Secrets of the CIA

Various holds, blows, attacks, etc. These will be known, of course, to all instructors and should be learned by all students who wish to qualify as instructors. In general, they are quite unnecessary and most of them can be regarded as peace-time measures. Students should be warned that many of these holds, etc., would be difficult, if not impossible, to secure on a trained adversary and that it is extremely unwise to assume too lightly that one's adversary is untrained. In showing a hold, show also how to get out of it. (Handcuff hold ( " " for smaller opponent. (Wrist and neck attack. (Police holds. (Flying mare (with variation) (Hipe (or hip throw) (Cross-buttock. Comment. All the above are open to the objection that while attempting to apply them, you make yourself very vulnerable to attack. Also, if you are in a position to apply them, you are equally in a position for a killing attack. THUMB-HOLD. Show how escape can often be effected. HEAD-H...

7 May 1973 MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence VIA: Deputy Director for Intelligence FROM: Director of Current Intelligence 1. In late 1967 OCI participated in the preparation of several short intelligence memoranda dealing with the foreign connections of US organizations and activists involved in the anti-war movement. The main purpose of these reports, prepared at the request of the White House, was to determine whether any links existed between international Communist elements or foreign governments and the American peace movement. The conclusion reached was that there was some evidence of ad hoc contacts between anti-war activists at home and abroad but no evidence of direction or formal coordination. 2. In October 1967 President Johnson expressed interest in this subject and ordered a high level interdepartmental survey. In response to his personal request to the DCI, Mr. Helms asked the CI Staff to collect whatever information was available through our own sources an...

Useful aids, mainly for special needs and occasions . 1. Different methods of taking a sentry. 2. The open handed strangle, closing the catorid arteries. 3. The spinal dislocators, from the front, standing, and from the rear, sitting. 4. Disarming: if held up with a pistol: a) from the front. b) from behind. c) disarming a man found holding up someone else. 5. Searching a prisoner, unaided, if you are armed: a) if there is a wall handy. b) if there is no wall handy. In this case, either search with the pistol at the quarter-hip position, or make the prisoner lie face to the ground, securing him with the leg-lock. In either case, the search can only be perfunctory, the leg-lock method being slightly the better of the two. If circumstances permit, kill the prisoner first. It is much easier to search him thoroughly when he is dead. Or, if circumstances do not permit of killing him, knock him out while he is lying face to the ground. 6. Securing a prisoner. Easiest done if you knock him ou...

7 May 1973 MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence VIA: Deputy Director for Intelligence FROM: Director of Current Intelligence 1. In late spring of 1968 Walt Rostow, then Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, tasked the DCI with undertaking a survey of worldwide student dissidence. Confronted by tumult at campuses like Columbia and mindful of the violence accompanying student outbursts at Berlin's Free University and elsewhere, Rostow sought to learn whether youthful dissidence was interconnected: spawned by the same causes; financed and hence manipulated by forces or influences hostile to the interests of the US and its allies; or likely to come under inimical sway to the detriment of US interests. 2. The paper was prepared by [...] of OCI with the assistance of the CA and CI Staffs. The DDI, D/OCI, and [...] met with Rostow to elicit the reasons for his or the President's concerns and to agree on the sources to be examined, the research m...

The knife is a silent and deadly weapon that is easily concealed and against which in the hands of an expert, there is no sure defense, except fire-arms or by running like hell. Students should be taught how to hold a knife, how to pass it from one hand to another, to thrust, and how to use the disengaged hand to feint and parry. After practicing these, show them the vulnerable points, slashes permissible and how to make an opening for a thrust by flinging a hat, gravel or other object in his face. Stress the value of surprise, showing the opportunities for it. Explain the various methods of carrying a knife, and the value of a really sharp point and edge, the latter being to prevent the knife from being seized as much as for slashing. After the foregoing has been fully mastered, explain the possible defences against the knife, such as the parries, kicks, use of a chair and using a steel helmet as a shield.

7 May 1973 MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence VIA: Deputy Director for Intelligence FROM: Director of Current Intelligence 1. OCI began following Caribbean black radicalism in earnest in 1968. The emphasis of our analysis was on black nationalism as a political force in the Caribbean and as a threat to the security of the Caribbean states. Two DDI memoranda were produced on the subject: "Black Radicalism in the Caribbean" (6 August 1969), and "Black Radicalism in the Caribbean--Another Look" (12 June 1970). In each a single paragraph was devoted to ties with the US black power movement; the discussion primarily concerned visits of Stokely Carmichael and other US black power activists to the Caribbean and other overt contacts. 2. In June 1970, Archer Bush of OCI was asked to write a memorandum with special attention to links between black radicalism in the Caribbean and advocates of black power in the US. The record is not clear where this request origi...

One cannot always choose when one will fight and it may sometimes happen that one is faced with several opponents at once. On such occasions, unarmed yourself, your object is not so much to kill your opponents as to get quickly away from them so that you do not get killed. Pride is expensive if it entails defeat and death. To escape from circumstances like these, a special technique is necessary. For this technique, balance is essential and the instructor should now demonstrate how to keep your balance when swift movement is necessary in kicking while standing on one foot. Students can be paired off and standing on one foot, arms folded, they should try to kick each other off balance whilst maintaining their own balance. Once this is mastered, it should be explained that, surrounded by a crowd, your only chance of escape lies in continual movement. This is so because, after you have taken up a new position, it requires a second for an opponent to turn and balance before he is able to s...