Kathrine Frich
The true scope remains unknown.
Your thoughts belong to you. At least, that is what most of us assume.
But history shows that powerful people have spent fortunes trying to pick the locks on the human brain.
Shadows in the machine
Two experts just sounded an alarm on Capitol Hill. Testifying before a US House committee, they warned that secret mind control experiments might be happening today.
Ziare.com and the Daily Mail reported the chilling testimony from historian Stephen Kinzer and journalist Tom O’Neill. They study the infamous MKUltra drug testing project.
Today, artificial intelligence and cyber tools change the game. “There have been huge advances in cyber technology, neuroscience and artificial intelligence. It’s possible that secret agencies today have access to mind-altering tools that Sidney Gottlieb could never have imagined,” Kinzer said.
Broken minds
Chemist Sidney Gottlieb ran the original operation. Between the 1950s and 1970s, he oversaw at least 149 subprojects at dozens of research centers. Unsuspecting hospital patients and prisoners became human guinea pigs.
During Operation Midnight Climax, operatives set up fake brothels and secretly dosed visitors with LSD to watch them through one-way mirrors.
“There wasn’t even the semblance of genuine scientific research,” Kinzer told the lawmakers.
Erasing the evidence
The true scope remains unknown. In 1973, CIA Director Richard Helms ordered his staff to destroy the archives. Crucial files vanished entirely.
O’Neill presented letters between Gottlieb and a key psychiatrist detailing attempts to wipe memories. “This was basically the Holy Grail of MKUltra: the key to taking control of a person’s behavior,” the journalist said.
Experts also highlighted Frank Olson’s strange death in 1953. “I think he was going to reveal information about biological weapons programs and lethal experiments within MKUltra,” Kinzer said of the fallen researcher.
Looking forward
The politicians saw no hard proof of active operations. Still, the researchers remain vigilant.
“I can’t say that such activities continue and I have no evidence that they are happening. But given the scale of the investments made at the time and the success of some of the research, it’s hard to believe that interest in such technologies has completely disappeared,” O’Neill said.
Uncovering the past is crucial. “The American people deserve to know the whole truth. The victims and their families deserve recognition, accountability and justice,” Kinzer said.
Sources: Ziare.com, Daily Mail
