PROJECT MK-ULTRA

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06760269
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
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• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: December 14, 2018
• Case Number: F-2018-01345
• Publication Date: April 3, 2018

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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
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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'
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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."'
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Budget
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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 Midnight Climax, the CIA set up several brothels to obtain a selection of men who would be too
embarrassed to talk about the events. The men were dosed with LSD, the brothels were equipped with one-way mirrors, and the sessions were filmed for later
viewing and study.123I
�
Some subjects' participation was consensual, and in many of these cases, the subjects appeared to be singled out for even more extreme experiments. Inane
case, volunteers were given LSD for 77 consecutive days.1241
LSD was eventually dismissed by MK-ULTRA's researchers as too unpredictable in its resultsP1 Although useful information was sometimes obtained
through questioning subjects on LSD, not =commonly the most marked effect would be the subject's absolute and utter certainty that they were able to
withstand any forte of interrogation attempt, even physical torture.
Other drugs
Another technique investigated was connecting a barbiturate IV into one arm and an amphetamine IV into the other.1261The barbiturates were released into the
subject first, and as soon as the subject began to fall asleep, the amphetamines were released. The subject would begin babbling incoherently at this point, and it
was sometimes possible to ask questions and get useful answers. Other experiments involved heroin, morphine, temazepam (used under code name
MK-SEARCH), mescaline, psilocybin, scopolamine, marijuana, alcohol, sodium pentothal.1271 and ergine (in Subproject 22).
Hypnosis and Magic
Declassified MK-ULTRA documents indicate hypnosis was studied in the early 1950s. Experimental goals included: the creation of "hypnotically induced
anxieties," "hypnotically increasing ability to learn and recall complex written matter." studying hypnosis and polygraph extuninations. "hypnotically increasing
ability to observe and recall complex arrangements of physical objects." and studying "relationship of personality to susceptibility to hypnosis."Eni
In addition, the CIA used the services of American magician John Mulholland to write two manuals on sleight of hand and undercover communication
techniques. hi 1973, virtually all documents related to MKULTRA were destroyed. Mulholland's manuals were thought to be among them until a single
surviving copy of each was discovered in the agency's archives around 2008-2009. Bob Wallace and H. Keith Melton published "The Official CIA Manual qf
Thicket:I, and Deceplion" to chronicle this research into the use of illusion for the agency's field agents.1291
Canadian experiments
The experiments were exported to Canada when the CIA recruited Scottish psychiatrist Donald Owen Cameron, creator of the "psychic driving" concept, which
the CIA found particularly interesting. Cameron had been hoping to correct schizophrenia by erasing existing memories and reprogramming the psyche. He
commuted from Albany, New York to Montreal every week to work at the Allan Memorial Institute of McGill University and was paid $69,000 from 1957 to
1964 to carry out MKULTRA experiments there. In addition to LSD. Cameron also experimented with various paralytic chugs as well as electroconvulsive
therapy at thirty to forty times the normal power. His "driving" experiments consisted of putting subjects into drug-induced coma for weeks at a time (up to
three months in one case) while playing tape loops of noise or simple repetitive statements. His experiments were typically carried out on patients who had
entered the institute for minor problems such as anxiety disorders and postpartum depression, many of whom suffered pernmnently from his actions.130/ His
treatments resulted in victims' incontinence, artmesia, forgetting how to talk, forgetting their parents, and thinking their interrogators were their parents.Pli His
work was inspired and paralleled by the British psychiatrist Dr. William Sargant at St. Thomas' Hospital, London, and Belmont Hospital, Surrey. who was also
involved in the Intelligence Services and who experimented extensively on his patients without their consent, causing similar long-term damage.1321 Dr.
