DRONES - DEATH by Metadata

Feb 10, 2014 - Article By Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald

The NSA’s Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/02/10/the-nsas-secret-role/

Death by Metadata - Feb 10, 2014

 

              FIRST LOOK MEDIA - https://www.firstlook.org/#/home 

On the CIA "disruption policy", foreign countries role, a condo in Vancouver as solution and more

by Chalmers Ashby Johnson (August 6, 1931 - November 20, 2010)
extracted from Chalmers Johnson's (1931-2010) book: "BLOWBACK" (first edition 2000).

..."The CIA term for this policy is "disruption", by which it means the harassment of terrorists around the world.. .According to John Diamond of the Associated Press, "the CIA keeps its role secret, and the foreign countries that actually crack down on the suspects, carefully hide the U.S. role, lest they stir up trouble for themselves.". There are no safeguards at all against misidentifying "suspects" and "the CIA sends no formal notice to Congress". Disruption is said to be a preemptive, offensive form of counterterrorism. Richard Clarke, President Bill Clinton's antiterrorism czar, likes it because he can avoid "the cumbersome Congressional reporting requirements that go with CIA-directed covert operations" and because "human rights organizations would have no way of identifying a CIA role". ...

Interview with Chalmers Johnson (August 6, 1931 - November 20, 2010)
Johnson was a professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego. He served in the Korean war, was a consultant for the CIA and chaired the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley from 1967 to 1972.

Conversations with History: The Last Days of the American Republic with Chalmers Johnson
First Aired: 5/14/2007 - (59 minutes)
http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=12489



More:
Military Bases and the "Blowback"
Chalmers Johnson - January 29, 2004 - Conversations with History

Security Certificates: Past, Present and Future - PRISM TV

prismmagazine on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Spreading falsehoods - "The terrorists came from Canada", "They got a birth certificate in Montreal"...etc...

“"What we know is that our northern border is where the terrorists came through. That's the most porous border that we have. We cannot allow terrorists, we cannot allow anyone to come across our border if we don't know why they're coming. So, we have to secure all of our borders and that's what that was about, is border security."

Comments by Sharron Angle , 2010 Republican nominee for the United States Senate seat in Nevada, on October 16, 2010

More at:
CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20019924-503544.html
WinnipegFreePress: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/ottawa-tells-tea-party-backed-candidate-911-hijackers-did-not-come-from-canada--105238458.html

Canadian Gulf War vet personal information accessed 4,131 times over 10 years by more than 600 department officials

And two months after he first testified against a controversial change to veterans’ disability payments, Veterans Affairs Canada attempted to discredit him by hospitalizing him and making his advocacy a psychological issue.
Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddard ordered a full audit as reported on October 7, 2010.

WATCH:
CTV's Question Period interview with Veteran Sean Bruyea and his wife:
Two months after he first testified against a controversial change to veterans’ disability payments, Veterans Affairs Canada attempted to discredit him by hospitalizing him and making his advocacy a psychological issue.

"As an intelligence officer who studied Soviet Russia, I mean I knew about the Gulags in Stalinist Russia, and I thought: 'This isn’t much different. They are trying to make my advocacy a psychological issue'.”

The interview can be watched at:
http://watch.ctv.ca/news/ctvs-question-period/oct-10/

MORE:
- "Vet alleges government tried to hospitalize him" - By Althia Raj, Parliamentary Bureau-Toronto Sun - October 10, 2010
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/10/10/15646606.html

- "Privacy breach at Veterans Affairs ‘struck terror in our hearts’"
by Bill Curry - Globe and Mail - Sep. 22, 2010

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/privacy-breach-at-veterans-affairs-struck-terror-in-our-hearts/article1718767/


- Privacy Commissioner finds evidence of systemic abuse at Veterans Affairs
by Murray Brewster - Ottawa— The Canadian Press - Sep. 28, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/privacy-commissioner-finds-evidence-of-systemic-abuse-at-veterans-affairs/article1731233/

Unethical, illegal, without knowledge or informed consent Human Experiments by American doctors:" shocking, it's tragic" ...

Wellesley College historian Susan Reverby, while going through the the archived records of a government researcher involved in the infamous Tuskegee study, discovered recently, that American doctor Dr. John Cutler led a project in Guatemala in which American doctors deliberately infected prisoners and patients in a mental hospital with syphilis and in some cases gonorrhea. A total of 696 men and women were exposed to syphilis.

In the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study, researchers recruited more than 350 impoverished African-Americans with syphilis for research related to the natural progression of the untreated disease.

The human experiments in Alabama, conducted between 1932 and 1972, were revealed only after Peter Buxtun, a PHS venereal-disease investigator finally went to the press in the early 1970's, after having expressed concerns about the ethics and morality of the extended Tuskegee Study as early as 1966.

The story broke first in the Washington Star on July, 2972.

In the case of the experiments in Guatemala, it took 60 years and a historian for the facts to come to light.

This is one more of the numerous human experiments the United States performed that have been considered unethical, often performed illegally, without knowledge let alone consent of the victims.

But they are sorry...

More at:

US says sorry for 'outrageous and abhorrent' Guatemalan syphilis tests- Guardian UK - October 1, 2010 - by Chris McGreal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/01/us-apology-guatemala-syphilis-tests


US apologizes for '40s syphilis study in Guatemala - Associated Press - October 1, 2010 - By Lauran Neergaard
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/10/02/general-us-syphilis-experiment_7979764.html?boxes=Homepagebusinessnews

SPEECH BY Harriet Washington M.D. author of "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present."

Right Livelihood Award laureate Canadian Percy Schmeiser on Monsato's intimidation and more:"You better watch it. We’re going to get you"

Dark Threats and White Knights: The Somalia Affair, Peacekeeping, and the New Imperialism by Sherene H. Razack

Sherene H. Razack is also the author of :

Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslins from Western Law and Politics
2008 - Sherene Razack - ISBN 978-0802094971
Sherene H. Razack looks at how "race thinking" supports the idea that the suspension of rights for racialized groups is warranted in the interests of national security. She points out to "race thinking" as being a structure of thought that divides up the world between the deserving and undeserving according to racial descent.

'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'
George Santayana , 1905 - Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense, Scribner's, 1905, page 284

The "Somalia Affair" (1993) Revisited

The Somalia Affair was a 1993 military scandal that was later dubbed "Canada's national shame".

Shidane Abukar Arone was a Somali teenager who was tortured and beaten to death by Canadian soldiers in the Canadian Base in Somalia, on 17 March 1993.

Arone was caught on March 16 attempting to steal supplies from the Canadian base. Two members of the Canadian Military Base, Master Corporal Clayton Matchee and Private Kyle Brown, bound Arone and tortured him over the next several hours. Ultimately, he died of his injuries.

While the military initially claimed Matchee and Brown had acted alone, it was later revealed that sixteen others had visited the tent while Arone was captive, including superior officers.

At first DND officials told the media that Arone had likely died from natural causes. It took several weeks for the Canadian people to become aware of the actual events in Somalia.

An inquiry officially known as The Somalia Commission of Inquiry began in 1994 after public outcry.

The military disengagement from accountability and evasion strategies permeated the inquiry where Air Force General Jean Boyle blamed his subordinates for wrong doing.

It ran until 1997 when it was cut short by the government in the months before the 1997 election.The inquiry was never able to examine top level governmental decision-making, nor did it actually examine the alleged events in Somalia.

"Conspicuously absent from the report is anything on the most sensitive aspect of the Somalia affair — the torture and murder of Shidane Arone."
[Somalia debacle a high-level cover-up - The CBC Digital Archives Website- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - [Page consulted on May 23, 2009.] -
WATCH HERE

See Rex Murphy's piece: The Somalia affair-
"Macho thuggery," scapegoating, blockading requests for information, and evasive testimony taint the noble pursuit of peacekeeping."

The CBC Digital Archives - WATCH HERE
[Page consulted on May 23, 2009.]


"We promised them peacekeepers,and in some cases, we sent them thugs."

Reference: "Bloody and contemptuous images"- The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Digital Archives Website.

[Page consulted on May 23, 2009.]

WATCH HERE

The Somalia Inquiry heard from witness who testified that the lack of accountability sent the wrong message to the troops and that military police were deliberately stalled from investigating a shooting by Canadian soldiers of unarmed Somalins in the back, killing one Somalian and wounding another that took place just 12 days before the torture and murder of Shidane Arone.

"Somalia investigation hit 'inexplicable delay'" - Broadcast Date: March 10, 1997

The CBC Digital Archives- WATCH HERE - [Page consulted on May 23, 2009.]


References:
The Killing Of a Somali Jars Canada - The New York Times - Feb 11, 2006 - by CLYDE H. FARNSWORTH
[Page consulted on May 23, 2009.]
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/11/world/the-killing-of-a-somali-jars-canada.html

Final Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Deployment of Canadian Forces to Somalia- [Page consulted on May 23, 2009.]
http://www.dnd.ca/somalia/somaliae.htm

CBC Archives - The Somalia Affair - http://archives.cbc.ca/war_conflict/peacekeeping/topics/723/
[Page consulted on May 23, 2009.]

Somalia Cover-Up; A Commissioner's Journal 1997 by Peter Desbarats - Publisher: McClelland & Stewart (November 15, 1997)- ISBN-10: 0771026846

Torture by remote control

Published On Wed Feb 24 2010 - The Toronto Star
Walkom: Torture by remote control - thestar.com
Article HERE

by Thomas Walkom - National Affairs columnist - The Toronto Star

" Torture by remote control - thestar.com "

Premier Ottawa Screening of the Documentary "Ghosts" - CTV Interview

Monday, April 26 2010
7:00 pm
Ottawa Public Library Auditorium
120 Metcalfe
Panel Discussion Follows

"Ghosts" was awarded the "Prix du Public"
at the Montreal Human Rights Film Festival 2010.
Co-sponsored by Amnesty International and Nowar-Paix

It tells the story of three Canadian men; Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin who were detained and tortured for months and years in Syria and, in Ahmad El Maati's case, Egypt. Upon their release, they return to Canada and try to find answers to why they were detained in the first place. The role of the RCMP, CSIS and Department of Foreign Affairs in the torture of Canadians, s documented in Inquiries in Canada , is also exposed in this documentary.


The film also focuses on the effects of torture on the human mind and spirit.

" It is a lot bigger than you think ! "

OPERATION GLADIO - Secret Agencies Alliance
3-part series BBC documentary by Alan Francovich(1992)
The story of NATO and CIA sponsored terrorism organization named GLADIO.

