Conspiracy Theories?
The Instagram algorithms are funny things. Every once and a while, they seem to throw in some random images to see if you’ll bite. If you do, then they reorient your feed along this “new” interest. As such, I’m very careful about what I click on. I don’t want my curiosity to cause my feed to be flooded with nonsense.
But, one image caught my attention. It was a list of the names of government projects that were once thought of as “conspiracy theories” but have since been proven true. The image had graphics of various government agencies, and the Masonic square and compass … as though a group that exists to read the minutes of the previous meeting (inside joke) somehow controls things around the world.
Some of the projects I’d heard of. Others, were new to me. So, I snagged the image and lifted its text. Then went down the rabbit hole (it’s still the holiday break from work and my kids were hogging the PS4). Buckle up. Here’s what I found.
Conspiracy theories
First things first. Ask Siri or Bing or ChatGPT and you’ll learn that conspiracy theories offer alternate explanations for events by positing clandestine plots by powerful groups, rather than the accepted narrative. Whilst genuine conspiracies can and do occur behind closed doors in politics, conspiracy theories tend to make unproven allegations, dismiss mainstream expertise as coverups, and gain traction quicker than they can be investigated.
The key features uniting conspiracy theories, they say, include proposing secretive explanations which contradict official accounts and implicate influential bodies like governments, corporations, or secret societies in harmful activities. However the cited proof is typically imperfect – circumstantial rather than concrete evidence. Such theories spread suspicion about accepted truths and distrust towards establishment voices. Moreover, the sense of persecution conspiracy theorists feel when marginalised by society often further entrenches their unproven beliefs instead of encouraging reflection on their plausibility relative to simpler explanations. Many such theories turn out to be factually unsupported when scrutinised (e.g., Freemasons rule the world). Hence the growing prevalence across society of belief in unverified theories over mainstream explanations is seen as worrisome by experts, even whilst acknowledging that dismissing all such theories out of hand allows genuine conspiracies to go undetected on occasion. The challenge lies in differentiating likely truth from implausible speculation in an even-handed fashion.
When conspiracy theories later prove at least partially factual, the reaction from establishment voices who originally dismissed them is rarely unambiguous atonement. Governments may quietly declassify inconvenient truths without openly admitting culpability. Media outlets seldom issue corrections apologising for mockery they heaped on whistleblowers in the interim. Indeed conspiracy theorists are repaid for their dogged faith more often with gradual shifts of the mainstream’s viewpoint than unambiguous validation. So whilst official narratives do evolve to partially – though seldom comprehensively – validate some once derided theories, these Platonic allegories arriving at enlightened understanding through the cave’s shadows typically entail reluctant and incomplete admissions extracted over time, rather than sudden mea culpas to those whose voices cried in the wilderness all along. The gulf persists between narratives convenient to the powerful, and more troubling truths typically only affirmed piecemeal under scrutiny’s glare.
The Year of Intelligence - 1975
1975 proved a watershed year for revelation of misdeeds within America’s intelligence / investigative community. A perfect storm of investigative journalism and Congressional committees unearthed disturbing activities, illegal and unrestrained, long perpetrated in shadow and dubbed mere conspiracy theories when glimpseed. The Church Committee in Congress, the Pike Committee in the Senate, and the Rockefeller Commission laid bare domestic abuses by agencies like the CIA, NSA, FBI, and the IRS under the guise of counterintelligence. Illicit mail opening; infiltration of so-called dissident groups; assassination plots; unethical human experimentation – such activities had continued for years absent oversight. The agencies had accrued unchecked powers far beyond missions envisioned during their founding. Their “overreach” was exposed in what became known as the “Year of Intelligence,” proving many so-called conspiracy theories factual decades later. It was a reckoning long delayed. In the wake of these investigations would come recommitment to principles of ethical governance, transparency and rights eloquently enshrined in America’s founding documents, though too long ignored.
What they found will disturb you
Reading through the documentation of the committees, a few things stood out. First, the Ford administration did not want to cooperate … at all. According to the report of the Pike Committee, “when legal proceedings were not in the offing, the access experience was frequently one of foot-dragging, stone-walling, and careful deception.” The “careful deception part was amazing. It worked, in part, by requiring inquiries to be hyper-specific. The agencies often employed bazaar language internally. Thus, when an inquiry for any / all documents related to human behaviour experiments (for example) would come into the agency, they could say that they had no such documentation …
Based on the historical reports, the CIA used a variety of obfuscatory and euphemistic language to disguise the unethical nature of its human behavior experiments in internal documents:
“Enhanced Interrogation” or “Advanced Interrogation” - Used to describe what amounted to torture techniques like waterboarding, sensory deprivation, starvation, and sleep disruption.