Cameron and Dr. Sargant are the only two identified Canadian experimenters, but the MKULTRA file makes reference to many other unnamed physicians who
were recruited by the CIA.16"u"!""dedi It was dining this era that Cameron became known worldwide as the first chairman of the World Psychiatric
Association as well as president of the American and Canadian psychiatric associations. Cameron had also been a member of the Nuremberg medical tribunal in
1946-1947.1331
Revelation
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In 1973. CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MK-ULTRA files destroyed. Pursuant to this order, most CIA documents regarding the project were
destroyed, making a full investigation of MK-ULTRA impossible.
In December 1974, The A'ew Mt* 7711ICA reported that the CIA had conducted illegal domestic activities, including experiments on U.S. citizens, during the
1960s. That report prompted investigations by the U.S. Congress, in the form of the Church Conunittee, and by a presidential commission known as the
Rockefeller Commission that looked into domestic activities of the CIA, the FBI. and intelligence-related agencies of the military. In the summer of 1975,
congressional Church Committee reports and the presidential Rockefeller Commission report revealed to the public for the first time that the CIA and the
Department of Defense had conducted experiments on both unwitting and cognizant human subjects as pan of an extensive program to influence and control
human behavior through the use of psychoactive drugs such as LSD and mescaline and other chemical, biological, and psychological means. They also revealed
that at least one subject had died after administration of LSD. Much of what the Church Committee and the Rockefeller Commission learned about MKULTRA
was contained in a report, prepared by the Inspector General's office in 1963, that had survived the destruction of records ordered in 1973.1341 However, it
contained little detail.
The congressional committee investigating the CIA research, chaired by Senator Frank Church. concluded that "Iplrior consent was obviously not obtained
from any of the subjects". The committee noted that the "experiments sponsored by these researchers ... call into question the decision by the agencies not to fix
guidelines for experiments."
Following the recommendations of the Church Committee, President Gerald Ford in 1976 issued the first Executive Order on Intelligence Activities which,
among other things, prohibited "experimentation with drugs on human subjects, except with the informed consent, in writing and witnessed by a disinterested
party, of each such human subject" and in accordance with the guidelines issued by the National Commission. Subsequent orders by Presidents Carter and
Reagan expanded the directive to apply to any human experimentation.
On the heels of the revelations about CIA experiments, similar stories surfaced regarding U.S. Army experiments. In 1975 the Secretary of the Army instructed
the Army Inspector General to conduct an investigation. Among the findings of the Inspector General was the existence of a 1953 memorandum penned by then
Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson. Documents show that the CIA participated in at least two of Department of Defense committees during 1952.
These committee findings led to the issuance of the "Wilson Memo," which mandated�in accord with Nuremberg Code protocols�that only volunteers be
used for experimental operations conducted in the U.S. armed forces. In response to the Inspector General's investigation, the Wilson Memo was declassified in
August 1975.
With regard to drug testing within the Army, the Inspector General found that "the evidence clearly reflected that every possible medical consideration was
observed by the professional investigators at the Medical Research Laboratories." However the Inspector General also found that the mandated requirements of
Wilson's 1953 memorandum had been only partially adhered to: he concluded that the "volunteers were not fully informed, as required, prior to their
participation; and the methods of procuring their services. in many cases, appeared not to have been in accord with the intent of Department of the Army
policies goveming use of volunteers in research."
Other branches of the U.S. armed forces, the Air Force for example, were found not to have adhered to Wilson Memo stipulations regarding voluntary drug
testing.
In 1977, during a hearing held by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, to look further into MKULTRA, Admiral Stansfield Turner, then Director of
Central Intelligence, revealed that the CIA had found a set of records. consisting of about 20,000 pages,1351 that had survived the 1973 destruction orders, due to
having been stored at a records center not usually used for such documents.1341 These files dealt with the financing of MKULTRA projects, and as such
contained few details of those projects, but much more was learned from them than from the Inspector General's 1963 report.
In Canada, the issue took much longer to surface, becoming widely known in 1984 on a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation news show, The Fifth Etat, It was
learned that not only had the CIA forded Dr. Cameron's efforts, but perhaps even more shockingly, the Canadian government was fully aware of this, and had
later provided another $500,000 in funding to continue the experiments. This revelation largely derailed efforts by the victims to sue the CIA as their U.S.
counterparts had, and the Canadian government eventually settled out of court for 5100,00010 each of the 127 victims. None of Dr. Cameron's personal records
of his involvement with MKULTRA survive, since his family destroyed them after his death from a heart attack while mountain climbing in 1967.1361
U.S. General Accounting Office Report
The U.S. General Accounting Office issued a report on September 28, 1994, which stated that between 1940 and 1974. DOD and other national security
agencies studied thousands of human subjects in tests and experiments involving hazardous substances. The quote from the study:
... Working with the CIA, the Department of Defense gave hallucinogenic drugs to thousands of "volunteer" soldiers in the 1950s and 1960s. In
addition to LSD, the Army also tested quinuclidinyl benzilate, a hallucinogen code-named BZ. (Note 37) Many of these tests were conducted under
the so-called MKULTRA program, established to counter perceived Soviet and Chinese advances in brainwashing techniques. Benveen 1953 and
1964, the program consisted of 149 projeets involving drug testing and other studies on unwitting human subjects...1371
Legal issues involving informed consent
The revelations about the CIA and the Army prompted a number of subjects or their survivors to file lawsuits against the federal government for conducting
illegal experiments. Although the government aggressively, and sometimes successfully, sought to avoid legal liability, several plaintiffs did receive
compensation through court order, out:of-coun settlement, or acts of Congress. Frank Olson's family received $750,000 by a special ad of Congress, and both
President Ford and CIA director William Colby met with Olson's family to publicly apologize.
�
Previously, the CIA and the Army had actively and successfully sought to withhold incriminating information, even as they secretly provided compensation to
the families. One subject of Army drug experimentation, James Stanley, an Army sergeant, brought an important, albeit unsuccessful, suit. The government
argued that Stanley was barred from suing under a legal doctrine�known as the Foes doctrine, after a 1950 Supreme Court case. Fetes v. United Slates�that
prohibits members of the Armed Forces from suing the government for any harms that were inflicted "incident to service." In 1987, the Supreme Court affirmed
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this defense in a 5-4 decision that dismissed Stanley's case.13S1 The majority argued that "a test for liability that depends on the extent to which particular suits
would call into question military discipline and decision making would itself require judicial inquiry into, and hence intrusion upon, military matters." In
dissent. Justice William Brennan argued that the need to preserve military discipline should not protect the government from liability and punishment for
serious violations of constitutional rights:
The medical trials at Nuremberg in 1947 deeply impressed upon the world that experimentation with unknowing human subjects is morally and
legally unacceptable. The United States Military Tribunal established the Nuremberg Code as a standard against which to judge German scientists
who experimented with human subjects.... [tin defiance of this principle, military intelligence officials ... began surreptitiously testing chemical
and biological materials, including LSD.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, writing a separate dissent, stated:
No judicially crafted rule should insulate from liability the involuntary and unknowing human experimentation alleged to have occurred in this
case. Indeed. as Justice Brennan observes, the United States played an instrumental role in the criminal prosecution of Nazi officials who
experimented with human subjects during the Second World War, and the standards that the Nuremberg Military Tribunals developed to judge the
behavior of the defendants stated that the 'voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential ... to satisfy moral, ethical, and legal
concepts.' If this principle is violated, the very least that society can do is to see that the victims are compensated, as best they can be, by the
perpetrators.
This is the only Supreme Court case to address the application of the Nuremberg Code to experimentation sponsored by the U.S. government. And while the
suit was unsuccessful, dissenting opinions put the Army�and by association the entire government�on notice that use of individuals without their consent is
unacceptable. The limited application of the Nuremberg Code in U.S. courts does not detract from the power of the principles it espouses. especially in light of
stories of failure to follow these principles that appeared in the media and professional literature during the 1960s and 1970s and the policies eventually adopted
in the mid-1970s.
In another law suit. Wayne Ritchie, a former United States Marshall, alleged the CIA laced his food or drink with LSD at a 1957 Christmas party. While the
government admitted it was, at that time, drugging people without their consent, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel found Ritchie could not prove he was
one of the victims of MKULTRA and dismissed Use case in 2007.1391
Extent of participation
Forty-four American colleges or universities, fifteen research foundations or chemical or pharmaceutical companies and the like including Sandoz (currently
Novartis) and Eli Lilly& Co., nvelve hospitals or clinics (in addition to those associated with universities), and three prisons arc known to have participated in
MKULTRA.14O114II
Notable subjects
A considerable amount of credible circumstantial evidence suggests that Theodore Kaczynski. also known as the Unabomber, participated in CIA-sponsored
MK-ULTRA experiments conducted at Harvard University from the fall of 1959 through the spring of 1962..0'1 During World War Henry Murnry, the lead
researcher in the Harvard experiments, served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was a forerunner of the CIA. Murray applied for a grant
funded by the United States Navy, and his Harvard stress experiments strongly resembled those run by the 05S.1421 Beginning at the age of sixteen, Kuczynski
participated along with twenty-one other undergraduate students in the Harvard experiments, which have been described as "disturbing" and "ethically
indefensible:4421431
Merry Prankster Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over ihe C'uckoo, Nem, volunteered for MK-ULTRA experiments while he was a student at Stanford
University. Kesey's ingestion of LSD during these experiments led directly to his widespread promotion of the drug and the subsequent development of hippie
culture.1441Candy Jones. American fashion model and radio host, claimed to have been a victim of mind control in she '600451
Infamous Irish mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger volunteered for testing while in pris...1461
Robert Hunter is an American lyricist. singer-songwriter, translator, and poet, best known for his association with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. Hunter
was an early volunteer test subject for the MKULTRA program. He was paid to take LSD. psilocybin, and mescaline and repon on his experiences, which were
creatively formative for him:
Sit back picture yourself swooping up a shell of purple with foam crests of crystal drops soft nigh they fall unto the sea of morning creep-
very-softly mist...and then sort of cascade tinkley-bell like (must I take you by the hand, every so slowly type) and then conglomerate suddenly into
a peal of silver vibrant uncomprehendingly, blood singingly, joyously resoundingbells....By my faith if this be insanity, then for the love of God
permit me to remain insane. (McNally 42-43)1"
Incidents
Dr. Frank Olson Commits Suicide
(U) Early on 28 November 1953, Frank Olson, a US Army civilian biochemist and biological weapons researcher, jumped to his death from a hotel room in
New York City after suffering a severe reaction to LSD that he consumed as part of a CIA-led research program on the intelligence applications of drugs and
other behaviorial modification techniques. The program, codenamed MKULTRA, was disclosed in 1975 during the Rockefeller Commission and Church
Comminee investigations of dubious Agency activities and became one of the most notorious episodes publicized during CIA's "time of troubles" in the
mid-1970s. Over the years, the revelations about Olson's death have generated many unfounded conspiracy talcs that still circulate in publications and movies
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and on the Intemet.1481
(U) US Government interest in the potential intelligence implications of pharmaceuticals dates to World War II, when the
OSS's Research and Development Branch conducted research into their behavioral effects, as well as those of biological
and chemical weapons. The US Army picked up on those efforts in the late 1940s. Reports at that time indicated that the
Soviet Union was experimenting with mind-control substances, which heightened CIA's interest in the development of
drugs and the investigation of "mind control" methods so it could develop defensive measures against them.i")
(U) After the end of the Korean War in 1953 and the return of US POWs from China and North Korea, feats arose that the
Communist had discovered ways to control minds through "brainwashing" techniques or the use of mind-altering drugs,
such as LSD. The purported victims of such treatment would become unwitting pawns of the Communists, who could
"program" them for nefarious purposes. Feeding this anxiety in the late 1940s and early 1950s were displays of disoriented
or inexplicable behavior by prisoners th Communist "show trials" and persistent charges that Moscow had attempted to
