# The three legal ways to enter another country

> **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 three legal ways to enter another country," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/three-legal-ways-to-enter-a-country/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The test John Kiriakou applies to American military action abroad: that there are only three lawful ways for one country to move into another — with the approval of the UN Security Council, at that country's invitation, or after being attacked by it — and that the United States, in his account, never meets any of the three.*

- **First:** With the approval of the United Nations Security Council
- **Second:** At the invitation of that country
- **Third:** If that country attacks you first
- **His verdict on US practice:** "We never meet any of those three criteria"

**The three legal ways to enter another country** is the formulation [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) uses to test American military action abroad against the law, and to answer the objection that the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)'s interventions are simply how great powers behave.

He states it as a closed list. There are *"only three ways that you can go into another country. Three legal ways"*: with the approval of the United Nations Security Council, at the invitation of that other country, or if that other country attacks you first.[1]

His conclusion is that the United States satisfies none of them — *"We never meet any of those three criteria"* — and he runs through the cases as a list of the same failure repeated: overthrowing the government of Venezuela and kidnapping its president; bombing [Iran](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/iran-nuclear-assessment) over a dislike of its politics; overthrowing, invading and occupying [Saddam Hussein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saddam-hussein)'s Iraq; and pushing al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan while also removing the Afghan government and occupying the country for twenty years. *"None of that is legal."*[2][3]

He frames the argument as a correction of what he was raised to believe. Asked whether he had once thought otherwise, he supplied the phrase himself — *"We were the good guys"* — and said most Americans still do, and that the United States is not smarter, more honest or more forward-thinking than anybody else. Corruption, he adds, is *"a terrible problem"* at home.[4][3]

## Applied to the Strait of Hormuz

Kiriakou has used the same three-part test on a specific proposal. Responding to the suggestion that the United States should move on the Strait of Hormuz and take Iranian oil, he called it a war crime twice over: stealing the natural resources of another country is *"quite literally written into the war crimes law"*, and the strait is sovereign Iranian territory. *"The only legal way for the United States or any country to move into Iran is if the Iranians invite us… If the Iranians attack us first, which they didn't, or with the approval of the United Nations Security Council"* — which, he notes, had not even met on the question, because Washington would veto it.[5][6]

## See also

- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [The Libertarian Party](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/libertarian-party)

## Sources

1. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou — 'They Physically Removed My Stomach' (2026-06-01), at 20:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAmAja1Rly0&t=1228s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-01-giorgos-omirou-clickbait-title-personal-channel-probe/
2. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou — 'They Physically Removed My Stomach' (2026-06-01), at 20:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAmAja1Rly0&t=1258s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-01-giorgos-omirou-clickbait-title-personal-channel-probe/
3. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou — 'They Physically Removed My Stomach' (2026-06-01), at 21:29. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAmAja1Rly0&t=1289s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-01-giorgos-omirou-clickbait-title-personal-channel-probe/
4. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou — 'They Physically Removed My Stomach' (2026-06-01), at 19:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAmAja1Rly0&t=1196s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-01-giorgos-omirou-clickbait-title-personal-channel-probe/
5. Trump's Worst Nightmare Just Came True — CIA Spy on Iran War (2026-04-06), at 49:26. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA2slD8xEpc&t=2966s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-04-06-danny-jones-iran-war-trumps-nightmare/
6. Trump's Worst Nightmare Just Came True — CIA Spy on Iran War (2026-04-06), at 49:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA2slD8xEpc&t=2998s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-04-06-danny-jones-iran-war-trumps-nightmare/

---

From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/three-legal-ways-to-enter-a-country/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt