| | |  Entertainment | Books | December 2009 
CIA Used Famous Magician for His Tricks During the Cold War
 Alex Spillius - Telegraph UK
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December 01, 2009
| Though it was believed every copy of his report had been destroyed in 1973, one survived and has been turned into a book.
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John Mulholland was paid the then princely sum of $3,000 for tips on slipping a pill into the drink of the unsuspecting, tying shoelaces to give uncover signals and on the "surreptitious removal of objects by women".
Fortunately for posterity and today's budding spies, the agency's paper shredders were not as thorough in their work. Though it was believed every copy of his report had been destroyed in 1973, one survived and has been turned into a book, The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception.
The material, now unclassified, was unearthed, though they haven't said how, by Keith Melton, an espionage historian, and Bob Wallace, an author and former director of the CIA's Office of Technical Services.
Mulholland's guidance from the 1950s was part of a larger CIA effort, called MK-ULTRA, developed to counter Soviet mind-control and interrogation techniques.
The scheme later involved dosing unsuspecting suspects with LSD, and wilder plots such as dropping depilatory powder into Fidel Castro's boots, or planting an explosive in his cigar.
Most of Mulholland's advice involves more prosaic activities. To avoid concealment, agents should put on an anonymous or even slightly dumb face. "The more facial muscles are relaxed and eyes thrown out of focus, the greater the effect. Doing these actions to a mild degree merely shows a lack of alertness or disinterest."
He supplies instructions on making and concealing droppers for liquids, how to handle multiple small items before pocketing the vital one, and how to pick up a document with a book by using wads of wax.
Former CIA deputy director John McLaughlin writes in a foreword that the drink-spiking techniques "were never actually used", to the best of his knowledge. |
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