corner the world supply of LSD chemicals, then manufactured only in Switzerland.1481
(S) Such concerns in the aftermath of several failed Agency operations in Eastern Europe, most notably in Albania, prompted the Agency's Office of Security
under DCI Walter Bedell Smith to launch an investigation, Project BLUEBIRD, to determine whether the polygraph or hypnosis assisted by "truth scrums"
could detect "brainwashing" among government employees. Another project growing from BLUEBIRD, ARTICHOKE, conducted by CIA's Technical Services
Staff (TSS), and officially launched 00 29 October 1952. began research and experimentation with a variety of psychiatric and psychological methods
�including the use of various narcotics�to see if these could alter attitudes and behaviors.1481
(S) Under DCI Allen W. Dulles, who publicly declared that the Soviets were developing "brain perversion techniques" in a "sinister battle for men's minds," the
behavionil programs significantly expanded in April 1953 on the suggestion of Richard Helms, head of CIA opemtions. The Agency soon joined its research
efforts with Army programs under the cryptonym MKULTRA. Run by TSS chief Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, the program came to include 149 separate animal and
human behavior modification projccts, some conducted by Agency and Army researchers, but most involving one of 80 participating American and Canadian
universities, hospitals, and reiearch institutions operating under contracts that did not reveal Agency funding or associations.(")
(S) As part of these drug research efforts, on 18 November 1953 Gottlieb met with a group of CIA and Army researchers at a lodge in Deep Creek Lake, MD, to
discuss work that included the use of LSD. During the meeting, eight of the ten men present�including Frank Olson�consumed a small dose of the
hallucinogen in a liquor drink passed among them. According to Gottlieb, all present were wining of the drugs in the beverage. However, the Agency's internal
investigation concluded that while Gottlieb had conducted the experiment with Olson's knowledge, neither he nor the others in the group knew what drug they
had ingested until some 20 minutes later. In the days that followed, according to Olson Family members and his colleagues. Olson began to act strangely and
appeared depressed. Realizing that Olson may have a serious illness. Gottlieb referred him for psychiatric counseling in New York. Olson worsened, and his
associates decided to send him to a sanatorium near Rockville, MD. On the night before their departure, Olson clashed through a closed hotel window and
hurtled 10 stories to his death. His CIA companion woke in time to sec the suicide but not prevent it.1481
(S) Gottlieb reported the death to Dulles, who ordered the CIA inspector general, Lyman Kirkpatrick. to conduct an investigation.Kirkpatrick recommended a
reprimand for Gonlieb, who he asserted had exercised poor judgment in conducting uncontrolled experiments that "could seriously affect the record and
reputation of the Agency." Kirkpatrick further faulted Gottlieb for not knowing of Olson's prior bouts of depression. implying that the LSD experiment had
acted as a triggering mechanism directly contributing to his death. Kirkpatrick and Lawrence Houston, the Agency's general counsel, expressed dismay with the
casual manner in which TSS personnel conducted the experiments, and were outraged to learn that that Gottlieb had ingested LSD at least twelve times himself.
They determined that TSS personnel assumed risks in a cavalier manner that lay well beyond the normal standards of the scientific process. However, Dulles
overruled the IC, and Gottlieb received only an off-the-record admonition. MKULTRA continued, albeit with significant changes and additional oversight, until
1967; remnants of it continued under another project until 1973.1481
(U) Olson's wife initially received word that her husband had died of a "classified illness" and only later learned how he had been killed. Not until 1975, with
the Rockefeller Commission and Church Committee disclosures. did Olson's family hear more of the truth. They disputed much of what came out and claimed
that the Agency or the Army had murdered Olson before he could go public with the details of the drug testing programs. In 1976. the family received a
$750,000 settlement from the US Government and formal apologies from President Gerald R. Ford and DCI William E. Colby.1401
(U) The complete record of the case was hard to reconstruct because in 1973, at Helms's behest. Gottlieb had destroyed his office's records on MKULTRA. In
1977. thousands of pages of related material about the program turned up in budget records and, when released under the Freedom of Information Act, became
the basis for an expos�ook by former State Departnaent officer John Marks called The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate": The CIA and Mind Control.
Members of Olson's family continued pursuing allegations of Agency foul play for many years but in 2002 announced that they were dropping the matter.
Journalist H.P. Albarelli resuscitated the Olson version of events in 2009 in a poorly sourced and unreliable book titled A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of
Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments. Trustworthy accounts of the story are in John Ranelagh, The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the
CIA (pp. 202-07, 755-58 notes 27-61) and Benjamin Fischer, Fitly Years of Supporting Operations. 1951-2001: A I listory of CIA's Office of Technical Service
(,pp. 101-041401
See also
� "Tinker, tailor, soldier... illusionist? When the CIA tried its hand at magic," Tom Scocca, Boston Globe. I November 2009 (Media Highlights)
(http://www.mh.cia/news/Mh I I 0 I 09/TinIcertailorsoldierillusionist.htm) 0 �
� (U) New research on influencing the mind: Emerging Technology Alert: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (https://ciawire.cia.ic.gov/documents
/OCS-ETA086-20 I I)
Web links
� U.S. Congress: The Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Foreign and Military Intelligence
6 of 8 4/3/2018 8:13 AM
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Project MK-ULTRA - Intellipedia nups:ri mien rpeata.interinic.le.gov/w/index.php?litle=Project_MK-ULT...
(Church Committee report), report no. 94-755, 94th Cong., 2d Sets. (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1976), 394 (htm://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church
/mpons/bookl/contents.htm).
� U.S. Senate: Joint Fleming before The Select Committee on Intelligence and The Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on
Human Resources, 95th Cong., 1st Sets. August 3 1977 (http://wwwdruglibrary.org/schafferrnistory/e1950/mkultrafindex.htm).
� Short documentary about MKULTRA and the Frank Olson incident (http://wwxv.add-productions.net/Isd)
� The Most Dangerous Game (http://www.archive.org/movics/details-db.php?collection=independent_news&collectionidrnmdg) Downloadable 8 minute
documentary by independent filmmakers GNN
� GIP scans of declassified MKULTRA Project Documents (http://www.michael-robinett.corn/declass/c000.htm)
� Interview (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid-06/02/17/1522228) of Alfred McCoy on CIA mind control research
� U.S. Supreme Court CIA v. SIMS, 471 U.S. 159 (1985) 471 U.S. 159 (http:/Raws.findlaw.cornrus(471/159.html)
� U.S. Supreme Court UNITED STATES v. STANLEY, 483 U.S. 669 (1987) 483 U.S. 669 (http://laws.findlaw.com/us/483/669.html)
References
I. Richelson, .17 (ed.) (2001-09-10). Science, Technology and the CIA: A National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book (http://www.gwu.edu
/-nsarchiv/NSAEBBN5AEB054/). George Washington University. Retrieved on 2009-06-12.
2. Chapter 3, part 4: Supreme Court Dissents Invoke the Nuremberg Code: CIA and DOD Human Subjects Research Scandals (http://www.hss.energy.gov
thcalthsafety/ohretroodmap/achre/chap3_4.html). Advisor; Committee on Human Rudic,tjr,o Wm-intents Final Report. Retrieved on 2005-08-24.
3. The Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Foreign and Military Intelligence
(http://vArAvaarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book Uhtml/ChurchB1_0200b.htm). Church Comminee repot,. no. 94-755. 94th Cong.. 2d Sess. pp.
392. United States Congress (1976).
4. "An Interview with Richard Helms (https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of.intclligcnce/kent-csi/does/v44i4a07p_0021.htm)". Central
Intelligence Agency. 2007-05-08. URL accessed on 2008-03-16.
