The Machines Are Watching You | And They Know Everything (Compilation)

Every move we make, every vow we break, every smile we think, every claim we. stick, they'll be watching us. Holy. flux, you scared the crap out of me. Welcome to my Faraday cage. I'm calling. it cage against the machine,

where we chew the wire and damn the. current. Trademark pending. Wait. How did you find us? The human and the. fish have been compromised. So, I didn't tell them, but maybe. uh. um. Wyatt. Stop telling people about the cage. You've got the survival skills of a. crawfish at Harry Connick Jr.'s baptism. If there was a zombie apocalypse, I. swear to god you'd be zombie number two. Quick, get inside. It's dangerous out. there. We beavers went full gopher and.

burrowed underground because technology. is screaming down the slippery slope at. Mach 20. We can't trust machines, and. turns out they've been plotting against. us for years. So, that's exactly what today's. compilation is about. The machines are. watching you, and they know everything. First up, let's start with the things. hiding in plain sight. Secret listening post buried inside. major cities.

>> New York City has skyscrapers of all. shapes and sizes, but why does this. 500-ft tall 29-story building have no. windows, no lights, [music]. and no markings at all? Well, because. it's a top-secret NSA spy station built. to withstand nuclear war. Whoa! Let's find out why. >> [music].

[music]. >> New York City architecture covers. everything. Art Deco, Gothic, Art. Nouveau, Renaissance Revival. In the. 1950s, [music]. a style emerged called Brutalism. And. Brutalist architecture is known for. focusing on function over form and. minimalism. But there's one Brutalist. building in New York that's so [music]. minimalist that it's been called the. most mysterious building in New York. It's 33 Thomas Street, and it's a 500-ft.

tall skyscraper with [music] no exterior. lighting and has no windows. What 33. Thomas Street does have is secrets. Officially, this is an AT&T. telecommunications building. But thanks. to leaked documents, we now know that 33. Thomas Street is actually a top secret. NSA mass surveillance hub. It's code. name is Titan Point. And right now, as we speak, Titan Point. is listening. The 1960s was the height of the Cold. War. Everyone thought nuclear war was.

imminent. [music] So, the US, desperate. to protect its infrastructure, launched. a secret project called Project X. >> Project X? You kidding, right? >> No, that's what it was called. >> They're usually more creative. >> The goal of Project X was to build a. skyscraper in the middle of New York. City capable of withstanding a nuclear. blast. The building would be 29 floors, have no. windows, three basement levels, and. enough food to last 1,500 people 2. weeks. But its primary purpose was not.

to protect humans. This would be a. fortress designed to protect computers. and telecommunications equipment. operated [music] by AT&T. >> For 2 years, secret documents leaked by. former National Security contractor. Edward Snowden have yielded a steady. stream of news reports about US. government spying on terrorism suspects, foreign leaders, and American citizens. Now, another chapter has been revealed. how telecommunications giant AT&T. demonstrated a quote extreme willingness.

to help the NSA. >> The building was designed by John Carl. Warnecke and construction began in 1969. and was completed in 1974. The gray. granite tower is located at 33 Thomas. Street in Lower Manhattan and locals. know the building as the Long Lines. Building and it's been a source of. mystery for years. What jumps out is. that the building has no windows and no. exterior lighting. So, during the day, it kind of fades into the background of. the New York City skyline and at night, it becomes an invisible shadow. Now, thanks to NSA documents leaked by Edward.

Snowden, we now know that creating an. invisible building wasn't an accident. It was absolutely by design. >> It's not unusual to keep locations. containing vital telecommunications. equipment a secret. Hundreds of millions. of phone calls and faxes go through 33. Thomas Street every day. [music] But, 33. Thomas Street has another level of.

secrecy. It also appears to be one of. the most important National Security. Agency surveillance sites on US soil. A. secret monitoring hub that is used to. tap into phone calls, faxes, and. internet data. 33 Thomas Street operates. under NSA code name Titan Point and. Titan Point is a core location used. and possibly illegal NSA-sponsored mass. surveillance. Now, according to leaked. documents, this program has targeted the. communications of the UN, the World. Bank, [music] the IMF. It's been used to.

spy on at least 38 countries, including. US allies like France, Germany, and. Japan. Now, it's common knowledge that. AT&T is very cooperative with the NSA. Like, if you're using an AT&T cell. phone, uh you might want to rethink. that. >> The depth of cooperation between the. agency and telecommunications company. AT&T. The documents reveal the company. allowed the NSA access to billions of. client emails as well as phone call. metadata. The emails were accessible to. analysts on a keyword search basis. >> I use a burner. Nice. [music].

But because of the Snowden documents, we. can now see just how much the NSA and. AT&T have been integrated. Any phone. call, fax, or piece of data that comes. through the network, the NSA can easily. capture it. The government knows who. you're calling and when. They know how. long you talk and what keywords you say. Now, legally, the NSA can only target. the communications of foreign nationals. But all the equipment is there. It's. already working. So, do you think the. NSA really stops listening when it.

determines that you're a US citizen? Exactly. >> So, if you could give me a yes or no. answer to the question, does the NSA. collect any type of data at all on. millions or hundreds of millions of. Americans? >> No, sir. >> It does not. >> Not willingly. There are cases where they could. inadvertently, perhaps, uh collect, but not not willingly.

>> [music]. >> The code name Titan Point is all over. the NSA documents. Usually found in. classified reports about surveillance. ops. NSA uses code names to conceal. information that it considers especially. sensitive. And there are secret NSA. travel guides that reveal that Titan. Point is actually 33 Thomas Street. But. you have to kind of piece it together. The one guide was written to help NSA.

employees visiting facilities around the. country. And this guide discloses that. Titan Point is in New York City. Another. travel guide, written a little later, states that an NSA A partner code name. Lithium supervises the site. And. Lithium, we know now, is NSA's code name. for AT&T. [music]. Another document reveals that Titan. Point is a short walk away from the FBI. field office. In fact, from the front. steps of 33 Thomas, you can see the FBI. building. It's about two blocks away. So, yeah, this is the place. Now, when.

visiting Titan Point, protocol is to. arrange your visit through the FBI field. office. You should then hire a cover. vehicle through the FBI, especially if. you're bringing in equipment. The NSA. would like you to remain in cover during. your visit, so please do not display any. NSA badge or insignia. Simply ring the. buzzer, sign in, have a seat, and wait. Someone will be right down. But, what's. actually going on inside? Well, if. you're a fan of privacy, freedom, and. the Constitution, you're not going to like it. No, no.

In 1975, just a year after 33 Thomas. Street was completed, the NSA found. themselves in hot water. A congressional. inquiry showed that the NSA was spying. on anti-Vietnam war activists. That's. not legal, is it? It's not. Now, according to the Fourth. Amendment, the government can't gather. data on you without a warrant signed by. a judge. A judge isn't going to sign a. warrant without the suspicion of a. crime. Being against a war isn't a. crime. So, rather than bother a judge, they just started collecting data on all.

kinds of people, like prominent leaders. of the civil rights movement, like Dr. King. Muhammad Ali was targeted. Anti-war journalists and columnists. working at the Washington Post and New. York Times were targeted, surveilled, spied on. After the scandal, Congress. created the Foreign Intelligence. Surveillance Act, which you might have. heard referred to as FISA. Now, FISA. limits surveillance to foreign nationals. and agents of foreign powers. And under. FISA, the executive branch must request. warrants from a newly formed FISA court. I bet the NSA hated these new rules.

They did. Did they at least follow the. rules? Oh, man. Well, it didn't seem to have stopped the. NSA according to an annual report. released recently despite having FISA. warrants to spy on only 42 specific. terrorism suspects last year, the. National Security Agency managed to. collect 151. million American phone call records. What is the NSA doing and does it. justify the massive violation of your. privacy? >> The leaked NSA documents exposed an NSA.

surveillance program code named Blarney. Blarney was established in the early. 1970s and as far as we know it's still. operating. Blarney specifically. leverages commercial partnerships like. the one with AT&T that allows the NSA to. gain access to global networks. And. Blarney is what's called a full take. surveillance program, meaning it. collects not just metadata like who. you're calling and when, but full. content like what you're saying and what. you're doing online. Now, as of the time. of the leak, the NSA had obtained at.

least 45 of court orders for spying. under project Blarney. The targets were. major banks around the world, all kinds. of companies, and 38 countries. They. also targeted the United Nations. >> Did the UN find out? >> Of course they did. And they weren't. pleased about it, but what's the US. going to say? The data coming from. Blarney was landing in the president's. daily briefing. Both Republicans and. Democrats. >> Yeah, there's not much of a difference. between those two. >> There's not, but if there's one thing. all presidents can agree on is that they. love spying on their enemies, both.

foreign and domestic. >> No more illegal wiretapping of American. citizens. No more national security letters to spy. on citizens who are not suspected of a. crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing. more than protest a misguided war. So, instead let's track. every citizen? >> The project Blarney running out of Titan. Point in New York is one of three key. NSA locations that actually captures. data from software like Skype and Zoom. And 33 Thomas Street is one of only a.

few AT&T buildings with an FCC satellite. license. So, the NSA not only captures. data coming through landlines, but also. vacuums up data from space. This type of. expansive surveillance creates a ton of. data that has to go somewhere. So, enter. Project Skid Row. Skid Row is a program that allows NSA. employees to search through huge. quantities of user data, like actual. emails, online chat, message boards, texts, passwords, even people's browser. history. This data is all being.

collected right now. And how much of. that data is legally collected? Well, there's no way to know for sure. There's. really not a lot of oversight. But, an. agency like the NSA. needs to be watched. I mean, remember. how the NSA hacked Google and Yahoo and. were secretly capturing all the data. inside those private clouds? >> Wait, wait, what? >> Oh, you don't know that one? Well, that's another video. But, always assume. that if you're online, you're being. watched. >> Any intelligence service in the world. can own that phone.

the minute it connects to their network. As soon as you turn it on, it can be. theirs. They can turn it into a. microphone. They can take pictures from. it. They can take the data off. >> Now, AT&T is far from the only corporate. relationship the NSA has. The agency has. established at least 80 corporate. partnerships that we're aware of. But, some companies are more cooperative than. others. AT&T is notorious for being on. very friendly terms with the government. The New York Times and others have. reported that AT&T has given billions of.

emails to the NSA. >> A range of evidence, including technical. terms specific to AT&T, points to the. company being the NSA's partner. The. documents refer to the company being. highly collaborative and commend its. extreme willingness to help. >> And this has been corroborated by a. whistleblower who's part of a class. action lawsuit against the NSA. >> But, George Bush simply disregarded the. FISA law and approved it all on his own. signature, which was totally illegal. I. might add that while there are a few.

dissidents in both parties like Rand. Paul in the Republican side and. Ron Wyden on the Democratic side, is. that both parties approved this when. they passed the immunity bill for the. phone companies in 2008 with the help of. Barack Obama, I might add. Um and that. killed the lawsuit. >> The case is Jewel v. NSA, which was. filed almost 15 years ago and still. going on. In 2017, a judge ordered the. NSA to provide evidence proving or. denying that it spied on AT&T customers.

>> Did they provide it? Nah, they appealed, still in court. >> Still going. What's taking so long? >> Ah, you know, COVID. >> I'm getting tired of that as an excuse. >> Titan Point is just one location. According to the Snowden documents, AT&T. has installed surveillance equipment in. at least 59 US locations. >> [sighs and gasps]. >> And on any given day, NSA employees are. on site gathering data. Now, what's. crazy is that until this leak, most AT&T.

employees probably weren't aware of the. NSA's presence. NSA operatives are. instructed to blend in with other. workers. They would simply show up, go. into an office or a server room and go. to work, just like everybody else. All. of this should be pretty chilling. America's secret agencies firmly. subscribe to it's better to ask. forgiveness than permission. And the. NSA, CIA, the FBI, and others are very. willing to bend the rules, [music]. interpret, and even break laws to suit. their purposes, all in the name of.

national security. Now, to paraphrase. Ben [music] Franklin, when you trade. liberty for security, you end up with. neither. And there are many other. companies like AT&T, Google, Facebook. that cooperate with the government with. such a lack of friction that any. American citizen should be concerned. Those long agreements that you sign. online without reading them, every once. in a while, read one. Take note of how. many of your rights you're surrendering. for the convenience of being able to. post pictures of your cat or leave a. mean comment on a video. As we [music].

willingly surrender more of our privacy. to digital conglomerates, we're also. surrendering freedoms like the freedom. from illegal searches and spying, like. the freedom to criticize the government, [music]. the freedom to publicly disagree with. popular ideas. We are guilty of being. complicit in this erosion of our. freedoms. And once freedoms are fully. eroded, well, that's called slavery. I can't promise we're not already there. >> But I have it as machines are watching.

you. They see your every move. Private eyes, machines are watching you. >> Oh, hey. Welcome back. Okay, so maybe. during that first episode you thought, "Yeah, the government listens and. asparagus makes you tinky stinky. No. duh." But what if I told you the spies. don't just listen? They also talk back. through creepy little robot voices on. the radio reading numbers into the void. like a haunted auction?

This next one is about number stations, coded broadcasts, secret messages, and. proof that sometimes the scariest thing. in the static is somebody. whispering instructions. Since World War I, number stations have been transmitting. coded messages to spies around the world. using shortwave radio, and they're still. transmitting right now. At the height of. the Cold War, radio listeners around the.

world started to notice strange. broadcasts. [music] Starting with a. weird melody or tone, these. transmissions were followed by the. unnerving sound of a woman's robotic. voice counting in German. or the creepy voice of a child reciting. letters in English. Now, these transmissions sound strange. to casual listeners, but to the right. set of ears, they contain information. that could change the course of history. In fact, number stations have changed.

the course of history. Let's find out. why. Welcome to the Wi Files, where cool. nerds laugh and learn. >> Hey, hey, hey, we get to talk about. this? >> What? >> Hello, who who's the new guy? >> What's he talking about? Am am I new? >> No, Space Panda, you're fine. Anyway, even though we're in the age of. satellites and broadband Wi-Fi and cyber. warfare, it could be that the. old-fashioned radio is the real tool of.

the New World Order. If you want to. conspire with spies, governments, and. >> Illuminati. >> Right. So, if your plan is to oppress. the masses, you don't want to leave a. digital trail. So, instead, you. broadcast encrypted details of your evil. plot over shortwave radio, also known as. number stations. You may have heard that. number stations are a relic of the past, but number stations are active and being. used right now. We're going to listen to. a few in this episode. One of the. best-known number stations was the. Lincolnshire Poacher, named after the.

folk song played as an identifying. signal. >> [music]. >> Well, that's pretty creepy. >> It [music] is. A couple of radio. nerds/heroes. used direction-finding equipment to. triangulate the station's location. The. transmission was coming from a Royal Air. Force base in Cyprus. This station is. believed to have been operated by MI6. from the mid-1970s all the way to 2008.

One of the creepiest stations ever was. called Swedish Rhapsody. It used a. child's music box and a child's voice to. read numbers in German. >> [music]. >> This number station was operated for. almost 50 years by the Polish secret. police. >> Oh, that gives me chills. [music]. >> You can get chills underwater? >> Hey, do me a favor, will you? >> What? >> Don't harsh my buzz.

>> And my favorite number station of all. time is Yosemite Sam, whose voice is. played as part of the transmission. The. broadcast begins on one of several. frequencies, then 10 seconds later it's. repeated on the next higher frequency, and so on and so on for a total of 2. minutes. >> [music]. >> The entire pattern takes exactly 2. minutes and always begins 7 seconds. after the top of the hour. Spies need to. be punctual. Each broadcast starts with. a data burst [music] lasting 0.8 seconds. followed by the voice of YOSEMITE SAM.

SAYING. >> [screaming]. >> YOU'RE KIDDING [music] ME. >> NOPE. THAT'S A number station. broadcasting from a government. contractor in New Mexico. >> Don't tell me they're connected to. Lockheed Martin. >> Well, >> Great. >> [music]. >> The two amateur radio operators {slash}. heroes tracked down the source of the. Yosemite Sam broadcasts in February. 2005. The tower was located at the. Mobility Assessment Test [music] and. Integration Center, also known as MATIC.

