William Stephenson
Sir William Stephenson (1896–1989), famously known as 'Intrepid' by Winston Churchill, was a Canadian intelligence officer who headed British Intelligence's operational arm in America, the British Security Coordination Office.
Sir William Stephenson (1896–1989), famously known as "Intrepid" by Winston Churchill, was a Canadian intelligence officer who headed British Intelligence's operational arm in America, the British Security Coordination Office. This office was disguised as part of the British Passport Control Office in Rockefeller Center, New York City1.
Stephenson played a crucial role in influencing American public opinion to support Britain's entry into World War II. He orchestrated an elaborate black propaganda campaign involving astrologer Louis de Wohl. Stephenson's agency would feed information to de Wohl for his column, "Stars Foretell," and then disseminate this information to the U.S. press, which, unable to fact-check with Nazi Germany, would report it as real1.
Stephenson's efforts were highly effective, with one declassified memo noting that "An ever-growing audience [is] becoming convinced of his supernatural powers"1. He coordinated with William Donovan, who would later head the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency1.
Sources
- Jacobsen, Annie. Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. ↩
Local network
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