5. Interview with Victor Marchetti (http://www.skepticfiles.org/socialis/marchetihtm). Retrieved on 2009-08-22.
6. Cannon, M (1992), "Mind Control and the American Government", Lohmer Magazine 23
7. Opening Remarks by Senator Ted Kennedy (http://www.druglibraty.org/schaffer/history/c1950/mkultra/Hcaring01.hum). U..S Senate Select Committee
On Intelligence. and Subcommittee Oil Health And Scientific Research of the Committee On Human Remnirces (1977-08-03).
8. hrtp://www.nytimes.corrapackages/pdfrnational/Ilinmate_ProjectMICULTRA.pdf
9. lutp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hirnk_news/magazine/4443934.stm
10. http://wwwjlaw.com/Anicles/NariMedEx.html
II. Church Committee; p. 390 (http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/rcports/book Uhtml/ChurchB1_0199b.htm) "MKULTRA was approved by the DCI
[Director of Central Intelligence] on April 13, 1953"
12. Chapter 3, part 4: Supreme Court Dissents Invoke the Nuremberg Code: CIA and DOD Human Subjects Research Scandals (http://www.ch.doe.gov
kfire/roadmap/achre/chap3_4.html). 011 Human Radhaion Experiments Final Report. Retrieved on August 242005. "MKULTRA,
began in 1950 and was motivated largely in response to alleged Soviet. Chinese, and North Korean uses of mind-control techniques on U.S. prisoners of
war in Korea."
13. Church Committee; p.391 (http:(/www.aarclibrary.orgfpublibfehurch/repons/bookUMM/ChurchB1_0200a.htm) "A special procedure, designated
MKDELTA. was established to govern the use of MKULTRA materials abroad. Such materials were used on a number of occasions."
14. Church Committee; "The congressional committee investigating the CIA research, chaired by Senator Frank Church, concluded that Iplrior consent was
obviously not obtained from any of the subjects:"
IS. Price, David (June 2007), "Buying a Piece of Anthropology: Human Ecology and unwitting anthropological research for the CIA "(POP), Anthtopologe
77tday 23(3): 3-13, D01:10.1111/j.1467-8322.2007.00510.x 10.111 Uj.1467-8322.2007.00510.x (http://dx.doi.org/), . Retrieved on 13 April 2008
16. lum://vAvw.druglibraryorg/schaffer/History/e1950/mkultra/Hearing05.htrn, retrieved 25 April 2008
17. Chapter 3, part 4: Supreme Court Dissents Invoke the Nuremberg Code: CIA and DOD Human Subjects Research Scandals (http://www.ch.doe.gov
/ohre/roadmap/achre/chap3_4.html). AdviNory Committee on Human Radiation EyerinICIIIS Fula Report. Retrieved on August 242005. (identical
sentence) "Because most of the MK-ULTRA records were deliberately destroyed in 1973 ... MK-ULTRA and the related CIA programs."
18. Senate MKULTRA Hearing: Appendix C--Documents Referring to Subprojects, (page 167, in PDF document page numbering). (pdf). Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence and Committee on Human Resources (August 3. 1977). Retrieved on 2007-08-22.
19. Ranclogh, John (March 1988). The Agency.- TI,,.' Rise and Decline of the CIA. Sceptre, 208-210.
20. Declassified (http://www.michacl-robinett.com/declass/c043.htm)
21. Mind Control and the Secret State (http://www.namebase.org/news12.html)
22. Declassified (fittp://www.michacl-robincticornAleclass/c010.htm)
23. Marks, John (1979). The Search fin- the Manchurian Candidate. New York: Times Books, 106-7.
24. NPR Fresh Air. June 28, 2007 and Tim Weiner, The Legacy of Ashes.- The /Jimmy of the CIA.
25. [1] (htm://www.michael-robinett.com/declass(c011.htm)
26. Marks 1979: pp 40-42.
27. Marks 1979: chapters 3 and 7.
28. Declassified (http://www.michael-robinett.com/declass/c078.htm)
29. "The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception," Bob Wallace and H. Keith Melton, 2009.
