← MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 96 | A Redacted Medical Mystery: Red Menace/Weather Warriors
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Mister Ballin
Wondery subscribers can listen to new episodes of mister ballin's medical mysteries early and ad free right now join wondry in the wondry app or on apple podcasts a woman in her late twenties woke up in the middle of the night with a start as she blinked in the darkness it took her a moment to remember where she was in her hospital room in san francisco the woman had come in for fairly routine knee surgery and the doctors had assured her she'd be home after only a few days of recovery but two weeks later and she was still here and she had never felt worse in her whole life on top of her bad leg she now also constantly felt lightheaded and nauseous and on this particular day to make things even more frustrating she had woken up with a sudden urge to go to the bathroom but she didn't want to call a nurse for help she already relied on them so much it was kind of embarrassing but she also hated the idea of going in a bedpan so gathering what little strength she had the woman very gingerly got up out of bed using a crutch however as soon as she got on her one good leg she almost collapsed she was so dizzy she could barely stand and it was hard to breathe but she was still determined to do this the woman hobbled her way over to the bathroom doing her best to keep herself upright as she moved her lower back pulsed with pain and this wave of nausea crashed over her finally she reached the bathroom flipped on the light and sat down on the toilet maybe she thought if she just stayed here for a while these awful feelings she was having would pass she began to relieve herself and as she did this sharp blinding pain shot through her body but she kept going and when she finished she she looked down into the toilet and she saw a terrifying sight her urine was tinged red but to her the color didn't quite look like blood but then the question was what was it what if i told you there was a gripping mystery waiting to be solved lost secrets needing to be unearthed and dangerous quests waiting to be explored where strange truths and unexplained stories wait in the dark just a click away that's the power behind audible audible has over a million titles from terrifying audiobooks to mind bending audible originals and exclusive content that can rattle your core all in one app maybe you're running on the treadmill taking a train ride home or folding laundry there's always a new story waiting for you take your ordinary routines and transform them into your next thrilling adventure with audible you can listen and learn while doing everything else in between listening on audible can improve your habits your perspective on life and even shape your mood one title i can't stop thinking about is riley sager's gothic murder mystery called only one left this bone chilling story is about this young caregiver assigned to work for an elderly woman who decades earlier was accused of killing her parents and younger sister it's got a great plot twist at the end totally worth listening to discover what twists lie beyond the edge of your seat your next great adventure awaits on audible there's more to imagine when you listen start listening today when you sign up for a free thirty day trial at audible dot com ballin that's audible dot com ballin for a free thirty day trial inspired by the hit podcast against the odds comes the gripping guidebook how to survive against the odds learn how to handle whatever nature throws at you through gut wrenching true stories of life or death situations this might just be the most important book you'll ever read go to survivalguidebook dot com to get your copy of how to survive against the odds today or visit your favorite bookstore from ballin studios and wondery i'm mister ballin and this is mister ballin's medical mysteries where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape our own bodies at ballin studios in wondry we love to tell stories about the strange dark and mysterious which can manifest in a lot of different ways on this show our focus is the human body and the terrifying things that can happen to it and it can be even scarier when these cases are not accidental that's why i'm so excited that today we're crossing over with another ballin studios podcast called declassified mysteries redacted hosted by luke lamanna shines a light on the shadowy corners of espionage covert operations and misinformation to reveal the dark secrets our governments try to hide so far the show has tackled stories about coups executed by the american government moles infiltrating intelligence agencies and so much more and so today we're going to take the essence of the redacted show and pair it with the medical show and on this episode our first story is a medical mystery that gripped a san francisco hospital in the early nineteen fifties a perplexing outbreak led the hospital staff and the victims families on a frightening search for the truth one whose questions wouldn't be answered until decades later then after i'm done i'm going to pass things over to luke the host of redacted for our second story in this episode one whose dangerous ripple effects can still be felt today both of these stories are a fascinating dive into humanity's relationship with our environment whether it's in medicine or warfare humans often push the boundaries of the natural world to further our own aims but sometimes nature pushes back against us and now here's our first story called red menace on october first nineteen fifty doctor richard wheat parked his car outside the stanford university hospital in san francisco and walked towards the entrance he lingered outside just for a moment and took a deep breath of the cool foggy morning air he readied himself and then headed inside he weaved his way through the bustling fluorescent hallways of the recovery ward there were a few patients there he was eager to check on he made his way to the room of one of the patients he'd been keeping