558: The Dark Side of DARPA | The Human Cost of Technological Supremacy

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In the early days of the space race, the Soviet Union racked up a lot of firsts.

Sputnik, the first satellite.

Laika the dog, the first animal in space.

Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space.

Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman.

Zahn 5, the first spacecraft to the moon.

Meanwhile, America's space program lagged, plagued by setback after setback.

There were some successes, but not enough to keep pace with the Soviets.

America was still planning its first satellite while Sputnik circled the Earth.

Then Sputnik 2 went up.

American citizens were terrified.

What if the Russians put weapons in space?

Maybe they already have.

Paranoia was starting to become hysteria.

President Eisenhower was under pressure to act and to act fast.

The United States government knew what it had to do, create an organization to develop the most technologically advanced military systems in the world.

And just three months after Sputnik 2 was launched, the Advanced Research Project Agency or ARPA was born.

Later, ARPA became DARPA.

The D stands for defense.

Because DARPA would be both a sword and a shield, creating offensive weapons and defensive systems, no project was too expensive and no program was too immoral.

DARPA's secret research would cost many lives, but sacrifices had to be made for the sake of security.

But after all these years, it's time to ask, who are they really protecting?

Here's the scene.

You're driving.

It's late and the road ahead is dark.

You make a turn and then another.

You finally realize you're lost.

If this were the not-too-distant past, you'd pull over and grab your Thomas guide.

Yeah, for you kids, that's a map.

And if you didn't have a map, you'd try to find a gas station or 7-Eleven to ask for directions.

Then your fate would be in the hands of the guy working the night shift.

Who may or may not be a serial killer?

Right.

But now all the answers are in your pocket.

You tell your phone the address, and GPS guides the way.

Some cars will even drive for you while you sit back, relax, and listen to your favorite podcast.

How you know the Wi-Files is also a podcast.

No plugs yet, please.

We save those for the end.

Sorry, sorry.

I could sniff out a plug opportunity like a travel pig.

The technology I described that got you to your destination, it was created by DARPA, all of it.

And there's a lot more of DARPA in your pocket than you think.

Your cell phone uses microprocessors designed by DARPA.

They also created the batteries to power those microprocessors.

Your phone uses wireless technology made possible by DARPA.

The touch screen and the microphone came from DARPA.

Voice recognition and GPS come from DARPA.

And of course, all this data transfer happens using the internet, which was created by DARPA.

Excuse me if I may.

Is this going to be a highly predictable and hacked joke about how Al Gore said he created the internet?

I yield the rest of my time.

Thank you.

Yes, DARPA created the internet.

Well, technically, they were still ARPA then.

Remember, the D was added in 1972.

In the 1960s, researchers were trying to figure out a way to ensure reliable communications in case of a nuclear attack.

Traditional telephone lines and radio transmitters would be the first to go.

They came up with a radical idea, packet switching.

Yeah, no overspeed nerd.

Some of us went

Well, packet switching is not as complicated as it sounds.

Here's how it works.

You want to send a message or file from New York to LA, but what if half the country's lines are down?

So you break that message into small chunks called packets and send each one independently over the network.

On the receiving end, the message waits for all the packets to arrive and then reassembles them back into the original message or file.

Each packet will independently try to find the most efficient route through the network at any given moment.

The internet still works this way.

Most people didn't use the internet until the late 1990s or early 2000s.

Some nerds like me were using our phones to dial bulletin board systems in the late 1970s and early 80s.

But this new network called ARPANET was conceived in 1966.

You were online all the way back then?

When you were like 12 or 13 years old?

Yep.

I was even younger than that when I i first got online and you're proud of this well yeah shouldn't i did you even know girls existed yes i knew they existed yeah now i see what girls didn't know you existed i was a late bloomer boomer bloomer what i say

under darpra's guidance tcpip became the universal language for online computers They also developed the concept of email and invented domain names.

DARPA worked with UC Berkeley to create the BSD Unix operating system.

BSD Unix heavily influenced the operating system you're using right now, no matter what OS it is.

