Project MK-ULTRA - Intellipedia Doc ID: 6613524 Approved for Release: 2018/12/12 006760269 W (U) Project MK-ULTRA From Intellipedia (b) (3) - P.L. 86-36 (U) This page has not been edited since October 02, 2011. Please help with completing or updating the page if it has intelligence value (U) See inteilipedia:Abandoned pages for more information about pages with this banner. (U) See the discussion Page for more information about the status of this page. 9 Oa Project MK-ULTRA, MK-ULTRA, or MKULTRA, was the code name for a covert CIA mind-control and chemical interrogation research program, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. This official U.S. government program began in the . early 1950s, continuing at least through the late 1960s, and it supposedly used United States citizens as unwitting test subjects.E11[21[311'he published evidence indicates that Project MK-ULTRA involved the surreptitious use of many types of drugs, as well as other methods, to manipulate individual mental states and to alter brain function. � Project MK-ULTRA was first brought to wide public attention in 1975 by the U.S. Congress, through investigations by the Church Committee, and by a presidential commission known as the Rockefeller Commission. Investigative efforts were hampered by the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms�ordered all MK-ULTRA files destroyed in 1973; the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations relied on the sworn testimony of direct participants and on the relatively small number of documents that survived Helms' destruction order.1-41 Although the CIA insists that MK-ULTRA-type experiments have been abandoned, 14-year CIA veteran Victor Marchetti has stated in various interviews that the CIA routinely conducts disinformation campaigns and that CIA mind control research continued. In a 1977 interview, Marchetti specifically called the CIA claim that MK-ULTRA was abandoned a "cover story.451161 � On the Senate floor in 1977, Senator Ted Kennedy said: The Deputy Director of the CIA revealed that over thirty universities and institutions were involved in an "extensive testing and experimentation" program which included covert drug tests on unwitting citizens "at all social levels, high and low, native Americans and foreign." Several of these tests involved the administration of LSD to "unwitting subjects in social situations." At least one death, that of Dr. Frank Olson, resulted from these activities. The Agency itself acknowledged that these tests made little scientific sense. The agents doing the monitoring were not qualified scientific observers:171 Sec the Wikipcdia article Project MICULTRA a � smsear...- es� mu � �,������� %VW. ...�������� Cover sheet for MKULTRA proposal � "lb this day most specific information regarding Project MKULTRA remains highly classified.E81 Contents � 1 Title and origins � 2 Goals � 3 Budget � 4 Experiments n 4.1 LSD � � 4.2 Other drugs � 4.3 Hypnosis and Magic � 4.4 Canadian experiments sr 5 Revelation � 6 U.S. General Accounting �trite Report ri 7 Legal issues involving informed consent � 8 Extent of participation � 9 Notable subjects � 10 Incidents � 10.1 Dr:Frank Olson Commits Suicide � 11 Sec also � 12 Web links � 13 References Title and origins The project's intentionally oblique CIA myPtonym is made tip of the digraph MK. Meaning that the project was sponsored by the agency's Technical Services' I of 8 Approved for Release: 2018/12/12 006760269 4/3/2018 8:13 AM Project MK-ULTRA - Intellipedia Approved for Release: 2018/12/12 006760269 I I upsittruclicpcula.inteimx.ic.goviwnnacx.phpllitle=Project_MK-ULT... 2 Of 8 � � vi v peva.. g rr, " g a.4 Dr. Sidney Gottlieb approved of an MKULTRA subproject on LSD in this lone 9.1953 letter. Division, followed by the word ULTRA (which had previously been used to designate the most secret classification of World War II intelligence). Other related cryptonyrns include MK-NAOMI and MK-DELTA. A precursor of the MK-ULTRA program began in 1945 when the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency was established and given direct responsibility for Operation Paperclip. Operation Paperclip was a program to recruit former Nazi scientists. Some of these scientists studied torture and brainwashing, and several had just been identified and prosecuted as war criminals during the Nuremberg Trials.191"1 Several secret U.S. government projects grew out of Operation Paperclip. These projects included Project CIIATTER (established 1947), and Project BLUEBIRD (established 1950), which was later renamed to Project ARTICHOKE in 1951. Their purpose was to study mind-control, interrogation, behavior modification and related topics. Headed by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, the MK-ULTRA project was started on the order of CIA director Allen Dulles on April 13, 1953,011 largely in response to Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean use of mind-control techniques on U.S. prisoners of war in Korea.1121 The CIA wanted