50 Insane Declassified CIA Secrets You Aren't Supposed to Know

“It is understandable that we question the true motivation of medical and humanitarian workers.” Made forty-three! The CIA reads five million tweets a day! In case you need to feel better about your possible Twitter addiction, the CIA has reported that it studies 5 million different tweets in a variety of languages ​​to gauge the mood of different areas following major foreign policy decisions. For example, following the killing of Bin Laden, the Open Source Center was connected to the collective reaction of Twitter sentiments in the Middle East on the matter. We'd hate to be one of the many employees tasked with scrolling through Twitter every day, whether for general impressions or actionable information.

Made forty-four! They had a manual on deception written by a master magician! John E. McLaughlin, former deputy director of the CIA, once said: "Magic and intelligence are truly related arts." That must be why they hired magician John Mulholland to write a manual on deception and deception for $3,000 in 1953. It was just another of the many crazy documents created under the MKUltra Banner and was thought to have been destroyed in 1973, until two agents I noticed they still had copies. It was full of useful little tips, like the fact that agents who look dumb or disheveled are less likely to be noticed, how secret pockets are perfect for hiding weapons or documents, and how you can smuggle your way out of a building inside a box. .

Useful stuff, really. Made forty-five! The CIA is less than a century old! Despite having an incredibly storied history, the CIA as it is today was not created until 1947, although it had some precursor organizations, including the Office of the Coordinator of Information, the Office of Strategic Services, the Strategic Services Unit, and the Central Group. of Intelligence, in that order. Made forty-six! They kept a strange list of Soviet jokes for the deputy director! We don't have much of an explanation for this: it could have been for the deputy director's personal use or some kind of social function, but we will share here one of the jokes from the CIA's official list of Soviet jokes: “What is the difference between Gorbachev and Dubcek?

Nothing, but Gorbachev doesn't

know

it yet." Uhhh… We guess you had to be there. Made forty-seven! The CIA Armed Islamic Extremists in the Iran Contra Affair! In probably the most famous CIA scandal of all time, the CIA facilitated the illegal sale of weapons to Iran, which at the time was subject to an arms embargo. Because? Because they hoped to use the profits to finance the Contras, a band of anti-Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua. It is considered one of the biggest embarrassments of the Reagan administration. Made forty-eight! They are

supposed

to have helped overthrow an Australian Prime Minister!

Gough Whitlam, Australian Prime Minister from 1972 to 1975, made enemies of both MI6 and the CIA when he strove to make Australia a more independent nation from the British and the United States, even threatening to close a CIA base in Pine Gap. While opinion is divided on the issue, many believe that the CIA influenced Governor-General Sir John Kerr to remove Whitlam as Prime Minister and install an opposition politician who was much more sympathetic to the CIA interests. place. This resulted in the Australian constitutional crisis of 1975, one of Australia's most controversial political incidents. To this day, both the CIA and Kerr deny that there was collusion.

Made forty-nine! The CIA has a kill list! This list of people, maintained by the Counterterrorism Center (CTC), is the top priority for assassination under CIA mandate. After the CTC gathers information, CIA lawyers, the general counsel, and the head of the National Clandestine Service make the decision on whether the hit will take place. If this raises certain questions about extrajudicial killings and the lack of a fair trial, well, I definitely wouldn't be alone in those criticisms. Made fifty! The CIA had a torture training manual! Titled “Training Manual on Human Resources Exploitation,” this book of torture techniques was distributed to the Honduran army by the CIA.

In what seems like an almost comical attempt at plausible deniability, the book begins with a note that reads: “We will discuss some of those coercive techniques that have been used by many and the reasons why we are against the use of these techniques. "We do not use these techniques nor do we condone their use." It was very generous of the CIA to give the Honduran militants a list of exact instructions on how to torture people, just to make sure none of them did it by accident. The CIA is very humanitarian in that sense. Now check out “Was President JFK Really Assassinated by the CIA?” Or watch this video instead!