Soviet microwave bombardment — Moscow embassy
The Soviet microwave bombardment of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow is confirmed across dozens of declassified CIA, State Department, and Defense Department documents. The beams were detected in 1959 by CIA and Secret Service electronic specialists. They were not disclosed to embassy personnel until 1976. Ambassador Walter Stoessel developed a blood disorder that was attributed to the radiation. A classified health study was commissioned.
The official U.S. government explanation for most of the period was that the beams were used for eavesdropping or to jam U.S. electronic intelligence equipment. That explanation was almost certainly correct for at least part of the program. But multiple CIA and Defense Department documents record a second hypothesis that was taken seriously enough to be included in classified intelligence assessments: that the Soviets were using microwave frequencies tuned to brain wave levels to induce behavioral effects in embassy personnel.
This hypothesis was not fringe speculation. It appears in a 1978 DIA-commissioned intelligence report prepared by the U.S. Air Force Academy. It appears in a 1992 Defense Intelligence College thesis filed in the CIA STARGATE collection. It was articulated by Dr. Milton Zaret, the CIA's own consultant on the Moscow Signal, who told the agency in 1965 that the frequencies the Soviets were using fit the pattern expected to produce a behavioral effect. It appears in the same CIA STARGATE archive that contains the Gateway Process report and MKUltra Subproject 119.
None of this proves the Soviets succeeded. What the government record establishes is that multiple independent U.S. intelligence analysts, working from classified sources, believed the hypothesis was credible enough to include in official assessments.
This Associated Press wire story was collected and filed within the CIA STARGATE archive in November 1983. It covers the publication of "Psychic Warfare: Threat or Illusion?" by Martin Ebon and the 1981 Army study it reports on. The Army study concluded that the Soviet Union had made significant progress toward developing psychotronic weapons — defined in the document as the projection or transmission of mental energy by individual or collective mental discipline and control, or by an energy-emitting device.
The story records the brain wave tuning hypothesis directly: that the Soviet microwave beams aimed at the Moscow embassy may have been used to read minds by tuning microwaves to the level of brain waves. The Army study, entitled "Fire Support Mission Area Analysis," called for U.S. resources to be organized around both defensive techniques against psychotronic energy and study of the offensive potential of psychotronics.
The significance of this document being in the STARGATE archive is institutional. The CIA was actively monitoring and filing public reporting on this question in 1983 — the same year the Gateway Process report was filed in the same collection.
Full transcription — CIA-RDP96-00791R000200230031-8 (pages 62-64)
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LEVEL 1 — 15 OF 20 STORIES
Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200230031-8
The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press.
November 7, 1983, Monday, PM cycle
SECTION: Washington Dateline
LENGTH: 911 words
HEADLINE: U.S. Military Research: From War Games to Mind Games?
BYLINE: By BARTON REPPERT, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
The United States should undertake more research into potential mind-control weapons to counter Soviet advances in "psychotronic warfare," according to a U.S. Army study disclosed in a new book.
The Pentagon study, author Martin Ebon writes, reported that the Soviet Union appears to have made "significant progress" toward developing psychic weaponry that could play a role on future battlefields.
Ebon contended that mind-altering effects or "remote monitoring of brain wave activity" were among possible reasons behind the Soviet microwave bombardment of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
"Soviet scientists view the brain as an apparatus available for probing and manipulation," he said. "They are well aware that perfected techniques in ESP and other phenomena would make effective wartime strategies."
Publication of Ebon's book, "Psychic Warfare: Threat or Illusion?" comes amid increased interest in parapsychology research on Capitol Hill as well as within the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies.
A report prepared recently by the Congressional Research Service, an arm of the Library of Congress, concluded that "psi phenomena" could be applied in fields such as education, medicine, geological exploration and business management.
Mind-control techniques also may prove useful for "military intelligence and police work" along with "crime, persuasion, mischief and disinformation," it said.
Psi phenomena include various forms of extrasensory perception, for example telepathy and "remote viewing" of distant locations. Another form is "psychokinesis," the ability to move or bend solid objects with the mind.
