Though Arthur H. Rosenfeld would later rise to prominence as the “father of energy efficiency” for his role in creating new global standards for sustainable energy use in the ‘70s, the physicist’s FBI file is focused on a younger Rosenfeld being a high-profile target for Soviet spies. In addition to his coveted “Q” clearance guaranteeing a stash of nuclear secrets, Rosenfeld’s criticism of what he felt was extremism in defense of liberty - including an impassioned political debate that took place entirely on the margins of a table mat - had the Bureau wondering the extent to which Rosenfeld could be trusted at academic conferences held behind the Iron Curtain.

As part of its ongoing psychic research in the ’80s, the Central Intelligence Agency explored the ideas of notorious “free energy” advocate Tom Bearden, according to one of Bearden’s papers discovered in the CREST archives by Mike Lewinski. In particular, the Agency was interested in “STAR WARS NOW!,” Bearden’s warning of Soviet weaponization of electromagnetic fields to create superweapons such as the “Tesla Howitzer.”

Earlier this year, the Central Intelligence Agency hosted a panel at South by Southwest about the agency’s use of board games as a training exercise. Intrigued, MuckRock’s Mitchell Kotler filed a FOIA for materials used to play Collection Deck, a collectible card game shown in the presentation. Those materials just came in, and while there’s nothing to stop you from printing them out and playing, there just one tiny snag: several of the cards are redacted as a matter of national security.

After an InfoWars segment claimed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was running a colony of child slaves on Mars, internal emails show NASA begrudgingly setting the record straight: for starters, the colony’s on Europa.

In the interest of fairness - and because it’s the Central Intelligence Agency’s birthday - we thought we’d try and dig up a few examples of net positives the Agency has intentionally (or unintentionally) visited upon the world. What we found was that from science to cinema, the Agency’s unexpected reach knows no bounds.

Searching the CIA’s declassified document database for documents on the Cold War missile defense program nicknamed “Star Wars” shows that the Agency kept a close watch on public perception, but was wary of Soviets thinking that the program was too powerful - which might lead to an uptick in hostilities.