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How a deadly fall revealed CIA secrets

theguardian.com

71–80 of 99 posts

Re: How a deadly fall revealed CIA secrets

#71
post #22

Interesting how the article turns a story of mass torture and killings akin to nazy mad-science into a story about one individual murder. Makes one wonder why would a state research mind control from drugs, when mind control from history books and newspapers is already so efficient.

They were researching mind control to extract information from individual subjects. (Because torture doesn't work) It has nothing to do with propaganda.

Re: How a deadly fall revealed CIA secrets

#72
post #69
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To my knowledge Ted Kaczynskis experiences with MKultra didn't involve any substances. He just sat in a chair while some folks screamed at him trying to aggressively undermine all of his views.

Professional lawyers posing as peers psychologically tortuting him to shatter his worldview, while the professor that led the experiment manipulated him to continue. Given that he secluded himself and wrote about his ideology for years like a comic book villain origin story, it's safe to say they took to too far, whatever it is they did. Also, afaik MK tested lacing with different doses, and only the big incidents we…

I wonder if there is even anything one could do in that kind of situation to have a normal life.

Edit: I also think this kind of thing exists in society today, but probably bought and sold on exclusive markets to modern lords and ladies.

Re: How a deadly fall revealed CIA secrets

#73
post #22

Interesting how the article turns a story of mass torture and killings akin to nazy mad-science into a story about one individual murder. Makes one wonder why would a state research mind control from drugs, when mind control from history books and newspapers is already so efficient.

The article is an excerpt from a book on Sydney Gottlieb, which is linked at the bottom. It’s one chapter, not a summary.

Re: How a deadly fall revealed CIA secrets

#74

Two other LSD targets of the CIA's program weren't mentioned in this excerpt. You've probably heard of them: Ted Kaczynski Charles Manson It is possible that neither would have committed their crimes but for their involvement in the CIA's mind experimentation programs. See, O'Neill, Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties (2019).

[deleted]

Re: How a deadly fall revealed CIA secrets

#75
post #69
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To my knowledge Ted Kaczynskis experiences with MKultra didn't involve any substances. He just sat in a chair while some folks screamed at him trying to aggressively undermine all of his views.

Professional lawyers posing as peers psychologically tortuting him to shatter his worldview, while the professor that led the experiment manipulated him to continue. Given that he secluded himself and wrote about his ideology for years like a comic book villain origin story, it's safe to say they took to too far, whatever it is they did. Also, afaik MK tested lacing with different doses, and only the big incidents we…

There is an interesting documentary on him by Lutz Dammbeck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gznwiZzvkg

Re: How a deadly fall revealed CIA secrets

#76
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially unreliable if you want people to do horrible things. Drugs may help you more then than books.

I can think of two very influential books that have caused (are still causing) untold human misery.

But it's far easier to think up drugs that have caused untold human misery, and do so much more reliably. Every human who takes these drugs will suffer through the misery. No such thing as "I'm too strong to be affected by this drug." (heroin, crystal meth.) Or "I can quit whenever I want." (opium, flakka.) Or, "My neighborhood, or community, or nation won't fall into ruin because of this drug." (China with opium, black americans with crack.)

And that's just the drugs we know about, just imagine the secret ones we don't know about.

Take X drug, it will have Y effect on every human. Immediately. That's the definition of efficiency. Keeping with the original example, that's the sort of efficiency and effectiveness a military leader would want when waging a campaign against an enemy. Far more swift, efficient, and effective than using a history book.

Re: How a deadly fall revealed CIA secrets

#78
post #76
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can think of two very influential books that have caused (are still causing) untold human misery.

But it's far easier to think up drugs that have caused untold human misery, and do so much more reliably. Every human who takes these drugs will suffer through the misery. No such thing as "I'm too strong to be affected by this drug." (heroin, crystal meth.) Or "I can quit whenever I want." (opium, flakka.) Or, "My neighborhood, or community, or nation won't fall into ruin because of this drug." (China with opium, bl…

> Every human who takes these drugs will suffer through the misery.

Blatantly false. Not everyone you uses XYZ drug ends up a hopeless addict. The vast majority of people use the drug with no long term negative effects addiction, including methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine et al

> No such thing as "I'm too strong to be affected by this drug." (heroin, crystal meth.)

Sure they will effect you

> Or "I can quit whenever I want." (opium, flakka.)

Within addiction, sure. Non-addiction use, false. You can stop whenever you want. Getting addicted to a substance is not as easy as people think. You need to be using through the day for multiple days in a row. You can use heroin every weekend without getting addicted, so long as you stop during the week

> Take X drug, it will have Y effect on every human

To an extent, different people can vary degrees of effects from the same dose when tolerance is not an issue

Re: How a deadly fall revealed CIA secrets

#79
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Professional lawyers posing as peers psychologically tortuting him to shatter his worldview, while the professor that led the experiment manipulated him to continue. Given that he secluded himself and wrote about his ideology for years like a comic book villain origin story, it's safe to say they took to too far, whatever it is they did. Also, afaik MK tested lacing with different doses, and only the big incidents we…

I wonder if there is even anything one could do in that kind of situation to have a normal life. Edit: I also think this kind of thing exists in society today, but probably bought and sold on exclusive markets to modern lords and ladies.

Wait, what?

Re: How a deadly fall revealed CIA secrets

#80
post #9

Really makes you wonder what stuff they're doing now that will be declassified in a few decades

Preet Bharara recently interviewed a former CIA acting director on his podcast. He asked (paraphrased), “If a regular person was able to see the kind of classified gadgets you’re working with now, would they say ‘oh, sure, that’s something like what I see in movies’ or would they be blown away?”

The immediate response was “They’d be blown away.” Which piques my curiosity of course. Then again...that statement could just be a psyop. Twisty little passages.

Some other recent thread here talks about how the Hubble Space Telescope was created from leftover CIA spy satellite gear. Read a bunch of near-future sci-fi and some of those ideas are bound to be hits.

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