# Cold cell

> **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: "Cold cell," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cold-cell/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*A CIA interrogation technique in which a stripped detainee is chained to a ceiling eyebolt in a cell chilled to 50°F, then doused with a bucket of ice water at hourly intervals; never authorized; documented to have killed at least two prisoners.*

- **Cell temperature:** 50°F (10°C)
- **Detainee position:** Naked, chained to a ceiling eyebolt (cannot sit or lie down)
- **Hourly intervention:** Bucket of ice water
- **Authorization status:** Never approved
- **Documented fatalities:** Two prisoners (Kiriakou has also said three)

The **cold cell** is a [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) interrogation technique that was applied at agency black sites despite never having been authorized by the U.S. Department of Justice or the President. Kiriakou has called it worse than [waterboarding](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/waterboarding), and has described it, across dozens of interviews, in essentially identical terms — a judgment he had already voiced the day of his 2013 sentencing: *"I actually think those last two are worse than waterboarding."*[1][2][3]

## Procedure

The detainee is stripped naked and chained to an eyebolt fixed to the ceiling, in a position from which they cannot sit down, kneel, lie down, or otherwise relieve their stance. The cell temperature is reduced to **50°F (10°C)**. Every hour, a CIA officer enters the cell and douses the detainee with a bucket of ice water.[2][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

The one account in which Kiriakou attaches the full procedure to a named prisoner rather than describing it in the abstract concerns [Gul Rahman](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/gul-rahman): *"Gul Rahman was subjected to a torture technique called the cold cell, in which he was chained to an eyebolt in the ceiling like this. He was stripped naked. His cell was chilled to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and then every hour a CIA officer would enter the cell and throw a bucket of ice water on him."*[13]

## Fatalities

> We murdered two prisoners with that technique. That was never approved as a technique.[2]

Kiriakou has given the death toll inconsistently across interviews. In several tellings he specifies exactly two prisoners killed by hypothermia, adding in one account that the body was simply buried behind the building;[2][5][4] in others he says the technique killed "multiple prisoners," killed people "more than once," or killed "another prisoner" in addition to a prior death.[10][14][11][6] In at least one telling he puts an exact number on that higher figure, saying the technique killed three people and that no one was ever charged with a crime.[15] One of the two victims he names specifically elsewhere: Hassan Gul, a prisoner held in Afghanistan who did not survive a night in the cold cell.[16]

## Authorization status

The cold cell was not among the techniques authorized by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel under the formal [enhanced interrogation](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/enhanced-interrogation) program, and Kiriakou says it was used nonetheless.[2][17] It belongs to the category of techniques applied by individual CIA officers outside the program's formal legal cover.

No CIA officer has been criminally prosecuted for any of the cold-cell deaths.[18][14]

## As described to Dr. Phil

Kiriakou's 2025 account of the technique is unchanged in its particulars: the prisoner was stripped naked and chained by the wrists to an eyebolt in the ceiling, the cell was chilled to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and every hour a CIA officer entered and threw a bucket of ice water over him. He states flatly that several prisoners were murdered this way and died of hypothermia.[19] He ranks the cold cell, with [sleep deprivation](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sleep-deprivation), among the techniques he considered worse than [waterboarding](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/waterboarding).[20]

## "There are two next best things"

Asked in May 2026 what came after [waterboarding](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/waterboarding) in the CIA's repertoire, Kiriakou named two techniques and put the cold cell first. His description of it is unchanged in every particular from accounts given a decade earlier: the prisoner is stripped naked, chained to an eyebolt in the ceiling, the cell is chilled to 50°F, and *"every hour you throw a bucket of ice water on him."* The second of the two was [sleep deprivation](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sleep-deprivation).[21]

## The 2013 description

One of Kiriakou's earliest public descriptions of the technique, given days after his sentencing in January 2013, gives the temperature band and the interval together: the cold cell is where interrogators *"put a prisoner naked in a cell chilled to 50 or 55 degrees, and then every hour throw ice water on him."* He placed it, with [sleep deprivation](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sleep-deprivation), above [waterboarding](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/waterboarding) in severity — *"I actually think those last two are worse"* — a ranking he has kept to since.[22]

## See also

- [Enhanced interrogation techniques](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/enhanced-interrogation)
- [Walling](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/walling)
- [Sleep deprivation](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sleep-deprivation)
- [Hummus](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/hummus)
- [Senate Torture Report](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/senate-torture-report)