It started with DARPA.

Now, these technologies may seem modern, but DARPA sent the first internet message in 1969.

Now, this shouldn't be surprising.

DARPA technology is said to be about 20 years ahead of civilian tech.

Like self-driving cars, DARPA built one in 1984.

DARPA had GPS in 1973.

Microprocessors, motion sensors, and wireless communication.

DARPA had these decades ago, but eventually these innovations became available to the rest of us.

DARPA's technology has made our lives so much better, it's easy to forget that those innovations weren't originally meant to improve lives, they were meant to end them.

It's the middle of the night, and you're lying prone on top of a dusty building in some far corner of the world.

You hug your.50 caliber Barrett sniper rifle.

It's pitch dark, but your light-gathering high-magnification scope gives you full visibility of the alley 1,200 yards away.

A door opens.

It's your target.

Right on schedule.

You hold your breath and put your finger on the trigger.

Suddenly, a van appears.

Your target leaps in and speeds off.

Years ago, he'd escaped.

Mission failed.

Not now.

You fire, confident in DARPA's latest innovation, a self-guided bullet.

With optical sensors and real-time guidance, it maneuvers mid-flight locked onto its target.

Skilled snipers engage targets up to 1,300 yards away or more.

The farthest confirmed kill, 2.2 miles by Canadian Special Forces in 2017.

Impressive, but but DARPA's Extreme Accuracy Task Ordinance or Exacto bullet hits targets five or six miles away.

Maybe farther.

DARPA keeps the details a secret.

Many DARPA projects seem like science fiction, some like magic.

SEPTER lets you see through walls.

The Mojave project bends light, making objects invisible.

DARPA's engineering living materials program uses living fungus as a construction material.

Structures will no longer be built, they'll be

Instead of shipping finished materials, we can ship precursors and rapidly grow them on site using local resources.

And since the materials will be alive, they'll be able to respond to changes in their environment and heal themselves in response to damage.

DARPA likes fungus, but it loves bugs.

Project Insect Allies modifies flying insects to attack crops.

These insects resist disease and repair each other's injuries in the field.

Then there's the hybrid insect microelectrical mechanical systems, or HIMEMS.

This project, along with Project Dragonfly, creates miniature flying cyborgs.

Beetles, moths, and dragonflies become undetectable spies with cybernetic implants and solar-powered guidance systems.

They could be controlled remotely or operate autonomously using AI.

They've created remote-controlled rats.

DARPA trains bees to find landmines.

They're developing claytronics, programmable shape-shifting matter.

They're developing nuclear-powered spacecraft, autonomous vehicles, and weapons of all kinds.

DARPA's technology is meant to keep people off the battlefield.

Why risk a battalion of human soldiers when you can deploy a fleet of drones?

But sometimes you need boots on the ground, and that means people with guns.

But DARPA has a better idea.

Don't give a soldier a weapon, turn him into one.

This is the story of the one.

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The human body is an amazing machine.

Our musculoskeletal system allows us to do gymnastics, lift heavy weights, and walk long distances.

Still, our bodies have limitations.

DARPA is developing technology to overcome these limitations.

The goal is to increase strength, endurance, alertness, and the overall health of soldiers.

DARPA's Warrior Web project is one of several exoskeleton programs in the works.

It's an exosuit, lightweight and flexible, similar to a scuba suit.

But this is a smart suit.

Using machine learning and onboard sensors, the suit knows when and where to firm up to augment muscles.

It performs its function, then becomes flexible again.

DARPA has also developed hard exoskeletons, just like you've seen in movies like Aliens and Edge of Tomorrow.

These exoskeletons not only increase strength and endurance, but they're modular.

They can be equipped with all kinds of weapons.

There's even a jetpack in development.

The Talo suit turns a soldier into a real-life Iron Man.

It's bulletproof and weaponized.

It increases strength, speed, and endurance.

It monitors the user's vital signs and has sensors that analyze the entire environment around them.

The Tactical Augmented Reality or TAR project is a headset that overlays information over your normal vision.

This gives soldiers real-time information like displaying maps, enemy locations, and other vital data right in their line of sight.

Project Z-Man was inspired by Geckos.

DARPA is creating a material that would let soldiers climb walls without ropes or ladders.

Now, everyone knows the Air Force gives their pilots amphetamines.

I feel the need.

The need for speed.

The need for speed.

Yep, they literally take illegal narcotics to stay alert.

But the Continuous Assisted Performance, or CAP, program, is focused on keeping soldiers awake, alert, and effective for up to seven days straight without side effects.

DARPA's Brain Initiative program connects soldiers' brains to computers.

They can control drones and other systems with thought.

They can truly multitask, where one part of the brain is operating a drone while the other part of the brain is analyzing the area looking for targets.

In the early 2000s, DARPA started exploring ways of giving humans superhuman abilities without equipment.

This is DARPA's bio-revolution program.

They studied how animals attack, defend themselves, and regenerate from injuries.

DARPA felt that if they could find those answers, These abilities could be transferred to humans.

They could give soldiers improved senses, perfect eyesight, and limb regeneration without external devices.

Now to do that, you'd have to alter human DNA.

So DARPA is exploring CRISPR gene editing technology.

CRISPR can snip out unwanted genes and insert new ones.

CRISPR could accelerate healing.

Injuries that might have sidelined soldiers for weeks or months could heal in days.

CRISPR technology has already sparked a revolution in medicine with the potential to cure genetic disorders and even combat aging.

Link below and how CRISPR and AI are about to end the whole world.

Yeah, that episode is scary, but it's interesting and it's real.

Now, some of these projects have failed and some haven't, and some are still in development.

I have no doubt that DARPA will turn soldiers into superhuman weapons eventually, but they haven't yet.

So, how do you put boots on the ground and keep humans off the battlefield?

DARPA's answer: killer robots.

DARPA started working on robotics in the 1960s.

Its first project was Shaky, the first mobile robot to reason about its actions.

Shaky wasn't sleek or fast, but it was a start.

You know, I feel like if you name your project Shaky, you're kind of setting yourself up to fail.

Well, since then, DARPA's robotics has come a long way.

In the early 2000s, DARPA launched the Big Dog program.

In partnership with Boston Dynamics, these four-legged robots can carry heavy loads and navigate difficult terrain.

They can also be outfitted with weapons like sniper rifles or machine guns.

The LS-3 can follow soldiers autonomously and carry up to 400 pounds of gear.

And then there's the Atlas robot.

And now we're getting serious.

Atlas was launched in 2013.

and you've probably seen various versions of this robot over the years.

Atlas could run, jump, and navigate obstacle courses.

A couple of years ago, Atlas used AI to teach itself how to walk and then run and then do gymnastics.

Yeah, you humans realize it's only a matter of time before these things take over and enslave you, right?

Some of us realize it.

Investigative journalist Annie Jacobson has covered DARPA for years.

She says there's no doubt that the Pentagon is investing heavily in robotics.

DARPA's plan through 2038 states without question that the Pentagon is moving towards robotic warfare.

They want to have hunter-killer drones that can swim, crawl, walk, run.

Drones that can fly 13,000 miles an hour, which is 22 times faster than a commercial jet, to get to a target really quickly.

Ballistic missiles have limitations.

Speeds over Mach 20 require too much power and make the rockets dangerously hot.

But thanks to DARPA, that's no longer a problem.

Missiles can now travel at hypersonic speed without overheating.

A target 500 miles away can be destroyed in six minutes.

Weapons like these certainly keep humans off the battlefield, but DARPA is going to take it one step further.

It's creating the technology to wage war without needing humans at all.

Remember how DARPA is always about 20 years ahead of civilian technology, maybe more?

Well, as early as the 1960s, DARPA started developing computers that can learn independently.

In the 1980s, DARPA launched the Strategic Computing Initiative, or SCI.

The goal of SCI was to create military strategies by running simulations and learning from them.

