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

14 min read

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

Yield

151 of 2519 paragraphs kept (6.0%). Target for mining: 30%–50% — ⚠️ BELOW target.

Pre-Assessment

Nicholson Baker is a well-known American novelist and non-fiction author, noted for investigative and narrative-driven works like ‘Human Smoke’ and ‘The Everlasting Check’. ‘Baseless’ chronicles his extensive, often frustrating experiences using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to uncover government secrets regarding Cold War-era biological weapons research. While Baker is not a legal scholar or FOIA archivist, his firsthand narrative offers high epistemic yield on the practical friction, delays, and stonewalling inherent in federal records requests—valuable context for a piece on public records access, even if state-level MN practices differ in specifics.

Reading Goal

Prioritizing: Factual Claims (Essential for accurate legal and institutional facts about MN FOIA.), Definitional Content (Crucial for precise definitions of MN data practices statutes.), Causal Relationships (Important for understanding how sunshine laws affect public accountability.), Connection Points (Useful for linking MN laws to broader federal or state trends.), Contrarian or Surprising Claims (Good for finding compelling angles or loopholes in the law.) De-prioritizing: Inspiration and Speculation (Not needed for a factual journalistic article.), Craft and Method (Irrelevant for a journalism/legal research piece.)

Thesis

Twenty-one memos stored at the National Archives are inaccessible to researchers. · ch. 2

Argument

  1. The National Archives has a pending FOIA request that is twenty-five years old. — ch. 2
  2. Cuba suffered extensive sabotage totaling about 300,000 tons of sugar cane destroyed. — ch. 4
  3. CIA tainted Castro’s cigars with botulinum toxin in 1960 operations. — ch. 4
  4. Covert actions often escalate through repeated strategies and deceitful tactics. — ch. 4
  5. CIA’s interrogation techniques influenced by psychological experimentation. — ch. 6
  6. Baker submitted a FOIA request to the CIA in 1999. — ch. 6
  7. Castro suspected the CIA introduced biological plagues to undermine Cuba. — ch. 7
  8. The JFK Records Act enabled the disclosure of previously hidden documents. — ch. 7
  9. The CIA’s MKULTRA program involved unethical biochemical experimentation. — ch. 7
  10. 500,000 pigs were slaughtered in Cuba to prevent an epidemic in 1971. — ch. 8
  11. Cuba’s tobacco production dropped from 46,000 to 5,000 metric tons within two years. — ch. 8
  12. The Justice Department has resisted FOIA compliance since its inception. — ch. 8
  13. MuckRock won a notable victory against the CIA regarding document access. — ch. 8
  14. Wuest found an optimum temperature range for tobacco blight infection. — ch. 8
  15. CREST made millions of previously classified documents accessible online. — ch. 8
  16. In 1974, Congress voted to strengthen FOIA, but faced a veto attempt. — ch. 8
  17. Paul J. Wuest studied tobacco diseases under a U.S. biological-warfare program. — ch. 8
  18. The U.S. recommended intensified biological warfare research in 1951. — ch. 9
  19. A committee report from 1950 focused on biological warfare strategies. — ch. 9
  20. The reviews of Endicott’s book included extreme criticism from notable scholars. — ch. 9
  21. The American germ warfare program targeted various diseases including anthrax. — ch. 9
  22. A vigil against germ warfare began in 1959 in Maryland. — ch. 10
  23. CIA redactions in documents often obscure critical information — ch. 11
  24. Major war documents often neglected to address involvement in specific conflicts — ch. 11
  25. Q fever tests began at Dugway Proving Ground in 1951. — ch. 12
  26. Burgdorfer discovered Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease. — ch. 12
  27. Lyme disease has two separate foci of infection. — ch. 12
  28. Hundreds of inmates at San Quentin were injected with bacteria in the 1940s. — ch. 13
  29. Guinea pigs exposed to the aerosol died from induced diseases. — ch. 13
  30. The Navy conducted aerosol tests on guinea pigs beginning in 1943. — ch. 13
  31. CIA conducted germ-simulation tests in the New York City subway system. — ch. 14
  32. In 1975, FOIA significantly increased document declassification. — ch. 14
  33. The Department of Agriculture developed aerosol insecticides during World War II. — ch. 15
  34. Woolpert’s division experimented with spores to infect crops using birds. — ch. 16
  35. In 1945, 3,900 people worked at Detrick with no public knowledge. — ch. 16
  36. Secrecy in warfare enables atrocities on various scales. — ch. 16
  37. Serratia marcescens caused infections and at least one death in San Francisco. — ch. 18
  38. The military’s bacterial tests likely caused a cluster of infections in San Francisco. — ch. 18
  39. Scientists conducted covert biological warfare tests in San Francisco in 1950. — ch. 18
  40. The Air Force targeted seventy Russian cities for destruction during the Cold War. — ch. 19
  41. Minneapolis participated in government tests with zinc cadmium particles. — ch. 19
  42. A declassified targeting study outlined nuclear strikes on over twelve hundred cities. — ch. 19
  43. Zinc cadmium was used to simulate anthrax in dispersal tests. — ch. 19
  44. Rural bombing campaigns risked damaging the Library of Congress’s newspaper collections. — ch. 19
  45. Moynihan was incorrect about relocating CIA’s paramilitary side. — ch. 20
  46. Human radiation boxes are three times the size of normal archival boxes. — ch. 20
  47. Senator Moynihan proposed dividing the CIA’s functions. — ch. 20
  48. The CIA narrowly avoided being shut down in the 1970s. — ch. 20
  49. Haskins planned an advisory committee on interrogation techniques. — ch. 20
  50. The normal archival box can hold roughly a thousand pages. — ch. 20
  51. Frank Wisner’s document dates back to June 20, 1950. — ch. 20
  52. Wars increase human cruelty, altering perceptions of normal behavior. — ch. 21
  53. VKA was a plant hormone used in military defoliants. — ch. 21
  54. The CIA planned biological attacks against Soviet crops using spores. — ch. 21
  55. ‘Plausible deniability’ refers to actions that can be denied by the US government. — ch. 22
  56. The CIA’s PBSUCCESS led to decades of military rule in Guatemala. — ch. 22
  57. US covert operations were justified as necessary for national security. — ch. 22
  58. The CIA treated foreign nations as laboratories for experimentation. — ch. 22
  59. CIA assassination manual advised on falls as a method of murder. — ch. 24
  60. The Library of Congress became involved in secret military intelligence in the 1950s. — ch. 25
  61. Operation Green involved dropping experimental bombs with turkey feathers and blood dust. — ch. 26
  62. The research files on Operation Green were preserved at Iowa State University Library. — ch. 26
  63. Operation Green included extensive animal testing with over 1,200 pigs. — ch. 26
  64. East Germans protested about American potato beetle attacks, but were dismissed as ridiculous. — ch. 26
  65. On December 12, 1947, scientists collected evidence from over 600 human victims. — ch. 27
  66. Immunity promises allowed the US to gain vital knowledge about Japanese biological warfare. — ch. 27
  67. Songo fever had an initial death rate of about 30 percent. — ch. 27
  68. Producing botulinum toxin costs four hundred and twenty dollars per pound. — ch. 28
  69. Using biological weapons alongside conventional attacks increases medical challenges. — ch. 28
  70. Burden sought to accelerate biological weapons production in the 1950s. — ch. 29
  71. Doolittle advocated for biological warfare advancements in 1951. — ch. 29
  72. General Twining supported the use of biological agents in warfare. — ch. 29
  73. Burden discussed assassination plans against Lumumba with Belgian officials. — ch. 29
  74. Suppressed documents may relate to Syngman Rhee’s police-state atrocities. — ch. 30
  75. Donald Nichols supervised tortures and executions in South Korea. — ch. 30