## Sources

1. Sentenced to Prison While Torturers Walk Free (2013-01-30), at 11:33. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeBIRH9VlBQ&t=693s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2013-01-30-democracy-now-sentenced-to-prison-while-torturers-walk-free/
2. Inside CIA's Highly Controversial Enhanced Interrogation Program (2023-11-26), at 04:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy1T6iJH61g&t=249s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-26-dalton-fischer-enhanced-interrogation/
3. Joe Rogan Experience #2392 — John Kiriakou (2025-10-10), at 10:59. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZqADzuu73g&t=659s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-10-joe-rogan-experience-2392/
4. John Kiriakou: CIA's Secret Torture Programs, Mk-Ultra, 9-11, and Why Obama Threw Him in Jail (2025-06-04), at 26:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwBMKwt14IU&t=1605s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-06-04-tucker-carlson-cia-torture-mk-ultra-911/
5. Inside the CIA and the Cost of Speaking Out (2026-02-13), at 30:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtonZWE2JWA&t=1828s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-13-o-keefe-media-group/
6. Ex CIA Officer John Kiriakou Talks Torture, Terrorism, U (2023-12-07), at 09:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9miDzcUT9U&t=598s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-12-07-truthovercomfort/
7. Scheer Intelligence: John Kiriakou Interview 9/10/21 (2022-05-19), at 28:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4cW71vcS_o&t=1708s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-19-scheerpost/
8. 018 — State Sanctioned Torture, Whistleblowing & 9/11 — (2023-01-13), at 38:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiWoQ0Y86DE&t=2299s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-01-13-the-open-forum-podcast/
9. John Kiriakou, CIA Whistleblower, Doing Time Like a Spy, (2017-05-23), at 26:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twDSUsMh2ws&t=1579s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-23-podcast-ufo-live-shows/
10. Guest John Kiriakou Greek American Author, Journalist, a (2020-11-30), at 39:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d82Vejn9a30&t=2348s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2020-11-30-crossing-faiths/
11. John Kiriakou Addresses the 2016 NHLA Liberty Dinner (2016-07-11), at 20:02. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Un-IY3vlc&t=1202s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2016-07-11-adventures-in-the-free-sta/
12. John Kiriakou with Stelios Kouloglou (2017-11-23), at 07:49. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAwSZzldvuE&t=469s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-11-23-stelios-kouloglou/
13. CIA Torture Architects Settle With Victims to Avoid Trial (2017-08-17), at 04:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqv5Spq3KH8&t=290s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-08-17-the-real-news-network-cia-torture-architects-settle-with-victims-to/
14. Tackling Torture at the Top John Kiriakou and Bradley Ol (2015-11-14), at 08:23. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFTwPrTyY2Q&t=503s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-11-14-robin-hensel/
15. Jared Leto (Beyond the Horizon) (2019-12-19), at 6:21. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndpaua_S5lg&t=381s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-12-19-jared-leto-beyond-the-horizon-jared-leto-beyond-the-horizon/
16. The Scholars: John Kiriakou (2015-05-21), at 12:53. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfsdrNvEuL8&t=773s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-21-the-scholars-john-kiriakou/
17. John Kiriakou: CIA's Secret Torture Programs, Mk-Ultra, 9-11, and Why Obama Threw Him in Jail (2025-06-04), at 27:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwBMKwt14IU&t=1620s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-06-04-tucker-carlson-cia-torture-mk-ultra-911/
18. Inside CIA's Highly Controversial Enhanced Interrogation Program (2023-11-26), at 09:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy1T6iJH61g&t=568s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-26-dalton-fischer-enhanced-interrogation/
19. Top Secrets: The CIA Torture Whistleblower John Kiriakou (2025-04-16), at 42:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev1ozulvly8&t=2574s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-16-the-dr-phil-podcast-top-secrets-the-cia-torture-whistleblower-john-ki/
20. Top Secrets: The CIA Torture Whistleblower John Kiriakou (2025-04-16), at 42:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev1ozulvly8&t=2544s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-16-the-dr-phil-podcast-top-secrets-the-cia-torture-whistleblower-john-ki/
21. Matan Confronts Kiriakou (Israel) (2026-05-17), at 19:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drZH5_d9Xg0&t=1145s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-17-the-matan-show-matan-confronts-kiriakou-israel/
22. aggregator channel — likely re-upload (2015-01-09), at 35:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8tUetLWC54&t=2144s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-01-09-terrorpedia-video-center-aggregator-channel-likely-re-upload/

---

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