an eye on for the past few weeks it was a seventy five year old pipefitter named edward nevin sr edward had been in and out of the hospital for months but still nobody could quite figure out what was wrong with him however finally a few weeks earlier he'd had a surgery on his prostate and it seemed to make him feel a whole lot better he'd been recovering well in the hospital and so now he was just a few days away from finally going back home to his family but when doctor wheat opened the door to edward's room he was stunned by what he saw the skinny old man laying under the sheets in bed turned to look at the doctor blankly he didn't seem to recognize doctor wheat just a few days earlier edward had been lively and chatty now he looked pale and feeble doctor wheat made his way over to edward's bedside and asked him how he was doing edward groaned that he felt too weak to move he'd developed a nasty cough too and more than that it really hurt when he urinated and his urine was also bright red as doctor wheat listened he nodded calmly and acted like everything was fine but inside he was very worried a little blood in the urine was not out of the ordinary for a patient suffering from a urinary tract infection or uti but it should not be so much that the urine was completely red and it wasn't even clear if edward had a uti at all so it seemed like something else must be wrong with edward doctor wheat knew he would need to do a thorough exam on edward to really get a sense of what was going on here clearly his condition was deteriorating the doctor pulled out his stethoscope and placed the diaphragm on edward's chest and then carefully listened to his breathing and what he heard was just very rough breathing every time the man inhaled and exhaled like there was a backup of mucus to the doctor his it sounded like edward had pneumonia which is a lung infection having pneumonia in addition to whatever this infection was inside of edward's urinary tract was dangerous for someone in edward's condition potentially even deadly doctor wheat moved his stethoscope to listen to edward's heart and what he heard was his heartbeat sounded muffled which was obviously not a good sign this meant that maybe edward's infection this mystery infection had moved through his bloodstream into his heart already which meant there really wasn't much the doctors could do to help him but doctor wheat didn't want to worry his patient even further so even though he had some pretty grim news he didn't share it instead he just promised edward they would do everything they could to get him back on his feet after that doctor wheat walked out of the room with a lot on his mind antibiotics could help edward's infection but he needed to figure out what was causing the infection to know what to prescribe if they wanted to cure edward they were going to have to act fast later that night a few floors down from where doctor wheat had checked on edward nevin a lab technician named ann zuckerman processed blood samples in the stanford hospital lab she had hoped to be home by this point but doctor wheat had asked her to stay back and check a few more tests doctor wheat had told her all about edward nevin's case how the man had an infection both in his lungs and urinary tract and his urine was bright red doctor weed also said he had no idea what caused this infection and he needed ann's help to try to figure it out ann was not one to leave a mystery unsolved so she had agreed to stay a bit longer to help doctor weet ann checked the results of the test she had performed on edward's blood and the sample showed only one abnormality edward had tested positive for a bacteria called serratia marcescens anne thought that was odd she had heard about this bacteria before she knew it was sometimes used to conduct experiments in laboratories but they didn't use it at this hospital beyond that she had never heard of anybody using it anywhere in the bay area and so quickly she grabbed a medical textbook off the shelf and thumbed through it to the right page that talked about this bacteria it said that s marsessians was usually harmless according to the textbook the bacteria was indeed sometimes used in classrooms for experiments and also critically the bacteria also produced a red pig and so anne thought that must explain our patient's bright red urine however this bacteria did not explain edwards lung infection it did explain the potential urinary tract infection because basically it showed he didn't have a uti instead the red urine was this pigment from the bacteria but this bacteria s marceschens was supposed to be harmless and was not in any way tied to lung infections so why was this typically benign bacteria apparently making edwards so sick furthermore how did he even come in contact with it since no one in the hospital used the bacteria like how could it have made its way into edward's bloodstream ann wasn't sure what to make of this but she hoped doctor wheat might have some ideas so she hurried over to the phone and dialed his number at home three weeks later doctor wheat walked quickly down the halls of the hospital that morning his patient edward nevins sr had died doctor wheat had done everything he could to try to help edward fight this mystery infection that was attacking his body he had prescribed what he thought was the correct regimen of antibiotics but unfortunately edward was just too frail the infection eventually made its way to his already weakened heart and it killed him doctor wheat was crushed that he had not been able to save edward's life but right now he couldn't focus on that instead he had to focus on the slew of other patients at this hospital who now also were showing all the same symptoms as edward nevin they were showing the apparent urinary tract infection mixed with pneumonia like symptoms and also the red urine and also of those new patients of which there were eight by this point they all tested positive for esmar sessions doctor wheat was baffled as was everybody else how was this supposedly harmless bacteria making his patients so sick and where was it coming