# Training to kill

> **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: "Training to kill," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/training-to-kill/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's account of arriving at the CIA's clandestine training facility expecting to learn how to recruit sources at diplomatic cocktail parties, and finding instead parachute training, resistance-to-interrogation instruction, and — as his old supervisor had warned him — training to kill people.*

- **Where:** The CIA's clandestine training facility, "the farm"
- **When:** Late 1990s, on transfer to operations
- **Warning received beforehand:** "They're going to train you to kill people"
- **Kiriakou's expectation:** Recruiting at diplomatic cocktail parties
- **Curriculum cited:** Parachuting into enemy territory; conduct after capture
- **Sequel:** Jumping out of an aircraft two years later

**Training to kill** is John Kiriakou's account of the operational training he underwent at the CIA's clandestine facility, known informally as the farm, after transferring from analysis to operations.

## The warning

When Kiriakou told his supervisor on the analytic side that he was switching to operations, the first thing the man said, in Kiriakou's account, was to ask whether he was sure he knew what he was getting into — and then that they were going to train him to kill people. Kiriakou has said he laughed and told him he watched too many films. Two weeks later he arrived at the training facility, and has described standing there thinking *"you have got to be kidding me"* as they trained him to kill people. [1] [2]

## The curriculum

Among the elements he names are parachuting into enemy territory, what to do if captured, and how to withstand torture — a formulation he immediately qualifies, saying not really withstand it, but withstand it as long as you can. [2]

## The objection and the sequel

Kiriakou has described telling an instructor, before the September 11 attacks, that he was going to be recruiting people at diplomatic cocktail parties and was not going to be jumping out of aeroplanes behind enemy lines. Two years later, after the attacks, he was in an aircraft and turned to the man beside him to say that he could not believe he was about to jump out of it. [3]

Asked how one trains a person to withstand torture, he answered only that it is awful. [4]

## See also

- [The Farm](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-farm)
- [Arabic and Greek](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/arabic-and-greek)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. Episode 572 Blowing the Whistle with John Kiriakou (2021-09-25), at 20:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=audd3a7d0e6&t=1206s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-09-25-abe-lincoln-s-top-hat-episode-572-blowing-the-whistle-with-john-kir/
2. Episode 572 Blowing the Whistle with John Kiriakou (2021-09-25), at 20:39. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=audd3a7d0e6&t=1239s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-09-25-abe-lincoln-s-top-hat-episode-572-blowing-the-whistle-with-john-kir/
3. Episode 572 Blowing the Whistle with John Kiriakou (2021-09-25), at 21:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=audd3a7d0e6&t=1272s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-09-25-abe-lincoln-s-top-hat-episode-572-blowing-the-whistle-with-john-kir/
4. Episode 572 Blowing the Whistle with John Kiriakou (2021-09-25), at 21:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=audd3a7d0e6&t=1303s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-09-25-abe-lincoln-s-top-hat-episode-572-blowing-the-whistle-with-john-kir/

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