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00:00Covert operations. Hidden in plain sight.
00:05Classified experiments on unwitting test subjects.
00:10And elaborate conspiracies to conceal the truth.
00:16It's common knowledge that nations around the world pursue top-secret projects
00:22in an attempt to protect their citizens, outmaneuver rival powers,
00:26or develop new technology.
00:29And throughout history, we've learned about some of these black budget programs
00:33through declassified documents and whistleblowers
00:38who have bravely come forward from the shadows.
00:42But how much do we really know?
00:45What secret operations are still hidden from us?
00:49And what can we learn from missions of the past
00:52that were once deemed too dangerous for the world to see?
00:57Well, that is what we'll try and find out.
01:13Since World War II, the United States has carried out countless classified programs,
01:17ranging from intelligence gathering to clandestine operations
01:23to advanced weapons development,
01:27each designed to create some type of strategic edge over our foes
01:32and our friends on the world stage.
01:36What is required to deem a project top-secret?
01:42The government classification process is very simple.
01:45There are three levels.
01:47There is confidential, secret, and top-secret.
01:51Basically, confidential are things that could cause problems
01:54if they were made public.
01:57Secret could cause big problems.
01:59And top-secret usually refers to something that, if publicly exposed,
02:06could cause grave harm to the American national security.
02:11If something's top-secret, typically not only can you not share the information in those systems,
02:17you can't even confirm or deny that there is such a system or a project or information.
02:24Because by merely confirming that it exists, you're providing a useful clue to any adversary
02:30that might want to take advantage of that fact.
02:32So, for example, if you were to create a weapons system that would create an enormous advantage
02:39versus any peer competitor on Earth,
02:43you would want to keep that weapons system secret until the time came to actually utilize it.
02:48Partially, this is so you can achieve surprise with the weapons system,
02:52and partially, it's so that your adversaries don't build their own versions of that same idea.
03:01Ultimately, top-secret means the public don't know what is the truth.
03:06That is how government wants it, and that's why it was designed that way.
03:10If you're operating in secrecy, in theory,
03:13that means you may not be held responsible for any of the actions.
03:17So, you've got room to maneuver there.
03:20In the United States, it's estimated that more than one million individuals
03:24have the security clearance to view top-secret information.
03:29Most of those people work for one of the 18 different agencies that comprise the U.S. intelligence community.
03:36And of those, perhaps the most infamous is the Central Intelligence Agency.
03:43The CIA is unique as an intelligence agency in that it is not part of any other department.
03:51The National Security Agency is actually part of the Defense Department.
03:56The Defense Intelligence Agency is part of the Defense Department.
04:00The Department of Treasury has its own small intelligence agency.
04:05The CIA is independent on its own and has the authority to conduct covert operations.
04:15And these are operations that offer the U.S. government a plausible deniability.
04:22But there's a downside, which is that there's a relationship between too much secrecy and too little trust from the
04:31American people.
04:32When we think of government secrecy, sometimes we'll knee-jerk it and say,
04:36oh, well, it's sinister, it's evil, they're trying to keep important things from us.
04:39Yes, I think sometimes that is definitely true.
04:41But any government that has the responsibility of protecting its nation,
04:47it's not impossible to see that there would be secrecy on things that, at least in their mind,
04:52would be for the protection of the public.
04:53Since its inception, the CIA has been accused of everything from orchestrating coups in foreign countries
05:01to assassinating world leaders.
05:04No one truly knows the full extent of the agency's activities.
05:10But most experts believe the CIA's biggest secret is located somewhere inside the mysterious facility known as Area 51.
05:22Area 51 is in southern Nevada.
05:26It's the most famous secret base in the world.
05:28For many, many years, it was completely secret and no one knew about it.
05:32It was created in the very early 1950s under CIA control.
05:38And it was designed and still, I think, functions today as a secret base for the Air Force.
05:44What is known is that a lot of secret testing of advanced aircraft went on there.
05:48You've got this massive, dry desert lake bed that's ideal for aircraft that need long runways, for example.
05:57And more importantly, it's just very remote.
06:00It's not an easy place for any person to get to.
06:04So if you're going to have a secret base, that is a good location to have it.
06:08Area 51 was established as a direct consequence of World War II and the Cold War because we are continuing
06:15in the development of a technology that will become the U-2 spy plane.
06:19The introduction of this technology is a massive escalation of the tensions of the Cold War.
06:24And during the Cold War, there are Soviet spies throughout the United States.
06:29And we continue to test other aircraft at Area 51.
06:33Because of this, the secrecy must exist.
06:37There are signs at the border that say, warning, use of lethal force authorized.
06:44If you cross the line, you will be arrested, you might be shot.