Critics of parapsychology, however, charge that much of the research on those effects is either scientifically unsound or fraudulent. Other skeptics argue that even if the phenomena exist, they are too weak and unpredictable to have military value.
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The Associated Press — November 7, 1983
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Congressional supporters of psi research include Sen. Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. He said he had discussed the parapsychology field with Soviet researchers during a visit to the Soviet Union in August.
"I personally have never experienced or seen a psychic event," Pell said in a recent interview. "But it seems to me there have been adequate scientific articles written that would indicate that they do occur."
The 1981 Army study, quoted at length in Ebon's book, analyzed the potential impact of psychic warfare tactics, as well as other battlefield factors, on the stamina and performance of U.S. artillery forces.
It used the word "psychotronics" to describe the "projection or transmission of mental energy by individual or collective mental discipline and control, or by an energy-emitting device — a kind of mind jammer."
The report cited "the significant amount of research that has been completed by Warsaw Pact countries during the past decade in the area of psychic phenomena, of which psychotronics is one element."
"The Soviet Union, in particular, appears to have made significant progress toward developing psychotronic weapons," said the Army study, entitled "Fire Support Mission Area Analysis."
To counter that potential threat, it said, "U.S. resources should be organized and directed at a near-term understanding of the defensive techniques that can be employed against psychotronic energy. ... On a longer-term basis, a program appears necessary to study the offensive potential of psychotronics."
The Central Intelligence Agency scaled down its involvement with psychic research during the mid-1970s, when the agency was under intense criticism and scrutiny on Capitol Hill.
But a U.S. government official familiar with the parapsychology field, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified, said that currently "there seems to be somewhat renewed interest at the CIA in psi phenomena, particularly (psychokinetic) metal-bending."
Pentagon units said to be interested in psychic research include the Defense Intelligence Agency and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Pell headed a delegation of nine Senate Democrats who met with President Yuri V. Andropov and other Kremlin officials during their Aug. 17-21 visit to Moscow.
In his private discussions with Soviet parapsychologists, Pell said he had been unable to get a "firm handle" on the overall scope of scientific resources Moscow is devoting to this area. "I was just there for too short a time to go into anything in any depth," he said.
The Congressional Research Service report said Soviet annual spending on psi research has been "speculated to amount to tens of millions of dollars."
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The Associated Press — November 7, 1983
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By contrast, total funding for parapsychology studies in the United States "probably does not greatly exceed $500,000" a year currently, with most of the money coming from foundations and other private sources, it said.
Speculation over possible purposes behind the Soviet microwave bombardment of the Moscow embassy believed to have begun as early as 1953 has centered largely on use of the beams for eavesdropping or to try to jam U.S. electronic intelligence-gathering equipment.
However, Ebon wrote that "another hypothesis is Soviet use of radiation to effect mind-changes in embassy personnel."
An additional possibility is that the beams may have been "used to 'read minds' by tuning microwaves to the level of brain waves," said Ebon, a New York-based professional writer specializing in Soviet affairs.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200230031-8
This is a 29-page classified intelligence report on Soviet psychology prepared by the U.S. Air Force Academy for the Defense Intelligence Agency. Published in May 1978, it covers Soviet work in behavior modification, psychosurgery, psychopharmacology, parapsychology, and engineering psychology. It is filed in the CIA STARGATE collection and declassified in 2003.
The report's assessment of Soviet microwave research on the brain is explicit. It does not frame this as fringe speculation. It treats it as an established research direction with operational implications. The key passage, from the declassified document:
SECRET
DST-1810S-388-78
May 1978
(S) Soviet scientists are studying the effects of passing microwave energy through the brain. Passing a concentrated beam of microwave energy through an electrically active substance, brain tissue, will modulate the beam in a characteristic way.
Although this is probably not an immediate threat the great deal of work that has been reported certainly suggests a high level of Soviet interest in this area. From a purely pragmatic viewpoint the "teaching" or programming of a human brain by these methods would have obvious advantages since much of what now takes decades could very probably be done in a period of months. This work may lead to direct connections between digital electronic computers and the human "digital computer", the brain.
