Conspiracy

Newly published archive details CIA's 'MKULTRA' mind control program

By T.K. Randall
January 8, 2025 ·  2 comments

The Cold War gave rise to some disturbing programs. Image Credit: Pixabay / geralt The highly controversial and clandestine program, which was founded in 1953, continued until 1973 and involved the use of various mind-altering substances, procedures and techniques to control and manipulate individuals, in many cases outside of their knowledge or consent.

When details of the program were later uncovered by the New York Times, the CIA was subject to accusations of abuse of power and its actions were condemned as a violation of human rights.

Now, 50 years on, the National Security Archive has published online a treasure trove of documents and files pertaining not only to MKULTRA, but to several other similar CIA programs.

"Under code names that included MKULTRA, BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE, the CIA conducted terrifying experiments using drugs, hypnosis, isolation, sensory deprivation, and other extreme techniques on human subjects, often US citizens, who frequently had no idea what was being done to them or that they were part of a CIA test," the archive wrote.Of particular note in the new archive are documents pertaining to the CIA's establishment of "interrogation teams" who would use "the polygraph, drugs, and hypnotism" to brainwash individuals, as well as those concerning clandestine experiments in which federal prisoners were given extremely large doses of mind-altering drugs to find out what would happen.

"It is a story about secrecy - perhaps the most infamous cover-up in the Agency's history," the archive wrote.

"It is also a history marked by near-total impunity at the institutional and individual levels for countless abuses committed across decades - not during interrogations of enemy agents or in wartime situations, but during ordinary medical treatments, inside prison hospitals, addiction clinics, and juvenile detention facilities, and in many cases led by top figures in the field of the behavioral sciences."

The documents can be viewed on the archive's website - here.


Source: nsarchive.gwu.edu | Comments (2)

Tags: CIA, MKULTRA