WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:03.879 You know, there is this line, a very thin, very 2 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:04.759 blurry line. 3 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:07.360 Yeah, almost imperceptible, really, right. 4 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:09.599 This line that separates the guy standing on the street 5 00:00:09.640 --> 00:00:13.400 corner holding a cardboard sign about government mind control from 6 00:00:13.439 --> 00:00:17.640 a heavily redacted, highly classified document sitting quietly in a 7 00:00:17.679 --> 00:00:18.600 Pentagon vault. 8 00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:20.079 It is a razor thin boundary. 9 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:22.719 Yeah, I mean, we laugh off the cardboard sign, obviously, 10 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:26.239 but when the ink on the classified document finally sees 11 00:00:26.280 --> 00:00:29.359 the light of day, while the laughter tends to stop, 12 00:00:29.399 --> 00:00:30.640 pretty fast, it does. 13 00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:33.759 And the terrifying part of studying history is watching how 14 00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:37.240 often that boundary just completely evaporates totally. Because you know, 15 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:40.240 we grow up learning a version of history that feels solid, 16 00:00:40.600 --> 00:00:43.079 like it's objective and neatly packaged in a textbook. 17 00:00:43.159 --> 00:00:45.399 Safe. It feels safe, exactly safe. Yeah. 18 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:47.759 But the deeper you dig into the archives, the more 19 00:00:47.799 --> 00:00:51.240 you realize that some of the most outrageous, unbelievable rumors, 20 00:00:51.880 --> 00:00:54.079 I mean, the kinds of thing you would instantly dismiss 21 00:00:54.119 --> 00:00:58.600 as pure paranoia, they turn out to be absolute, documented reality. 22 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:01.679 Welcome to Thrilling three. Today. You and I are crossing 23 00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:02.280 that line. 24 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:03.840 We are definitely crossing. 25 00:01:03.479 --> 00:01:08.439 It, because in an era of absolute information overload, where 26 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:11.599 you and I mean you listening right now, are bombarded 27 00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:14.799 with claims and counterclaims every time you glance at a screen. 28 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:20.599 Separating a wild conspiracy theory from actual classified military history 29 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:22.599 feels nearly impossible. 30 00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:24.200 The minefield out there. 31 00:01:24.040 --> 00:01:27.000 It really is. So our mission today is to pull 32 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:29.640 back the cretan. We are going to look at eight 33 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:33.519 declassified military secrets that sound like they were ripped straight 34 00:01:33.560 --> 00:01:38.719 from a Hollywood thriller, but are in fact documented historical facts. 35 00:01:38.719 --> 00:01:41.079 And we should probably clarify where we're getting this from, right. 36 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:43.359 Yes, please, we need to be very clear about our sources. 37 00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:46.879 Right, So, we are pulling directly from declassified NSA materials, 38 00:01:47.079 --> 00:01:52.760 deep historical archives, veterans affairs records, and rigorous journalistic investigations. Specifically, 39 00:01:52.799 --> 00:01:56.879 there's a massive, incredibly detailed probe conducted by Fox six 40 00:01:56.959 --> 00:01:58.920 News that will be leaning on We are. 41 00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:01.079 Just following the ink on the no matter where it 42 00:02:01.159 --> 00:02:02.280 leads exactly. 43 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:04.120 And I want to add a quick disclaimer here too. 44 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:08.680 We're gonna be talking about politically charged figures today, Presidence, Johnson, Nixon, 45 00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:12.879 you name it, but we are completely impartial here, completely 46 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:16.319 We are not taking a political side, we're simply reporting 47 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:20.560 what is in the original declassified source material. We want 48 00:02:20.599 --> 00:02:24.719 to explore the ethical implications, not score political points. 49 00:02:24.439 --> 00:02:27.560 Because following that inc requires us to put ourselves into 50 00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:29.759 the mindset of the people making these decisions. 51 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:32.439 Yeah, you have to. You're dealing with the highest levels 52 00:02:32.439 --> 00:02:35.599 of government during the most tense moments of the twentieth century. 53 00:02:35.919 --> 00:02:39.039 So we're gonna move from domestic biological testing to the 54 00:02:39.080 --> 00:02:42.240 manipulation of foreign wars, and finally end up with the 55 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:45.199 ultimate faustion bargains of the atomic age. 56 00:02:45.240 --> 00:02:46.960 It is quite the roadmap, it is. 57 00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:50.439 So let's start our journey. And we aren't starting on 58 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:53.800 some secret island or in a hollowed out volcano like 59 00:02:53.879 --> 00:02:54.680 a Bond villain. 60 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:56.879 No, it's actually much more mundane than that. 61 00:02:57.039 --> 00:02:59.639 Right, It's a place that looks like a normal military installation, 62 00:03:00.280 --> 00:03:03.680 but it housed something incredibly dark right here on American soil. 63 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:07.639 We're heading to Frederick, Maryland, Fort Detrick, Fort Detrick. What 64 00:03:07.719 --> 00:03:08.759 was actually going on there? 65 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:12.560 So to grasp what happened here, you have to transport 66 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:16.080 yourself back to nineteen forty two. The United States is 67 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:19.639 fully engulfed in the Second World War, right, and they 68 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:25.039 are facing adversaries who are already exploring chemical and biological warfare. 69 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:29.560 So the stakes were viewed as entirely existential. You or 70 00:03:29.639 --> 00:03:33.360 die exactly in that pressure cooker environment. The US Army 71 00:03:33.479 --> 00:03:38.599 Chemical Warfare Service established this massive, sprawling research and development effort. 72 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:42.199 It was focused entirely on biological warfare, and Fort Tetrick 73 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:45.039 became the absolute epicenter of this initiative. 74 00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:46.960 And when I looked at the source material for this, 75 00:03:47.199 --> 00:03:49.919 the list of pathogens they were working with is just staggering. 76 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:51.759 It reads like a horror novel, It really does. 77 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:54.080 I mean, we aren't talking about studying the common cold 78 00:03:54.159 --> 00:03:57.319 keep soldiers healthy. This is a menu of microscopic nightmares. 79 00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:01.599 They researched anthrax, brucellosis, to larimia, q fever, and cytychosis. 80 00:04:01.719 --> 00:04:03.280 Yeah, a lot of very nasty bugs. 81 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:06.159 I mean, I understand anthrax, We all know the terrifying 82 00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:10.879 implications of anthrax spores, But what is the biological mechanism 83 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:14.159 behind something like q fever? Like, why does a military 84 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:16.319 look at that and say, yes, this is a weapon. 85 00:04:16.759 --> 00:04:20.279 That's a great question. The military value of these pathogens 86 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:24.279 isn't necessarily always about killing people instantly. Yeah, it lies 87 00:04:24.319 --> 00:04:28.120 in their infectivity, and there are specific debilitating effects on 88 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:31.920 the human body. Okay, take Q fever for example. It's 89 00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:35.920 caused by a bacteria called Coxiella burnettii and it is 90 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:39.759 incredibly resilient. It can survive heat, drying out, and even 91 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:41.160 many common disinfectants. 92 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:42.759 Wow. So it's tough to kill. 93 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:46.000 Very tough. But its real weaponized value is it's infectious dose. 94 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:49.560 A human being only needs to inhale a minuscule amount 95 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:50.040 to get sick. 96 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:51.120 How many skill are we talking? 97 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:53.959 Sometimes just one to ten individual organisms? 98 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:55.800 Wait? Really, just one to ten cells. 99 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:58.399 Yeah, that is enough to become severely infected. It causes 100 00:04:58.439 --> 00:05:01.959 high fevers, severe anemoonent, and it can completely incapacitate a 101 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:03.079 population for weeks. 102 00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:04.360 That is terrifying. 103 00:05:04.759 --> 00:05:08.319 It is. And pathogens like brucellosis and tul aremia they 104 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:12.240 operate on a very similar logic. They cause severe, long 105 00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:14.199 term illness rather than instant death. 106 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:16.639 Why is that better for a weapon though? Wouldn't you 107 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:20.040 want to just, I don't know, eliminate the enemy. 108 00:05:19.879 --> 00:05:24.040 From a cold tactical perspective. No, an enemy soldier who's 109 00:05:24.079 --> 00:05:28.839 severely ill requires massive medical logistics. You have to transport 110 00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:31.920 them give them a hospital bed, dedicate nurses and doctors 111 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:32.199 to them. 112 00:05:32.279 --> 00:05:33.680 Oh wow, I see. 113 00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:36.519 Yeah. It ties up enemy resources far more than a 114 00:05:36.519 --> 00:05:40.480 soldier who is killed. Outright. It paralyzes their infrastructure by. 115 00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:44.279 Overwhelming their hospitals. That is incredibly dark, very dark. 116 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:46.720 And the researchers at Fort Detrick, they weren't just putting 117 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:49.360 these bugs under a microscope to understand their biology. They 118 00:05:49.399 --> 00:05:51.199 were obsessively studying dispersion. 119 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:53.480 Dispersion like how to spread it around. 120 00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:56.759 Exactly because having a deadly pathogen in a glass vial 121 00:05:57.079 --> 00:05:59.279 is useless if you can't deliver to the target. So 122 00:05:59.319 --> 00:06:03.600 they dedicated enormous resources to understanding how biological agents could 123 00:06:03.639 --> 00:06:05.120 move through various environments. 124 00:06:05.319 --> 00:06:07.480 I read they built these elaborate testing chambers. 125 00:06:07.879 --> 00:06:10.839 They did. They modeled how a pathogen would behave if 126 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:13.480 it were released inside a building, or how it would 127 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:18.360 navigate through a city's specific airflow dynamics. They were literally 128 00:06:18.439 --> 00:06:21.240 trying to solve the physics of mass infection. 129 00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:24.600 See. I really struggle with the logic the government presented 130 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:28.199 to the public here, because whenever they acknowledged Fort Detrick 131 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:31.519 at all, they leaned incredibly hard on this concept of 132 00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:34.759 defense and deterrence, right. The official story, Yeah, they told 133 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:37.560 the American people, Hey, we have to study these things 134 00:06:37.639 --> 00:06:40.160 so we can create vaccines and protective gear. 135 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.120 For our soldiers, which sounds perfectly reasonable on the surface. 136 00:06:43.240 --> 00:06:47.560 It does, but the declassified reality shows an active, robust 137 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:52.040 development of offensive capabilities. It feels like building this massive 138 00:06:52.040 --> 00:06:55.079 doomsday vault, but instead of filling it with seeds to 139 00:06:55.160 --> 00:06:58.120 restart agriculture, you're filling it with the plagues that end 140 00:06:58.199 --> 00:06:58.639 the world. 141 00:06:58.800 --> 00:06:59.959 That's a really good analogy. 142 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:04.199 How do you research defense without inherently creating the offensive 143 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:07.639 weapon you are supposedly terrified of. I just don't get it. 144 00:07:07.720 --> 00:07:10.199 Well, you've hit on the fundamental paradox of the mid 145 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:11.839 twenty century deterrence doctrine. 146 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:13.040 Okay, unpack that for me. 147 00:07:13.319 --> 00:07:16.399 The institutional mindset following World War Two heading into the 148 00:07:16.480 --> 00:07:19.920 Cold War was rooted in this concept of offensive deterrence. 