Among the important security problems, which will be discussed in detail later and which are mentioned only briefly now for a matter of record, were the problems of disposal of subjects after Artichoke treatment and the important questions as to whether or not amnesias had been obtained. In connection with Case #1, in the professional opinion of [whited out] and as far as the writer is able to determine, a total amnesia was produced. Disposal of Case #1 (which was not a problem of the Artichoke team) was apparently handled as follows: Since the Artichoke technique had shown that, from an operational point of view the subject had no further value to the Agency, the subject was to be returned to [whited out] and after a period of time, removed from solitary and gradually permitted to mingle with larger and larger prison groups. Ultimately, and after a considerable lapse of time (perhaps as much as two years), the subject would be released. The Artichoke Team recommended some observation in this case with a later recheck on the amnesia, if possible.
In Case #2 on the first test, an almost total amnesia was reached with the exception of the last ten or twelve minutes of interrogation under the hypnotic technique. In the opinion of [whited out] and as far as the writer was able to determine, a total amnesia was produced at the end of the test on the second day after the Artichoke treatment of sodium pentothal and Desoxyn (full medication without hypnosis).
Again in so far as disposal of Case #2 was concerned (which was not a problem of the Artichoke Team), disposition was apparently to be made as follows: it had been decided that the subject would be moved as a prisoner to some place in [whited out] and held there until any possible usefulness to anyone had completely disappeared.
As noted above, both of the subjects were [whited out] speaking only and neither subject had any working knowledge of the English language. This, of course, involved the use of an interpreter and, in both cases, [whited out] the case officer involved in Case #1, acted as a general interpreter and [whited out] acted as a specific interpreter in the application of the hypnotic technique (under the direct guidance of [whited out] in hypnotic matters) and also acted as general interpreter in both cases.
Physicians including psychiatrists were directly involved in all of the ARTICHOKE team operations. Documents refer to psychiatrists “of considerable note” who were professors at prominent medical schools, who had TOP SECRET CIA clearance and who were involved as consultants on the development of the ARTICHOKE techniques. In summarizing the role of physicians in providing cover for ARTICHOKE interrogations, a writer stated that:
At the present time, the use of a carefully laid on medical cover to obtain either a narco-interrogation or narco-hypnotic interrogation appears to be the best weapon presently available. It is not necessary to go into detail as to how this is done but experience indicates it is our best technique.
The use of electric shock to the brain for creation of amnesia, and amplification of the amnesia with hypnosis were discussed by the author of an ARTICHOKE document dated 3 December 1951:
Immediately after the conference on Friday, 30 November 1951, [whited out] succeeded in finding [whited out] and [whited out], and the writer discussed electric-shock devices and certain related matters from about 3:30 to 4:45 with [whited out].
[Whited out] is reported to be an authority on electric shock. He is a professor at the Medical School of the [whited out] and, in addition, is a psychiatrist of considerable note. Pro-[whited out] is, in addition, a fully cleared Agency consultant.
[Whited out] explained that he felt that electric shock might be of considerable interest to the “Artichoke” type of work. He stated that the standard electric-shock machine (Reiter) could be used in two ways. One setting of this machine produced the normal electric-shock treatment (including convulsion) with amnesia after a number of treatments. He stated that using this machine as an electro-shock device with the convulsive treatment, he felt that he could guarantee amnesia for certain periods of time and particularly he could guarantee amnesia for any knowledge of use of the convulsive shock.
[Whited out] stated that the other or lower setting of the machine produced a different type of shock. He said that he could not explain it, but knew that when this lower current type of shock was applied without convulsion, it had the effect of making a man talk. He said, however, that the use of this type of shock was prohibited because it produced in the individual excruciating pain and he stated that there would be no question in his mind that the individual would be quite willing to give information if threatened with the use of this machine. He stated that this was a third-degree method but, undoubtedly, would be effective. [Whited out] stated that he had never had the device applied to himself, but he had talked with people who had been shocked in this manner and stated that they complained that their whole head was on fire and it was much too painful a treatment for any medical practice. He stated that the only way it was ever used was in connection with sedatives and even then it was extremely painful. The writer asked [whited out] whether or not in the “groggy” condition following the convulsion by the electro-shock machine anyone had attempted to obtain hypnotic control over the patient, since it occurred to the writer that it would be a good time to attempt to obtain hypnotic control. [Whited out] stated that, to his knowledge, it had never been done, but he could make this attempt in the near future at the [whited out] and he would see whether or not this could be done.
[Whited out] and [whited out], as well as all others present, discussed the use of electro shock at considerable length and it was [whited out] opinion that an individual could gradually be reduced through the use of electro-shock treatment to the vegetable level. He stated that, whereas amnesia could be guaranteed relative the actual use of the shock and the time element surrounding it, he said it would obtain perfect amnesia for periods further back. He stated several instances in which people who had been given the electro-shock treatment remembered some details of certain things and complete blanks in other ways.
[Whited out] said that a [whited out], who is practicing in [whited out] has perfected a battery-driven machine which, according to [whited out] is portable. [Whited out] said that the standard electro-shock machine is a very common machine in medical offices and in the major cities there must be several hundred of them in use at all times.
The use of electro-shock to produce amnesia was subsequently successfully demonstrated in a series of cases by Dr. Ewen Cameron at McGill, who received CIA money through MKULTRA Subproject 68 in 1957. Many of the discussions, literature reviews and experiments conducted under BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE were followed up on in MKULTRA and MKSEARCH.
The involvement of physicians including psychiatrists in BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE was extensive, systematic and fundamental to the Programs. The involvement included consultation, literature reviews, experimentation and direct participation in field operations. The full extent of this involvement is unknown because the names of the mind control doctors who created Manchurian Candidates are redacted from documents provided under the Freedom of Information Act, and because there are undoubtedly other documents which are still classified.
5
MKULTRA AND MKSEARCH
ARTICHOKE and BLUEBIRD were administratively rolled over into MKULTRA, which was created by the CIA on April 3, 1953. However, independent reports under ARTICHOKE continued into 1955. MKULTRA was in turn rolled over into MKSEARCH on June 7, 1964. MKSEARCH then ran until June, 1972, at which time extensive shredding of MKULTRA and MKSEARCH files was ordered by the Director of the CIA, Richard Helms. The surviving MKULTRA documents can be obtained from the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act, and MKSEARCH documents are in the process of being declassified. The four Directors of the CIA during MKULTRA and MKSEARCH were:
Allen W. Dulles February 6, 1953 - November 29, 1961
John A. McCone November 29, 1961 - April 28, 1965
William F. Raborn April 28, 1965 - June 30, 1966
Richard Helms June 30, 1966 - February 2, 1973
Like a
ll other mind control materials, the MKULTRA documents are heavily redacted. All personal names are white out with two exceptions; that of the contractor for Subprojects 4, 15, 19 and 34, the magician John Mulholland, and that of Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA officer who ran MKULTRA from inside the CIA’s Technical Services Division (TSD). TSD is also referred to as TSS in the documents. Administratively, TSS was part of the section of the CIA that ran spies and carried out clandestine operations. Other divisions were responsible for security, administration, and information gathering and analysis, but not field operations.
MKULTRA was divided into the 149 Subprojects listed in Appendix C. MKSEARCH consisted of the 7 Subprojects listed in Appendix D. Missing data in Appendices C and D is due to information still being classified and/or lack of success in piecing together identities and institutions from other sources and documents. These are by far the most systematic and comprehensive inventories of the MKULTRA and MKSEARCH Subprojects available to date. The clearance status of the individual investigators is left blank in the Appendices when it cannot be confirmed from the documents, even though in several instances other information sources lead to the conclusion that the investigator had TOP SECRET clearance. The clearance statuses listed in the Appendices are all definite and confirmed.
A typical MKULTRA file contains routine correspondence and internal CIA memos, financial audit information, copies of cancelled checks and invoices, and sometimes no material of any interest. Some Subproject files contain hundreds of pages, others only a dozen or two. Most contain a MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD like the ones for Subprojects 96, 103 and 142 (see Appendix C) which give the clearance status of the investigator, the amount of funding, the year of startup of the Subproject, and its basic purpose. Some files contain lengthy grant proposals and literature reviews by the investigators.
Additionally, the CIA will provide a list of INSTITUTIONAL NOTIFICATIONS, which list some but not all of the BLUEBIRD, ARTICHOKE, MKULTRA and MKSEARCH institutions. Many of the institution names are redacted. This material also lists which Subprojects were connected to which institution for MKULTRA and MKSEARCH.
Although the fact that the research was funded by the CIA was secret, much of it was published in the peer-reviewed literature. This material cannot be located unless one already knows the names of the contractors, or at least the year, institution and subject matter of the Subproject.
Another hurdle in completing Appendices C and D was explained by Dr. Robert Lashbrook, a CIA doctor involved in the death of Frank Olson. Olson was a Fort Detrick biological warfare expert who committed suicide after being given LSD hidden in Cointreau liqueur by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, Director of MKULTRA. Olson’s family determined that he had committed suicide subsequent to a bad LSD trip only after reading Nelson Rockefeller’s 1975 Report on the CIA, published 22 years after Olson’s death. They were given $750,000 in compensation by Congress. Dr. Lashbrook explained the CIA’s filing system in Senate testimony transcribed in Human Drug Testing by the CIA, 1977 (page 111):
Dr. LASHBROOK All right. As I think I was intimating a little bit before, I cannot make much sense out of what you have read. It was intimated before, I think, a large part of the documents you have of this nature, are what we called boilerplate-
Senator KENNEDY Excuse me?
Dr. LASHBROOK Boilerplate. What was actually signed off on was not the same as the actual proposal, or actual project.
Senator KENNEDY How frequently do you use boilerplate?
Do you sign off on things that are not relevant to what is happening?
Dr. LASHBROOK You have both. You have what you sign on, and the actual project, side by side.
Senator KENNEDY Who had got the real file?
Dr. LASHBROOK TSS. [Technical Services Staff of the CIA].
Senator KENNEDY You mean this is not the real file. It is stamped top secret.
Dr. LASHBROOK It is a real file. It is the one which goes through, receives the signatures, and is then filed.
Senator KENNEDY It is what?
Dr. LASHBROOK It is then filed?
Senator KENNEDY It is a real file, but does not mean anything, is that about what you are saying.
Dr. LASHBROOK It has administrative value.
Senator KENNEDY It is not telling what the story is?
Dr. LASHBROOK That is right. Not necessarily.
Senator KENNEDY Not necessarily?
Senator SCHWEIKER What is this, a cover file? Do we have cover files? Is that what we are dealing with?
Dr. LASHBROOK In a sense, and in a sense it was done for security. In other words, the files that went through the system and ended up in the financial Section - obviously TSS lost control of those files.
Senator SCHWEIKER So the FBI had a “do not file” procedure designed to handle this sort of thing, and the CIA has a cover file system to handle it. In this case, though, some of the cover files contain pretty damaging information that doesn’t seem to reflect well on the Agency’s use of human subjects - I wonder what the real files contain.
A cover file system must have been used to handle Frank Olson’s suicide. It is unknown whether Olson was involved in the CIA’s biological warfare program MKNAOMI, or whether his death was more than a suicide. A cryptic document dated December 14, 1953 and titled CONVERSATION WITH GIBBONS was declassified by order of CIA Director William Colby on July 24, 1975; it reads in part:
1. Lovell has not heard anything from Gibbons.
2. Lovell reported that Quarles and George Merck were about to kill the Schwab activity at Detrick as “un-American”. Is it necessary to take action at a high place?
3. Lovell knew of Frank B. Olson. No inhibition. Baring of inner man. Suicidal tendencies. Offensive usefullness? HMC told Shef Edwards Saturday A.M. the 12th.
Frank Olson committed suicide by jumping out the tenth floor window of a hotel room while Dr. Lashbrook was asleep in the room on November 28, 1953. Lovell must be Stanley Lovell, an OSS chemical warfare and mind control expert. Schwab is Dr. John Schwab who founded the Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, which received CIA money through MKNAOMI, and where Dr. Olson worked. George Merck was a member of the Merck family that founded and owned a pharmaceutical company. He was also a consultant to the CIA.
George Merck is identified in Biological Testing Involving the Department of Defense, 1977 as having been a consultant on biological warfare to the Secretary of Defense during the Second World War. Merck & Co. is listed as having received two contracts from Fort Detrick, one running from May, 1955 to December, 1956, and the other from April, 1960 to June, 1961.
Gibbons was the head of the CIA’s Technical Services Division at the time of Olson’s suicide. Edwards was the CIA’s security officer for ARTICHOKE. I have not been able to identify Quarles.
In between taking LSD on November 19 and jumping through the glass window of his hotel room at 2:30 A.M. on November 28, 1953, Frank Olson was examined by Harold Abramson, M.D. In a CIA-sponsored LSD symposium some years later, Abramson1 listened to a participant express concern about someone on LSD jumping out a window in Europe, but he did not comment on his own experience with Frank Olson.
An undated ARTICHOKE document entitled “D-Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD-25)”, probably written in 1952, describes the CIA’s early concern about Russian efforts to buy huge quantities of LSD from Sandoz Ltd. of Switzerland, where LSD was first synthesized by Dr. Albert Hoffman in 1943. Sandoz held the patent for LSD and the CIA had no secure American source of large quantities of the compound:
Some of the more outstanding effects are the mental confusion, helplessness and extreme anxiety which are produced by minute doses of this substance. Based upon these reactions, its potential use in offensive psychological warfare and in interrogation is considerable and it may become one of the most important of the psychochemical agents. The mode of action, although not completely known to date, is believed to be due to an increased glycogen metabolism with a probably block of the hexoeamonop
hosphate catabolism. To date there is no known antidote.
Great interest has been shown by the Soviet bloc countries in this compound and reports are available which indicate considerable traffic in this drug and the raw ergot from which it is prepared. One report indicates that sufficient material for 50,000,000 doses was purchased by the Soviets from Switzerland in 1951. Due to low potency of the ergot collected in East German rye fields, Mothes and co-workers have undertaken the cultivation of selected strains of ergot and the artificial infection of both rye and barley, the latter succeeding readily. Mothes also started experiments with biosynthesis of potent agents found in ergot. Manufacture of lysergic acid is controlled by SANDOZ Ltd. of Switzerland to whom the patent was issued.
This company has a virtual monopoly on the purchase of ergot in this country. It is reported, however, that the [white out] is currently obtaining 10-12 tons of ergot each month from screened rye in Michigan. In the U.S. considerable interest has been aroused in psychochemical agents and particularly in lysergic acid. At present extensive research on this compound is being done by the [whited out]. Under this contract an attempt is being made to synthesize lysergic acid as well as many of its derivatives and analogues. Clinical evaluation of the effect of this compound has not yet been attempted. Admixtures containing lysergic acid diethylamide other than with barbiturates to shorten the period of apprehension have apparently not been tried. The biosynthesis of d-lysergic acid diethylamide has not been attempted in this country as far as we know.
The CIA Doctors Page 6