Nexus - 0225 - New Times Magazine-pages

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ing system on the manufacturing of military hardware] on a gov- _real problems and we try to kick him out. We call in some of my emment contract, that death ray is up for grabs in every nation in former group and say, ‘Look, the bastard has got to have a fatal the world. Any amount of military security can't keep it secret." accident, and it's gotta look good—tlike he fell on a bar of soap "What you're saying," I interrupted, "is that American people —_ and broke his neck in the bathtub or something.’ So we go down are selling secrets, wholesale, to the highest bidder? That is to there and get the job done. . say, I assume, if the highest bidder is an American company?" "But it could be quite embarrassing if any of the guys were "And even if it's not," he said. "Usually it is another nation. cross-examined about where they'd been and what they'd done... T've dealt with weapons and usually the nation that wants it most So the guys who were in on the job suddenly have a cold or some- will pay the most for it. Once in a while these companies, these thing, and they are put in a hospital for maybe just a routine government contractors, will find that someone has stolen one of checkup. They come out of the hospital in about fifteen days. their secrets and there'll be a big flap. But the big boys that are in They're alive. They're well. They're healthy. And they're happy, the military are an entirely different ball of wax: the big guys get too. Lots of luck if you question them: they don't remember any- away with it. thing. "When one of these companies finds someone inside it that's "That's one way it's used. The other way is to use it to improve selling secrets, they take him on a fishing trip, a boat ride, and get | memory—say, with couriers. You want a secret message carried, tid of him. It's quite common," he said. outside the chain of command. "For example, if I was tied in with one of There's no need to have it carried these companies where money is no by a person if it's a legal mes- object and they wanted me to get rid of sage, because the military's got a you, I'd obtain a passport or a duplicate thousand ways of sending mcs- passport with your smilin' face on it. sages which are unbreakably After I'd obtained it, I'd put whoever's secret. But if it's outside the face on it I wanted. Then after we chain of command, as so many dumped you, that ‘someone’ whose face things are these days, if it's an was on your passport would take a trip to illegal message—and our Australia. Constitution doesn't permit us to “Later, your friends or family would do much that is legal—then you notice you were missing and people have a hypno-programmed guy would begin to inquire as to your where- carry the message. You improve abouts. Eventually they'd check with the his memory so that he can carry Australian customs who'd say, yes, this an entire coded book of what guy entered the country on such and such a date. By then the guy appears to be gibberish, and when he's got it down you give him who'd travelled over there on your passport would have already amnesia and seal off that message by a post-hypnotic code-word, come back on his own, and as far as the best detective could tell and whammo! You got a real good secret courier, because he can "You improve his memory so that he can carry an entire coded book of what appears to be gibberish, ...you give him amnesia and seal off that message by a post-hypnotic code- word, and whammo! You got a real good secret courier, because he can be tortured to death but he can't remember." you've gone to Australia and you've never come back." be tortured to death but he can’t remember. Unless the proper cue "What do you know about the military or the intelligence agen- _is uttered. cies' use of pain-drug hypnosis?" I asked. "Then if the courier is going to operate against the enemy, who "They used several different things. I've seen, actually seen, might have the techniques of hypnosis down, you give him several guys coming back with blanks only in certain places of theirmem- _layers of post-hypnotic command. In the first layer, he'll confess a ory. Let's say that I know positively, not by hearsay, that it's false message. In the second layer, he'll confess another different done." false message. Finally, maybe on the fourth or fifth layer is the "You've seen it?" I asked. real message. "You'll never get me to admit it," he grinned. "Owr guy who is supposed to get the message knows that the "Well, how is it done?" I asked. first three cues, say, are fake, and he gives the fourth cue and out "They use hypnosis and hypnotic drugs. They also use electron- comes the correct message. If the courier was in enemy hands, he ic manipulation of the brain. They use ultrasonics, which will boil could be there for years before anybody will figure out where he your brain. When they use hypnosis, they'll at the same time be _was in all those layers... Each identity will probably be that of a using a set of earphones which repeat, 'You do not know this or _ real ‘cut out(—a person enough like him, so that the enemy will that’, over and over. They turn on the sonics at the same time, and __ think that they've got the real guy. the electrical patterns which give you memory are scrambled. "Many of the men in my unit were given assignments, after You can't hear the ultrasonics and you can't feel it unless they | which they were so ‘persuaded’ that they didn’t remember any- leave it on—then it boils your grey matter." thing. I mean to say, they'd gone in believing that the only thing Unless the assassin had done the same research I had, he could __ in life that meant anything to them was completing the assign- only have known this through first-hand experience. The CIA ment—to get it done—and when they got done with it they could- documents released in 1976 revealed that ultrasonic research was _ n't remember anything about it." undertaken for a period of more than twenty years. But the docu- "Could these guys have been that way without hypnosis?” I ments said that the research had stopped, so I asked him about —_ asked. that. "Well, they could have believed that their mission in life was "Yeah. The research has stopped. They've gone operational. It that particular assignment. They usually had no family affilia- ain't research any more. They know how to do it,” he said. tions, no friends, nothing but their careers. But I don't think they'd “Do you mean that it is your opinion that it hasn't stopped, or do —_ have forgotten about those kind of assignments. Not without a lit- you mean that you know it hasn't stopped?" I asked. tle help, let us say." "I mean I know it hasn't stopped," he said. “For example, sup- “What was the conditioning that these guys had? Was it drugs, pose that a dictator in some South American country is setting up _ hypnosis, or something else?" I wanted to know. our APRIL - MAY 1995 NEXUS ¢ 41