The CIA has released documents showing that US spy agencies resorted to psychics to help conduct espionage against Iran during the time of the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran.
According to the newly published files, a secret team of half a dozen military-trained clairvoyants met over 200 times in a building in Fort Mead, Maryland, as part of an operation code-named Grill Flame.
The psychics were employed to gather intelligence on where the American hostages were being held and how closely they were being guarded.
The psychics officially worked for US Army intelligence, but their activities were monitored and supported by several government intelligence agencies as well as top commanders at the Pentagon.
On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian university students took over the US embassy, which they believed had turned into a center of espionage aimed at overthrowing the Islamic Republic in Iran following the Islamic Revolution. Fifty-two Americans from the mission were held for 444 days until January 20, 1981.
Documents found at the compound later corroborated claims by revolutionary students that the US had been using its Tehran embassy to hatch plots against Iran.