The CIA's Family Jewels

June 26, 2007 10:20 AM

In 1973 CIA director James Schlesinger asked "employees to report activities they thought might be inconsistent with the Agency’s charter." You know, illegal stuff, black ops, the works. The resulting top secret documents are called the "Family Jewels." Today they were released. Press release with link to documents.
posted by MarshallPoe (34 comments total)

Let the conspiracy-theory rumpus start! BTW: too bad the docs are so hard to navigate.
posted by MarshallPoe at 10:22 AM on June 26, 2007

Does this mean we have to wait until 2041 to read about their current illegal black ops?
posted by hoverboards don't work on water at 10:32 AM on June 26, 2007

This is fascinating. I just started with random pages, and there are some pretty interesting redactions in the memo starting on page 465.
posted by Partial Law at 10:35 AM on June 26, 2007

In the first three incident reports, I find two separate references specially constructed "jails" - quotes in original - with their locations redacted. Good to see that trick's an oldie but a goody!

Also, pages 7-10 are riveting.
posted by CaptApollo at 10:41 AM on June 26, 2007

Just a little background -- the request from Schlesinger came as a direct response to the Watergate break-in, due to the involvement of present and former CIA operatives. There was quite a bit of backlash against the Agency as a result -- given it's charter of not engaging in operations on American soil, and (obviously) not engaging in operations that were clearly illegal by US law -- and Schlesinger's idea was that if he came clean about other activities which were inadvisedly taken outside the charter, there would be less chance that the CIA would find its powers and abilities sharply curtailed.
posted by delfuego at 10:52 AM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

read about their current illegal black ops?

Black is probably too kind to describe what those government creeps have been up to. The color of torture is more sanguine. If it were black ops then, then it's ox blood ops, or cerise ops now.
posted by three blind mice at 10:53 AM on June 26, 2007

Man, fascinating. I can't believe there isn't just a PDF available though—this silly image browser system is kind of undercutting the spirit of FOI, dangit.
posted by cortex at 11:08 AM on June 26, 2007

The Specialist: Robert Gates and the Tortured World of American Intelligence (Part 1)

The CIA and the Politics of Counterrevolution (Part 2)

The Rise and Rise of Robert Gates (Part 3)
posted by homunculus at 11:15 AM on June 26, 2007

CIA Family Jewels pdf
posted by Manjusri at 11:41 AM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

For those complaining of the bad reading method, the source of the first image page has a link commented out:

View Document in Full for Printing (Note: Documents with many pages may take a while to load.)

It does take a long time, and seems to be all the images on one page. From there you can strip the images out. Being at work I don't have access to my toys, but when I get home I'll do this and PDFify it.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 11:47 AM on June 26, 2007

These appear to be the heavily redacted documents which were released to congress in 1974. So what we have is what the CIA was willing to tell congress about then, and not a true inventory of all the shenanigans they were up to.
posted by Manjusri at 11:50 AM on June 26, 2007

Examining that page's source, their naming scheme is the obvious:

http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0001451843/0001451843_0[001-702].gif

DownThemAll can probably figure that out, on linux a simple loop of wget (or use urltoys) would do it.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 11:55 AM on June 26, 2007

Yeah, I just did a big wget on the CIA's webserver. Hot.
posted by cortex at 11:57 AM on June 26, 2007

Manjusri for the win, in retrospect.
posted by cortex at 12:01 PM on June 26, 2007

"While I regret my three years of incarceration [and interrogation by the CIA], I have no bitterness and now understand how it could happen." - Yuriy Nosenko
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:34 PM on June 26, 2007

*pushes reward electrode*
posted by a robot made out of meat at 12:55 PM on June 26, 2007

Interesting that the plot to assassinate Castro started in August of 1960, during the Eisenhower administration. The Kennedy administration inherited it along with the Bay of Pigs plans.
posted by Cranberry at 1:22 PM on June 26, 2007

Wow, who knew they were doing genetic experiments involving the DNA of former directors crossed with common street dogs?

Oh right...everyone in the world knows...
posted by wah at 1:36 PM on June 26, 2007

The report on Yuriy Nosenko sounds like the plot of a lousy movie. You know -- CIA guys start out interrogating the ex-KGB agent in a specially-constructed "jail", but through hardships involving battery acid, waterboarding, and electrical shocks, they eventually become friends.

...Right before they execute him, hide the body, and make up some lame-ass statement to conclude their lame-ass report.

I'm so glad he was valuable AND economical.
posted by Kikkoman at 1:38 PM on June 26, 2007

Manjusri for the win, in retrospect.

The sword of awareness strikes again.
posted by homunculus at 2:31 PM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

In the GWU PDF, on page 562 of 703, among the "limited indications thus far" of "Foreign Support For Activities Planned to Disrupt or Harass the Republican National Convention":

John LENNON, a British subject, has provided financial support to Project "Yes", which in turn paid the travel expenses to the World Assembly of a representative of leading antiwar activist Rennie DAVIS.

The document states that the World Assembly held 11-13 February 1972 was Soviet controlled.

In the memorandum section preceding the reports, it states "Ober advises that the only American we report on to the IEC is Rennie Davis".
posted by edverb at 2:37 PM on June 26, 2007

the request from Schlesinger came as a direct response to the Watergate break-in

wasn't it more then just that though? the fbi office that got broken into in media PA in 1971 that broke open cointelpro. the 70's had alot going on as far as the intelligence communities dirty laundry being aired. the church commitee report is a good read as well (in the second link).

also, i just wanted to say that the term conspiracy theory is a pretty slippery slope to use in association with something like this. the connotation being that alot of what these agencies do is dismissable as fantasy, when the strangest stuff is in black and white. mind control experiments, testing acid on innocent people with hookers, framing geronimo pratt for murder, what have you, is detailed in print.
posted by andywolf at 5:20 PM on June 26, 2007

But that's the joy of a good conspiracy theory, andywolf: it's framed in the context of the awfulness of the things we do know to be true. If we see here, in the black and white, Exhibit A, then it just goes to show that the proximate redacted portion must be the key evidence for Exhibit B!

I see what you're saying, but this is the mother lode, the gold pot at the end of the speculative source material rainbow. The some-but-not-all, read-between-the-lines, proof-by-nonproof ore from which the stuff is crafted. We wouldn't have conspiracy theories in a world where what these agencies do was dismissable as fantasy.
posted by cortex at 5:26 PM on June 26, 2007

good point, that's why it seems like it's a good strategy in some ways for these guys to release this stuff. everybody goes tearing off in some of the craziest directions. most of the redacted bits are most likely nonsense, but way more powerful for just being blacked out.

i found a bookstore that had about 10 copies of victor marchetti's book "cia and the cult of intelligence." he was a high ranking cia guy that wrote a book about it. if memory serves me, the first book ever censored prior to publication. the publisher printed the book with blank spots indicating the number of lines taken out of the manuscript by the cia. they kept suing the govt. and whenever the govt. relented and let a few more lines go it would get republished, with the new lines. having all those copies from different printings you could go from one to another and watch the "secrets" they objected to. i.e. nothing. the lines were generally ridiculous, describing a field or something. i lost my point.

anyway, jim jones as a cia agent and guyana as part of mk ultra is one of the best conspiracy theories. i'm totally 50/50 on that one. this'll be a good read. thanks
posted by andywolf at 6:24 PM on June 26, 2007

Oh, I get it! It's like testicles! That's very funny!

/nifty post
posted by Smedleyman at 11:08 PM on June 26, 2007

What page is the "sex with aliens" please?
posted by From Bklyn at 12:27 AM on June 27, 2007

Re: sex with aliens. See page 59.
posted by ryanrs at 3:46 AM on June 27, 2007

where's the page where they kidnap the inventor of the steampunk iPhone?
posted by ericbop at 12:55 PM on June 27, 2007

SJC Wants WH, DOJ's Own "Family Jewels"
posted by homunculus at 1:35 PM on June 27, 2007

FBI Whistleblower Describes Government Muscle Tactics
posted by homunculus at 6:24 PM on June 27, 2007

jim jones as a cia agent and guyana as part of mk ultra is one of the best conspiracy theories.

Yes, of course it is.

now take this pill
posted by mkultra at 8:40 PM on June 27, 2007

jim jones as a cia agent and guyana as part of mk ultra is one of the best conspiracy theories.

I've heard the theory (via pre-neocon Hitchens and others) that the guys killed Bunchy Carter at UCLA in 1968 (I think) were CIA boys who reappeared in Guyana after escaping from prison in the US. Never heard of an MKULTRA association before, though. Weird.
posted by homunculus at 10:00 PM on June 27, 2007

LSD A Go Go
posted by homunculus at 12:57 AM on June 28, 2007

Never heard of an MKULTRA association before, though.

That's because it doesn't exist.

now take this pill
posted by mkultra at 6:23 AM on June 28, 2007