To watch the full video click HERE to go the video at the Internet Archives . [retrieved April 5, 2010]
Link: http://www.archive.org/details/operationgladio

TRAILER:
Part One - ="The Ringmasters"
Secret Services Clandestine structures : their involvement in the killing of civilians and police officers , and their attempts to blame the deaths on others , from left wing groups to extremists, gangs and on.
(link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjIQfBwrIxw ) [retrieved April 5, 2010]




Part Two - "The Puppeteers"
The Judges speak: "Judges noticed in all the cases a certain amount of interference on the part of the police, secret services, the security and organs of the State. Instead of helping the magistrates to find out the truth, they went on fiddling records given to Magistrates to hide illegal activities of the Clandestine structures inside these Services."
The investigation of the murder of three policemen by prosecuter prosecutor Felipe Casson led to the revelation of "Gladio" networks around Western Europe, Casson's investigation revealed that a right-wing neo-fascist organization had been working very closely with the Military Secret Services.

As access to military equipment had been given to these clandestine structures they were used against innocent civilians and a part of the CIA "Strategy of Tension", killing spree
( link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mftRXPVCfmM ) [retrieved April 5, 2010]




Part Three - "The Foot Soldiers"
The Murder of a Prime Minister

"US Army Intelligence must have the means of launching special operations which will convince host country governments and public opinion of the reality of the insurgent danger..."

(link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNvrmkS2Xq4 ) [retrieved April 5, 2010]

Dr Aubrey Levin , aka "Dr.Shock" in South Africa, was a military psychiatrist during the apartheid regime. He was admitted to Canada in 1995

Dr Aubrey Levin, a former South African psychiatrist, who was accused of numerous human rights abuses in South Africa, immigrated to Canada in 1995 and became a leading Canadian psychiatrist at the University of Calgary’s medical school.

He was recently criminally charged in Calgary, accused of sex assault by one of his patients.
(Calgary Sun, March 31, 2010 - http://www.calgarysun.com/news/alberta/2010/03/24/13345966.html)

Canada admitted other South African medical practitioners accused of human rights abuses. Among then two who worked with Wouter Basson, known as Dr Death for his oversight of chemical and biological warfare experiments.

The South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard that Levin was guilty of “gross human rights abuses” including chemical castration of gay men.

Dr Levin was known as "Dr. Shock" in South Africa, for his use of electricity to “cure” gay military conscripts.

In Canada for 15 years and teaching at University of Calgary's medical school, he has been arrested for making sexual advances against a male patient and is being investigated on charges of abusing 30 others.

The Alberta justice department is reviewing scores of criminal convictions in which Levin was a prosecution witness.

THE FULL ARTICLE AT:
The Guardian U.K. - Sunday 28 March 2010 - Chris McGreal in Washington

'Doctor Shock' charged with sexually abusing male patient

Canadian police investigate dozens of allegations against psychiatrist nicknamed for use of electricity to 'cure' gay soldiers"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/28/aubrey-levin-charged-sexually-abusing-patient

[retrieved March 31, 2010]

Controversies related to Aubrey Levin's participation in human rights atrocities:

 

http://www.mrc.ac.za/healthsystems/aversion.pdf

SHARED INFORMATION - Israel - The Shadow Factory

Estimated 500+ Aboriginal women have gone missing or been murdered in Canada over the past thirty years- The crisis of missing and murdered women

Event about the crisis of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada

The event will begin with the screening of Finding Dawn, a compelling documentary on the estimated 500+ Aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in Canada over the past thirty years.

The documentary "Finding Dawn" illustrates the deep historical, social and economic roots of violence against Aboriginal women. It concludes with a message of hope and shared responsibility. Directed by Métis filmmaker Christine Welsh.

The documentary: Finding Dawn: Justice for Aboriginal Women

When: Wednesday, October 7 at 7:00 PM

Where: Kailash Mital Theater, Southam Hall, Carleton University, Ottawa ON

Free admission (suggested donation $10)


Entry is free to public and all donations – suggested at $10 – will go to the Kelly Morrisseau Education Fund established by Paul Dewar. The fund is dedicated to Kelly Morrisseau’s children, a young aboriginal woman who was murdered in Gatineau Park in December 2006.

Another illegal Human Experiment by the CIA in progress ?

The History of CIA Torture: "A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, From the Cold War to the War on Terror"

The Canadian connection with the the "no-touch torture" techniques of the CIA:

Interview with Professor Alfred W.McCoy in the ABC Radio National Australia, "LateNightLive", aired March 16, 2006:

LISTEN HERE:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2006/1593534.htm

Topics of the interview include:
- the Canadian Defence Board sponsored experiments to induce psychosis
- the sensory deprivation chamber commissioned at McGuill University (the Manhatan Project of the Mind) - t in Montreal to today

Professor Alfred W.McCoy has been studying the CIA for twenty years, in his new book he traces the the evolution of CIA interrogation methods back to the failed mind control experiments of the Cold War, and argues that the images from Abu Ghraib reveal a systematic and deliberate application of those methods.