War Games was originally going to be a science fiction story about a dying scientist who's saved by a kid genius.

But then the writers met Peter Schwartz from the Stanford Research Institute or SRI.

I know those guys.

You do.

SRI has been the launch pad for many secret government programs.

I've talked about them a lot on this channel, and they've long been connected to the CIA, NSA, and DARPA.

While Schwartz was fascinated by a new computer subculture called Hackers, he suggested that they make a movie about a kid hacking a military supercomputer.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, what was it?

It was called the

Big Mac.

No, Whopper, War Operation Plan Response.

Yeah, right.

I'd still rather have a Big Mac.

Me too.

Well, the Whopper spends all its time thinking about World War III.

24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it plays an endless series of war games using all available information on the state of the world.

At the very same time that this movie came out, DARPA was working on its own military supercomputer.

Here's how they described it.

The machine envisioned by SC would run 10 billion instructions per second to see, hear, speak, and think like a human.

The degree of integration required would rival that achieved by the human brain, the most complex instrument known to man.

If you haven't caught on by now, we're talking about artificial intelligence.

Today, AI is everywhere and accessible to everyone, and it feels like it came out of nowhere, but it didn't.

It came out of DARPA.

As of today, 70% of DARPA's projects use or are focused on AI and machine learning.

DARPA started working on AI in the 1960s.

They built their first AI system, a speech recognition computer, in the 1970s.

In 1983, the Strategic Computing Initiative project received billions for AI research.

Then, in the 1990s, DARPA launched another supercomputing project.

It was and still is highly secret.

It's affecting you right now.

And once I tell you what it is, you're not going to like it.

Now it's it's time to get this video demonetized and censored.

Yeah, boy.

Yeah, if I'm not on a list by now, I'm about to be.

Yeah, I really don't want to talk about this.

Honestly, I'm about to put everything that I have at risk.

I'm scared too.

Here we go.

Like the steam engine which sparked the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s, the internet is changing everything it touches.

And at the cutting edge of the revolution is Wall Street.

So we are now six and three-quarters points above fair value.

The early 1990s was the beginning of the tech boom.

Internet startups were getting millions in investments.

And they had access to vast resources and vast amounts of data, personal data.

The intelligence community wanted to gather this data to create a digital fingerprint of everyone using the internet.

If they could identify bad actors, criminals, terrorists, whatever, they would compare that fingerprint against others.

They called this the birds of a feather approach.

If Joe's a bad guy and Bob's a bad guy and they both go to certain websites, then other people visiting those same websites were potential bad guys.

So let's track them.

So surveillance?

Yes.

Of Americans?

Yes.

Legal?

No.

Well, officially illegal as of 2010.

But the law was murky in the 1990s.

And for the intelligence community, murky means opportunity.

Still, the intelligence agencies didn't have the ability to manage all this data.

But they knew people were out there working on it and they were all looking for funding.

But if you're the NSA or CIA or DARPA, you can't drop by an internet startup and ask them to build you an illegal digital surveillance program.

Yeah, it's kind of a bad look.

It is, but it also gives away the game.

Surveillance is only valuable if the target doesn't know they're being watched.

So this technology would need to be funded privately and quietly.

So in 1994, the Highlands Forum was founded.

Ever hear of the Highlands Forum?

You probably haven't, and they like it that way.

The Highlands Forum, or Highlands Group was formed as a think tank, a bridge between technology companies and the Pentagon.

The Highlands Forum is an invitation-only group of government officials, academics, and executives from tech and defense companies.

Their discussions are private and off the record, operating under the Chatham House rule.

Meaning members can disclose information from the meetings as long as it doesn't harm anybody, but they can never reveal who said it, not ever.

Although hardly anyone knows about the Highlands Forum, the group is highly influential on U.S.

defense policy, especially regarding technology.

And they're a private organization.

No auditing, no oversight, no Freedom of Information Act requirements.

They're a black box, the perfect conduit for transactions you want to keep off the books.

So, tech is booming.

