What is TSD
TSD is the Technical Services Division of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
It does what “Q” in the James Bond movies.
TSD was tasked with providing case officers with technology and services to reach their goals of effective espionage and intelligence collection.
MK is a cryptonym that the CIA that uses to notate the project is assigned to TSD.
The proper format of a cryptonym is all caps with a forward slash, MK/ULTRA.
Previous names and future names
Office of Technical Service (OTS)
Science and Technology (S&T)
Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T)
Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI)
Famous Projects
MK/ULTRA (mind control and brainwashing)
Operation Mongoose (Operation to assassinate Castro)
Other Projects
MK/NAOMI
A joint Department of Defense/CIA research program lasting from the 1950s through the 1970s. Unclassified information about the MK/NAOMI program and the related Special Operations Division is scarce. It is generally reported to be a successor to the MK/DELTA project and to have focused on biological projects including biological warfare agents—specifically, to store materials that could either incapacitate or kill a test subject and to develop devices for the diffusion of such materials.
[https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Project_MKNAOMI]
MK/DELTA
MK/DELTA, like its successor MK/ULTRA, was a mind control operation run by the Central Intelligence Agency. It involved the use of biochemicals in clandestine operations.
According to the Church Committee report (Book I, Chapter XVII):
A special procedure, designated MKDELTA, was established to govern the use of MKULTRA materials abroad. Such materials were used on a number of occasions. Because MKULTRA records were destroyed, it is impossible to reconstruct the operational use of MKULTRA materials by the CIA overseas; it has been determined that the use of these materials abroad began in 1953, and possibly as early as 1950.
Drugs were used primarily as an aid to interrogations, but MKULTRA/MKDELTA materials were also used for harassment, discrediting, or disabling purposes.
[ https://mind-control.fandom.com/en/wiki/Project_MKDELTA]
Project ARTICHOKE
CIA project that researched interrogation methods and arose from project BLUEBIRD on August 20, 1951, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. A memorandum by Richard Helms to CIA director Allen Welsh Dulles indicated Artichoke became Project MK/ULTRA on April 20, 1953.
The project studied hypnosis, forced morphine addiction (and subsequent forced withdrawal), and the use of other chemicals, among other methods, to produce amnesia and other vulnerable states in subjects.
Artichoke was an offensive program of mind control that gathered together the intelligence divisions of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and FBI. In addition, the scope of the project was outlined in a memo dated January 1952 that stated,
"Can we get control of an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against fundamental laws of nature, such as self-preservation?"
[https://mind-control.fandom.com/en/wiki/Project_ARTICHOKE]
Project BLUEBIRD
CIA program involving special interrogation methods, including the use of drugs, hypnosis,[1] and isolation. It lasted from 1949 to 1950 when it was renamed "ARTICHOKE", and would eventually become the infamous MK/ULTRA. Responsibility for the project mainly lay with the Office of Scientific Intelligence.
[https://mind-control.fandom.com/en/wiki/Project_BLUEBIRD]
Famous Director
Dr. Sidney Gottlieb (Sid)
He was the person driving the MK/ULTRA project and many minds controlled related projects.
CIA Technical Services Division (TSD) provided the following services to CIA agents (case officers) in the field:
Disguises: Masks, clothing, voice changers
Forged documents: passports, visas, drivers licenses, birth certificates, travel papers
Spy “gadgets”:
Specialized weapons: suppressed firearms, dart guns, covert needles
Communication devices
Secret writings, codes: invisible ink, one time pads (OTP)
Microdot readers
Photographic devices: miniature cameras, long-range telephoto lens
Surveillance and Counter surveillance
Flaps and seals: covertly opening mail and sealed diplomatic pouches
Black bag jobs - surreptitious entry: covertly entering into foreign embassies and consulates
Electronic eavesdropping devices
Audio surveillance: listening through walls, microwave snooping of conversations reading the vibrations of the glass window in the room
Lock picking
Vault and safe opening
Alarm system bypass
Poisons: suicide pills, assassination chemicals
Chemicals: powdered tear gas, powder or gas that causes flatulence, diarrhea, itching
Computer hacking
Electronic bugs: concealed into computers and other consumer devices
Concealment of devices: hide currency inside of toothpaste tube
Black, white, gray propaganda: influence the public into the targeted mindset
Black, white, gray projects: make an agent look like a Chinese solider doing something embarrassing and take pictures in public
Explosives: explosive seashells
And many other services and devices.
Summary
TSD provided many services and gadgets to Agency case officers, melding technology and science fiction into reality. As an example, they invented the lithium-iodine battery for internal CIA use, but then it declassified and shared with the public. It is commonly used in heart pacemakers.
Techno wizards on the cutting edge and sometimes the bleeding edge.
CIA Technical Services Division (TSD)