Secret and Suppressed: Banned Ideas and Hidden History Read Online Free PDF

Defense and environmental concerns collide and part ways. Security concerns, according to Sam Koslov of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), first prompted U.S. study of health effects of low intensity (or non-thermal) microwaves. At times, up to 70-80% of the research was funded by the military. From 1965 to 1970, a study dubbed Project Pandora was undertaken to determine the health and psychological effects of low intensity microwaves, the so-called “Moscow signal” registered at the American Embassy in Moscow. Initially, there was confusion over whether the signal was an attempt to activate bugging devices or for some other purpose. There was suspicion that the microwave irradiation was being used as a mind control system. CIA agents asked scientists involved in microwave research whether microwaves beamed at humans from a distance could affect the brain and alter behavior. Dr. Milton Zaret who undertook to analyze Soviet literature on microwaves for the CIA, wrote: “For non-thermal irradiations, they believe that the electromagnetic field induced by the microwave environment affects the cell membrane, and this results in an increase of excitability or an increase in the level of excitation of nerve cells. With repeated or continued exposure, the increased excitability leads to a state of exhaustion of the cells of the cerebral cortex.”
     
    Employees first learned of the irradiation ten years after Project Pandora began. Before that, information had been parceled out on a strict “need to know” basis, which excluded most employees at the compound. Due to secrecy, and probably reports like Dr. Zaret’s, Jack Anderson speculated that the CIA was trying to cover up a Soviet effort at behavior modification through irradiation of the U.S. diplomats, and that the cover up was created to protect the CIA’s own mind control secrets.
     
    Finally, an unusually large number of illnesses were reported among the residents of the compound. U.S. Ambassador Walter Stoessel developed a rare blood disease similar to leukemia; he was suffering headaches and bleeding from the eyes. A source at the State Department informally admitted that excessive radiation had been leaking from his telephone; an American high frequency radio transmitter on the roof of the building had, when operating, induced high frequency signals well above the U.S. safety standard through the phones in the political section, as well as in lines to Stoessel’s office. No doubt, National Security Agency or CIA electronic devices also contributed to the electromagnetic environment at the embassy, although values for these were never released, as they are secret. Stoessel was reported as telling his staff that the microwaves could cause leukemia, skin cancer, cataracts and various forms of emotional illness. White blood cell counts were estimated to be as high as 40% above normal in one third of the staff, and serious chromosome damage was uncovered.
     
    The Soviets began research on biological effects of microwaves in 1953. A special laboratory was set up at the Institute of Hygiene and Occupational Diseases, Academy of Medical Sciences. Other labs were set up in the U.S.S.R. and in Eastern Europe that study both effects of microwaves and low frequency electromagnetic radiation. Years ago, in the halls of science, complaints could be heard that Soviet experiments regarding bio-effects couldn’t be duplicated due to insufficient details in their scientific literature, although, according to one DOD official, 75% of the U.S. papers on the subject carried insufficient parameters for duplication. Scientists even questioned, with McCarthy-like sentiments, whether the Soviets were attempting to frighten or disinform with false scientific reporting of bio-effects. It was unthinkable, according to cruder scientific theory, that non-thermal levels of microwaves could cause harm. Impetus for a study of such effects came not from concern for the public,