10 Disturbing Conspiracy Theories About the CIA

8 Disturbing Conspiracy Theories About the CIA

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the darkest, most unbelievable conspiracies that the Central Intelligence Agency has been accused of orchestrating.

Phoenix Program

The Vietnam War was, and remains, one of the most historically unpopular war efforts ever. Countless casualties on both sides, deeply shameful events like the My Lai Massacre, and the CIA’s Phoenix Program made up just some of the reasons why the Vietnam War was so heavily protested. For the purposes of our video today: the Phoenix Program, which operated from 1968 to 1972, was described by the CIA as “a set of programs that sought to attack and destroy the political infrastructure of the Viet Cong.” Using disturbing tactics like infiltration, torture, and even assassination, the CIA “neutralized” just over 80,000 people suspected of being associated with the Viet Cong.

Project Stargate

Psychic superpowers like telepathy and telekinesis are the stuff of science fiction and superhero comic books… right? Unfortunately, at least for now, the answer is yes. But that didn’t stop the CIA from trying to find out. In the 1970s, unnerved by reports that the Soviet Union was conducting research into parapsychology and the occult, the agency set up a top-secret research unit within the U.S. Army that would attempt to prove the existence of so-called “remote viewing” (the in-house CIA moniker for what was essentially telepathy). The program ran for a few decades, but would ultimately shut its doors in 1995 after failing to prove the existence of such psychic phenomena.

Operation CHAOS

The CIA’s mission, which is ostensibly to collect intel about global threats to U.S. national security, became more than a little murky when the existence of Operation CHAOS was revealed. A domestic espionage operation, CHAOS’ goal was straightforward: similarly to the FBI’s COINTELPRO project, CHAOS would attempt to uncover any possible foreign influences on quote-unquote “subversive” American groups and organizations. The program, founded by President Lyndon B. Johnson and continued by President Richard Nixon, maintained a network of informants, as well as covert wiretaps to spy on American citizens. Targets of Operation CHAOS included activist groups like the Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panther Party, Women Strike for Peace, and more.

Aiding & Abetting Illicit Trafficking

Although you’d think that one of the CIA’s main goals would be to end drug trafficking, it’s faced numerous accusations of participating in the illegal trade since its founding in 1947. Said DEA agent Hector Berellez, “I know specifically that some of the CIA contract workers, meaning some of the pilots, in fact were bringing drugs into the U.S. and landing some of these drugs in government military air bases”. Similarly, historian Alfred McCoy has claimed that the CIA was “condoning and even cooperating with corrupt elements in Southeast Asia's illegal drug trade out of political and military considerations”, involving itself in the Golden Triangle heroin trade. Several investigations have failed to prove these allegations — but they couldn’t be ruled out, either way.

Colluding With the Contras

Many Americans will likely be familiar with the deeply damaging Iran-Contra affair, which caused President Ronald Reagan’s credibility — and overall reputation — to take a serious, lasting hit. Although several investigations did not find sufficient evidence to justify the accusation, the CIA has been accused of playing a not-insignificant role in the scandal. That’s specifically with regard to their links to the right-wing Nicaraguan militant group the Contras, as part of a U.S. effort to overthrow the Sandinista government. To that end, the 1986 Kerry Committee found “payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras.”

Operation Mockingbird

The alleged existence of the CIA’s Operation Mockingbird is enough to make you realize that propagandistic state-controlled messaging can come from any part of the world — even bedrocks of democracy like the United States. While its existence has never been formally proven, its supposed activities will likely cause you to hope that it never is. In the aftermath of the explosive Watergate scandal, the congressional inquiry group known as the Church Committee discovered some truly shocking secrets: according to Carl Bernstein, “more than 400 American journalists [...] have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency”. That being said, no evidence exists to suggest that the CIA carried out a plan to influence American mass media as a whole.

The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

We don’t need to tell you that there exists no shortage of conspiracy theories as to who truly took President Kennedy’s life in 1963. While the official story, that Kennedy was slain by disgruntled lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald, has been widely accepted as the truth, some have accused the CIA of puppeting Kennedy’s murder. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison began researching the theory in 1966, and arrested International Trade Mart leader Clay Shaw for his supposed involvement in the Kennedy assassination. Shaw was accused of working for a CIA front organization that conspired to kill Kennedy. Although the businessman was brought to trial in 1969, he was ultimately found not guilty.

MKUltra

The details of this top-secret program are so unsettling that you’d want them to be a wild conspiracy theory. Tragically, MKUltra is anything but a fantastical fabrication. Operating from 1953 to 1973, MKUltra was designed by the CIA to test out new methods of torture based on forcing powerful psychoactive drugs on interview subjects. This was as a way of weakening their resolve and making them more susceptible to revealing information that the agency wanted. However, drugs were just one part of the story; the related Operation Midnight Climax recruited sex workers to test the effects of non-consensual LSD testing on their unsuspecting clients. Revealed to the public in 1975, Project MKUltra stands as possibly the CIA’s most damaging black mark.

Which CIA conspiracy shocked you the most? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!