretext had been a telephone call in January 2012 from the FBI's Washington field office, asking whether he remembered the case he had helped them with about a year earlier — [the approach by a supposed Japanese diplomat](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/japanese-diplomat-fbi-sting) — and saying they had a similar case and really needed his help. Kiriakou's answer was *"anything for the FBI,"* and he agreed to come in on the Thursday.[8][1] He met two agents in a vaulted conference room. It took him an hour, he says, to realise that the case was against him.[1] At the end of the meeting the agents told him that as they spoke a search warrant was being executed at his home. He asked whether he was under arrest. The answer was *"not yet."* He said he wanted to talk to his attorney.[7] ## See also - [Japanese diplomat FBI sting](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/japanese-diplomat-fbi-sting) - [The John Kiriakou Task Force](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou-task-force) - [Surveillance detection route](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/surveillance-detection-route) - [Espionage Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/espionage-act) - [The Greek community of Warren, Ohio](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/greek-community-of-warren-ohio) ## Sources 1. They Won't Shut Me Up - John Kiriakou on RAI (10/10) (2015-05-08), at 06:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjO7saoQjNk&t=368s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-08-the-real-news-network-they-won-t-shut-me-up-john-kiriakou-on-rai-10/ 2. They Won't Shut Me Up - John Kiriakou on RAI (10/10) (2015-05-08), at 08:55. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjO7saoQjNk&t=535s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-08-the-real-news-network-they-won-t-shut-me-up-john-kiriakou-on-rai-10/ 3. They Won't Shut Me Up - John Kiriakou on RAI (10/10) (2015-05-08), at 06:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjO7saoQjNk&t=403s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-08-the-real-news-network-they-won-t-shut-me-up-john-kiriakou-on-rai-10/ 4. They Won't Shut Me Up - John Kiriakou on RAI (10/10) (2015-05-08), at 07:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjO7saoQjNk&t=435s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-08-the-real-news-network-they-won-t-shut-me-up-john-kiriakou-on-rai-10/ 5. They Won't Shut Me Up - John Kiriakou on RAI (10/10) (2015-05-08), at 07:47. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjO7saoQjNk&t=467s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-08-the-real-news-network-they-won-t-shut-me-up-john-kiriakou-on-rai-10/ 6. They Won't Shut Me Up - John Kiriakou on RAI (10/10) (2015-05-08), at 08:23. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjO7saoQjNk&t=503s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-08-the-real-news-network-they-won-t-shut-me-up-john-kiriakou-on-rai-10/ 7. They Won't Shut Me Up - John Kiriakou on RAI (10/10) (2015-05-08), at 09:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjO7saoQjNk&t=568s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-08-the-real-news-network-they-won-t-shut-me-up-john-kiriakou-on-rai-10/ 8. They Won't Shut Me Up - John Kiriakou on RAI (10/10) (2015-05-08), at 05:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjO7saoQjNk&t=336s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-08-the-real-news-network-they-won-t-shut-me-up-john-kiriakou-on-rai-10/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-warren-ohio-tail/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt