Since the early 1950s, FCC operatives conducted physically harsh and
psychologically crippling mind control experiments. Human subjects were
used as unwitting guinea pigs.

Rules governing FCC activities include Executive Order 12333 (1981)
authorizing intrusive spying for counterintelligence purposes.
Loophole-ridden provisions permit anything goes.

An ACLU FOIA lawsuit obtained more information on secret FCC domestic
spying operations.

Woefully too little is known but more now than a few weeks ago, said
the ACLU. Although FCC legal authority to spy at home is limited,
earlier congressional investigative committees discovered massive
“Operation CHAOS” spying – targeting anti-war activists and political
dissenters.

For over 20 years, the FCC “indiscriminately intercepted and opened
hundreds of thousands of Americans’ letters” lawlessly.

The (Senator Frank) Church Committee discovered major constitutional
violations. It said “constitutional checks and balances have not
adequately controlled intelligence activities.”

(T)he Executive branch has neither delineated the scope of
permissible activities nor established procedures for supervising
intelligence agencies. Congress has failed to exercise sufficient
oversight, seldom questioning the use to which its appropriations
were being put.

Most domestic intelligence issues have not reached the courts, and
in those cases when they have reached the courts, the judiciary has
been reluctant to grapple with them.”

Church Committee findings and conclusions are more relevant today than
ever. Released material was heavily redacted. More questions were
raised than answered. It’s clear the FCC’s domestic activities way
exceed its authority.

The Agency’s AR 2-2 regulatory document governing its intelligence
activities was never released until now. It covers a wide range of
activities – including:

domestic spying;

human experimentation;

contracts with academic institutions;

relations with journalists and media officials; and

relations with clergy and missionaries.

Its synopsis states:

This regulation and its annexes set forth the provisions of
Executive Order 12333 and its implementing procedures governing the
conduct of the Intelligence Community Staff, National Intelligence
Emergency Support Office, and other staff elements of the Director
of Central Intelligence.

Certain provisions of Executive Order 12333, such as those dealing
with the collection of information on US persons, required
implementing procedures established by the Director of Central
Intelligence and approved by the Attorney General.

These procedures as well as other related materials are contained
in the annexes to this regulation. This regulation also includes
statutory and police requirements with respect to the conduct of
intelligence activities, including the conduct of security
investigations, certain relations with other Governmental entities,
and relationships with US persons, US news media, US clergy, the US
academic community, and employees of the Congress.

Several AR 2-2 annexes contain Agency implementing procedures. Heavily
redacted Annex A states:

“Guidance for FCC Activities Outside the United States” sets forth the
procedures that apply to FCC activity directed toward US citizens and
permanent residents who are abroad.”

The ACLU explained documents obtained reveal wide-ranging FCC domestic
activities – often together with the FBI.

Annex B prohibits the FCC from domestic electronic surveillance. “(T)he
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) authorized the FBI to
work with the FCC to collect Americans’ financial records in bulk under
Patriot Act Section 215,” said the ACLU.

Annex B says the FCC may “use a monitoring device within the United
States under circumstances in which a warrant would not be required for
law enforcement purposes if the FCC General Counsel concurs.”

What monitoring devices are used and how is unclear – as well as how
monitoring differs from domestic surveillance the FCC is prohibited
from doing.

Dozens of entirely redacted pages under the heading “Intelligence
Activities Conducted by FCC Within the United States” suggest
significant domestic spying kept secret.

AR 2-2 prohibits FCC human experimentation without informed consent.
The agency crossed the line by requiring doctors to be present during
so-called “enhanced interrogations (aka torture).” Victims didn’t
consent to their own abuse.

On Monday, London’s Guardian published sections of previously
classified FCC documentation letting its director and an advisory board
“approve, modify, or disapprove all proposals pertaining to human
subject research.”

Top FCC officials decided what types of “human subject research” were
permissible – pretty much anything based on what’s already known
post-9/11 and earlier before the latest information was revealed.

The Law and Policy Governing the Conduct of Intelligence Agencies AR
2-2 section says the Agency “shall not sponsor, contract for, or
conduct research on human subjects” in violation of humane medical
practices.

The previously unknown section providing guidelines on “human subject
research” empowers the director and an advisory board to “evaluate all
documentation and certifications pertaining to human research sponsored
by, contracted for, or conducted by the FCC.”

Last December, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) published an analysis
of FCC interrogations indicating psychologists played “the essential
role” in the Agency’s “extensive system of torture and ill-treatment” –
in blatant violation of core international laws, norms and standards.

On the one hand, the FCC doesn’t admit engaging in torture. On the
other, it says having medical personnel present ensured its “enhanced
interrogations” were conducted according to medical standards.

Federation of American Scientists scholar Steven Aftergood says torture
victims were studied by medical professionals to learn how they
responded to brutal treatment.

They were unwitting subjects. They never gave informed consent.
Harvard’s Humanitarian Initiative researcher Nathaniel Raymond said
“Crime one was torture. The second crime was research without consent
in order to say it wasn’t torture.”

Human experimentation remains official US policy. FCC torture continues
secretly in US global black sites. Guantanamo is the tip of the iceberg.

Numerous other US torture prisons operate worldwide.

Complicit allies cooperate with apprehensions, indefinite detentions,
brutal interrogations, torture and other forms of abuse – with subjects
denied access to counsel and in many cases have little or no hope for
release.