to usc similar methods on their own captives. The CIA was also interested in being able to manipulate foreign leaders with such techniques,1131 and would later invent several schemes to drug Fidel Castro. Experiments were often conducted without the subjects' knowledge or consent") In some cases, academic researchers being funded through grants from CIA front organizations were unaware that their work was being used for these purposes.115) In 1964, the project was renamed MK-SEARCII. The project attempted to produce a perfect truth drug for use in interrogating suspected Soviet spies during the Cold War, and generally to explore any other possibilities of mind control. Sidney Gottlieb Another MK-ULTRA effort, Subproject 54, was the Navy's top secret "Perfect Concussion" program, which used sub-aural frequency blasts to erase mcmory.1161 Because most MK-ULTRA records were deliberately destroyed in 1973 by order of then CIA Director Richard Helms, it has been difficult, if not impossible, for investigators to gain a complete understanding of the more than 150 individually funded research sub-projects sponsored by MK-ULTRA and related CIA 171 programs.[ Goals The Agency poured millions of dollars into studies probing dozens of methods of influencing and controlling the mind. One 1955 MK-ULTRA document gives an indication of the size and range of the effort; this document refers to the study of an assortment of mind-altering substances described as follows:" I. Substances which will promote illogical thinking and impulsiveness to the point where the recipient would be discredited in public. 2. Substances which increase the efficiency of mcntation and perception. 3. Materials which will prevent or counteract the intoxicating effect of alcohol. 4. Materials which will promote the intoxicating effect of alcohol. 5. Materials which will produce the signs and symptoms of recognized diseases inn reversible way so that they may be used for malingering, etc. 6. Materials which will render the induction of hypnosis easier or otherwise enhance its usefulness. 7. Substances which will enhance the ability of individuals to withstand privation, torture and coercion during interrogation and so-called "brain-washing". 8. Materials and physical methods which will produce amnesia for events preceding and during their use. 9. Physical methods of producing shock and confusion over extended periods of time and capable of surreptitious use. IS. Substances which produce physical disablement such as paralysis of the legs, acute anemia, etc. II. Substances which will produce "pure" euphoria with no subsequent let-down. 12. Substances which alter personality structure in such a way that the tendency of the recipient to become dependent upon another person is enhanced. 13. A material which will cause mental confusion of such a type that the individual under its influence will find it difficult to maintain a fabrication under questioning. 14. Substances which will lower the ambition and general working efficiency of men when administered in undetectable amounts. IS. Substances which promote weakness or distortion of the eyesight or hearing faculties, preferably without permanent effects. 16. A knockout pill which can surreptitiously be administered in drinks, food, cigarettes, as an aerosol. etc., which will be safe louse, provide a maximum of amnesia, and be suitable for use by agent types on an ad hoc basis. 17. A material which can be surreptitiously administered by the above routes and which in very small amounts will make it impossible for a man to perform any physical activity whatsoever. Historians have asserted that creating a "Manchurian Candidate" subject through "mind control" techniques was a goal of MK-ULTRA and related CIA projects."' 4/3/2018 8:13 AM Approved for Release: 2018/12/12 006760269 Project MK-ULTRA - Intellipedia Budget Approved for Release: 2018/12/12006760269 A secretive amangement granted the MK-ULTRA progratn a percentage of the CIA budget. The MK-ULTRA director was granted six percent of the CIA 'operating budget in 1953, without oversight or accounting.101An estimated USSIOm or more was spent.I'll Experiments CIA documents suggest that "chemical, biological and radiological" means were investigated for the purpose of mind control as part of MK-ULTRAP21 LSD Early efforts focused on LSD, which later came to dominate many of MK -ULTRA's programs. Experiments included administering LSD to CIA employees, military personnel, doctors, other government agents, prostitutes, mentally ill patients, and members of the general public in order to study their reactions. LSD and other drugs were usually administered without the subject's knowledge or informed consent, a violation of the Nuremberg Code that the U.S. agreed to follow after World War II. � Efforts to "recruit" subjects were often illegal, even discounting the fact that drugs were being administered (though actual use of LSD, for example, was legal in the United States until October 6, 1966). In Operation