Nicholson Baker — Baseless- My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act Series

152 published claims from this book.

• ‘Plausible deniability’ refers to actions that can be denied by the US government.
• 120 pounds of documents were destroyed by fire.
• 500,000 pigs were slaughtered in Cuba to prevent an epidemic in 1971.
• A committee report from 1950 focused on biological warfare strategies.
• A declassified targeting study outlined nuclear strikes on over twelve hundred cities.
• A vigil against germ warfare began in 1959 in Maryland.
• At least thirty-six people were hospitalized from illnesses in 1951.
• Baker submitted a FOIA request to the CIA in 1999.
• Blome worked for the CIA after WWII, leveraging his biowarfare expertise.
• Both overt and covert biological capabilities could exist simultaneously.
• Burden discussed assassination plans against Lumumba with Belgian officials.
• Burden sought to accelerate biological weapons production in the 1950s.
• Burgdorfer discovered Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease.
• Castro suspected the CIA introduced biological plagues to undermine Cuba.
• CIA assassination manual advised on falls as a method of murder.
• CIA conducted germ-simulation tests in the New York City subway system.
• CIA redactions in documents often obscure critical information
• CIA tainted Castro’s cigars with botulinum toxin in 1960 operations.
• CIA’s interrogation techniques influenced by psychological experimentation.
• Covert actions often escalate through repeated strategies and deceitful tactics.
• CREST made millions of previously classified documents accessible online.
• Cuba suffered extensive sabotage totaling about 300,000 tons of sugar cane destroyed.
• Cuba’s tobacco production dropped from 46,000 to 5,000 metric tons within two years.
• Defendant Mitomo committed multiple atrocities during human experiments.
• Differences in military capabilities and opinions indicate a lack of consensus.
• Donald Nichols supervised tortures and executions in South Korea.
• Doolittle advocated for biological warfare advancements in 1951.
• East Germans protested about American potato beetle attacks, but were dismissed as ridiculous.
• Floyd O’Neal holds a master’s degree in chemistry from Tulane University.
• Frank Wisner committed suicide at the age of fifty-six.
• Frank Wisner experienced a breakdown following the 1956 Hungarian uprising.
• Frank Wisner’s document dates back to June 20, 1950.
• From 1952 to 1957, an Army worker cultivated wheat disease at a military airfield.
• Gaitán was killed under orders of the American embassy.
• Gas attacks might easily kill five million people and injure as many more.
• General MacArthur imported food to prevent starvation in Japan after the war.
• General Twining supported the use of biological agents in warfare.
• Government documents older than fifty years should be fully disclosed.
• Guinea pigs exposed to the aerosol died from induced diseases.
• Haskins planned an advisory committee on interrogation techniques.
• Hemorrhagic fever suddenly spread along the 38th parallel but not in nearby areas.
• Henry Cabot Lodge’s efforts to counter Communist allegations were based on deception.
• Historical actions in Guatemala influence understanding of Korean conflict
• Human radiation boxes are three times the size of normal archival boxes.
• Hundreds of inmates at San Quentin were injected with bacteria in the 1940s.
• Immunity promises allowed the US to gain vital knowledge about Japanese biological warfare.
• In 1945, 3,900 people worked at Detrick with no public knowledge.
• In 1949, several staffers at Camp Detrick contracted severe illnesses.
• In 1963, a defoliation conference at Fort Detrick featured industry experts.
• In 1974, Congress voted to strengthen FOIA, but faced a veto attempt.
• In 1975, FOIA significantly increased document declassification.
• Institutional honesty is often compromised to preserve the status quo.
• Japanese germ-warfare scientists conducted human experimentation during WWII.
• Jenkins falsely claimed no insect-borne weapon research occurred during the Korean War.
• Julian Ryall wrote about germ warfare in Korea in 2010.
• Kennedy was treated for hemorrhagic fever in a MASH unit during the Korean War.
• Korean hemorrhagic fever is still a problem in Korea today.
• LCPROWL engaged in paramilitary and sabotage operations during the Cold War.
• LCPROWL’s cover was exposed in 1952 due to media reports.
• Lyme disease has two separate foci of infection.
• Major war documents often neglected to address involvement in specific conflicts
• Minarik’s anticrop program faced a report in 1958 deeming it inefficient.
• Minneapolis participated in government tests with zinc cadmium particles.
• Misleading intelligence strategies can escalate arms races.
• MKULTRA aimed at creating drugs for amnesia and interrogation resistance.
• More than 400 million barberry bushes were eradicated in 1920s.
• Moynihan was incorrect about relocating CIA’s paramilitary side.
• MuckRock won a notable victory against the CIA regarding document access.
• Name redaction prevents the understanding of historical events.
• Nixon announced scientists would switch from weapon research to cancer healing.
• O’Neal’s feelings towards his actions reflect a broader moral conflict in warfare.
• On December 12, 1947, scientists collected evidence from over 600 human victims.
• Operation CARCASS trained CABOCHE-1 members as penetration agents.
• Operation Green included extensive animal testing with over 1,200 pigs.
• Operation Green involved dropping experimental bombs with turkey feathers and blood dust.
