Twenty years ago this month, the world learned about the existence of the first imaging reconnaissance satellite, codenamed CORONA. Weiner, Tim. Browse the Collections | Advanced Search | Search Help. [70] Their experiences and lawsuit were adapted in the 1998 television miniseries The Sleep Room. "Is giving your kid a test in school an inhibition on his free learning?" [60] According to Stephen Kinzer, Olson had approached his superiors some time earlier, doubting the morality of the project, and asked to resign from the CIA. In 1987, the Supreme Court affirmed this defense in a 54 decision that dismissed Stanley's case: United States v. New Texas Cruise Terminal Is Now Serving the Worlds Largest Ships, Why Brown Noise Is an Underrated Life Hack, Gaslighting Beats Out Oligarch and Cancel Culture to Become the Official Word of 2022, TikTok Is Becoming the Go-To News Source for the Under-30 Set, Ice Bath Business Meetings Are a Thing Now, Apparently, Why Each Loser Lost During the NFL's Super Wildcard Weekend, How to Be Happy, According to the Best Saxophonist in America, Meet Can Sumoi, Your New Favorite Table Wine, Hotel La Compaia Is the Jewel of Panamas Old Quarter, The 18 Best Non-Alcoholic Spirits for Dry January and Beyond, The 10 Best Deals From Boisson for Dry January, The Gigantic Brooks Brothers End of Season Sale Just Got Even Better, Tracking Down the Icelandic Sea Salt the Worlds Best Chefs Love, How Prince Harry Became the Most Annoying Man in America. The Central Intelligence Agency, better known simply as the CIA, has inspired fear, suspicion, and curiosity ever since its official formation in 1947. Horrock, Nicholas M. (August 4, 1977). One of the most well-known secret research programs is the Manhattan Project, which eventually produced the world's first atomic bombs. Abramtchik, Mikola In March 1968, American soldiers murdered hundreds of unarmed civilians in the South Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai, according to accounts of the massacre that describe harrowing killings of at least 300 women, children and elderly people. Working with the CIA, the Department of Defense gave hallucinogenic drugs to thousands of "volunteer" soldiers in the 1950s and 1960s. Cameron had been hoping to correct schizophrenia by erasing existing memories and reprogramming the psyche. At the announcement, Gore stated, Satellite coverage gave us the confidence to pursue arms control agreementsagreements that eventually led to dramatic decreases in the number of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems., Gore also noted that satellites, Recorded much more than the landscape of the Cold War. but as the declassified CIA documents we'll examine here make clear, mind control programs are a real thing in which the U.S government took an active interest, dedicating . The committee noted that the "experiments sponsored by these researchers call into question the decision by the agencies not to fix guidelines for experiments.". He commuted from Albany, New York to Montreal every week to work at the Allan Memorial Institute of McGill University, and was paid $69,000 from 1957 to 1964 (US$579,480 in 2021, adjusted for inflation) to carry out MKUltra experiments there, the Montreal experiments. NPR Fresh Air. Find Your Calling with a Career at CIA. In light of news reports, an official inquiry was made into the events at My Lai and was concluded in March 1970. The end of the Cold War also spurred interest in satellites and their possible use for environmental and other studies. In December 2021, radio documentarian Per Wennick discovered 36 boxes of MKUltra records stored at a psychiatric center in a Copenhagen suburb, but when he asked for access, the center shredded the records, in violation of Danish law. Dubbed Operation Crossroads, the test "[3] The CIA itself has responded to the claims made in Weiner's book, and has described it as "a 600-page op-ed piece masquerading as serious history. [67]:141, His work was inspired and paralleled by the British psychiatrist William Sargant at St Thomas' Hospital, London, and Belmont Hospital, Sutton, who was also involved in the Secret Intelligence Service and who experimented on his patients without their consent, causing similar long-term damage. As part of a mass declassification of a number of secrets in 2012, the U.S. Air Force revealedthat its Aeronautical Systems Division had plans to produce aUFO-style aircraft back in the 1950s. One of its most famous graduates? Several other proposals were included within Operation Northwoods, including real or simulated actions against various U.S. military and civilian targets. [44] They spent an estimated $10 million or more, roughly $87.5 million adjusted for inflation. [79], At least one death, the result of the alleged defenestration of Frank Olson, was attributed to Olson's being subjected, without his knowledge, to such experimentation nine days before his death. law. Another memorandum dated June 14, 1918 - written in French - reveals the formula used for German secret ink. [34], One 1955 MKUltra document gives an indication of the size and range of the effort. [61], Some subjects' participation was consensual, and in these cases they appeared to be singled out for even more extreme experiments. Sidney Gottlieb, who had retired from the CIA two years previously and had headed MKUltra, was interviewed by the committee but claimed to have very little recollection of the activities of MKUltra. [4] As a result, the remaining Big Itch tests were conducted using only the smaller capacity E14. No matter what you see or hear, don't believe it.". These research funds were sent to Cameron by a CIA front organization, the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, and as shown in internal CIA documents, Cameron did not know the money came from the CIA. None of these reports, however, mentions by name an Operation Mockingbird coordinating or supporting these activities.". In 2012, the CIA declassified some documents from the 1950s that showed some of the projects they worked on. (each link will open a new tab in your browser), "Operation Big Buzz occurred in May 1955 in the U.S. State of Georgia. A material which will cause mental confusion of such a type the individual under its influence will find it difficult to maintain a fabrication under questioning. [54] On July 16, 2008, the fiscal 2009 Intelligence Authorization Bill was approved by House majority containing stipulations that 75% of money sought for covert actions would be held until all members of the House Intelligence panel were briefed on sensitive covert actions. Cameron died on September 8, 1967, after suffering a heart attack while he and his son were mountain climbing. CIA Crime and Narcotics Center[44] researches information on international narcotics trafficking and organized crime for policymakers and the law enforcement community. [48] Some Members of Congress believe that these lies to Congress are similar to CIA lies to Congress from earlier periods. In September 1946, President Harry Truman authorized a program called Operation Paperclip, which aimed to lure scientists from Nazi Germany to the United States following World War II. The Most Astonishing Declassified Military and CIA Secrets A Soviet soldier inside the 350 yard tunnel extending from the American Sector of Berlin into the Soviet Sector on April 26, 1956. Declassified documents shed light on a government so corrupted that it would use hypnosis-induced mind control to create unwitting assassins and 'super spies'. [8][9], MKUltra was preceded by two drug-related experiments, Project Bluebird and Project Artichoke. Research Aid: Cryptonyms and Terms in Declassified CIA Files Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Disclosure Acts 1 June 2007 Term Definition A-287 Cryptonym for Josef Stigler. The Central Intelligence Agency today declassified the United States Government's six oldest classified documents, dating from 1917 and 1918. !<-- Layton (2007), Whistle-Blower's Fight For Pension Drags On, The Washington Post -->, US Senate Report on CIA Detention Interrogation Program, European Parliament report of February 2007, United Nations Convention Against Torture, Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture, Official reports by the U.S. Government on the CIA, U.S. intelligence involvement with German and Japanese war criminals after World War II, CIA transnational anti-crime and anti-drug activities, CIA's relationship with the United States Military, Classified information in the United States, Freedom of Information Act (United States), Title 32 of the Code of Federal Regulations, United States and state-sponsored terrorism, United States Department of Homeland Security, "Review of 'Legacy of Ashes: The History of CIA', "Renditions: Constraints Imposed by Laws on Torture", "Obama's War on Terror May Resemble Bush's in Some Areas", "Background Paper on CIA's Combined Use of Interrogation Techniques", "New CIA Docs Detail Brutal 'Extraordinary Rendition' Process", "Remarks of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Upon Her Departure for Europe, 5 December 2005", "Obama preserves renditions as counter-terrorism tool", "N.Y. billing dispute reveals details of secret CIA rendition flights", "Under Obama Administration Renditionsand Secrecy Around ThemContinue", "Resolution 1507: Alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states", Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, "Outsourcing Torture: The secret history of America's 'extraordinary rendition' program", "Afghan Base Hit by Attack Has Pivotal Role in Conflict", "Intelligence Reform is the President's Urgent Challenge", "A Bombshell on Pinochet's Guilt, Delivered Too Late", "Doctors Aided CIA Torture, Records Show", "CIA Made Doctors