Data is flowing, and we've got our think tank to connect us with the people capturing the data.

Now we need the money to fund them.

That same year, the Massive Digital Data Systems or MDDS program was launched.

MDDS would fund scientists, researchers, and companies who worked with big data sets.

The Highlands Forum would help identify, facilitate, and coordinate these transactions.

To keep these transactions private and secret, the MDDS moved money through unclassified mainstream agencies like the National Science Foundation.

Computer scientists were getting millions in grants from the NSF.

Totally normal.

They didn't know who was really behind the money.

And MDDS was highly compartmentalized.

It had tons of projects and departments.

Nobody knew what anyone else was doing or who was even in charge.

And this was by design.

But the overall program was managed by the CIA, NSA, and DARPA.

So, we've got black budget money flowing through the NSF.

And we've got our private organization, the Highlands Forum, looking for opportunities.

So the word goes out to researchers in academia.

If you can handle big data, we'll give you big money.

Then a promising project emerged.

Two Stanford graduate students working on a search engine made a breakthrough.

In the early 90s, searching the internet was difficult.

Popular engines like Alta Vista and Lycos produced hit or miss results.

Searching hiking gear would show pages mentioning hiking or gear, often irrelevant blog posts or articles.

Users had to scroll through pages of useless results.

It took forever and I remember it well.

Two Stanford students developed a system that changed everything.

Their automated web crawling system identified a web page's context, not just the text.

Then, pages were ranked based on relevance to specific queries.

Pages actually discussing hiking gear would rank higher for that query.

High traffic pages and pages with lots of incoming links ranked even higher.

These were signals to the algorithm that a page was a good match for that query.

Using this search engine felt like magic.

Usually the first or second result was exactly what you were looking for.

Somehow it knew.

The system used an optimization technique called association rule mining, or query flocks.

This assumes birds of a feather feather stick together, meaning people searching specific keywords tended to click the same result.

Query flox worked with people too.

The search engine learned that people with similar online habits search for similar things.

If you searched hiking gear, the system assumed you liked outdoor activities and were probably within a certain age group.

And the more you used the search engine, the more it learned about you.

So your searches always gave you relevant results.

Using information you willingly provided, these students had developed a method to create your digital fingerprint.

Jackpot

The CIA, NSA, and DARPA learned about this project and through the National Science Foundation, the MDDS funded it.

If you haven't guessed by now, those two students were Sergei Brin and Larry Page, and the search engine was Google.

You won't find MDDS in Google's origin story, but this is public, unclassified information.

It's just hard to find.

In Bryn and Page's famous 1998 research paper, The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine, they thank DARPA for their support.

You can see this for yourself.

It's on page 16, section 7, under acknowledgements.

Now, there's a lot more to this rabbit hole.

The connection between intelligence agencies and technology companies is so-blah, Hang on, hang on.

What?

Pop quiz.

Go ahead.

How do you make your living?

YouTube.

And who owns YouTube?

Google.

Right.

Bye-bye, channel.

Now would be a good time to ask for Patreon support.

I don't do plugs until the end of the episode.

Make an exception.

We're in the deep water now.

He might be right.

Truly and honestly.

I won't know until it's too late.

But telling you this story might have been a terrible mistake.

So yes, please go to patreon.com slash they files.

I don't know if we will, but we might need your help.

Anyway, this video isn't about Google.

It's about DARPA, specifically the dark side of DARPA.

And it's about to get a whole lot darker.

When John F.

Kennedy took office in 1961, America had allies everywhere.

Cuba, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iran, Lebanon, and many others.

But the Soviet Union was fueling insurrections against U.S.-friendly governments.

Kennedy promised to stop the spread of communism, but the Soviets were pouring billions into military technology, rocket and missile systems, even space exploration.

JFK was committed to keeping pace.

He wanted more resources in science and technology.

He modernized the military and doubled DARPA's budget, and the timing couldn't be be better.

The global Cold War had evolved into regional proxy wars with the Soviets.

A new type of warfare was being fought, guerrilla warfare.

Old military strategies wouldn't work.

The situation in Vietnam was especially bad.

The Viet Cong were hidden under the thick jungle canopy.

You can't kill an enemy that you can't see.

DARPA proposed a solution.

Project Agile.

It was pitched to Kennedy as both a scientific and military endeavor.

Kennedy signed off immediately.

The first phase was called Operation Ranch Hand.

Its purpose was to clear the jungle.

DARPA developed the rainbow herbicides, named for their container colors, to kill the foliage.

Agent Purple was first, then green, then pink.

DARPA was combining different herbicides, defoliants, and toxins, looking for the perfect formula to destroy Viet Con cover.

Agent Orange was the winner.

Millions of gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed over miles of jungle every day.

Leaves fell from trees almost immediately.

Another application and the trees died.

Next, Project Agile targeted farms.

Asian orange could destroy miles of crops in a day.

They asked South Vietnamese President Diem if he knew which farms were Viet Cong and which belonged to innocent civilians.

He said yes, he knew and he didn't care.

If they weren't traitors yet, they would be soon.

Kill them all.

Now, the U.S.

didn't want to do this, but it only had a few hundred military advisors in Vietnam at this time.

They didn't want to send more.

Better to sacrifice North Vietnamese farmers than U.S.

Marines.

So it was done.

Guilty or innocent, friend or foe, if you were a North Vietnamese farmer, you were targeted.

Your crops were destroyed and your soil was poisoned.

Replanting was impossible.

Agent Orange's effects were instant and devastating, and nobody knew it was only the beginning.

As the Vietnam War escalated, so did the use of Agent Orange under DARPA's Project Agile.

Project Agile used other tactics.

DARPA contractors included social scientists and experts in human psychology.

Propaganda spread through leaflets, loudspeakers, and media control.

Subliminal technology kept people in heightened emotional states, from minor discomfort to absolute terror.

Subliminal warfare, mind control, linked

down the alley, Sally.

Psychological warfare teams targeted villages, turning neighbor against neighbor.

Civilians were forced into strategic hamlets for their safety.

Four million people were relocated against their will.

Meanwhile, soldiers complained of headaches, nausea, stinging eyes, and rashes.

Agent Orange did more than clear jungle and kill crops.

It tortured people for life.

Thousands exposed to Agent Orange developed cancer.

Children were born with defects.

Agent Orange caused reproductive problems like infertility and miscarriages.

Heart disease and diabetes increased.

Agent Orange was first used in 1962.

In 1965, scientists discovered it contained dioxin, a highly toxic compound that causes cancer and birth defects.

They kept using it.

In 1967, a study proved dioxin causes birth defects even at low concentrations.

They kept using it.

In 1969, a Department of Defense report acknowledged Agent Orange's severe health risks.

They kept using it.

Public outcry forced President Nixon to stop the use of Agent Orange in 1970.

They kept using it.

They stopped spraying the following year, 1971.

Now, even in war, there are rules.

POWs must be treated humanely.

Medical staff and facilities are off-limits.

Humanitarian aid must be allowed.

Breaking these rules is a war crime.

In 1907, the Hague Convention banned the use of poison in war.

The U.S.

signed the treaty.

Agent Orange was poisoned.

That's what herbicides are.

So was using Agent Orange a war crime?

No.

The United States said Agent Orange wasn't a poison, it was an herbicide.

The treaty didn't specifically mention herbicides.

Oh, that's some loyal loophole bullshit.

In 1925, the Geneva Protocol banned the use of chemical weapons.

The U.S.

signed this treaty.

But Agent Orange was a chemical.

Of the 12 companies producing Agent Orange, the primary manufacturer was the Dow Chemical Company.

The word chemical is in the company's name.

So is using Agent Orange a war crime?

Nope.

The United States said Agent Orange wasn't a chemical.

It was an herbicide.

But wait, how is that even even possible?

It's not.

In 1949, the Geneva Conventions established that civilians and their property must not be intentionally targeted.