06:49The CIA kept the existence of Area 51 secret for decades.
06:55I mean, this was not publicly acknowledged until quite recently.
06:59And certainly it's true that some of America's most iconic aircraft were developed and test flown there.
07:10So there are many, many people who believe that within this kind of top secret program of cutting edge aerospace,
07:19that there's an even bigger secret at Area 51.
07:24The crazy thing about Area 51 is that we learned about it in the world through the subject of UFOs.
07:31And that's through the testimony of Bob Lazar, who back in 1989 claimed to work at S-4, which is
07:37part of the Area 51 complex, on a series of flying saucers.
07:42That was the context in which we learned about it.
07:44Now, Area 51 would make a very, very excellent location to do some studies of flying saucer type technologies.
07:52Because it's remote.
07:54But I think it's a reasonable supposition that UFOs have been studied there or technology related to UFOs have been
08:03studied at Area 51 and probably a few other places as well.
08:07The US government would want to reverse engineer any kind of alien technology that it got its hands on.
08:13Of course it would.
08:14And so it's possible, but it's absolutely not known or confirmed by anyone.
08:22Could the United States military actually be studying alien technology at Area 51?
08:30While only a handful of individuals with the highest top secret clearance know the truth, some experts speculate the rumors
08:37about aliens and UFOs are precisely what the government wants us to believe.
08:44We do know that there's a cover story wrapped in a cover story and that the US government absolutely adores
08:51the fact that we are so distracted with the narrative of alien technology and reverse engineering at Area 51 because
08:59it means we're not paying attention to the things that are actually happening there.
09:03And so maybe the best way to handle super secrecy is to hide it in plain sight.
09:08If you have a place like Area 51, you can say they're doing anything and the government's not going to
09:15say we're not doing that.
09:16And the government's going to refuse to comment on it.
09:19So it becomes this kind of a suck hole for conspiracy theories.
09:24And maybe we'll never know.
09:28I think we'll never know.
09:30Arlington, Virginia.
09:31The Pentagon, March 1968.
09:35Office of Naval Intelligence Analyst monitoring the Pacific Ocean for signs of Soviet submarine activity notice something quite alarming.
09:46They identify a massive surge of Soviet ships and aircraft
09:50about 1,500 miles northwest of Hawaii,
09:54a clear indicator of a search and rescue emergency.
10:00The U.S. observed dozens of ships and aircraft
10:04that were kind of looking for something, but couldn't find it.
10:09And so at that point, U.S. officials went back
10:12and reviewed data that had been collected.
10:16The U.S. Navy and the Air Force maintained an array
10:19of underwater microphones and acoustic sensors
10:22around the rim of the Pacific Ocean
10:24designed to track Soviet missile launches
10:27and also Soviet submarines,
10:29and went back and reviewed that data
10:32and discovered acoustic signatures that indicated
10:35a sub that imploded and crushed
10:38as it sank to the bottom of the ocean.
10:42The Soviets were absolutely determined
10:45to either recover the sub
10:46or make sure that no one else could get access to it.
10:50Eventually, the Soviets actually gave up
10:52on locating the submarine.
10:54It had sunk to a depth of three miles
10:56below the ocean's surface,
10:57and they thought it was technologically impossible
11:00for any of the contents to be recovered.
11:03I mean, obviously, there's no hope by that point
11:06that anyone is still alive,
11:07but the chance to acquire a Soviet nuclear submarine
11:13and the weapons was priceless,
11:17and so the intelligence agencies went into absolute overdrive.
11:21The United States figured out exactly
11:24where the submarine had gone down
11:26and thought to themselves,
11:28well, wouldn't it be great if we could grab it?
11:31How can we possibly do this?
11:34Sharing the data with the United States
11:37Central Intelligence Agency,
11:39analysts determined the missing vessel
11:41was designated K-129,
11:44a state-of-the-art Soviet submarine
11:46carrying multiple nuclear warheads
11:49and some of the most advanced,
11:51valuable technology of the Cold War.
11:54However, any attempt to recover it
11:57from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean
11:58would not only require a massive feat of engineering,
12:03but also the utmost secrecy.
12:07Because the Soviets were heavily invested
12:10in submarine technology during the Cold War,
12:12the United States does not want to be seen
12:15as overtly seeking to capture a Soviet sunken submarine.
12:19So the United States turns towards the idea
12:23of sending out essentially a surface ship
12:26that supposedly is looking for ways
12:29to drill for oil or other resources below the seabed
12:34to carry out some form of salvage program
12:38to possibly gather all of the material of the submarine.
12:42And that would create an enormous advantage
12:45for the United States government.
12:47The CIA's top-secret plan
12:50to recover the Soviet K-129
12:52was codenamed Project Azorian.
12:56It involved the construction
12:58of a fake deep-sea mining vessel
13:00known as the Glomar Explorer
13:02at a staggering cost of around $2.8 billion
13:06in today's dollars.
13:08And to complete the project,
13:10the CIA recruited one of the most famous men in the world,
13:14billionaire Howard Hughes.
13:17Howard Hughes was reputed to be one of the richest Americans alive
13:22in the late 1960s.
13:24He had a reputation as someone
13:26who funded and supported projects
13:29that seemed improbable,
13:31that seemed beyond the realm of possibility.
13:34At the center of his empire
13:35was the Hughes Tool Corporation,
13:37an oil services firm
13:39that had some interest in offshore drilling.
13:41So it offered a perfect black box
13:44to hide the financial transactions
13:46that you had to have
13:47to make this operation go forth.
13:49According to files,
13:51later declassified by the U.S. government,
13:54the Glomar Explorer
13:55left Long Beach, California
13:56in June 1974.
14:00A few weeks later,
14:01it arrived at its destination
14:031,500 miles northwest of Hawaii
14:05to begin the recovery operation.
14:10It was an incredible operation.
14:12This is one of the real technological coups
14:14of the 20th century.
14:15They had a cable that went three miles down
14:17to the floor of the Pacific Ocean,
14:20and they were able to pull the submarine up,
14:25although they were not able to retrieve it all,
14:27but they got some of it,
14:28and they brought it up
14:29through the center of the bottom of the ship,
14:31and they were able to get it to a secure facility
14:34where they were able to study this.
14:36I mean, an incredible squirt.
14:39The skillful creation of Project Azorian
14:42was a success,
14:42and the mission appeared to be a well-kept secret
14:45until a robbery
14:48at Howard Hughes' Los Angeles office in 1974
14:52in which a classified memo
14:55about the project was stolen
14:56and leaked to the press.
15:00Despite the public scrutiny,
15:03the full extent of what the CIA recovered
15:05from the K-129 submarine
15:06remains unknown.
15:10What did Azorian actually recover?
15:13There's a lot that we don't officially know,
15:16but we do know some things,
15:18and one of those is that the U.S. did recover
15:21six sets of human remains,
15:23according to published reports,
15:25and we know that
15:26because those sailors were buried at sea,
15:30and a video of that ceremony
15:32was released in the early 1990s.
15:36Otherwise, what do we know?
15:38Well, this is where we get into some uncertainty.
15:41We don't have a definitive answer on that.
15:43All these years later,
15:45there's a lot about Project Azorian
15:47that still remains classified to this day.
15:50There's a book in the late 1990s
15:52called Blind Man's Bluff
15:53that argued that encrypted communications,
15:57Soviet code books,
15:58missile guidance system information,
16:00and other sensitive encrypted communications
16:02were also recovered.
16:04Now, that's not impossible.
16:06If the U.S. did recover that type of information,
16:10that would be one of the major scores
16:13of the entire Cold War.
16:14So you could see why they would not want
16:17to advertise that fact.
16:20You know, in the aftermath
16:21of the retrieval of this submarine,
16:24questions were asked of the U.S. government,
16:26like, what were the results of this?
16:29And for the first time,
16:31the U.S. government issued the response of,
16:34we can neither confirm nor deny.
16:37And so anytime you hear that today,
16:39that is a legacy of the Glomar Explorer operation
16:42in which the U.S. acquired a Soviet submarine.
16:47The Project Azorian mission
16:49was certainly a clever way
16:51to collect top-secret information in plain sight.
16:55But what happens
16:56when an agency crosses the line
17:00and turns a company party
17:01with U.S. military personnel
17:05into a dangerous and radical experiment?
17:11The Statler Hotel, New York City,
17:13November 28th, 1953.
17:16At approximately 2 a.m.,
17:19the night manager of this hotel
17:20in midtown Manhattan
17:21hears a dull thud out on the street.
17:25He heads outside to investigate
17:27where he discovers a grisly scene.
17:31There on the sidewalk
17:32lay Frank Olson,
17:34a respected CIA biochemist,
17:37barely alive
17:38after falling from a hotel window.
17:42Frank Olson was a civilian employee
17:45working with the U.S. Army
17:46and really very closely with the CIA
17:48in the late 40s, early 1950s
17:52on biological weapons.
17:54He was apparently very, very good at his job.
17:57But he started talking about
17:59getting out of his career
18:01and leaving government service.
18:03And the next thing you hear about Frank Olson
18:05is that he ran through the window
18:07of room 1018A
18:09and fell to his death
18:12to the sidewalk.
18:15According to the police report,
18:17when the night manager rushed outside,
18:19Olson was still alive
18:21and trying to mumble something,
18:24but passed away
18:25before medical help arrived.
18:27His case was ruled a suicide,
18:30but many who knew Frank Olson
18:32questioned
18:33whether he had, in fact,
18:35taken his own life.
18:37The night of his
18:39quote-unquote suicide
18:40is very suspicious.
18:43He's staying in this hotel room
18:44with another man
18:45who it turns out
18:46is another CIA officer.
18:48He supposedly
18:51runs across this room
18:53by two beds,
18:54throws himself
18:55into the glass
18:58and out onto the street.
19:00They do an autopsy.
19:02There's an unexplained wound
19:04on his head.
19:05It looks like he was bashed
19:07in the head
19:07and thrown out this window.
19:11The way that Frank Olson died
19:13was that his body hurtled
19:15out of a window.
19:17I believe the window
19:18in the hotel
19:19was closed.
19:21How could that happen
19:22unless the body
19:23went out like a projectile?
19:25According to,
19:27I believe it was a manager
19:28of the hotel,
19:29the switchboard operator
19:31had heard Olson's roommate
19:33on the phone
19:34saying something
19:36to the effect of,
19:37it's done,
19:38he's gone.
19:39And so,
19:40if we are to believe
19:41this story
19:42that the hotel
19:43switchboard operator
19:45heard this conversation
19:46between his suite mate
19:48and somebody else,
19:50that was an assassination.
19:53What really happened
19:55inside that 10th floor hotel room
19:56on that cold November night?
20:00While no one can say for sure,
20:02some believe Olson's work
20:03for the CIA
20:04likely played a role
20:06in his untimely death.
20:08Frank Olson,
20:09first for the U.S. Army,
20:11then for the CIA,
20:12had been deeply involved
20:14in top secret stuff,
20:15much of it involving
20:16biological warfare.
20:18He had seen people
20:20who had been injured
20:22or sometimes killed
20:23in experiments
20:24with sarin gas
20:25and other stuff,
20:26and he was starting
20:27to really doubt
20:28his involvement
20:30at the CIA,
20:31thinking that he should leave.
20:33So,
20:34I think there's probably
20:35a good chance
20:36that the CIA
20:38wanted him
20:39out of the way
20:40so that he wouldn't
20:40reveal anything.
20:42For decades,
20:44the idea that the CIA
20:45was involved
20:46in Frank Olson's death
20:47was dismissed
20:48as conspiracy theory.
20:51But then,
20:52in 1975,
20:53a presidential commission
20:55tasked with investigating
20:56illegal CIA activities
20:58inside the United States
21:00revealed something
21:01quite shocking.
21:03Led by Vice President
21:04Nelson Rockefeller,
21:06the commission's
21:07final report
21:08contained a brief
21:09yet alarming account
21:10of an unidentified
21:11government scientist
21:12who had been secretly
21:14drugged with the
21:15hallucinogen LSD
21:17days before he died
21:19after falling
21:21from a New York
21:22hotel room window.
21:24The official story
21:25that was told later
21:27was that there was
21:29a group
21:31at what was then called
21:33Camp Dietrich
21:34in Frederick, Maryland,
21:35who were part
21:36of a highly compartmentalized
21:39set of activities
21:40around biological
21:41and chemical weapons.
21:43Somehow,
21:44nine of these men
21:45were taken on a retreat
21:47in Deep Creek, Maryland,
21:49and in the course
21:51of having their meetings,
21:53they decided
21:54to have a cocktail party.
21:57Without his knowledge,
21:58certainly without his consent,
22:00someone spiked his drink
22:01with a massive hit
22:03of LSD,
22:04and Frank Olson
22:05had a very bad trip
22:07with this.
22:08Bad enough that it really
22:10damaged him psychologically.
22:11He went home,
22:12his family noticed
22:13like there's something
22:14wrong with him.
22:15He was not responsive.
22:17He became very dark
22:18and moody.
22:21After the Rockefeller
22:22Commission released
22:23his final report
22:24in 1975,
22:25the government conceded
22:27that the man
22:28dozed with LSD
22:29was indeed Frank Olson.
22:31The U.S. government
22:33paid a $750,000 settlement
22:35to the Olson family.
22:38They also received
22:39a personal apology
22:40from President Gerald Ford.
22:44But the question remained,
22:46did the CIA
22:48deliberately give
22:50Frank Olson LSD,
22:52or was he dozed
22:53by accident?
22:55What was later revealed
22:56was the shocking news
22:58Olson had been
22:59an unwitting participant
23:01in a top-secret CIA program
23:04known as MK-Ultra?