149 00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:23.600 The prevailing belief was that the only way to genuinely 150 00:07:23.639 --> 00:07:27.160 deter the Soviet Union from launching a biological attack was 151 00:07:27.199 --> 00:07:30.560 to possess an arsenal so devastating that the Soviets wouldn't 152 00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:31.759 dare risk retaliation. 153 00:07:32.040 --> 00:07:36.480 Ah. So it's mutually assured destruction. Like nukes, exactly like nucks, 154 00:07:36.519 --> 00:07:39.040 but instead of the flash of a nuclear bomb, it's 155 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:42.680 the silent, aerosolized cloud of tularemia. 156 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:46.680 That is the exact strategic calculus, and it requires a 157 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:50.360 profound psychological dissonance to maintain that the public gets this 158 00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:53.879 comforting narrative about gas masks and vaccines. But behind the 159 00:07:53.879 --> 00:07:57.920 classified doors at Detrick, researchers were actively modeling how to 160 00:07:57.959 --> 00:08:01.120 effectively blanket a metropolitan area anthrax. 161 00:08:00.759 --> 00:08:03.160 Because you can't build the shield without knowing exactly how 162 00:08:03.160 --> 00:08:03.800 the sword works. 163 00:08:03.879 --> 00:08:07.879 Precisely. The brutal reality of biological warfare is that you 164 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:10.319 cannot figure out how to protect a city from an 165 00:08:10.319 --> 00:08:13.920 aerosolized pathogen without first figuring out exactly how to aerosolize 166 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:18.279 a pathogen over a city. The defensive research inevitably inescapably 167 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:20.720 becomes the blueprint for the offensive weapon. 168 00:08:21.079 --> 00:08:23.519 And this wasn't just some short lived experiment that got 169 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:27.639 shut down quickly. This offensive program was the official, heavily 170 00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:31.720 funded policy of the United States for decades decades. 171 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:35.159 It operated right up until November twenty fifth, nineteen sixty nine. 172 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:37.879 What happened on that specific date, that. 173 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:41.559 Is the day President Richard Nixon officially terminated the United 174 00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:43.840 States offensive biological weapons program. 175 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:45.120 Wow, just like that. 176 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:49.240 Yeah, he directed that the stockpiles be destroyed, ostensibly shifting 177 00:08:49.279 --> 00:08:53.080 the nation's focus entirely to defensive measures and immunization. 178 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:57.759 The sources include this fascinating, almost mundane detail about that 179 00:08:57.840 --> 00:08:59.759 specific day. It really caught my eye. 180 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:01.600 Oh the quote from the employee. 181 00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:04.240 Yes, they quote an individual who is actually working at 182 00:09:04.279 --> 00:09:07.799 Fort Detrich when the announcement came down. This person says, 183 00:09:07.799 --> 00:09:10.279 and I quote, I remember that date quite well because 184 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:14.320 following his announcement of taking munitions and beating them into plowsheds, 185 00:09:14.679 --> 00:09:17.039 we all lost our job, and that was a very 186 00:09:17.039 --> 00:09:18.159 traumatic experience. 187 00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:20.759 It really forces us to look at the human element 188 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:23.480 inside the military industrial complex, doesn't it. 189 00:09:23.480 --> 00:09:27.639 It totally does. We view the end of a biological 190 00:09:27.679 --> 00:09:32.279 weapons program as this massive, sweeping victory for global humanity. 191 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:36.679 But for the scientists and technicians inside that classified bubble, 192 00:09:36.799 --> 00:09:39.120 it was a completely different reality. 193 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:43.600 Right because they genuinely believe they were performing essential, patriotic 194 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:45.000 national security work. 195 00:09:45.159 --> 00:09:49.039 They spent years in an environment where weaponizing a pathogen 196 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:52.240 was just normalized. It was literally their daily nine to 197 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:52.879 five job. 198 00:09:53.559 --> 00:09:56.000 And then the commander in chief goes on television and 199 00:09:56.039 --> 00:09:59.320 declares their life's work a moral negative that needs to 200 00:09:59.320 --> 00:09:59.879 be destroyed. 