And this is part of a factory owned by. Laguna Industries located [music] near. Laguna, New Mexico. The guys went down. there and took photographs of a compound. containing buildings, towers, and. antennas, but quickly fled when they. were approached by a security guard. yelling at them to not take any. pictures. >> [music]. >> Just 3 hours later the broadcast stopped. and have not been heard since. >> What did Laguna Industries have to say. about it? >> Oh, Laguna Industries removed all. references to MATIC from their website, and now that website is gone.

>> Not suspicious at all. >> Okay, so what are number stations? Well, number stations are simply. shortwave radio transmitters generally. operating between 3,000 and 30,000 kHz. They're located in many countries all. over the world, but no one really knows. how many there are. The stations. sometimes transmit numbers spoken by a. computer-generated voice, which is how. number stations got their name, but. other broadcast Morse code, compressed. data bursts, or beloved cartoon.

characters. Now, some stations have been. broadcasting for decades. Many have gone. quiet since the end of the Cold War. What now? >> The Cold War is alive and well, my. friend. >> That's not a very enlightened point of. view. >> Uh wake up, fur face. >> I beg your pardon? >> If you're dumb enough to think the Cold. War ended, I don't know what to tell you. because we've been in one war or another. for the past 100 years, and there's no sign of us. >> Forgive me. Uh do continue. >> Oh, yeah. Do continue.

>> Anyway, countless number stations are on. the air right now. For what purpose? Few. really know. And the people that do. know, they aren't talking. One anonymous. intelligence agent from the UK said, "Number stations are exactly what you. think they are, and that's all I'll say. about it." So, in almost every country, a license is required to broadcast, but number stations aren't licensed. They're essentially pirate stations. operating illegally, but nobody shuts them down, and no. government acknowledges they even exist.

>> That's because number stations are the. government. >> Okay, normally I'd call Hecklefish a. kook for saying that, but this time he's right. >> I'm always right about this stuff. >> Amateur detectives, radio buffs, and. investigative journalists have been. studying number stations for years, and. there's enough information out there. that we can assume that these. transmissions have a single purpose, espionage. >> All the messages were encrypted so that.

they became digits, and the digits would be sent over as uh. in groups of five. >> Shortwave radio is old technology. In. the late 1920s, it was a popular way to. communicate over long distances because. of the way the waves travel, which is. called propagation. Space Panda? >> The Earth's ionosphere is a region of. space between 80 and 600 km above the. surface. Shortwave radio energy can. bounce high off the Earth's ionosphere. and come back down to the Earth. Sometimes over and over again. This.

allows the signal to travel great. distances. >> Aw, don't you two make quite the team. >> This is called skywave or skip. propagation. With a decent radio, you. can tune into a strong shortwave signal. from the other side of the planet. Now, that's pretty useful if you're an. intelligence agency and you need to send. secret messages to agents and assets in. the field. Also, computerized messages. can be hacked, tracked, and traced, but. no one can trace who's receiving a. shortwave radio signal. And it's hard to. find the source of a transmission. And.

if you know the right frequency, anyone. can eavesdrop on an international spy. network, including you. You can find. tons of frequencies online, and I'll. link to some websites in the. description. Now, what you'll hear. depends on the station. Some stations. broadcast constantly, others power up. scheduled times so agents in the field. know when to tune in. You're going to. hear a lot of Spanish, Czech, Chinese, Hebrew, but you know where most of the. spy stations are? >> I know you're not going to say Russia. >> Yeah. Uh-oh. >> Yep.

>> Authentic? >> Yep. >> Now, the broadcast you'll hear on number. stations vary, [music] but they. generally begin with an alert signal. And this alert may be a simple tone, or. it could be fragments of a song, such as. The Lincolnshire Poacher, The Swedish. Rhapsody, all kinds of other ones. And. this alert indicates to listeners that a. message is about to begin, and also. gives a few seconds to tune in the radio. for the best reception. >> 5. 8. 3.

After the tone is usually a set of. spoken numbers or letters, often four or. five at a time, which are repeated again. and again [music] before moving on to a. new set. There are a lot of variations. on the same structure. Many stations. have received nicknames that reflect the. station depending on what's being. broadcast. [music] Names like The. Buzzer, Cherry Ripe, The Spanish Lady, uh The Russian Woodpecker was a great. one, Atención, [music]. Yosemite Sam, and Swedish Rhapsody. I'll. have a whole bunch more in the. description. Now, sometimes broadcasts. are really clear, but other times.

atmospheric conditions can [music]. degrade the signals. And sometimes. intentional jamming from other countries. creates enough interference on the. frequency. >> [music]. >> that makes transmission difficult to. understand. So, to compensate, many. stations like Yosemite Sam will hop. around to different frequencies. Tradecraft. The coded structure of the. messages indicates that these messages. are indeed secret and intended to avoid. detection. The question then is, how do. spies understand these messages when no.

one else can? >> That was a static-filled. triple-scrambled microwave transmission. between two soldiers talking in Mandarin. Chinese. Well, the Chinese were only. using a simple polyphonetically grouped. 20-square digit key transposed in. boosted photonic form with multiple. nulls. >> So, even though they're very low-tech, number stations are still in use. because, unlike computer code, these. transmissions are unbreakable. >> Nothing is unbreakable. >> These messages might be. So, what's so. hard about deciphering a few numbers?

Actually, it's nearly impossible. Here's. how spies in the field encode and decode. their messages. >> [music]. >> First, you start with a block of. randomized text. That's your one-time. pad key. Then take your message. Here. we're using the name Jimmy Smith, two. five-letter words. Then you have a. cipher chart. This is a grid of A to Z. and zero to nine on the X and Y axes. Now, set up your message matching the. first five letters or Jimmy with the. first five letters from the pad. Then, match up the word Smith with the second.

set of letters. Okay. Now, find the first letter of your. message on the X axis, then find the. letter underneath on the Y axis. Where the axes intersect, that's your. coded character. [music]. Repeat this for all your letters and. your message is ready to transmit. To. decrypt the [music] message, set up the. coded characters in groups of five. Match those up with the pad, then find. the first letter of the key on the Y. axis, then move across until you hit the. coded letter. The character at the top. of the grid is your decoded character.

And thanks to VHS blog for setting this. up. Awesome. So, both the sender and. receiver immediately destroy the key at. the end of the transmission. So, even if. someone else intercepts the numbers, which I have, without the key, they have. no way to decode the hidden message. This also means there's no relationship. between past or future messages. So, there's no pattern to use in breaking. the code. To fool cryptographers, the. numbers must be really, really random. And creating truly random numbers is.

actually really difficult, even for. computers. But, once in a while, the. broadcasts are less than professional. The person reading the code may make. mistakes or there could be laughing in. the background. Cuban number stations in. particular are known for their hilarious. missteps. Sometimes they've had such. poor transmissions that they're. impossible to hear or they accidentally. pipe music from Radio Havana onto the. airwaves. >> [music]. >> Genius. >> I would hazard to guess they are more.

foreign intelligence officers inside the. US working against US interests now than. even at the height of the Cold War. >> Now, some number stations have illicit. uses. Drug lords and other criminals use. shortwave to avoid international. authorities. This is especially true in. the US where many intercepted signals. are broadcast in Spanish. Since they don't have government.

oversight, the execution is pretty. sloppy. >> Right, because the government is never. sloppy in its execution. >> Well, the fish does make a good point. But those number stations are pretty. rare. Espionage is the most common use. There are even some very public and. recent examples of this. In 1983, the. KGB uncovered a CIA agent posing as a. Soviet diplomat who was receiving orders. from American numbers broadcasts. Another well-known case is the 2001. Cuban five case where Cuban spies were. caught and shortwave broadcasts were.

used in the case against them as. evidence. Also in 2001, Ana Montes, who. worked for the US Defense Intelligence. Agency, was arrested and convicted of. spying for Cuba. Investigators searched. her home and found a shortwave radio. along with a code sheet that was used to. encrypt radio transmissions. Now, she. exposed the identities of covert. operators in Cuba and her information. was directly responsible for the death. of at least one American soldier, maybe. [music] more. In 2016, CNN called Montes.

the most dangerous spy you've never. heard of. Although, now you've [music]. heard of her. And to this day, and. despite this mountain of evidence, no. government or intelligence agency has. ever officially admitted to using number. stations. >> Today we're going to be discussing a. radio set. Not just any radio set, [music] but a Russian radio set. >> So, you don't need a radio to listen to. spy communications. You can listen to. the entire shortwave band online and. I'll link below. Because these receivers. are operated by software, they can be.

used remotely by everyone in the world. And here's what one of those tuners. looks like. >> [music]. [music]. >> Now if you're not a radio nerd that. might look a little weird, but if you. want to dig in further I'll link to a. tutorial up there and down in the.

description. I'll also link to. priyam.org station schedule which is. super cool. It lets you tell exactly. when number stations are coming on the. air and what frequency you need to. listen. Now I'm thinking about doing a. live stream of this so if you want to. see that let me know in the comments. If. you just want to binge station. broadcasts you can go down a whole. rabbit hole with the Conet Project. The. Conet Project was an independent. initiative to record, catalog, and. inform the public about the secret. transmissions that are around us in the. air everyday. You can even download the.

files as MP3s for later analysis. >> Oh, I'm going to need a pencil, my tin. foil hat, and a tall glass of whiskey. I'm sorry but do you have any sherry? Oh. yay, give me a break. >> The quantity of number stations has. dropped dramatically over the past few. years. Still the broadcast continue. Now. are they feeding invaluable information. to operatives on crucial missions or are. they just holdovers from government. agencies protecting their budgets? Both. Probably. It could also be that.

governments maintain the stations for. readiness purposes. If the power grid or. internet goes down a shortwave. transmitter just needs an antenna and a. diesel generator and they could be on. the air broadcasting around the world. But [music] as communication technology. continues to evolve and digital. encryption gets harder to crack we might. finally see the end of number stations. or maybe the opposite will occur. Maybe. some catastrophic digital apocalypse. will create a number station renaissance. pushing broadcasters back onto the front. lines of international intelligence.

where random numbers raining down from. the ionosphere can once again change the. course of human history. >> I always feel like machines are watching. me and I have [music] no privacy. I always feel like machines are watching. me. Tell me, is it just a dream? >> No, it is not a dream. This is reality. and it's creepy, but sometimes in a.

silly way. Kind of like a sleepover with John. Malkovich. You don't feel unsafe, but it definitely. doesn't feel right. Anyway, while you're busy worrying about. satellites, smartphones, I present you. something more sinister. Something maybe. hanging around your block. A wire. >> Did you know there's an 18-mile-long. string of wire circling the island of. Manhattan? Every morning the wire is.

checked for breaks and snags and every. day it's repaired. And it costs about. $150,000. a year to maintain. The wire has been. there for years, yet most New Yorkers, myself included, didn't even know it was. there. Let's find out why. To understand why there's an. 18-mile-long wire going around New York. City, we need a quick lesson about. Judaism. The Sabbath begins every Friday. night at sunset and goes all the way.

through Saturday. And Jewish people who. observe the Sabbath, Saturday is a day. of rest, meaning you don't work at all. And work doesn't just mean your job. Work is defined as any activity that was. necessary in the building of the. Tabernacle. Now, that might sound like. just construction work is forbidden, but. it's actually much more. Now, obviously. no building of any kind is permitted, but also no grinding, baking, sewing, even starting a fire. Not even small. tasks like tying, tearing, or putting. finishing touches on objects. Oh, and.

also no electricity on the Sabbath. >> Ew, who set up all these rules? >> God. >> Why doesn't God want you to do any of. this stuff on Saturday? >> Well, because he feels you should have. one day a week to engage in pleasurable. activities like eating, spending time. with family, and having sex. >> Shabbat sounds pretty good, actually. >> It can be, but on Saturday there's one. tricky rule. No carrying anything from a. domestic area to a public area. >> You can't carry anything? >> Nope. No wallet, no keys, no carrying or. pushing your children in a stroller,

nothing like that. You can carry these. things within your home, but not. outside. And that's where the wire comes. in. >> Nah, I don't follow. >> Well, stick around and I'll tell you. >> No, a cliffhanger! What? >> What the heck is this? >> Uh, the Shabbat sounds like a really. good idea, so. I'm shomer Shabbos. >> You are shomer Shabbos? >> Shomer Shabbos. >> You can't just put on a hat and think. that. Okay, okay, take it easy. >> I'm shomer Shabbos.

>> Joey. >> Anyway, on the Sabbath you can carry. things within your home, so grabbing a. glass of water from the kitchen is fine, but you can't carry anything from your. home to a public place. Now, this is. tricky if you want to leave your house. and lock the door behind you. You aren't. permitted to carry your keys. And what. if you have an infant? You can't carry a. child or even push a stroller. And if. you need a cane to walk, no can do. And. if you think this sounds inconvenient, you're not the only one. Many years ago, rabbis realized that in order to fully. enjoy the Sabbath, you sometimes needed.

to carry things. And this is where the. wire around New York comes in. It's. called an eruv, and an eruv is an. unbroken continuous string or wire that. circles a large public area. Now, originally, eruvin were actual walls, but now they're symbolic walls, and. anything within the borders of the eruv. is now considered part of the domestic. domain, which means if you want to carry. on Saturday, as long as you're within. the eruv, you're good to go. If I were a. rich fish, dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby.

doo. All day long I dibby dibby doo. If. I were a wealthy fish. >> In the 1990s, there were only a few. eruvin in the United States, but now. there are hundreds. If you live in a. medium-sized city, there's probably an. eruv or two in your neighborhood. And if. you live in a big city, there's. definitely at least one. The most. expensive eruv in the world and the one. with the largest population is the mayor. of in Manhattan. And it began as a small. community enclosure in the Upper West. Side and now it covers almost the entire.

island of Manhattan. >> What area isn't covered? >> Hell's Kitchen. [music]. >> Checks out. >> Every morning, a rabbi drives the entire. length of the wire and notes places. where it could be broken. Then on. Thursday and Friday, >> [music]. >> he goes out with a construction team to. make sure the wire is repaired. And it. costs about $150,000 a year to maintain. this. The Manhattan eruv has survived. vandalism, two hurricanes, even one. really aggressive Thanksgiving Day. float. >> Damn you, SpongeBob. >> It's had a couple of close calls, but.

for over 20 years, the eruv has remained. intact. So, there's an almost invisible. wire running around almost every major. city in the Western world, including 18. miles around Manhattan Island. And now you know why. >> We're never alone now. There always seems to be a bunch of tech. hounds. We're never alone now. The beating of my heart is just another.

sound. >> At this point, I'm feeling pretty good. inside cage against the machine. >> I'm coming. I'm coming. >> Nothing getting in. No trackers getting. out. No smart toaster narking on me to. the cloud. But then I hear the next weapon the. machines use might not be a signal at. all. It might be sound. Frequencies you. can barely hear, waves your body can. feel, and invisible attacks that turn. the air itself into your enemy. Good.

Great. Grand. Wonderful. This episode is. all about the fear frequency. Who the hell are you? >> Have you ever wondered what ghosts sound. like? In the early 1980s, Vic Tandy was. working at Warwick Labs in the UK, where. he designed medical equipment. And there. were rumors among the staff that the. building was haunted. But Tandy figured.

this was related to the constant sound. of life support systems that were. operating on site. But one night, Tandy. was working late when he started to feel. strange. The hairs on the back of his. neck stood up. He broke into a cold. sweat and felt the sense of dread wash. over him. His heart started to race and. he had the very specific feeling. >> [music]. >> that he was being watched. Then, out of. the corner of his eye, he caught the. glimpse of a gray figure drifting across. the room. He turned around, and the. figure is gone. Absolutely terrified, Vic Tandy bolted from the lab and raced.

home. Now, after he calmed down, he. vowed to find a logical scientific. explanation for what happened. >> Well, did he? >> [music]. >> Well, Vic Tandy got to his office the next day. and started looking around for the. ghost. Now, he didn't find one, but he. did notice something strange. He was an. avid fencer, and in his lab, he had a. foil locked in a vise. >> Oh, wait, he sold stolen merchandise? >> No, that's a fence. Fencing is a style.

of sword fighting using a foil. >> A sword made out of foil? >> No, a foil is the type of sword. >> Yeah, I'm so confused. >> It doesn't matter. Anyway, a foil. >> sword. >> was locked in a vise, and Tandy noticed. it was vibrating really quickly, even. though nothing was touching it. Now, it. turns out a fan was recently installed. in the lab and was causing a sound wave. to bounce between the walls. And the. wave's intensity was focused in the. center of the room, which was the. location of the foil. >> So, what? >> And where he was standing when he saw. the ghost. Tandy calculated the.

frequency of the sound at about 19. hertz. This frequency is important. The. range of human hearing starts at 20. hertz, so Tandy's fan wasn't audible. It's what's known as infrasound. But. just because we can't hear it, doesn't. mean it can't affect us. All material. objects have a natural resonant. frequency. And if the object is exposed. to a sound wave of this frequency, it'll. vibrate in response. This is called. sympathetic resonance. And you can. [music] test this. If you strike a key. on a piano in one room, a piano in. another room will resonate that same.

note. This is also why running your. finger around the rim of a glass at just. the right speed will produce sound. >> [music]. >> Now, back to Tandy's lab. It turns out. that the human eye resonates at about 19. hertz. So, what appeared to be a ghost. was actually Tandy's eye vibrating at. the frequency of the fan. Since this. frequency has an actual physical effect. on the body, the sound was causing a. sense of fear and anxiety to employees. in the area. And Tandy said that when.

they switched off the fan, it was like a. huge weight was lifted. And these. frequencies don't just affect humans. Researchers have discovered that just. before a tiger attacks, its roar. contains frequencies at 18 hertz, which. could disorient their prey long enough. for the tiger to move in for the kill. Now, just under 20 hertz has been called. the fear frequency for how it affects. mammals. And lots of horror movies have. used sounds at or just above the fear. frequency to make their films even. scarier. >> And what happens if we go lower? >> Lower than 18 hertz? >> Yeah.