23:07MK-Ultra was a program
23:11to try to influence
23:13human behavior.
23:15And they had a number
23:16of techniques
23:16that they used for this,
23:19and a lot of them
23:20revolved around chemistry,
23:22drugs, truth serums.
23:24They even used LSD
23:27to influence people,
23:28change their behaviors,
23:30change their decisions.
23:32And even to this day,
23:34the whole thing
23:35is shrouded in secrecy.
23:37The era of LSD
23:39and its merger
23:41with the politics
23:42of the Cold War
23:43and the politics,
23:44particularly,
23:45of Project MK-Ultra
23:46will lead us
23:47to a large number
23:49of people
23:49receiving exposures
23:50to LSD.
23:51And in many cases,
23:53overexposure
23:54on a deliberate basis.
23:56as a means
23:57of an evaluation
23:58of the drug
23:58for the overall objectives
24:00in Project MK-Ultra
24:02of evaluating
24:03the drug's use
24:04as mind control.
24:06It's really hard to know
24:08if people died
24:09because of these experiments.
24:11And what's ironic
24:13about the Deep Creek
24:15LSD dosing
24:17in their cocktails
24:18is that these were people
24:20who themselves
24:21had pretty high security
24:22clearances,
24:23and yet they themselves
24:24were not told
24:25about what was about
24:27to happen to them.
24:28So when Frank Olson
24:30had this LSD experience
24:32without his knowledge
24:33or consent,
24:34we have an onion skin
24:37of layers within layers
24:39within layers
24:39of secrecy.
24:42It's disturbing
24:43to know
24:44that there have been
24:45classified scientific programs
24:48that have dangerously
24:49manipulated
24:51unsuspecting citizens.
24:54But in a much more elaborate
24:55top-secret case,
24:57an entire army
24:58was created
24:59to help defeat
25:01the Nazis.
25:02The fact is,
25:03it was simply
25:05an illusion.
25:10When most of us
25:11think of war,
25:12we think troops
25:13on the battlefield
25:14and dangerous,
25:15powerful weapons
25:15of destruction.
25:17But in the world
25:18of military might,
25:20often the most effective
25:21tools aren't guns,
25:23tanks,
25:23or bombs.
25:26But instead,
25:27the top-secret techniques
25:29and operations
25:30involving the element
25:31of deception.
25:34During warfare,
25:36one thing,
25:37whether this is
25:38a thousand years ago
25:39or today,
25:40you are going to want
25:42to deceive your enemy
25:44with all kinds of things.
25:45You're going to want
25:46your enemy
25:46not to know
25:47where your most
25:48powerful forces are
25:49or when you're
25:50going to attack.
25:52If you throw people off,
25:53even for like a week,
25:54even for a few days,
25:56maybe that's all you need
25:56to get your advantage.
26:00Deception creates surprise.
26:02And surprise is huge.
26:04on the battlefield.
26:05General Wesley Clark
26:06said once to me
26:07that every commander
26:09knows he has to use
26:11deception,
26:11and if he doesn't use
26:13deception,
26:13he's going to lose.
26:14And I think that
26:15that's really a way
26:17of summing up
26:18how important deception
26:19is to the military art.
26:22The very nature
26:23of deception
26:23means we may never
26:24truly know
26:25what top-secret operations
26:28have been conducted
26:29on the battlefield.
26:30But there is one
26:32that we do know about,
26:33and incredibly,
26:35it involved the use
26:36of a ghost army.
26:42Normandy, France,
26:44June 1944.
26:46As World War II
26:47rages across Europe,
26:49Allied forces prepare
26:51to launch
26:51the surprise assault
26:52codename
26:53Operation Neptune,
26:55or more commonly known
26:56as D-Day,
26:58the largest seaborne invasion
27:00in military history.
27:03And the attack's success
27:04hinges on a secret plan
27:07known as
27:08Operation Fortitude.
27:11Operation Fortitude
27:12is a deception
27:13to fool the Germans
27:15about where the D-Day landings
27:17will take place.
27:18So, we're going to be
27:19landing in Normandy,
27:21but we want to make it seem
27:22like the Allies
27:23are going to be landing
27:24at the Pas-de-Calais,
27:26which is the narrowest part
27:28of the English Channel.
27:29We recognized
27:30that we could draw away
27:31some enemy strength
27:33simply by deceiving
27:34the enemy.
27:35And we would do this
27:36by forming
27:38an entire ghost army,
27:40by creating camps
27:42that are empty.
27:42But yet you can see
27:43a vehicle park
27:44where there's a line
27:45of trucks,
27:46or maybe even
27:47Sherman medium tanks.
27:48Except that they're
27:49not real trucks
27:50or real tanks,
27:50they're inflatable facsimiles
27:52that are meant
27:53to function as decoys.
27:55German aircraft
27:56reported back
27:57that an army
27:58was mustering
27:58to cross the channel
27:59at a different point.
28:01These individuals
28:02also engaged
28:03in phony radio transmissions
28:05so that the Germans
28:06would pick them up
28:07and believe
28:08that it was
28:08the communications
28:09of an entire army
28:10that was being designated
28:12for a different attack.
28:13Essentially,
28:14they keep trying
28:15to draw German attention
28:16in the wrong direction.
28:18And quite frankly,
28:20the Germans fall for it
28:21many, many times.
28:23After the D-Day landings,
28:24the Germans actually
28:25pull most of their forces
28:27back into reserve
28:28to counter the expected
28:29thrust at Pas-de-Calais.
28:31And that allows
28:32the Normandy invaders
28:33to establish a foothold
28:34and start moving forward
28:36on the continent.
28:37It's remarkable
28:38to think that
28:39an inflatable ghost army
28:41was key to the success
28:42of D-Day
28:43and the Allies'
28:44eventual victory
28:45in World War II.
28:47But how is
28:49wartime deception
28:50being used today?
28:55Ukraine,
28:56March 2022.
28:58Roughly three weeks
29:00after the Russian invasion
29:01of this neighboring country,
29:03which escalates
29:04into the largest
29:05European conflict
29:06since World War II,
29:07a video is uploaded
29:10to the internet
29:11of Ukrainian president
29:13Volodymyr Zelenskyy
29:15delivering
29:16an unexpected message.
29:19What actually
29:21ended up on screens
29:22was what looked like
29:25President Zelenskyy
29:26basically instructing
29:27his troops
29:28to surrender.
29:34This actually turned out
29:37to be
29:37what we would now call
29:38one of these deepfakes.
29:40So this was clearly
29:42Russian intelligence.
29:44They'd taken
29:45Zelenskyy's appearance,
29:47his voice,
29:48and they'd manipulated
29:50perhaps a mix
29:52of some genuine
29:53archival footage
29:54with something else,
29:56and they'd flipped
29:57the narrative.
29:58And so this is going
30:00to be a whole new
30:01branch of warfare.
30:03I mean, deception
30:03has always been
30:04part of military doctrine,
30:06but it's going to be
30:08on a completely
30:09different level.
30:12This deepfake video
30:13of Ukrainian president
30:15Vladimir Zelenskyy,
30:16I don't think it fooled
30:17too many people.
30:18And today,
30:19even a few years later,
30:21that would have been seen
30:22as extremely crude.
30:23So the deepfake technology
30:25is just getting better
30:27and better
30:27and better
30:28all the time.
30:29And you really can see
30:31that this could be
30:32a useful form
30:33of deception
30:34and public manipulation
30:36at certain times.
30:38One of the probable
30:39futures of disinformation
30:40warfare
30:41is the use
30:42of artificial intelligence
30:43to generate
30:44phony pieces
30:45of information.
30:46Not only might
30:47that information
30:48directly confuse
30:49and cause chaos,
30:51it will also cause
30:52the recipients
30:53of that information
30:54to question everything
30:55that they see,
30:56making it far harder
30:57to maintain command
30:58and control.
30:59When you talk about
31:00the Ghost Army,
31:01people say,
31:02well, you couldn't do
31:03that today because
31:04of technology.
31:05Well, you can,
31:07because every day,
31:08AI can do more
31:11and more.
31:13The Allied Forces Ghost Army
31:15proved that clever deception
31:17can shift the tide of war.
31:20But another top-secret project
31:23attempted to transform
31:25the battlefield
31:26by turning weather
31:28into a weapon.
31:33The Vietnam War.
31:35In the dense jungles
31:37of Southeast Asia,
31:39North Vietnamese forces
31:40move men and supplies
31:42along a vast network
31:44of hidden routes
31:45known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
31:48For the United States military,
31:51stopping that flow
31:52becomes a critical objective.
31:54But in a war
31:56defined by dense jungle terrain,
31:58conventional tactics
32:00aren't enough.
32:03A factor that emerges
32:05during the war in Vietnam
32:06is that North Vietnamese
32:08communist forces
32:09are constantly infiltrating
32:11into South Vietnam
32:12to challenge not just
32:14the Army of the Republic
32:15of Vietnam,
32:16but then also the American
32:17forces that are fighting
32:17with them.
32:19They use infiltration routes
32:21that go through
32:22the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
32:24But during the wet season,
32:26all of the trails
32:27get washed out.
32:28They become almost
32:29completely impassable.
32:31And what the American military
32:33eventually recognizes
32:34says, what if we make it
32:36the rainy season
32:37two months longer?
