Mental Control Program

Source

Origins

Also known as the CIA's mind control program, it was the code name for a secret and illegal program designed and executed by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States (CIA) for human experimentation. These experiments were intended to identify and develop new procedures and substances for use in interrogations and torture, in order to weaken the individual and force him to confess from mental control techniques. The MK Ultra Project was initiated by order of Allen Dulles, then director of the CIA, on April 13, 1953.

The first head of the program was Sidney Gottlieb. The central objective was to produce a drug that would force the subject to tell the truth, but there were approximately 150 other research projects and the purpose of all of them is not known. The Agency spent tens of millions of dollars on MK Ultra, which was organized by the Scientific Intelligence Division of the CIA in coordination with the Chemical Corps of the Special Operations Directorate of the United States Army. All this happened in the context of the Cold War and, more specifically, the anti-communist paranoia of the 1950 in the United States.

Declassification

Until 1977 there was no public knowledge of the existence of this secret operation, thanks to an investigation by the American Senate that led to the declassification of 20,000 documents of the CIA (and others were still unveiled in 2001). By then, the Project had already been abandoned, but in the two decades in which it was active many American citizens and also Canadians were subjects of experimentation against their will in universities, hospitals and prisons. The total scope of the trials is ignored, but it is known that the methods used to alter brain functions included drugs such as LSD, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation and even sexual abuse.

Experiments

Some of the elements used in the program were radiation and the drug LSD. Barbiturates and amphetamines were also used simultaneously, a process that was abandoned because the death of the interrogated was too frequent. Many other drugs were also used. The subjects of the tests were CIA employees, members of the military services, doctors, other government agents, indigents, prostitutes, patients with mental illnesses and members of the public, often without the people involved knowing what was being done with them nor will consent be requested.

Finally, the researchers ruled out LSD because its effects were unpredictable.

The MK Ultra project consumed six percent of the CIA's funds in 1953.

References:
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