1 CIA Operative Posture Training
The CIA trains American operatives to correct their distinctive lean, which can reveal their identity. Americans often stand on one foot with the other foot slightly out, while Europeans typically stand upright and balanced on both feet. This difference in posture is one of the first things the CIA addresses to help operatives blend in better abroad.
2. The CIA has used songs like “Hit Me Baby One More Time” and “Bye Bye Bye” as part of their torture methods.
3. The night before Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the CIA set a record for late-night pizza orders, with 21 pizzas delivered to their headquarters in Langley, Virginia. This surge in orders was part of a broader pattern in Washington, D.C., where increased pizza deliveries often hint at significant global events unfolding.
4. Project Stargate was a CIA initiative from the 1970s to the 1990s that aimed to use psychic powers, including remote viewing, for intelligence gathering. Despite three decades of research and a $20 million investment, the project closed in 1995 without any verified success, even though it employed three full-time psychics with a $500,000 annual budget at its peak.
5. Operation Artichoke, a 1954 CIA plan, aimed to make an unwitting individual attempt to assassinate an American public official, who would then be taken into custody and &”disposed of”. The program’s unethical methods and inhumane goals raise serious questions about the lengths to which the CIA was willing to go in its pursuit of mind control and interrogation techniques.
6 1944 OSS Sabotage Manual
In 1944, the OSS, a precursor to the CIA, released a field manual for simple sabotage that was intended for use by the average person. The manual included tips like misplacing tools, starting small fires, and even slowing down work by bringing up irrelevant issues during meetings.
7. In 2016, the CIA in Loudoun County, Virginia, accidentally left explosives in a school bus engine after a training exercise. Mechanics discovered the explosives after the bus had carried children for two days. The training program, which included realistic scenarios like placing explosives in schools and buses, was immediately suspended after this incident.
8. Marlon Brando tried to purchase the rights to a movie about the Iran-Contra scandal using a former CIA connection. However, the CIA derailed this by creating a front company to outbid Brando for the rights. They put Col. Oliver North in charge of this operation.
9. Operation Ajax, the 1953 CIA plan to overthrow Iran’s democratically elected government, included CIA agents bombing the house of a prominent Muslim while posing as pro-government supporters. The overthrow plan succeeded, resulting in 200-300 deaths.
10. During the Cold War, the CIA proposed dropping enormous condoms labeled “medium” over the Soviet Union as a psychological tactic to demoralize the Soviet male population and exacerbate insecurities.
11 CIA’s Domestic Spying Restrictions
By law, the CIA cannot collect information on the U.S. government, U.S. citizens, resident aliens, legal immigrants, or U.S. corporations, regardless of their location.
12. The CIA created the “Glomar response” (the “neither confirm nor deny” response) in response to media inquiries about a covert agency program. Notably, when the CIA launched its Twitter account, its first tweet humorously stated, “We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.”
13. During the 1990s, the CIA developed a robotic catfish named “Charlie.” The CIA designed this unmanned underwater vehicle to covertly collect water samples using a line-of-sight radio handset. However, the details of its missions remain classified.
14. Gary Webb, the journalist who exposed the CIA’s involvement in the Contra-Crack scandal, tragically died by suicide under suspicious circumstances, with two gunshot wounds to the head.
15. In 1954, the CIA ordered Carcano rifle ammunition for anti-communist forces. Eventually, Lee Harvey Oswald, who used the leftover ammunition and rifles to assassinate President John F. Kennedy, reimported and sold them wholesale to the public.
16 CIA Accessed Soviet Lunar Probe
In 1959, the CIA covertly accessed, disassembled, photographed, and reassembled a fully operational Soviet lunar probe, which they obtained from a Soviet exhibit touring several countries. The team of CIA officers had 24 hours of unrestricted access to the probe, allowing them to gather invaluable intelligence on its design and capabilities before returning it undetected.