Title: A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation From the Cold War to the War on Terror
Author: Alfred W McCoy
Publisher: Henry Holt

Rape and torture -by the graduates of american "School of the Americas" Led by also graduate Romeo Vasquez -The american taught way of doing business

Despite US government claims that they've cut all military ties with the Honduran golpistas, the SOA continues to train Honduran soldiers. article HERE.

Take action: HERE http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/727/t/3823/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27691

Missing Aboriginal Women - Sisters in Spirit

As The Manitoba government, RCMP and Winnipeg Police Service formally established a task force Wednesday to review cases involving missing and murdered women in the province as announced on August 26, 2009, a retrospective of the struggle that has been going on for so many years.
More at:
Amnesty International Canada Campaign -Stolen Sisters HERE
Sisters in Spirit HERE
Updates at http://www.missingjustice.ca/

McGill psychology Barbara Shewin part of a ghostwriting scheme paid for by drug giant Wyeth Pharmaceuticals

McGill psychology professor Barbara Sherwin is the first Canadian implicated in an ongoing scandal in the United States, where court documents – unsealed recently after a successful motion by The New York Times and the journal PLoS Medicine – have lifted the veil on the extent of ghostwriting in the pharmaceutical industry.

(The Toronto Star, August 22, 2009 - "Canadian named in HRT scandal" - by Stuart Laidlaw)
Details on the implication of McGill Psychology Professor Barbara SheRwin in the scandal at article in The Medical Ethics Blog , TheStarBlogs ,published on August 22, 2009 HERE and at HeathZone.ca - HealthZone.ca
It was also a McGill University Professor, Psychiatrist Ewen Cameron,
who brainwashed unsuspected patients as part of his work with the CIA on brainwashing techniques using electroshock therapy, at the Allan Memorial, which is associated with McGill University. His grisly methods and CIA funding are detailed in the book by John Marks (1979), "The Search for the Manchurian Candidate" and the later book, "In The Sleep Room: The Story of the CIA Brainwashing Experiments."

Although McGill bio sketch managed not to mention Dr. Cameron's involvement in the MKULTRA human experiments, (here - [retrieved August 22, 2009]), his horrendous experiments are too important to forget.
The following video is a BBC Scottish documentary on Ewen Cameron, Professor of Psychiatry at McGill and director of the then newly-created Allan Memorial Institute :

UNITED STATES, CANADA, BRITAIN: PARTNERS OR ACCOMPLICES?

"Cut and paste" of a very informative re-print at the Invictus Blog (here)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UNITED STATES, CANADA, BRITAIN: PARTNERS IN MIND CONTROL OPERATIONS
By Armen Victorian

July 1996
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEDICATION: I dedicate this writing to those innocent victims who have suffered from physical, mental abuse and torture inflicted upon their mind and bodies by the state -- irrespective of the colour of the flag. To the courageous individuals for telling the world about their torment. And the institutions that stood by their side and fought for their human rights. Rights, which are still violated by states under the disguise of their national security acts. No amount of compensation would be sufficient for raping or killing the mind.

The notorious Moscow trials of 1937 during Stalin's regime and the speed with which the defendants confessed to crimes against the state in the People's Court, and in particular Cardinal Mindszently of Hungary, surprised the governments of the western world. "Characteristics and manner of the defendants, and formulation and delivery of the confessions, have been so similar in large number of cases as to suggest factitious origin."[1] The evident incongruities prompted the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) in 1949 to undertake an "analysis of foreign work in certain unconventional warfare techniques, including behavioral drugs, with an initial objective of developing a capability to resist or offset the effects of behavioral drugs. Preliminary phases included to review drug-related work at institutions such as Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Valley Forge General Hospital, Detroit Psychopathic Clinic, Mayo Clinic and National Institute of Health (NIH). There was also extensive review of foreign literature, particularly work in the Soviet Bloc.

"This program shortly became Project BLUEBIRD, with the objectives of (a) discovering means of conditioning personnel to prevent unauthorized extraction of information from them by known means, (b) investigating the possibility of obtaining control of an individual by application of special interrogation techniques, (c) memory enhancement, and (d) establishing defensive means for preventing hostile control of Agency personnel."[2]

This was evolved to become the blueprint and bible of mind control programmes and psychological operations adopted by the west for decades afterwards. The result of the Korean War which started in June 1950, almost a year after the beginning of Project BLUEBIRD, and the return of POWs encouraged western intelligence to delve even further into their mind control programmes.

On June 1st, 1951, in the course of a top secret meeting held in the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Montreal, Canada, Britain and Canada joined forces with the Central Intelligence Agency to "Research into the general phenomena indicated by such terms as -- "confessions," "menticide," "intervention in the individual mind," together with methods concerned in psychological coercion, change of opinions and attitudes, etcetra."[3]

The participants that represented senior and renown ranks from the military, intelligence and scientific communities were:
Dr. Haskins, Dr. Donald Hebb (a Defence Research Board University Advisor - Canada), Dr. Ormond Solandt (Chairman, Defence Research Board - Canada), Dancy (MI6), Dr. N.W. Morton (A staff member of Defence Research Board - Canada), Tyhurst, Commander Williams, and Sir Henry Tizard (Chairman, Advisory Council on Scientific Policy and Defence Research Policy Committee, Ministry of Defence, Britain).[4]

This was the beginning of a close cooperation which lasted throughout the BLUEBIRD, ARTICHOKE and the MKULTRA projects. Whilst accidental survival of some of the records on these programmes and in particular MKULTRA establishes the documentary evidence about Canadian government's involvement in MKULTRA programmes, the information on Britain's participation or cooperation due to continuous British Government's policy of secrecy remains sketchy.[5, and 6]

"At the opening of the discussion, there was an attempt to lay out some of the particular interests with which this group might concern itself in reference to the general problem described above [confessions, menticide, intervention in the individual mind - sic]. In this regard, the following points were noted:

"(i) That the concern with change of opinion was with reference to individuals primarily, and to groups only insofar as the change of public opinion as a whole or propaganda might involve concepts and particular facts that led to increased phenomena of conversion of attitude.