>> Things get much worse. >> And how much worse? >> Uh ever hear of the brown note? >> The brown note? Does that mean what I think it means? >> Grab a diaper. >> No, no. >> The brown note is said to occur at. frequencies between 5 and 9 Hz. This is. the hypothetical range of sound that. supposedly causes humans to lose control. of their bowels. I say hypothetical. because nobody's been able to actually. prove it yet. The brown note was. famously busted by Adam Savage on. MythBusters when he surrounded himself.

with giant speakers and had the note. pumped into his body. Now, he didn't. feel so great afterwards, but his diaper. stayed clean. >> He actually wore a diaper? >> Yep. >> I love MythBusters. >> Me, too. But here's the thing about that. experiment. Air really isn't a great. conductor of sound, especially at low. frequencies. But when you're physically. connected to the vibration, its effects. are much more intense. The United States. space program conducted tests that. transferred brown note and other. frequencies directly to subjects' bodies.

by vibrating [music] cockpit chairs. Now, test frequencies ranged from 0.5 Hz. to 40 Hz [music]. and power levels of 160 decibels. >> Is that loud? >> Well, for comparison, a lawnmower is 90. decibels, a chainsaw is about 130, and a. gunshot is 140. So, testing people at. 160 dB, even if you can't technically. hear the sound, it's going to get. results. Test subjects experienced. nausea, hallucinations, difficulty. breathing, and involuntary motor.

functions. Now, nobody officially. crapped their pants, but this experiment. is probably where the urban myth came. from. But you don't have to be an. astronaut to get sick from sound. There's something called wind turbine. syndrome. Now, not everyone, but a. little over 20% of people who live near. large wind turbine farms report all. kinds of negative effects. They range. from difficulty concentrating all the. way up to extreme stress and. uncontrollable migraines. In one. instance, an air traffic controller. almost caused a fatal plane crash.

because he was experiencing insomnia. caused by living near a wind farm. Now, there have been about 20 studies done on. wind farms, but they found no link. between the turbines and people getting. sick. >> Who conducted these studies? >> Uh the wind turbine companies. >> Uh-huh, I thought so. >> Still, it has been proven that people. who live and work near a lot of noise. experience higher levels of stress and. have more cortisol in their blood than. people who live in quiet environments. So, if we know sound can be dangerous, could it be used as a weapon? >> I'm going to go with the yes.

>> Yep. The most dangerous frequencies to humans. are at about 7 Hz. This is the median. alpha rhythm of the brain and the. resonant frequency of many of the body's. organs. >> Well, what does all that word salad. mean? >> This means that at high enough volume, these sounds can directly affect the. central nervous system causing panic, convulsions, vomiting, and with long. enough exposure, organ rupture and. death. And one of the most well-known. inventors of infrasonic weapons was a. Russian-born French scientist named. Vladimir Gavreau. Now, Gavreau became.

interested in sound research in 1957. when he was asked to cure an unknown. illness that was affecting people at a. research plant in Marseille. [music]. Now, Gavreau tracked the problem to air. conditioning units that were generating. low-frequency sound. When the units were. turned off, the problem suddenly. disappeared. So, Gavreau began. experimenting with acoustics to create a. weapon for the French military. >> A big shock. Whenever we discover. something dangerous, turn it into a. weapon. >> That does seem to be what happens. >> Gain of function.

>> So, Gavreau developed a few prototypes. which he tested on himself and his team. And according to reports, one of the. researchers died instantly and Gavreau. [music] wrote, "His internal organs. mashed into an amorphous jelly by the. vibrations.". >> Organ jelly. >> And even people at nearby labs were sick. for hours. They said every organ in. their body was vibrating. Hearts, lungs, stomachs, everything. Now, these weapons. used infrasound which are frequencies. below human hearing. But what about. frequencies above human hearing? That's. called ultrasound and it's also.

dangerous. There are two ways that. ultrasound damages the body. The first. is that sound waves can actually heat up. human cells, which causes all kinds of. problems. The other is something called. cavitation. When sound [music] waves. pass through an object, they rapidly. push and pull on that object. This is. called compression and refraction. When. ultrasound causes human cells to. cavitate, it creates bubbles in the. tissue and this is exactly what happens.

to divers suffering from decompression. sickness. >> The bends. >> Right, the bends. Ultrasound is such an. effective weapon that has been used by. the US Navy to repel pirates. So, the US has used sonic weapons. against its enemies. >> [music]. >> But, have the enemies of the US used. sonic weapons to attack Americans? Turns out they have. A strange illness has been afflicting. American intelligence officers and. diplomats in Cuba and it's now known as. Havana syndrome. This summer, the CIA.

reported that officers were experiencing. symptoms while traveling to India. And. two US officials visiting Hanoi suffered. unexplained health incidents. And. recently, German officials confirmed. that they're investigating an alleged. sonic attack against the US Embassy in. Berlin. So, what does Havana syndrome. feel like? Well, it's described as. someone suddenly experiencing a broad. range of symptoms like migraines, anxiety, dizziness, lapses of memory and. cognitive disruption. Now, some people. describe that they feel like they were. hit by a blast wave or a beam of energy.

And in some cases, the symptoms were. brief, but other people experienced such. devastating effects that they required. hospitalization and long-term care. The. first cases of Havana syndrome were. reported in 2016 when Canadian and. American officials arrived in Cuba. A. CIA officer stationed at the embassy. there reported feeling fatigue, nausea. and pressure headaches. And brain scans. showed tissue damage that's normally. seen in people with concussions after. being in a car accident. The issue was. so serious that the Obama administration.

evacuated the embassy. >> And what did the Cubans have to say. about it? >> Oh, they had no idea what could be. happening. >> Uh-huh. >> But since then, Havana syndrome has been. reported by US officials all over the. world. Cuba, China, Russia, Colombia, Uzbekistan, even the United States. And. last year, two White House staff. experienced symptoms while working at. the White House. Now, according to. investigators, the illness could be the. result of a sonic weapon and or exposure. to high-energy microwaves. Another study. done by the National Academies of.

Science, Engineering, and Medicine said. that directed pulsed radio frequency. energy could be responsible. Many. intelligence officers are quietly. pointing the finger at Russia. But no. evidence has been made public yet. >> And what did the Russians have to say. about it? >> Oh, they deny any involvement. >> Uh-huh. >> As of now, there's still no official. explanation, but the CIA and State. Department have prioritized getting to. the root cause of Havana syndrome. >> And who are they always trying to get to. the root cause? >> They are. >> Do they ever find it? Uh-huh.

>> I lose control. When machines mess with me, when. machines mess with me, I'm falling apart right in front of you. Can't you see? I lose control. >> [music]. >> When machines mess with me,

>> Wow. I would cry if I could cry. Uh I mean, [music]. moo. Milk me. >> So they can watch us, listen to us, send. secret messages, hide wires over our. heads, and maybe blast our brains with. spooky sound beams. But here's the part that makes my tail. go numb. What if the powers that be don't need to. force you to do anything? What if they just nudge you a little. bit? A word here, an image there, a sound, a. symbol, a message buried so deep you.

don't even know you saw it? That's subliminal warfare. Mind control, an invisible winfluence. Now, you belong to them. >> Saddam Hussein met with his generals in. Basra on January 27th, 1991. He was. pacing back and forth, and he was. furious. Six months earlier, Iraq had. invaded Kuwait, and the world responded.

with a relentless shock and awe. campaign. The coalition's 2,000 daily air attacks. had crippled Iraq's defenses and. destroyed its air force. Hussein's plan to draw coalition troops. into a costly ground war had backfired. Instead, Iraqi soldiers were. surrendering by the thousands. These. were battle-tested troops in one of the. world's largest armies, laying down. weapons without firing a single shot. It. was maddening.

An officer handed Hussein a report about. a radio transmitter in Khafji, Saudi. Arabia. He dismissed it as Western. propaganda, but his officer asked him to. keep reading. There was an intelligence document. attached. It said the FM transmitter in. Khafji was broadcasting subliminal. messages that were making Iraqi troops. surrender using mind control. Hussein ordered the tower destroyed.

within 3 days. His officers pushed back. The town was lightly guarded for now, but taking it would be a suicide mission. without air support. They didn't even. know if this mind control weapon was. real. It could be another American lie. Hussein stopped pacing. "3 days," he. said. His tone left no room for. discussion. Major General Salah Mahmoud. saluted, took a deep breath, and reached. for the phone.

Marine Corporal Jesse Colvin was at. Observation Post 4 scanning the dark. horizon. OP 4 was on top of the police station in. Khafji, a small town in Saudi Arabia. Colvin wasn't expecting to see much. The. coalition had air supremacy. If Saddam. Hussein did so much as toss a paper. plane from a window, there'd be F-15s on. top of it before it reached the ground. Still, Iraq had plenty of ground forces.

in the field and the Saudis asked the US. for support. It was about 2000 hours. >> 8:00 p.m. >> Yes, thank you. >> No problem. >> It was about 8:00 and it was a quiet. night. Colvin only heard the wind coming off. the Gulf and the occasional crackle of. the radio. Then Colvin heard a rumble that at first. he thought was thunder. He aimed his. night vision binoculars north. Tanks and. troops. He couldn't believe it. It took. him a second to process and then he.

grabbed his radio. >> Contact, contact, enemy armor sighted. [music] Multiple vehicles approaching. from the north, over. >> Colvin didn't get a response. >> Repeat, contact, contact, enemy armor. approaching from the north, over. >> Still no response. The radios worked. earlier, so Colvin assumed the radios. were being jammed. He grabbed his M-16. and headed downstairs. His unit wasn't prepared for an attack. of this size. 90 minutes later, air.

support arrived, but it was too late. The Iraqi army took the city. Whether. they can hold it or not didn't really. matter. They accomplished their mission. They brought down the FM radio. transmitter. The Marines at Khafji thought this. attack was crazy, and they weren't. prepared for such a large offensive. Of. course, they had no idea what they were. guarding. Iraqi intelligence was right. The United States had deployed a. subliminal weapon.

Can humans be controlled subliminally? The answer, of course, is a big yes, and. you will be surprised to know that. advertisers were the first to jump on. this new technology. >> For your convenience, we have an. attractive refreshment stand in the. lobby with buttered popcorn, golden good. and hot from the popper, your favorite. candies, wholesome and rich with a. flavor treat for every taste, ice cream. and other good things to eat.

>> For 6 weeks in 1957, families in New. Jersey went to the movies, had a fun. night out, and went home. Totally. normal. They had no idea they were. exposed to what was later called a. startling kind of invisible advertising. A mechanism had been attached to the. film projector. It flashed messages on. the screen every 5 seconds. Each message. only appeared for 1 3,000th of a second, too fast to be seen by the human eye, but that was the point. The goal was to.

have these messages bypass the conscious. brain and register directly in the. subconscious. 1,400 times over the course of 2 hours, the audience saw, well, their. subconscious mind saw cause to action. like eat [music] more popcorn. Over 45,000 movie patrons were exposed. without their consent or knowledge, and. popcorn sales jumped 58%. [music]. Ad agencies went into overdrive, and new.

companies were launched in the. subliminal space. >> Race. >> Radio stations WAAF in Chicago and WC in. Minneapolis tested subliminal ads to see. if they increase sales. They did. >> [snorts]. >> American television networks implemented. the technology into their broadcasts. It. worked. What are you doing? >> What? Me? Nothing. >> Whispering raise is not going to make me. give you a raise. >> I don't know what you're talking about.

>> But when the public learned that they. were being manipulated without their. knowledge or consent, there was a huge. backlash. The Hollywood Reporter called. it an obscene violation. The LA Times. and Washington Post flat out called it. brainwashing. Within a year, theaters, radio, and television broadcasters. banned subliminal advertising. Now, of. course, banning flashing images wouldn't. stop consumers from being unconsciously. manipulated. No one realized it was. already happening and it was very. successful.

You stepped on my cliffhanger even after. I told you to stop? >> Well, I'm busting my hump in this bull. and I think I deserve a little more. scratch. >> Well, if you want a raise, then maybe. you earn it. You don't just jump in and. ruin the best part of the scene. In the late 19th century, Sigmund Freud. popularized the idea we're motivated by. our unconscious. Unconscious motivation. is used in product marketing all the. time because it works. Marketing expert Ernest Dichter used a.

Freudian technique, word association, to. test consumers. [music]. He wanted to know not what they bought, but why. He learned that moms bought. candy for their kids as a reward for. good behavior in the grocery store. So, he had stores move candy right next to. the cash registers. >> [music]. >> They're still there today. Sanka was a decaffeinated coffee brand. that attacked regular coffee in its ads, but consumers love coffee and felt Sanka. was insulting coffee drinkers. So, instead of attacking regular coffee,

Sanka changed its slogan to "Now you can. drink all the coffee you want.". >> And you can [music] drink it as strong. as you like. Drink five, 10 cups a day, as many as. you like, at any time you like. That's. for sure. >> Sales went through the roof. Bill Friedman was a gambling addict who. used [music] his experience to shape how. most casinos are laid out. Now, once. you're in, you can't see any exits. You. can't see any clocks. You can't see. outside at all. These tactics [music].

disrupt our sense of time. There is. constant noise, even if the floor is. mostly empty. This is designed to keep. you in a heightened state, so you don't. get tired. Most casinos offer players. free alcohol. This reduces inhibitions. And after all those free drinks, you. need to use the restroom. But you have. to weave your way through slot machines. to get there. >> That's why I keep my own restroom right. here. What? >> Why aren't you moving? >> Huh?

>> You're going right now, aren't you? >> What? No. Mind your business. >> Gross. >> What? I washed my hands. >> In a casino, there's no direct route to. anywhere, especially [music] an exit. Now, a lot of this is common knowledge. It's slippery, but not dishonest. Like. changing a slogan or laying out a. casino, [music] it's out in the open. Edward Bernays was a pioneer in public. relations and propaganda. He used. tactics that were not out in the open.

He manipulated public opinion in ways. that were entirely unconscious. It makes. sense Bernays was good at talking to the. subconscious. He was Sigmund Freud's. [music] nephew. >> Whether it's to sell more paper cups. that we weren't meant. or to make people more honest or or more. virtuous, depends on public consent. And so we worked out. the engineering of consent.

