As the CIA release 800,000 declassified files online, we take a look at some of the US’ past secrets
Following long-running campaign and lawsuit, the Central Intelligence Agency has finally allowed online publication of hundreds of thousands of files
THE spooky secrets of the CIA have been uploaded online, revealing long-running investigations into psychic powers and UFOs.
The American intelligence agency even tested Uri Geller’s psychic ability in 1973 – with the spoon-bender showing incredible accuracy.
His special powers are revealed in a trove of 800,000 files - a total of 13 million pages - of declassified documents released online after a long campaign by freedom-of-information activists and a lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency.
While the information was previously available for public viewing, it could only be looked at on one of four computers in a library at the National Archives in Maryland.
UFO sightings
OF 1,500 UFO reports since 1947, 20 per cent were unexplained.
One of the most dramatic cases was a sighting by two police officers in Lithuania on June 26, 1996.
The report reads: “They noticed a spherical object hanging and ‘pulsing’.
“They heard a strange sound like an electric or electronic crackle.
“The sphere moved away, rose higher and rapidly departed.”
Soviet jokes
A SELECTION of jokes was prepared for the CIA deputy director to poke fun at the former Soviet Union’s long queues and shortage of supplies.
One gag reads: “A worker in a liquor line says, ‘I’ve had enough, save my place – I am going to shoot (President) Gorbachev’.
“Two hours later he returns. His friends ask, ‘Did you get him?’ He replies, ‘No, the line there was even longer than the line here’.”
In another, a man enters a shop and asks, “You wouldn’t happen to have fish?” The assistant replies:
“You’ve got it wrong! This is a butcher’s shop.
“Here we wouldn’t happen to have meat. The shop over the road is where they wouldn’t happen to have fish.”
Invisible ink
THERE are several recipes for making the classic spy tool of invisible ink.
One set of instructions says: “Take a weak solution of starch, tinged with a little tincture of iodine. This bluish writing will soon fade away.”
It is also noted that secret messages in invisible ink could be written on people and that “to destroy messages, the body should be scrubbed, and then wash with lime or lemon juice to eradicate all tracings or markings”.
Another report – titled How To Open Sealed Letters – shows how to get into people’s post while leaving them none the wiser afterwards.
Berlin tunnel
IN 1952 the US started work on a 400-metre tunnel into the Soviet sector of the divided German city to tap telephone lines.
The tunnel was discovered in 1956.
A CIA document blames the British double agent George Blake. It says he “had been recruited by the Soviets while a prisoner in North Korea in 1952 and . . . was privy to all aspects of the tunnel from earliest planning”.
Psychic powers
IN 1980, the CIA compiled a report into whether it was possible to see into the future or move objects solely with the mind.
It is claimed that psychic Ingo Swann, along with others, “demonstrated the ability to describe distant rooms, they had never previously observed, with considerable accuracy”.
Reports also investigated the “bond between men and plants”.
One test in 1974 claims that the connection is so extreme that “the plant would respond automatically whenever the man was injured”.
Mind control
REVELATIONS on the infamous MKUltra project, dubbed the CIA mind control programme, list bizarre experiments on human subjects to develop drugs and procedures for interrogation and torture.
The subjects were hypnotised, tested for psychic abilities and even given the psychedelic drug LSD.
A 1953 report found that LSD could be used to interrogate any “unwilling subjects” as it stimulates them “to talk more freely”.