201 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:02.759 So suddenly they are out of work. It's the banality 202 00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:05.039 of the whole thing. You spend your Tuesday figuring out 203 00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:07.519 how to maximize the lethality of a spore, and on 204 00:10:07.559 --> 00:10:09.159 Wednesday you're trying to figure out how to pay your 205 00:10:09.159 --> 00:10:10.960 mortgage because the program got scrapped. 206 00:10:11.080 --> 00:10:13.000 It is a surreal juxtaposition. 207 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:14.519 But we really have to look at what they were 208 00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:17.919 doing before the program ended. Because the theoretical modeling they 209 00:10:17.960 --> 00:10:20.720 were doing on chalkboards and in test chambers in Maryland, 210 00:10:20.840 --> 00:10:21.879 that wasn't enough for them. 211 00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:26.200 No, it wasn't. A controlled laboratory chamber cannot replicate the 212 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:30.519 complex variables of weather, architecture, and population density right. 213 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:33.759 To perfect dispersion. They needed a real world environment. 214 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:37.480 The military apparatus recognized that to truly understand how a 215 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:40.759 biological attack would unfold, they needed to test it on 216 00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:42.639 a major American city. 217 00:10:42.519 --> 00:10:45.320 Which is just a massive escalation we've established as they 218 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:48.919 were willing to research these devastating pathogens behind closed doors, 219 00:10:49.480 --> 00:10:53.360 but crossing the threshold from a laboratory in Maryland to 220 00:10:53.720 --> 00:10:56.240 the streets of a major populated city. That is a 221 00:10:56.279 --> 00:10:58.919 completely different psychological. 222 00:10:58.240 --> 00:10:59.399 Barrier, a huge barrier. 223 00:10:59.559 --> 00:11:01.600 Let's look at how they crossed it. In September of 224 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:05.080 nineteen fifty, let's talk about the fog of San Francisco 225 00:11:05.399 --> 00:11:07.759 and a program known as Operation Sea Spray. 226 00:11:07.960 --> 00:11:10.720 Operation Sea Spray remains one of the most chilling examples 227 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:14.480 of domestic military testing because of how entirely ordinary the 228 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:15.039 setting was. 229 00:11:15.120 --> 00:11:16.559 Walk us through what actually happened. 230 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:20.759 According to the declassified files, a US Navy minesweeper was 231 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:24.519 positioned just off the coast of northern California. Over a 232 00:11:24.559 --> 00:11:28.240 period of several days, the crew of that ship systematically 233 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:32.919 sprayed a massive cloud of a bacteria called Seratia morasans 234 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:34.080 directly into. 235 00:11:33.879 --> 00:11:37.919 The air, just spraying it into the open ocean breeze. 236 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:39.919 Exactly, and they timed it perfectly so the wind would 237 00:11:39.919 --> 00:11:42.559 carry it straight into San Francisco Harbor and across the 238 00:11:42.679 --> 00:11:43.320 entire city. 239 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:45.440 And they didn't just pick any bacteria at random for 240 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:46.279 those did they No. 241 00:11:46.600 --> 00:11:50.480 The documentation shows they chose Serratium marsssens for two very 242 00:11:50.519 --> 00:11:55.120 specific reasons, which were First, this particular bacteria produces a 243 00:11:55.159 --> 00:11:58.960 distinct red pigment. This was a logistical necessity for them. 244 00:11:59.480 --> 00:12:02.480 It made it incredibly easy for the military researchers who 245 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:06.039 were secretly placed throughout the city to swap surfaces, culture 246 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:09.600 the samples, and track exactly how far the bacteria was spreading. 247 00:12:09.320 --> 00:12:11.360 Like a biological dye marker exactly. 248 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:14.759 And second, the scientific establishment at the time firmly believed 249 00:12:14.759 --> 00:12:16.919 this bacteria was completely harmless to humans. 250 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:18.759 They viewed it as the perfect simulant. 