Even if the state of technology will prevent full utilization of this capability, it is almost a certainty that the Soviets have the capability to influence wakefulness, suggestibility, and aggressiveness by direct and remote means of brain stimulation. Their extensive experimentation with medium and high power microwave emanations is probably for these purposes.
Approved For Release 2003/09/11 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001600440001-7
The DIA assessment is unambiguous: the Soviets almost certainly have the capability to influence human brain states by remote means using microwave emanations. This is a classified U.S. government intelligence estimate, not a hypothesis from a civilian author. It was produced the same year the Malech patent was in effect.
This is a graduate thesis submitted to the Defense Intelligence College in November 1992 by a U.S. Army captain. It was classified SECRET/NOFORN/WNINTEL. It is filed in the CIA STARGATE collection. The thesis examines Soviet parapsychological research and its potential as an intelligence collection threat. On the Moscow embassy microwave question, the thesis records the CIA's own institutional conclusions alongside the brain wave hypothesis:
SECRET/NOFORN/WNINTEL
Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002600250001-6
(S/NF) The Central Intelligence Agency concluded from these attempts by the Soviets to collect information on remote viewing that: the Soviets either had encountered research difficulties or were trying to gain expertise from US researchers, or trying to acquire details about what they believed to be a large, covert research program. Nevertheless, the Soviets believed that US researchers had experimental expertise that would significantly benefit the Soviet program.
(U) Possibly illustrative of former Soviet resolve to cash in on using the power of the mind, is the mysterious bombardment of microwaves on the US Embassy in Moscow 1975 and 1976. One probable reason for this bombardment appears to be that the microwaves were used to make detection of Soviet listening devices extremely difficult, or that they were being used as an electronic countermeasure to jam US electronic eavesdropping equipment in the embassy. Another, much less conventional, hypothesis offered by Martin Ebon in his book, Psychic Warfare: Threat or Illusion?, is that the Soviets were using this radiation to effect mind-changes in embassy personnel by tuning microwaves to the level of brain waves and recording feedback activity in the form of emotions, [...]
Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002600250001-6
Dr. Milton Zaret was the CIA's own consultant on the Moscow Signal. He was an eye surgeon and professor of ophthalmology at New York University with twenty years of experience studying microwave radiation. The CIA first approached him in early 1965. His assessment was filed in a classified record and remained classified until 2012. His testimony, as recorded in the declassified document:
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP88B01125R000300120111-8
WALLACE: The CIA asked your advice about the Moscow Embassy irradiation.
DR. MILTON ZARET: That is correct.
WALLACE: When and what did they ask?
DR. ZARET: They first came to me, I think, early in '65.
WALLACE: Dr. Milton Zaret is an eye surgeon, professor of ophthalmology at New York University, and he's been studying microwave radiation and its effects on us for 20 years.
DR. ZARET: We reproduced some of the Soviet experiments, and I also analyzed Soviet literature, and I found that if I were a professor of ophthalmology at Moscow instead of at NYU, I would believe that radiation would have an anti-personnel effect. The multiple frequencies they were using, the wavelengths they were using all fit into the pattern they would expect a behavioral effect on our people.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP88B01125R000300120111-8
Zaret's conclusion is precise: the frequencies and wavelengths the Soviets were using fit the pattern expected to produce a behavioral effect on embassy personnel. This is the CIA's own scientific consultant, hired in 1965, telling the agency that the technical parameters of the Moscow Signal matched what Soviet science predicted would influence human behavior.
This document, filed in the CIA's collection on the Moscow Signal, reports that the State Department commissioned Johns Hopkins University to conduct a $250,000 study to determine whether there was a link between the Soviet microwave radiation and an apparently high rate of cancer among Americans serving at the Moscow embassy. Zbigniew Brzezinski, then national security adviser, had stated in March 1976 that the cancer rate among Americans at the Moscow embassy was the highest in the world. CIA and Secret Service sources confirmed that abnormally high radiation at the Moscow embassy was first discovered in 1959. Ambassador Stoessel was reported to be suffering from anemia attributed to the exposure.
