The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States is tasked with gathering and analyzing information that is crucial to national security. Since its formation in 1947, the CIA has been heavily involved with some very bizarre, secretive dealings that mimic absurdity. The public knows only what they choose to tell us and the rest is shrouded in mystery. If you don't already consider yourself a conspiracy theorist, you might change your mind after reading about a few of the Agency's declassified dealings.





Operation: Paperclip









On May 7th, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered to the ally forces, bringing about the end of the European theater of the second world war. By September of the same year, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) formed the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency with the purpose of overseeing the recruitment of German scientists, engineers and technicians. The recruitment program was given the code name Operation: Overcast and was later renamed to Operation: Paperclip. More than 1,500 German intellectuals were recruited by the United States and many of them were formerly registered members of Germany's National Socialists Party, some of these men even held leadership positions within the party. One of the most notable mentions of Operation: Paperclip is that of Wernher Von Braun, a former member of the Nazi party and the SS. Von Braun was on of the leading forces in the Nazi Rocket program and is credited for inventing the Nazi V-2 Rocket, as well as NASA's Saturn V rocket that got the Apollo astronauts to the moon. In fact, Von Braun became NASA's first director, serving from July 1960 to February 1970. Other German recruits went on to serve in high-level positions inside the Central Intelligence Agency in East Germany following it's formation in 1947.





Operation: Mockingbird









Beginning in the early 1950's, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began a large scale program that aimed to manipulate news for the purpose of spreading propaganda. The CIA funded student and cultural organizations and magazines that served as fronts for the operations. The first mention of Operation: Mockingbird was in Katherine the Great, a biography of Washington Post owner Katherine Graham, written by Deborah Davis. According to Davis, the CIA recruited leading American journalists into networks that spread propaganda and oversaw the front organizations. The Watergate scandal created a high level of concern for presidential abuse of the CIA within congress and subsequently lead to congress authorizing a multitude of congressional investigations into the agency's activities. The Church Committees final report was published in April 1976 and stated that approximately 50 of CIA assets, at the time, were either American journalists or employees of U.S. media organizations. According to the report, former CIA director William Colby informed the committee that in 1973 he had issued instructions that "As a general policy, the Agency will not make any clandestine use of staff employees of U.S. publications which have a substantial impact or influence on public opinion." Needless to say, the CIA brings a whole new meaning to Fake News.





Project MKUltra











Project MKUltra was a series of experiments carried out on human subjects undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Often referred to as the CIA's mind control program, the purpose of the experiments was to identify and develop drugs and operational procedures to use during interrogation as well as torture. From 1950 to 1973, the Scientific Intelligence Division of the CIA used various methods to manipulate subjects mental states and even alter brain function, including drugs such as LSD, hypnosis, sensory deprivation and many other forms of psychological torment. The research was carried out at as many as 80 institutions that included colleges, hospitals, prisons and pharmaceutical companies. A Freedom of Information Act request uncovered 20,000 documents related to MKUltra, which lead to U.S. Senate hearings in 1977. In 2001, information related to MKUltra that survived over the years was declassified for anyone to read.

MKUltra Declassified Project MKUltra was a series of experiments carried out on human subjects undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Often referred to as the CIA's mind control program, the purpose of the experiments was to identify and develop drugs and operational procedures to use during interrogation as well as torture. From 1950 to 1973, the Scientific Intelligence Division of the CIA used various methods to manipulate subjects mental states and even alter brain function, including drugs such as LSD, hypnosis, sensory deprivation and many other forms of psychological torment. The research was carried out at as many as 80 institutions that included colleges, hospitals, prisons and pharmaceutical companies. A Freedom of Information Act request uncovered 20,000 documents related to MKUltra, which lead to U.S. Senate hearings in 1977. In 2001, information related to MKUltra that survived over the years was declassified for anyone to read.





Operation: Northwoods











Operation: Northwoods Declassified on November 18th, 1997, Operation: Northwoods was a proposed false flag operation presented to the U.S. Secretary of Defense by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962. The proposal called for the CIA to carry out acts of terrorism against American civilians and military targets in order to justify a war with the island nation of Cuba. The false flag attacks ranged from sinking boats of Cuban refugees while at sea to hijacking planes to even staging an attack on Guantanamo Bay. It's important to understand some of these acts would be real, while others would be simulated along the same lines as the Gulf of Tonkin incident that lead to the U.S. intervention in Vietnam but never actually occurred. The proposal of Operation: Northwoods was authorized by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, however, it was ultimately rejected by the Kennedy administration.





The Heart Attack Gun



