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There was a comedy of sorts loosely based on the idea. The Men Who Stare At Goats [1] I promise it's worth watching, if for no other reason than to be entirely

There was a comedy of sorts loosely based on the idea. The Men Who Stare At Goats [1] I promise it's worth watching, if for no other reason than to be entirely taken aback as to how they got A-list actors to play the parts. [1] - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234548/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234548/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

buescher 6y ago
It's also one of those odd films like Mean Girls screenplayized somehow out of a nonfiction book.
Bluestein 6y ago
I immediately thought of the movie, when reading the article :)
metalforever 6y ago
This is a documentary . It’s told in a way that is funny, but it’s all a true account of real things that happened.
- LinuxBender 6y ago
  Ah yes, here are some references. [1] Either way, the movie is great. You will never see Georgy Clooney the same way again. cloud bursting [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_Who_Stare_at_Goats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_Who_Stare_at_Goats
ncmncm 6y ago
When you understand the movie, or the book it was based on, you will no longer consider it a comedy. It is a terrifying dip into a government program devoted to psychological warfare. There was never any program to use ESP for spying. There is, instead, a program that--in one of its projects--sought to convince Americans that ESP spying had been attempted. The project was a massive success: most people still believe that happened. There are still DoD people who continue to insist it was attempted, which means the project is still running. The program is ongoing. It was involved in capturing Noriega in Panama. It was the source of the torture program in Afghanistan and Iran. It probably orchestrated the pundit-sphere's rabid insistence on invading Iraq despite all the evidence that there were no WMDs, and that the invasion would be a massive failure. The same program probably is running the Tictacs/UFO hoax, today, for reasons unknown. Possibly it is just another exercise, like the ESP thing; military programs are obliged to demonstrate their readiness frequently if they want continued funding. The Iraq invasion was not, for some people, a failure: it transferred, ultimately, $5T from the American people into many newly-minted billionaires' pockets, some of whom have become reliable campaign financers. Secret programs breed corruption.
- Bluestein 6y ago
  > It is a terrifying dip into a government program devoted to psychological warfare. Yikes.-
- pluto9 6y ago
  For what purpose? Do you have any evidence of this?
  - mlN90 6y ago
    His dad works for Nintendo, if you question him, he'll make your playstation 3 catch fire. Jokes aside, I would be interested to see if there is any "sources" to his claim, but in all likelihood there isn't and there never will be. there is no evidence that the alphabet-boys hijacked the term "Conspiracy theorist" and used the media to change people's perception that conspiracy theorists is batshit crazy people with tinfoil hats. How many years were you not labelled a tinfoil-hatter if you tried to describe the echelon program pre-snowden, even though he wasn't the first to leak about FIVE EYES, especially the part how the western SIGINT community circumvented the laws prohibiting domestic dragnet spying in their own respective countries?
    - ttt0 6y ago
      > there is no evidence that the alphabet-boys hijacked the term "Conspiracy theorist" and used the media to change people's perception that conspiracy theorists is batshit crazy people with tinfoil hats. I don't know where do you got this particular claim from, seems like a straw man honestly, but here is the CIA's 1967 "Countering Conspiracy Theories" memo: https://archive.org/details/img_53510_3_300 https://archive.org/details/img_53510_3_300 Memos like that (what the narrative and the talking points are) are leaking all the time.
      - ncmncm 6y ago
        Propaganda operatives, whether commercial or military, seek what are called "placements". These are packaged kernels of message content to be repeated by media gatekeepers, who may be reporters, editorialists, authors, movie directors, computer game studios, or social-media "influencers". Zero Dark Thirty and Argo were important movie placements by the spooks. Diamond, cigarette, car, beverage, and now phone product placements are a familiar movie phenomenon. It appears that there is significant budget available for funding movies and games that present CIA programs in a positive light, which also generate direct revenue.

buescher 6y ago

It's also one of those odd films like Mean Girls screenplayized somehow out of a nonfiction book.

Bluestein 6y ago

I immediately thought of the movie, when reading the article :)

metalforever 6y ago

This is a documentary . It’s told in a way that is funny, but it’s all a true account of real things that happened.

LinuxBender 6y ago
Ah yes, here are some references. [1] Either way, the movie is great. You will never see Georgy Clooney the same way again. cloud bursting [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_Who_Stare_at_Goats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_Who_Stare_at_Goats

ncmncm 6y ago

When you understand the movie, or the book it was based on, you will no longer consider it a comedy. It is a terrifying dip into a government program devoted to psychological warfare. There was never any program to use ESP for spying. There is, instead, a program that--in one of its projects--sought to convince Americans that ESP spying had been attempted. The project was a massive success: most people still believe that happened. There are still DoD people who continue to insist it was attempted, which means the project is still running. The program is ongoing. It was involved in capturing Noriega in Panama. It was the source of the torture program in Afghanistan and Iran. It probably orchestrated the pundit-sphere's rabid insistence on invading Iraq despite all the evidence that there were no WMDs, and that the invasion would be a massive failure. The same program probably is running the Tictacs/UFO hoax, today, for reasons unknown. Possibly it is just another exercise, like the ESP thing; military programs are obliged to demonstrate their readiness frequently if they want continued funding. The Iraq invasion was not, for some people, a failure: it transferred, ultimately, $5T from the American people into many newly-minted billionaires' pockets, some of whom have become reliable campaign financers. Secret programs breed corruption.

Bluestein 6y ago
> It is a terrifying dip into a government program devoted to psychological warfare. Yikes.-
pluto9 6y ago
For what purpose? Do you have any evidence of this?
- mlN90 6y ago
  His dad works for Nintendo, if you question him, he'll make your playstation 3 catch fire. Jokes aside, I would be interested to see if there is any "sources" to his claim, but in all likelihood there isn't and there never will be. there is no evidence that the alphabet-boys hijacked the term "Conspiracy theorist" and used the media to change people's perception that conspiracy theorists is batshit crazy people with tinfoil hats. How many years were you not labelled a tinfoil-hatter if you tried to describe the echelon program pre-snowden, even though he wasn't the first to leak about FIVE EYES, especially the part how the western SIGINT community circumvented the laws prohibiting domestic dragnet spying in their own respective countries?
  - ttt0 6y ago
    > there is no evidence that the alphabet-boys hijacked the term "Conspiracy theorist" and used the media to change people's perception that conspiracy theorists is batshit crazy people with tinfoil hats. I don't know where do you got this particular claim from, seems like a straw man honestly, but here is the CIA's 1967 "Countering Conspiracy Theories" memo: https://archive.org/details/img_53510_3_300 https://archive.org/details/img_53510_3_300 Memos like that (what the narrative and the talking points are) are leaking all the time.
    - ncmncm 6y ago
      Propaganda operatives, whether commercial or military, seek what are called "placements". These are packaged kernels of message content to be repeated by media gatekeepers, who may be reporters, editorialists, authors, movie directors, computer game studios, or social-media "influencers". Zero Dark Thirty and Argo were important movie placements by the spooks. Diamond, cigarette, car, beverage, and now phone product placements are a familiar movie phenomenon. It appears that there is significant budget available for funding movies and games that present CIA programs in a positive light, which also generate direct revenue.