251 00:12:19.080 --> 00:12:22.360 Right. They couldn't release real antracs, obviously, yeah, but they 252 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:25.799 needed an organism that would mimic how a deadly pathogen 253 00:12:25.879 --> 00:12:28.240 might behave in a specific. 254 00:12:27.759 --> 00:12:31.240 Microclimate, and they picked San Francisco for the weather, specifically 255 00:12:31.279 --> 00:12:33.080 for its famous invection fog. 256 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:38.639 The researchers hypothesized that the heavy, moisture rich fog rolling 257 00:12:38.679 --> 00:12:42.039 in from the Pacific would trap the biological. 258 00:12:41.399 --> 00:12:43.879 Agent, holding it close to the ground rather than letting 259 00:12:43.879 --> 00:12:44.559 it blow away. 260 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:48.960 Precisely, they theorized that this would dramatically increase the concentration 261 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:52.799 of the bacteria at street level and consequently infect a 262 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:54.720 much larger percentage of the population. 263 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:58.240 Put yourself in San Francisco in September of nineteen fifty 264 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:00.799 you are walking down the street, be heading to work, 265 00:13:00.840 --> 00:13:02.919 pulling your coat tight against the chill. 266 00:13:02.679 --> 00:13:04.279 Of the fog, just a normal morning. 267 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:07.000 Yeah, you're holding a cup of coffee, buying a newspaper, 268 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:10.399 going about your normal daily American life, and a few 269 00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:15.039 miles offshore, a US Navy ship is intentionally blanketing you, 270 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:19.200 your family, your neighbors in a concentrated cloud of live bacteria. 271 00:13:19.320 --> 00:13:21.720 Then you have absolutely no idea it is happening. 272 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:27.320 Nobody knew. The level of compartmentalization surrounding operations Sea Spray 273 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:29.200 is just staggering to me. 274 00:13:29.639 --> 00:13:32.480 The documents revealed that the secrecy didn't just apply to 275 00:13:32.519 --> 00:13:34.320 the civilian population either. 276 00:13:34.360 --> 00:13:38.080 Right the chain of command was so aggressively siloed that 277 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:41.440 the director of the CIA was completely unaware of the operation. 278 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:43.720 Even the President of the United States was kept in 279 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:44.120 the dark. 280 00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:46.399 I have to stop and unpack that mechanic for a second, 281 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:50.120 because how does a military operation scale to the point 282 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:54.799 where it can run a multi day citywide biological experiment 283 00:13:54.960 --> 00:13:58.519 on millions of American citizens without the commander in chief 284 00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:01.240 or the nation's top inti pulligence officer knowing? 285 00:14:01.559 --> 00:14:03.399 It is a phenomenal question that. 286 00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:06.240 Isn't just a secret you know that is a fundamental 287 00:14:06.279 --> 00:14:07.759 breakdown of civilian oversight. 288 00:14:07.960 --> 00:14:12.039 It reveals the true, often dangerous nature of the classification system. 289 00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:16.080 During the Cold War, we traditionally view secrecy as a shield, 290 00:14:16.519 --> 00:14:19.799 a way to prevent an adversary from discovering our vulnerabilities. 291 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:22.879 Sure, keeping the blueprints for a tank secret makes sense. 292 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:27.720 Right, But within massive, sprawling bureaucracies like the Department of Defense, 293 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:32.600 secrecy frequently mutates into a tool to prevent internal oversight. 294 00:14:33.399 --> 00:14:38.279 The military mandate was to understand and prepare for biological warfare. 295 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:39.200 So they just took the initiative. 296 00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:43.039 The specific division running Operation Sea Spray believe they have 297 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:46.720 the authority within their specific need to know silo to 298 00:14:46.759 --> 00:14:50.639 conduct this test. In their framework, San Francisco was merely 299 00:14:50.679 --> 00:14:54.840 a popographical laboratory and the fog was just an environmental variable. 