"(ii) The question of permanence of change of attitude induced.

"(iii) The means of methods; physical, neurophysiological, psychological or other -- that might be used to induce change of opinion or conversion of attitude in the individual."[7]

Within the space of three months after this top secret meeting "in August 1951 Project BLUEBIRD was renamed Project ARTICHOKE, [and] in 1952 was transferred from OSI to the predecessor organization of the Office of Security. OSI did retain a responsibility for evaluation of foreign intelligence aspects of the matter and in 1953 made a proposal that experiments be made in testing LSD with Agency volunteers." "Meanwhile, the emphasis given ARTICHOKE in the predecessor organization to the Office of Security became that of use of material such as sodium pentothel in connection with interrogation techniques and with polygraph."[8]

In an attempt to conduct "Experimental Studies of Attitude Changes in Individuals," Sir Henry Tizard, Dr. Ormond Solandt and the CIA granted contract X-38 to Dr. Donald O. Hebb from the McGill University in September 1951.[9]

The project focused on the use of Sensory Deprivation (SD) and isolation for eliciting information in the course of deep interrogation. Hebb believed that sensory deprivation would induce dramatic changes in the behaviour and attitude. The first "subjects used were student group and each was paid $20 per day (24 hours) for as long as he could continue with the experiment."[10] The experimental conditions and environment for the volunteer students in comparison to the real victims of SD were markedly different. Volunteers were provided with an air conditioned room, comfortable bed and good food during the period of the experiments, as well as a panic button to use whenever they decided to terminate the experiment. They wore translucent goggles, forcing them see blurred light. "The subject was not to talk except when asking to hear the recorded propaganda or when doing minor tests given to him by the experimenter. In other words the subject was in perpetual isolation."[11] The volunteers were not subjected to any propaganda material which would have had adverse effects on their political or religious beliefs, "it was thought unwise, and for the protection of the individual only propaganda material used concerning such relatively innocuous topics as ghosts, poltergeist, extrasensory perception and the Lamarckian theory of evolution."[12]

Despite the concessionary factors several of the volunteers began to have experiences of unusual visual and auditory hallucinations. Many found themselves unable to distinguish between the waking and sleep stage. Another person whose work result was taken into consideration was Dr. Mackworth of the Applied Psychology Unit of the Medical Research Council at Cambridge, England. He had produced work on the effect of monotony and boredom during isolation period on individual. The fact of existence of similar programmes on the sensory deprivation and isolation, and the cooperation between the three countries is further confirmed by Dr. Solandt's comments that the fact that Canadians were making such contribution in this field may be of some advantage in obtaining information in the same field from the US and the UK.[13]

"Hebb's research to date has given some indication that significant changes in attitude can be brought about by use of propaganda under condition of isolation. In addition, [Hebb] has shown that there is a significant decrease in intellectual efficiency under such conditions, and a marked increase in susceptibility to hallucination."[14] When the information concerning the SD tests were leaked out and published in the Montreal Star, the Gazette and Toronto Star, in 1954. Dr. Solandt tried his best to conceal the facts; "When earlier this month it became evident that some information on this project was in the hands of the Press, it was decided that while it would be injudicious to reveal the original purpose of the project, it would be equally unwise to refuse to give any information at all. A compromise was therefore arranged whereby the project was described, but entirely from the point of view of possible implications for civilian or military operational situations in which a display had to be watched, a moving vehicle controlled etc."[15]

Due to Donald Hebb's contribution to mind control programmes, the CIA afterward funded Ewen Cameron's Psychic Drive Project through MKULTRA Subproject 68. At the time Hebb was the head of McGill's Psychology Department, and a close friend and colleague of Cameron. Cameron's work in the "Psychic Drive" programme left behind a legacy of despair and numerous victims which sued both the Canadian Government and the CIA years later.

Dr. John C. Lilly, another psychologist, studied sensory deprivation in 1956 by immersing volunteers in a tank of lukewarm water. The subjects had to wear particular type of face mask enabling them to see only blurred light. Under total silence and lack of any stimulation the subjects were unable to concentrate, and in some cases developed mental disturbances. The maximum time a volunteer could tolerate these conditions was only three hours. The volunteers reported feelings of unreality and tremendous loss of identification. They did not know where they were, or who they were, or what was happening to them. Due to this enormous mental pressure most of them abandoned the experiment.[16]

The concept of experiments in SD soon proliferated. Donald Hebb was granted further contracts by the US Air Force for further research and experiments into SD.[17] Biderman and Zimmer(1961) also conducted extensive research on interrogation techniques using SD, funded by the US Air Force.[18] Vernon, another researcher in this subject admitted in the "Acknowledgement" of his book "Inside the Black Room," "The entire project was made possible by a generous grant-in-aid of research given by the Office of Surgeon General of the US Army, and by the National Science Foundation." Unashamedly, he went on to add in his book "While our goal is pure knowledge for its own sake, we have no objection to someone's use of that knowledge."[19]

