Celebrity psychic Uri Geller, famous for his spoon-bending and mind-reading antics, was a secret agent for the CIA according to a film to be screened by the BBC this autumn.
Entitled The Secret life of Uri Geller – Psychic Spy?, the documentary claims that Mr Geller used his telepathic and psychic powers in a number of key CIA operations during the Cold War.
Among them was the wiping out of Soviet floppy discs which KGB agents were carrying in diplomatic pouches, and influencing a Russian negotiator during nuclear arms talks by beaming what he described as “peace messages” at his head.
The film suggests that Mr Geller may also have been among nearly 50 psychics trying to locate Osama bin Laden after 9/11.
The Israeli-born psychic, who lives in a mansion in Berkshire, was also said to be working for Mossad and is praised in the film by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mossad is reported to have used his powers to disable radar at Entebbe where Israeli commandos staged a rescue of hostages held by Palestinian hijackers.
Mr Geller came to the attention of the Americans in the 1970s when Jimmy Carter was elected president. One of the first things he did after entering the White House was to give Mr Geller a four-hour briefing on the Soviet psychic threat. “America did not want a ‘psychic gap’ and Uri was the ‘go-to guy’,” said the film’s producer, Vikram Jayanti.