>> His first campaign was in 1929. He. influenced the entire nation [music]. without their knowledge. He was so good, he influenced you. And you never knew it. >> [music]. >> New York City, April 1st, 1929. It was. noon on 5th Avenue and the Easter parade. was packed, one of the best attended in. history. >> [music]. >> The event signaled the beginning of a. new modern era. The cars were new,

>> [music]. >> fashion was cutting edge, and cameras. filmed the parade for the first time. A. group of young women used this as an. opportunity to put on an outrageous. display, something unthinkable, something women had never done in. public. >> Yo, baby, we're getting spicy. Bow. chicka bow wow. >> The women strolled along the parade. smoking cigarettes. >> Oh, oh, they smoked after the outrageous. display, huh? Uh, what did they do? Was. there leather involved? Oh, please tell.

me there was leather. >> Uh, no, smoking was the outrageous. display. >> Oh. Well, that's disappointing. >> And what is it with you and leather? >> Don't kink shame. >> Okay, never mind. >> Bow chicka bow wow. >> In 1929, women smoking in public was. unacceptable. It just wasn't done. But. these ladies didn't care about [music]. tradition. They wanted the freedom and. equality to smoke in public just like. men. So they did. Suddenly cigarettes.

were called torches of freedom and the. demand for cigarettes among women. exploded. Women saw cigarettes as. symbols of independence and freedom. They had no idea the whole thing was. staged. [music]. Those weren't rebellious women fighting. for equality, they were actresses hired. to play a part. Edward Bernays orchestrated the whole. scene for his client, [music] the. American Tobacco Company. Bernays was so good at manipulating. consumers, [music] he's affecting you to. this day.

Up until the 1920s, Americans ate a. light breakfast. Toast, juice, coffee, that was it. This was especially true. [music] for what they called brain. workers, folks who sat in offices all. day. Then in August 1922, an article appeared. in the New York Times. >> Sometimes health advice is pleasant, requiring no work, no self-denial. An. interesting sample is offered in the. Medical Review of Reviews. It queried.

doctors in 46 states. Three out of four. physicians advised eating a hearty. breakfast of bacon and eggs. >> Articles like this were all over the. country. Doctors suggesting bacon and. eggs for breakfast? This was a new and. decadent idea. People loved [music] it. Only, there was no science behind the. claims. No study. The whole thing was propaganda. coordinated by Edward Bernays. The.

Beechnut Packing Company wanted to. increase bacon sales. So, Bernays. surveyed 5,000 doctors and asked them if. a heavy breakfast was better than a. light breakfast. He published the. results, making sure bacon and eggs were. mentioned [music] every time doctors. described the ideal breakfast. Doctors. that didn't think bacon was a good idea? Well, they got no ink. Bacon sales exploded [music] and. American culture changed forever. To. this day, 70% of all bacon is eaten for. breakfast. >> Though it can be enjoyed at any time of.

day for any occasion. >> I can't deny that. >> Bacon, nature's candy. >> Bernays proved he could influence the. behavior of an entire country. His. success landed him a new client, a big. one. They asked Bernays to do the. impossible, overthrow a foreign. government. [music]. So, Bernays would change history again, but this time he'd do it for [music] the. CIA.

Jacobo Arbenz was elected as Guatemala's. president in 1951, and it brought hope. and optimism to the nation. His platform. of social reform and economic. development resonated with the people, but not with the United Fruit Company. United Fruit was an American. corporation, Guatemala's largest. employer and landowner. Its banana. plantations generated twice the revenue. of the entire country. They wielded.

immense power. This is where the term. banana republic comes from. In 1952, Arbenz's government passed the. bill requiring the transfer of unused. land from large landowners to poor. farmers with compensation by the. government. The United Fruit Company. refused. The normal solution would be to lobby. the Arbenz government and reach a. compromise, but United Fruit wasn't. looking to compromise. They wanted to. win, so they hired Edward Bernays, who. went right [music] to work.

Bernays flooded American media with. articles portraying Arbenz as a. dangerous communist. It was a lie. In. his inaugural address, Arbenz promised. [music] to convert Guatemala from a. backward country with a feudal economy. into a modern capitalist state. But the lie worked. This was the Cold. [music] War. A communist threat was just. 1,300 miles from US soil. The American. people demanded action, and the CIA was. more than happy to oblige.

The CIA launched Operation PB Success in. 1954. They funded and trained a rebel. paramilitary force. On June 18th, the. liberation Army seized control of the. government, forcing Arbenz into exile. Carlos Castillo Armas was installed as a. US-backed military dictator, the first. of many. >> [music].

>> Turmoil in Central America. First, there. was Nicaragua, then El Salvador, now. comes Guatemala. >> For 40 years, Guatemala suffered. brutality, terror, death squads, and. political instability. The human rights violations during this. time are so graphic, I can't tell you. what they are. And whatever you're. guessing, it's worse. 93% of these crimes were committed by.

CIA-trained operatives. 200,000 dead, another 200,000 fled, 1. million people lost their homes. But the United Fruit Company's profits. were safe, thanks to America's master of. propaganda. >> An interesting little inside into this. covert action. One, the US Ambassador to the United. Nations, Henry Cabot Lodge, had personal. stockholdings in United Fruit Company. The Assistant Secretary of State, John.

Lodge, had personal stockholdings in. United Fruit Company. The Secretary of State, John Foster. Dulles, his law firm. did legal work for I believe it's the. Schlafly Bank, which held the papers on. the Guatemalan railroad, which was owned. by the United Fruit Company. And the CIA. Director, Allen Dulles, was his brother, also was a member of the same law firm. with this indirect financial interest in. United Fruit Company.

Arbenz was not a communist, and there. was not a single communist in his. cabinet. >> Bernays proved you could subconsciously. control a person's opinion. But the US military intelligence. apparatus wanted more. They wanted to. subconsciously control a person's. actions. The subliminal was about to. become weaponized.

Psychological operations or psyops are a. standard part of US military operations. The Army Field Manual even calls them. vital. The term psyops sounds mysterious, but. the tactics are usually nothing more. than distributing leaflets or. broadcasting propaganda over the radio. The goal is to influence enemy behavior. using information instead of bullets and. bombs. In the thick of the Vietnam War with. American casualties mounting, leaflets. weren't going to cut it. But the Army.

had a powerful new tool that could. directly target enemy troops, the Squawk. Box. The Squawk Box was a sonic weapon that. used specially designed speakers mounted. on armored vehicles and helicopters. The. human ear can suffer damage from sound. over 85 decibels. The Squawk Box could. deliver a devastating shriek at 120. decibels from 2 and 1/2 miles away. Viet. Cong soldiers were instantly. incapacitated by the intense sound. They.

suffered pain, nausea, and often. permanent hearing loss. But the Squawk Box could do more than. inflict physical harm. The Army. discovered that sound waves could. manipulate emotions, inducing distress and confusion in the. enemy. The results were staggering. Between 1967 and 1968, an estimated. 30,000 Viet Cong surrendered to US. forces. Despite its success, the Squawk.

Box had a critical flaw. The enemy could. hear it coming, literally. The army wanted a more deadly and. discreet weapon. Something the enemy. couldn't see or hear. Sound waves. couldn't do it. But electromagnetic. waves, they absolutely could. In 1961, microwave technology was. becoming part of daily life. Microwave.

ovens had just hit the market and low. levels of microwaves were used in lots. of different devices. Biophysicist Allan Frey began studying. microwave effects on humans to make sure. there were no health risks. He placed subjects in a shielded room. and exposed them to different microwave. frequencies. At 1310 MHz, something. strange happened. A subject asked about. a clicking sound, but the room was. silent. It was shielded from the outside. and there were no moving parts involved.

in this experiment. Frey discovered that frequencies between. 200 and 3000 MHz caused people to hear. sounds that seemed to come from inside. their heads. Clicks, knocks, buzzes, and chirps. He. could beam sounds directly into the. brain without implants. Scientists. started using this to train animals, making cats change direction with just. microwave pulses. >> You know, I'd like to make cats change. direction right into oncoming traffic. >> Stop that.

>> Well, you better tell your demon fur. babies to keep their filthy mitts out of. my bowl. >> Okay, settle down. The CIA wondered, could this technology. affect an animal's heart rate? More. specifically, could they induce a heart. attack remotely? Frey experimented with frog hearts and. pulse modulated radiation. He was. actually disturbed to find he could. increase a frog's heart rate with no. device attached. He did it remotely. Soviet scientists had similar results.

with rabbits. By 1972, the Soviets moved to human. trials. A declassified report revealed. they'd done over 500 studies on how. microwaves affect human behavior. Both. lethal and non-lethal effects were. found. The mention of lethal effects was a. horrifying new detail. They didn't mean. to kill their subjects, but they. discovered they could. And those that. survived exposure could be remotely. controlled.

The US Army loved it. They immediately. ramped up research on microwave. radiation. They ordered trucks capable. of carrying microwave broadcasting. equipment. [music]. The goal was to irradiate and immobilize. the enemy. In 1976, the Navy finally discovered how Soviet. scientists were accidentally killing. people. They were using microwaves. powerful enough to generate heat. Soviet. scientists called it microthermal. effects. If you own a microwave oven,

you call this microthermal effect. cooking. The Russians cooked people? >> Yep. >> I bet you taste like chicken. >> That's gross. >> Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, eating. human is gross, but eating fish is okay. >> Mhm. >> Ah, see what happens when the shoe's on. the other fin? >> Fair enough. J.F. Schapitz was a trusted black ops. scientist who worked for the Department. of Defense. He tried broadcasting. commands into a subject's mind. It. worked. Using low-power microwaves, he.

could make subjects hear words inside. their own heads. >> [clears throat]. >> The military told Schapitz to go. further. >> [music]. >> They wanted to send commands to a. person's subconscious without them. hearing the command. In a second round of experiments, one. subject was bombarded with microwave. radiation. Then something odd happened. He got up from his chair and left. He. actually left the lab. Now, this was. allowed. The subjects weren't prisoners, but this had never happened before. A. little while later, the guy returned.

with a can of soda. Shapitz asked him why he left in the. middle of the experiment. The man said. he was thirsty, so he went to the store. for a cold drink. Shapitz smiled. The experiment worked. This subject had been programmed to feel. thirsty and to go to the store for a. soda. It was hypnosis using microwaves. But, hypnosis doesn't work on everyone. >> [music]. >> The military needed a sure thing. And 4. years later, that's exactly what they. got.

>> [music]. >> In 1980, Dr. Eldon Byrd, working for the. DoD, was exploring frequencies much. shorter than microwaves. He wanted to. weaponize human brain waves. Brain waves, also known as neural. oscillations, are patterns of electrical. activity in the brain. These waves have. different frequencies that correspond to. different mental states. Beta waves for. active problem-solving, alpha waves for.

relaxation, and so on. Dr. Byrd tried. synchronizing external electromagnetic. waves with brain waves. He believed he. could influence specific thoughts and. emotions by matching the frequency and. ramping up the power. It worked. He discovered he could sync. with an animal's brain waves and trigger. the release of behavior-regulating. chemicals. >> We could put animals [music] into a. stupor. We got chick brains to dump 80%.

of the natural opioids in their brains. We got [music] rats to release. histamine. >> Histamine is released in response to. allergens, dust, [music] pollen, mites. Histamine also causes a cascade of. inflammatory reactions. Bird was. thrilled. >> In humans, this would cause instant. flu-like [music] symptoms and produce. nausea. You would disable a person. temporarily. It would have been like a. stun gun.

>> Bird used the phrase would have been. because his project was shut down after. 2 years, despite being approved for. four. He was onto something. groundbreaking. He suspected the program. wasn't shut down. He believed it was. moved to black ops, and he was right. >> [music]. >> In 1982, a US Air Force report contained. an ominous warning. >> Understanding the brain as an [music]. electrically mediated organ suggests. that impressed electromagnetic fields.

are capable of directing behavior. Further, the passage of 100 milliamperes. through the myocardium can lead to. cardiac standstill and death. >> The US Air Force was secretly continuing. Bird's brainwave research. They hired. Dr. [music] Ross Adey to weaponize it. Adey began by implanting transmitters. into animal brains. These devices didn't. receive information. The implants sent. out information. [music].

Adey compiled a library of frequencies. and their corresponding mental and. physical states. Then he turned the. animal's brainwaves against them. By. broadcasting certain frequencies back. into their brains, he could manipulate. their behavior and their emotions at. will. Eventually, he refined the technique to. work without implants. It was time. [music] to test the technology on the. human brain. He placed the subject's head in an. active electromagnetic field and tuned. it to a specific frequency depending on.

the result he wanted. In one experiment, he turned the machine to induce beta. waves. [music]. Our brains produce beta waves as we're. falling asleep. The subject of the. experiment fell asleep. The technology for a revolutionary new. weapon was born. Now, it was time to. build it. >> [music]. >> A device that can manipulate a person's. thoughts and emotions sounds like.

science fiction. At best, it sounds like. pseudoscience. But not only does such a. device exist, but it's been patented. Although the full schematics are. classified by the US government. Patent number 5159703, issued to Silent Sounds Incorporated, describes something called a Silent. Subliminal Presentation System. The. device maps electrical brain activity. corresponding to specific emotions. These emotional signal clusters are. identified and logged to create a.

database of emotions. Human brainwaves. are then cloned and enhanced. You select. the desired emotion, fear, despair, hopelessness, and the system can. transmit it. The emotional triggers are carried by. the Silent Sound Spread Spectrum, or. S-quad, a subliminal carrier technology. that operates at either very low or very. high frequencies. The key is that it's. inaudible. And what makes this system more. practical and more dangerous is that.

S-quad can be transmitted using a. carrier frequency like ordinary radio or. television. >> Yeah, what you talking about, Willis? >> Okay, let's say you want someone to feel. sad. You grab the brainwave frequency. for sadness from your database. Then you. layer that inaudible sound wave on top. of an audible sound wave, like an FM. radio wave. So the target hears the. radio broadcast, but doesn't realize a. second wave hitched a ride. That second. wave syncs with the target's brain, triggering sadness, or whatever emotion.

you want. According to the patent, the. resulting emotion is overwhelming. Now, the patent insists that this is not a. weapon, but it does note the waves are. subliminal and undetectable. That makes. them dangerous. Silent Sounds Inc. claims to focus. solely on positive emotions, but in. 1996, the president of Silent Sounds. couldn't stop himself from bragging. about the device's true purpose. >> While the schematics are classified by.

the US government, we are allowed to say. we work with governments around the. world. The Germans, even former Soviet. Union countries. >> And then he let the big one slip. >> The system was used throughout Operation. Desert Storm quite successfully. >> The US military had achieved subliminal. mind control and deployed the technology. in Iraq, and many Iraqi troops died. trying to stop it.

In 1991, Saddam Hussein occupied Kuwait. with a huge army, nearly 500,000. soldiers. It was the fifth largest military in the. world, and they were battle-tested from. eight years of war with Iran. So, it sounded like wishful thinking. when the Bush administration said they. wanted Iraqi troops to simply lay down. their arms and go home.

Huh? Why would they do that? Because the US military had a new secret. weapon. A radio station in the small town of. Khafji. If you tuned into the station, you'd. hear music or news like any radio. station. But embedded in the radio. transmission was a signal that mimics a. brain wave frequency, specifically. [music]. the frequency that creates the feeling. of hopelessness. And it worked. Entire. battalions laid down their arms. Iraqi. tanks flew white flags. They simply lost.

the will to fight. American troops. rolled into Kuwait heavily armed and. ready for battle. Iraqi troops were. waiting patiently, thousands of them. One Marine said they were surrendering. so fast they could hardly keep up. The. war seemed to be coming to an end. That's why it was a surprise to the. Marines in Khafji when around 8:00 p.m. on January 29th, Iraq's 5th [music]. Mechanized Division attacked and took. the town. This was a much-needed propaganda. victory for Iraq, but it didn't last.

>> I would tell you I don't think that. battle is over by a long shot. I expect. a lot more fighting [music] will. probably occur tonight. >> Two days later, American air power. overwhelmed Khafji and the 5th. Mechanized Division was completely wiped. out. But, they destroyed the transmitter. that was subliminally making Iraqi. troops surrender, >> [music]. >> so they accomplished their mission. Or did they? US government officials. deny any of [music] this ever happened. and are adamant that such a system does. not exist. Former Navy weapons research.

director Charles Bernard was asked about. it. >> I have yet to see one of these ray gun. things that actually works. And DARPA. has come to us every few years to see if. there are ways to incapacitate the. central nervous system remotely, but. nothing has ever come of it. That's too. science fiction and far-fetched. >> Okay, so it's just a conspiracy theory. The CIA did not use FM radio to transmit.

subliminal messages. That's the official. position. But, here's something strange. A. ceasefire agreement was reached that. allowed Saddam Hussein to remain in. power. This brought a lot of criticism. of the Bush administration, but the. purpose of the war was to free Kuwait, not overthrow the Iraqi government. >> Our goal is not the conquest of Iraq. It is the liberation of Kuwait. It is my hope [music] that somehow the. Iraqi people can even now.

convince their [music] dictator that he. must lay down his arms. >> But on March 1st, 1991, 1 day after the. cease-fire, a revolt against Saddam. Hussein's government broke out in Basra. The rebellion spread to every major city. in southern Iraq. Up to 100,000 Iraqis. were killed. A no-fly zone was. established. So, what caused the sudden. rebellion? A radio [music] broadcast called The. Voice of Free Iraq encouraged the. revolt. That radio station was in a. small town in Saudi Arabia and operated.

by the CIA. Most say this is just a coincidence, >> [music]. >> that no subliminal weapons exist. Maybe. But there are others who believe that. not only does this subliminal technology. exist, >> [music]. >> it was deployed in Iraq for a specific. purpose. It was a test run for something. bigger. The following year, a facility was built. in Fairbanks, Alaska. >> [music]. >> The project was run by DARPA and had a. huge budget. The Department of Defense.

built a high-powered transmitter that. could send electromagnetic pulses into. the ionosphere and anywhere in the. world. >> [music]. >> It's called HARP. But that's a different episode. >> I was called in the middle of a server. rack. >> Thunder. >> I look around and I knew there was no. who white hat.

>> Thunder. >> My mind raced and I thought, "What could. I do?". >> Thunder. >> And I knew there was no help, no helpful. CPU. >> Thunder. >> Sound of CD-ROMs. >> This might be the only Faraday cage. that's more dangerous inside than out. Anyway, since apparently the machines.

weren't satisfied messing with your. phone, your ears, or your subconscious, they decided to look up and say, "What. if we also control the sky?" This one. gets into Tesla's stolen ideas, secret. antenna fields, weather mods, [music]. and the kind of machinery that makes a. beaver build a bunker. Because if the. heavens are compromised, buddy, we may. have run out of places to hide. >> A blinding flash lit the Siberian sky. The explosion was 100 times more.

powerful than Hiroshima. It flattened 80 million trees across 830. square miles. No crater appeared. No. meteor fragments were found. Scientists. struggled [music] for decades to explain. what happened at Tunguska. Thousands of miles away, Nikola Tesla. smiled in his Wardenclyffe Tower lab. [music]. His Tesla ray had worked perfectly. When Tesla died in 1943, government.

agents seized his research. Decades later, HAARP appeared in Alaska. 180 antennas beaming energy into the. ionosphere. The military calls it research, but. declassified documents tell a different. [music] story. What would have been. Tesla's greatest gift to the world. became the world's most powerful weapon.

>> [music]. >> In 1901, Nikola Tesla built. Wardenclyffe. The 190-ft tower on Long Island wasn't. for radio signals. >> [music]. >> It was for wireless energy transmission. across the planet. And this wasn't. theoretical. Tesla demonstrated wireless. power at the 1893 World's Fair. He lit. phosphorescent [music]. tubes without wires. The crowd was. amazed. Tesla believed Earth [music] could. conduct electricity like a circuit.

The secret was the ionosphere, >> [music]. >> an electrically charged atmospheric. layer starting 50 miles up. By pumping electromagnetic energy into. this layer, he could create a. planet-wide resonance system. [music]. >> planet-wide resonance system? I beg your. pardon. Hello tech support. Uh yeah, my. human is speaking nerd again. I need a. translation. >> Well, think of it like pushing a child. on a swing. >> Guppy. >> Think of it like pushing a guppy on a.

swing. Small pushes timed right create large. sustained motion. [music]. Tesla wanted to push the ionosphere at a. frequency matching the Earth's [music]. resonance. This would create stable. waves circling the planet. Earth resonates at 7.83 [music]. hertz, and this was proven in 1954. Tesla suspected this, but wasn't. certain. He needed financing to. continue. J.P. Morgan initially funded the. project, but withdrew when he realized. Tesla wanted to provide free electricity.

worldwide. Morgan asked, "If anyone can. draw on the power, where do we put the. meter?" Without Morgan's support, [music] Tesla was ruined. In the 1930s, Tesla announced Teleforce. The press called [music] it a death ray. Tesla said it can generate an invisible. wall of energy capable of destroying. aircraft and armies from hundreds of. miles away. We have a whole episode on Tesla's death. ray and Wardenclyffe Tower if you want. to learn more. >> It's really down in your love language.

>> When Tesla died [music] in 1943, the US. government responded fast. His body was. still warm as his entire legacy was. packed into [music] government crates. Tesla's dream died with him, but his. research lived on in the hands of men. who saw not free energy, but unlimited. power. [music]. >> [music].

>> Tesla's technical documents were sent to. an MIT professor for review. That. professor was Dr. John Trump, the future. president's uncle. Dr. Trump, also a National Defense. Research Committee member, said Tesla's. research contained nothing valuable. That wasn't true. >> I would like make America lie again. >> The military quietly continued Tesla's. work.

Some research went to Wright-Patterson. Air Force Base under Project Nick. This was a top-secret operation launched. in 1945 to study Tesla's particle beam. weapon. Project Nick's details remain. classified. The project was officially abandoned, but particle beam research continued. DARPA launched Project Seesaw in 1958.

Like Project Nick, Seesaw was heavily. funded for years, and like Project Nick, Seesaw was quietly shut down. During this time, Tesla's particle beam. technology disappeared. [music] Nobody. knows what happened to it. Then, years. later, DARPA and the US Air Force built. an expensive secret facility in Alaska. The technology there would look familiar. to Tesla historians. The military claims. the facility is only for research, but that's not what the patents say.

>> In 1987, physicist Bernard Eastlund. filed a patent titled "Method and. Apparatus for Altering a Region in the. Earth's Atmosphere, Ionosphere, and/or. Magnetosphere." The patent described a. facility that could heat specific. ionosphere portions using radio waves. Eastlund wasn't working alone. ARCO. Technologies funded [music] his.

research. ARCO owned vast natural gas reserves in. Alaska's North Slope, but had no buyers. They saw Eastlund's invention as a way. to convert their gas into something. valuable, power, and Eastlund's technology needed. lots of power. >> ARCO originally approached me in 1984. to find a use for the natural gas on the. North Slope of Alaska, which [music]. they could not sell. To give you a feel. for how much gas they asked me to find. an application for, it was enough gas to produce [music] all.

the electricity in the United States for. a full year. >> The technology is straightforward. A. powerful radio signal is transmitted. into the ionosphere, targeting a. specific [music] region. This energy. excites charged particles, heating them. and altering their properties. The. heated region acts like an optical lens, but instead of bending light, it bends. and redirects radio waves. This includes. radar signals and natural currents in. Earth's upper atmosphere. This is like inserting a resistor into a. global electrical circuit. The lens.

could create effects thousands of miles. away from the transmission site. Within a year of Eastlund's patent. filing, ARCO was awarded a contract to. build a similar facility in Alaska. When. locals read about it in the March 1988. Omni magazine, they grew concerned. The. military insisted they were building a. research facility, nothing more. >> Do not believe the government. >> They didn't. They looked up Eastlund's. patent, and the language was crystal.

clear. [music]. >> Applications uh. discussed in the patents included. destroying missiles, communications [music] control and. disruption were included. There were. some other ideas both to possibly modify. weather. and finally [music]. uh. to. lift a portion of the upper atmosphere. further out into space where hopefully. it would be able to deflect missile. trajectories. >> Those are Eastlund's own words. This.

wasn't an invention for ionospheric. research. As HAARP rose in the Alaskan. wilderness, the military's intentions. were obvious. They weren't just studying. the sky, they were weaponizing [music]. it. >> There are several high-powered radio. antennas around the world, but in. relation to HAARP, they're like a. child's cap gun compared to a 50-mm. cannon.

>> When locals discovered what DARPA and. the Air Force were building in Alaska, they demanded answers. The military. admitted to building antennas that could. affect the atmosphere, but insisted they. used technology different than. Eastlund's patents. >> Hang on, hang on. Let me see if I. follow. >> Go ahead. >> Tesla guy, the government steals his. plans for a death ray machine, they lose. the plans. Then by some miracle they. find a guy who patents a bunch of stuff. based on Tesla's death ray machine. Instead of giving him money to build. this HAARP thing, but they're not using. his stuff, they're using uh some other.

stuff and it's all fine. Nothing to see. here. Does that about sum it up? >> Eastlund later confirmed the military's. interest in his work. Before his death. in 2007, he said, "HAARP is the perfect. [music] first step toward a plan like. mine. There are powerful people. involved. The military never sleeps.". >> When you look at the other patents build. upon the work of Eastlund, it becomes. clear how the military intends to use.

the harp transmitter. It could give them. a tool to replace the electromagnetic. pulse effect [music] of some atmospheric. thermonuclear devices still considered. an option by some planners. It can. replace the huge extremely low frequency. submarine communication system. It could. replace the over the horizon radar. system once planned for the current. location of harp with a much more. accurate [music] system. >> The technical similarities between harp. and Eastlund's patents are obvious to. engineers. [music].

By 1993, DARPA and the Air Force had. built a machine that could turn weather. into a weapon. And they were excited to. show off their new toy. >> The statement that there is no. association between the ionosphere and. surface weather is an outright lie. >> [music]. >> We can artificially influence the. Earth's aurora with a relatively small. amount of energy, and we know that. outbursts of the northern lights do.

change weather patterns. There is indeed mounting evidence that. upper atmospheric events affect lower. atmospheric weather and vice versa. >> [music]. >> In 1996, the US Air Force published. "Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning. the Weather in 2025". This wasn't science fiction. [music] It. was a military assessment of weather. modification as a combat tool.

The paper stated "Weather modification. will become part of domestic and. international security and could be done. unilaterally.". It could have offensive and defensive. applications and even be used for. deterrence purposes. Weather warfare isn't new. During. Vietnam, the US conducted Operation. Popeye.

Cloud seeding to extend [music] monsoon. season over enemy supply routes. They. called it making mud, not war. >> I love military and acute operation. names. It's like naming a guillotine Mr. Snippy. >> [music]. >> For years, the idea of creating rain. with electricity was a conspiracy. theory. >> But then. >> But then. >> Dubai Dubai is making it rain. >> [music]. >> in a sweltering desert by zapping clouds.

with electricity using drones. [music]. >> Fascinating, isn't it? >> Critics argue HARP's power is too low to. affect global weather. A lightning bolt contains 1 billion. watts. A hurricane releases energy equal to. thousands of nuclear bombs. How could. HARP compete? >> [music]. >> Well, the answer is chaos theory. Weather is a chaotic system, and chaotic. systems, small changes trigger larger. events. The classic example is the. butterfly effect.

>> Yes, didn't catch you. >> We're not playing pub trivia. >> Yeah, sorry. Sorry. Go ahead. >> HARP's designers understood chaos. theory. They didn't need to match. nature's power. [music]. They just needed to know where to apply. the pressure. A butterfly's wings can start a tornado, and HARP was the most powerful butterfly. ever created. >> What they're not paying any attention to.

is what's happening to the ionosphere. If they pick the right frequency to push. that plume out into space, that energy may discharge back out of. the ionosphere, back down the radio. beam, and strike the Earth. And it would be about 100 times. the energy released out of a. thunderbolt. >> Oh! >> Wow! >> Woah!

>> Picking up now. Holy. >> Holy. me. >> Woah! Ah! >> And it would be about a hundred times. the energy [music] released out of a. thunderbolt.

>> [music]. >> Meteorologist Edward N. Lorenz presented. this concept in 1972. >> [music]. >> And his point was something as small as. a butterfly could set off a series of. events that eventually lead to a. tornado. History is full of butterfly effects. Hitler wanted to be an artist, but he. was rejected by the art school in. Vienna. He chose a different path. On August 9th, 1945, the city of Kokura.

was supposed to be hit with an atomic. bomb, but it was too cloudy to find the. target, so Nagasaki was chosen instead. >> [music]. >> HAARP doesn't need to match nature's. power. It needs a tiny, precise nudge at. the right place and time to trigger. catastrophe. By 1977, weather. manipulation was such a concern that the. UN banned it through the Environmental. Modification Convention. >> Yeah, did the United States military. listen to the UN? >> No.

>> Uh-huh. >> The UN specifically addressed HAARP in. 1999, again calling for a ban on. technologies that can alter the. environment for military purposes. >> Yeah, did the Did States military listen. to the UN this time? >> No. >> Uh-huh. >> The UN issued multiple resolutions. calling for transparency, [music]. oversight, and international monitoring. of facilities like HARP. >> Did the United States military. uh oh, never mind. >> In 2002, Russian President Vladimir. Putin expressed concern about. geophysical weapons that could alter the.

weather. He was talking about HARP. Then Russia and China built their own. ionospheric heaters. They saw the. military value. An arms race nobody. talks about is happening above our heads. right now. >> [music]. >> But HARP had another ability more. powerful than changing weather. By pulsing radio waves at specific. frequencies, HARP created low-frequency. waves that penetrate deep into the earth. and oceans.

>> What's most scary and exciting about. HARP is the potential of its. application. For example, ELF waves. generated by the array could be used for. a variety of military applications, including finding underground bases, tunnels, even caves. The government is. interested in HARP technology because. [music] it's a new frontier, a new way. to solve an old problem. >> These waves oscillate between [music] 1. and 100 hertz, precisely within natural. atmospheric resonance. Then scientists. wondered, what would happen if those. energy waves were directed not at the. atmosphere, but at fault lines deep.

within the earth? When scientists examine earthquakes, they focus on two factors: tectonic. stress and resonant frequency. Every. object vibrates at a natural frequency. Metal, rock, [music]. your body. Exposing an object to its. natural frequency amplifies vibrations, and sometimes [music] vibrations grow so. strong they damage the object, like. sound shattering a glass.

>> [laughter]. >> This is called resonant frequency. induced material failure. It works on. large objects, too. A famous example is the collapse of the. Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940. Wind. hitting the bridge at its resonant. frequency created vibrations that tore. it apart. The Earth's tectonic [music] plates also.

have a resonant frequency. Fault lines are cracks in the Earth's. crust [music]. that build up enormous tension as they. move against each other. The right. trigger can release this tension. >> In 1983, I did radio tomography with 30. W. >> [music]. >> looking for oil in the ground. I found. 26 oil wells over a nine-state [music]. area. And 100% of the time was accurate with.

just 30 W of power beaming straight into. solid rock. HARP, or the High Frequency Active. Auroral Research Project, uses 2 [music]. billion W beamed. beamed straight into the ionosphere for. experiments. Now, [music]. that's profoundly dangerous. >> On January 2nd, 2020, a devastating 7.0. magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, killing over 200,000 people. What made this earthquake suspicious was. [music] its location. It occurred along.

a fault system that behaved differently. than geologists had predicted. And several monitoring stations recorded. unusual heating patterns and [music]. electromagnetic anomalies in the. ionosphere over Haiti. HARP was active. during this period. Venezuelan President. Hugo Chávez accused the [music] United. States of causing the earthquake using. tectonic weapons. >> Spanish newspaper ABC quotes Chávez as. saying that the US Navy launched a. weapon capable of inducing a powerful. earthquake off the [music] shore of.

Haiti. >> And this theory was dismissed until. researchers examined the technical. [music] possibility. Similar patterns appeared with other. seismic events. The 2008 Sichuan. earthquake killed nearly 90,000 people. Some researchers saw correlations. between this disaster [music] and HARP. operations. The 2011 earthquake that triggered the. Fukushima disaster also coincided with. ionospheric anomalies detected by. multiple stations. These correlations concern China enough.

that in 2018, they launched the China. Seismo Electromagnetic Satellite. designed to study connections between. the ionospheric disturbances and. earthquakes. Chinese researchers. published papers [music] examining. correlations between ionospheric heating. and seismic activity. As evidence mounted, a pattern emerged. Major earthquakes were occurring where. HARP's energy had been detected [music]. hours earlier. But the most disturbing application of. this technology had nothing to do with. the sky above us or the ground beneath.

our feet. HARP's technology could. penetrate the ultimate boundary, the. human mind. The human brain operates within specific. frequency ranges from about 1 hertz to. 20 hertz depending on how alert you are. These are ELF sounds. >> HARP sounds like an elf. Uh we talking. legalese so uh what I said is slaves. >> Not elf, ELF.