The document establishes that the U.S. government's response to the Moscow Signal was not only diplomatic. It was medical. The State Department spent a quarter of a million dollars trying to determine whether the radiation was killing people.
These documents, taken together, establish the following facts from U.S. government sources:
Soviet microwave bombardment of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was detected by CIA and Secret Service in 1959 and continued through at least 1979. The CIA's own consultant, hired in 1965, concluded that the frequencies the Soviets were using fit the pattern expected to produce behavioral effects on embassy personnel. A classified 1978 DIA intelligence assessment concluded it was almost certain that the Soviets had the capability to influence human brain states by direct and remote means using microwave emanations. A 1992 Defense Intelligence College thesis filed in the CIA STARGATE collection placed the Moscow Signal in the context of Soviet psychotronic research. The State Department commissioned a $250,000 cancer study because ambassador-level personnel were developing blood disorders.
None of these documents prove the Soviets successfully read minds or controlled behavior through the Moscow Signal. What they establish is that multiple independent U.S. government analysts — from the CIA's own medical consultant in 1965 through a Defense Intelligence College thesis in 1992 — took the behavioral effect hypothesis seriously enough to include in official classified assessments. The same CIA STARGATE collection that contains the Gateway Process report and references to MKUltra Subproject 119 also contains the brain wave tuning hypothesis for the Moscow Signal. These documents were produced and classified in the same institutional context.
Document 1: AP wire story filed in CIA STARGATE collection. November 7, 1983. CIA-RDP96-00791R000200230031-8. Approved for release 2000/08/10.
Document 2: Soviet Psychology (U). DST-1810S-388-78. U.S. Air Force Academy / DIA. May 1978. CIA-RDP96-00788R001600440001-7. Approved for release 2003/09/11.
Document 3: Remote Viewing: Parapsychological Potential for Intelligence Collection? Capt. Michael E. Zarbo, U.S. Army. Defense Intelligence College. November 1992. CIA-RDP96-00789R002600250001-6. Approved for release 2001/04/02.
Document 4: Study Possible Hazards of Microwave Exposure (Dr. Milton Zaret testimony). CIA-RDP88B01125R000300120111-8. Approved for release 2012/05/10.
Document 5: Effect of Radiation at U.S. Embassy Will Be Studied. Washington Post, May 8, 1977. Filed in CIA collection. CIA-RDP88B01125R000300120031-7. Approved for release 2012/05/10.
The Interference is structured around a timeline that runs from 1960 to the present. Subproject 119 funded the research question. The Malech patent answered it fourteen years later. The Gateway Process report confirmed the underlying physics was valid. The Soviet microwave document confirmed the capability was already being deployed against American personnel. The Colonial Authority in the novel is what that timeline produces if you follow it forward rather than stop at the declassified record. The fiction begins at the point where the documents end.
The Interference begins with a patent. US3951134, filed in 1974, describes a device for remotely monitoring and altering human brain waves without physical contact. The patent is real. The USPTO granted it.
What precedes that patent is a documented institutional record. In 1960, the CIA funded MKUltra Subproject 119 at Texas Christian University. The stated objective included techniques of activation of the human organism by remote electronic means. The contractor was unwitting. The budget was $6,370. Sidney Gottlieb signed off. In 1952, an ARTICHOKE field team produced total amnesia in two overseas subjects held in a guarded safehouse with eyes taped shut in transit. Their dispositions after the operation were outside the team's responsibility. In 1963, the CIA Inspector General recommended termination of unwitting testing on American citizens. The program ran for another decade. In 1983, a U.S. Army Intelligence report filed in the CIA's STARGATE collection treated the brain as an electromagnetic organ that could be entrained to external frequencies. Not as theory. As established fact.
The Colonial Authority in The Interference is what that timeline produces if you follow it forward rather than stop at the declassified record. The mesh program James Harlan carries inside his skull is built on the physics in these documents. The fiction begins exactly where the public record stops answering questions.