# Counterterrorist driving > **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: "Counterterrorist driving," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/counterterrorist-driving/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The vehicle training at the Farm — the PIT manoeuvre and how to avoid one, when to ram a roadblock and where to hit it, reversing at sixty miles an hour — conducted in a fleet of junkyard beaters the CIA bought expressly to be wrecked.* - **Where:** [The Farm](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-farm), and later a desert course out west - **Vehicles:** Junkyard beaters bought at auction for about $250 - **Rule for ramming:** Hit the boot — the light end — to flip the car aside - **Anti-PIT technique:** Keep a completely unreliable speed **Counterterrorist driving** was among the most memorable parts of [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s operations course at [the Farm](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-farm) — a facility he describes as well over a thousand acres, with driving tracks, woodland roads and mock-up villages.[1] ## The kidnapping One night exercise had trainees driving a country road and coming upon a broken-down van. Is it just a van, or is it an IED, or a car bomb? Sitting idling, assessing, seeing nobody about — and then somebody opens the driver's door, which the trainee has forgotten to lock, and puts a gun to his head: *"congratulations, you've just been kidnapped."* Kiriakou says it is why, to this day, he puts his seatbelt on, locks the door and then starts the car, in that order.[2][3] ## The PIT manoeuvre Trainees learned the PIT manoeuvre — striking a fleeing car precisely at the rear wheel so that it spins out and stalls — and then, necessarily, how not to be on the receiving end of one. The counter is to keep a completely unreliable speed: 50, 30, 60, 30, 75, 25. The pursuer will hit you behind the rear wheel and in front of it, but you will not spin; it will feel like a minor fender bender.[3][4] ## Roadblocks The roadblock doctrine turns on where a car's weight is. Since the mass is at the engine, two cars nose to nose across a road should be struck at the boot — the light end — which flips that car out of the way. If the cars form a V pointing at you and the rear of neither is reachable, the answer is to reverse at sixty miles an hour and spin the car around. Kiriakou notes what this did to the equipment: *"I can't tell you how many transmissions we completely ruined"* — hence the fleet of beaters bought from junkyards or at auction for about $250.[5][6] He took the training further afterwards, on an advanced counterterrorist driving course out west in the desert — driving over sand dunes, and breaking axles.[7] ## See also - [The Farm](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-farm) - [Kiriakou Titanium Knee](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-titanium-knee) - [The shooting house](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/shooting-house) - [The bomb course](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-bomb-course) ## Sources 1. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 32:12. 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/ 2. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 33:15. 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 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/ 4. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 34:16. 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/ 5. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 34:48. 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/ 6. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 35:19. 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/ 7. 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/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/counterterrorist-driving/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt