Photo: Nathan HodgeAccording to Rusalkina, the Soviet military enlisted Smirnov's psychotechnology during the Soviet Union's bloody war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Please consider sending an email to [email protected] and cite any sources if available. The Surgisphere Scandal: What Went Wrong? However, fear appeals should not be seen as a panacea because the effect is still small. The second-ranked search engine is getting a new chatbot interface that attempts to synthesize information from sites across the web. To the point that no amount of clear, correct, accurate information (i.e. [8] The book was reviewed by Cesare Marongiu Buonaiuti in the Italian-language journal Rivista di Studi Politici Internazionali.[9]. As early as 1987, the Stasi officers responsible for the AIDS disinformation campaign began using the terms Denver and Detrick interchangeably in talks with their Bulgarian counterparts. However, it, On a larger scale, both goodness and malice are inherent in humans. He describes information warfare tactics used by the Soviet Union, which they internally referred to as disinformation, intended to fool and defraud others. He describes a failed attempt by the Soviet intelligence services to make Dan Rather, then a newsman with CBS News, appear guilty of killing citizens in Afghanistan. Already during the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2013-16, these Russian propaganda outlets spread reports that the virus had been created by the US in collaboration with Great Britain and South Africa in order to kill off Africans. Scientist. The first one being demoralization, it takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation. Among the East European intelligence services that assisted the KGB in this effort was the East German Ministry for State Security (Stasi), which used the codename Denver when referring to the campaign. In the 60s, the KGB did conducted psych experiments and learned that if you bombard human subjects with nonstop fear messages, most are completely brainwashed to believe the lies in 2 months or less, and no amount of evidence to the contrary can change their minds. Why that many years? In the case of HIV/AIDS, such quack therapies have included aspirin, alfa-interferon, the ultraviolet irradiation of blood, vitamin cocktails, traditional Chinese or African herbs, and colloidal silver. KGB Defector Explains Psychological Warfare, Ideological Subversion (1984). She also claimed that Russian special forces contacted the institute during the 2003 Moscow theater siege, in which several hundred people were held hostage by Chechen militants. There is one thing that democratic governments should definitely avoid in responding to disinformation namely, spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation themselves. You Can Flip My Stories On The Flipboard Digital Magazine, Corrections: If you are aware of an inaccuracy or would like to report a correction, we would like to know about it. Ad Choices, The Weird Russian Mind-Control Research Behind a DHS Contract, A dungeon-like room in the Psychotechnology Research Institute in Moscow is used for human testing. It also illustrates how the search for counter-terrorism technology has led the U.S. government into unconventional -- and some would say unsound -- science. It sounds absurd that an obscure US company with a hastily constructed website could have driven international health policy and brought major clinical trials to a halt within the span of a few weeks. This is one of the prime way TDS was created. "We're still working at the level of how rats learn that light predicts food," he explained. A dungeon-like room in the Psychotechnology Research Institute in Moscow is used for human testing. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Normally used by scientists to measure brain states, Smirnov peered into Morris's EEG tracings and divined the secrets of his subconscious, right down to intimate details like Morris' dislike of his own first name. ", Developments in neuroscience, he noted, are followed closely. It is hard to understand the failure of intelligent well-educated doctors to recognise that if something is too good to be true, it probably isnt. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. The high-profile retractions of two COVID-19 studies stunned the scientific community earlier this year and prompted calls for reviews of how science is conducted, published, and acted upon. You cannot get rid of them they are, contaminated. Larry Orloskie, a spokesman for DHS, declined to comment on the contract announcement. The Morrises shopped the technology around to a few military agencies, but found no one willing to put money into it. One particularly reprehensible episode was the Tuskegee syphilis study, in which the US Public Health Service had observed the long-term effects of syphilis on infected African-American sharecroppers and their offspring for four decades, from 1932 to 1972, without providing them with effective medical treatment, even after penicillin had proven effective against the disease. and a Legum Magister (LL.M. Copyright 2000-2021 MK: Why did the Stasi give the codename Denver to the disinformation campaign? How did they Vote? You can stream it for free on YouTube. In both cases, authoritarian regimes have exploited widespread public fear and confusion to generate suspicions about US motives, to stoke hostility toward the United States, and to discredit the US governments sincerity in combatting the global pandemic. More important, said Albarracin, there was no evidence in the meta-analysis that fear appeals backfired to produce a worse outcome relative to a control group. The book is about the KGB's use of disinformation and information warfare during the Soviet Union . However, not everyone is as impressed with Smirnov's technology, including John Alexander, a well-known expert on non-lethal weapons. [12][13] A Spanish language edition was released in 1987 by Editorial Juventud. These claimed (falsely) that US service members suffered a high infection rate with HIV and were spreading AIDS locally around US military bases. on mRNA, Blood Clots and CVT. Required fields are marked *. Selvages article appeared a few months before COVID-19 burst into public consciousness. They also deny that they ever had any contacts to the Stasi. FILE THIS UNDER "GOOD GRIEF CHARLIE BROWN". Smirnov proposed blasting scrambled sound -- the pig squeals again -- over loudspeakers to persuade Koresh to surrender. The New York Timeseven decided to use it as the title for its series of popular videos about Soviet and Russian disinformation. Apparently, believers in HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories reason as follows: If scientists and medical doctors cannot be trusted to tell the truth or have been duped themselves about a viruss