MKULTRA (U)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86-00114R000100080003-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 28, 2001
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: September 7, 1979
• Content Type: REPORT

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Chief, MKULTRA Task Force
MKULTRA, the so-called CIA ''Mind Control"
Program of the 1950s and early 1960s, probably has caused
more outcry than any other CIA activity with the possible
exception of the Bay of Pigs. It began in 1975 with the
investigation conducted by the Select Committee to Study
the Government operations with Respect to Intelligence
Activities of the United States Senate. At that time, it
was believed that all MKULTRA records had been destroyed
in 1973. In 1977, during a search for documents in
response to a request under the Freedom of Information
Act, an employee of OTS discovered seven boxes of MKULTRA
financial documents that had escaped the 1973 destruction.
These boxes contained fragmentary financial data about
149 MKULTRA sub.eprojects. (U)
The discovery of these records was reported
to the Congress, and in August 1977, the Select Committee
on Intelligence and the Subcommittee on Health and
Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources
of the United States Senate held joint hearings. Further
hearings were held by the Senate Subcommittee on Health
and Scientific Research in September 1977. During the
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one year to the next, many times new subprojects were
created. For example, subproject 149 was a continuation
of 132; 132 was a continuation of 42, and so on. In
some cases as many as six or eight subprojects may have
been created when one subproject could simply have been
extended from year to year. In any case, : - -d that
/it was determined/
85 of the MKULTRA subprojects did not involve human ex-
perimentation and required no action by the Task Force.
Forty of the subprojects wog--where humans were involved
required no action. Eighteen of these required no action
because nodrugIs were involved. Twenty-two required no
action because the drugs used would not have caused harm-
ful aftereffects; subjects were witting volunteers,
usually paid;Iresearch was conducted under the management
/ and/
and substantive control of the institution os c. ing the
/do/
research. (U)
For the sake of convenience, the remainder of
the MKULTRA subprojects where human involvement was known
or suspected were divided between those involved with
private research institutions and those involved with STMTIN TL
the safehouses (U)
In sum, insofar as work done at private insti-
tutions is concerned, the Task Force found for the most
part that CIA was interested in the results of research
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leads to unwitting subjects, and the entries in it are
cryptic, handwritten, and range from barely legible to
meaningless scrawl. (U)
The Task Force and the DEA inspector conducted
between 45 and 50 interviews. Those interviewed included
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employees of FBN, DEA, and CIA who were directly acquaint-
ed with George White and his work
None of the people interviewed knew of any
instance where the safehouses were used for the adminis-
tration of drugs to unwitting persons. They were avail-
able for CIA use only as standby or contingency facili-
ties--CIA could only get access to them by first notifying
the FBN local office. FBN personnel are confident in
their belief that the safehouses were not, and could not
practically have been used routinely for unwitting drug
experimentation by George White or anyone else under the
circumstances of their availability. They are equally
confident in their belief that the safehouses were not
and could not practically have been routinely used as
houses of prostitution, or for the administration of
drugs by prostitutes to unwitting subjects. Officers in
the local police forces active at the time the safehouses
were in operation are confident in their belief that the
safehouses could not have been used regularly for such
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the bar had been surreptitiously given a small dose
(neither of the participants could recall the exact quan-
tity) of LSD in a cocktail. One of the participants
recalled the name of the bar, the position of the subjectSTHTIN TL
that
and that the incident occurred about 1958. Neither of
the persons interviewed knew, or could recall, the subject's
name. They reported that she was able to continue the
performance of her duties for the remainder of her shift
but was treated at a hospital after she went off duty.
A a.....followup conversation with her several days after
the incident reportedly revealed that she apparently had
suffered no harmful aftereffects but had given up drink-
ing. (U)
The bar where the incident took place no longer
TL
exists, but a visit to the premises where it had been
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located resulted in the identification of a former employee .
of the bar who is currently employed elsewhere in
This individual was interviewed and recalled
the first name only of the subject of the experiment but
reported that the subject had died of cancer about 1963.
This source did remember the name of another individual
who had been employed at the bar when the incident took
place. This second individual also was interviewed,
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contact the Agency. (U)
Among those who have been located and informed,
three do not recall the incident and do not believe that
they were ever given doses of LSD; one recalls a ''bad
trip'' and plans to sue the Agency for invasion of privacy.
The husband of the deceased subject is considering whether
file suit. (U)
We have no absolute assurance that these were
the only cases of unwitting testing, but neither do we
have absolute assurance that there were others. Every-
thing that we have been able to learn from all the sources
exploited, including the Congressional testimony and a
recent interview with the principal MKULTRA officer, indi-
cates that there were very few experiments using unwit-
ting subjects. Unfortunately, we may never know the
whole story. (U)
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