• Operation Sphinx planned to kill or injure over ten million people.
• Partridge wanted to destroy North Korea’s rice supplies during war.
• Paul J. Wuest studied tobacco diseases under a U.S. biological-warfare program.
• Paul Linebarger identified strategic agricultural targets for warfare in 1962.
• Plan Classroom involved misleading the USSR about biological weapons.
• Post-WWII American officials downplayed Japanese war crimes in germ warfare.
• Producing botulinum toxin costs four hundred and twenty dollars per pound.
• Project Baseless involved Air Force efforts to develop biological weapons.
• Project BGFIEND was the CIA’s operation in Albania.
• Q fever tests began at Dugway Proving Ground in 1951.
• Redaction can blur the meaning and impact of documents.
• Richard Helms ordered the destruction of MKULTRA files in 1963.
• Rural bombing campaigns risked damaging the Library of Congress’s newspaper collections.
• Scientists conducted covert biological warfare tests in San Francisco in 1950.
• Secrecy in warfare enables atrocities on various scales.
• Secrecy suppresses knowledge, enforcing historical amnesia.
• Senator Moynihan proposed dividing the CIA’s functions.
• Serratia marcescens caused infections and at least one death in San Francisco.
• Societies falsify history through planned amnesia and evidence destruction
• Songo fever had an initial death rate of about 30 percent.
• Spraying aircraft over the Yalu River aimed to establish credibility of the propaganda.
• Suppressed documents may relate to Syngman Rhee’s police-state atrocities.
• Suppressed knowledge allows the myth of American decency to endure.
• The 1945 rice harvest was the worst since 1909.
• The Air Force targeted seventy Russian cities for destruction during the Cold War.
• The American denial was a coordinated deception despite its truth.
• The American germ warfare program targeted various diseases including anthrax.
• The Bad Injun myth lets Americans displace guilt for genocide onto victims
• The CIA aimed to create fear through deception operations.
• The CIA aimed to disrupt Albania’s economy under Project BGFIEND.
• The CIA decommissioned the CREST kiosk on January 26, 2017.
• The CIA demanded $147,000 to locate microfilmed records.
• The CIA disposes of FOIA-related documents five years after response.
• The CIA financed General Li Mi’s attack on China in 1951.
• The CIA narrowly avoided being shut down in the 1970s.
• The CIA planned biological attacks against Soviet crops using spores.
• The CIA recommended media campaigns against unfavorable books.
• The CIA treated foreign nations as laboratories for experimentation.
• The CIA’s cryptonym for Italy was KMULCER.
• The CIA’s cumbersome FOIA processes hinder public access to information.
• The CIA’s MKULTRA program involved unethical biochemical experimentation.
• The CIA’s operational files are kept secret to increase FOIA responsiveness.
• The CIA’s PBSUCCESS led to decades of military rule in Guatemala.
• The definition of natural agriculture becomes questionable under experimental conditions.
• The Department of Agriculture developed aerosol insecticides during World War II.
• The Department of Defense began destroying biological weapons in 1971.
• The Detrick scientists attempted to improve upon Japanese biological warfare practices.
• The epidemic of hemorrhagic fever was linked to a common localized source.
• The JFK Records Act enabled the disclosure of previously hidden documents.
• The Joint Strategic Plans Committee revived Plan Classroom after Forrestal’s death.
• The Justice Department has resisted FOIA compliance since its inception.
• The Library of Congress became involved in secret military intelligence in the 1950s.
• The military’s bacterial tests likely caused a cluster of infections in San Francisco.
• The National Archives has a pending FOIA request that is twenty-five years old.
• The National Archives holds original documents related to FOIA requests.
• The Navy conducted aerosol tests on guinea pigs beginning in 1943.
• The normal archival box can hold roughly a thousand pages.
• The research files on Operation Green were preserved at Iowa State University Library.
• The reviews of Endicott’s book included extreme criticism from notable scholars.
• The Soviet Union increased its biological weapons research in 1949.
• The Soviets’ germ-warfare propaganda aimed to discredit American morality regarding warfare.
• The U.S. recommended intensified biological warfare research in 1951.
• The U.S. studied using insects to spread illness during the 1950s.
• Truman authorized covert operations to induce trouble in Russia.
• Twenty million dollars is less than 1 percent of a Zumwalt destroyer’s cost.
• Twenty-five cities were specified as suitable for gas attacks after Tokyo.
• Twenty-one memos stored at the National Archives are inaccessible to researchers.
• U.S. government planned to produce 130 million mosquitoes monthly for warfare.
• US covert operations were justified as necessary for national security.
• Using biological weapons alongside conventional attacks increases medical challenges.
• VKA was a plant hormone used in military defoliants.
• Wallace Irwin labeled his involvement in the operation as based largely on falsehoods.
• Wars increase human cruelty, altering perceptions of normal behavior.
• Wisner believed ruining Albania’s economy would hinder Soviet influence.
• Woolpert’s division experimented with spores to infect crops using birds.
• Wuest found an optimum temperature range for tobacco blight infection.
• Zinc cadmium was used to simulate anthrax in dispersal tests.