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The torture memo signature

John Kiriakou's account of how the CIA's torture programme was authorised: a list of about ten techniques sent from headquarters through the Justice Department, the National Security Council lawyers and Condoleezza Rice to the president — who, to the surprise of the agency's own leadership, signed it. Kiriakou recalls the deputy director saying three times in one meeting that he could not believe the president had signed the memo.

The torture memo signature is John Kiriakou’s account of the chain of approvals that produced the CIA’s interrogation programme, and of the reaction inside headquarters when the last signature arrived.

Before Abu Ghraib, before Guantánamo

Asked where the torture began, Kiriakou places it earlier than the images the public associates with it: before Abu Ghraib and, he says, before Guantánamo.[1] Abu Zubaydah was the first high-level al-Qaeda-related prisoner the United States captured, and the programme was built around him.[1]

The panic

The trigger, in Kiriakou’s telling, was a statement released by Osama bin Laden immediately after the September 11 attacks, saying that al-Qaeda was planning another attack that would dwarf September 11.[1] The CIA was panicked at the thought, because September 11 had been a disaster — an intelligence failure and an across-the-board American failure.[1][2]

That produced what Kiriakou calls the ticking time bomb scenario, and the CIA’s leadership believed Abu Zubaydah had information about whatever this coming attack was. In fact, he says, there was no upcoming attack: bin Laden said it to panic the Americans, and he succeeded.[2]

The chain

A decision was then made at CIA headquarters to come up with the techniques — a list of something like ten of them.[2][3] Kiriakou traces its route. The list went to the Justice Department, which approved it; from there to the lawyers at the National Security Council, who approved it; from there to the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, who approved it and sent it to the president.[3]

Nobody in the CIA’s leadership, Kiriakou says, thought the president was going to approve it, because it was clearly torture. He approved it.[3]

The morning after

Kiriakou’s own memory of the moment is of a meeting with the deputy director of the CIA the day after the signed memo arrived at headquarters. Three times in the course of that conversation, he says, the deputy director said something like: I can’t believe the president signed that memo. I can’t believe it.[3][4]

That, in Kiriakou’s summary, is how the torture regime started.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Opperman Report, 2026-01-15 — 29:11 on YouTube · Transcript
  2. ↑ The Opperman Report, 2026-01-15 — 29:42 on YouTube · Transcript
  3. ↑ The Opperman Report, 2026-01-15 — 30:13 on YouTube · Transcript
  4. ↑ The Opperman Report, 2026-01-15 — 30:44 on YouTube · Transcript

Sourced from John Kiriakou's on-record public statements. See his profile for the full body of his interviews, podcast appearances, and short-form video.

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