from and they were getting new cases every day and the weird thing was this hospital was the only place that was dealing with this strange outbreak the patients they were getting seemingly had nothing in common except that they all lived in san francisco and each of them had undergone a recent medical procedure at stanford university hospital prior to presenting with red urine and so now doctor wheat and ann the lab technician were terrified that these infections were coming from somewhere inside the hospital doctor wheat checked in on the youngest of the s marsessions patients a twenty nine year old woman originally she had been admitted to the hospital a week earlier for a knee operation but following the operation she developed these mysterious symptoms the woman smiled weakly as doctor wheat checked her vitals but despite her smile the doctor knew she was in a great deal of pain doctor wheat couldn't believe that an otherwise healthy young woman was so affected by this mystery infection the pneumonia symptoms shared amongst the patients indicated that they may have somehow inhaled this bacteria but that didn't make any sense s marceschens was not some toxic fume it was a harmless lab culture there was no reason for it to be floating around in the air especially the air in a hospital that didn't use or study that particular bacteria at all which genuinely frightened doctor wheat if they couldn't figure out where this bacteria was coming from there'd be no way to stop it almost exactly a year later in october of nineteen fifty one doctor wheat was in his office at the hospital and he felt a strange mix of pride and anxiety as he flipped through a copy of the ama archives of internal medicine inside was a report that he had co authored with ann zuckerman the lab technician about the s marsessions outbreak doctor wheat thought back to a year earlier in total they had had eleven people show up with this mystery illness the eleven patients ranged in age from twenty nine years old to seventy eight years old despite the tragedy of edwards death doctor wheat and anne took solace in the fact that no other patients died they experienced painful difficult symptoms but everyone else infected with this bacteria eventually made a full recovery to contain the outbreak the hospital had cleaned its equipment and kept the esmarsessions patients totally isolated thankfully they didn't have any more cases after that doctor wheat actually suspected at the time that there may have been more san francisco residents with this bacteria in their bloodstream however they just never got sick enough to actually need hospitalization and so despite the outbreak coming to an end doctor wheat still had two big questions that were left unanswered how did esmar sessions cause these infections and perhaps most puzzling of all where did the s marsessions come from doctor wietz set the medical journal back down on his desk he and anne had written the article in this journal to bring these nagging questions out into the public now with their article published he hoped that somebody would reach out and help him solve this mystery unfortunately though nobody ever reached out twenty five years later on december twenty second nineteen seventy six medical malpractice lawyer edward nevin iii the grandson of doctor wheat's patient edward nevin sr walked into his own office in san francisco feeling very festive he was eager to finish up a few last cases before the christmas holiday edward iii had only just sat down when his phone rang he figured it was one of his clients so he picked up the voice on the other end of the line introduced himself as robert bartlett he was a reporter for the san francisco chronicle on the local stories beat edward was surprised by the call he was just a small time lawyer what did a journalist want from him robert asked edward if he had read the newspaper that day edward said no he had not had time robert told him to pick up the paper and look on page three so edward actually reached over and grabbed a nearby newspaper opened it up and he saw a shocking headline and suddenly a terrible clarity settled over him after a quarter century edward and his family now finally had an explanation for what actually happened to his grandfather the headline on page three read army tested biological war in san francisco the s marsessians outbreak in san francisco was not just some chance infection edwards grandfather and the other ten patients were the victims of a biochemical attack and the united states army was behind it on september twenty sixth nineteen fifty as part of a weapons test army officials aerosolized the bacteria s marceschiens and sprayed it directly into the san francisco fog near near the stanford university hospital two days later edward nevin developed all of his symptoms the first known case of an s marceschians infection in the city at the time america was in the midst of the cold war and the american government was very concerned about the threat of a soviet biochemical weapon and were eager to test how such an attack would affect the united states from nineteen forty nine to nineteen sixty nine the united states conducted over two hundred experiments to assess the threat of biochemical weapons in highly populated areas shockingly it performed these experiments on its own people using american citizens as unwitting guinea pigs now the army claimed these tests would be harmless however many of the substances they used to test these potential attacks had dangerous effects like serratia marceschens in san francisco specifically the s marceschens experiment was titled operation sea spray army officials sprayed esmar sessions into the fog to see how weather might spread a weaponized bacteria perhaps the thinking was that the government would be able to track how many people this affected by monitoring if anybody mentioned having bright red urine which was alarming but not overall harmful however the government did not anticipate the much more dangerous symptoms that came with s marsessions infection the us army scientists believed the s marceschens bacteria was entirely harmless and they chose not to report their experiments to health officials however when the news broke about the smar sessions outbreak and when the news broke that edward nevin had died as a result of it the army continued utilizing esmar sessions in dozens of tests in cities all across america the army's experiments were eventually stopped in nineteen sixty nine when president nixon issued an executive order banning chemical and biological weapons testing in nineteen seventy seven twenty seven years after operation seaspray began the army finally admitted to spreading the s marceschiens bacteria in san francisco however they maintained that the s marsessians infections that occurred during the time the experiment was happening were purely coincidental now this did not sit right with edward nevin's family or any of the other victims involved in the esmarsessians outbreak but nevins family actually sued the government for wrongful death their case made it all the way to the supreme court but ultimately the courts decided there was insufficient evidence that nevin's death was actually caused by operation seaspray the show is sponsored by betterhelp when i fell into a depression in twenty eighteen i didn't know what to do every day i felt stressed but figured i'd just eventually snap out of it however as time went on i only felt worse and over time my mental health really took a serious toll on my life and the lives of the people around me friends and family tried to help by you know doing their own research and offering different remedies and opportunities to boost my spirits but ultimately it was just such 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Luke Lamanna
And now here's our next story whether warriors were redacted in august nineteen sixty three a crowd of buddhists gathered in a town square in hue a city in south vietnam their protest was a silent one but there was a palpable energy in the air they were determined not to be beaten even though buddhists comprised over seventy percent of south vietnam's population the president ngo dinh diem had instituted a series of repressive policies against them months earlier during a protest against a ban on buddhist flags nine unarmed protesters were killed by the army since then the buddhists had carried out relentless nonviolent gatherings a number of monks had even set themselves on fire in protest of the president from a fourth floor balcony across the street an american was keeping a close eye on the protest below it didn't bother him that they had assembled but as an agent of the cia he had orders to dismiss banned them he watched as local police marched in against the protesters they threw tear gas canisters into the crowd sending clouds of vapor billowing up into the square many of the protesters started to cough but most of them held their ground the cia agent knew they were going to need something stronger to get the protesters to leave then his radio crackled to life a voice came through asking for permission to take off the agent picked up the receiver and gave the order their mission was a go a few minutes later the faint sound of an american carrier plane's engines zoomed overhead it had become an awfully common sound over the past few months and no one paid it much mind except for the cia agent gripping the receiver tightly in his fist he looked up into the sky his heart thrumming with nervous excitement the scientists who had briefed the agent on the mission assured him it was possible still until he saw it with his own eyes it felt more like fantasy than reality the plane passed over the square and moments later the sky darkened the protesters looked up as the first fat drops of rain fell on them from there the rain steadily grew heavy heavier within a few minutes it was pouring and the crowd scattered the agent looked on stunned by what he'd just seen it actually worked the protesters didn't respond to tear gas but there must have been something about the rain that caused them to leave whatever the reason the united states now had control of the weather and they could use it anytime they wanted the united states government has a long history of attempting to harness weather for use in warfare in eighteen seventy one civil war general edward powers published a book speculating that large scale battles had an impact on the climate the following year congress gave him ten thousand dollars to fire cannons into the sky in texas hoping they would cause rain his experiments were unsuccessful but the government never gave up its quest to control the elements a century later as the cold war simmered through the nineteen sixties and seventies the united states military launched a new series of experimental operations this story follows one of them it was called operation popeye and was used during the vietnam war the us army experimented with a scientific technique called cloud seeding to increase rainfall in areas the north vietnamese army traveled but the practice had unintended consequences for both humans and the environment and when the operation was leaked to the public the military was forced to reckon with the fallout in early nineteen sixty seven almost four years after the initial test to break up a buddhist protest in south vietnam lieutenant colonel ed soyster was stuck in a stuffy meeting room at the pentagon the joint chiefs of staff were arguing once again about how to stop the viet cong they'd been at it for a while ed sat by and held his tongue but it wasn't easy as the operations officer of a battalion stationed in vietnam he was one of the few men in the room with on the ground experience during the war as his superiors squabbled over different strategies all ed could think about were the potential lives lost the men who would die because of their plans many who never wanted to serve in the first place still ed was a good soldier he wasn't going to speak out of turn or contradict his bosses he would wait until they asked him for his perspective one of the top advisors hammered home that the military needed to target the viet cong supply route the ho chi minh trail the trail was a network of jungle roads and tunnels that stretched one thousand miles through vietnam and and dipped into laos and cambodia it allowed the viet cong to move throughout the region almost undetected the joint chiefs lamented that they had tried almost everything to stop the viet cong from using the trail deforestation deploying agent orange from helicopters even carpet bombing hadn't been effective they were running out of options there was only one thing they hadn't tried yet the ho chi minh trail was only accessible for part of the year during monsoon season it became pure mud the tunnels were flooded and the bridges would get washed out if they could stretch the rainy season a bit longer it could increase their chances of crippling the viet cong and it just so happened that the us military had discovered a way to do precisely that the secretive program was known as operation popeye and it employed a new method of weather control called cloud seeding a means of increasing atmospheric density and creating rain the military had already successfully tested it in south vietnam which meant cloud seeding was ready for use on the battlefield ed remained expressionless but inside his mind was reeling as a scientist himself he had only heard rumors about the practice but didn't think it was actually feasible after the joint chiefs agreed that cloud seeding was their best option they needed to select someone dependable to execute the program someone with a background in science someone with on the ground experience in vietnam they slowly turned to ed swyster he swallowed hard he'd never been put in charge of anything like this but he would never turn down such an important assignment especially one that came directly from the most senior military leaders in the country he saluted and accepted his mission the weather in vietnam was now under his command a few months later in the fall of nineteen sixty seven an american pilot walked down an airstrip carved out of the jungle in thailand he looked up at the sky the sun was finally peeking through the clouds after months of monsoons he was grateful to finally have a break in the weather he knew it wouldn't last long though not if his orders from lieutenant colonel ed soyster were to be believed because today he wasn't going to be dropping napalm on the jungle or agent orange he was going to be dropping rain the pilot climbed into the cockpit of his c one hundred thirty he turned the engines on and radioed control he was cleared for takeoff a few minutes later he was flying over the jungles of vietnam he scanned his instruments as he navigated to his drop point lieutenant colonel soyster had been clear this needed to be precise as the pilot approached his target he flew lower dipping close to the trees below him was nothing but thick jungle and a few wisps of clouds he positioned his finger on the the trigger and took a deep breath he'd been briefed on how cloud seeding worked and it was making him more anxious than any of the bombs he'd ever dropped the moment arrived and the pilot pulled the trigger several metal canisters ejected from the plane they immediately burst into flames spewing millions of particles of silver iodide and lead iodide into the air as the particles dispersed through the clouds atmospheric water clung to them tightly these particles would amass more and more water making the clouds larger and darker and soon enough they would be ready to burst the pilot veered right and turned back toward his home airstrip he looked behind him and could barely believe what he saw it was actually starting to rain and far below on the jungle floor the ho chi minh trail would soon turn to deep impassable mud operation popeye was fully underway four years later on the morning of march eighteenth nineteen seventy one dennis j doolin woke up with a headache as the deputy assistant secretary of defense doolan had a lot on his plate the war in vietnam was now in its seventh year with no signs of slowing down doolin's job was to help manage the flow of resources and troops to south vietnam but no matter how many bombs weapons or young men he sent over the pacific it didn't seem to be making a difference he sat down at the kitchen table trying to clear his head as he ate breakfast it was one of the few moments each day he could take to relax as his wife poured him a cup of coffee doolin opened up the washington post and his danish dropped out of his mouth jack anderson had written a column about a secret us army program that controlled the weather anderson was a legendary reporter who had covered everything from the chappaquiddick incident where senator ted kennedy accidentally killed one of his staffers to the time president nixon invited elvis presley to the white house and now he had blown the lid off another bombshell story operation popeye anderson reported that the program had been running for years with unintended side effects the increased rainfall caused by the cloud seeding had washed away several villages in laos doolin was steaming he was high up in the department of defense but he hadn't even known about this program he sipped his coffee trying to get a grip as if the war wasn't going bad enough already now he had a pr disaster on his hands right on cue the phone on the wall began to ring doolin felt the pang of fear in his stomach it was probably one of his bosses demanding to know how the story got out he marched over and picked up the receiver instead it turned out to be a reporter from the new york times he asked doolin what he thought about anderson's story through gritted teeth doolin replied no comment and hung up doolin's wife asked him what was going on she was used to seeing him frustrated with the news but she could tell he was more bothered than usual he sat back down at the kitchen table trying to collect his thoughts the american public already felt lied to about what the military was doing in vietnam but operation popeye was different it was going to scare people they were going to demand answers which doolin didn't have.
