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MKUltra

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Declassified MKUltra documents

MKUltra[a] was an illegal human experimentation program. The program was made by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The project would create drugs and methods that could be used in interrogations that could force confessions with brainwashing and psychological torture.[1] The word "MKUltra" is a CIA cryptonym: "MK" was a random abbreviation that stood for Office of Technical Service. "Ultra" is a random word from the dictionary to name the project. The program has been very unpopular. It violated individual rights. It is an example of the CIA's abuse of power. Many critics say it did not allow for consent and hurt democratic ideas.[2]

Project MKUltra started in 1953. The project was stopped in 1973. MKUltra used many ways to change people's brain functions. They tried to use high doses of psychoactive drugs (like LSD) and other chemicals. Consent was often not given. They also tried to use other methods. They used many types of torture, like electroshocks,[3] hypnosis,[4][5] sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse.[6][7]

MKUltra was organized through the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence. It was coordinated with the United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories.[8] The program did many illegal things, claiming they were research.[9][10][11] For example, they used U.S. and Canadian citizens as test subjects.[9]: 74 [12][13][14] They worked at over 80 institutions that were not the military. Many of these were colleges and universities, hospitals, prisons, and pharmaceutical companies.[15] The CIA used many front organizations, though some officials at these organizations did know about the CIA's involvement.[9]

Project MKUltra was revealed to the public in 1975 by the Church Committee. This committee was named after Senator Frank Church. It was also revealed to the public because of Gerald Ford's United States President's Commission on CIA Activities within the United States (the Rockefeller Commission). The investigation into the project was difficult. This was because past CIA Director, Richard Helms, ordered all MKUltra files be destroyed in 1973. The Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations only used testimony (interviews) with participants. They also had some documents that survived Helms's order.[16] In 1977, a Freedom of Information Act allowed for 20,000 documents about MKUltra to be revealed. This led to Senate hearings.[9][17] More information about MKUltra was declassified in 2001.

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References

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  1. ↑ Alternatively spelled in many different ways, such as MKULTRA, MK-Ultra, MK Ultra, Project MKUltra, and more.
  1. ↑ United States Congress Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1921). Project MKUProject MKULTRA, the CIA's Program of Research in Behavioral Modification. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 70. Some MKUltra activities raise questions of legality implicit in the original charter.
  2. ↑ Boissoneault, Lorraine. "The True Story of Brainwashing and How It Shaped America". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved December 22, 2024.
  3. ↑ National Public Radio (NPR), 9 Sept. 2019, "The CIA's Secret Quest For Mind Control: Torture, LSD And A 'Poisoner In Chief'" (On-air interview with journalist Stephen Kinzer)
  4. ↑ "Dialogue Sought With Professor In CIA Probe". August 27, 1977. Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  5. ↑ "Statement of Director of Central Intelligence Before Subcommittee On Health And Scientific Research Senate Committee on Human Resources" (PDF). September 21, 1977. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 23, 2017. Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  6. ↑ Otterman, Michael (2007). American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond. Melbourne University Publishing. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-522-85333-9.
  7. ↑ McCoy, Alfred (2007). A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror. Macmillan. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-4299-0068-3.
  8. ↑ "Advisory on Human Radiation Experiments, July 5, 1994, National Security Archives, retrieved January 16, 2014". Archived from the original on July 13, 2013.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Project MKUltra, the Central Intelligence Agency's Program of Research into Behavioral Modification. Joint Hearing before the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate, Ninety-Fifth Congress, First Session" (PDF). U.S. Government Printing Office. August 8, 1977. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 31, 2010. Retrieved April 18, 2010 – via The New York Times.
  10. ↑ "Chapter 3: Supreme Court Dissents Invoke the Nuremberg Code: CIA and DOD Human Subjects Research Scandals". Archived from the original on March 31, 2013. Retrieved November 8, 2012.
  11. ↑ "U.S. Senate Report on CIA MKULTRA Behavioral Modification Program 1977". publicintelligence.net – Public Intelligence. July 27, 2012.
  12. ↑ Richelson, JT, ed. (September 10, 2001). "Science, Technology and the CIA: A National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book". George Washington University. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
  13. ↑ "Chapter 3, part 4: Supreme Court Dissents Invoke the Nuremberg Code: CIA and DOD Human Subjects Research Scandals". Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments Final Report. Archived from the original on April 30, 2007. Retrieved August 24, 2005.
  14. ↑ "The Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Foreign and Military Intelligence". Church Committee report, no. 94-755, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. Washington, D.C.: United States Congress. 1976. p. 392.
  15. ↑ Horrock, Nicholas M. (August 4, 1977). "80 Institutions Used in CIA Mind Studies: Admiral Turner Tells Senators of Behavior Control Research Bars Drug Testing Now". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 30, 2021.
  16. ↑ "An Interview with Richard Helms". Central Intelligence Agency. May 8, 2007. Archived from the original on April 27, 2010. Retrieved March 16, 2008.
  17. ↑ "Private Institutions Used In C.I.A Effort To Control Behavior. 25-Year, $25 Million Program. New Information About Funding and Operations Disclosed by Documents and Interviews Private Institutions Used in C.I.A. Plan". The New York Times. August 2, 1977. Retrieved July 30, 2014. Several prominent medical research institutions and Government hospitals in the United States and Canada were involved in a secret, 25-year, $25-million effort by the Central Intelligence Agency to learn how to control the human mind. [...] Dr. Harris Isbell, who conducted the research between 1952 and 1963, kept up a secret correspondence with the C.I.A.

Further reading

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External video
Image Presentation by Stephen Kinzer on Poisoner in Chief, October 3, 2019, C-SPAN

Other websites

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