---
title: CHAOS Program
aliases:
  - CHAOS Program
created: 2026-05-17
updated: 2026-05-17
tags:
  - Program
  - CIA
  - Intelligence
category: "Intelligence Operation"
summary: "The CHAOS Program was a CIA domestic surveillance operation that purchased Washington D.C. real estate as cover for monitoring domestic political activities, distinct from but related to Operation CHAOS (MHCHAOS)."
location: "Washington, D.C."
---
The CHAOS Program was a highly secret [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] operation. It involved the Agency's purchase of a [[Washington, D.C.]] trash collection company, which had contracts to pick up garbage at various Third World embassies, including the Israeli embassy. The trash was systematically sorted and analyzed for any possible intelligence. [[James Jesus Angleton]] was a sponsor of this program.[^1]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 11.