--- category: Intelligence Operation created: 2026-06-03 location: Fort Detrick, Maryland summary: Joint CIA-Army program under which the Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick produced biological and chemical weapons for covert CIA operations, including the toxins Sidney Gottlieb delivered to kill Patrice Lumumba. tags: - Program - CIA - FortDetrick - BiologicalWeapons - Assassination updated: 2026-06-03 --- MKNAOMI was the joint [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/)-[SOD](/organizations/special-operations-division/) program under which the Army's biological research center at [Fort Detrick](/places/fort-detrick/) produced germ weapons for CIA use. In 1952, the [Technical Services Staff](/organizations/office-of-technical-service/) made an agreement with SOD whereby SOD would develop and stockpile biological agents and delivery systems for the Agency. The CIA paid SOD about $200,000 a year. Only a handful of the highest CIA officials knew that TSS was maintaining the capability to kill or incapacitate selected people with biological weapons.[^1] ### The Toxic Arsenal Under MKNAOMI, SOD developed a whole arsenal of toxic substances for CIA use. For instant killing, SOD provided super-deadly shellfish toxin. On his ill-fated U-2 flight over the [Soviet Union](/places/soviet-union/) in 1960, Francis Gary Powers carried, and chose not to use, a drill bit coated with this poison concealed in a silver dollar. For assassination requiring time to escape, SOD provided botulinum, which had an incubation period of 8 to 12 hours. Agency operators later supplied pills laced with this lethal food poison to Mafia allies for inclusion in [Fidel Castro](/people/fidel-castro/)'s milkshake.[^1] When [Clandestine Services chief Richard Bissell](/people/richard-bissell/) asked [Sidney Gottlieb](/people/sidney-gottlieb/) to pick out a disease to kill the [Congo](/places/congo/)'s [Patrice Lumumba](/people/patrice-lumumba/) in 1960, Gottlieb selected one "that was supposed to produce a disease that was indigenous to that area [of West Africa] and that could be fatal." Gottlieb personally carried the bacteria to the Congo, but the operation was scrubbed before Lumumba could be infected. The Congolese leader was killed shortly thereafter under circumstances that remain unclear.[^1] For temporary incapacitation, SOD stockpiled about a dozen diseases and toxins of varying strengths. At the relatively benign end stood Staph. enterotoxin, a mild form of food poisoning that incapacitated its victim for 3 to 6 hours. More virulent was Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus, which usually immobilized a person for 2 to 5 days and kept them weakened for several weeks. For incapacitation lasting months, SOD had two different kinds of brucellosis. SOD also stored anthrax, a fatal disease when inhaled with symptoms resembling pneumonia.[^1] ### Delivery Systems One branch of SOD specialized in building delivery systems, the most famous of which was the dart gun fashioned out of a .45 pistol that ex-CIA Director [William Colby](/people/william-colby/) displayed at a 1975 Senate hearing. The Agency pressured SOD to develop a "nondiscernible microbioinoculator" that could give people deadly shots that, according to a CIA document, could not be "easily detected upon a detailed autopsy." SOD also rigged aerosol sprays fired by remote control, including a fluorescent starter activated by turning on the light, a cigarette lighter that sprayed when lit, and an engine head bolt that shot off as the engine heated.[^1] SOD continued to manufacture and stockpile bacteriological agents for the CIA until 1969, when President [Richard Nixon](/people/richard-nixon/) renounced the use of biological warfare tactics.[^1] [^1]: John D. Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate*, Chapter 5.