300 00:14:54.919 --> 00:14:57.480 They completely disconnected from the humanity of it. 301 00:14:57.519 --> 00:15:01.039 The profound ethical breach of experimenting on millions of non 302 00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:05.159 consenting citizens was completely subordinated to the necessity of gathering 303 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:06.080 dispersion data. 304 00:15:06.200 --> 00:15:09.480 And the data they gathered confirmed their worst fears, didn't it. 305 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:12.879 It did. The military secret sampling stations proved that the 306 00:15:12.879 --> 00:15:17.320 bacteria had successfully blanketed San Francisco and all the surrounding communities. 307 00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:21.240 The fog worked exactly as they hypothesized. It trapped the 308 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:23.679 agent and insured widespread exposure. 309 00:15:23.879 --> 00:15:26.320 But that second assumption they made, the bedrock belief that 310 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:29.440 Saratiu marssens was completely harmless. 311 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:31.279 That turned out to be a fatal miscalculation. 312 00:15:31.559 --> 00:15:35.000 It really highlights the hubris of mid century science. They 313 00:15:35.039 --> 00:15:39.919 confidently declared the bacteria benign based on limited laboratory observations 314 00:15:39.960 --> 00:15:40.840 on healthy people. 315 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:44.679 But shortly after the military released the cloud, a localized 316 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:49.639 cluster of severe siatia infections erupted at a San Francisco hospital. 317 00:15:49.759 --> 00:15:51.440 The hospital cluster, yes. 318 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:54.080 One patient, a man who was just recovering from a 319 00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:57.320 routine surgery, developed a critical infection that spread to his 320 00:15:57.399 --> 00:16:00.320 heart and he passed away. Oh my god, and several 321 00:16:00.360 --> 00:16:03.919 others became violently ill. Now, the historical record shows that 322 00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:08.480 proving direct legal causation between the Navy's mind Sweeper and 323 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:12.799 those specific hospital infections has been incredibly difficult, and historically 324 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:16.360 the military pushback very hard against taking responsibility for that death. 325 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:20.159 I find the military's pushback there almost insulting to basic logic. 326 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:24.000 You intentionally release a massive concentrated cloud of a specific 327 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:27.639 rare bacteria over a city. Days later, a hospital in 328 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:31.600 that exact city experiences an unprecedented outbreak of that exact 329 00:16:31.799 --> 00:16:34.120 rare bacteria. I mean, the variables are pretty clear. 330 00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:39.039 It perfectly illustrates the inherent unpredictability of biology, though, and 331 00:16:39.080 --> 00:16:42.200 it shows exactly why treating a civilian population is a 332 00:16:42.240 --> 00:16:43.600 test subject is so. 333 00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:46.799 Reckless, because a city is not a controlled lab exactly. 334 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:51.000 The military scientists tested the bacteria on young, healthy individuals 335 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:54.320 in a lab and deemed it safe. But a city 336 00:16:54.360 --> 00:16:59.120 contains the elderly, infants, people recovering from surgery with severely 337 00:16:59.159 --> 00:17:00.559 compromised immune systems. 338 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:03.000 What is a harmless simulant to a twenty year old 339 00:17:03.080 --> 00:17:06.440 soldier can be a lethal pathogen to a patient in 340 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:07.440 a hospital bed. 341 00:17:07.640 --> 00:17:10.599 The tragedy here stems directly from the total absence of 342 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:14.200 informed consent. If they had known, the hospital could have 343 00:17:14.200 --> 00:17:17.119 taken precautions, but they were kept entirely in the dark. 344 00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:19.519 Okay, so we've established that the military was willing to 345 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:22.480 write off civilian collateral damage as a necessary variable in 346 00:17:22.519 --> 00:17:24.839 these experiments. That's horrifying enough. 347 00:17:24.920 --> 00:17:25.440 If it's worse. 