There are three aspects in the development and the use of the Sensory Deprivation. First; the requirement for more experimental studies, researching the basic effects of the SD and sleep deprivation. Second; the use of these techniques in interrogation. Third; their utilization in special warfare techniques by specialized troops. It was the accumulation of that knowledge which gave birth to the modern Psychological Operations, and subsequently enabled the British Government, on August 9, 1971, to unleash one of its biggest deep interrogation experiments, using torture and sensory deprivation, plausibly denied by the Government at the time as a political exercise against terrorism, on Irish internees. Lord Parker admitted that the SD methods used on the Irish internees were "techniques developed since war to deal with a number of situations involving internal security. Some or all have played an important part in counterinsurgency operations in Palestine, Malaya, Kenya and Cyprus and more recently in the British Cameroon (1960-61), Bruni (1963), British Guyana (1964), Aden (1965-66), and the Persian Gulf (1970-71)."[20] Indeed, the first NATO symposium on defence psychology was held in Paris in 1960, a couple of years after F.H. Lakin, from the Army Operation Research Establishment in Britain, travelled to Fort Bragg addressing a conference on human factors in military affairs on British Psychological Warfare Techniques in Malaya.[21] In 1963 the US Department of Defense held its first Worldwide Psyops Conference, outlining twenty-eight specific areas, Britain as on of its main participants.

The Northern Ireland's unprecedented operations, due to the nature of their severity and repeated breaches of various Articles of Human Rights Convention, forced Amnesty International, Association of Legal Justice, Committee on the Administration of Justice (Northern Ireland), as well as the European Court of Human Rights to intervene, adding their voice and concern to the plight of the victims.[22] A great number of internees after undergoing horrendous experiments were subsequently released without any charges.

Many of the original fourteen victims of the first phase of these gruesome experiments "were made to sign a paper that they had no complaints about the treatment during interrogation. Those who signed the paper implied that they did so because they were frightened, or because they did not understand the contents."[23] Several of them suffered from deep psychological scars for years afterwards, and some continue their suffering. Some died shortly after this experiments. A few attempted suicide during their captivity and interrogation.[24]

Amnesty International report stated; "As a result of its investigation, the Commission concludes that the ill-treatment used in these cases clearly amounted to brutality, and disagree with the Compton Committee when they state: "Where we have concluded that physical ill-treatment took place, we are not making a finding of brutality on the part of those who handled these complaints (paragraph 105)." "The officials who gave evidence to the Compton Committee also said that one of the purposes of the hooding and continuous noise [white noise - author] was to increase the sense of isolation, so it is obvious that the methods used during interrogation in depth were therefore intended to affect the recipients psychologically."[25]

"In the opinion of the Commission, the interrogation in depth especially, but also the "special exercises", constitute violation of Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 3 of the European Convention for the protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms."[26]

In their memorandum submitted by Amnesty International to the Parker Committee on Interrogation Procedures, they stated; "It is because we regard the deliberate destruction of a man's ability to control his own mind with revulsion that we reserve a special place in our catalogue of moral crimes for techniques of thought control and brainwashing. Any interrogation procedure which has the purpose or effect of causing a malfunction or breakdown of a man's mental processes constitutes as grave as assault on the inherent dignity of the human person as more traditional techniques of physical torture."[27]

In 1970, the World Conference on Religion and Peace, held in Kyoto, Japan, where the representatives of all the world's religions were present, the conference made the following declaration on torture and ill-treatment of prisoners; "The torture and ill-treatment of prisoners which is carried out with the authority of some governments constitute not only a crime against humanity, but also a crime against the moral law."[28]

Britain is regarded as an expert in psychological operations, and has regularly been invited to give demonstrations and hold seminars, notably at Fort Bragg, Carolina; Fort Huachuca, Arizona; Bad Tolz, Germany. For a time they were also instructing the P.I.D.E. Portuguese secret police until to their embarrassment, they discovered that since the Army coup they had for sometime been giving lectures in counter-insurgency and torture to Latin American guerrillas, whom Communist members of the Portuguese Army had infiltrated.[29]

Britain holds its main psychological operation courses at Ashford in Kent, Caterrick in Yorkshire, Bradbury Lines (The SAS camp in Hereford) and Old Sarum in Wiltshire, where psyops courses for RAF officers are held. On average 16 men, consisting of Green Jackets, SAS, Royal Marines and Royal Artillery, together with members from the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), take part.[30]

The existence of psyop courses which includes the demonstration and the use of sensory deprivation was kept secret until Robert Brown, the UK Army Minister was forced to admit in 1976. Approximately 250 take these courses every year. Frank Kitson,[31] one of the organizers of psyop courses, had complained about the small number of 18 taking part in Old Sarum. According to British Government figures up to 1976, 262 civilians and 1858 Army officers had taken these courses.

The SAS training courses in the Bracon Beacons, also includes sensory deprivation as part of its toughening up policy.

