# The Advanced Counterterrorism Operations course

> **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 Advanced Counterterrorism Operations course," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/advanced-counterterrorism-operations-course/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The six-week CIA course for which John Kiriakou says he was one of only about a dozen officers in the entire agency selected, and which he finished, as he puts it, just in time for 9/11.*

- **Length:** Six weeks
- **Selected:** About a dozen officers in the whole [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)
- **Completed:** Shortly before 11 September 2001
- **Companion course:** Advanced counterterrorist driving, in the western desert

**The Advanced Counterterrorism Operations course** was the last piece of [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s formal CIA training, and the one he identifies as the most selective.

After [the Farm](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-farm) and [the bomb course](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-bomb-course), he says, he took only two further classes over the next year or two. The first was advanced counterterrorist driving, held out west in the desert, driving over sand dunes and, as he puts it, breaking the axle of the car.[1]

The second was a six-week course called Advanced Counterterrorism Operations, for which he was one of only a dozen officers in the entire CIA chosen. He finished it, in his own summary of the timing, *"just in time for 9-11."*[2]

What he had before that was the operations course, which had already changed how he moves through the world: more than two decades out of the agency he still checks his mirrors for surveillance, and he still locks the car door before starting the engine.[3][4]

The training also had to be finished before the rest of his Athens tour, where, as he notes, the counterterrorism instruction would come in useful, and where the [attempted carjacking](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/athens-carjacking) tested it within two months of his arrival.[2]

## See also

- [The Farm](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-farm)
- [The bomb course](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-bomb-course)
- [Counterterrorist driving](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/counterterrorist-driving)
- [Cofer Black's warning to the liaison class](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cofer-black-pre-9-11-warning)

## Sources

1. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 42:42. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6948511af7567117397d1a93/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-29-dead-drop-s1e8-the-james-bond-academy/
2. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 43:12. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6948511af7567117397d1a93/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-29-dead-drop-s1e8-the-james-bond-academy/
3. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 37:56. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6948511af7567117397d1a93/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-29-dead-drop-s1e8-the-james-bond-academy/
4. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 33:45. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6948511af7567117397d1a93/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-29-dead-drop-s1e8-the-james-bond-academy/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/advanced-counterterrorism-operations-course/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt