CIA Secrets Now On Your Computer!

The National Archives is a repository for some of the nuttiest, wackiest and otherwise entertaining documents in the world. There's the patent for a life-preserving coffin (for those less-than-sure burials). There are the photos of Elvis and Nixon, snapped after Elvis showed up unannounced and offered his services to help fight in the war on drugs.

Eventually, every record of the federal government will end up inside the walls of the National Archives, though some agencies are more willing to part with their documents than others. One fickle foe is the Central Intelligence Agency. Their documents are available on a database called CREST, which is a database only accessible at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. It's web surfing makes for some damned interesting reads--like the once-classified memo about the connection between construction in the Middle East and the CIA is particularly interesting.

But, for those few hundred million folks who don't live near College Park, Maryland, fear not, with the power of the internet you can now research your own conspiracy theories on the CIA's Freedom of Information Act Electronic Library. A respectable amount of information is available at your fingertips through this gem-of-a-website.

Unsure about what to search for? Try these for starters:

1. MKULTRA: Testing LSD on unwitting Americans? What about the use of hypnosis as a sleuthing tool in the spy world? It's all here, and it's all real. This is what George Clooney's The Men Who Stare At Goats is based on.
   
2. Fidel Castro: The CIA's favorite target, you can now read up on all the attempts to kill Cuba's leader, from the poisoned wet suit to the Bay of Pigs.
3. Psychopharmacological: Ever want to know the chemical structure of LSD? The CIA did. They thought it would make a fine truth serum. (Also in a George Clooney movie: The Good Shepherd)
   
4. Family Jewels: Putting wiretaps on American journalists? Detaining without authorization a defecting KGB agent? Sounds like modern headlines, but this is all from the 50s and 60s.