As further experiments Sensory deprivation was applied through the Control Units in British prisons. The very nature and existence of these units were kept secret by the British Home Office. The Control Unit at the Wakefield Prison was one of the first to receive its first share of inmates in August 1974, to be subjected to SD. The concept was to break down the troublesome prisoners using modified version of SD. Sunday Times Insight Team uncovered the existence of these units and the purpose of their creation, in October 1974. As result of publicity and sever criticism UK Government was forced to disband its Control Units in Wakefield and Wormwood Scrubs prisons. The "Treatment" designed for a period of six months was divided into two parts. Sensory deprivation was the main focal point. In the first 90 days, a strict solitary confinement, with almost no communication was applied to the inmate. If result proved successful, the victim was allowed to have a limited amount of communication in the next three months phase. Otherwise, the entire phase one would have been repeated -- more solitary confinement. No conversation between the prisoner and the guards were allowed, only gestures were permitted.

John Masterson was the first inmate subjected to this "Treatment" in 1974. With no positive results, and more psychological scars left on the victims, eventually on May 20, 1976, Dr. Pickering, ex-Director of Prison Medical Service admitted in BBC's "Man Alive" programme, that "control units were a mistake." It is ironic, since he was in charge when John Masterson was subjected to this mental torture.

Roy Jenkins, the Home Secretary at the time expressed his satisfaction about these units and their operations. "I am satisfied that the safeguard and procedures are such that the trained staff of Wakefield are able to maintain a careful and caring watch on the progress and condition of prisoners in the control unit."[32]

A year after he was still adamant that; "I am satisfied that allegations, which have received considerable publicity, of sensory deprivation, cruelty and brutality in the unit, are completely unfounded and that the Governor and staff have conducted themselves in a commendably professional manner."[33] Yes, but what about the fate of the victims?

What started in Ritz Carlton Hotel in 1951, came to full fruition in 1971, throughout the ordeal of Ulster guinea pigs. As Professor Robert Daly[34] stressed; "The whole SD process in Northern Ireland was a package deal. Being awaken in the middle of the night, being beaten, confused as to your whereabouts, lied to and insulted, was all part of the 'unfreezing process' through which your psychological defences were broken down, and terror and humiliation were induced. Hence, the photographing in the nude, being forced to urinate while running, refusal to allow toilet visits, the sadism and abuse. Meanwhile the psychological functions of the body were being disturbed by the very low or non-existent intake of calories, high temperature caused by sweating which could lead to dehydration, coupled with the cold at night, sleep deprivation and loss of sense of touch. The whole experience was a package. Whether you want to call it interrogation in depth or brain washing is academic. The aim of the treatment was to cause temporary psychosis, temporary insanity, which was a severe psychological injury liable to having lasting consequences."[35]

Like the CIA, Britain too, as part of its mind control operation applied hallucinogenic drugs -- LSD, on unwitting subjects, including the Irish internees;

"Mr. Murphy alleges; He was given tea and says that after drinking he saw images on the wall."[36] "Mr. Bradley alleges; He suffered from hallucination after drinking a cup of tea."[37]

Despite Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which guarantees "the free development of ...personality," and "in spite of the various United Nations provisions concerning the personal integrity of individuals, no state is expressly precluded from altering the mental processes of its nationals."[38]

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance," said Albert Camus. Nowhere is this more clear than in the protection of freedom of the mind, our most precious human right.[39]

Armen Victorian

June 1996.

REFERENCES:

1. CIA memorandum "An Analysis of Confession in Russian Trials," 1950. Also see "Are the Cominform Countries Using Hypnotic Techniques to Elicit Confession in Public Trials?" By; Irving L. Janis; US Air Force Project Rand Memorandum, April 25, 1971.

2. "Behavior Drugs, and Testing," Feb. 5, 1975. CIA document.

3. Documents from the collection of the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

4. Tizard, Sir Henry Thomas, born 23 August 1885, GCB, AFC, FRS, LLD, DSc, ScD, and holder of other titles (see Who is Who 1951, and Who is Who 1951-1960).

5. op. cit. 3.

6. In 1973 several key documents on the CIA's mind control programmes were destroyed on the order of Richard Helms, the CIA Director.

7. op. cit. 3.

8. op. cit. 2.

9. "Confidential" letter, Dr. Solandt, August 3, 1954.

10. ibid.

11. ibid.

12. ibid.

13. ibid., and Dr. Solandt's conversation with author, 1989.

14. Letter to "The Minister", Ormond Solandt, Jan. 25, 1954.

15. ibid.

16. John C. Lilly, "Mental Effects of Reduction of Ordinary Levels of Physical Stimuli on Intact Healthy Persons," Psychological Research Report 5, 1966, pp. 1-9. Also see Bexton et al., "The Effects of Decreased Variation in the Sensory Environment," Canadian Journal of Psychology, vol. 8, 1954, pp. 70-76.

17. National Defence Headquarters [Canada] letter to author, dated April 18, 1994. Also see D.O. Hebb et al., "The Effects of Isolation Upon Attitudes, Motivation and Thought," 4th Symposium, Military Medicine I, Defence Research Board, Canada, Dec. 1952 (Secret), and; D.O. Hebb and W. Heron, "Effects of Radical Isolation Upon Intellectual Functions and The Manipulation of Attitudes," 4th Symposium, Military
Medicine I, Defence Research Board, Canada, Dec. 1952 (Secret).

