This article is sponsored in part by Safe House, in theatersFebruary 10 (What's this?) The road to hell is paved withgood intentions is another way of saying, 'It seemed like a sound idea at the time." Thismight describe much of the early history of the Central Intelligence Agency (orCIA). Created in 1947, the CIA had a single mission: provide top-notchintelligence estimates to policy makers. How many long-range bombers are the Sovietscapable of building? CIA analysts provide an estimate, and the budget of the US StrategicAir Command goes up or down accordingly. That's it. Coups, covert ops, assassinations, andespionage weren't originally part of the plan. Yet, within just a fewyears, government oversight of the CIA had dwindled to the point where members of Congressopenly agreed that they didn't want to know what the CIA was doing, only that they keepdoing it. Paranoia ran riot. The 1954 Doolittle Report, meant to clarifyoversight of the CIA, sums up the zeitgeist well: "[America] is facing an Implacableenemy whose avowed objective is world domination by whatever means and at whatever cost.There are no rules in such a game. Hitherto acceptable norms of human conduct do notapply."With that in mind, here's a review of 10 of the CIA's most notoriousexperimental projects. Continue Reading



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