17. During the 1960s, CIA field agents would often prank each other by secretly slipping LSD into each other’s drinks.
18. CIA Director Allen Dulles and other top officials masterminded Project Fat Fucker, which aimed to pressure King Farouk of Egypt into making political reforms to prevent a communist takeover. When Farouk refused to change, the CIA shifted its support to the Free Officers Movement, which ultimately overthrew the king in a coup on July 23, 1952, establishing a government more amenable to American interests.
19. When crack cocaine usage rose exponentially in the U.S., the CIA investigated itself after accusations surfaced that CIA officers were involved with drug traffickers. After concluding the investigation, the agency stated in its report that it found no link between itself and crack trade.
20. The term “conspiracy theory” is itself the subject of a conspiracy theory. Some believe the CIA intentionally popularized the term after the Kennedy assassination to discredit and ridicule those who believed in conspiracies.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 CIA Analyst Uncovers Soviet Plants
In 1958, Charles V. Reeves, a CIA analyst, deduced the locations and power consumption of Soviet nuclear enrichment plants by analyzing a censored cover of a magazine. He examined a photograph from the July issue of the Soviet magazine Ogonëk, which depicted the Sverdlovsk Central Despatching Office. By comparing the image to his experience with Boston Edison Company control stations and cross-referencing Soviet technical publications, Reeves identified key elements of the Urals’ electric power network, leading to precise estimates of power usage at major Soviet atomic facilities.
22. The CIA operates a venture capital fund to identify and finance technologies deemed to be important to “national security.”
23. In 1957, the KGB photographed journalist Joseph Alsop in a Moscow hotel room engaging in sexual activity with a Soviet agent. Despite Soviet attempts at blackmail, he refused to cooperate and reported the incident to the CIA. When the Soviets sent the photos to prominent journalists, they all refused to expose him.
24. The CIA developed a gun that could shoot darts causing a heart attack. The dart left only a tiny red dot upon skin penetration, and the poison denatured quickly. Congressional testimony from 1975 revealed this weapon.
25. In 2003, the CIA mistakenly captured a German citizen with a name similar to that of a terrorist. They tortured and raped him while he was in detention.
RE: Fact #11 (CIA’s Domestic Spying Restrictions) – They’re not supposed to deal cocaine or give weapons to those groups in South America, but here we are.
RE: Fact #44 (Crypto AG’s CIA-Backed Espionage) – This guy’s life turned into a total disaster. The Iranian government arrested the top guy at Crypto AG, Hans Buehler, in Tehran back in 1992. They accused him of spilling their encryption codes to Western spies. Buehler was grilled for nine months, but since he had no clue there was anything wrong with their machines, they finally let him go in January 1993 after Crypto AG paid a $1 million bail to Iran. Not long after Buehler was released, Crypto AG fired him and tried to get the $1 million bail money back from him personally. Swiss media and the German magazine Der Spiegel jumped on his story in 1994 and talked to former employees. They all concluded that Crypto’s machines had been secretly tampered with.
That’s messed up. If the company was legit, why would they try to get their money back from him? It just feels like they were being mean.
RE: Fact #33 (Australian PM’s CIA Connections) – I’d say all the leaders of those Five Eyes countries are basically puppets for the CIA, whether they know it or not.
RE: Fact #34 (Project Azorian Submarine Recovery Failure) – Three tries for a buck?
RE: Fact #8 (Brando Outbid by CIA Front) – So, that was a good use of our money, huh? Why is he still walking around free?
RE: Fact #29 (CIA Manual Sent by Balloon) – Contras
RE: Fact #7 (CIA’s School Bus Explosives Error) – So the KGB, the FBI, and the CIA are all trying to be the best at catching criminals, right? The UN Secretary General decides to give them a test. He releases a rabbit into a forest and tells them to find it.
The CIA goes in. They use their network of spies to get information and try to control the forest. After months of investigation, they decide that rabbits don’t exist!
The FBI goes in. They can’t find anything, so they just burn down the forest and kill everything in it. They don’t even apologize. They say the rabbit deserved it.
