Hearing Wrap Up: Declassifying Information is Important for Preserving Public Trust
WASHINGTON—Today, the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets held a hearing on “Mind Control and Accountability: Uncovering the Truth of the CIA’s MKULTRA Project.” During the hearing, members examined the history and timeline of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) MKULTRA project, as well as its original classification and how the project meets the CIA’s obligation to protect the United States. Members also analyzed the intelligence community’s unwillingness to declassify information related to MKULTRA and how the lack of transparency has reduced Americans’ trust in government institutions.
Key Takeaways
In 1953, the CIA created the MKULTRA program to develop mind control techniques due to fears that the Chinese and Soviets had such capabilities.
- Dr. Stephen Kinzer, Senior Fellow in International and Public Affairs at Brown University, testified that “MKULTRA conducted the most extreme experiments on human beings that have ever been carried out by a U.S. government agency. By any standard, they qualify as medical torture. These experiments took place in prisons, clinics and safe houses in the United States, in Europe, in Asia, and even in Latin America. Officers of MKULTRA were authorized to travel to foreign countries, preferably those under formal or informal U.S. occupation, and ask the local CIA station to provide them with expendables [or] human beings who would not be missed if they disappeared.”
- Investigative journalist Tom O’Neill testified that “Almost 50 years ago, the last congressional hearings into MKULTRA took place just a short walk from here in the Dirksen Senate office building. At those hearings convened in August and September of 1977, representatives of the CIA told Congress and the American people that its 25-year effort to control human behavior had been a colossal failure. I believe Congress was never told the truth about what this program actually achieved. In fact, I believe the agency misled Congress in 1977 when it characterized MKULTRA as a failure.”
The continued classification and opaqueness of the MKULTRA program’s history have allowed intelligence agencies to avoid accountability.
- Mr. O’Neill also stated that “The [report documents] applied to Congress concluded that the effects of LSD and similar drugs on dissociative states had, and I’m quoting, ‘never been studied.’ Never been studied. Those passages have been removed in the report turned over to Congress. The discrepancy could not have been more stark. Nearly 50 years ago, another congressional committee believed that it had been given the truth about MKULTRA. It had not.”
The Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets is working to provide transparency and accountability in the government to restore public trust in U.S. institutions.
- Dr. Kinzer also stated that “I would also point out that in addition to searching for unknown documents, this Committee could do a tremendous service by simply asking for the end of redactions on the documents that we now have. There are reams of documents about MKULTRA that have heavy sections redacted in the 1970s. This was justified by the argument that it had only been 20 years since these terrible things had happened, and revealing details might affect national security. Now 70 years have passed. That argument can no longer be valid, so I would urge this committee to try to fill out all the blank spaces in the documents that we have, because we know that is there.”
Member Highlights:
Task Force Chairwoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) explained in her opening statement that the MKULTRA project harmed Americans and they deserve answers and transparency from the federal government.
Task Force Chairwoman Luna: “Let me be clear what I believe that we are dealing with here. Administering drugs to people without their knowledge or consent, subjecting humans to psychological torture, and using prisoners and hospital patients as non-consenting research subjects. These are crimes against humanity. The Central Intelligence Agency committed them, and then the Director of the CIA was ordered or was ordering the destruction of evidence.”
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Task Force Chairwoman Luna: “That, in my mind, constitutes some of the worst notorious crimes against humanity in the twentieth century. Their persistence in the research in this hearing is possible simply because they are patriots. The American people deserve the complete record. The victims and their families deserve acknowledgment, accountability, and justice. And this Congress has a constitutional obligation to make sure that the CIA never does this again.”
Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) questioned Dr. Elizabeth Ginexi, former Scientific Program Official for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), on the lack of transparency the agency showed in explaining the origin of COVID-19 and how its role has contributed to Americans’ distrust in the federal government. He also questioned the relevancy of her presence at a hearing meant to examine MKULTRA.
Rep. Crane: “I noticed during your opening statement that you had nothing to say about the content of this hearing being about MKULTRA. Your statement seemed to be based more on your issues with this administration’s attempt to reform and rein in the NIH. Is that a fair assessment of your opening statement?”
Dr. Ginexi: “My opening statement was talking about the destruction of the NIH and cancellation of grants and political control of the NIH.”
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Rep. Crane: “Well, with all due respect, ma’am, do you find it ironic that for years we were told to trust the science? And then in the aftermath, we’ve all found out that most of what we were told during COVID was a complete lie, and it wasn’t scientific at all.”
Dr. Ginexi: “The number one thing that I think that we’re doing to destroy trust in American science right now is, is canceling clinical trials in the middle of those clinical trials. This does incredible harm to the patients who are receiving experimental treatments. And it really destroys the trust that we have in how do we recruit patients for future trials if they are knowing that their trials could just be simply canceled for political reasons?”
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Rep. Crane: “You know what I’m asking you about? I’m asking you about how NIH handled COVID. Obviously, this is supposed to be a hearing about MKULTRA, but when you gave your opening statement––and I don’t even know why you were called to this hearing––because you didn’t offer anything about MKULTRA. But since you are here and you’re going to defend NIH, I’m going to call you out on it. Do you see now what I’m talking about? When you say that the NIH doesn’t have integrity problems and trust issues, did you hear the applause in this room? That should tell you right now that you’re pretty tone deaf to what the public thinks about how the NIH handled COVID and the cover up, not only the funding of it, but the cover up involved in the aftermath. Can you acknowledge that?”
Dr. Ginexi: “No. I’m sorry, but that’s not my understanding.”
Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) inquired about the number of the potential victims of the MKULTRA projects and asked why the federal government has chosen to redact information.
Rep. Perry: “If you could describe either one of you, the number of potential victims, if you could make a, if you could hazard a guess.”
Mr. O’Neill: “There were 149 programs that we know of that were subcontracted outside of––“
Rep. Perry: “149 separate programs?”
Mr. O’Neill: “And that’s what we know of. Again, everything we know of is minuscule compared to what was really going on. So, I mean, that could have been into the tens of thousands. And I believe that’s another reason that nothing was pursued, because if those people were compensated, it could have bankrupted.”
Rep. Perry: “[Has] there been any recent attempt to find, locate, identify victims of this?”
Mr. O’Neill: “Not that I know of.”
Dr. Kinzer: “I would just add that there’s been considerable progress in this regard in Canada. There was an MKULTRA research going on at a psychiatric hospital in Canada. And the Canadian government has made a real effort to try to find out who the victims were, also to compensate them and to provide them with medical treatment. So, if we’re looking for an example of a place where it was done better, even though it was on a much smaller scale, Canada would be a place to look.”
Rep. Perry: “So other than embarrassment to the federal government, maybe agencies involved in particular individuals who are probably likely deceased at this point, what is the reason for the mass redaction of the information that we do have? Has any reason been given?”
Mr. O’Neill: “Shame.”
Rep. Perry: “That’s what I’m saying, other than embarrassment. But I think it stands to reason that probably the individuals involved in conducting and authorizing this activity are probably all deceased. Sure. At this point, is there any reason to believe otherwise?”
Mr. O’Neill: “I make those arguments in my FOIA requests, but it doesn’t get me anywhere. I don’t know about you, Dr. Kinzer.”
Click here to watch the hearing.