The Muddy Waters of the name "Project Monarch"

[Project Willow]

In 2010, I wrote this:

From the comments to his article Albarelli addresses the issue.

http://www.truthout.org/cries-from-past-tortures-ugly-echoes59738

Quote:
Mon, 05/24/2010 - 13:33 — H.P. Albarelli Jr.

I researched the CIA's programs for over 17 years.
As far as I could see and find, there is/was no Monarch
project. Indeed, I was told by the fellow who first wrote about it that it was a fabricated project on his part and that
he has regretted the creation for years. It is not necessary to make MKULTRA and Artichoke any worse than they were. They were absolutely horrible programs and the attempts to embellish them with made-up projects is not helpful or needed. In fact, it readily serves the Agency's disinformation objectives to scatter this fabricated disinfo dust over the real story. Ms. Van Bergen is correct: victim accounts are helpful and needed. These are forthcoming in additional articles that will be posted on Truthout. As expected, victims are quite afraid and apprehensive about coming forward. The victim identified as Sally Hartman in my book is the best evidenced account I have seen. The harm done to this woman by the CIA is hard to fathom. Perhaps we will post that section form the book somewhere on the net so that more people can see and read it. HPA/

RIer's who've paid attention to this topic can probably figure out that regretful source, but let us now put to rest finally the question as to whether it's a bonafide project name. Interestingly, it doesn't appear to be deliberate disinfo either. Can one retract a meme?

Project Monarch

Actually, if you listen to the radiation committee testimony, one of the vics quotes Gottlieb telling her she "Is ripe for the big A", Artichoke. So perhaps TBMC activity fell under that project name. Hopefully one day we shall find out for certain what label they used for their horrendous work on kids.

here: http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=28321

I did not use that strike-out based solely on the quote from Albarelli.

I did a survey of survivors. Those who spoke to the issue admitted that they had adopted the label because of its common usage. They had no direct memory of the term being used in the labs or on documents. Some did say that either butterfly or monarch symbolism was part of their programming, but these pertained to general vernacular within their cult tradition, or had some other cultural connection, rather than being the name of a government funded project.

I've witnessed, over the past 3 years, what I can only describe as an Internet-based disinformation campaign, centered around Project Monarch. By all appearances, it was created by a person or persons with professional level graphic design, web development, and search engine manipulation expertise. These sites on mind control appear and disappear in fairly regular patterns, all of them associating Monarch with the most outrageous and discrediting claims. Many of them are embedded with triggers.

I still make a habit of inquiring with survivors about this issue, and it came up for conversation again recently in a group setting. Some of the other survivors spoke to having "monarch imagery" as part of their programming, although the symbol didn't have the same meaning for all of them, and didn't refer to a government project name. One however, gave me this (quoted with permission):

Well, when my father-monster was murdered by his own, we found many clues to "why us" since we had free reign in his trailer after "they" swept it. 1. my f-m's family had been a human gene-pool family tracked by the gov. since the 1880's. 2. F-M's father had died in a drunk-driving collision when my f-m was 5 yrs old. Our step-grandpa turned out to be OSS. 3. Our step-grandpa allegedly worked for and gave lectures for Civitan (?), I hope I remember that correctly...but that "work" never existed. He did odd jobs, mostly as a chef or cook. 4. This man also received checks, starting back right after the war, @ $400.00 mo. from The Monarch Life Ins. Co. Think of how much that $400.00 really equaled back then!!! And they INCREASED over time with inflation. My f-m was multiple, and I do believe he was programmed as we were too. I believe step-grandpa set him up, then us...Step-Grandpa "Bompa", was the love of my life until he raped me when I was 9 - and he knew well who to call out and how to keep it secret. From that day on, I never spoke another word to him, and would never even approach him, and damn sure not stay alone with him again. At least my mom can recall my abrupt change. I had two experiences with J. Mengele that I recall. The one in my hometown, yes drugs and torture, I overheard him and the others emphatically speaking in high hopes of "Project Monarch" success. They didn't know I was awake. I wasn't NASA kid, never heard about ...

Ms. Hersha is a coauthor of Secret Weapons: Two Sisters' Terrifying True Story of Sex, Spies and Sabotage
http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Weapons-Sisters-Terrifying-Sabotage/dp/0882821962/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343330584&sr=8-1&keywords=secret+weapons+hersha

She is also my friend.

One other prominent survivor spoke to the issue, but I don't have permission to quote her. She can always join the conversation here if she wishes.

Getting back to the Albarelli quote, it isn't quite accurate, according to Hank himself. It's not that the journalist made it up, he was given the wrong information, and he couldn't have made it up because Hammond uses the term in his Greenbaum speech (1992) and O'Brien/Phillips in their writings (1993), both of which precede the journalist's publication. A special big prize for anyone who can find an earlier reference to Project Monarch.

Whatever its history or origins, Monarch has been made into a PR albatross, one I won't willingly wrap around my neck in the public sphere, and I have no memory of it in connection with my own experience. Now my choice not to proliferate it is personal, rather than one based on what I thought was a pretty clear case of disinformation.