Only combatants and military targets were allowed.

The U.S.

signed this treaty.

But civilians and their farms were intentionally targeted with Agent Orange.

So is using it a war crime?

No.

The United States said the intent was to disrupt the enemy's logistical support and visibility, not cause direct harm harm to people.

In other words, it was an accident.

So what about the destruction of plants and trees on civilian land?

Those weren't military targets.

Isn't this a war crime?

No.

The United States said it was a military necessity to defoliate the area in order to deny the enemy cover, which makes trees, any trees, anywhere, a military target.

What about destroying civilian crops?

Again, the U.S.

only intended to destroy crops of the enemy, not civilians.

It was unintentional.

so no war crime.

In 1977, the Geneva Conventions were amended to specifically ban the use of herbicides and reinforce civilian protection.

The U.S.

signed this new treaty, but still denied any liability for the damage caused by Agent Orange.

However, in 1984, U.S.

veterans sued the chemical companies, who settled for $180 million.

But The settlement was to support veterans, not an admission of guilt.

In 2004, Jill Montgomery, speaking for the Monsanto Company, one of the major suppliers of Agent Orange, she set the record straight.

We're sympathetic with people who believe they've been injured and understand their concern to find the cause.

But reliable scientific evidence indicates that Agent Orange is not the cause of serious long-term health effects.

In 1991, finally, the VA started providing benefits to vets exposed to Agent Orange.

But the U.S.

still denies liability.

My father-in-law served in Vietnam.

He was exposed to Agent Orange.

He's watching, so I won't list his illnesses, but he suffered almost all of them.

So in 1991, he applied for his benefits.

And I'll admit, the government kept its word.

He did receive his benefits.

In 2021, it took 30 years.

Like so many vets, when his country needed him, he didn't hesitate.

But when he needed his country, they said, take a number, get in line, and hope you're still alive by the time we call your name.

Do I sound angry?

That's because I am.

Between 1955 and 1975, 2.7 million people were deployed to Vietnam.

58,000 dead, 300,000 wounded, 3,000 missing or prisoners of war, 1,500 still missing.

That's tragic, but it's much worse.

The VA estimates 300,000 to 400,000 veterans may have died from illnesses caused by the exposure to Agent Orange.

May have.

To this day.

To this day, no single person, agency, company, or government has admitted any wrongdoing or assumed any liability for the millions of lives destroyed by Agent Orange.

Now, ordinary people like us have so many rules we have to follow.

Don't speed.

Check grandma's shoes before she gets on a plane.

Pay your taxes, even though we're going to steal it and waste your money.

Pick up a gun, shoot at those people, do what you're told.

If we break a law, the government will take our money, seize our property, force us into labor, or lock us in a cell.

It all depends on the crime.

So we follow the law.

But if you're a big chemical company or a government agency, don't worry about the law.

You can get away with murder.

I needed a minute.

The story of DARPA is hard to debunk, and that's because most of it's true.

What we know about DARPA's projects come from them.

Their websites and official YouTube channel openly share information.

They have a podcast called Voices of DARPA.

Even the experts in covering DARPA, Annie Jacobson and Sharon Weinberger, get their information from the agency they're writing about.

When Jacobson gives a speech, writes a book, or appears in an interview about DARPA, she's not sharing classified information.

She's not speculating, she's reporting.

She never claims to know anything that we can't find out for ourselves.

But still, most information is secret.

What we know about DARPA is what they want us to know.

There's no transparency, none.

Also, DARPA is exempt from laws that other government agencies have to follow, specifically about hiring practices, managing personnel, and managing budgets.

They can run the agency however they like.

DARPA is only 220 people.

That's it.

With a budget of almost $4 billion.

Now that's a lot of freedom and power, but it's much more than that.

DARPA is allowed to fund projects through what's called other transactions.

No congressional approval needed, no reporting required.

Choose the projects you want to fund and fund them.

So who's choosing the projects?

Annie Jacobson gives us an unsettling answer.

