I’m sure many of you have heard of Operation Northwoods, but I just heard about it while reading Wizards of Ozymandias. I thought I would bring it to the attention of those who have not heard of it and then mention a similar topic that many of you have also probably heard of. The wikipedia for Northwoods provides a nice summary and some great sources to boot. The article in Wizards of Ozymandias that Northwoods is mentioned in is called 9/11 was a Conspiracy.
After reading about Northwoods, it kind of made me feel the way I did after I had first read about the M.K. Ultra Experiments; scientific studies using LSD that were conducted by the CIA in order to achieve brainwashing technologies to create a real-life version of The Manchurian Candidate. These experiments were conducted in response to the CIA’s fears that the Russians were working on a similar project. What Operation Northwoods and Project M.K. Ultra have in common is that both were plans devised by our government, devious in nature, and then justified under the guise of fighting The Cold War. However, major difference between Operation Northwoods and Project M.K. Ultra is that the M.K. Ultra experiments were actually implemented. Conversely, Operation Northwoods would fortunately be blocked from implementation by Kennedy before the DOD could execute it.
A quick and interesting story on my first reading about the project:
The evening I first came across knowledge of these M.K. Ultra experiments would prove to be a long one. I spent what seemed like countless hours devouring everything I could on the topic, and in the process of doing so, I read the work of various and sundry authors, both amateur and famous alike. Each Author had performed the task of compiling his own list of famous individuals whom he believed to have been participants (sometimes called ‘victims’) in these experiments.
It was the day after I had drowned myself in this information on project M.K. Ultra that I would, at the invitation of a friend, randomly attend a speech given by Ted Kaczynski’s brother, David. Interestingly, it was not until I walked in the room that I would discover who the speaker was.
This was a significant coincidence because I remembered reading Kaczynski’s name among many in the various lists I had found of alleged participants in the experiments. He was, as I stated before, not the only person of notable fame to have supposedly taken part. Merry Prankster Ken Kesey and Robert Hunter were also alleged victims of note.
Of the more infamous people on these lists often included, among others, famous assassins and (who the state would deem) terrorists, such as Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley, Jr., and mobster James “Whitey” Bulger.
As if my random attendance of David Kaczynski’s speech wasn’t coincidence enough already, the story gets even better. There was one main factor I noticed that separated Kaczynski’s name from all the others I’ve mentioned. Out of all the lists and of the many authors who had compiled them, they all seemed to concur unanimously that Ted Kaczynski had, without a doubt, taken part in these experiments. The rest of the names were debated, some more than others. This was not the case, however, for Kaczynski. Sitting before me now was a great opportunity to test the validity of these authors claims, and I exploited that opportunity the moment I noticed it.
David spent the majority of the speech to talk about Ted’s lonely and troubled childhood, his days at Harvard as a genius mathematician, his eventual isolation from his family in a cabin in the woods where he would assemble and ship his bombs, and, finally, the days following his arrest and how Mrs. Kaczynski, Ted and David’s mother, handled talking to Ted’s many victims’ families.
After his speech, David eventually opened up a Q and A for the crowd. Thinking Project M.K. Ultra could not be real (in retrospect, wishful thinking), I asked him if he had heard of M.K. Ultra or if knew anything about the rumors surrounding his brother’s alleged participation in the project, and, if so, did he believe they had any major effect on Ted’s actions. I recorded his response to this question on my phone so I could have it for just such an occasion like this one, and I thought you all would like me to share it.
He replied, “Well, that is certainly a question I can count on one hand the number of times I have been asked at any of my speeches before. From what I understand, Ted certainly did take part in those. He was in the minority of those experiments in that he volunteered for them because they paid $25 a week, which for a poor student back then was a lot of money. Most of those who took part in the M. K. experiments were never really aware of it, at least not till years later.”
“As for Ted, I don’t think they were the sole cause of his actions. As I said before, Ted was already quite an introvert and a loner, and we knew from a very young age that something was wrong with him neurologically. We had no idea back then what exactly was wrong with him, and to look into such things in that time often meant never seeing your child again. So it was largely ignored. My parents raised him with the same kind of love and affection that they raised me with; which, again, at that time, was all you could do. However, had we as a society known then what we do now about neurological ailments, the nature of Ted’s ailment being schizophrenia, and more importantly had we known the sheer extent of Ted’s Schizophrenia, I am sure my parents would have acted differently.”
“Unfortunately for Ted, he was exactly the kind of person the M.K Ultra experiments targeted. So, that being the case, I don’t think they were the only factor that led Ted down the path he walked, however, in my opinion, I would say it was definitely a contributing factor, and perhaps even a major one.”
“I would also point out that that portion of Ted’s past is not well-known by the public, but it should be. I think it is terribly irresponsible and even evil that our government would ever conduct those kinds of experiments on its own people, or anyone for that matter. I have often thought about including that portion of Ted’s past in these talks, and the few times that I have, it has resulted in either the University staff becoming quite angry with me for going “off topic”, or the Q and A time ends up being less about Ted, who I have dedicated my life to speaking about, and more about questions on M.K. Ultra; a subject I would not claim to be an expert on. I hope that I don’t ordinarily avoid the topic for selfish reasons. I think I mainly avoid it because I have found that not avoiding it isn’t really conducive to my goal in speaking: spreading awareness about mental illness before it becomes a problem like the one it became for Ted.”
“In either case, the sad fact is that most people just aren’t willing to believe it, and even when they start to, they still are just not ready to accept the reality that their government is not always looking out for their best interest. Even more unfortunate, sometimes our government looks out for our worst interests.”
“All that being said, I encourage all of you to look into those experiments and don’t take my word for it. The evidence is there and our government has, in recent years, even admitted to these experiments, and has declassified a lot of the remaining existing documents about those experiments.”
“I would not say I am a conspiracy theorist, however sometimes those theories end up being true. I think it is important to at least keep an open mind and look into these things on your own. You may be surprised by what you find if you can manage to muster up the courage to just look in the first place. Thanks for bringing that up. Any other questions?”
He went on to a few other questions, but interesting words from a man who knows first hand a little bit about these things.