MK ULTRA Project

Official Story?

In the early 1950's the US Government developed a project called 'MK ULTRA PROJECT' the program ran until the early 70's. The program was carried out by the CIA, aimed at researching and developing a mind control and behavioural alterating drug or therapy in which to control people. One of there main objectives was to prevent their own soldiers and spies being controlled themselves, so they believed if they figured out how to control them first then they could train them not to be controlled. This came after a time of the threat of Communism, and after the Cold War, Russia was one of their main concerns, in who were trying to accordig to the US Government, develop similar techniques in mind control.

What happened?

The CIA implemented human testing on, civilians, their own agents, and prisoners, many of the patients consisted of the 'weaker' and 'volunnerable' of society, mental illness patients, prostitutes, and the homeless, were jsut some of the many groups of society that the CIA used. The testing carried out was mainly drug testing using LSD, other torture techniques were used like, electroshock therapy, and other more unstable drugs. This include administering the drugs over a period of time to watch the affects, it also involved placing people in situations to see how the drug affects reacted. In an attempt to understand the affects to then use them in to control people.

The following is an outline of what some of the objectives were, and the means in which to test them:

• Substances which will promote illogical thinking and impulsiveness to the point where the recipient would be discredited in public.
• Substances which increase the efficiency of mentation and perception.
• Materials which will cause the victim to age faster/slower in maturity.
• Materials which will promote the intoxicating effect of alcohol.
• Materials which will produce the signs and symptoms of recognized diseases in a reversible way so that they may be used for malingering, etc.
• Materials will cause temporary/permanent brain damage and loss of memory.
• Substances which will enhance the ability of individuals to withstand privation, torture and coercion during interrogation and so-called "brain-washing".
• Materials and physical methods which will produce amnesia for events preceding and during their use.
• Physical methods of producing shock and confusion over extended periods of time and capable of surreptitious use.
• Substances which produce physical disablement such as paralysis of the legs, acute anemia, etc.
• Substances which will produce a chemical that can cause blisters.
• Substances which alter personality structure in such a way that the tendency of the recipient to become dependent upon another person is enhanced.
• 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.
• Substances which will lower the ambition and general working efficiency of men when administered in undetectable amounts.
• Substances which promote weakness or distortion of the eyesight or hearing faculties, preferably without permanent effects.
• A knockout pill which can surreptitiously be administered in drinks, food, cigarettes, as an aerosol, etc., which will be safe to use, provide a maximum of amnesia, and be suitable for use by agent types on an ad hoc basis.
• A material which can be surreptitiously administered by the above routes and which in very small amounts will make it impossible for a person to perform physical activity.

Surrounding Conspiracies?

The US Government, commissioned an iquiry for this project after it deceased in the early 1970's. The inquiry concluded that the MK ULTRA project had occurred, as many people had suspicion but no real conclusive evidence to prove its existance. Many people have claimed to have been subjects in the testing, and as a result a few legal cases have been won, to people suing for compensation for the damages and experiences they were unwillingly put through. The conspiracies mainlly focus on who, and by who the experiments were performed. Some deaths did occur from the experiments, their circumstances are very shady and hardly spoken about. Although official documents detail the experiments, according to diaries of some of the Doctors and Agents that performed the experiments, the exact details and amounts of things administered weren't always correcty documented. The real question from this conspiracy theory is who was effected, and how? Are they telling the truth or not? What deaths and illness were enhanced or encouraged by the effects of the experimentation? Will we really know the truth behind what actually went on during the MK ULTRA PROJECT?

My Opinion?

Without a doubt I believe that these experiments occurred and were far more extreme then the US iquiry lead on. When the threat of Communism was there, whilst just coming out of the Cold War of course the US Government tried to do do anything possible to get ahead of the world. The US Government has a record of not releasing information or at least all the details of other incidents and projects so why would this project be any different? Regardless of the inquiry that was commissioned by the same Government that provided the 10 million dollar funding to the CIA to conduct the testing, why would they not tell the whole truth, its not in their interest to.

Ref:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MK_Ultra
http://science.discovery.com/stories/mkultra-02.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20071128230208/http://www.arts.rpi.edu/~pellr/lansberry/mkultra.pdf