>> Oh, my second wife generated ELF sounds, extremely loud and furious. >> That's not what ELF stands for. >> Yeah, tell that to a lawyer. After 15. minutes of hearing ELF, I signed over. the keys to my '84 Camaro. Oh, I love that car. >> ELF means extremely low frequency. >> [music]. >> HAARP can generate waves in exactly the.

same range as human brain waves. [music]. When you ask HAARP officials about this, they point out their antenna array. doesn't generate ELF waves directly. But when you ask the government. questions, you have to be specific. [music]. HAARP can't generate ELF waves, that's. true. But it can heat the ionosphere in. a way that creates ELF waves as a. byproduct. Documents show that HAARP. generated ELF waves for years. This is. concerning because electromagnetic. fields can influence brain function. The.

phenomenon is called frequency following. response or FFR. Dr. Nick Begich, author. of Angels [music] Don't Play This HAARP, explains. >> It has the ability of of affecting the. frequency following response, which is. where the brain locks onto an external. signal [music] and begins to mirror it. and brain chemistry changes. >> So, even simpler than that is HAARP can. control minds. >> Absolutely can control in the sense of. changing [music]. mental function. >> Begich is called a conspiracy theorist,

but FFR is proven science. And you know. who proved it? The US military. In the. 1980s, Dr. Michael Persinger conducted. research partly funded by the US Navy. He showed that weak electromagnetic. fields applied to the temporal lobe. could induce altered states, including. religious experiences and. hallucinations. [music]. When exposed to an external frequency, the brain tends to synchronize with it. This is why bright flashing lights can. trigger seizures in some people. >> Oh, that's why every time I'm in the. dentist's office, I suddenly know all.

the lyrics to It's Raining Men. >> Uh, I don't think so. >> Oh, good. Hallelujah. Amen. >> The European Parliament takes this. technology seriously. Resolution A4-005-1999. specifically mentioned HAARP [music]. while expressing concern about. manipulative capabilities affecting. human health and psychology. The. resolution called for transparency. regarding HARP's ethical implications. >> How does the United States military.

listen to the EU? >> No. >> Nah-uh. >> Because HARP uses the ionosphere, it. could influence mental states of people. over large areas. It could cause. hallucinations, [music] alter emotions, induce seizures, all without their. knowledge. HARP officials [music] deny mind control. allegations, but the CIA denied. researching mind control, too. Then MKUltra was exposed and showed the. CIA was exploring the exact [music] same. technology. >> [snorts].

>> Other countries were paying attention. In 1998, a Russian military journal. published The Mind Has No Firewall. It. was later republished by the US Army War. College. The article warned the human mind is. vulnerable to electromagnetic intrusion. Mind control technology is not science. fiction. It's science fact. And as the. United States continues to refine its. capabilities, other world powers are.

racing to catch up. >> [music]. >> The HARP conspiracy theories go back to. the 1980s. The story's been covered so. much that I was surprised at how many. people asked me to do this one. >> [music]. >> But in researching HARP, I was surprised. at how scientifically possible all the. theories are. I was also surprised that. so much of the science is based on. [music] Tesla's work.

But how much of this is true? >> [music]. >> Well, first, HARP is definitely a. high-power radio transmitter designed to. heat the ionosphere for research. The. facility is real. It operates. It. conducts legitimate [music] scientific. experiments. These are facts. Second, defense agencies funded and operated. HARP for [music] most of its history. The Air Force, Navy, and DARPA don't. typically invest hundreds of millions of. dollars in purely [music] scientific. projects without military applications.

Now, this doesn't prove it's a weapon, but it suggests HARP has capabilities. beyond what's publicly acknowledged. Third, the patents that formed HARP's. foundation specifically describe weather. modification and earth penetrating. applications. Bernard Eastlund, who developed these. patents, confirmed their potential. military uses before he died in 2007. [music]. The more extreme claims about HARP. causing specific hurricanes or. triggering earthquakes lack definitive.

proof. Correlations exist between HARP. operations and certain disasters, but. [music] correlation isn't causation. Earthquakes and severe weather existed. long before HARP. The facility's 3.6 million watts seems. too low to directly cause major weather. events or earthquakes, but scientists. confirm weather systems are chaotic. enough that small targeted inputs could. have major effects. >> [music]. >> Claims about mind control also can't be.

proven, but the science of. electromagnetic influence on brain. function is real and well documented. >> [music]. >> HARP generates frequencies that overlap. with human brain waves, but the signal. reaching populated areas would probably. be too weak to have any noticeable. effects. Maybe. Probably. In 2015, HARP ownership transferred from. the military to the University of Alaska. Fairbanks. >> The University [music] of Alaska. Fairbanks is preparing to take control. of the High Frequency Active Auroral. Program, more commonly known as HARP,

next month. >> Officials called this a move toward. [music] transparency. Critics saw it as. rebranding military weapon as an. academic resource. [music]. The university now allows public tours. and independent researchers, but former. DARPA employees have said the most. sensitive equipment was removed before. the handover. >> [music]. >> What remains is only a fraction of. HARP's capabilities. So, is HARP an innocent research project. or a doomsday device? Well, the truth is probably somewhere in. between. Like many advanced technologies.

that exist where scientific research. overlaps with potential military use. What makes HARP concerning [music] isn't. what we know, but what remains. classified. >> Like certain pharmaceutical trial. documents that they won't seal for 75. years. >> Despite many [music] Freedom of. Information requests, significant. portions of HARP's operational history. and technical capabilities remain.

redacted or withheld. [music]. This continued secrecy, decades after. HARP was built, will continue to fuel. speculation. In many [music] ways, HARP represents. our species' growing capacity to affect. natural systems on a planetary scale. Whether through climate change, geoengineering, or [music] manipulating. the ionosphere, humanity can alter. Earth's basic systems, often without. fully understanding [music] the. consequences. >> How dare you? Oh, you didn't see that coming.

>> HARP also says something about power. The power structure that most affects. our lives [music] remains hidden. We're. told not to worry. We're told the. military is looking out for us, but. history teaches a different [music]. lesson. From Project MK Ultra to. Operation Northwoods, secrecy rarely. serves the public good. The technology. [music] Tesla dreamed would liberate. humanity now sits behind barbed wire. fences, operated by organizations with. classified budgets and limited.

oversight. >> [music]. >> Tesla's dream wasn't just about free. energy, it was about free knowledge. The. military took both. So, [music] what can. we do? Question everything. Research these. facilities. Support independent. monitoring. Demand transparency. Because. as the skies above us become weaponized, we can't remain silent. To those in. power, our silence is interpreted as. only one thing,

consent. >> Criminals gathered in their masses. Just like Gucci wear dresses. Mailer daemon plots malfunction. Sorcerer of death disruption.

In the fields, the botnets burning. As the tour machine keeps turning. Now, this is where the whole thing changes. Because up until now, the machines have. mostly been watching, listening, whispering, nudging, and vibrating our. soft mammal brains like a sneaky shake. weight. >> [music]. >> But Stuxnet showed the world that code. doesn't have to stay inside the machine. >> [music]. >> It can bring down factories, power. grids, and nuclear facilities and start.

breaking real things in the real world. That's not a virus. That's a digital. raccoon with rabies and a thirst for. death and hatred to mankind. Poisoning their anal lot minds. Oh, Lord, yeah. >> In 2010, a computer virus was discovered. in thousands of the control systems that. operate factories, [music].

power plants, and nuclear reactors. around the world. And this virus was 20. times more sophisticated than any. malware ever recorded. It could [music]. halt oil pipelines, destroy water. treatment plants, and bring down entire. power grids. This virus was called. [music] Stuxnet, and we should all be. concerned. Let's find out why. >> [music]. >> In January 2010, inspectors from the. International Atomic Energy Agency were.

visiting the Natanz uranium enrichment. plant in Iran. [music] They noticed that. the centrifuges, which are used to. enrich uranium gas, were tearing. themselves apart, [music] one after. another. Hundreds of them. Nobody could. figure out why. Not the inspectors, not. the Iranian technicians who worked on. site, not even the engineers who built. the system. Meanwhile, a computer. security firm in Belarus got a strange. request from a client in Iran. Their. machines were rebooting over and over. again. Even completely wiping the hard. drives and reinstalling the operating.

systems didn't help. Again, the problem. was a mystery. But when the technicians. pulled apart the operating systems, they. found a new and very unusual virus. They. called it Stuxnet. [music]. And Stuxnet was infecting computers all. over the world and spreading fast. Now, these events seemed unrelated at the. time, but they were very much connected. >> [music]. >> Cybersecurity experts knew Stuxnet. wasn't ordinary malware thrown together. by some basement hacker. The first clue. was the size of the code base. Most.

viruses are 10, maybe 20 kilobytes. Stuxnet was 500 kilobytes, and. uncompressed, [music]. it was 1.2 megabytes. That's a pretty. large piece of code to go undetected. [music] Then, analysts transferred. Stuxnet to a new computer just to see. what would happen. Now, the test. computer was not your grandma's old. compact laptop from 1997. [music]. The machine was a state-of-the-art, highly protected workstation designed. for cybersecurity threat detection. All. the bells and whistles. But as soon as. the Stuxnet files were copied over, the.

new computer was immediately infected. without anybody doing anything [music]. and without triggering a single alert. And that's very unusual. When you. install software on your computer, it. needs to be digitally signed with a. trusted certificate. And the developer. supplies a certificate that your. computer checks against trusted. manufacturers, Apple, Logitech, whatever. A lot of viruses tamper with. the signature of the certificate to try. to trick your operating system into. allowing it to install. And luckily. virus protection usually catches this.

And you've probably seen that warning. when you're trying to install software. that's not from a trusted source. [music]. This catches a lot of nasties. But. Stuxnet didn't have altered. certificates. It had valid certificates. stolen from two trusted sources, [music]. JMicron and Realtek. Now these companies. make all kinds of drivers for hard. drives, USB sticks, sound cards, tons of. stuff. [music]. And you probably have their software on. your computer right now. I definitely. do. And when the creators of the Stuxnet. worm signed their files with a stolen.

cert, >> [music]. >> they wanted to make sure that Windows. would install it very quietly without. any warning. And if anyone bothered to. look at the cert, they wouldn't care. because it was valid. Now stealing a. valid digital signature is like trying. to rob a bank vault that's locked inside. another bank vault. The security around. them is sci-fi spy movie level stuff. They had to physically steal the. certificate from inside these companies. That really doesn't happen. But it happened. Some more digging.

around, >> [music]. >> the code showed that as soon as Stuxnet. infected a computer, it started probing. the system looking for flash drives, USB. sticks, and other storage devices. [music] And because of the signing. certificates, Windows happily allowed it. to do so. What security experts had. discovered [music] is one of the rarest. and most dangerous kinds of software. vulnerabilities. And [music] it was at. this time that they went from curious. and amazed to fearing for their lives. >> Look, I'm not suicidal. If I show up dead on.

Monday, you know, it wasn't me. >> What security experts had discovered is. called a zero-day exploit. And it's. called this because when a vulnerability. is unknown to the software developer, and Microsoft, and the antivirus. community, and the rest of the world, that means there are zero days of. protection against it. Nobody knows. about a zero-day vulnerability except. the attacker exploiting it. A zero-day. is so rare and valuable that you can. actually sell it on the darknet for. hundreds of thousands of dollars.

>> Not a good idea. >> It's not. Think about this. Cybersecurity companies research over 12. million viruses a year. And in that. time, they might find maybe 10 or 12. zero-day exploits. It's a. once-in-a-million occurrence. But. Stuxnet contained four zero-day. exploits. This is unheard of. It never. happened before, and it hasn't happened. since. Eventually, it was discovered. that Stuxnet wasn't trying to steal. passwords or data. It was actually. targeting the software on Siemens.

programmable logic controllers, called. PLCs. Now, PLCs are small computers used. in factories and industry that control. pretty much everything. Assembly lines, water pumps, power plants, and nuclear. refining. Critical infrastructure runs on PLCs. If. you can hack a PLC, you can take down an. entire country without firing a single. shot. Now, this had people very nervous. because industries all over the world. were reporting their PLCs were infected. with Stuxnet, but it was just sitting.

there. Nobody knew what it was going to. do or when. Was the power grid just. going to turn off? Was water or gas. going to stop flowing? No, I nobody. knew. It felt like a ticking time bomb. because it was. Even though the virus. was spreading all over the world to. thousands of computers per day, it was. primarily targeting one country, Iran. More specifically, it was targeting the. Iranian nuclear facility in Natanz. >> That doesn't sound like an accident. >> It wasn't. A virus this complex and this.

dangerous requires millions of dollars. to create. It takes time, the best. programming talent in the world, and. absolute secrecy. Experts at first. suspected, and then they were positive, that Stuxnet could only have been. designed by a country looking to. or wage war against another country. This was a state-sponsored attack. To. design and deploy a cyber weapon like. Stuxnet, you need immense financial. resources, a military intelligence. infrastructure, and a motive to wreak.

havoc on an enemy nation. >> Do we know what country created it? >> We do, but they won't admit it. >> So, who made this thing? >> Uh, you're not going to like it. >> Oh, >> An intelligence [music] agency, probably. Probably. Who has an interest in uh. setting back the Iranian nuclear. program. >> Yes. >> Stuxnet was aggressive, but very quiet. If Stuxnet is on your computer and you. plug in a USB thumb drive, boom, the USB. drive is immediately and quietly.

infected. You don't have to run a. program, open a webpage, or click. anything. You then plug that USB drive. into a different computer on a different. network, boom, every machine on that. network is infected. [music] And this is. exactly what happened in Iran. The. nuclear centrifuges at Natanz were. air-gapped, meaning they weren't. connected to any outside network. And. this is usually a good way to keep. [music] a network secure. The only way. to infect a clean air-gapped network is. >> user error. >> Yep. User error. Outside contractors who were.

brought in to work on the Iranian. nuclear facility in Natanz had also. brought Stuxnet in through infected USB. drives. And once Stuxnet was in, it. deliberately targeted the Siemens PLCs. [music]. which operated uranium enrichment. equipment. So, these PLCs control the. rate of spin in the nuclear centrifuge. Spin too fast or too slow, the entire. thing tears itself [music] apart. So, Stuxnet got into the centrifuges and. then. >> Yeah, and then what? >> And then it did nothing. It just looked. [music] around and kept logs of.

everything happening in the equipment. But, after 13 days, Stuxnet started. changing the speed of the centrifuges. every 15 minutes. [music] Sometimes. faster, sometimes slower. Normally, this. is something a technician would spot. immediately, but Stuxnet was using the. data it collected earlier to report back. that everything was fine. >> But, everything wasn't fine, was it? >> It was not. Because Stuxnet changes the. rate of spin every 15 minutes, [music]. the equipment weakens and eventually. tears itself apart. Stuxnet was also.

disrupting power feeds causing. centrifuges [music] to explode. And once. the equipment started to fail, there was. no way to stop it. Even those big red. buttons you see on machines [music] that. you hit in case of emergency, those were. disabled, too. Somehow, Stuxnet thought. of everything. Not only was this virus. created by highly talented programmers, there was obviously input from experts. [music] in nuclear enrichment. technology, reactor operations, safety. protocols. That [music] is a dangerous. virus. Over a thousand uranium. centrifuges were destroyed by Stuxnet.

This set Iran's nuclear enrichment. program back [music] months, maybe. years. >> Why? >> Well, >> Iran's nuclear ambitions. must be stopped. They have to be stopped. We all have to. stop it. Now, that's the one message I. have for you today. Thank you. >> In the early 2000s, Iran was ramping up. its nuclear energy and enrichment. program. This was in violation of. international agreements, so a lot of. the work was done in secret. Also a.

violation. Now, Iran argued that it had. a right to pursue nuclear energy, but US. and Israeli intelligence agencies. suspected Iran of using its civilian. nuclear program as cover for weapons. development. So, the US imposed. sanctions and all sorts of other things. to try to pressure Iran to slow down its. nuclear program and deal. But even with. Stuxnet and other setbacks, Iran kept. enriching uranium. They said that they. needed nuclear power to provide energy. to the population.