The KGB goes in and comes back two hours later with a beaten-up bear. The bear kneels down in front of the UN Secretary General and says, “I’m a rabbit. I’ve always been a rabbit.”
That was awesome!
RE: Fact #10 (CIA’s Condom Propaganda Plan) – So, the story goes, the Soviets asked the US to make 10,000 condoms that were, like, a foot long and three inches wide. They were going to give them to their soldiers. The US did it, but they labeled them “SMALL” just for a laugh.
RE: Fact #28 (Aswang Myth Used by CIA) – Aswangs are more than just vampire-like creatures, they’re a whole bunch of different monsters and beings from Philippine folklore. You’ve got the kapre, giant tobacco-smoking guys who live in trees and fall head over heels for humans. Then there’s the tiktik, a creature that eats unborn babies with its long, creepy mouth. And don’t forget the tiyanak, a monster baby that cries to lure people in. The manananggal is a woman who can split in half and fly, with some stories saying they’re the same as tiktiks. Legend says they were brides who were stood up, so they sometimes attack men before their weddings. Some stories also say they were women who lost their babies, so they take other women’s babies instead. Then there’s the tikbalang, a half-horse, half-man creature that gets married when it rains on a sunny day. The mangkukulam is basically a witch, and if you want to curse someone, you can find them for a fee. There are also the duwendes, which are like dwarves. My family says they’re cool as long as you don’t mess with their homes. If you’re walking through the woods or on a dirt road and see a mound, say “tabi-tabi po” so they know you’re there. If you don’t, and you step on it, they’ll make you sick or make some part of your body swell up. It’s a wild world of weird, creepy creatures.
RE: Fact #29 (CIA Manual Sent by Balloon) – Why does the CIA need to overthrow so many governments before people realize socialism isn’t the answer?
RE: Fact #17 (CIA Agents’ LSD Pranks) – That MK Ultra article just scratches the surface, and it’s pretty messed up stuff. I mean, it’s one thing to think it’s funny to give your coworkers LSD, but this is a whole other level.
Apparently, they gave LSD to CIA employees, military folks, doctors, even regular people! And they didn’t even tell them what they were doing. Can you believe that? Talk about a violation!
Then there’s this other technique they tried, where they’d put a barbiturate in one arm and an amphetamine in the other. They’d knock the person out with the barbiturate, then give them the amphetamine. And they’d just start babbling, and the CIA would try to get information out of them. It’s insane.
They even took MK Ultra to Canada, and the Canadian government was in on it!
Then there’s this guy, Cameron, who was doing some really messed up experiments with shock therapy and paralytic drugs. He’d put people in comas for weeks on end, just playing them the same noises or phrases over and over. And he was doing this to people with pretty minor problems, like anxiety or postpartum depression. A lot of them ended up permanently damaged, losing their memories, their ability to talk, even their parents!
The worst part is that this Cameron guy ended up becoming a big deal in the medical community. He was president of all these big organizations.
Eventually, the truth came out, and there were lawsuits. In Canada, it took forever to get the information out, but finally, in 1984, it was revealed that the CIA had funded Cameron’s work and the Canadian government knew about it all along. And they even gave him more money to keep doing his experiments! The victims finally got a settlement, but Cameron’s records were all destroyed, so there’s no way to know exactly what happened to those people.
The whole MK Ultra program is just a sickening example of how far people will go to experiment on others, no matter the cost. It’s crazy to think they thought they could find the perfect mind control drug by making people suffer like that.
There’s this great book about MK Ultra called “The Search for the “Manchurian Candidate”: The CIA and Mind Control: The Secret History of the Behavioral Sciences.” You should check it out if you’re really interested in learning more.
There’s also a bunch of documentaries about MK Ultra. One is called “The Sleep Room” and it’s about the victims in Canada. And there’s another one called “Hofmann’s Potion” that talks about LSD and how it was used in Canadian psychiatric institutions.
RE: Fact #1 (CIA Operative Posture Training) – I’d love to see a video comparing how other countries measure up.
