MKNAOMI facts for kids
Project MKNAOMI was a secret research program in the United States. It was a joint effort between the United States Department of Defense, which manages the country's military, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which gathers intelligence for the government. This program ran from the 1950s to the 1970s. Not much information about MKNAOMI is publicly available. It is often seen as a follow-up to another secret project called MKULTRA. MKNAOMI focused on biological projects, like studying germs and poisons that could make people sick or even kill them. It also worked on ways to spread these materials.
What Was Project MKNAOMI's Goal?
For about 20 years, the CIA worked on projects to improve the U.S. ability to use biological and chemical weapons. Project MKNAOMI was started to give the CIA a hidden way to support its top-secret operations. The main goal was to have a strong collection of materials that could harm or kill people. These materials were stored within the CIA's Technical Services Division (TSD). This made the TSD a central place for supplying these special biological and chemical items.
How Did MKNAOMI Work?
MKNAOMI was responsible for watching, testing, and improving special materials and tools. This made sure there were no problems when they were used in real operations. The U.S. Army's United States Special Operations Command (SOC) helped the CIA. They worked together on developing, testing, and maintaining these biological agents and the ways to deliver them, starting in 1952.
Both the CIA and SOC changed regular guns to fire special darts. These darts were covered with biological agents or poisonous pills. For example, some darts could make guard dogs fall asleep. This allowed agents to sneak into areas the dogs were protecting. The darts could also be used to wake the dogs up when the agents left. The SOC also researched if biological agents could be used against other animals and even farm crops.
The End of MKNAOMI
In 1967, a secret CIA memo was found by a group called the Church Committee. This memo showed that at least three secret ways to attack and poison crops had been tested in real-world situations.
On November 25, 1969, President Richard Nixon made a rule that stopped the military from using biological weapons. Because of this, Project MKNAOMI was officially ended. Then, on February 14, 1970, a presidential order made it illegal to keep any stockpiles of germ weapons or non-living poisons.
However, even with this order, a CIA scientist managed to get about 11 grams of a very dangerous shellfish toxin. He got it from SOC staff at Fort Detrick. This toxin was then stored in a CIA laboratory. It stayed there, hidden, for more than five years before it was discovered.
See also
In Spanish: Proyecto MKNAOMI para niños