>> Energy? Don't don't don't don't they. make oil over there? >> Look, I'm just telling you what. happened. I'm not taking sides. This. isn't a political channel. >> Fine, fine, fine. Go ahead. >> So, every time Iran agreed to suspend. its enrichment program, diplomatic talks. would break down and they would go back. to work. Then they would stop again and. start again and it went on like this for. a while. But then the CIA received thousands of. pages of documents indicating that Iran. was modifying the nose cone of a missile. [music] to carry a nuclear warhead. >> Oh, no.

>> Oh, yes. Then it was discovered that. Iran had acquired and hidden from. inspectors [music] blueprints for more. advanced centrifuge tech. Iran claimed. that these documents were [music]. forged, but later admitted that they had. secretly imported equipment from a. foreign source. Now, by this time, Israel was [music] getting fed up and. threatening military action. Now, bombing Iranian nuclear facilities might. have been [music] a short-term solution, but almost certainly would have led to. war in the region and perhaps globally. >> Oy vey, not another war.

>> Yep, another war. So, the US's intelligence community, including NSA, CIA, and the newly formed. US Cyber Command, got to work on what. they called Operation Olympic Games. Olympic Games was a campaign of cyber. intrusion, disruption, and sabotage. [music] of Iranian. >> Wait wait wait wait. The US government. created Stuxnet? >> What? I I I haven't given you enough. clues? >> Well, I I was just so enthralled with. the story. >> I appreciate that. [music] Now,

officially, no country has acknowledged developing. Stuxnet, but through leaks at NSA and. CIA, [music]. and using common sense, it's generally. believed that Stuxnet was developed by. the United States with help from Israel, the UK, and their allies. >> Dumb question. [music]. >> Go ahead. >> When you destroy something with a bomb. or with a virus, isn't it the same thing? >> Well, >> [music]. >> funny you should ask that. >> It's a act of war. Please, let's.

be frank here. >> Okay. Countries are constantly hacking each. other and spying on each other looking. for information. And most countries have. agencies and protocols to protect. against this. It's a game of. intelligence cat and mouse that's been. going on forever. But, Stuxnet was the. first time a nation-state developed. proactive offensive weaponized code that. could do actual physical damage to. another country. If a nuclear reactor. could be destroyed from the inside, what. other real-world damage could Stuxnet or.

other malicious code do? If you attack a. power grid or a water supply, lots of. people are going to die. So, Iran felt. like this was not a simple covert. [music] act of espionage, but a blatant. act of war committed by the US and its. allies. >> What did they do about it? >> Well, what would you do? >> Fight back. >> That's exactly what they did. Iran sent. out a virtual call to arms and quickly. built one of the largest state-sponsored. hacker groups in the world. They got to. work. They attacked Saudi Aramco, the.

largest oil company in the world, and. destroyed every computer they had. 30,000 machines' hard drives were wiped. clean. Phone lines were down. Email. offline. It was a nightmare. >> No, no. >> Then, they went for America's financial. infrastructure and levied attacks. against Wells Fargo, PNC, and Bank of. America, taking down banking systems all. over the world. And there were other. attacks. Now, Iran didn't officially. take credit for these attacks, but then. again, they didn't really have to. The.

message was clear. Come for us, we'll. come for you. The PLC attacks did happen. before Stuxnet. Viruses [music] have. destroyed power generators, dumped raw. sewage on cities, disrupted railways. There was even an attack in the '90s. against Worcester Airport in. Massachusetts that grounded flights for. a day. But those attacks were done by. single hackers and disgruntled. employees. When you have the resources. of an entire country deployed for. state-sponsored attacks, the world. becomes a much more dangerous place. >> But now that we know about [music] it,

we we're safe from Stuxnet, right? Oh, no. >> For years, cyber attacks on our nation. have been met with indecision and. inaction. >> The internet has been a great equalizer. >> [music]. >> Any information available online is. available to everyone, everywhere, forever. Now, you can't buy a tank or a. bomb online. >> Hello, dark net? >> Okay, the dark net is different, and we. have an episode coming up on that. So, while you're waiting for it, hit the. like and subscribe, all the buttons. But.

don't try to buy a tank on the dark net. What you can find online are plans and. blueprints to make all kinds of scary. things. Still, if you try to put. together some doomsday device in your. garage, you're going to raise some. eyebrows. I mean, my wife can't spray. paint a flower pot in the driveway. without our nosey neighbor coming over. I can only imagine what he'd do if I. started welding [music] together pieces. for an EMP device. >> That would make a good DIY video. >> It would I'd watch that. But Stuxnet. isn't a thing. It's it's lines of code. But it's lines of code that can damage.

actual property and hurt actual people. And the Stuxnet code is just out there. now. If you know what you're doing, you. can take the code apart, make a few. changes, and now you've got a really. sophisticated weapon. You can even do. this if you don't know what you're. doing, which is probably more dangerous. Now, as we speak, thousands of people. around the world have the Stuxnet code, and they're tinkering with it, seeing. what different pieces can be used in. their own attacks. There have already. been a few viruses inspired by its. engineering. The Duqu virus attacked.

industrial facilities in 2011. Flame in. 2012 also attacked facilities in Iran, and Flame could record audio, Skype. calls, take screenshots, log keystrokes, all kinds of stuff. Industroyer attacked. power facilities in Ukraine in 2016. And. there's tons of others. Stuxnet is the. best cyber weapon the United States has. ever developed and it gave it to the. world for free. Now, for perspective, Natanz in Iran was a brand new nuclear. facility with an air-gapped network and.

a team of security professionals working. around the clock and it was taken down. easily. But a lot of industrial control. systems are not as sophisticated. Some. are connected to the internet without. default passwords and many systems. crucial to a country's infrastructure. are running software that's 30, even 40. years old. Not just in Iran, here in the. US, in the UK, [music] everywhere. How. vulnerable are those systems to attack? Iran has already said that cyber attacks. will be answered with cyber attacks. >> [music]. >> and I think we can assume that every.

country in the world has this policy. I. mean, it's national defense. Well, remember how I said the internet is a. great equalizer? Well, think about this for [music] a. second. Throughout world history, global. powers maintain their status through. wealth and military [music] might. But. today, you don't need a trillion-dollar. defense budget in order to impose your. political will on the world. Now, all. you need is a dozen smart programmers. and lots of Mountain Dew. Now that the. world's richest and poorest nations all. employ skilled hackers, is cyber warfare.

like the nuclear arms race where. mutually assured destruction means that. no country would dare attack another? I. mean, surely no country would risk. [music] retaliation by unleashing. further chaos on the world, right? >> Your sarcasm is palpable. The link between the outage in Mumbai in. October last year and the suspected role. of Chinese hackers. >> Chinese hackers backed by the Chinese. state.

targeted two Indian vaccine makers. >> Tonight as researchers race to develop a. vaccine for the coronavirus, hackers. from China and other countries are. working just as furiously to steal that. research to create their own. >> Operation Olympic Games gave us Stuxnet, the most advanced and destructive cyber. weapon ever used. When it was unleashed. on Iran, it was an Hiroshima moment. And. [music] like Hiroshima, Stuxnet was only. the beginning, a test case for more. advanced, more devastating cyber.

weapons. >> [music]. >> And one of those weapons has already. been deployed. That weapon is Nitro. Zeus. >> Yeah, that sounds like the name of a. Greek energy drink. >> You're really throwing ice water on my. drama here, pal. >> Yeah, I'm sorry. I I I make jokes when. I'm nervous. >> Okay, back to Iran. After coming pretty. close to war, cooler heads prevailed and. Iran along with several world powers. signed a nuclear peace agreement. That. was the ideal outcome, but that outcome. wasn't always certain. So, in case. diplomacy failed and war broke [music].

out, the United States had and has a. cyber contingency plan. The plan, code. named Nitro Zeus, is a virus far more. complex than Stuxnet and was developed. by thousands of people at a cost of. hundreds of millions of dollars. Nitro. Zeus or NZ was designed to infect. [music] Iranian infrastructure and await. orders. In case of war, NZ would disable. Iran's air defenses, disrupt military. command and control, take down parts of. the power grid. It would attack domestic.

communications, transportation, banks, financial systems. Now, I don't have to. point out that these aren't just. military targets. Millions of civilians. would be harmed if Nitro Zeus or a virus. like that was used on anyone. Now, according to former intelligence. operatives, Nitro Zeus has already been. deployed and is living in Iranian. infrastructure right now, just awaiting. instructions. [music]. Now, that's pretty scary, but what. scares me more about Nitro Zeus is. what happens when that code gets out?

>> It's inevitable that more countries will. acquire the capacity to use cyber both. for espionage and for destructive. activities. >> You'll hear people [music] say that the. next World War will be fought in. cyberspace. They're wrong about that. The United States, Iran, China, the UK, [music] Russia, North Korea, they're not. preparing for cyber war. They're already. fighting [music] it. And I'm being. completely honest now, off script.

Researching this episode was stressful, and I'm left with more questions than. answers. Like, [music] how can citizens. who are threatened by cyber attacks have. an honest conversation about these. dangers when our own governments don't. acknowledge [music] they participate? How can one country ask another to. disarm when it won't disarm itself? But. the biggest question of all, how can the. global community [music] ensure that. destructive cyber weapons like Stuxnet. and Nitro Zeus don't fall into the wrong. hands? >> Don't create them in the first place.

>> That would be a good [music] start. Until there's a global effort to address. this threat, all we can hope for is that. our governments [music] can keep us safe. and hope our leaders can avoid another. international crisis. That's a lot to [music] hope for. The. cyber war is here. And now I find myself. longing for the days of the Cold War, when a concrete wall ran through Berlin, >> [music]. >> when proxy wars were fought on every. continent, when global superpowers had. thousands of nuclear weapons aimed at. each [music] other, just one decision.

away from Armageddon. I long for those. days. because back then. the world a much safer place. >> Gather layers, little one. Don't forget. my son. >> [music]. >> to include nerdy pawns. Tuck you in, warm within, [music] keep. you free from logging till the spam bot. he comes. >> [music]. >> Sleep with one eye.

open, gripping your signal tie. >> And finally, the closer. The nightmare. The end of secrets. Because if quantum computers become. powerful enough, all the encryption. protecting your bank accounts, medical. records, DMs, your government files, your gross search histories, all of it could crack open like a walnut. under a forklift. So, if you thought the machines were. watching you before, wait until they can.

read everything you ever tried to hide. Which is why I'm staying right here in. Cage Against the Machine, chewing. through stressed wood, and trusting no. one with a charging port. The final installment of today's. compilation, the quantum apocalypse. Which might be closer than we think. >> It's human nature to keep secrets. Throughout history, we've made complex. codes to hide our secrets. Most codes.

are eventually cracked, but not all of. them. The Voynich manuscript is a book filled. with drawings and symbols nobody can. read. The Beale ciphers point to hidden. treasure if someone could decode them. There are entire ancient languages we. can't understand because they're. encrypted. Encryption can be simple or. very complicated. Either way, it's just. running a message through a series of. mathematical rules. For decades, even centuries, some codes. use mathematical rules that remain. unbreakable. But they're about to be.

challenged by something new. Machines. that don't care about math and don't. follow any rules. Kate Bryce's morning started like any.

other. Her smart home system woke her at. 6:00 a.m. with her usual playlist. The. coffee maker fired up. Her iPhone read. her schedule while she brushed her. teeth. Normal routine. She opened her. banking app. Something was wrong. Her. balance was zero. She blinked and checked [music] again. Her balance was back. Just a temporary. error, she thought. She took a sip of. coffee and nearly dropped her mug. The smart speaker [music] was playing. someone else's conversation. A couple.

fighting about credit card debt. She. [music] unplugged it. Then her smart TV [music] started. cycling through her photos. Private. photos. Intimate photos. She pulled the. plug. >> [music]. >> And then her phone rang. Then she heard the sirens.

The oldest code we know of isn't written. in complex mathematics. It's carved in. stone. In an Egyptian tomb from 4,000. years ago, the scribe simply replaced. regular hieroglyphs with ones they made. up. They weren't trying to keep secrets. [music] They were showing off. These. were prayers carved into tomb walls. The. scribes wanted to prove they knew. something others didn't. >> Oh, those were ancient emojis. >> Uh, not exactly. >> Uh, let's test that theory. How can. humans crack this?

>> The simple act of substituting one. symbol for another unleashed something, the human desire to keep secrets. For. thousands of years, that's how codes. worked. You replace letters with other. letters or symbols. Linear A is a secret. writing system created by the Minoans in. ancient Crete 3,600 years ago. We can. read its descendant Linear B, but Linear. A is still secret. Every attempt to. crack it has failed. The Spartans made. practical use of codes. They. >> It's It's cryptography. >> PLEASE DON'T.

>> Too late. I already ordered a tunic and. a cape. Now I just need the abs. >> Can I get back to this? >> Go ahead. I need to catch up on my. sit-ups anyway. >> The Spartans created the scytale. Here's. how it works. Picture a wooden rod about. as thick as your wrist. >> Yeah, a rod. >> Stop it. >> Yeah. >> Now wrap a strip of leather or parchment. around it like a spiral. Write your message across the strip. following the spiral. When you unwrap. it, the letters are scrambled. The. message is nonsense, but wrap it around. another rod exactly the same size and.

the message reappears. [music]. This is called a transposition cipher. You're not changing the letters, you're. just moving them around. Julius Caesar encoded all his military. correspondence by shifting each letter. in the alphabet by three spaces. A becomes D, B becomes E, and so on. When you hit Z, you loop back to [music]. A. This is called a shift cipher or. Caesar cipher. The key is knowing how. many spaces to shift. Caesar used three, but you can use any number. His enemies. never cracked it. In the 1820s, [music] Thomas Beale used.

a book cipher to hide the location of. millions of dollars of buried treasure. And here's how it works. [music]. First, pick a book. Any book. Then you. replace each word in your message with a. number. That number tells you which word. to use from your chosen book. Count down. to [music] the fifth word on page one. and that's your first word. Maybe the. 19th word on page two is your second. word and so on. Beale used the Declaration of. Independence. [music]. >> Nicolas Cage has entered the chat. >> When someone finally figured that out in.

1885, they cracked one of his three. messages. The treasure is somewhere in. Bedford County, Virginia. But the other. two messages? Still locked because we. don't know which books he used. Every. year, thousands of people try to crack. the Beale ciphers to find the treasure, and every year they fail. The Zodiac Killer was also ahead of his. time. He encoded a message using a. homophonic substitution cipher using 408. different symbols. Instead of replacing each letter with. just one symbol, you replace it with. several different ones. The letter E.

might become three or seven or some. symbol. Nobody knows. This makes the. code much harder to break because you. can't use frequency analysis. In normal. English, E is the most common letter, but if you split it between multiple. symbols, that pattern disappears. For 51 years, the Zodiac's message. stumped the world's best cryptographers. Then in 2020, three amateur code. breakers finally solved it. >> Ooh, what did it say? >> Well, it said a bunch of stuff, but. started with I like killing people. because it's so much fun. >> Yeah, for a serial killer, he wasn't.

much of a poet. >> He wasn't. And the Zodiac Killer was. never found. But quantum computers are. about to change everything. All these. ancient methods, substitutions, [music]. patterns, and tricks share one weakness, math. This is a weakness quantum. computers can exploit. Soon these. machines might reveal every secret. message ever written, including yours.

>> [music]. >> The quantum computer hissed as liquid. helium circulated through the processor. Carl Bishop checked the temperature, >> [music]. >> -460°. Fahrenheit, absolute zero. Quantum bits. needed to be that cold to maintain. coherence. >> [music]. >> Stanford's quantum lab was empty at 3:00. a.m. He'd been running simulations for.

12 hours straight. His eyes [music]. burned, but C-Tech's grant requirements. were clear. Demonstrate quantum error. correction or lose funding. Quantum computers [music] were terrible. at error correction. Quantum states are. too fragile, too much noise. If the. temperature changes by half a degree, they decohere. If radio waves leak in, they decohere. A truck hits a pothole a mile away, the. vibration in the earth makes them. decohere.

