Customer Reviews

Secret Weapons : Two Sisters' Terrifying True Story of Sex, Spies and Sabotage

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

FOIA often brings us precious quotes like the reminiscence by Captain George White when he retired from CIA mind control work in 1966. "It was fun, fun, fun. Where else could a red-blooded American boy lie, cheat, steal, rape and pillage with the sanction and blessing of the all-highest." Where else indeed can sadists, pedophiles and satanists frolic together with total immunity under the cloak of "national security" secrecy laws. If you wonder just how much fun it was on the other side of the electrodes, you can read this book. Learn how the CIA would swap their youngest child subjects as favors to academic primate researchers to be used as "lab rats." Learn how parents were turned against their own children and were convinced to sign away their kids human rights to the foibles of government torturers. This is pretty grim stuff. What is also grim is the apologetic and flag waving tone that creeps in and out of the work as it progresses trying to give it a "balanced" perspective. The people involved in this research are clearly criminals by any legal or moral standard, demented creeps would probably be more to the point. I am sure there are hardworking sincere people in the CIA doing what they think is best for the citizens of this nation, but it would be a very big stretch to put any of the mind control crowd into that bailiwick... If you can think of anything despicable you could do to a child, it will probably be graphically portrayed in this book. Not for those with weak stomachs, on the other hand if this really turns you on, you may have a bright future on the federal payroll!

Let's face it the general public and news media in particular are in total denial here. If Someone came before a judge and said "my CIA mind control handler made me do it, I am just an innocent victim" the courtroom would laugh. The agency has plausible deniability now, and they don't want that to change anytime soon. They have kept their finger in the dyke for decades and this book has the potential to put a major crack in it. There have been a couple other recent first person accounts, but they have been privately published and never made it into the bookstores. This book by the Hersha sisters is the stuff of which legends and movies are made. It captures the imagination with the horrors of the government sponsored torture, molestation and enslavement of helpless children as they are molded into sox toys, spies and assassins. Legal professor and mind manipulation expert Alan Scheflin has estimated that at least hundreds and probably over one thousand American children have been put through this CIA gauntlet and this book gives us a clear up front and personal depiction of how such treatment ruins lives, breaks up marriages and can end in suicide. The endless torment, sleepless nights and stolen childhoods take a tremendous toll. Such high stress induction techniques are the nuts and bolts of breaking the mind. Split personalities which are unaware of each other are the first goal of Project Bluebird. The next is to establish absolute control of the newly emerged personality so it will never reveal itself to anyone but the handler, follow orders without resistance and self-destruct if threatened with disclosure. The "best and brightest" children were chosen for subversion by this process, those with strong survival capabilities, leadership talent, photographic memories, etc. That is both the strength and achilles heel of the program. The agency has been extremely successful at keeping Projects Bluebird, MKULTRA and Artichoke out of the newspapers, but damage control is about to go out of control. The harassment techniques used by the agency to stop this book failed. The cat is out of the bag. Secret Weapons is an autobiographical account of how both sisters were brutalized both by their father and their handlers. The result was a pair of mental and physical slaves which seemed outwardly to lead normal lives, but which were on call to drop everything and pursue a dangerous agenda elsewhere with no compensation or knowledge of the event when they returned. The skilled author team brings out the best mix from all quarters, a good story, good writing, and good follow up investigation. This is an issue that belongs on the lips and in the minds of all people until it is debated in public forums and the halls of Congress. We need a housecleaning and disclosure. We need treatment and oversight. We need public understanding, trained therapists, and knowledgeable legal minds to bring an END to this perversion of the human spirit.

