Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Commentary - Mind Control


The year 1959 saw the release of Richard Condon's novel The Manchurian Candidate; five years earlier a CIA behavioral researcher and guru, Morse Allen, made his first attempt to create a programmed assassin by using hypnosis within the auspices of Project ARTICHOKE. By time Condon's novel had been turned into a film and was in theaters the CIA's MKULTRA project was in full swing. Allen had been pushed aside in the development of creating a process to hypnotize an unwitting subject into performing covert operations for the agency. Condon's novel is fiction. Project ARTICHOKE, MKULTRA and the CIA's efforts to create hypnotized assassins and covert operatives is real. The creation of a Manchurian Agent is the result of this work.

What became of this program? There is no known end date for MKULTRA. The last report I have been able to find which mentions the project's activities is a 1994 GAO report which states that human experiments were still being conducted in 1974. As we have seen with John Poindexter's pet DARPA project, Total Information Awareness, a project can be birthed, grown, exposed, banished and re-birthed under a new name, new agency and a new focus. A project such as MKULTRA, which specializes in methods of controlling the minds and actions of human beings, holds a seductive promise that would be impossible for the agency to relinquish. This is the type of power that no agency or organization would ever want to part with. It can be argued that the project is still alive in one form or another after reviewing several events of the past 15 years which have glaring similarities to suspected MKULTRA projects.

The assassination of Itzchak Rabin in 1995 has many of the hallmarks of an MKULTRA based operation. Assassin Yigal Amir fits the "lone nut" profile. He has connections and close ties to extremist organizations. There are numerous inconsistencies surrounding official reports of Rabin's assassination. The methods used to recruit radical Islamic suicide bombers appear to match methods developed in Project BLUEBIRD and Project ARTICHOKE. The "lone nut" (Manchurian Agent) method of assassination (JFK, RFK, MLK, Wallace, Reagan, Rabin) appears to still be the preferred method in western or westernized societies but in emerging third world nations and in the Arab and Persian states, the "Groupthink" style of Manchurian Agent operations and indoctrination appears to be preferred for assassinations as well as day to day operations.

Beginning with the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis and continuing today with the Iraq insurgency and al-Qaeda attacks, what we see emerging is a pattern of attack methods in which groups of individuals or individuals who align their actions with the dogma of radical groups and perform advanced strategic operations, are taking center stage. The methods of luring individuals into these radical groups use aspects of Project BLUEBIRD as well as the writings of many researchers and psychologists who study "Groupthink". Confused, disenfranchised and impoverished people are indoctrinated into movements in which they are made to feel a part of something greater than themselves. The promise of acceptance, righteousness and social justice are cornerstones of this method. Once they become a member of the group, advanced techniques can be employed which condition the subject into accepting the idea of sacrificing their life for the greater good of the group. A Manchurian Agent is created in this way.

I don't believe that the suicide bombers of the middle east are CIA manufactured Manchurian Agents. I do however, believe that the techniques used by the CIA were passed down to members of the radical groups which utilize Manchurian Agents to carry out suicide missions throughout the world. The outcome of the Jonestown Massacre was all the proof that the CIA needed to focus on a method of psychological indoctrination rather than biological or chemical agents as an effective, low-risk solution. It's no secret that the agency was active in Afghanistan in the 80's and their presence in Afghanistan coincided with the emergence of the main al-Qaeda players. Osama Bin Laden was even trained by the agency during this time frame. I think it safe to assume that of the individuals who were trained in the psychological methods of indoctrination, many turned into Agent Provocateurs, willing to freelance their work to meet their own goals and needs. The connections made by Bin Laden during the Soviet Afghan War later found their way home in the early 90's as he began to form the foundation to al-Qaeda. Those trained in mind control techniques would have found their way to Bin laden or he would have actively sought them through his connections.

Would the Groupthink method be viable for use in America against Americans? I think there are signs that it would. American's have lost the perspective and insight needed to even recognize basic propaganda disseminated by their own government. Constant negative and positive reinforcement of following leaders and aligning oneself to political parties and moral absolutes is a 24 hour a day business on the corporate news outlets of cable news channels. Dissenters from any side of the political spectrum are shunned, mocked and verbally assaulted by the "true believers". Maintaining a specific and all-encompassing belief system is not yet the norm in America, but maintain AN all-encompassing belief system is the norm in America. The worst thing a person can say in today's cultural climate in America is "I don't have an opinion of that subject." It is expected and mandatory that you have an opinion on any subject, even the ones which do not effect you in any way. You have to have an opinion on abortion, the economy and foreign policy. Even sports, a pastime, is an area where everyone must have some type of opinion.

All that is needed to push the Groupthink training into action is a single event and action will occur. It's happened before, within the past 7 years. Think of 9/11 and how you and those around you reacted. No one had a unique experience, no one has unique memories of the events of that day. Every single American recalls that day in words in the exact same way.

"I remember seeing the planes crash into the buildings."
"My mind couldn't comprehend what I was seeing."
"All I wanted to see was justice brought to the people who did it."
"I fully gave my support to the President."

To quote from The Manchurian Candidate, "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, warmest, most wonderful person I have ever met."

In America, we have become a nation of Manchurian Agents.

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