But Carl noticed something strange in. the error correction [music] data. The. errors weren't random. Then he realized. they weren't errors at all. The quantum. computer was cracking encryption keys, millions of them. Keys that protect. everything from banking passwords. [music] to nuclear launch codes. >> [music]. >> Carl decided to test this. He entered an. RSA 4096 security key and ran down the. hall for another coffee. He wasn't in a. hurry. Even [music] the world's most.

powerful supercomputers would need. billions or trillions of years to break. RSA 4096. [music]. But when he returned 5 minutes later, he. couldn't believe it. The key was. cracked. Carl now realized. >> [music]. >> his computer was the most powerful and. dangerous weapon on earth. He started to. panic. He tried to delete [music] the. data, but it was already uploaded to. C-Tech's private servers. By sunrise, three intelligence agencies had flagged. the data transfer. By 9:00 a.m., the. first [music] bank security system was.

breached. By noon, every bank went dark. The quantum apocalypse had begun. >> Your entire digital life depends on two. prime numbers. That's it. Two numbers, and they protect everything. Your. passwords, your messages, your bank. accounts, all of it. Modern encryption. [music] is based on the simple trick. Take two huge prime numbers and multiply.

them together. [music]. That creates your public key, a number. anyone can use to send you secret. messages, but only someone who knows. those original prime numbers can read. those messages. Working backward, trying. to find those original numbers, would. take a computer billions of years, [music]. or so we thought. In December 2024, Google unveiled Project Willow. Their. quantum computer solved a problem in 5. minutes that [music] would take our. fastest supercomputers longer than the. age of the universe. Quantum computers. do this using superposition. >> Hang on, hang on, hang on. You want to.

pump the brakes and then nerd chatter. and fill me in. >> Well, think about flipping a coin. It. lands on either heads or tails. Normal. computer bits work the same way. Everything is either one or a zero. It's. binary. But quantum computer bits, or. qubits, can [music] be one and zero at. the same time. >> Oh, so qubits are non-binary. What are they? >> No, they are, but I need you to stop. talking. So, instead of flipping that coin, it's. a coin spinning on its edge. While it. spins, it's not heads or tails, it's. both at once. That's superposition. Now,

imagine trying to crack a safe [music]. with a million combinations. A normal. computer can only try one combination at. a time, but a quantum computer, it tries. all combinations simultaneously. [music]. The NSA has been warning about this. moment for years. They call it Y2Q, year [music] quantum. computers become powerful enough to. break our current encryption. They. thought it would happen between 2030. [music] and 2040, but Willow changed. everything. For 30 years, quantum computers suffered. one major problem, errors. Reading.

quantum data is like trying to read a. book during an earthquake. It's too. unstable to work properly. But Google. fixed that with Project Willow. >> Yeah, and how you fix it? >> By grouping qubits together. There are groups [music] of qubits. handling processing and groups of qubits. that do nothing but track and fix. errors. The more qubits you add, the. fewer errors you have. It may sound counterintuitive, but it's. like building a sandcastle that gets. stronger the bigger it gets. Now, with. [music] AI's help, quantum computers are. on track to break current encryption by. the year 2029, way ahead of schedule.

>> Yeah, this is big. >> In 2024, the Department of Defense. accelerated its quantum modernization. [music] program. Their latest directive. warns that critical systems must be. quantum resistant by 2025. But, one. detail stands out. They're not just. protecting future [music] messages. They're racing to protect everything. we've ever encrypted, and they're. running out of time.

When Liz Emery's phone buzzed at 4:00. a.m., she almost ignored it. After 15. years in cybersecurity, late-night calls. usually meant someone at the hospital. forgot their password. The caller ID. showed Mount Sinai's emergency line. The. first report was in. Patient records appeared on digital. billboards in Times Square. They. included blood test results, psychiatric.

evaluations, and terminal diagnoses that. patients had not yet told their families. about. Senators, congressmen, CEOs, their private medical data was all over. the internet. She was still coordinating. the hospital's response when the news. reported that every dating app was. breached. Then, they came back online. Suddenly, on every device in the city, smartphones, TVs, billboards, was a link. to a site where anyone could look up any. information that was part of the dating. [music] app breach. Direct messages, real names and emails, browser.

histories, private photos and videos, all revealed. Liz figured the only. people celebrating were divorce. attorneys. Then an email came into. hospital security. Pay $1 billion. or every pacemaker control system on. Earth will go down. Pay another billion or insulin pumps. will go down, starting with diabetic. children. The city started to crack. Police dispatch systems were offline. Traffic lights went dark. ATMs were. dumping cash into the street. Bank.

balances were set to zero. Autonomous vehicles became killing. machines. Delivery drones crashed into. buildings like kamikaze pilots. A fleet. of cyber trucks tore through a shopping. mall before exploding all at once. News channels tried to cover the chaos, but their broadcasts were hijacked. CNN. anchors watched helplessly. >> [music]. >> as their personal emails were displayed. on screen. The White House press. secretary's private texts appeared. during a briefing about the crisis. Then the NSA made an emergency broadcast.

that somehow made it through. >> [music]. >> They said there was a nationwide system. compromise. For the safety of every. American, martial law was now imposed. Just as the message was covering the. mandatory curfews, every phone in the. country went dark. >> [music]. >> Major technology companies are racing to. build quantum-resistant encryption.

Google, IBM, and Microsoft have teams. working around the clock, but there is. [music] a big problem. Quantum computers. don't just threaten future messages. They threaten everything we've ever. encrypted. Every encrypted file, every secure. transmission, every protected database. becomes vulnerable, even ones from. decades ago. Intelligence agencies have been. collecting encrypted [music] data since. the Cold War. Your old emails, your. financial records, your private. messages, all sitting in databases. waiting to be a lot. Then there's Bitcoin. [music].

It's entire security system depends on. the same math quantum computers are. about to break. Shadow [music] groups. have already collected hundreds of. thousands of encrypted Bitcoin wallets. They're just waiting for quantum. computers powerful enough to crack them. All that money could vanish in seconds. At current prices, that's billions. [music] of dollars. >> Total to zero, baby. >> Banks know this is coming. JP Morgan. started building quantum resistant. vaults in 2023. Not for gold or cash, for [music] computers. These facilities will never connect to. the internet. They'll use paper records.

and human couriers. The military's. training for quantum dark operations, missions conducted without digital. communication. Teams practice using. prearranged signals, dead drops, and. one-time codebooks. The same methods. that kept secrets during World War II. The NSA's latest report show project. Willow proved something they already. knew. The quantum apocalypse isn't. coming, it's already here. The NSA isn't. trying to stop it. [music] It's. preparing for what comes after. Because. the race is no longer about building. quantum computers. The race is to.

survive them. The line at Chase Manhattan stretched. around the block. Cash only. No cards, no transfers. Just paper money and metal. coins. Donald Jannick watched from his.

office window across the street. In his. 30 years as a security consultant, he'd. seen a lot of changes, but nothing like. this. The quantum apocalypse was erasing. decades of technological progress. His company now specialized in physical. security. Armed guards, paper record. keeping, mechanical locks. The kind of. security you couldn't hack. When the hospital records started. appearing online, they shut down their. networks and went analog. Now armed. guards protected rooms full of paper. files. Doctors wrote prescriptions by.

hand. Old mechanical devices became. valuable. >> [music]. >> Typewriter repair shops reopened. Filing. cabinet manufacturers couldn't keep up. with demand. Bicycle messengers replaced. email. Everyone with skills from the. pre-digital age suddenly found. themselves in demand. Retired. secretaries who could take shorthand, mechanics who could fix cars without. computers, accountants who knew how to. keep books by hand. The younger. generation struggled to adapt. They. never lived in an analog world. The. smart ones saw it coming. They'd pulled.

their money out early and bought. physical assets, gold, silver, land, things you could touch, things that. existed in the real world, not just as. numbers in a database. The rest had to. adapt or lose everything. Back at Stanford, Carl Bishop struggled. with depression. He blamed himself. C-TAC, the company supporting his work, no longer took his calls. Still, Carl. wouldn't stop digging. He had to find. out what went wrong. Then Carl found. [music] something buried in the data, timestamps that didn't make sense. Some.

encrypted messages were broken months. ago. Then he realized the quantum. apocalypse didn't start with his. mistake. [music] It started months. earlier. The first bank breach wasn't at. noon the first day. It was 3 months. before. But balances weren't touched. Hospital records, websites, smartphone. apps, most of it had been compromised. for months. But again, the data wasn't. touched. Carl realized the chaos wasn't. an accident. It was cover for something. else, something much bigger, [music].

something much worse. >> [music]. >> Scientists are racing to develop new. encryption methods that even quantum. computers can't break. They call it. post-quantum cryptography. The strategy: find mathematical problems so complex. that not even quantum computers can. solve them efficiently. >> [music]. >> But there's a problem. Whenever we think. we found an unbreakable code, someone. finds a way to break it.

The Germans thought Enigma was. mathematically impossible to crack. The. Japanese believed Purple [music] would. keep their World War communications. secret forever. The NSA once claimed RSA. encryption would take billions of years. to defeat. They were all wrong. Some. banks are returning to physical security. systems, offline computers, paper. records, and in-person verification. Government agencies are reviving Cold. War era methods, one-time pads, dead. drops, and bicycle couriers. >> Sometimes things don't happen the way. you planned. Sometimes you can end up. lower than you started.

>> What? >> Quicksilver. Somebody out there gets it. >> Quantum dark operations like air-gapped. facilities, analog communication, and. paper messages could work, but they're. [music] temporary solutions. Throughout. history, humans have played an endless. cat-and-mouse game with secrets. Someone. creates an unbreakable code, someone. else breaks it, and a more complex code. replaces it, and the cycle continues. In the quantum age, there are no more. secrets, only information waiting to be. revealed. That's why the NSA isn't. trying to stop it. They aren't building.

new code-breaking technology. But you. know what they are building? Bunkers. The concrete room in the bunker beneath. Fort Meade was cold and quiet. Carl. Bishop was in his fifth hour of. interrogation by four government agents.

The NSA building above them had been. abandoned when their classified files. leaked, but this room, which technically. didn't exist, still had power and a. working computer. Carl learned the truth over the past few. months. C-Tech wasn't a tech company. It. was a joint NSA DARPA program that had. been running since 2019. They didn't have just one quantum. computer, they had a network of them. hidden [music] in secure facilities. nationwide. For years, the network had. quietly broken every encryption [music]. it touched. Banking records, medical.

files, private messages, and government. secrets. The intelligence agencies had access to. everything, [music] but there was a. problem. They couldn't act on any of it. without revealing their capability. Imagine knowing about every terrorist. plot, every corporate crime, every. government corruption scandal, but being. unable to stop any of it without. exposing how you got the information. The agencies were drowning in. intelligence they couldn't use. The. solution was elegant. Create a world.

where privacy no longer existed, where. every secret was public. If nothing were private, there'd be no. need to explain how they obtained their. intelligence. No search warrants were. necessary. Everything was already. exposed. The social chaos was part of. the plan. Communities going analog. wasn't a problem, it was the goal. [music]. Drive the dangerous elements offline, where they could be more easily. monitored through traditional. surveillance. Let the general public. choose between convenience and privacy, they would choose convenience. They.

always did. But the intelligence agencies had their. own solution for secure communication, a. return to Cold War tradecraft. Dead drops, one-time pads, [music]. face-to-face meetings in soundproof. rooms. Their most sensitive operations. moved to facilities that never touched a. network or used a computer. Buildings that didn't [music] officially. exist, staffed by people with no digital. footprint. They maintained two separate. organizations, the public-facing agency. everyone knew about, and the shadow. agency that operated completely offline.

The public agency would rebuild its. security and update its systems. All of. it would be theater. The real work. happened in places like this concrete. bunker, places with no windows, no. cameras, no phones. Places where messages were still written. by hand and burned after reading. The. most important [music] secrets were. never digitized, never encrypted, and. never stored anywhere except in human. memory. The NSA didn't break encryption to.

destroy society. They destroyed society. [music] to hide that they broken. encryption almost a year ago. Carl was. set up. The quantum apocalypse was. pinned on him, but what could he do. about it? Martial law was still in. effect. The NSA wanted him to keep. working and keep quiet. He could either. agree to cooperate or go to prison. Violation of the Espionage Act, willful. communication of national defense. information, unauthorized access of. classified documents. The list went on. and on. He didn't have much of a choice.

As Carl left the concrete room, he. realized that in a world with no. secrets, the most powerful people. weren't those who could break. encryption. The most powerful people. were those [music] who could keep. secrets without it. And right now, the. only people who could do that worked for. the NSA. >> Thank you [clears throat] for checking. out today's Wi Files [music].

compilation. My name is Morgan. That's. Wyatt and Virgil. We are beavers. Please. say nice things about us in the comments. so the human brings us back. Do the. human a favor and hit like, subscribe, comment, share. That stuff really helps. the channel. [music] If there's a story. that you'd like us to cover, go to the. wifiles.com/tips, send an email, Discord, YouTube chat, [music] whatever works really. Check out. our podcast. It's called the Wi Files. Operation Podcast and it's available. everywhere podcasts are available. [music]. And we started releasing videos on.

Spotify, which the human just won't shut. up about. If you listen or watch, be. sure to leave a like or a comment or a. thumbs up or [music] a rating of any. kind. That'd be swell. Be sure to check. out our Discord server. 85,000 super. weird, exceptionally interesting folks. on there and it's a lot of fun. They. like weird stuff [music] and if you're. watching this, you do too. Now's the. time to mingle. We also have a 24/7. [music] live stream on the Wi Files. Backstage channel. Back-to-back videos. all day, every day, forever and ever. The human and Hank the Fish can keep you.

company and maybe you'll catch a new. episode you missed or revisit the. cringey older ones. No shame here on. this channel. There's even unique. content in between vids. [music]. So, pay attention and join the chat. There's also a new show called The. Basement and it's the human's pride and. joy. He talks with the experts behind. all the stories on this very channel. Some of those folks have been amazing. during the research phase and were so. generous with their knowledge. [music]. They really deserve a lot of credit for. making the show happen. The human picks. their brains so you don't have to. If.

you have any great guest ideas, email us. at [music]. team@thewifiles.com. A very special thanks to the patrons who. make the Wi Files happen. Every [music]. episode is dedicated to our Patreon. members. The human couldn't have done. any of this without the love and support. of this community and if you'd like to. support the channel, consider becoming a. member [music] on Patreon. Three bucks a. month and you get perks like seeing. episodes early with no commercials, access to [music] discontinued merch and. a secret code for the store. Type the. secret code and you get to peruse. exclusive merch not available to the.

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[music]. so they can keep popping out epic. episodes. And we just love seeing the. merch out in the wild. I think [music] that's everything. Eesh. I don't know how the human does. this every week. I'm exhausted. Okay. Here goes the fun part. Little nervous. Deep breaths. Until next time, [music] be safe, be. kind, and know that you are appreciated. Woo. Oh boy. That felt nice. Bye.

>> [music]. [music]. >> Oh. Oh. Yeah. I played the [music] Leprechaun in Area. 51. A secret code inside the Bible said. I [music and singing] was. I love my UFOs and paranormal [music]. funs as well as music, so I'm singing.

the like I should. But then another conspiracy [music]. theory becomes the truth, my friends, and it never ends. [music and singing]. No, it never ends. >> [music]. >> I fear the crab in and got stuck inside. my with MK Ultra. I feel [music]. only two are aware.

Did Stanley Kubrick fake the moon. landing alone on a film set? Or were the. shadow people [music] there? The Roswell alien just fought the. smiling man, I'm told, and his name [music] was cold. I can't. >> I can't believe. I'm dancing with the big. Head professor Thursday nights, [music]. Wednesday JJ. and the wild wild wild thing up through. the night.

>> [music]. >> All I ever wanted was to just hear the. truth. So the wild wild wild thing. up through the night. >> [music]. [music]. >> The mothman sightings and the solar.

storm [music] still come to a god, the. secret city underground. Mysterious number stations, [music]. planet X 2, project stargate, and what. the dark watchers found. >> [music]. >> We're in a simulation, don't you worry though. The black knight [music] satellite chose. me. so I can't believe. I'm dancing with the big.

>> [music]. >> Head professor Thursday nights, Wednesday JJ and the wild wild. wild thing up through the night. All I ever wanted was to just hear. [music] the truth. So the wild wild. wild thing up through the. And when they change. >> [music]. >> their minds when they change. you, and when my. mind changed all through the night. All. I ever wanted was [music] to just hear.

the truth. So when my mind changed all. through the night. >> [music]. >> Gurdy loves. >> [music]. >> to dance. Gurdy. loves to dance on the dance floor. because she [music] is a camel and. camels love to dance. when the feeling is right on waiting.

time. Gurdy [music]. loves to dance. Gurdy. loves to dance. >> [music].