Critical Analytic Thinking
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John Kiriakou described critical analytic thinking as the CIA's foundational analytical discipline. As a trained CIA analyst, he said, "you're trained to question everything", and the training becomes automatic.

The most dangerous trap the method guards against, in Kiriakou's account, is the tendency to seek information that confirms positions already held. He cited people who watch only one ideological news network as an example of failing this discipline: "That's not going to help you learn anything. It's just reinforcing your own, you know, your own little world." He reads across Fox, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, Al Jazeera, the British press, Israeli and Arab outlets, and independent media, specifically to hear positions he might disagree with, and because the process of engaging opposing arguments sharpens his own.

As a practical demonstration, Kiriakou described reaching the lab-leak conclusion on COVID. His instinct was to accept the wet-market narrative, but the evidence was not there to support it: "I had to come to the conclusion analytically that this was a lab leak because that's where the evidence was pointing." He presented changing one's position in response to evidence as the hallmark of intellectual honesty, not weakness.

Kiriakou named critical analytic thinking as the most important CIA-derived skill for daily life, more fundamental than any tactical technique.

See also

- John Kiriakou
- Lie Detection
- Doing Time Like a Spy
