mkultra

MK-ULTRA
Video » Dark Matters »

Mind Control cont'd

The CIA was fascinated by LSD, and thought it a wonder drug that could be used not only to create zombie-like armies, but to drive enemy leaders like Fidel Castro insane. There were few willing subjects in the research — often, LSD was secretly given to a range of people, from CIA employees to prostitutes and the mentally ill. Sometimes, agents even posed as prostitutes and secretly drugged their clients, while fellow agents watched in two-way mirrors.

But once LSD was ruled out as being too unpredictable, other drugs were tested; participants had barbiturates injected on one arm and amphetamines in the other — the net result being incoherent babble. Other drugs, including heroin, alcohol and sodium pentothal were tried, but ultimately none were the "dream drug" the government hungered for. The project was eventually scrapped and the "Manchurian Candidate" never came to be. In 1973 most of the MK-ULTRA files were destroyed, and Sidney Gottlieb died in 1999.

But there are repercussions from the program, even today. In January 2007, a class action suit was filed against the Canadian government, which also took part in MK-ULTRA research, by former psychiatric patients who claim they were used as guinea pigs. Experiments included forced isolation, drug-induced comas and electro-shock therapy. One of the plaintiffs, a great-grandmother named Janine Huard, said, "They demolished me … they gave me terrible drugs, electroshocks, and made me stay in a bed with a mask over my face listening to recordings for hours a day. I was afraid."

It may be a hard case to prove, as the government is notoriously closed-mouthed about MK-ULTRA. As one CIA reviewer wrote: "Precautions must be taken not only to protect operations from exposure to enemy forces, but also to conceal these activities from the American public in general. The knowledge that the agency is engaging in unethical and illicit activities would have serious repercussions in political and diplomatic circles."