The El Salvador hotel drill was a night exercise in John Kiriakou’s operations course at the Farm, and one of the very few he describes as having beaten every trainee who attempted it.
The set-up
The class drew straws for the running order and Kiriakou went first. The briefing was minimal and the scenario was all he had: “so it’s just a a table and a chair and and it it looks like a flea bag Hotel… all you know in this scenario is you are in a flea bag hotel in in El Salvador good luck.”[1][2]
Kiriakou is emphatic about the production values. “I mean it’s like a Hollywood set I mean they they this is real life they make it look like it really is going to look in real life.”[2]
What happened
With no idea what to expect, Kiriakou was interrupted by a knock. “there’s a knock on the door and you say who is it and then the door opens and it’s these two guys and one of them is holding a a a vacuum cleaner and they’re saying housekeeping seor housekeeping and I go I don’t need housekeeping I don’t need housekeeping.”[2][3]
The second man ended the exercise. “and then the guy the second guy behind him pulls out a gun and goes bang bang he shoots me with two paint pellets I go [expletive] I said I never saw that coming.”[3]
The lesson
The instructor’s rule was blunt and geographic. “if you’re in a [expletive] hole Motel in a [expletive] hole country and two people just walk into your room kill them.” He was then told to say nothing to the others.[3][4]
The silence held, and so did the result. Back in the van with the rest of the class, Kiriakou could only say he could not talk about it — “all eight of us failed all eight of us failed.”[4]
What he took from it
Kiriakou rates the drill among the most consequential things he was taught. “That was such an important lesson I never ever forgot it.”[4]
The habit it produced was pre-emptive rather than reactive. “and so anytime I felt threatened or anytime I felt you know what in this situation I’m in right now I can see a point 10 seconds down the road where I might feel threatened I would draw my weapon just in case it happened twice just in case.”[4]