348 00:17:25.680 --> 00:17:28.720 Yeah, because there is a different psychological threshold required to 349 00:17:28.759 --> 00:17:32.519 experiment on your own sworn protectors, the men who literally 350 00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:35.799 took an oath to defend you. Let's look at how 351 00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:39.359 the definition of acceptable collateral damage shifted from the public 352 00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:42.519 to the barracks, because our next sources document how the 353 00:17:42.519 --> 00:17:44.599 military treated its own service members. 354 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:48.319 If Operation Sea Spray was an experiment conducted at a distance, 355 00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:51.039 the programs we are looking at next were up close 356 00:17:51.240 --> 00:17:55.359 and intensely personal. We need to examine Project SAHAD and 357 00:17:55.400 --> 00:17:57.680 the experiments conducted at the Edgewood Arsenal. 358 00:17:57.960 --> 00:18:01.200 This represents a profound shift. It's moving from a lack 359 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:04.200 of civilian oversight to a direct, face to face betrayal 360 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:06.400 of trust regarding American service members. 361 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:10.400 Let's start with Project SAJAD. It stands for Shipboard Hazard 362 00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:13.680 and Defense, and honestly, the name itself is a masterclass 363 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:15.000 in bureaucratic sanitization. 364 00:18:15.079 --> 00:18:17.759 It sounds like a routine safety protocol, like checking the 365 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:19.440 fire extinguishers or something it does. 366 00:18:19.519 --> 00:18:21.640 It was part of a larger initiative known as Project 367 00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:24.440 one twelve, and the Department of Defense ran these operations 368 00:18:24.440 --> 00:18:28.079 for over a decade from nineteen sixty two until nineteen seventy. 369 00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:29.200 Three, over ten years of this. 370 00:18:29.640 --> 00:18:34.400 Yeah. The overarching objective was to analyze how US warships 371 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:37.599 and the crews aboard them would fare during a chemical 372 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:38.839 or biological attack. 373 00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:42.839 But the mechanics of how this was actually executed are horrifying. 374 00:18:43.400 --> 00:18:45.960 We have the first hand testimony of a Navy chief, 375 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:48.920 a man named Mark Looney, who was stationed on one 376 00:18:48.920 --> 00:18:49.759 of the target ships. 377 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:50.880 His count is chilling. 378 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:54.640 He describes the visceral experience of looking up and seeing 379 00:18:54.680 --> 00:18:59.119 aircraft flying directly over his vessel. These planes would release 380 00:18:59.160 --> 00:19:02.480 a smoke or ass like substance that would descend and 381 00:19:02.519 --> 00:19:03.960 completely envelop the ship. 382 00:19:04.440 --> 00:19:06.240 And do you know what the protocol for the crew 383 00:19:06.400 --> 00:19:08.079 was while this was happening. 384 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:11.200 Right, They were handed basic gas masks and explicitly ordered 385 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:12.000 not to worry. 386 00:19:12.160 --> 00:19:16.559 Not to worry. That phrase encapsulates the paternalistic, dismissive mindset 387 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:20.039 of the command structure perfectly. The service members were deliberately 388 00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:23.079 kept in a state of absolute ignorance regarding the substances 389 00:19:23.079 --> 00:19:23.880 falling on their decks. 390 00:19:23.920 --> 00:19:26.240 The psychological impact of that has to be severe. 391 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:30.119 One veteran sighted in the Fox six News investigation articulated 392 00:19:30.119 --> 00:19:34.599 this perfectly. He described feeling like cannon fodder. He realized 393 00:19:34.599 --> 00:19:38.160 his health was completely secondary to the data collection. He 394 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:41.440 stated on the record, I really know what a white 395 00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:42.440 mouse feels like. 396 00:19:42.599 --> 00:19:45.559 The white mouse syndrome. You volunteer to serve your country, 397 00:19:45.799 --> 00:19:49.400 and your command structure reduces you to a laboratory animal, and. 398 00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:52.880 The long term physical consequences for these men were devastating. 399 00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:56.680 The Fox six investigation tracked down over fifty crew members 400 00:19:56.720 --> 00:19:58.799 involved in these specific shipboard tests. 401 00:19:58.839 --> 00:20:01.559