CIA Director Threatened Saudi Officials Over 9/11 Help or Face Mass Killings
"The only time I ever saw George Tenet, who was the CIA director at the time, the only time I ever saw George completely lose his shit was in a meeting with Prince Bandar. He said, 'If we don't start getting help from the Saudi government on this case, we're gonna start killing people, a lot of people, and some of them are gonna be named Al Saud.'"
About this episode
Host Theo Von interviewed John Kiriakou, former CIA officer turned whistleblower who served 23 months in federal prison for exposing the agency's torture program. Kiriakou made explosive claims about 9/11, alleging that Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar's wife personally transferred $50,000 to the hijackers and that Israeli intelligence had advance warning of the attacks but deliberately withheld details to manipulate the U.S. into Middle Eastern wars. He recounted CIA Director George Tenet threatening to kill members of the Saudi royal family if they didn't cooperate with the 9/11 investigation. Kiriakou detailed the CIA's $108 million torture program designed by contract psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, describing techniques including rectal feeding with hummus, cold cells, and sleep deprivation that he argued were worse than waterboarding and rendered all confessions legally inadmissible. He warned about the proposed 2027 National Defense Authorization Act that would integrate U.S. and Israeli militaries for the first time, expressing concern about formalizing such deep ties with a nation he believes is committing genocide in Gaza. Kiriakou also discussed massive data center projects he suspects are intelligence-related, the 2016 law that first allowed the U.S. government to legally propagandize American citizens, and why AIPAC uniquely avoids registering as a foreign agent despite spending hundreds of millions influencing U.S. elections. The conversation covered his prison experience among organized crime figures, his recruitment tactics as a CIA case officer, and his belief that corporate greed rather than coordinated psyops explains America's declining food quality and surveillance state expansion.
Key takeaways
- Kiriakou alleged Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar's wife transferred $50,000 from her personal account to 9/11 hijackers, and three Saudi princes whose phone numbers were found in Abu Zubaydah's diary died mysteriously before U.S. interrogation.
- Kiriakou claimed Israeli intelligence had advance warning of 9/11 through al-Qaeda sources but deliberately withheld details, knowing the U.S. would launch Middle Eastern wars serving Israeli strategic interests.
- CIA Director George Tenet threatened to kill Saudi royal family members if cooperation on the 9/11 investigation was not immediately forthcoming, according to Kiriakou's firsthand account.
- The CIA paid psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen $108 million to design torture techniques including rectal feeding with hummus, making all detainee confessions legally inadmissible in court.
- The proposed 2027 NDAA would integrate U.S. and Israeli militaries for the first time, covering technology sharing and co-production across AI, cyber warfare, biotech and autonomous weapons systems.
- Kiriakou warned that between 10,000 and 15,000 foreign intelligence officers operate in Washington D.C., more than anywhere on Earth, and that Israelis openly spy on the U.S. while America does not reciprocate.
- The 2016 National Defense Authorization Act first made it legal for the U.S. government to propagandize American citizens, ending a longstanding prohibition.