“Psychological Evaluations” or “Medical Check-Ups”- Code terms used in documents to reference administration of drugs, hallucinogens, and / or experimental chemicals without informed consent.
“Behavioural Testing” - A broad term employed to gloss over manipulation of subjects using verbal / sexual abuse, hypnosis, or other means.
“Rehabilitation” and “Reorientation” - Suggestive phrases alluding to unethical conditioning experiments on prisoners or psychiatric patients meant to control attitudes.
“Scientific Studies” and “Research Data” - Vague references concealing trials of brainwashing techniques and mind control technology based on coercion not ethics.
“Patriotic Service Programs” - Euphemisms obscuring recruitment of sex workers for experiments with drugs meant to elicit information or as incapacitating agents.
“Special Tests / Training Programs” - Terms hiding true purpose behind trials on effects of radiation, biological agents, or extremely long-term sensory deprivation.
Thus, the official documentation reveals a pattern of systematic obscuration of the deeply questionable ethicality of experiments and studies conducted under auspices like Projects Bluebird, Artichoke, and MKUltra over many years. The dehumanizing terminology and opacity aided secrecy. Full awareness of activities was largely confined to senior CIA figures.
With this bit of fun in mind, here are some of these horrific programmes that the investigations uncovered, along with a few more recent revelations:
Project Bluebird - Project Bluebird was a covert CIA research program launched in 1950 investigating whether human behaviour could be controlled through various psychological and pharmaceutical means; though denied for years as a mere “conspiracy theory,” it was later verified by Congressional investigations, having been rolled into the infamous Project MKUltra. revelations about the procedures used — most unethical and dangerous — would emerge decades later, with the full truth no doubt still obscured.
Project Artichoke - Project Artichoke was a CIA project beginning in the early 1950s that focused on developing interrogation techniques and mind control methods, including through unethical human experimentation; it was a precursor to the better known Project MKUltra before evolving into the MKUltra project in 1953 when CIA director Allen Dulles launched a broader mind control program.
Project MK-Ultra - Project MKUltra was an illegal program launched in 1953 by the CIA experimenting in human mind control techniques including use of drugs, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, and verbal / sexual abuse, which was shrouded in secrecy until revealed in Church Committee investigations. Though the full scope remains undisclosed even today, verified unethical experiments, and the testing of interrogation methods make it one of the most controversial CIA operations of the cold war era.
Project MKNaomi - Project MKNAOMI was a covert joint program between the CIA and Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick focused on developing various incapacitating agents and poisons for use in interrogations and assassinations; little information has been released officially though it is believed to have run from the 1950s until at least the late 1960s when production of biological agents was supposedly ceased outside Congressionally authorized laboratories.
Operation Chaos - Operation CHAOS was a domestic espionage project conducted by the CIA lasting from 1967-1974 which involved illegal surveillance of American citizens and groups demonstrating against the Vietnam War, leveraging CIA assets to gather intelligence on domestic dissident organizations. The program exceeded the organisation’s jurisdiction, violated rights, and failed to yield useful counterintelligence before being shut down when revelations about CIA overreach prompted reforms.
Operation Gladio - Operation Gladio was a clandestine NATO ‘stay-behind’ operation active in Europe throughout the Cold War, supposedly preparing resistance forces in case of Soviet invasion but later revealed to involve covert right wing armies implicated in subversion, propaganda, and false flag attacks blamed on leftists. Revelations emerged in the 1990s pointing to decades of horrific “strategy of tension” events like Italian neo-fascist bombings, though full disclosure of NATO’s ties to extreme groups has never fully materialised.
Operation Mockingbird - Operation Mockingbird was an extensive CIA effort started in the early 1950s to infiltrate and use American media outlets to spread propaganda supporting CIA-favored political positions abroad and bury coverage perceived as unfavorable amongst reporters through surveillance and financial control. The covert campaign was suspected for years as something of an open secret before facing exposure during Church Committee probes into systemic agency abuses of power.
Operation Paperclip - Operation Paperclip was a classified program by the Office of Strategic Services and later the CIA to “recruit” over 1,500 German scientists, engineers, and technicians, particularly ex-Nazi Party members, into U.S. scientific programs like NASA throughout the 1940s and 50s. It had the twin goals of denying these skilled individuals’ expertise to the Soviet Union as well as harnessing it for American interests, regardless of any dark past affiliations. It’s the reason some of the best German restaurants in the world are in Alabama.
Operation Northwoods - Operation Northwoods was a proposed false flag operation from 1962, rejected by President Kennedy, which involved Department of Defense suggestions to stage fake Cuban attacks on US soil and targets to manufacture public support for military action against Cuba’s regime; the disturbing plans, including faking hijackings and drone ship bombings, came to light in 1997 when related documents were declassified, showing an appetite within security agencies for unethical tactics.
