# "Admit nothing, deny everything, make counter-accusations"

> **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: ""Admit nothing, deny everything, make counter-accusations"," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/admit-nothing-deny-everything/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*One of the twenty life lessons John Kiriakou says the CIA taught him in training, and a slogan sold on coffee mugs and t-shirts in the headquarters gift shop — by far the most popular mug in the building. It was treated at Langley as a joke that was not quite a joke; in federal prison Kiriakou used it as an operating rule, and credits it with getting him out of an investigation into a prison-yard fight with nothing given up.*

- **Origin:** One of twenty life lessons taught in [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) training
- **Form:** Slogan printed on coffee mugs and t-shirts in the headquarters gift shop
- **Popularity (per Kiriakou):** "By far the most popular coffee mugs in the whole place"
- **Register:** "It was kind of a joke, but it was kind of not a joke"
- **Later use:** An operating rule at [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto)

*"Admit nothing, deny everything, make counter-accusations"* is one of the twenty life lessons [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) says the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) taught him in training — some of them serious, some tongue-in-cheek, all of which he found mattered later.[1][2] Inside the agency it was also merchandise: the line was printed on coffee mugs and t-shirts in the headquarters gift shop. *"It was kind of a joke, but it was kind of not a joke — and they were by far the most popular coffee mugs in the whole place. Everybody had them on their desks."*[3][2]

## Among the twenty rules

Kiriakou lists it alongside the others in the same set — *recruit spies to steal secrets or anything else you need*; *if calm is not to your benefit, chaos is your friend*; *eliminate potential problems using dirty tricks*; *let others do your dirty work*; *trust no one*; *always maintain plausible cover for action*; *seek and utilize available cover*; *you're stronger than you realize you are*.[4][5][6][7] In his account of prison, the most practically important of them was the cover rule: at the first sign of trouble, get off the X, because everyone still standing there when the guards arrive goes to solitary while the investigation runs.[5]

Asked how a whistleblower squares an idealistic act with a rulebook this cynical, Kiriakou's answer is that the two coexist by being switched on and off: the ethical core is the constant, and the rules are what he reaches for when he is in danger.[8][9]

## The fight at Loretto

The rule earned its keep at [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto). After a fight that ended up involving a dozen men and blood on the floor, Kiriakou was called down and asked about it. *"I thought to myself: admit nothing, deny everything, make counter-accusations. I said, 'What fight?'"* Told there were witnesses placing him at the start of it, he answered that maybe *they* had been there when it started, maybe they were the ones who started it — *"what the hell do I know about any fight? I think you're the only ones who pick fights around here."* After several minutes of this the guards became frustrated enough to tell him to get out. They got nothing.[10][11] He treats the outcome as double-edged: he came out ahead of the investigation, and the yard learned he was not a snitch — part of why, he says, the Italians adopted him.[11]

The transfer from one institution to the other is the point he keeps returning to: a slogan the agency treated as an in-joke turned out to be *"a serious rule for me in prison. I used it a lot."*[2][12] Prison, in his summary, is a combination of seventh grade, *Lord of the Flies* and a mental institution — with eighty-five per cent of American prisoners suffering from some form of mental illness — leaving the rules as what keeps a person safe.[13]

## Merchandise, again

In 2019 Kiriakou raised the slogan again while discussing merchandise as a fundraising route for [Julian Assange](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/julian-assange)'s legal defence, proposing that the CIA's own line could be printed and sold to pay for *"the best lawyers in Washington"* — *"there would be nothing better than to have that actually work."*[3]

## See also

- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)
- [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto)
- [Three Felonies a Day](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/three-felonies-a-day)
- [Julian Assange](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/julian-assange)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. Internet Party (2017-08-20), at 2:15:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAlNZvr4ims&t=8122s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-08-20-internet-party-internet-party/
2. The Ripple Effect Podcast #129 (John Kiriakou — CIA-Whistl (2017-05-31), at 57:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkuwsEURRGw&t=3454s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-31-the-ripple-effect-podcast/
3. vigil — confirm not panel (2019-04-07), at 28:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_C92BT8Fzk&t=1726s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-04-07-unity4j-vigil-confirm-not-panel/
4. Doing Time Like A Spy — On Prison Survival & the CIA (2017-06-06), at 1:12:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-5yxHqYJ-k&t=4344s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-06-06-disruption-network-lab/
5. The Ripple Effect Podcast #129 (John Kiriakou — CIA-Whistl (2017-05-31), at 58:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkuwsEURRGw&t=3485s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-31-the-ripple-effect-podcast/
6. Ep 4439 — Torture Program & His Time in Prison (2018-02-06), at 35:26. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXfZPr-fRB8&t=2126s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2018-02-06-scott-horton-ep-4439-torture-program-his-time-in-prison/
7. From CIA Whistleblower To Convicted Felon to Political Analyst: The Journey of J (2021-03-24), at 30:27. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rss6190c060&t=1827s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-03-24-the-platform-talk-podcast-from-cia-whistleblower-to-convicted-felon-to/
8. Doing Time Like A Spy — On Prison Survival & the CIA (2017-06-06), at 1:12:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-5yxHqYJ-k&t=4374s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-06-06-disruption-network-lab/
9. Doing Time Like A Spy — On Prison Survival & the CIA (2017-06-06), at 1:13:26. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-5yxHqYJ-k&t=4406s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-06-06-disruption-network-lab/
10. From CIA Whistleblower To Convicted Felon to Political Analyst: The Journey of J (2021-03-24), at 29:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rss6190c060&t=1759s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-03-24-the-platform-talk-podcast-from-cia-whistleblower-to-convicted-felon-to/
11. From CIA Whistleblower To Convicted Felon to Political Analyst: The Journey of J (2021-03-24), at 29:51. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rss6190c060&t=1791s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-03-24-the-platform-talk-podcast-from-cia-whistleblower-to-convicted-felon-to/
12. Ep 4439 — Torture Program & His Time in Prison (2018-02-06), at 35:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXfZPr-fRB8&t=2156s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2018-02-06-scott-horton-ep-4439-torture-program-his-time-in-prison/
13. Internet Party (2017-08-20), at 2:15:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAlNZvr4ims&t=8156s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-08-20-internet-party-internet-party/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/admit-nothing-deny-everything/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt