Secret Government Projects - 1955 - 1959

1955

(A) (circa) Dr Louis West, friends with Aldous Huxley. It was Huxley who suggested that West combine LSD and hypnosis in his experiments (Lee, Martin, and Schlain, Bruce, Acid Dreams, Grove Press, 1985, pg 48). West was an Air Force Major, chairman of the Psychiatry Department of UCLA, director of the Neuro-Psychiatric Institute, and an expert in hypnosis.

West was a veteran of the CIA's MK-ULTRA mind-control program and worked on interrogation techniques using hypnosis and LSD. West once killed an elephant by grossly overestimating a dose of LSD (elsewhere, I have heard that the tranquilizers required to calm the animal caused its death). West also studied the returning American POWs from Korea for the effects of brainwashing (Scheflin, Alan and Opton, Edward Jr., The Mind Manipulators, Paddington Press Ltd, 1978, pg 149-50).

(B) Morris K. Jessup published The Case For the UFO.

(C) The CIA -- in an experiment to test its ability to infect human populations with biological agents -- releases a bacteria withdrawn from the Army's biological warfare arsenal over Tampa Bay, Fl.

(D) Army Chemical Corps continues LSD research, studying its potential use as a chemical incapacitating agent. More than 1,000 Americans participate in the tests, which continued until 1958.

1956

U.S. military releases mosquitoes infected with Yellow Fever over Savannah, GA and Avon Park, FL. Following each test, Army agents posing as public health officials test victims for effects.

1957

It has now been documented that millions of doses of LSD were produced and disseminated under the aegis of the CIA's Operation MK-ULTRA. LSD became the drug of choice within the agency itself and was passed out freely to friends of the family including a substantial number of OSS veterans.

For instance, it was OSS Research and Analysis Branch veteran Gregory Bateson who "turned on" the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg to a U.S. Navy LSD experiment in Palo Alto, California. Not only Ginsberg but also novelist Ken Kesey and the original members of the Grateful Dead rock group opened the doors of perception courtesy of the Navy.

The guru of the 'psychedelic revolution' -- Timothy Leary -- first heard about hallucinogens in 1957 from Life magazine (whose publisher Henry Luce was often given Government acid like many other opinion shapers) and began his career as a CIA contract employee. At a 1977 "reunion" of acid pioneers, Leary openly admitted that "everything I am, I owe to the foresight of the CIA.'' [Michael J. Minnicino, "The New Dark Age, The Frankfurt School, and 'Political Correctness'", Fidelio, v1 #1]

1958

(A) Project Argus
Between August and September 1958, the US Navy exploded 3 fission-type nuclear bombs 480 km above the South Atlantic Ocean in the part of the lower Van Allen Belt closest to the Earth's surface. In addition, 2 hydrogen bombs were detonated 160 km over Johnston Island in the Pacific. The military called this "the biggest scientific experiment ever undertaken". It was designed by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, under the code name 'Project Argus'. The purpose appears to be to assess the impact of high-altitude nuclear explosions on radio transmission and radar operations because of the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and to increase understanding of the geomagnetic field and the behavior of the charged particles in it.

This gigantic experiment created new (inner) magnetic radiation belts encompassing almost the whole Earth and injected sufficient electrons and other energetic particles into the ionosphere to cause worldwide effects. The electrons traveled back-and-forth along magnetic force lines causing an artificial "aurora" when striking the atmosphere near the North Pole.

(B) The U.S. Military planned to create a "telecommunications shield" in the ionosphere reported in August 13-20, 1961 Keesings Historisch Archief (K.H.A.). This shield would be created "in the ionosphere at 3,000 km height by bringing into orbit 350,000 million copper needles, each 2-4 cm long [total weight 16 kg], forming a belt 10 km thick and 40 km wide, the needles spaced about 100 m apart."

This was designed to replace the ionosphere "because telecommunications are impaired by magnetic storms and solar flares." The U.S. planned to add to the number of copper needles if the experiment proved to be successful. This plan was strongly opposed by the Intentional Union of Astronomers.

(C) Project Orion/ USAF:
Drugs, hypnosis, and ESB
Targeting: Short range, in person
Frequencies: ELFis Modulation
Transmission and Reception: Radar, microwaves, modulated at ELF frequencies
Purpose: Top-security personnel debriefing, programming, insure security and loyalty
Pseudonym: "Dreamland"

(D) While Lilly implies that he left the NIH because of unethical government interference, his Communications Research Institute (founded in the 1958 to study dolphins) was partially funded by the Air Force, NASA, NIHM, the National Science Foundation, and the Navy. He was assisted in this work by Gregory Bateson. While experimenting with sensory deprivation and LSD and ketamine, Lilly came to believe that he was in psychic contact with the aliens of what he called the "Earth Coincidence Control Office". The aliens were guiding events in Lilly's life to lead him to work with dolphins which were psychic conduits between aliens and humans. The aliens are acting for the survival of organic lifeforms against artificial intelligences called "solid-state lifeforms".

(E) LSD is tested on 95 volunteers at the Army's Chemical Warfare Laboratories for its effect on intelligence.

1959

Huxley speeches in London on "Latent Human Potential". COINTELPRO is kicked off and the games begin.

First, Let Me ShareThis

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

• No right to privacy in constitution, though search and seizure protections exist in 4th Amendment; case law on government searches has considered new technology
• No comprehensive privacy law, many sectoral laws; though tort of privacy
• FTC continues to give inadequate attention to privacy issues, though issued self-regulating privacy guidelines on advertising in 2007
• State-level data breach legislation has proven to be useful in identifying faults in security
• REAL-ID and biometric identification programs continue to spread without adequate oversight, research, and funding structures
• Extensive data-sharing programs across federal government and with private sector
• Spreading use of CCTV
• Congress approved presidential program of spying on foreign communications over U.S. networks, e.g. Gmail, Hotmail, etc.; and now considering immunity for telephone companies, while government claims secrecy, thus barring any legal action
• No data retention law as yet, but equally no data protection law
• World leading in border surveillance, mandating trans-border data flows
• Weak protections of financial and medical privacy; plans spread for 'rings of steel' around cities to monitor movements of individuals
• Democratic safeguards tend to be strong but new Congress and political dynamics show that immigration and terrorism continue to leave politicians scared and without principle
• Lack of action on data breach legislation on the federal level while REAL-ID is still compelled upon states has shown that states can make informed decisions
• Recent news regarding FBI biometric database raises particular concerns as this could lead to the largest database of biometrics around the world that is not protected by strong privacy law

Source: http://www.privacyinternational.org

The CIA and our Habits and Social Lives

The Pentagon’s plans for psychological operations or PSYOP in the global information environment of the 21st century are wide ranging and aggressive. These desires are outlined in the 2003 Pentagon document signed by Donald Rumsfeld in his capacity as the Secretary of Defense called the Information Operation Roadmap.

The Pentagon's Information Operations Roadmap is blunt about the fact that an internet, with the potential for free speech, is in direct opposition to their goals. The internet needs to be dealt with as if it were an enemy "weapons system".

Facebook's first round of venture capital funding ($US500,000) came from former Paypal CEO Peter Thiel. Author of anti-multicultural tome 'The Diversity Myth', he is also on the board of radical conservative group VanguardPAC.

The second round of funding into Facebook ($US12.7 million) came from venture capital firm Accel Partners. Its manager James Breyer was formerly chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, and served on the board with Gilman Louie, CEO of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm established by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1999. One of the company's key areas of expertise are in "data mining technologies".

Breyer also served on the board of R&D firm BBN Technologies, which was one of those companies responsible for the rise of the internet.

Dr Anita Jones joined the firm, which included Gilman Louie. She had also served on the In-Q-Tel's board, and had been director of Defence Research and Engineering for the US Department of Defence.

She was also an adviser to the Secretary of Defence and overseeing the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is responsible for high-tech, high-end development.
It was when a journalist lifted the lid on the DARPA's Information Awareness Office that the public began to show concern at its information mining projects.

Wikipedia's IAO page says: "the IAO has the stated mission to gather as much information as possible about everyone, in a centralised location, for easy perusal by the United States government, including (though not limited to) internet activity, credit card purchase histories, airline ticket purchases, car rentals, medical records, educational transcripts, driver's licenses, utility bills, tax returns, and any other available data.".

• Starbucks as a entity was originally set by a black cell organisation by the C.I.A to covertly launder money. The plan was establish ONE in every major city in the u.s.a..this way the c.i.a could transfer illegally gained funds easily and quickly throughout the country. The administrators never anticipated that the organisation was going to make money and originally tried to keep it low key by making extremely poor quality coffee that repel a usual customer base. To date operation 'star buck' is now unofficially one of the c.i.a's most profitable branches of revenue. Every you buy a star bucks coffee, you are unwittingly supporting brutal and inhumane para-military tactics, as well as funding political regimes that impinge upon basic human rights.


• Facebook has 20 million users worldwide, is worth billions of dollars and, if internet sources are to be believed, was started by the CIA.


• The social networking phenomenon started as a way of American college students to keep in touch. It is rapidly catching up with MySpace, and has left others like Bebo in its wake.
  But there is a dark side to the success story that's been spreading across the blogosphere. A complex but riveting Big Brother-type conspiracy theory which links Facebook to the CIA and the US Department of Defence.


• The CIA is, though, using a Facebook group to recruit staff for its very sexy sounding National Clandestine Service.


• Checking out the job adsdoes require a Facebook login, so if you haven't joined the site - or are worried that CIA spooks will start following you home from work -check them out on the agency's own site.


• The US military has retained the services of a commercial privacy invasion outfit to assemble detailed dossiers on all American high school children and college students, according to a report in the Washington Post. Direct-marketing database outfit BeNow Inc will manage students' information for the US Department of Defense (DoD), in order to sidestep federal regulations limiting the amount of citizens' personal data that government agencies are permitted to retain.


• The Defense Department has been working with a private marketing firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and all college students to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.
  
  
  
  
  

Your humble host has been called a luddite, a cranky old fart and other things put in terma that will not be repeated here. I'll be getting into some exploration of our society and the issues that surround our use or not of technology and how naked we are through our use of seemingly innocent services.

From if:book.


The UK is one of the most watched over societies on earth with CCTV cameras in abundance, and the whole world is waking up to how much retrievable evidence the likes of Google have on us all thanks to our laptops and cellphones. (This spooky walking iphone was seen at the New York Halloween parade last week).



But is the invasion of privacy making our culture more secretive or less? Networks like FaceBook appear to be turning the once wild web into a cosy global village where all know each other's business and keep an eye out for our digital neighbours and group members.



Privacy and the implications of social networking and user generation on our culture were key topics in a discussion about new technology on the UK internet TV company Doughty Street TV this November 5th, hosted by the Institute of Ideas.



Reading has always been a solitary activity where the individual's imagination roams at will. There's been a strange reversal now that book groups and recommendations from chat show hosts - Richard & Judy in the UK, Oprah in the USA - create a tiny pool of recommended bestsellers in the vast and frightening ocean of the unread. Who are the free thinkers now, websurfers or bookbrowsers?