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  • PROJECT MK-ULTRA: The Two-Way Mirror (Chapter 2)

    PROJECT MK-ULTRA: The Two-Way Mirror (Chapter 2)
    Feb 12 2026
    The Fairshake Files continues through the declassified record on Project MK-ULTRA — the CIA’s covert Cold War program to research behavioral modification, interrogation, and chemical influence.

    This chapter moves from theory into the street. In 1955, an operation known as Operation Midnight Climax ran out of a San Francisco safehouse: a staged apartment, hidden microphones, a two-way mirror, and unwitting “subjects” dosed with LSD while the government watched from behind the wall.

    We follow the mechanics of the operation, the people who ran it, and the collateral damage that followed — including the Wayne Ritchie case. Then we trace how MK-ULTRA solved its two problems: deniable dosing in the outside world, and repeatable access inside a prison. This is intelligence history, documented record, and true crime with context and receipts.

    IN THIS EPISODE:
    • Operation Midnight Climax and the San Francisco safehouse model
    • George Hunter White and the role of cut-outs in domestic CIA activity
    • The two-way mirror, microphone holes, and the reel-to-reel record
    • How the operation used coercion, leverage, and controlled access
    • The Wayne Ritchie case and what “collateral” looked like in practice
    • John Mulholland’s misdirection manual and the logic of deniable dosing
    • The prison pathway: MK-ULTRA expansion into the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary
    • Repeated LSD dosing and the “research” logic applied to captivity
    • The Inspector General report, oversight failure, and what the receipts exposed
    • The 1973 destruction order — and how the paper trail still leaked through
    SOURCES & CITATIONS
    • CIA FOIA Reading Room — MK-ULTRA documents
    • U.S. Senate hearings and reporting on CIA behavioral modification research
    • Inspector General reporting (oversight era context)
    • Declassified archival material and supporting documentation tied to releases


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.

    Thank you for listening.

    I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.

    🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefiles

    As an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.

    💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support

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    27 Min.
  • PROJECT MK-ULTRA: The Manchurian Question (Chapter 1)

    PROJECT MK-ULTRA: The Manchurian Question (Chapter 1)
    Jan 21 2026
    The Fairshake Files opens the declassified record on Project MK-ULTRA, the CIA’s covert program to research behavioral modification, interrogation, and chemical influence during the Cold War.

    This chapter begins with a fear that obsessed American intelligence: the idea that a human mind could be “scrubbed” and rewritten. From show trials and public confessions to POW statements that sounded impossible, the question becomes policy.

    The search for an invisible weapon turns into a system, and then into a program with a name. This is American intelligence history, declassified documentation, and true crime with context and receipts.

    IN THIS EPISODE:
    • The Cold War “brainwashing” panic and why it hit Washington like a psychological contagion
    • The early precursor programs (BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE) and what they were designed to do
    • The pivot point: LSD enters the picture and the stakes change overnight
    • Allen Dulles authorizes the next step, and the project becomes MK-ULTRA
    • Sidney Gottlieb steps forward as the chemist who will operationalize the mandate
    • The ominous early signal of where this leads, including the Frank Olson case
    SOURCES & CITATIONS

    - Project MK-ULTRA (CIA FOIA Reading Room)
    - BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE declassified documents (CIA FOIA Reading Room)
    - U.S. Senate reporting and hearings on CIA behavioral modification research
    - Frank Olson files and archival reporting tied to documented releases

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.

    Thank you for listening.

    I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.

    🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefiles

    As an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.

    💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support

    Thank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.

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    36 Min.
  • COINTELPRO: Paranoia with a Budget (Full Series)

    COINTELPRO: Paranoia with a Budget (Full Series)
    Dec 23 2025
    This is the bundled release of Chapters 1–4 of The Fairshake Files COINTELPRO series.

    These chapters appear as originally published, with their original structure intact. This compilation is provided for listeners who prefer to follow the full arc in one sitting, without release gaps.

    COINTELPRO wasn’t about surveillance.It was about disruption.

    Across four chapters, we trace how the FBI built a domestic playbook of “neutralization”, using informants, psychological operations, forged letters, internal sabotage, and pressure campaigns that moved far beyond traditional law enforcement.

    The program began under the justification of COINTELPRO — White Hate, targeting violent extremist groups. But the methods didn’t remain limited to those targets. What started as an exception became a precedent.

    The same tactics were redirected toward civil rights leaders, anti-war activists, student movements, and political organizations—until “disruption” became a standing permission slip.

    This compilation follows the full trajectory: from infiltration and psychological warfare, to escalation against lawful dissent, to the moment COINTELPRO stopped being deniable and became documented...exposed by a burglary in Media, Pennsylvania, forced into daylight through FOIA litigation, and confronted by the Church Committee’s investigation.

    It also tracks the modern afterlife of the logic: new authorities, new language, and a surveillance ecosystem where investigations can begin without a criminal predicate, and disruption doesn’t always look like disruption until it’s too late.

    This series isn’t asking whether the first targets were “bad.”

    It’s asking what happens once a government decides it can violate its own laws to stop them.

    Once that line is crossed, the definition of “bad” never stays fixed.

    IN THIS EPISODE:
    • Origins: How COINTELPRO emerged as a domestic “neutralization” program
    • White Hate: Infiltration, informants, and the “Good Lie” justification
    • Disruption: Psychological warfare tactics deployed without warrants
    • Escalation: The expansion to civil rights leaders, students, anti-war movements, and political organizations
    • Exposure: The Media, Pennsylvania break-in, FOIA disclosures, and the Church Committee
    • Afterlife: Guidelines, “assessments,” expanded domestic authority, and modern surveillance ecosystems
    SOURCES & CITATIONS (selected)
    • U.S. Senate (Church Committee), Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans (Book II)
    • FBI COINTELPRO directives and memoranda (declassified / FOIA releases via FBI Vault)
    • DOJ, Attorney General’s Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations (2008)
    • FBI, Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG) (selected sections)
    • DOJ OIG reporting on post-Watergate guideline history (Levi / 1976) and related oversight
    • ACLU reporting on FBI “assessments” and domestic intelligence practices
    • Documented reporting on social-media monitoring tools and related civil liberties cases
    • ACLU / Statewatch materials on JTRIG “effects” capabilities and documented techniques
    Next investigation: Project MKULTRA

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.

    Thank you for listening.

    I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.

    🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefiles

    As an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.

    💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support

    Thank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.

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    1 Std. und 5 Min.
  • COINTELPRO: The Rubric (Chapter 4)

    COINTELPRO: The Rubric (Chapter 4)
    Dec 17 2025
    In Chapter 4, The Fairshake Files follows the moment COINTELPRO stopped being a secret program and became a documented one.

    It begins with a burglary in Media, Pennsylvania.

    Not a leak.

    Not an insider.

    A break-in that forced the Bureau into daylight.

    From there, we trace the chain reaction:

    FOIA lawsuits that compelled disclosure, congressional investigations that exposed the tactics in plain language, and the reforms that were supposed to prevent this playbook from returning.

    But the story doesn’t end with Watergate-era accountability. It evolves. We examine how the logic of COINTELPRO survives through modern domestic authorities, where investigations can begin without criminal predicate, where disruption can be outsourced to platforms and contractors, and where surveillance becomes a background condition of public life.

    This chapter is not about paranoia. It’s about the rubric: the method, the permissions, and the machinery that persists even when the names change.

    IN THIS EPISODE
    • The Break-In: The Media, Pennsylvania burglary that cracked open the COINTELPRO file.
    • FOIA & Exposure: How forced disclosure revealed the Bureau’s directives in its own words.
    • Reform Era: Church Committee oversight, new guidelines, and the attempt to rebuild limits.
    • The Modern Turn: “Assessments,” expanded domestic authority, and surveillance without probable cause.
    • Digital Disruption: Social media monitoring, outsourced tools, and the new shape of influence control.
    SOURCES & CITATIONS (selected)
    • U.S. Senate (Church Committee), Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans (Book II)
    • FBI COINTELPRO directives and memoranda (declassified / FOIA releases)
    • DOJ Attorney General’s Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations (2008)
    • FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG) (selected sections)
    • ACLU reporting on FBI “assessments” and domestic intelligence practices
    • Documented reporting on social-media monitoring tools and related civil liberties cases


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.

    Thank you for listening.

    I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.

    🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefiles

    As an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.

    💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support

    Thank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.

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    22 Min.
  • COINTELPRO: The Threat of Peace (Chapter 3)

    COINTELPRO: The Threat of Peace (Chapter 3)
    Dec 6 2025
    In Chapter 3, The Fairshake Files uncovers the moment COINTELPRO stopped hiding behind pretext.

    The threat was no longer violence. It was unity.

    We examine how the FBI expanded from monitoring dissidents to actively sabotaging peace groups, student organizers, clergy networks, and community coalitions — anyone capable of turning protest into political force.

    At the center of this shift was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose moral authority the Bureau viewed as a national risk. But King was only one node in a broader effort.

    We investigate the state’s campaign against the Black Panther Party, revealing internal memos that identified their Free Breakfast for Children program, not their militancy, as one of the greatest dangers to federal objectives.

    We trace the devastating smear operation against actress Jean Seberg, whose support for Panther community programs made her a symbolic target.

    And finally, we return to Chicago, December 1969, where a pre-dawn raid killed 21-year-old organizer Fred Hampton, a man building a multiracial working-class alliance the government considered intolerable.

    This chapter is not just about surveillance.

    It’s about the machinery built to prevent a coalition before it began.

    IN THIS EPISODE

    - The Pivot: How influence, not violence, became COINTELPRO’s primary concern.
    - Targeting King: Internal directives aimed at neutralizing a unifying national figure.
    - The Panthers & Community Power: Why breakfast programs triggered federal alarm. The Seberg - - Operation: A Hollywood smear campaign with tragic consequences.
    - Chicago 1969: The killing of Fred Hampton and the destruction of an emerging coalition.

    SOURCES & CITATIONS
    • Church Committee Report, Book II (Senate Select Committee on Intelligence)
    • COINTELPRO Internal Memos & Directives
    • Black Panther Party Community Program Records
    • Testimony & Legal Findings from the December 4, 1969 Raid
    • Seberg Case Files and Press Analysis


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.

    Thank you for listening.

    I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.

    🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefiles

    As an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.

    💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support

    Thank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.

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    18 Min.
  • COINTELPRO: The Good Lie (Chapter 2)

    COINTELPRO: The Good Lie (Chapter 2)
    Nov 26 2025
    In Chapter 2, The Fairshake Files investigates "The Good Lie"—the narrative shield J. Edgar Hoover used to protect his secret war.

    We examine the one COINTELPRO operation that history deems a success: the destruction of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. But beneath the surface of this victory lies a disturbing reality.

    We reveal how the FBI’s massive infiltration created a dependency on illegal tactics, protected violent informants, and inadvertently forced the Klan to evolve from a regional vigilante group into a revolutionary "White Power" network.

    This is a story about the cost of victory, the ethics of espionage, and the law of unintended consequences.

    IN THIS EPISODE:
    • Force Majeure: The federal "invasion" of Neshoba County to find the bodies of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.

    • The Informant Dilemma: The moral cost of the FBI paying 20% of the Klan's membership and the protection of violent asset Gary Thomas Rowe.

    • The Mutation: How destroying the Klan’s hierarchy birthed the "Leaderless Resistance" strategy and the modern White Power movement.

    SOURCES & CITATIONS
    • The MIBURN Investigation (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
    • United States v. Price (1966 Supreme Court Ruling)
    • The Church Committee Report, Book II (Senate Select Committee on Intelligence)
    • Bring the War Home (Kathleen Belew, Harvard University Press)


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.

    Thank you for listening.

    I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.

    🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefiles

    As an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.

    💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support

    Thank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.

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    16 Min.
  • COINTELPRO: The Frustrated State (Chapter 1)

    COINTELPRO: The Frustrated State (Chapter 1)
    Nov 18 2025
    The Fairshake Files opens the story of COINTELPRO: the secret, illegal domestic spying program run by the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover.

    We reveal how the operation was created out of frustration with the Supreme Court's protection of free speech, leading Hoover to declare a secret war on dissent outside the law. This is American political history, surveillance, and true crime with deep context.

    IN THIS EPISODE:
    • FDR's secret 1936 mandate to hunt the "fifth column" threat.
    • The shock of real spies: the Duquesne Spy Ring and high-level Soviet agent Harry Dexter White.
    • The Supreme Court's decisions (like Yates v. United States) that forced Hoover to illegally "neutralize" enemies.
    SOURCES & CITATIONS
    • COINTELPRO Mandate
    • Duquesne Spy Ring
    • Yates v. United States


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.

    Thank you for listening.

    I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.

    🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefiles

    As an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.

    💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support

    Thank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.
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    12 Min.
  • Manson: Cult, Criminal, or CIA Asset? (The Full Investigation)

    Manson: Cult, Criminal, or CIA Asset? (The Full Investigation)
    Nov 13 2025
    The world knows one story: "Helter Skelter."

    The story of a charismatic cult leader and a doomsday prophecy. But that's just the narrative they wanted you to hear.

    In this deep-dive investigation, The Fairshake Files deconstructs the Manson legend to find the truth by investigating the three competing narratives:
    1. THE CULT: The official "Helter Skelter" motive the prosecution sold to the world.
    2. THE CRIMINAL: The drug deals, rivalries, and copycat killings the evidence actually pointed to.
    3. THE ASSET: The declassified records of MKUltra and COINTELPRO that suggest Manson was less of a mastermind... and more of a "manufactured monster."
    This is not the story you think you know.

    Disclaimer: The following is an exploration of different historical narratives and theories. The goal is to examine the evidence presented for all sides, not to endorse any single conclusion.

    Follow for our next series: Cointelpro

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.

    Thank you for listening.

    I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.

    🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefiles

    As an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.

    💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support

    Thank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.
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    44 Min.