[Luther Blissett]

If you want help identifying or tracking down the designer(s) behind or helping with the disinformation campaign, feel free to pm me with any details you know (or even the most marginal breadcrumbs).

[elfismiles]

Thank you for this update PW.

The ongoing issue of dealing with claims surrounding Project Monarch (and now "Super Soldiers") is complex but deserves explication.

[LilyPatToo]

So glad you posted about this, PW. Wish I could go back and put a "strike out" through every time I've unwittingly perpetuated the Monarch meme. Since much of my own exploitation (the young adult stuff I can partially remember) was sex slavery, in the beginning I was powerfully drawn to the testimonies of other women claiming to have been "Monarch" who were used the same ways. Their stories contained so many details identical to what was done to me that it validated my memories and gave me a chance to feel less alone with my confusion, physical and mental scars and shame. Even when I realized that several of the most vocal people had been influenced by CIA-connected Mark Phillips, who may have given the name "Monarch" to one of the programs, I still used it, albeit with a disclaimer about its possible lack of authenticity. For me, it was a useful shorthand term for talking at length about almost unbearable things

But I no longer use it and try to give people who do a capsule history of its problems. What I don't usually bring up is a very confusing cache of old costume jewelry I found a few years ago in a closet. It was really well hidden and inside a wooden puzzle box that I'd never seen before and had trouble opening. It contained butterfly-themed pins, necklaces and earrings, many of them with enameled Monarch butterflies. They were unfamiliar to me, but I occasionally come upon other things that alters have hidden in my house, so I set them aside and tried not to freak out.

Does that alter have the sort of programming that the other self-described "Monarch" slaves have? I have no clue, but wonder about who it was who collected all those bits and pieces and hid them so well. In with them was a ring that my probably-complicit mother gave me when I was a teen. At the time, I was surprised, because we were struggling financially and I didn't see how she could have afforded a pricy real gold ring set with a large black pearl and a white one. Years later, an alter with very specific programming around symbolic black pearls surfaced and I've wondered ever since if my mother was given the ring to give to me (knowingly or unknowingly) to reinforce programming.

It's all questions/no proof, but I really would like to know more about butterfly symbolism in real, verified programming. If the alter who owned and hid the jewelry bought Monarch butterfly pieces to reinforce a disinfo meme, it makes little sense, given that the box was very dusty and most of the jewelry showed little wear. I wish I had more friends with so-called "Monarch-type" sex programming to ask about it, but I don't. And since most of the information on butterflies and black pearls in programming that's up online comes from sources that may be less than accurate, I've stopped looking at it. I'm frustrated that the whole unsavory sexual exploitation mess sometimes seems to me to be downplayed...it's as though because the term "Monarch" has been discredited, the practice of buying, selling and renting programmed multiples for sex is being discredited and denied too. I won't stand for that, nor for adding to the ease of dismissing it. It's terribly cruel to former victims who are trying to raise consciousness about an issue that almost no one but a few on the rabid Right want to hear about. Even here I've gotten dismissive comments when I mentioned the subject

LilyPat

[American Dream]

Critical consciousness about those themes which may be deceptive, delusional or otherwise disinformational is very, very important-not only in general but in particular around this issue...

[Project Willow]

LilyPat, thanks for sharing that bit about the jewelry case you found. I also remain open to the possibility of encountering butterfly themed programming, but so far there's nothing.

[LilyPatToo]

Well, PW, it could just be that someone inside really, really loves butterflies. Heck, I love butterflies but I don't buy a lot of butterfly jewelry and hide it away in a closet. I try not to let myself get caught up in reading too much into any of the things my alters do, since some are pretty fully formed personalities and have quirks and preferences. I'm glad we're talking about the subject of butterflies though--you never know whether someone reading the thread might have info and be willing to share.

AD, I'm going to assume you intended your comment to mean this subject in general and not in reference to what I'd just posted. It's painful to talk in a public forum about sexual abuse and exploitation and then see words like "deceptive, delusional or otherwise disinformational" posted right afterward. In italics and bolded. And I think I did mention that a lot of my memories of this are ordinary ones (not sure how to say "not-recovered-via-hypnosis or therapy" or in conversation with anybody) from my 20's and 30's. I was horrified by them for decades before I found out about the programs and discovered that other women remembered very similar things happening to them.

That's why, when there's a discussion of the high-profile survivors and the ways their testimony may have been deliberately contaminated, I try to find the guts to speak up and make it clear that some of the details they talk about happened to me too. And that these are memories to which I've had access (when I could bear to think about them) for many years and that do not change over time. Some have been validated by people who were close to me then, too. I don't want vocal survivors who've been interfered with to see their entire life experience tossed out the window because an intel-connected creep messed with them. Yes, some of it is probably disinformation, but some is very close to what happened to me and I've had no Svengali involved in my case.

LilyPat