No, CNN did not break news about a Pentagon ‘plan to implant Americans with nanotech particles’

A viral social media post made what would be an alarming national defense plan seem official.

"Pentagon Announces Plan to Implant Americans with Nanotech Particles| CNN BREAKING NEWS - September 06, 2023," read a Sept. 6 Facebook post caption. The post featured a video that warned the Pentagon will be doing forced injections to sicken people.

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The post’s video clip originated from an episode of "The Alex Jones Show," hosted by known conspiracy theory peddler Alex Jones. 

In the 25-minute excerpt posted on Facebook, Jones showed clips of a 2017 "Mad Scientist" conference, during which neuroethicist Dr. James Giordano spoke about neurotechnology in national defense. Co-sponsored by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command and the Georgetown University Center for Security Studies, the conference was facilitated by the Mad Scientist Laboratory, an Army initiative collaborating with academia, industry and government to explore concepts involving the future of warfare. 

Giordano is a Georgetown neurology and biochemistry professor and chief of its neuroethics studies program. He lectured on potential attacks that would affect brain function in battle. But we found no statements from the Pentagon announcing the use of such neuroweapons on Americans.

Neither CNN nor any other reputable media outlets announced any such breaking news about nanotech implants, either. We searched news stories through Nexis news archives and advanced Google search and did not see any reports that supported the claim. We found no evidence after doing a keyword search of the U.S. Defense Department’s website and checking its press releases.

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At the conference, Giordano discussed possible neuroweapons such as pharmaceuticals and nanoparticulate agents, but he also pointed out ethical concerns.

"The host of capabilities and possibilities gained from neuroweapons and NeuroS/T (neuroscience and technology) bring a multitude of ethical and moral considerations and conundrums along with them … What is clear is that the United States must explore not only what is possible, but what is justified, appropriate, and legally possible in the Battle of the Brain," read the conference report.

PolitiFact reached out to Giordano and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command but did not hear back.

We rate this claim False. ​