32:40Then we're denying
32:41the enemy
32:42the easy and unfettered
32:44use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail
32:45for a greater period of time
32:47during the calendar year,
32:49and that will result
32:50in the enemy's strength
32:51being significantly weakened.
32:55What would make
32:56the U.S. military
32:57think they could mess
32:58with Mother Nature
32:59and extend
33:00the monsoon season?
33:03Well, in 1947,
33:05the United States government
33:06began experimenting
33:08with weather modification
33:09using a technique
33:11known as cloud seeding
33:13or dispersing substances
33:15like silver iodide
33:17into clouds
33:18to trigger rainfall.
33:20During the Vietnam War,
33:22this controversial science
33:23was deployed
33:24in a highly classified program
33:28codenamed Project Popeye.
33:32Project Popeye
33:33was really top secret.
33:35It was restricted
33:36to the president
33:37at the time, Johnson,
33:40Secretary of Defense,
33:41Robert McNamara,
33:42and General Westmoreland,
33:44who was the head
33:45of the military.
33:46There was nobody
33:47in the Vietnam theater
33:48that knew about it.
33:50So he said,
33:50oh, it was just
33:51a big monsoon this year.
33:52And so they thought
33:54the stakes were so high
33:55that they might want
33:56to try to make it work
33:57and not tell anybody.
33:59They were able
34:00to mark success
34:01in this program,
34:02Operation Popeye.
34:04Through the use
34:05of aircraft
34:05like the C-123 provider
34:07or the C-130 Hercules,
34:08they were able
34:09to seed the clouds
34:11and get them to rain
34:12even when they're not raining.
34:14And in this way,
34:15we manipulate the weather
34:17as a weapon of war.
34:18Much of this
34:19is still under
34:20a top-secret classification
34:22that will eventually expire.
34:24And we'll learn more
34:25about whether or not
34:26we attempted to modify it
34:28in other ways
34:28to gain an advantage
34:30on the battlefield.
34:31While the true scope
34:33of Project Popeye
34:34remains unknown,
34:36cloud seeding
34:36is no longer a secret.
34:38China used the technology
34:40at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
34:43to prevent rain
34:45from interrupting
34:46outdoor events.
34:47So if countries
34:49are now openly
34:50utilizing weather modification,
34:52what new top-secret programs
34:56are being developed
34:57to change the atmosphere
34:59on our planet?
35:01Weather has always been
35:03a critical factor
35:05in warfare
35:06and battles.
35:07Imagine, for example,
35:10being able to create
35:11a Category 5 hurricane
35:13and have it hit
35:15a major city
35:15and then you just
35:17put it down
35:17to an act of God.
35:19Tornadoes,
35:21earthquakes.
35:22I mean,
35:23the potential here
35:24is frightening.
35:27In the modern era,
35:29recently,
35:30the Russian Federation
35:31threatened to develop
35:33and deploy
35:34an atomic torpedo,
35:36essentially a torpedo
35:38with a nuclear warhead.
35:39And if it's detonated
35:41a couple of miles
35:42off of the coastline
35:43near a city,
35:44it might create
35:46a wave 40 to 60 feet high
35:48that would slam into
35:50and devastate
35:50that coastal city.
35:53It's easy to understand
35:54how harnessing
35:55the power of Mother Nature
35:56could unleash
35:58unspeakable destruction
35:59on your enemies.
36:01It's disturbing to think
36:03that world governments
36:04are developing
36:04top-secret weather
36:06warfare technology
36:07that could create
36:09mass destruction.
36:12Could signs
36:13of these experiments
36:14already be written
36:16in the sky?
36:19If you've ever looked
36:20up in the sky
36:20and saw giant streaks
36:22of white,
36:23really artificial clouds
36:24that come from
36:25one side of the horizon
36:27to the other,
36:27these are contrails.
36:29They're condensation
36:30of water vapor
36:32that comes out
36:32of the jet engines.
36:34There are some people
36:35that believe
36:35that those clouds
36:37contain some chemicals
36:38that are trying
36:39to control our minds
36:40or our health
36:41or control the climate.
36:43So are there
36:44top-secret projects
36:45going on right now?
36:47I'm not a conspiracy
36:48theorist.
36:49It's possible
36:50that there are
36:51speculative weather
36:52control ideas
36:54trying to be put
36:55into operation
36:55at very high levels
36:57today,
36:58and we'd never know
36:59about them.
37:04July 20th, 1969.
37:07After a 76-hour journey,
37:09Apollo 11's
37:10landing module,
37:11the Eagle,
37:12touches down
37:13on the moon.