18. Biderman, Zimmer, "The Manipulation of Human Behaviour," Wiley, New York, 1961.

19. J. Vernon, "Inside the Black Room: Studies of Sensory Deprivation," Penguin 1966.

20. Parker Report, Cmnd. 4901 (HMSO), para 10.

21. F.H. Lakin from Army Operational Research Establishment (AORE), Britain, described the British Psychological Warfare research in Malaya between 1952-55. He was in charge of a nine man research team responsible to AORE, and the Research Division of the Director General of the Information Services [then the Federation of Malaya]. For six months two men from the Operational Research Office of John Hopkins University, Maryland, worked closely with his team, plus an Australian army psychologist.

22. Also see; 1. "Repression Trade - (UK) Limited," How the UK Makes Torture and Death its Business. By Amnesty International, British Section 1992. 2. "Submission to the United Nations Committee Against Torture," for consideration during the Committee's scrutiny of UK Government's Report. Committee on the Administration of Justice (Affiliated of the International Federation of Human Rights), Nov. 13, 1993. 3. "A Submission to; the United Nation's Human Rights Committee," Containing Comments on the Forth Periodic Report by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Human Rights Committee under Article 40 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. By; Committee on the Administration of Justice, June 1995.

23. "Report Of An Enquiry Into Allegation of Ill-Treatment in Northern Ireland," Amnesty International, p.26.

24. For a more detailed account of the fate of the internees see "The Guineapigs," John McGuffin.

25. op. cit. 23, p.36.

26. ibid.

27. op. cit. 23, p.38.

28. Findings of The World Conference on Religion and Peace, p. 31.

29. In answer to a Parliamentary Question, Archie Hamilton, the British Minister of State for Defence listed 100 countries to which UK provides military training of various nature including Portugal, and other countries with notorious track records in violation of Human Rights, e.g. China, Chile, Iraq, Uganda, South Korea, Egypt, Turkey. He fails to add Cambodia to the list -- See John Pilger's "Cambodia: Year Ten."

30. "Precis 6: Psyop unit - General," Training Report, Senior Officers' Psyop Course, Royal Air Force, Old Sarum, Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK February 14/18, 1972. A British document devoted to the organization and equipment of psyops unit, both at headquarters, and broken down into subsections; Consolidation Psyops; Counter-Insurgency uses and their use in peacetime, as well as details of deployment of psyop units in UK. Also, "Technical Report of the Senior Officers' Psyop Course Held at RAF Old Sarum, 14-18, Feb. 1972." This course clarifies the parallel nature of the British psyops with that of US Army's. Amongst people that have addressed these courses are; Keith Belbin, of Coleman, Prentice and Valery [Advertising Agency]
on recruitment. Peter Bartlett on target analysis with reference to the Chinese use in Hong Kong. R.M. Farr [a psychologist from British Psychological Society] on attitude change, and B.R. Johnston on information policy in low intensity operations, mainly in Northern Ireland.

31. Now Sir Frank Kitson, Commander of the 39th Infantry Brigade Northern Ireland between 1970-72. Author of "Low Intensity Operation: Subversion," London, Faber and Faber; and "Insurgency Peace-Keeping," London, Faber and Faber 1971. Also, see "The Technology of Political Control," by; Ackroyd, Margolis, Rosenhead and Shalice. Pluto Press 1980, and "The Silent Conspiracy," Stephen Dorril (William Heineman Ltd.), 1993.

32. House of Commons, [British Parliament] November 14, 1974.

33. House of Commons, October 24, 1975.

34. Professor Robert Daly, expert in Sensory deprivation. A graduate from Dublin University. Instructor in psychiatry at the University of North Carolina. Later a lecturer at Edinburgh University before taking post at the University College, Cork.

35. Robert Daly; "Psychiatric After-effects of Irish Prisoners Subjected to Ill-Treatment and Torture," New Scientist, August 5, 1976.

36. op. cit. 23, p. 14.

37. op. cit. 23, p. 23.

38. Garland E. Burrell, Jr., "Mental Privacy: An International Safeguard to Governmental Intrusion into the Mental Processes," 6 California Western International Law Journal.

39. Alan Scheflin, "Freedom of The Mind As An International Human Rights Issue," Human Rights Law Journal, Vol. 3, 1982.

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All "cut and past" from Invictus Blog , August 16, 2009 - HERE

"For further information, see also Dr. Victorian's essay, Mind Controllers. Armen Victorian was the pseudonym for a colorful British character, born in Soviet Armenia, Habib (Henry) Azadehdel. Azadehdel was apparently involved in the UFO community and was an orchid smuggler. Whatever or whomever he actually was, most agree he was a successful user of FOIA, and gathered a wealth of information. Whatever he thought about the theories behind the data, he was not really a conspiracy theorist, and as you can see above, relied mostly on the facts to speak for themselves. "Reading: From the Archives: Armen Victorian's Essay on the History of Mind Control Operations

"TORTURE PROGRAM"

The History of top-secret CIA mind control operation MK-ULTRA:
from the covert importation of NAZI scientists at the end of WWII,
to the illegal brainwashing experiments conducted in Canada by psychiatric researcher, Dr. Ewen Cameron

DOCUMENTARY: THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (2001)
[Internet Archives - retrieved August 15, 2009 - HERE]