I want to see a picture or video because I don’t know what this lean is.
RE: Fact #19 (CIA’s Self-Investigation on Crack Trade) – The investigation got shut down quick when people started reporting the high-ups’ addresses.
RE: Fact #40 (CIA’s Lost Himalayan Spy Devices) – Back in 1965, the CIA and the IB got together to keep an eye on China. Things were pretty crazy over there – they had nukes, split with the Soviets, fought a war with India, and were in the middle of some big changes. So, they decided to plant some listening devices on Nanda Devi, this super high mountain, to pick up radio signals from Chinese missiles. It was a huge operation, involving some of the best Indian and American climbers, plus local guides.
They called it Operation Hat. At the start, only a handful of climbers had ever reached the top of Nanda Devi, and a few of them didn’t make it back.
One of the devices they planted, called Model 19C, was a real piece of work. It had seven plutonium rods, packed with a pretty potent mix of plutonium-238 and -239. They expected it to keep working for a couple of years, but the mission was called off when the climbers couldn’t go any higher. And no one has found it since.
By the way, the plutonium in that device isn’t the kind that blows up. It’s not like something out of a movie. It can’t explode, and it’s hard to spread around. It’s only dangerous if it gets into the air as fine dust.
They also planted a second device on a nearby mountain, Nanda Kot, but that one was retrieved later. It didn’t turn up much useful information.
RE: Fact #31 (‘The Wall’ Policy and 9/11 Failures) – “The Looming Tower” on Hulu is a really good drama series, it’s got eight parts and it does a great job of showing how things led up to 9/11. Plus, they handle the whole “no sharing” thing well.
RE: Fact #16 (CIA Accessed Soviet Lunar Probe) – Or else without the Soviets letting on they’d caught on.
RE: Fact #21 (CIA Analyst Uncovers Soviet Plants) – And yeah, Fitbit today.
RE: Fact #17 (CIA Agents’ LSD Pranks) – It’s not really possible to slip someone LSD without them knowing. People are pretty aware of what they’re doing.
RE: Fact #37 (Profiting from CIA Coup Knowledge) – Did you know Americans overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy?
It’s crazy, but United Fruit Company’s main rival was Guatemala, and they were exporting a ton of fruit. To get rid of them, United lied to the US government, saying Guatemala was Pro-Soviet. The US ended up staging a coup, which led to the Guatemalan civil war that lasted for 36 years.
RE: Fact #21 (CIA Analyst Uncovers Soviet Plants) – The CIA figured out there were a lot of Soviets in Cuba before the Missile Crisis because they saw tons of soccer fields popping up on spy photos. Cubans don’t even play soccer, they play baseball.
RE: Fact #41 (CIA’s Failed Bribe of Singapore PM) – The CIA? That’s mostly for doing stuff on the sly, like spying and all that. The I doesn’t really stand for intelligence, more like “incognito.”
That’s a pretty dark thought.
RE: Fact #33 (Australian PM’s CIA Connections) – The governor general who kicked out the last Labor prime minister was also working for the CIA. Australian politics in the late 20th century was all about the US getting more and more powerful.
RE: Fact #17 (CIA Agents’ LSD Pranks) – I’d totally love to be a CIA field agent in the 60s.
RE: Fact #22 (CIA’s National Security Venture Fund) – It’s kinda weird how DARPA’s lifelog program got axed the same day Facebook popped up. You know the government loves to stick its nose in everything. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were behind pushing social media as a way to keep tabs on us without us even realizing.
RE: Fact #36 (CIA Concealed Mayak Nuclear Disaster) – So, like, wasn’t that a nuclear weapon fuel reactor, not a power plant? And they keep saying it was built in a rush, without any regard for safety or the environment, and with physicists who didn’t know what they were doing.
RE: Fact #49 (CIA Officer Tortured by Hezbollah) – He was a total mess after seven months, I can’t even imagine how bad things were after fifteen months.