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CIA Officer Details Sleep Deprivation Torture That Killed Detainees at Day Nine

Jack Neel · John Kiriakou: "He Sold Us Secrets!" How Jefferey Epstein Ran Mossad, MI6, and The CIA│Jack Neel · June 10, 2026
CIA Officer Details Sleep Deprivation Torture That Killed Detainees at Day Nine
Jack Neel
Jack Neel
John Kiriakou: "He Sold Us Secrets!" How Jefferey Epstein Ran Mossad, MI6, and The CIA│Jack Neel
"People begin to lose their minds at day 7. With no sleep. Day 7, they begin to die at day 9 because your organs start to fail. The CIA was authorized to keep people awake for 12 days. We murdered people with that."
In graphic detail, Kiriakou described CIA torture techniques he witnessed, asserting that sleep deprivation was worse than waterboarding. Detainees were chained to ceiling eyebolts under industrial lights with death metal playing at maximum volume for up to 12 consecutive days, despite medical evidence that organ failure begins at day nine. He stated the CIA murdered people using this authorized technique and the cold cell method, which also resulted in deaths from hypothermia.

About this episode

In a revealing three-hour conversation, host Jack Neal interviewed John Kiriakou, a former CIA case officer who spent 14 years in the agency before becoming the only person imprisoned in connection with the CIA torture program. Kiriakou served 23 months in federal prison not for torture itself, but for confirming a colleague's name to a journalist while exposing that waterboarding was official U.S. policy personally approved by the president. The episode opened with Kiriakou's most explosive revelation: that a CIA psychiatrist told him the agency actively recruits people with sociopathic tendencies because they possess enough conscience to be controlled but are willing to operate in moral gray areas. He described in harrowing detail the torture techniques he witnessed, including sleep deprivation authorized for 12 consecutive days despite medical evidence that detainees begin dying at day nine from organ failure, and cold cells that killed prisoners through hypothermia. Kiriakou accused AIPAC of spending millions to buy Congressional seats, claiming 88-90% of Congress has taken their money. He revealed NBC News national security correspondent Ken Delanian submitted articles to the CIA for approval before publication, calling it propaganda made legal under Obama. The conversation covered Project Mockingbird, hypnosis operations he participated in, his confrontations with Alec Baldwin, his daily Angry Birds obsession approaching 3,000 consecutive days, and why he believes Epstein was an intelligence broker selling information to multiple agencies including Mossad. Kiriakou explained he wants a presidential pardon primarily to restore his gun rights for self-protection after receiving death threats. He closed by expressing pride that despite losing everything, his legacy would be telling the truth, quoting advice from Senator Jennings Randolph to always do the right thing rather than the expedient thing.

Key takeaways

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