Complicit in Torture After 9/11, Report Says", "The Snowden Affair: Electronic Briefing Book No. [98] The majority argued that "a test for liability that depends on the extent to which particular suits would call into question military discipline and decision making would itself require judicial inquiry into, and hence intrusion upon, military matters." It is unknown whether any useful DNA was acquired from the program, but it was deemed not successful. The order stipulated that all the imagery would be declassified immediately upon transfer and be made available to the public. Sign up for InsideHook to get our best content delivered to your inbox every weekday. [50], In 2007, the now defunct database Wikiscanner revealed that computers from the CIA had been used to edit articles on the English Wikipedia, including the Iraq War article in 2003, and the article on former CIA executive director William Colby. It was learned that not only had the CIA funded Cameron's efforts, but also that the Canadian government was fully aware of this, and had later provided another $500,000 in funding to continue the experiments. [15], Following the September 11 attacks the United States, in particular the CIA, has been accused of rendering hundreds of people suspected by the government of being terroristsor of aiding and abetting terrorist organisationsto third-party states such as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Uzbekistan. (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1976), 394", "U.S. Senate: Joint Hearing before The Select Committee on Intelligence and The Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. [32], The project began during a period of what English journalist Rupert Cornwell described as "paranoia" at the CIA, when the U.S. had lost its nuclear monopoly and fear of communism was at its height. The Soviet Union was more aggressive in forcibly recruiting more than 2,200 German specialistsa total of more than 6,000 people including family memberswith Operation Osoaviakhim during one night on October 22, 1946.". A spokeswoman for Wikipedia said in response that the changes may violate the encyclopedia's conflict-of-interest guidelines. Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Representative Silvestre Reyes announced that he is considering an investigation into alleged CIA violations of the National Security Act, which requires with limited exception that Congress be informed of covert activities. High-ranking government officials in countries where the military forces operated were sometimes not aware of the armies' existence. In July 2013, declassified documents from the CIA acknowledged the existence of Area 51 for the first time, and confirmed that the top-secret site was used to test a variety of spy planes, including the well-known U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. That group compiled more than 9,000 pages of documents detailing crimes by U.S. troops during the Vietnam War, many of which were declassified during the 1990s. [18], Perhaps the most disruptive incident involving counterintelligence was James Jesus Angleton's search for a mole,[19] based on the statements of a Soviet defector, Anatoliy Golitsyn. Kinzer writes that MKUltra's use of mescaline on unwitting subjects was a practice that Nazi doctors had begun in the camps at Auschwitz and Dachau. Before it was called the CIA, it was. Before it was called the CIA, it was. A series of top-secret human experiments conducted by the CIA between 1953 and 1973, Project MK-Ultra sought to harness the power of mind-control. Wernher von Braun, who helped get us on the moon in 1969. about Become a Part of Our Story. The NRO History Archive also contains a detailed collection of CORONA history, imagery and other related materials. In the summer of 1975, congressional Church Committee reports and the presidential Rockefeller Commission report revealed to the public for the first time that the CIA and the Department of Defense had conducted experiments on both unwitting and cognizant human subjects as part of an extensive program to find out how to influence and control human behavior through the use of psychoactive drugs such as LSD and mescaline and other chemical, biological, and psychological means. These and other declassified documents regarding Vietnam War crimes can be accessed through the National Archives. Brennan ordered the creation of an internal personnel board, led by former senator Evan Bayh, to review the agency employees' conduct and determine "potential disciplinary measures. Known to the public as the U.S. Air Forces Discoverer program, the classified CORONA project operated during the height of the Cold War to collect pictures over the denied areas of eastern Europe and Asia. Government and military secrets can range from terrifying to amusing to downright absurd, but most are nothing short of intriguing. Within a day the mosquitoes had bitten many people. Central Intelligence Agency front organizations, People killed in Central Intelligence Agency operations, International counter-terrorism activities of the CIA, Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis, Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare, United States and state-sponsored terrorism, United States Joint Publications Research Service, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Central_Intelligence_Agency_operations&oldid=711930997, This page was last edited on 25 March 2016, at 20:06. None of Cameron's personal records of his involvement with MKUltra survived because his family destroyed them after his death.[82][83]. This revelation largely derailed efforts by the victims to sue the CIA as their U.S. counterparts had, and the Canadian government eventually settled out of court for $100,000 to each of the 127 victims. The confidential documents, codenamed Vault 7, dated from 20132016, included details on the CIA's software capabilities, such as the ability to compromise cars, smart TVs,[81] and web browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and Opera,[82][83] as well as the operating systems of most smartphones including Apple's iOS and Google's Android, and other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. During the Cold War, the CIA initiated Project MK-ULTRA, a secret and illegal human research program to investigate potential mind-control systems. Cameron was also a member of the Nuremberg medical tribunal in 19461947. The tests were designed to reveal information about the dispersal of yellow fever mosquitoes in an urban area. MKUltra used numerous methods to manipulate its subjects' mental states and brain functions, such as the covert administration of high doses of psychoactive drugs (especially LSD) and other chemicals, electroshocks,[5] hypnosis,[6][7] sensory deprivation, isolation, and verbal and sexual abuse, in addition to other forms of torture. CIA spokesman George Little said that he could not confirm if CIA computers were used to make the changes, claiming that "the agency always expects its computer systems to be used responsibly. [90] The case was dismissed in July 2013, due in part to the 1976 settlement between the family and government. These declassified documents include a system designed to teach people how to focus their . While Area 51, which operates as a detachment of Edwards Air Force Base in neighboring California, has never been declared a covert base, the research and activities conducted there were some of the nation's most closely guarded secrets. Reilly, Edward C. "Ken Kesey." Under this guise, engineers built a network of underground buildings and tunnels, including living quarters, a kitchen, a recreation hall, infirmary, laboratories, supply rooms, a communications center and a nuclear power plant. This page was last edited on 16 January 2023, at 09:30. ", Rush Holt, Chairman, House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, Committee on Appropriations[62], Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D, IL), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, who called for the investigation, stated that the investigation was intended to address CIA failures to inform Congress fully or accurately about four issues: C.I.A. At first, everyone in Technical Services tried it; a typical experiment involved two people in a room where they observed each other for hours and took notes. [21] The CIA operated using front organizations, although some top officials at these institutions were aware of the CIA's involvement.[13]. 94-755, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. [58] The project studied the effects of psychoactive drugs, particularly LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, cocaine, AMT and DMT on people. The CIA captured people suspected of being enemy agents and other people it deemed "expendable" to undertake various types of torture and human experimentation on them. Its free. As Aeby later said, "It was there so I shot it.". The documents showed that the CIA purchased some quantities of LSD from Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland. The plan, known as Operation Gladio, called for the formation of secret armies or "stay-behind" organizations in many NATO countries, including Italy, Belgium and France, according to declassified documents. Declassified CIA File - Project AERODYNAMIC (15 Feb 1967) Original Title: Declassified CIA file - Project AERODYNAMIC (15 Feb 1967) Uploaded by Operation Gladio Description: Source: http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/1705143/AERODYNAMIC%20%20%20VOL.%205%20%20 (DEVELOPMENT%20AND%20PLANS)_0004.pdf Copyright: Although the government aggressively, and sometimes successfully, sought to avoid legal liability, several plaintiffs did receive compensation through court order, out-of-court settlement, or acts of Congress. [91] In the decision dismissing the suit, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote, "While the court must limit its analysis to the four corners of the complaint, the skeptical reader may wish to know that the public record supports many of the allegations [in the family's suit], farfetched as they may sound. [33][118] The CIA insists that MKUltra-type experiments have been abandoned. Declassified documents related to NATO's stay-behind armies are accessible via The Black Vault, a website that makes declassified documents available to the public. Wishing well used for Bronze Age 'cult rituals' discovered in Bavaria, Man holding penis and flanked by leopards is world's oldest narrative carving, This wasp uses its prickly penis to escape certain death, iPad Pro M2 review: all dressed up and nowhere to go, Rare, 'high-status' Viking burial unearthed in a garden in Oslo, The ultimate action-packed science and technology magazine bursting with exciting information about the universe, Subscribe today and get your first 3 issues for just 3" today, Engaging articles, amazing illustrations & exclusive interviews, Issues delivered straight to your door or device. The program's operators examined the effects of hypnosis, biological agents and drugs, such as LSD and barbiturates, on human subjects. Between 1953 and 1964, the program consisted of 149 projects involving drug testing and other studies on unwitting human subjects, Given the CIA's purposeful destruction of most records, its failure to follow informed consent protocols with thousands of participants, the uncontrolled nature of the experiments, and the lack of follow-up data, the full impact of MKUltra experiments, including deaths, may never be known. Random House, 2008, p. 342. In the 1970s, Congressional investigations and reports also revealed Agency connections with journalists and civic groups. After retiring in 1972, Gottlieb dismissed his entire effort for the CIA's MKUltra program as useless. [1] Jeffrey T. Richelson of the National Security Archive has been critical of its claims. ", "Under the guidelines, seven research projects involving chemical weapons and human subjects were submitted by the Chemical Corps for Secretary of the Army approval in August 1953. Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Second Revised Edition (2000): EBSCO. "Sure, there are some people who are happy to let intelligence agencies go about their business unexamined. With projects like the A-12 having proven just how valuable stealth could be for aircraft, and advancements in radar technology on the rise, the demand for an armed, stealth capable . [23], During Bush's year in charge of the CIA, the U.S. national security apparatus actively supported Operation Condor operations and right-wing military dictatorships in Latin America. News, advice and insights for the most interesting man in the room. Heres how it works. [2], Operation Top Hat was termed a "local field exercise" by the Army and took place from September 1519, 1953 at the Army Chemical School at Fort McClellan, Alabama. [38], The CIA sometimes finds itself in conflict with other parts of the government when there is disagreement over the legality of specific covert programs. In December 1974, The New York Times alleged that the CIA had conducted illegal domestic activities, including experiments on U.S. citizens, during the 1960s. The CIA has also been accused of a lack of financial and whistleblower controls which has led to waste and fraud. An aerial view of Area 51 and Groom Lake in Nevada. The ambitious program, called Project 1794, was initiated in the 1950s, and a team of engineers was tasked with building a disc-shape vehicle capable of traveling at supersonic speeds at high altitudes. The project's estimated cost was more than $3 million, which in today's dollars would be more than $26 million. Testing and Use of Chemical and Biological Agents by the Intelligence Community, List of MKULTRA Unclassified Documents including subprojects, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MKUltra&oldid=1133962574. [74][unreliable source? The trove contains files covering a wide range of secrets, from the mundane to the mind-blowing and, yes, even UFOS. ", "Operation Big Itch was a September 1954 series of tests at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. Plan", "The CIA's Appalling Human Experiments With Mind Control", "Buying a Piece of Anthropology: Human Ecology and unwitting anthropological research for the CIA", "Senate MKUltra Hearing: Appendix C Documents Referring to Subprojects, (p. 167, in PDF document page numbering)", "Data shows 50s projects: Germ Testing by the CIA", "The Search for the Manchurian Candidate Chapter 4", "Sidney Gottlieb, 80, Dies; Took LSD to C.I.A. This category contains the known or alleged operations of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States. Many veterans who were subjected to experimentation are now seeking legal and monetary reparations. Physical methods of producing shock and confusion over extended periods of time and capable of surreptitious use. As the experimentation progressed, a point arrived where outsiders were drugged with no explanation whatsoever and surprise acid trips became something of an occupational hazard among CIA operatives. Its hard to imagine a world without Google maps or satellite imagery, but when CORONA was developed in the 1950s, satellite photo-reconnaissance didnt exist. Italian Prime Minister at the time, the late Giulio Andreotti divulged information about Italy's secret Cold War army (known as Gladio) in 1990, becoming the first leader of a NATO country to publicly acknowledge one of these forces. Copyright 2023 InsideHook. CORONA: Between the Sun and the Earth William Kampiles, a low-level worker in the CIA 24-hour Operations Center, sold the Soviets a detailed operational manual for the KH-11 reconnaissance satellite. CORONA also had sister programs: ARGON for mapping imagery and LANYARD, a short-lived program designed for higher-quality imagery. Rather, the human rights associated with the Snowden leaks are regarding the types of document Snowden released. [59], The Office of Security used LSD in interrogations, but Sidney Gottlieb, the chemist who directed MKUltra, had other ideas: he thought it could be used in covert operations. The idea here was that the CIA could gain confessions from enemy combatants through unconventional methods like mind-control. B Black sites (18 P) C Central Intelligence Agency domestic surveillance operations (10 P) E Extraordinary rendition program (2 C, 13 P) M Declassified documents associated with the inquiry are available from the Library of Congress. The documents will be available on CIA.gov and in the CIA Records Search Tool (CREST) at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. [69], In the 1980s, several of Cameron's former patients sued the CIA for damages, which the Canadian news program The Fifth Estate documented. The mosquitoes were released from ground level in Savannah, Georgia and then recovered using traps baited with dry ice. The project began in 1939, and was cloaked in secrecy as physicists investigated the potential power of atomic weapons. And these clandestine armies weren't just kept secret from the Soviet Union. Army officials managed to cover up the massacre for a year before an investigative journalist with the Associated Press (AP) brought the atrocity to the attention of the American people in November 1969. One subject of army drug experimentation, James Stanley, an army sergeant, brought an important, albeit unsuccessful, suit. [12] The administration continued to allow rendition only "to a country with jurisdiction over that individual (for prosecution of that individual)" when there is a diplomatic assurance "that they will not be treated inhumanely. Much of what the Church Committee and the Rockefeller Commission learned about MKUltra was contained in a report, prepared by the Inspector General's office in 1963, that had survived the destruction of records ordered in 1973. The project grew out of QKHilltop and was later absorbed into MKUltra. The MKSEARCH program was divided into two projects dubbed MKOFTEN and MKCHICKWIT. The operation proposed creating public support for a war against Cuba by blaming it for terrorist acts that would actually be perpetrated by the U.S. The revelations about the CIA and the army prompted a number of subjects or their survivors to file lawsuits against the federal government for conducting experiments without informed consent. Nov 10. "[41], According to Timothy Naftali, "The CIAs central concern [in recruiting former Nazi collaborators] was not so much the extent of the criminals guilt as the likelihood that the agents criminal past could remain a secret. Today, the crushed remains of Project Iceworm are buried beneath Arctic snow. The CIA has been called into question for, at times, using torture, funding and training of groups and organizations that would later participate in killing of civilians and other non-combatants and would try or succeed in overthrowing democratically elected governments, human experimentation, and targeted killings and assassinations. "[5], Extraordinary rendition is the apprehension and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one country to another.[6]. If this principle is violated, the very least that society can do is to see that the victims are compensated, as best they can be, by the perpetrators. Ancient bird with T. rex-like skull discovered in China, Extinct giant tortoise was the 'mammoth' of Madagascar 1,000 years ago, Utah's Great Salt Lake is on the verge of collapse, and could expose millions to arsenic laced dust.

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