# Geneva Conventions

> **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: "Geneva Conventions," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/geneva-conventions/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The laws of war at the center of John Kiriakou's most-told confrontation story: finding hooded prisoners in Pakistan, he demanded of the officer in charge, "Are you seriously telling me that you have never read the Geneva Convention? It is a war crime to put hoods on them. Take the hoods off." The two reported each other to headquarters; Kiriakou got in trouble, "they didn't give two shits about the Geneva Convention." He indicts the Bush administration's twin dodges: that al-Qaeda fighters, as non-state actors, fell outside the Conventions' protections, and that the techniques weren't torture at all.*

- **What:** The international treaties governing treatment of prisoners in war
- **The hoods story:** Kiriakou ordered hoods off prisoners as a war crime, and got in trouble for it
- **The legal dodge:** Al-Qaeda as non-state actors "not entitled" to protections (per the Bush administration)
- **Kiriakou's point:** The U.S. executed Japanese soldiers for what it later authorized

The **Geneva Conventions** govern the treatment of prisoners in war, and supply the script for one of [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s defining confrontations.

## "Take the hoods off"

In Pakistan, encountering prisoners with their heads covered, Kiriakou asked why. The answer, *"we don't want them to see our faces"*, set him off: *"Are you seriously telling me that you have never read the Geneva Convention? It is a war crime to put hoods on them. Take the hoods off."* The officer turned to his own men: don't take the hoods off, and threatened to report Kiriakou to headquarters. *"I said, oh, I'm already reporting you to headquarters for committing a war crime."*[1][2][3] They reported each other. Kiriakou got in trouble: *"They didn't give two shits about the Geneva Convention."*[4]

## The lawyers' dodge

Kiriakou lays out the Bush administration's twin arguments: that al-Qaeda fighters, being non-state actors representing no country, were somehow not entitled to the Conventions' protections, and that the techniques weren't torture anyway, merely [enhanced interrogation](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/enhanced-interrogation).[5] He describes the plan bluntly: roughly twenty people in the administration deciding to violate the Geneva Conventions and do *"what the United States executed Japanese soldiers for doing."*[6] His broader question stands unanswered: how does a government justify ignoring international treaties to which it is a signatory?[7]

## Invoked, and punished

Kiriakou's own use of the conventions produced the inversion he returns to. On the night of the [Abu Zubaydah](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abu-zubaydah) raid he told a colleague who had hooded a group of detainees that he could not seriously never have read the Geneva Convention, that hooding them is a war crime, and to take the hoods off. Each man reported the other to headquarters. It was Kiriakou who was reprimanded.[8][9]

He accepted the summary that his interviewer drew from it, that in practice *"war crimes aren't illegal, but reporting on them is."* *"That is the sad sorry state that we find ourselves in."*[10]

## The hooding argument in Pakistan

The first sign Kiriakou had that the rules had changed came on the night of the [Abu Zubaydah](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abu-zubaydah) capture. So many al-Qaeda fighters were taken that they had to be brought to the safe house for interrogation in shifts in a paddy wagon, and the first group of ten came out hooded. Told by the colleague working for him that the hoods were to stop the prisoners seeing their faces, Kiriakou asked whether the man had seriously never read the Geneva Conventions, said that hooding a prisoner is a war crime, and ordered the hoods off. The colleague countermanded him; each threatened to report the other to headquarters; both did. Kiriakou took the hoods off and was the one reprimanded.[11][12]

His conclusion at the time was resigned rather than defiant, the Conventions were crystal clear, so it must be a new world and he would have to get used to it.[13]

## See also

- [Enhanced interrogation techniques](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/enhanced-interrogation)
- [Waterboarding](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/waterboarding)
- [Federal Torture Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/federal-torture-act)
- [Guantanamo Bay](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/guantanamo-bay)

## Sources

1. The Bitter Truth with Abe (2019-06-27), at 21:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Pt_pZgzqw&t=1276s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-06-27-the-bitter-truth-with-abe-the-bitter-truth-with-abe/
2. CIA Spy Breaks Silence On Elon Musk's Twitter Files — John (2023-04-12), at 2:59:20. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmPpOps1yeI&t=10760s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-04-12-danny-jones/
3. INSIDE THE CIA: What They Aren't Telling You — John Kiri (2024-12-21), at 2:36:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYx6oycyKww&t=9375s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-12-21-not-a-grayman/
4. Inside the CIA: Whistleblower John Kiriakou Reveals What Y (2025-03-29), at 22:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUS9gA518Sg&t=1354s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-29-lionel-nation/
5. John Kiriakou, CIA whistle blower part 1 (2016-04-25), at 36:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCAYwyiEbY8&t=2171s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2016-04-25-fort-collins-community-act-john-kiriakou-cia-whistle-blower-part-1/
6. A Letter from John Kiriakou (2013-05-31), at 00:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV7Q8HTsQSM&t=32s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2013-05-31-thom-hartmann-program-a-letter-from-john-kiriakou/
7. awakeradio1 (2015-05-09), at 22:02. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okR1rm1B_qY&t=1322s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-09-awakeradio1-awakeradio1/
8. Part of the Problem — John Kiriakou (2026-06-02), at 16:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ93Fy1jfbA&t=990s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-02-covert-strategies-revealed-corpus-has-osxgmj89fwq-from-this-show/
9. Part of the Problem — John Kiriakou (2026-06-02), at 17:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ93Fy1jfbA&t=1020s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-02-covert-strategies-revealed-corpus-has-osxgmj89fwq-from-this-show/
10. Part of the Problem — John Kiriakou (2026-06-02), at 18:31. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ93Fy1jfbA&t=1111s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-02-covert-strategies-revealed-corpus-has-osxgmj89fwq-from-this-show/
11. Top Secrets: The CIA Torture Whistleblower John Kiriakou (2025-04-16), at 38:13. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev1ozulvly8&t=2293s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-16-the-dr-phil-podcast-top-secrets-the-cia-torture-whistleblower-john-ki/
12. Top Secrets: The CIA Torture Whistleblower John Kiriakou (2025-04-16), at 38:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev1ozulvly8&t=2325s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-16-the-dr-phil-podcast-top-secrets-the-cia-torture-whistleblower-john-ki/
13. Top Secrets: The CIA Torture Whistleblower John Kiriakou (2025-04-16), at 39:17. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev1ozulvly8&t=2357s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-16-the-dr-phil-podcast-top-secrets-the-cia-torture-whistleblower-john-ki/

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