Operation Ranch Hand - Operation Ranch Hand was a massive, decade-long US military effort starting in 1962 to spray chemical defoliants and herbicides like Agent Orange, Agent Blue, Agent White, and the other Rainbow Herbicides across Vietnamese jungles for agricultural destruction, despite questionable understanding of human health impacts; decades later, the controversial operation implicated in horrendous generational effects is considered a cautionary tale of science outpacing ethics amid wartime urgency. The chemicals in this chemical warfare exercise were manufactured for the U.S. Department of Defense primarily by Monsanto and Dow Chemical.
Operation Popeye - Operation Popeye was a classified weather modification program in Southeast Asia operated from 1967-1972 which involved cloud seeding efforts to extend monsoon seasons and hamper opposing forces by causing heavy rains along the Ho Chi Minh Trail; use of weather as a military weapon led to bans on environmental modification techniques for combat, though lingering questions remain over both the efficacy and ethics of one of the earliest known military geo-engineering projects.
COINTELPRO - COINTELPRO was a series of covert, often illegal FBI projects conducted from 1956-1971 involving infiltration, psychological warfare, and discrediting of domestic political organisations deemed subversive by Hoover’s FBI—including civil rights and anti-Vietnam war groups; though effective at “neutralizing” many activists over years, the programs marked an abuse of power severely at odds with democracy and free speech. The FBI's covert campaigns against both Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr were part of this programme.
Stargate Project - The Stargate Project was a secret U.S. Army unit established in 1978 at Fort Meade, Maryland to investigate psychic phenomena for intelligence gathering including through cooperation with researchers into parapsychology, though no useful conclusions were produced before operations were apparently shut down in 1995; the inability to reliably demonstrate practical benefits of phenomena like remote viewing, whilst perhaps intriguing scientifically, led to the programme being an odd, ultimately fruitless footnote of early intelligence community forays into fringe areas.
Operation Delirium - Operation Delirium was a US Army Chemical Corps research program starting in the 1950s exploring psycho-chemical weapons using powerful psychoactive agents and deliriants like LSD, PCP, and BZ on human subjects; nearly 7,000 soldiers were experimented on, often without consent, in Edgewood Arsenal trials investigating mind control applications until the program was exposed during the Year of Intelligence.
Operation Midnight Climax - Operation Midnight Climax was a CIA sub-project of the wider MKUltra program which involved setting up brothels in San Francisco to drug unsuspecting men with LSD and other substances in the 1950s and 60s; run by a narcotics agent using prostitutes to lure victims for observation behind two way mirrors, the illicit, unethical program was one of the most notorious and seedy experiments undertaken in monitoring behavioural responses.
Operation Fishbowl - Operation Fishbowl was a high-altitude nuclear testing series conducted in the Pacific by the U.S. military in 1962, with multiple warhead detonations at high altitudes to evaluate effects and radar detection capabilities; the tests produced widespread electromagnetic pulse effects and colorful aurora-like lights visible from Hawaii, along with radioactive fallout contamination that spread globally but was downplayed publicly.
Project Bluebook - Project Blue Book was the code name for the US Air Force program investigating UFO reports from 1952 to 1970 which aimed to determine if any sightings represented credible threats or technological advancements by America’s Cold War adversaries; after reviewing over 12,000 incidents, the project concluded there was no evidence UFOs posed national security threats or warranted extraordinary explanations, though skepticism remained amongst some UFO enthusiasts.
Project Groom Lake - Project Groom Lake, better known as Area 51, is a secretive US Air Force base within the larger Nevada Test and Training Range long-rumored to involve testing of experimental and classified aircraft like the U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird explained away as UFO sightings before their unveilings; information about current projects remains highly classified, with the remote, guarded facility’s secrecy and restricted airspace continuing to fuel speculation about exotic technologies despite government acknowledgement of its existence.
How do they get away with it?
The Year of Intelligence’s revelations demonstrated that the US intelligence agencies readily manipulated media to shape public narratives by exploiting sympathizers and legal loopholes. A salient example was usage of the Smith-Mundt Act’s provisions distinguishing domestic and foreign audiences to covertly seed propaganda domestically.
Originally the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act aimed to promote accurate representations of American values abroad via international broadcasting, whilst prohibiting these state outlets from directing informational activity (aka propaganda) towards citizens at home. However, the CIA and FBI effectively laundered efforts to influence US public opinion through this overseas exemption. CIA fronts trained foreign journalists and produced newspaper articles planting stories favoring American interests, which were then knowingly redistributed by assets within the US media against the Act's spirit. The FBI also coordinated abroad with attempts to censor coverage and film portrayals deemed “subversive.” In truth, aspects of Smith-Mundt enabled the seeds of influence campaigns broadening those agencies’ remit into spheres adjacent to direct domestic operations.