origins, why should one trust their medical or public health advice? Home / Technology / 1960's KGB psychological experiments. On social media, there's a campaign to get the upcoming presidential debate fact-checked. Psychiatrist. The Stasi claimed to have played a role in photocopying and distributing the study in a brochure entitled, AIDS: USA home-made evil, NOT out of AFRICA at a summit meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Harare, Zimbabwe in August-September 1986. "It has not been awarded yet," he replied in an e-mail. Today, first-time visitors to the institute -- housed in a drab concrete building at the Peoples Friendship University of Russia -- are asked to watch a half-hour television program dedicated to Smirnov, who is called the father of "psychotronic weapons," the Russian term for mind control weapons. Oct 1, 2020 In the 60s, the KGB did some fascinating psychological experiments. The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. Author. Many leaders, journalists and intellectuals in Africa welcomed the Segals thesis of a US origin of HIV as an alternative to the hypothesis of many leading US and Western scientists at the time. Like the CIA, the Soviet (and now Russian) spy agency known as the KGB has engaged in decades of secret operations across the world, ranging from blackmail to kidnapping. #DemVoice1 . As unsecured docs pile up, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is itching to overhaul the nations secret secret-sharing operation. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. But the U.S. war on terror and the millions of dollars set aside for homeland security research is offering Smirnov a chance at posthumous respectability in the West. However, in 1993 Smirnov rose to brief fame in the United States when the FBI consulted with him in hope of ending the standoff in Waco with cult leader David Koresh. A cycle of misinformation and disinformation arose in which the KGB cited US conspiracy theories, and US conspiracy theorists, in turn, began to cite texts associated with KGB disinformation. This was a gathering of world leaders, mainly from the less-developed countries, that had proclaimed their neutrality in the superpower rivalry during the Cold War. They looked at 127 research articles representing 248 independent samples and over 27,000 individuals from experiments conducted between 1962 and 2014. American Psychological Association. "And naturally, you could have avoided all the casualties, and you could have put the terrorists on trial. In the case of the AIDS disinformation campaign, the KGB simply picked up on existing conspiracy theories in the US, added a new element that conformed to its disinformation goals (i.e., the exact location of HIVs construction, Fort Detrick), and spread the resulting conspiracy theory internationally to its own ends. They learned that if you bombard human subjects with fear messages nonstop for two months most of the subjects are completely brainwashed into believing the false message. PBS America . Did the Stasi play the lead role after the Soviet KGB? NEWSFLASH! You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. DS: During the Cold War, the Reagan Administration had an Active Measures Working Group that exposed and publicised examples of Soviet disinformation. They found that if you bombard human subjects with fear messages nonstop, in two months or less most of the subjects are completely brainwashed to believe the false message--to the point that no amount of clear information they are shown to the contrary will change their minds. In the history of U.S. intelligence, only three major molesmen whose betrayals had lethal resultshave . Negative commentary about the U.S. grew markedly within the country at a rapid pace. Click accept to close this message. Smirnov's claims of mind control piqued the interest of Chris and Janet Morris -- former science-fiction writers turned Pentagon consultants who are now widely credited as founders of the Pentagon's "non-lethal" weapons concept. Yuri Bezmenov, known by the alias Tomas David Schuman, was a Soviet KGB informant who defected to Canada. [6], The KGB and Soviet Disinformation received both a negative and a positive review in the International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, with Phillips writing "Chez Espionage regulars consider" the book "an excellent study", referring to its author as "the top authority on disinformation in the U.S.". If you do not agree, please immediately exit the service or click more to learn why. Studies show that individuals who believe in conspiracy theories regarding the origins of HIV/AIDS are less likely to follow medical advice regarding safe sex, to test themselves for potential infection, or to take effective medications to contain the disease. "That raised our suspicion right away," Scott Conn, CEO and president of DownRange, told Wired News. The two co-creators of the West German film strenuously deny that the Stasi covertly financed the film or was involved with it in any other way. Another such forgery claimed that the CIA plotted a covert assassination attempt on the Indonesian president. As a result of these historical and situational factors, KGB agents managed to create very fast seduction-based brainwashing methods. Psychopharmacologist. Mark Kramer: The Soviet KGB was the agency that originated the AIDS disinformation campaign, but the KGB enlisted the East German Stasi early on to help out. "It was used for combating the Mujahideen, and also for treating post-traumatic stress syndrome" in Russian soldiers, she says. Elena Rusalkina, the silver-haired woman who runs the institute, gestured to the center of the claustrophobic room, where what looked like a dentist's chair sits in front of a glowing computer monitor. [1][2] In 1967, he was assigned to Vienna, Austria in an undercover operation as a press attach, to recruit European reporters as secret agents that Soviet intelligence could use to spread disinformation. To what extent did other Soviet-bloc intelligence agencies also participate? the truth . For example, the KGB was not the first to accuse the US government of constructing the AIDS virus. Fear produces a significant though small amount of change across the board. (2015, October 22). These cookies do not store any personal information. Op-Ed: Busy Bee DeSantis is Buzzing Around the Honey Hive Will He Land on a Cherry Blossom? The slow migration of Smirnov's technology to the United States began in 1991, at a KGB-sponsored conference in Moscow intended to market once-secret Soviet technology to the world. But the idea of psychotronic weapons enjoys some respectability in Russia. Photo: Nathan HodgeSmirnov died in November 2004, leaving the widowed Rusalkina -- his long-time collaborator -- to run the institute. 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