A new collection of more than 1,200 documents detailing the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) notorious mind control program MKULTRA was published by the National Security Archive and ProQuest on Monday.
The collection was released 50 years after Seymour Hersh's New York Times investigation revealed the program's irregularities. According to Go to archive. The document was also published 70 years after the US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company became the CIA's main source of the psychoactive drug LSD, the archive added.
According to archives, the MKULTRA project was conducted in the 1950s, and most of the original records were destroyed by CIA Director Richard Helms and Sidney Gottlieb, Director of the CIA's Chemical Division Technical Services Staff (TSS). Mr. Gottlieb will ultimately serve as director of the agency's Technical Services Division (TSD). (Related: Remember when the CIA experimented on LSD patients? Well, the trailer for “MK Ultra” just came out)
CIA behavior control experiments, focus of new academic collection https://t.co/YNvZYxBxbD
— NatlSecurityArchive (@NSArchive) December 23, 2024
The archives say the collection includes records that survived a government agency's “purge” of classified documents.
The CIA conducted mind control research under operations MKULTRA, BLUEBIRD, and ARTICHOKE, the archives noted. Collection — CIA and Behavioral Science: Mind Control, Drug Experimentation, MKULTRA — This document consists primarily of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents previously compiled by former State Department official John Marks.
“The MKULTRA program was closed over 40 years ago and declassified information about the program is publicly available at: CIA.gov,” A CIA spokesperson told the Daily Caller.
The caller also reached out to the archives, but as of publishing, there has been no response.
“Despite the efforts of government agencies to erase this hidden history, the documents that survived this purge and are collected here contain dozens of discoveries and tests of methods to erase and reprogram humanity.” “Keep in mind that this report presents a compelling and disturbing story about the CIA's efforts over the years,” the organization said in its report.
A 1950 document shows how an official sought approval from the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (DCI) for Project Bluebird, which required interrogators to “achieve maximum results in interrogation techniques. He said he used “polygraphs, drugs, and hypnosis” to accomplish this. According to Go to document 2. (Related: CIA continues to appear in Biden vs. Ukraine fight)
The collection also includes: memo Documents from the CIA Security Service to the DCI – Document 6 – Documents relating to the interrogation of suspected Russian agents, or Project Artichoke. It details the process of drugging and hypnotizing subjects.[inducing] Complete hypnotic trance. ”
of record It also revealed how the CIA uses charities as an “open door” for MULTRA experiments. According to the instructions attached to Document 11, Georgetown University Hospital served this purpose.
A view of former CIA Director Richard Helms (1913-2002) (left) and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger speaking at a book launch party in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, in October 1978. (Photo: Diana Walker/Getty Image)
Another document shows that after DCI Allen Dulles and other officials discussed whether it was worth the expense to use Georgetown University Hospital for certain experiments, technical services staff ( It appears to have been written by the Chemistry Department (TSS). Stakeholders requested TSS to provide a list of benefits, the organization claimed.
document be familiar with The various “materials and methods” the group was working on, including “substances that promote illogical thinking and impulsivity.” It also contained substances that caused “disability.” The document also talks about the development, or exploitation, of substances that cause disease symptoms “in a reversible manner so that they can be used fraudulently.” feign or exaggerate illness for their own personal benefit.
Records also show that TSS was attempting to develop “physical methods of causing shock and confusion” as well as “personality structure-altering” substances and “knockout pills” for covert drug administration.
I'm not usually a big fan of sequels, but Church Committee 2 was long overdue.
And it comes: pic.twitter.com/dFXpwWPoWD
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 7, 2023
According to the archives, documents indicate that MKULTRA's creation was not very successful overall.
There were various obstacles to the operation, including “moral objections” from some case officers regarding MKDELTA. According to MKDELTA was designed to “practicalize the materials and technology” created by MKULTRA, the archive noted. (Related: Exclusive: CIA sends dozens of inquiries regarding conflicts of interest to Biden Office of Executive Ethics, records show)
“Real progress has been made in the use of drugs to assist in interrogation,” said CIA Inspector General John Ehrman, according to the document.
one memo recorded the meeting and said Gottlieb and Helms argued in favor of continuing MKULTRA's “involuntary testing” of Americans. Earman, CIA Director Lyman Kirkpatrick, CIA Deputy Director Marshall Carter and other officials objected.
According to Document 17, Mr. Carter expressed concern about the “involuntary aspects” of the test. Ehrman highlighted the poor conditions at testing facilities in the United States, adding, “There are still many areas for improvement.”
Washington, DC: Former CIA Director Richard Helms (right) meets with Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho), chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, on June 13. Helms appeared before a committee investigating “hard evidence” that Church claims to have regarding a CIA assassination plot involving a foreign leader. (Photo by Bettman/Contributor , via Getty Images).
another document Gottlieb's telephone responses to questions in the CIA letter were recorded. Gottlieb said federal drug enforcement agent George White unwittingly conducted “approximately 40” tests at a CIA safe house to “explore the full range of LSD operations,” including “interrogation” purposes. said.[provoke] Unusual behavior,” the archive says.
Legal documents, including Gottlieb's, were also released. sediment By attorney Velma Orlikow. She was a patient at Allan Memorial Institute. Canadian facilities This is where Dr. Ewen Cameron conducted experiments on mentally ill patients in the 1950s and 1960s. According to CBC, Cameron's experiment was partially funded by the CIA's MKULTRA program.
The archives noted that although MKULTRA had approval at the “highest level,” there was little or no oversight of the program. (Related: Declassified document claims CIA secretly collected personal data of Americans)
It was not until 1975 that the Ecclesiastical Commission investigated the intelligence community, and various intelligence activities were being carried out. include MKULTRA was exposed in public.