This book tells the story of two sisters who, as young children, were put into a top secret government experiment/program known as Bluebird (later offshoots were MkUltra, Monarch, and others), the purpose of which was to create "Manchurian Candidates" - mind controlled spies and assassins. Although portions of these programs go back to the 1930's, it was not until after WWII, that the CIA began training children. Children are better subjects for programming, since they dissociate more readily. Based on research by such persons as Dr. George Estabrooks, Dr. Sidney Gottleib, Dr. Jose Delgado, and others, including Nazi scientists (such as Dr. Hubertus Strughold) secretly brought into this country by the CIA, government programmers, using electro-shock, drugs, and hypnosis, as well as other forms of torture and brainwashing, were able to create multiple personalities in the children. The children would then continue to be able to lead their normal everyday lives without anyone suspecting their involvment in covert government operations. One of the sisters, Cheryl, became a "Black Widow" - trained to seduce and, if necessary, kill targeted men. The other sister, Lynn, was primarily trained as a combat leader, meant to lead groups in case of attack on our government or other secret missions, such as taking out a traitor, or rescuing the kidnapped child of someone deemed important to the government.

The sisters' stories are not the first to surface on Projects Bluebird, MkUltra, or Monarch. But, what is different about "Secret Weapons" is that, while it contains useful time lines and lists and an important collection of declassified documents, it pulls together a vast amount of corroborated information and conveys it within the context of a straightforward semi-autobiographical story. Furthermore, the combined recollections of the sisters, along with the research of co-writers Dale Griffis, PhD, former police captain, internationally known law enforcement specialist, and consultant on cult-related abuse, and Ted Schwartz, best selling author of over 100 books and several thousand articles, many on multiple personality disorder, tell the story more clearly than it ever has been told before. It is very well-researched, well-organized, well-written, easy to read, but make no mistake: it is a tour de force.

The scariest thing is that, while the Monarch Program was officially disbanded in the 1970s after congressional hearings, there is evidence that related programs still exist, and that there are many mind control victims still out there, still being used covertly by government "handlers." No one has the right to take over another person's mind and body. It is against all laws of humanity. As Lynn writes: "What angers me is the loss of control. At any moment someone could come to me, be dressed the right way and use the right code, and I no longer have free will. I will do anything that person requests."

This book delivers a firsthand account of two sisters that endured the CIA's MKULTRA mind-control program and lived to tell about it. There should be no surprise that programs like MKULTRA were a reality - their existence is a matter of public record. Indeed, similar programs existed in the Soviet Union and are still common practice in China, where children as young as 3 years old are entered into training. Given that the MKULTRA program was a reality - as hard as the fact may be to comprehend, much less accept - then the reader immediately recognizes that the sister's tale has relevance to citizens in a democracy.

The book is intriguing on many levels and, like many such endeavors, does not seem to be intended as a definitive history so much as a personal account of atrocities endured and the power of the human spirit to recover from the most horrendous abuses. On that level, this book succeeds magnificently.

Readers who enjoy personal accounts of a world most of us have only imagined - and who also are inspired by tales of overcoming bitter adversity - will find this book satisfying and important.

My first opinion of this book was that it was sensational. Even at this time I am still skeptical of some of the events in this book.

However, "Secret Weapon" does twist all thoughts a reader might have about conspiracy theories and what our government and military really do. The truth is our government does do things that we as citizens of the United States do and do not know. Everyone has heard such theories at one time or another, and some if most are very believable. This book confronts those theories in an eerie manner: Is what these women are saying true? If the answer to this question is yes, then we indeed live in scary times.

My suggestion possible readers of this book is to read this with an open mind. I am sure that the actual truths of this book will be revealed either by the declassification of government documents or by more proof being publicized by the authors; who I am sure will continue their quest for truth in another book of this nature.