The real problem is that the individuals who are responsible for deciding what weapon systems are being financed and created in these classified DARPA programs are the very CEOs of defense contractors who stand to financially benefit from these contracts.

Annie Jacobson has said that DARPA is the agency driving the military-industrial complex.

That agency is run by the companies that profit from the technology they create.

This is exactly what President Eisenhower said would happen.

If you make war profitable, you'll always have war.

But to be fair, DARPA's innovations have made our lives better.

Not just because of cell phones and GPS, DARPA's achievements in prosthetics have allowed paralyzed children to walk again.

They've created medical techniques to diagnose illnesses earlier.

They've bioengineered tissue and organs that can be used for transplants.

They've developed machines that can stabilize injured people in emergency situations.

Advanced medical imaging such as ultrasound, MRI, and brain imaging, all created by or alongside DARPA.

Now, does the good outweigh the bad?

Do DARPA's contributions offset the damage they've done?

I don't know, that's not for me to judge.

But this story reminds me of the courtroom scene in A Few Good Men.

You can't handle the truth.

Right.

When the colonel says, my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.

You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties.

You want me on that wall.

You need me on that wall.

Right.

So is DARPA a necessary evil?

Is evil even the right word?

I don't know.

When DARPA was formed in 1958, its mission was to make sure the United States was never again surprised by advanced technology.

And for 66 years, DARPA has succeeded in its mission.

The U.S.

has never been surprised by technology.

Except for the UFOs.

Okay, the U.S.

has never been surprised by another country's technology.

Better.

I can't forget all the suffering that DARPA has caused.

But DARPA has done so much good, can I forgive?

I don't know.

I'm disgusted by some of DARPA's actions, by our government's corruption, by the fact that, because of DARPA, bad people get rich from war.

But if I'm being honest, which I always am with you, I have to acknowledge that as an American, we need DARPA on that wall.

Thank you so much for hanging out with me today.

My name is AJ, that's Cyclefish.

Good shit, sexy bacon.

This has been The Y Files.

If you had fun or learned anything,

we had some fun today.

It wasn't all dark.

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Twice a week, I post deep dives into the stories we cover here on the channel, and I also post episodes that wouldn't be allowed on the channel.

Those episodes are called Unredacted, and there's a couple of those coming up.

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I could not do this without the support of our Patreon members.

It's only because of you that I release this episode.

This was very risky.

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Get one of these heck of his t-shirts.

Oh, get one of these mugs with my face on it.

Put your fist in my face.

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Until next time, be safe, be kind, and know that you are appreciated.

Because you are.

I play Polymius and Arian 51.

A secret code inside the Bible said I would.

I love my UFOs and paranormal buns, as well as music, songs singing like I should.

But then another conspiracy theory becomes the truth, my friends.

And it never ends.

No, it never ends.

I feel the crap guy down, got stuck inside Mal's home with them chaotru I feel only too aware

Dude Stanley Kubernetes fake the moon landing alone

On a film set or were the shadow people there

The Roswell aliens just fought the smiling man I'm told told.

And his name was Cole.

I can't believe

I'm dancing with the bitches.

And we'll fish on Thursday, nights, Wednesday, J2.

And we're about to be all through the night.

All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth.

So the ramparts of the beat all through the light.

The Mothman sightings and the solar storms still come to who got the secret city underground

Mysterious number stations, planet Surfo to Project Stargate, and what the Dark Watchers found

in a simulation, don't you worry though

The Black Knights had a lot of told me so

I can't believe

I'm dancing with the fierce shit Henry Fish on Thursday nights Wednesday J2 And the white bombs rubbing me up through the night

All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So the white bombs rubbing me up through the night

Henry's fish on Thursday nights when they jade you and went back and beat up through the night

All I ever wanted was could you hear the truth So the water's up and beat all through the

lights loves to dance.

Gurdy loves to dance.

Gurdy loves to dance on the dance floor

because she is a camel.

And camels love to dance when the feeling is right on wings in time.

Gurdy loves to dance.

Gurdy loves to dance.