37:14Shortly thereafter,
37:16astronaut Neil Armstrong
37:18exits the spacecraft,
37:20becoming the first human
37:21to set foot
37:22on another celestial body.
37:25The early space race
37:26is a contest
37:27between the United States
37:28and the Soviet Union
37:29as for not only
37:31who can get into space,
37:32but who can demonstrate
37:33technological prowess.
37:35In the early stages,
37:37the Soviets are ahead.
37:38They're the first ones
37:39to launch
37:40an artificial satellite.
37:41They're the first ones
37:42to put an animal
37:43and a human
37:45into orbit.
37:48But the United States
37:49is the only country
37:51to ever put astronauts
37:52onto the surface
37:53of the moon.
37:54This was a technological
37:55feat that the Soviets knew
37:56they could not accomplish.
37:59Yet despite this
38:00monumental achievement,
38:01witnessed by millions
38:02around the world,
38:03a different narrative
38:04began to take hold
38:06that claimed
38:07the moon mission
38:09was all
38:10an elaborate hoax.
38:12In the annals
38:13of secrecy,
38:14there's probably
38:15little like
38:16the moon landing
38:17and, of course,
38:18the widespread theories
38:21that the U.S.
38:22never landed
38:23on the moon.
38:26In fact,
38:27there were a number
38:27of anomalies
38:29that gave the impression
38:30that, in fact,
38:31this had been conjured up.
38:34Researchers point
38:35to the flag
38:36appearing to flutter
38:37in very low gravity
38:41for the way
38:42in which
38:42the astronauts move.
38:47Some people
38:48take that a step further
38:49and say, well,
38:51maybe the U.S.
38:52pulled it off
38:53by faking it
38:53in a film studio.
38:54And then there is
38:56the fact that
38:56some of the original footage,
38:58which you think
38:59would be in the National Archives
39:00as some of the most
39:01treasured footage
39:02anywhere,
39:03has apparently
39:04gone missing.
39:05And, of course,
39:06secrecy breeds conspiracy
39:08because when people
39:09don't have information,
39:11they struggle
39:12to fill in the gaps.
39:14The idea that the
39:15Apollo 11 moon landing
39:17may have been staged
39:18is hard to believe.
39:20But in an era
39:21defined by secrecy
39:23and propaganda,
39:24if one superpower
39:26had reason
39:26to claim victory,
39:27the other
39:28had reason
39:30to cast doubt.
39:31There are individuals
39:33that argue
39:34that the United States
39:35wanted to intimidate
39:36the Soviet Union
39:37by pretending
39:38to have the technological
39:39capacity
39:40to reach the moon
39:42even though it did not
39:43actually possess
39:44that ability.
39:45There is a diehard
39:47segment of the American
39:48public that still believes
39:49the moon landings
39:50were faked.
39:53The space race
39:54was fundamentally
39:55a propaganda war.
39:57The U.S. moon landing
39:58might be seen
39:59as the apex
40:01of the Cold War
40:02propaganda battle.
40:04And, of course,
40:05it was a tremendous
40:06victory for the U.S.,
40:07tremendous defeat
40:08for the Soviets,
40:09one could understand
40:10how the Soviets
40:11weren't exactly unhappy
40:13when all these rumors
40:14began circulating
40:16that the moon landing
40:17had been faked.
40:20When it comes
40:22to top-secret warfare,
40:23the battle is often fought
40:24not with weapons,
40:26but with information.
40:27And in that battle,
40:29truth itself
40:30can become the casualty.
40:33When it's deception,
40:34you never know
40:36exactly where the truth lies.
40:38The whole philosophy
40:39of deception,
40:40it's like a game of chess
40:41between two sides,
40:43and the winner
40:44is the person
40:44who can be the most convincing
40:46when you get to the bottom of it.
40:49Secrecy sends the message
40:51to people
40:51that they're hiding something,
40:54and, of course, they are.
40:56With all of that,
40:57you wonder what
40:58we haven't got to hear about.
41:01And they could be anything.
41:03I mean, the sky's the limit.
41:06Was the moon landing
41:08all just a masterful deception?
41:12Whether one accepts
41:13the conspiracy theory or not,
41:15it shows how secrecy
41:17can distort and cloud
41:19even our greatest achievements.
41:22But perhaps
41:23that was the goal all along.
41:26from covert missions
41:28and mysterious technologies
41:29to dangerous experiments
41:31and even phantom forces.
41:34There's no question
41:35that top-secret projects
41:37have shaped world history
41:39in ways that continue
41:40to surprise us.
41:41And for every operation
41:43that's been revealed,
41:45there are countless
41:47clandestine plans
41:49and mysterious missions
41:51that may forever remain
41:54unexplained.
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