# Walling

> **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: "Walling," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/walling/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*A CIA interrogation technique in which a detainee is slammed against a wall; designed on paper to use a padded fiberboard surface and a rolled towel around the neck, but applied in practice against bare concrete-block walls without protective measures, producing in at least one case permanent brain damage.*

- **Type:** Physical interrogation technique
- **Designed by:** [Mitchell and Jessen](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mitchell-and-jessen)
- **Theoretical purpose:** Pavlovian conditioning, 'learned helplessness'
- **Documented severe outcome:** [Muhammad Atar](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/muhammad-atar), permanent brain damage

**Walling** is a [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) interrogation technique in which a detainee, with a rolled towel around the neck as a brace, is pushed or slammed into a wall. As designed by [Mitchell and Jessen](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mitchell-and-jessen), the wall was to be constructed of plywood or comparable fiberboard with measurable give, and the towel was to prevent whiplash; the purpose was Pavlovian conditioning, the rolling-up of the towel alone was expected, in time, to cause the prisoner to crumple, a theory the designers termed *"learned helplessness."* In practice the technique was administered without the towel and against ordinary concrete-block walls.[1][2][3][4][5]

## Theory

The technique was classified within the [enhanced interrogation](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/enhanced-interrogation) program as *"considered to be kind of a mild, no big deal kind of thing."* The theoretical mechanism, *"learned helplessness"*, was conditioning by repeated controlled-impact exposure, intended to leave the prisoner trained to associate the rolled towel itself with imminent impact. *"All they would have to do is roll up the towel and the prisoner would just crumple."*[1][2]

## Practice

The technique as actually administered departed substantially from the design:

- The wall was not plywood or fiberboard, but a concrete-block wall
- The towel was not used[6]

## Documented harm

[Muhammad Atar](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/muhammad-atar), the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was subjected to walling. He was *"slammed so mercilessly against the wall that he's now brain damaged to the point where he can't participate in his own defense"*, a permanent, lifelong injury. *"Where does it say you were authorized to do that?"*[6][7]

In a separate telling of what appears to be the same case, Kiriakou describes the victim as Khaled Sheikh Mohammed's son-in-law rather than his nephew: interrogators used a concrete-block wall instead of the required plywood and forgot the bath towel meant to brace his neck, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury the Pentagon itself acknowledges makes him unable to participate in his own defense.[8][4]

## See also

- [Enhanced interrogation techniques](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/enhanced-interrogation)
- [Mitchell and Jessen](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mitchell-and-jessen)
- [Muhammad Atar](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/muhammad-atar)
- [Cold cell](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cold-cell)
- [Sleep deprivation](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sleep-deprivation)

## Sources

1. Inside CIA's Highly Controversial Enhanced Interrogation Program (2023-11-26), at 04:41. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy1T6iJH61g&t=281s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-26-dalton-fischer-enhanced-interrogation/
2. Inside CIA's Highly Controversial Enhanced Interrogation Program (2023-11-26), at 06:48. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy1T6iJH61g&t=408s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-26-dalton-fischer-enhanced-interrogation/
3. The Only CIA Officer Sent to Jail for the Torture Program (Ep 309) (2024-11-16), at 1:58:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrAf8gK44S4&t=7125s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-11-16-the-team-house/
4. 018 — State Sanctioned Torture, Whistleblowing & 9/11 — (2023-01-13), at 36:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiWoQ0Y86DE&t=2172s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-01-13-the-open-forum-podcast/
5. Guest John Kiriakou Greek American Author, Journalist, a (2020-11-30), at 36:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d82Vejn9a30&t=2190s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2020-11-30-crossing-faiths/
6. Inside CIA's Highly Controversial Enhanced Interrogation Program (2023-11-26), at 05:13. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy1T6iJH61g&t=313s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-26-dalton-fischer-enhanced-interrogation/
7. Inside CIA's Highly Controversial Enhanced Interrogation Program (2023-11-26), at 05:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy1T6iJH61g&t=343s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-26-dalton-fischer-enhanced-interrogation/
8. S1E24 Moment Of Truth (2026-04-20), at 09:01. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69e4199dabe143da5bb4bae6/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-04-20-dead-drop-s1e24-moment-of-truth/

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