  76. Project Baseless involved Air Force efforts to develop biological weapons. — ch. 30
  77. Partridge wanted to destroy North Korea’s rice supplies during war. — ch. 30
  78. Both overt and covert biological capabilities could exist simultaneously. — ch. 31
  79. Differences in military capabilities and opinions indicate a lack of consensus. — ch. 31
  80. The American denial was a coordinated deception despite its truth. — ch. 32
  81. Defendant Mitomo committed multiple atrocities during human experiments. — ch. 33
  82. Post-WWII American officials downplayed Japanese war crimes in germ warfare. — ch. 33
  83. Japanese germ-warfare scientists conducted human experimentation during WWII. — ch. 33
  84. The Detrick scientists attempted to improve upon Japanese biological warfare practices. — ch. 33
  85. Hemorrhagic fever suddenly spread along the 38th parallel but not in nearby areas. — ch. 34
  86. The epidemic of hemorrhagic fever was linked to a common localized source. — ch. 34
  87. The CIA recommended media campaigns against unfavorable books. — ch. 34
  88. Kennedy was treated for hemorrhagic fever in a MASH unit during the Korean War. — ch. 34
  89. Jenkins falsely claimed no insect-borne weapon research occurred during the Korean War. — ch. 35
  90. U.S. government planned to produce 130 million mosquitoes monthly for warfare. — ch. 35
  91. Julian Ryall wrote about germ warfare in Korea in 2010. — ch. 36
  92. The CIA aimed to disrupt Albania’s economy under Project BGFIEND. — ch. 37
  93. Operation CARCASS trained CABOCHE-1 members as penetration agents. — ch. 37
  94. Wisner believed ruining Albania’s economy would hinder Soviet influence. — ch. 37
  95. The CIA’s cryptonym for Italy was KMULCER. — ch. 37
  96. Project BGFIEND was the CIA’s operation in Albania. — ch. 37
  97. The CIA’s cumbersome FOIA processes hinder public access to information. — ch. 38
  98. The CIA decommissioned the CREST kiosk on January 26, 2017. — ch. 38
  99. General MacArthur imported food to prevent starvation in Japan after the war. — ch. 39
  100. The 1945 rice harvest was the worst since 1909. — ch. 39
  101. Redaction can blur the meaning and impact of documents. — ch. 40
  102. Gaitán was killed under orders of the American embassy. — ch. 41
  103. The CIA disposes of FOIA-related documents five years after response. — ch. 41
  104. Richard Helms ordered the destruction of MKULTRA files in 1963. — ch. 41
  105. The CIA demanded $147,000 to locate microfilmed records. — ch. 41
  106. 120 pounds of documents were destroyed by fire. — ch. 41
  107. The definition of natural agriculture becomes questionable under experimental conditions. — ch. 42
  108. More than 400 million barberry bushes were eradicated in 1920s. — ch. 42
  109. From 1952 to 1957, an Army worker cultivated wheat disease at a military airfield. — ch. 42
  110. At least thirty-six people were hospitalized from illnesses in 1951. — ch. 43
  111. In 1949, several staffers at Camp Detrick contracted severe illnesses. — ch. 43
  112. The Joint Strategic Plans Committee revived Plan Classroom after Forrestal’s death. — ch. 44
  113. The Soviet Union increased its biological weapons research in 1949. — ch. 44
  114. Name redaction prevents the understanding of historical events. — ch. 45
  115. The CIA’s operational files are kept secret to increase FOIA responsiveness. — ch. 45
  116. Floyd O’Neal holds a master’s degree in chemistry from Tulane University. — ch. 46
  117. O’Neal’s feelings towards his actions reflect a broader moral conflict in warfare. — ch. 46
  118. The CIA financed General Li Mi’s attack on China in 1951. — ch. 48
  119. LCPROWL’s cover was exposed in 1952 due to media reports. — ch. 48
  120. Truman authorized covert operations to induce trouble in Russia. — ch. 48
  121. LCPROWL engaged in paramilitary and sabotage operations during the Cold War. — ch. 48
  122. Paul Linebarger identified strategic agricultural targets for warfare in 1962. — ch. 52
  123. The U.S. studied using insects to spread illness during the 1950s. — ch. 52
  124. In 1963, a defoliation conference at Fort Detrick featured industry experts. — ch. 52
  125. Minarik’s anticrop program faced a report in 1958 deeming it inefficient. — ch. 52
  126. Operation Sphinx planned to kill or injure over ten million people. — ch. 54
  127. MKULTRA aimed at creating drugs for amnesia and interrogation resistance. — ch. 54
  128. Twenty-five cities were specified as suitable for gas attacks after Tokyo. — ch. 54
  129. Gas attacks might easily kill five million people and injure as many more. — ch. 54
  130. Secrecy suppresses knowledge, enforcing historical amnesia. — ch. 54
  131. Suppressed knowledge allows the myth of American decency to endure. — ch. 54
  132. Wallace Irwin labeled his involvement in the operation as based largely on falsehoods. — ch. 56
  133. Henry Cabot Lodge’s efforts to counter Communist allegations were based on deception. — ch. 56
  134. Institutional honesty is often compromised to preserve the status quo. — ch. 56
  135. The Soviets’ germ-warfare propaganda aimed to discredit American morality regarding warfare. — ch. 56
  136. The Department of Defense began destroying biological weapons in 1971. — ch. 57
  137. Nixon announced scientists would switch from weapon research to cancer healing. — ch. 57
  138. Historical actions in Guatemala influence understanding of Korean conflict — ch. 58
  139. Blome worked for the CIA after WWII, leveraging his biowarfare expertise. — ch. 59
  140. Twenty million dollars is less than 1 percent of a Zumwalt destroyer’s cost. — ch. 60
  141. The National Archives holds original documents related to FOIA requests. — ch. 60
  142. Spraying aircraft over the Yalu River aimed to establish credibility of the propaganda. — ch. 62
  143. The CIA aimed to create fear through deception operations. — ch. 62
  144. Korean hemorrhagic fever is still a problem in Korea today. — ch. 62
  145. Frank Wisner committed suicide at the age of fifty-six. — ch. 63
  146. Frank Wisner experienced a breakdown following the 1956 Hungarian uprising. — ch. 63
  147. Government documents older than fifty years should be fully disclosed. — ch. 64
  148. Plan Classroom involved misleading the USSR about biological weapons. — ch. 64
  149. Misleading intelligence strategies can escalate arms races. — ch. 64

Annotation Roundup

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