30. Marks 1979: pp 140-150.
31. Turbide, Diane (1997-04-21). Dr. Cameron's Casualties (http://www.ectorg/dr-camerons-casualties(). Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
32. Collins, Anne ([1988] 1998). in the Sleep Room: The Story of CIA Brainwashing Erperiment, in Canada. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 39, 42-3, 133.
33. Marks 1979:p 141.
34. Prepared Statement of Admiral Stansfield Turner, Director of Central Intelligence (http://www.parascope.com/ds/documentslibrary/documents
/mkultrahearing/mkultraHearing02.hm9
35. Government Mind Control Records of MKULTRA & Bluebird/Artichoke (http://www.wanttoknowinfo/mindcontrollOpeciadocs0
36. HistoryOnAir Podcast 98- MKULTRA (http://1sistoryonaircom7page_id=6&id=1230
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Approved for Release: 2018/12/12 006760269
Project MK-ULTRA - Intellipedia ottphditracotpeuta.intelintLic.gov/w/inacx.portnie=Yroject_MK-ULT...
37. Quote from "Is Military Research Hazardous to Veterans Health? Lessons Spanning Half A Century", pan F. HALLUCINOGENS
(hnp://www.gulfweb.orgibigdoc/rocicrep.cfmlihallucinogens) 103rd Congress. 2nd Session-S. Frt. 103-97: Staff Report prepared for the committee on
veterans' affairs December 8, 1994 John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia, Chairman. Online copy provided by gulfweborg, which describes itself as
"Serving the Gulf War Veteran Community Worldwide Since 1994". (The same document is available from many other (unofficial) sites
(http://www.google.comisearch?gw5S22installing+several Helephonei-hotlines.+As+of+Septembert-1994%2C+86%22), which may or may not be
independent.)
38. United Shan Stanley. 483 U.S. 669 (http://caselaW.Ip.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.p17navby�CASE8reourt=US8rvol=4838rnage=669) (1987)
39. Ritchic v. United States of America: Unitcd States District Court, Northern District of California No. C 00-3940 MHP. Findings of Fact and Conclusion
of Law Re: Motion for Judgment on Partial Findings (pdf). Retrieved on 2008-10-16.
40. Book Review: Search for the Manchurian Candidate by John Marks (http://www.ravenl.net/manchean.htm)
41. CIA Off Campus: Building the Movement Against Agency Recruitment and Research (hnplibooks.google.co.uldbooks?id=d-us-4Wv7DwC8tpg=PA38&
1pg-PA38&dg=44+universities+mk+ultra&source=web&ots-oSr106MLEH&sig.bGuz7UwkG6ZLdfis I P6aGtZwsRs&h1=en)
42. Chase, A. "Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber (http://www.theatlantie.comfissues/2000/06/chase.htm)", The Allantic Monthly, 2000-06-01, pp.
41-65. URL accessed on 2008-10-16.
43. Cockburn, A: St Clair.' (1999-10-18). CIA Shrinks and LSD (http://www.counterpunch.orgiciashrinks.html). CountcrIbmch. Retrieved 00 2008-10.16.
44. Baker. Jeff. "All times a great artist, Ken Kesciis dead at age 66", The (kegonhin, November 11,2001, pp. Al.
45. Bennett, C (2001-07-01). Candy Jones: How a leading American fashion model came robe experimented upon by the CIA mind control team
(hnp://wunv.forteantimes.comffeaturesiprofiles(497/candy jones.html). Fortran 'limes. Retrieved on 2008-10-16.
46. BnIno, A. James "Whitey" Bulger (http://www.trutv.cornfilibrary/crime/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bossesijames_whitcy_bulgcr/2.html). tructv.com.
Retrieved 00 2008.10.16.
47. McNally, Dennis. A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead. Broadway Books, 2002. ISBN 0-7679-1186-5.
48. https://historyandheritage.ciaitniction/permalink/Heritage2011
Retrieved from "hrms://intellipedia.intelink.ic.gov/w/index.php?title=Project_MK-ULTRA&oldid�28 113011"
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