>>16347551
The retcon for Blackbriar reveals that both it and Treadstone are both Beta programs for creating assassins with genetic engineering.
(a covert program that uses a behavioral modification protocol to turn recruits into nearly-superhuman assassins. The series follows sleeper agents across the globe as they are mysteriously 'awakened' to resume their deadly missions. The program breaks down these assassins' personalities, erases their memories, and eliminates their moral code so they can effectively kill targets around the world.)
In the present day, the cicada project is being revived by unknown forces, reactivating sleeper agents around the world who are unaware of their own abilities and training. Although it's sometimes indicated that Cicada is the project's proper name, it's also an extension of Treadstone
Treadstone retconned the creation of Operation: Treadstone (and Jason Bourne's origin) by revealing that its roots come from a program called Cicada, which was controlled by the Soviet Union. The series introduced CIA agent J. Randolph Bentley (Jeremy Irvine), who was essentially the first Jason Bourne. In 1973, Bentley was captured by KGB agents in East Berlin and disappeared for nine months, during which time he was subjected to brainwashing and torture, which mentally broke him. Bentley was then given advanced training in combat, weapons, and spycraft, which was overseen by KGB Agent Petra Andropov (Emilia Schüle). The intention was for Bentley to become the first Cicada agent - a black ops assassin who would be inserted into a new life and lie in wait until he was activated for a mission.
The Cicada program was the brainchild of Soviet scientist Dr. Gustav Meisner (Martin Umbach). Using a combination of hypnosis, drugs, sleep deprivation, and electrical stimulation to certain areas of the brain, Meisner's methods were designed to strip away a person's identity and make them controllable human weapons. Though Bentley was able to rebel against his programming, escape his captors, and return to the CIA, he still succumbed and killed targets while suffering from induced hallucinations during his months under KGB control.
Cicadas are sleeper agents who will follow certain prescripted commands when "awakened", or activated. They were originally conceived by the KGB during the Cold War as a part of Gustav Meisner's Tsikada program, and kept the monicker when the program was reverse engineered by the CIA and perfected under Operation Treadstone.
https://www.eff.org/files/2014/04/09/20131004-guard-egotistical_giraffe.pdf
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hearings/95mkultra.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_under_Five_Eyes_surveillance#:~:text=The%20%22Five%20Eyes%22%20
https://www.eff.org/john-perry-barlow
“a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth . . . a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.”
Barlow knew that new technology could create and empower evil as much as it could create and empower good. He made a conscious decision to focus on the latter: "I knew it’s also true that a good way to invent the future is to predict it. So I predicted Utopia, hoping to give Liberty a running start before the laws of Moore and Metcalfe delivered up what Ed Snowden now correctly calls 'turn-key totalitarianism.'”
https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence
“Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20200816041202/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/15/us/politics/trump-snowden-esper.html
Tensions between Mr. Trump and Mr. Esper escalated this year when Mr. Esper broke publicly with the president over whether federal troops should have been used to control protests that erupted across the country in response to the killing of George Floyd.
“Pushed further by a journalist to answer whether he had ever considered firing Mr. Esper, Mr. Trump simply shrugged.
“I consider firing everybody at some point,” the president said.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20200817175240/https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/356012775488753665
“I wonder if traitor Edward Snowden will be attending the Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow on November 9th.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20200817175244/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/395683702757662721?s=20
“ObamaCare is a disaster and Snowden is a spy who should be executed-but if it and he could reveal Obama's records,I might become a major fan”
https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/