TOP 10 CIA Secret Experiments and Operations (Part One)

If we would have access to all official records that keep data on experiments performed by CIA over the years, we would probably be terrified. Energy and huge funds were invested in incredible projects. Some were made public, others not. From spy cats to psychic hippies, the American Central Intelligence Agency has conducted unbelievably weird spy programs. Here are the most amazing CIA secret experiments that have failed and not wonder why...

1. Operation Gold (also known as Operation Stopwatch by the British)

There is nothing related to gold, even if a conversation recorded at the right time can be worth much more. In 1953, during the Cold War, CIA has worked extensively with MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service to intercept phone calls made in Russia at the highest level.

The easiest way to do it was to act in East Berlin, which was occupied by the Russians. CIA dug a 450-metre (1,476-foot) tunnel to intersect a series of cable less than 47 cm (18") below a busy street. About half a million calls were recorded in 50,000 tapes in less than one year. The fun part is that a British compromised the whole project, providing information to the KGB when the CIA began working on the tunnel. Thus, the Russians had allowed ordinary military communications to take place through the cables to create the impression that they had no aggressive intention against West Berlin.

2. Project Pigeon

In the time of the World War II, pigeons were crucial to the U.S. CIA recruited B.F. Skinner, a well known researcher who was studying the way in which animals behave when they are punished or rewarded. These methods have effective results when it comes about training animals, so the Americans intended to train pigeons for use in a missile guidance system. Can you imagine that? Skinner has trained some pigeons in this regard and placed them inside missiles to record their flight path. The pigeons would peck at the screen if it was drifting off course. The results were disappointing and the whole project required $25,000.

3. Acoustic Kitty

If a cat comes near an important embassy, nobody would believe that it may be a potential master of espionage. It seems incredible, but the CIA has spent about 20 million dollars on this utopian project. The CIA got some cats, trained them and implanted microphones, antennae and batteries into their ears, tail and chest. Then the cats were sent near the Russian embassy. Unfortunately the first cat sent into the field was supposedly run over by a taxi.

4. Operation Northwoods

In the '60s, the CIA thought about how to remove Fidel Castro from power. The easiest was to persuade the other heads of state that the communists were about to commit acts of terrorism in the U.S. Basically, the CIA wanted the Americans to kill some important persons in the US and perform a series of violent terrorist actions and then somehow blame Cuba for all these events. Kennedy categorically rejected the plan. After his death, it was shown that the Northwoods existed on paper.

5. The Stargate Project

The $20 million Stargate Project was about a large number of psychic experiments and investigations undertaken by the U.S. government. There were tens of million of dollars invested in people who has extraordinary capabilities they could use to predict future events and read hidden documents. It's true that some people were having up to 15% more powerful senses than ordinary people. However, the CIA cancelled the project because of the poor results achieved. There are some rumors that the Russians still invest in similar experiments.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKULTRA

Chapter 3, part 4: Supreme Court Dissents Invoke the Nuremberg Code: CIA and DOD Human Subjects Research Scandals". Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments Final Report. http://www.hss.energy.gov/healthsafety/ohre/roadmap/achre/chap3_4.html. Retrieved 2005-08-24.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4443934.stm

Marks, John (1979). The Search for the Manchurian Candidate. New York: Times Books. pp. 106-7. ISBN 0-8129-0773-6.

channel.nationalgeographic.com/.../cia...experiments.../Overview