This is a groundbreaking book and a compelling read. It's not that no good books on this subject have been written before, it's that the drama, the detail, and the quality of writing combine to deliver a fresh real-life and believable first person look at an area abandoned by the Clinton commission. Others have commented on the story line, content and strengths of the book. This critique will focus on weaknesses. It would, however, be a mistake to take the book completely at face value. In an effort to avoid the criticism that is often levelled at books where some of the content has been based on hypnotically aided recall, the authors have relied totally on material that arose spontaneously as therapeutic reintegration of the multiple personalities progressed. Some small fraction of this material will inevitably be disinformation cleverly conceived to sew doubt in the minds of the therapists and readers alike. The authors dutifully transcribed the material. It is left to us to decide/guess which of the more doubtful passages are screen memories. The CIA is very good at going to outrageous lengths to make someone sound crazy like when they held a gun to Sister Diana Ortiz in Guatemala and had her murder a fellow prisoner on threat of her own life so that they could videotape it and use the material for blackmail. More to the point here is that handlers can pile screen memory on top of screen memory on top of screen memory to create a hall of mirrors that is very confusing to all trying to find the truth. It is enough to know that sick minds are at work and need to be thwarted. The bulk of the book is in keeping with what has been documented by researchers and therapists from their FOIA material and practice (as in the Greenbaum speech). As such the preponderance of the evidence against CIA project leaders is so damning that we can now safely apply the British standard, guilty until proven innocent to their efforts, since those responsible have invoked a scorched earth policy of massive document destruction. This book and others of this genre are important and need to be widely read with both an open and a critical mind. There is no way they can be swallowed whole. One thing we can see with certainty from the book is how hellish it is to live with tormenting memories of the past gnawing at your brain, distorting your reality. The social and political issues raised need desperately to be addressed. The practices described, which have been in active use for decades, are despicable and need to be stopped as soon as humanly possible.

I'd recommend this as a introduction to those unfamiliar with the United State's ongoing mk-ultra program. It graphically describes the horrific abuses these two sisters endured at the hands of our U.S. military as innocent young children. More importantly, it details their courageous journey in overcoming unimaginable cruelty.

The descriptions of abuses are concise, much of the information contained within this book is easily verifiable via the Freedom of Information Act. Any determined skeptic may contact the cia directly an request documentation on mk-ultra research. For further research I'd suggest; A Nation betrayed by Carol Rutz.

While the book was well written, the author's narrative occasionally comes across as a work of fiction. It may have been more effective if written in the Hersha sister's own words without the aid of a professional author. However, the extensive documentation listed should silence any serious critics.

Survivors of these abuses will be encouraged by the Hersha sister's heroic journey in breaking free and overcoming much of the severe trauma they endured as children. I'd recommend this book for survivors seeking a greater understanding.

I have always been aware that there are secrets that the CIA and the US Government have been hiding. However, I had no idea that children were a part of the CIA's programs, many of which were sinister. I do not doubt at all anything that these women are reporting in the book. This is a great read (I couldn't put it down once I opened it. I read it straight through without stopping) However, one might be truly offended at what tortures these women suffered due to the CIA's desire to create perfect little soldiers. I was not suprised by what I read, but I was amazed.

This incredible book is a treasure trove of information on the covert experiments performed on innocent children during the cold war. The Herhsa's sisters story is told by a talented writer,Ted Swarz, who brings to life the brainwashing experiments used to create Manchurian Candidates. Dale Griffin, through his investigative quest, has provided us with the proof that Children were used as human guinea pigs to perfect these heinous programs. If we are to understand any of this, we must look beyond our preconceived notions that things like this only happen elsewhere. We cannot deny what comes out of our own government's declassified top-secret files. Colin Ross's book Bluebird, gave us the proof of the deliberate creation of multiple Personality for covert use and how it was achieved. Now we have the heart rending account of its effect on two innocent women. A must read for anyone who values their freedom and their own pursuit of life and liberty.

In the last half of the twentieth century the American government carried out secret, heinous experiments designed to create and perfect soldiers and spies. Cheryl and Lynn Hersha were two sisters who, as children, were caught up in some of these top secret programs of torture and mind control that went under such covert titles as Monarch, Artichoke, MKULTRA, and Paperclip. In Secret Weapons: Two Sisters' Terrifying True Story Of Sex, Spies And Sabotage, the sisters effective collaborate with Dale Griffis and Ted Schwarz to reveal and analyze these "black box" operations through previously classified CIA files, the sister's own personal experiences, as well as extensive and informative interviews with experts to document one of the most chilling and incredible aspects of American history -- and one that never made it into any American history books.