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Curious minds tend to be interested in various things, from plants and animals to laws of physics and ballet, among others. That’s why seeing netizens delve deeper into another random topic nowadays is becoming far less surprising, yet not less interesting.
Take the discussion started by ‘sceneybeanie’, for example. The user asked members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community about the craziest declassified CIA documents, and apparently, quite a few redditors had something to share. Scroll down to find their answers on the list below—where you will also find Bored Panda’s interview with the OP themselves—and see for yourself what captivates people about such stories.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
One CIA operative, who drew up a plan to have packets of extra-large condoms, labelled “small” dropped on USSR. The idea was to lower their morale.
RELATED:
#2
The pardon of the Japanese who ran Unit 731 in exchange for their findings.
They performed countless experiments on live human POW’s. Cutting off limbs to test blood loss, injecting them with diseases and seeing how they progressed when left untreated, vivisection of these same individuals, and other really f*****g disgusting stuff that I don’t have the stomach to type out. You can Google the rest.
The US government felt it was more important to have that information in American hands than to let it go to the Russians, or be lost. You’d never be able to conduct those kind of experiments again, and for good reason, so they considered it the lesser of two evils.
Bookworm 9 months ago
A not insignificant portion of medical discoveries originated with the Nazis. Not to mention the ex-Nazi rocket scientists who pretty much got the U.S into space after World War II. If terrible people inadvertently discover something that could do some good, it doesn't mean they're any less terrible or that what they do is somehow excusable, but there's no point pretending the information doesn't exist.
#3
During the 60's the CIA noticed that artists tend to lean towards socialism and communism. They realized the best way to prevent this or discredit these political positions was to make them wealthy so they would be more invested in capitalism. To do this the CIA would anonymously buy modern art pieces no matter how nonsensical for very high prices. This made the otherwise highly niche and difficult to access modern art genre a chique fashionable *and highly profitable* genre and basically prevented prominent members of the art community from turning to socialism or communism by converting them to wealthy members of the upper class.
tl;dr the spolied noveau riche avante-garde airhead artist stereotype was literally created by the CIA dumping money into prominent figure's pockets and allowing them to discredit their political activism by becoming self indulgent parodies of themselves.
#4
The Acoustic Kitty is pretty crazy. They basically put a microphones and radio in a cat and tried to release into the Soviet Embassy to wander around eavesdropping since nobody suspects a wandering cat.
Declassifying historically significant CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) documents has been a significant part of the agency’s effort to be more open and provide more public accountability. The process reportedly started back in the 1980s when the Director of Central Intelligence at that time, William Casey, authorized the declassification of certain documents and established the Historical Review Program.
Since then, the CIA has declassified numerous documents, including six of the oldest classified records, dating from 1917 and 1918, NPR reports.
#5
The Pentagon Papers (which were leaked, not outright declassified) and the resultant Church Committee Report. These are what made public the CIA's actions in overthrowing governments and instigating/assisting coups all over the world for decades leading up to the 70s. Pretty much every negative stereotype of the CIA we have today was created or informed by the Pentagon Papers and Church Committee Report.
#6
Operation Northwoods. The DoD proposed that CIA operatives plant bombs around the United States and commit terrorist acts and blame them on Cuba. This was approved all the way up to, but not including, the President.
#7
One of the craziest declassified CIA documents is 'Operation Midnight Climax,' where the CIA dosed unsuspecting individuals with LSD as part of mind control experiments. It reads like a spy novel, but unfortunately, it's a disturbing chapter in history.
#8
The ghost tapes with creepy noises that were played in Vietnam to try and scare the Vietcong was pretty crazy. Not the most crazy but worth a mention.
Jennifer Smith 9 months ago
They are terrifying to listen to in the safety of my home how much worse it must have been to hear it in the middle of the jungle
“While the CIA documents are open to the public, many find it hard to sift through the long indecipherable pages, so asking this question opens the message board up to ideas that others haven’t had a chance to sift through and to decipher yet,” the OP told Bored Panda discussing what made them pose this specific question on the subreddit.
According to them, “Having people who have already sifted through the wordy pages then explain them more simply to people should be more normal, especially with projects that include astral projection, teleporting, mind control and all-around general enquiries that people have regarding the positions of power.”
#9
MKultra, basically McGill University in Montréal sent mental patients to the CIA from the Royal Victoria hospital.
The CIA did all kind of nightmarish test on them.
This was done in Montréal and only came out decades later.
One of my friends mom said for years that the CIA did horrible things to her and everyone assumed she was just insane, turned out she was right and lived all her life with no one believing her.
Horrible stuff.
#10
The papers describing astral projection. They brought a ‘psychic’ in and placed an envelope with coordinates and a timeframe on it. They asked him to describe what he saw. He described dying planet where people had left to discover a new place they could populate. It was revealed that the envelope contained coordinates on Mars in the distant past. It gets much more in depth where he describes large structures, etc. It’s not very long and very much worth the read.
#11
Psychological warfare in the Philippines in the 1950s comes to mind. The CIA conducted research to figure out which sort of myths and superstitions the Philippine people had. They discovered that they were afraid of vampires.
At one point they disrupted a group by snatching a local man, and putting teeth marks on his neck. They then hung him upside down for his friends to find which terrified the village.
This was all part of an effort to elect Ramon Magsaysay as president who basically acted as a puppet for the US. The CIA wrote his speeches and directed his policy.
Miranda Veracruz de la Joya Cardenal 9 months ago
Then Russia used the same technique and we had an orange puppet president controlled by them.
The redditor told Bored Panda that the sheer amount of answers from the redditors had their phone blowing up. “Looking into the replies, however, has restored my hope in the world as people are aware of the wrongdoings and secretive agendas that are going on behind closed doors,” they said. “As many more wake up and start to question the narrative in today’s media and government, looking through the replies was refreshing.”
#12
My previous answer to another post:
https://www.theblackvault.com/
Not sure if this has been mentioned or not - I'm not scrolling through a million replies.
The site is run by a guy named John Greenewald - u/blackvault - started putting in FOIA requests when he was 15 and never stopped. Currently has what is arguably the largest privately-owned collection of declassified information from the US government anywhere, and the entire archive is accessible for free.
Not a "direct" answer to your question, but anything you want to know about stuff the US government was up to can be found buried in there - and he's taken the time to sort some of the more interesting stuff out to make browsing easier.
Cheers!
#13
CIA black sites. Sectet prisons where terrorist suspects where taken for interrigatin/prison sentences and god knows what. Some sites where in europe too Poland and Lithuania.
Wingsofwrath 9 months ago
There was also one in Bucharest, Romania codenamed "Bright Light" that functioned until roughly 2010. It was authorised by then president Ion Iliescu, currently on trial for crimes against humanity (not for that one, but for his deeds during the 1989 Revolution, and, considering he's over 90, he's unlikely to see justice)
#14
You can download most of Osama bin Laden's hard-drive off the CIA's website. It's got a fair few licensed movies, anime, games, that sort of thing. All free for anyone who wants to get it.
Jack Burton 9 months ago
Oh that feels like a trap... I have an arabic name, no thanks to a Guantanamo trip.
#15
100% the [Gateway Experience.]
Like this s**t is f*****g *bonkers*.
Declassified doc from 1983 detailing the CIA's usage of "harmonic resonance" to gain access to the astral plane. It describes how the CIA used astral projection to create force-fields around military bases, visit the future, and **even talk to literal God**. They call God the "Absolute," which they claim is all of the universe compiled into a single point for a single moment in time, after which the universe re-expands. Seriously, *seriously*, read this s**t if you have a mind for the creepy/unexplained.
#16
The project mockingbird files that show the CIA is directly manipulating the press, and paying them handsomely to be CIA mouthpieces.
The Original Bruno 9 months ago
Paying the Washington Post, NPR, New York Times, etc. Liberals will see these as simply the dominant sources of opinion in the U.S. and figure that they CIA forced them towards being moderates. Conservatives will see these as the architects of the sharp left bent of the "mainstream media." Probably both are correct: the CIA has cultivated a statist, big-government society that protects the interests of the global, trillion-dollar corporations while opposing the populist wing of the Republican Party which objects to their plans for a global hegemony.
#17
The gay bomb is one I haven't seen mentionned yet.
Anne Jones 9 months ago
From Google: The "gay bomb" (informally known) refers to a non-lethal psychochemical weapon concept that was speculated upon by a research laboratory within the United States Air Force. This unconventional idea involved the dispersion of sex pheromones over enemy forces, with the intent of generating mutual sexual attraction among them causing mass confusion and panic within their platoons.
#18
The plan to make figurines that look like Osama Bin Laden and give them to kids in South Asia. After it’s left in the sun for a certain amount of time, it’s face would peel off to reveal a “demon-like visage with red skin, green eyes, and black markings,” basically a demon. The objective was to scare kids and their parents so Bin Laden and Al Qaeda would lose support.
#19
When the space shuttle Challenger was destroyed, it was reported that all 7 astronauts were [unalived] instantly. It was revealed decades later that some, if not all of the astronauts survived the initial explosion, as the cockpit cabin had enough protection to not be breached. For 2 minutes and 45 seconds, they were awake and aware, as they plummeted toward the Atlantic Ocean. Understandably, NASA knew that the news of their terrifying death would have crippled the space program even more than it already was.
#20
It's not American, but Operation Mincemeat on Netflix is pretty crazy, and based on a true story.
They faked war plans invading Greece, and floated a(n already dead) body from a submarine near a beach in Spain with the faked plans on the body, which they knew would get back to the Germans. It did. The Germans rearranged troops to prepare for an invasion of Greece, and the Allies walked in to Sicily.
#21
Operation Paperclip still blows my mind.
Donkey boi 9 months ago
Operation Paperclip is one that most people know about. But in case you are unfamiliar, it was basically the USA recruiting a s**t ton of Germans and Nazis (and yes, there is a difference) at the end of the war. Mostly engineers and scientists. They would be "excused of any wrong doing" (no matter how bad) if they worked for the US government. President Truman only agreed to it because of the fear that The Soviet Union would do it, and what they would do if they were successful.
#22
There is the testing of LSD and Agent Orange in Alberta and Ontario which has now been positively linked to parkinsons, mental illness etc.
RCMP + CIA in the 60’-1980’s was wild.
David 9 months ago
There was also testing of biological agents on small ships - forget the name of the program. I had a coworker who was involved. they would put bunnies in cages - plane flew over and sprayed chemicals - then they would collect the bunnies for the lab and hose down the chemicals off the ship. Except they didn't have proper ventilation filters and decontamination setup and contrary to the lies the sailors were not "volunteers" in the program. In the 200s there was a class action lawsuit going on. I don't know what became of it.
#23
All the failed assassination attempts against Fidel Castro. According to Fabian Escalante, who worked for the Cuban counter intelligence, there were 638 of them. Here are some highlights:
* In 1960 they tried to poison his cigars.
* They asked the Chicago Mob for help and they said poison pills are the best. The Mobsters hired a local assassin, who gave them to a ice cream/milkshake parlor employee who was supposed to slip them into Castro's ice cream. When he tried to get the poison pills from the freezer, they were frozen solid on the coils of the freezer.
* They planned to put explosives under a painted sea shell, as Castro loved to go scuba diving and collect sea shells. The plan was discarded as impractical
* In the same year they contaminated a scuba diving suit for Castro with a fungus that should give Castro a deadly disease. The person tasked with this, American Lawyer James Donovan, who was negotiating the release of hostages after the bay of pigs invasion, couldn't do it in the end.
* They trained his lover to poison him, but she got cold feet.
* They had a James Bond like idea of poising him with a tiny needle attached to a ball point pen. The government official who was supposed to stab him with that needle, threw the pen away, as he was too afraid that the needle might accidentally poison him instead.
* Last but not least they had the idea to assassinate his character by spraying a LSD like chemical into the broadcasting studio where he held his speeches. The idea was to make him look confused and unfit to rule. The plan was abandoned as the chemical was unreliable.
rorschach-penguin 9 months ago
If there isn't a movie about this yet, there should be. Plenty of comedic source material.
#24
The "simple sabotage field menu" made by the office of strategic services, which was the CIA before they were given the name. A guide on how to do simple sabotage in the USSR. Funny enough their guide on how managers can sabotage work sounds a lot like how much companies work today... "
(1) Demand written orders.
(2) "misunderstand" orders. Ask endless questions or engage in long correspondence about such orders. Quibble over them when you can.
(3) Do everything possible to delay the delivery of orders. Even though parts of an order may be ready beforehand, don't deliver it until it is completely ready.
(4) Don't order new working' materials until your current stocks have been virtually exhausted, so that the slightest delay in filling your order will mean a shutdown.
(5) Order high-quality materials which are hard to get. If you don't get them argue about it. Warn that inferior materials will mean inferior work.
(6) In making work assignments, always sign out the unimportant jobs first. See that the important jobs are assigned to inefficient workers of poor machines.
(7) Insist on perfect work in relatively unimportant products; send back for refinishing those which have the least fiaw. Approve other defective parts whose fiaws are not visible to the naked eye.
(8) Make mistakes in routing so that parts and materials will be sent to the wrong place in the plant.
(9) When training new workers, give incomplete or misleading instructions.
(10) To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant too inefficient workers; give undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work.
(11) Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done
(12) " [rest in pdf] It's an interesting read, but if you want to read more on the 'office side' it starts on page 28 in the scanned booklet, or page 18 of the PDF
#25
US military advisors saying that an armed conflict in Vietnam can't be won due to the general sentiment and freedom movement they'd fight. That the vietnamese liberation movement would continue no matter what or who would actually end up leading it.
Second being Nixon sabotaging and delaying peace talks in Vietnam so he could blame it as LBJ's failure and win the election.
seana lammers 9 months ago
Sort of like a certain orange colored politician sabotaging resolutions to help resolve immigration, misogyny, racism, world conflicts ….
#27
Project Azorian was a CIA operation to retrieve the remains of the Soviet Golf-class ballistic missile submarine K-129. It sank in the North Pacific while on patrol, resting on the seafloor about 3 miles down.
The CIA and DoD believed that a salvage opeartion had the potential to retrieve nuclear SLBMs, nuclear torpedoes, code books and cryptographic gear from the wreck. But the Soviets often patrolled the spot to prevent the Americans from doing exactly that.
The CIA was ordered by Henry Kissinger to collaborate with Howard Hughes to set up a flase flag deep-sea mining concern, which involved the construction of a huge purpose-built ship called the USNS Hughes Glomar Explorer. It had the outward appearance of a deep-sea mining vessel, but concealed inside was an enormous moon pool with a giant claw that would be lowered down to grab the wreck and pull it up to the surface.
Allegedly, they did snag the wreck, but the claw suffered a malfunction halfway up causing a portion of the hull to fall back down to the seafloor. The details of the portion of the hull that was actually recovered and what exactly was found have never been officially disclosed.
Kissinger authorized a second attempt, but before that could be affected, the LA Times broke a story about the operation, allegedly sourced from a memo that was part of a cache of documents that was stolen from a Hughes office some months prior. The operation now being fully blown, the Soviet Navy stationed destroyers at the spot to prevent the Americans from trying again, and Kissinger finally nixed any plans for further attempts.
The Wikipedia article on this operation hints that allegedly the front part of the hull was recovered, including two intact nuclear torpedoes and the sonar dome, and that the part of the hull containing the nuclear-tipped missiles, code books and cryptographic gear was lost due to the claw malfunction. It also hints that the claw malfunction story may have been a fabrication, and that all of the sought after sensitive materiel had been recovered and covered up, presumably to preserve their advantage thus gained from its study.
The remains of six Soviet submariners were also recovered, and given a burial at sea in accordance with military convention.
#28
The craziest declassified CIA documents are the ones written as red herrings for spies back in the cold war, like the one that detailed their psychic experiments with remote viewing that granted the US the capability to see anywhere at any point in time whenever they want (by using Mars as a target and "looking into the past" to see a "recent martian civilization" at various points in time).
#29
MK Ultra but unfortunately the only documents we got from it are from an offsite storage space that the officials in the CIA forgot about. Also the CIA document that says the political structure of the USSR wasn’t a one man one rule or the one talking about how Tibet was a feudal backwater.
#30
Well the CIA have a “heart attack gun” where they can shoot someone undetected, and they later have a heart attack that looks to be natural.
And they hire magicians to perform sleight of hand maneuvers. For example to put something in someone’s drink without them noticing it.
What do you think ?
LokisLilButterknife 9 months ago (edited)
It would be nice if BoredPanda actually did their freaking jobs as “writers” and put a brief description of what some of these experiments entailed, but I guess copy and paste from Reddit is easier. No, you are not a writer. You are a master copy and paster. 🙄
Purple light 9 months ago
Thank you people who looked up more information on some of the very short entries and posted it here. 🥰
Steve Hall 9 months ago
Somehow I can not bring myself to believe the accuracy of a list of documents about a secret organization whose main job is to conceal their activities.
Meta Veldkamp 9 months ago
Hahaha I don't believe in any accuracy on the website at all.
Load More Replies... 
copycontentbylola 9 months ago
What's weird about some of these as that I know that the CIA has a bureau in Hollywood to check how the US government and it's agencies are being depicted. Yet I've heard all of these things through Hollywood movies which makes me think that their discussing them outright in order to normalise these tactics.
Rayne OfSalt 9 months ago
Fun fact: The CIA had a heavy hand in convincing the Governor-General and the Queen to fire Gough Whitlam's government in the mid 1970s.
LokisLilButterknife 9 months ago (edited)
It would be nice if BoredPanda actually did their freaking jobs as “writers” and put a brief description of what some of these experiments entailed, but I guess copy and paste from Reddit is easier. No, you are not a writer. You are a master copy and paster. 🙄
Purple light 9 months ago
Thank you people who looked up more information on some of the very short entries and posted it here. 🥰
Steve Hall 9 months ago
Somehow I can not bring myself to believe the accuracy of a list of documents about a secret organization whose main job is to conceal their activities.
Meta Veldkamp 9 months ago
Hahaha I don't believe in any accuracy on the website at all.
Load More Replies... copycontentbylola 9 months ago
What's weird about some of these as that I know that the CIA has a bureau in Hollywood to check how the US government and it's agencies are being depicted. Yet I've heard all of these things through Hollywood movies which makes me think that their discussing them outright in order to normalise these tactics.
Rayne OfSalt 9 months ago
Fun fact: The CIA had a heavy hand in convincing the Governor-General and the Queen to fire Gough Whitlam's government in the mid 1970s.
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