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Mister Ballin
Before the.
- [34:13]
Lindsey Graham
Internet ruled our lives aol brought america online with email and instant messenger by two thousand aol was so powerful it bought media giant time warner this was a deal that was supposed to bring us into the future revolutionize media but instead it became one of the messiest corporate disasters in history so what went wrong the dot com crash culture clashes or something deeper business wars gives you a front row seat to the biggest moments in business and how they shape our world because when your flight perks disappear your favorite restaurant chain goes bankrupt or new tech threatens to reshape everything overnight you can bet there's a deeper story behind the headlines make sure to follow business wars on the wondery app or wherever you get your podcast and you can binge all episodes of business the aol time warner disaster early and ad free right now on wondery.
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Mister Ballin
Hey listeners mister ballin here we're used to exploring mysterious illnesses and unexplained medical phenomena but what if i told you some of today's most baffling health crises are connected to what might be the biggest crime of our generation i've discovered a new podcast called lawless planet that investigates exactly that host zach goldbaum uncovers shocking stories of unexplained illnesses in small towns mysterious deaths and environmental disasters that are creating real medical mysteries across the globe from toxic spills being covered up by powerful corporations to entire communities falling sick without explanation these aren't just environmental stories they're medical thrillers about the devastating health impacts of planetary destruction and the people fighting to expose the truth if you like mister vollen's medical mysteries then you are going to love lawless planet follow lawless planet on the wonbury app or wherever you get your podcasts you can listen to new episodes of lawless planet early and ad free right now by joining wondery.
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Luke Lamanna
On march twentieth nineteen seventy four rhode island senator claiborne pell leaned forward in his chair he watched carefully as representatives from the department of defense filed into the hearing room his frown deepened as he saw dennis doolin and ed soyster take their seats it was almost three years to the day after jack anderson's first article about cloud seeding was published and a year after us troops had left vietnam the country wanted answers for the war and for operation popeye in particular senator pell wanted answers too this hearing held in secret was a first step towards getting clarity about the program senator pell adjusted the mic and launched into his questions he looked down sternly at doolin and so and demanded to know what the military was doing with the the weather in vietnam he asked why on earth newspapers like the washington post had a better picture of the story than the united states senate doolin shuffled uncomfortably in his seat he assured the senator that he also had no knowledge of operation popeye until the post's article pelle's eyes shifted to soiter he demanded to know why the thai and laotian governments weren't informed on specifics so cleared his throat he began by assuring the committee members that the cloud seeding program was both safe for the environment and effective in deterring use of the ho chi minh trail beyond that he only gave a vague response about the security risk of informing american allies about the cloud seeding program and he wouldn't give specifics about why the operation had been kept under such a tight lid pelle shook his head this was typical as a retired naval man himself he knew a strategic non answer when he heard one he leaned into his microphone to make himself clear this was what scared him not the cloud seeding but the secrecy the military could have any number of programs that congress had no idea about it could not operate with such little oversight powell pressed on he asked the men if there were any other weather control operations underway what about hurricanes typhoons doolin shook his head the science to manipulate those kinds of weather events didn't exist and in his opinion contrary to seusser's account operation popeye hadn't even made much of a difference during the war the army's interest in controlling the weather was over powell raised an eyebrow doolin himself said he had no knowledge of operation popeye until anderson's article was published and his boss defense secretary melvin laird had lied to congress when the story broke denying the existence of the entire operation so how could he possibly believe doolin when he said that the army had no additional projects aimed at controlling the weather the men did their best to assure pell they were telling the truth but the senator wasn't convinced he gave doolin and soyster their marching orders operation popeye needed to be declassified if the army truly had nothing to hide it was time the entire project was made public doolin and soyster nodded pell called an end to the hearing but as he got up from his chair something still bothered him he felt the army was playing a dangerous game they seemed to have completely ignored regulations and alliances in the pursuit of a potentially hazardous new technology perhaps it was time to go a step further and ban weather control as a weapon altogether