These exploits highlight intelligence agencies’ pattern of leveraging legal ambiguities and relationships with sympathetic media to shape the information ecosystem. In using overseas channels as surrogates for otherwise prohibited activities around censorship and propaganda, the spirit of laws like Smith-Mundt delineating acceptable informational conduct was deliberately contravened.
Here’s how it works
Breaking down how intelligence agencies covertly exploit legal loopholes and media ties to influence domestic coverage:
Agencies like CIA and the State Dept. establish foreign media assets - Train foreign journalists, assist publications aligned with US interests abroad.
Overseas propaganda produced - Using those assets, generate stories/coverage portraying desired narratives and American agendas aimed at “foreign audiences.”
Domestic news organizations access materials - US news outlets/reporters (some within CIA’s network of contacts) obtain the pre-packaged stories or suggested coverage angles.
Repurposing stateside - Articles from step 2 redistributed for American audiences, integrated into domestic news ecosystem either verbatim or shaping narratives.
Smith-Mundt violated - Foreign info & propaganda reenters US informational space contrary to the Act’s intent of protecting US citizens from government intervention in public discourse.
Public perceptions impacted - Shifting opinions benefit interests of agencies, enabled by exploitation of legal loopholes separating foreign and domestic spaces for public information regulation
Essentially the lines are deliberately blurred, using the foreign press as intermediaries to transmit narrative-shaping content directed back into the American media-sphere that advance official agendas, by agencies sidestepping bans intended to protect democratic discourse.
Practice makes perfect
With decades of experience in hiding their dreadful deeds in plain sight, the agencies turned their expertise to interfering in the affairs of other countries. Indeed, the exploitation of loopholes allowing our government intelligence agencies to covertly influence domestic opinion strongly resembles their more modern tactics observed in the so-called “Color Revolutions” abroad.
In various Color Revolutions, covert US influence tactics leveraging local media contacts, NGOs, and protest groups have aggressively pushed regime change movements. Often ethnically branded revolutions utilising propaganda seek moving political orientations closer to the US’ interests whilst appearing organic.
However, frequently the level of organised coordination and resources indicates state sponsorship rather than grassroots campaigning alone. Just as the CIA and FBI once exploited legal workarounds permitting overseas propaganda’s retransmission stateside, modern techniques harness “independent” proxy outlets as intermediaries to propagate narratives backing US agendas locally.
Training protest leaders in resistance techniques or helping elevate regime-critical media also deliberately expands external “soft power” domestically in targeted nations. Once again, the techniques strongly echo the Agency and Bureau's past propagation of preferred narratives into the US media ecosystem through sympathetic foreign proxies. The consistent pattern remains exploiting others to subtly intervene in informing citizens of other countries to skew outcomes preferred externally.
So sizable Color Revolution movements driving changes suiting US interests often reveal the rely on purposeful media manipulation and public perception conditioning eerily reminiscent of revelations about intelligence activities in the Church Committee era. The playbook persists because at core it has proven effective.
Did it stop?
The biggest current conspiracy theory involves the elements of the US intelligence apparatus shifting it’s attention domestically. Depending upon who you’re listening to, they are trying to drive the election of one candidate or the other. Now, they say, the Color Revolution model for inciting regime change, often with covert external support, typically involves specific staged conditions primed beforehand in the target nation. According to Stanford scholar Michael McFaul’s analysis, seven factors enable mobilization of mass protest cascades toppling governments when election-rigging claims act as a catalyst amongst already favorable circumstances at societal levels prepared by purposeful coordination. An unpopular autocrat but with arenas of freedom like independent press provides ingress. Unified opposition groups trained in resistance tactics await crystallising events eroding the regime’s legitimacy whilst rallying demonstrators. Security forces divided in loyalties then fail to protect the leadership.
Much as the Church Committee showed intelligence agencies subtly intervening in sovereign media spaces abroad to enable narratives backing American interests through legal loopholes, Color Revolutions likewise demonstrate sophisticated engineering of public perception milestones enabling mass mobilisation. The approach layers instruments across societal pillars in advance - media, civil society organizations, protest movements, and restless elites - coordinated towards exploitation when elections provide justification for dispute. Thus conditions ripe for delegitimising regimes and driving leadership changes tend to result more from purposeful external pressure through proxies than pure expressions of autonomous democratic will.
What do you think?
I think I need a shower after diving into all this filth.