before the army took it too far operation popeye was declassified two months after the secret senate hearing the newly revealed details of the project ruffled feathers in the intelligence community the implications of the us military manning such a wide reaching program without full transparency raised alarm bells it also worsened americans faith in their government which was already low due to the vietnam war anti war activists were shocked at how callously the military had treated american allies in the region particularly after leaks revealed that the army had covertly bombed cambodia and laos the destruction of laotian villages during the cloud seeding operation was widely condemned and many environmental activists were disturbed by the implications of operation popeye silver iodide and lead iodide can be potentially toxic especially to sea animals though lieutenant colonel ed soyster maintained to the senate that the cloud seeding program was fully safe for the environment the government had known about the negative impact that the operation could have on the region's crops following the backlash senator claiborne pell helped pass a resolution urging the government to pursue an international treaty against weather modification in nineteen seventy six the united nations signed the environmental modification convention the use of weather control for any hostile purpose remains banned to this day when the truth about operation popeye came to light the country was already deeply shaken the vietnam war had been a failure watergate had shattered illusions of presidential integrity and richard nixon had become the first us president to resign in disgrace trust in government was in free fall so when the public learned that the us military had been trying to manipulate the weather as a tool of war it fit neatly into the growing sense that those in charge were willing to do anything and tell the public nothing the impulse to question power is healthy even patriotic but when answers are withheld suspicion and speculation fill the void that's how we get from cloud seeding in vietnam to full blown conspiracy theories about things like mind controlling chemtrails from jet exhaust or space lasers that cause hurricanes ironically the government's efforts to conceal the truth often end up feeding the very paranoia they're meant to prevent the less transparent institutions are the more room there is for wild theories to flourish and over time these fantasies don't just distort reality they chip away at our ability to act collectively to trust one another and to hold power accountable in any meaningful way what operation popeye reminds us is secrecy may serve short term goals but in the long run it has a cost because in a system built on public trust the truth doesn't just matter it's the only thing that can hold the country together.
- [43:07]
Mister Ballin
Follow mister bolland's medical mysteries on the wondery app amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts you can listen to new episodes of mister bolland's medical mysteries early and ad free right now by joining wondry in the wondry app apple podcasts or spotify or by listening on amazon music with your prime membership before you go tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondry dot com survey from ballin studios and wondry this is mister ballin's medical mysteries hosted by me mister ballin a quick note about our stories they're all inspired by true events but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fake fictionalized for dramatic purposes and a reminder the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice diagnosis or treatment this episode was written by jake natterman our editor is heather dundas sound design is by andre plus our senior managing producer is callum plews and our coordinating producer is sarah mathis our senior producer is alex benedon our associate producers and researchers are sarah vitak and teja palaconda fact checking was done by sheila patterson for ballin studios our head of production is zach levitt script editing by scott allen and evan allen our coordinating producer is samantha collins production support by avery siegel executive producers are myself mister ballin and nick witters for wondry our head of sound is marcelino villapando senior producers are laura donna palavotta and dave schilling senior managing producer is ryan lohr and our executive producers are aaron o' flaherty and marshall louie for wondry.
- [44:55]
Lindsey Graham
In nineteen ninety two federal agents surrounded a remote cabin in the mountains of idaho it belonged to randy weaver a christian survivalist with links to the far right weaver was wanted on a minor weapons charge but a series of blunders and misunderstandings turned the situation into an armed and and deadly standoff hi i'm lindsey graham the host of wondry's show american scandal we bring to life some of the biggest controversies in us history presidential lies environmental disasters and corporate fraud in our latest series a family of religious fanatics moves to ruby ridge in northern idaho to wait out the apocalypse but their paranoia and suspicion of authority lead to a confrontation with federal law enforcement and their own personal armageddon follow american scandal on the wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts experience all episodes ad free and be the first to binge newest seasons only on wondery plus you can join wondery plus in the wondery app apple podcasts or spotify start your free trial.