MK-Ultra: The
CIA and Radiation |
Interim Report of the
Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments
Courtesy of
PinkNoise History and Organization of the Central Intelligence Agency 歴史と構成CIAの The Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) was created in 1947 by the National Security Act, which also
established the Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Security
Council (NSC). CIA was modeled largely after the Office of Strategic
Services, which served as the principal U.S. intelligence organization
during World War II. The newly created agency was authorized to engage in
foreign intelligence collection (i.e., espionage). analysis. and covert
actions, it was, however, prohibited from engaging in domestic police or
internal security functions. Nonetheless, CIA engaged in a program of
domestic human experimentation from the 1950s into the 1970s. CIA
components most likely to have. been associated with any experiment are the
Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) in the Directorate of Intelligence,
the Office of Security, the Technical Services Division (TSD) in the
then-Directorate of Plans (DDP, now Directorate of Operations), and (at
least from 1962) the Office of Research and Development (ORD) in the
Directorate of Science and Technology. Beginning in the late 1940s, OSI
analyzed and disseminated foreign scientific, and medical intelligence
concerning the development and testing of atomic weapons and interacted with
DOD and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) on these issues. TSD ran Project
MKULTRA, discussed below. Human experimentation was done prior to MKULTRA by
OSI and the Office of Security and, after MKULTRA, by ORD. Experiments 実験 To date, CIA has found no
records or other information indicating that it conducted or sponsored human
radiation experiments. Records Search レコードは探索します In response to the January 1994 presidential directive, CIA conducted an
agency-wide search for information about human radiation experiments that it
may have conducted.
[ 1 ] At
the Committee's initial meeting in April 1994, CIA stated that the search
encompassed an electronic review of approximately 34 million documents, a
manual review of 480,300 documents, and nearly 50 interviews. CIA also
stated that it had found no documents relating to experiments conducted by
other agencies. The Committee, however, has since found records indicating
that CIA officers did participate in DOD groups in which human radiation
experiments, including those involving the placement of troops at
atmospheric weapons tests, were discussed and planned. As discussed below,
CIA is continuing to search for documents relating to these and other
activities. Beginning in the early 1950s, CIA engaged in an extensive
program of human experimentation, using drugs, psychological. and other
means in search of techniques to control human behavior CIA has so far found
no evidence that radiation experiments on humans were part of this program.
CIA documents and a 1963 CIA Inspector General (IG) report. however state
quite clearly that .MKULTRA was a program "concerned with research and
development of chemical. biological. and radiological materials
capable of employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior."
(emphasis added) The IG report states that "additional avenues to the
control of human behavior had been designated . . as appropriate to
investigation under the MKULTRA charter, including radiation,
electroshock. various fields of psychology, sociology, and anthropology,
graphology, harassment substances, and paramilitary devices and materials."
(emphasis added)
[ 2 ] The
program included unwitting experimentation on humans with LSD (lysergic acid
diethylamide), brainwashing, and other interrogation methods. CIA's
human behavior program originated in 1950 and was motivated by Soviet,
Chinese, and North Korean use of mind control techniques. It began under the
code name BLUEBIRD (and was later known as ARTICHOKE) and was operated by
the Office of Security and OSI with support from other offices. MKULTRA
formally began in April 1953 as a special, clandestine funding mechanism for
DOD human behavior research. The program was the subject of investigations
by the Rockefeller Commission in 1975, the Senate Church Committee in 1976,
and hearings by Senator Kennedy in 1975 and 1977, however, these committees
did not focus on radiation experiments, and no such information was found by
them. CIA has told the Committee that MKULTRA involved human
experimentation using every research "avenue" listed in the MKULTRA document
except for radiation.
[ 3 ]
The agency also noted that most of the MKULTRA records were deliberately
destroyed in 1973 by the order of then-Director of Central Intelligence
Richard Helms
[ 4 ] In early
September 1991. the agency found a document that summarized work done for
ARTICHOKE which states that "[i]n addition to hypnosis. chemical and
psychiatric research. the following fields have been explored ... 7)
other physical manifestations. including heat and cold, atmospheric
pressure, radiation." (emphasis added) .Although there is no
indication from this document that radiation was explored on humans
directly. it makes clear that CIA did "explore" radiation as a possibility
for the defensive and offensive use of brainwashing and other interrogating
techniques.
[ 5 ] In
another MKULTRA project, CIA secretly provided funding for the construction
of a wing of Georgetown University Hospital in the 1950s so that it would
have a locale to carry out clinical testing of its biological and chemical
programs. Dr. Charles F. Geschickter, a Georgetown doctor who conducted
cancer research and experimented with radiation therapy, acted as cover for
CIA financing.
[ 6 ] CIA also
tried unsuccessfully to enlist AEC to co-fund the project by appealing to
its interest in Geschickter's radiation research. Geschickter testified
before Congress in 1977 that CIA money helped fund his radioisotope lab and
equipment. Thus, CIA money seems to have helped fund radiation-related
medical research as a cover for the agency's real interest in chemical and
biological research. Records obtained from DOD and the Department of
Energy (DOE) and by Committee staff from the National Archives show that CIA
was represented in key DOD biomedical groups in which both human experiments
and experimental ethics policy were discussed and planned. At least three
CIA officers were members of DOD's Committee on Medical Sciences (CMS) from
1948 to 1953 and attended meetings and received the "program guidance" of
the DOD Joint Panel on the Medical Aspects of Atomic Warfare. As reported
elsewhere,
[ 7 ] the Joint
Panel was the center for information gathering and planning for medical
experimentation, including human experiments, relating to atomic warfare;
for example, this panel helped coordinate the program of placing troops in
the vicinity of atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. In 1948 CIA also
participated in discussions regarding the proposed formation of an Armed
Forces Medical Intelligence Organization, during which it was suggested that
CIA would be in charge of foreign atomic, biological. and chemical
intelligence from a medical sciences viewpoint.
[ 8 ] CIA representatives on CMS worked
for OSI (and its precursor, the Scientific Branch). This office had
principal responsibility for analyzing and disseminating foreign atomic
energy intelligence. It chaired the Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence
Committee (JAEIC, also known as the Joint Nuclear Intelligence Committee),
an interagency body that helped coordinate analyses and activities by
Departments responsible for monitoring foreign nuclear weapons programs. It
also chaired the interagency Scientific Intelligence Committee as well as
the Joint Medical Sciences Intelligence Committee, both of which coordinated
scientific and medical intelligence for the Government. These two committees
provided medical intelligence to the Armed Forces Medical Policy Committee,
which also played an active role in planning and overseeing radiation
research and human experimentation for DOD. This office also worked on
Projects BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE, at least one of the officers who attended
CMS meetings also analyzed medical intelligence for the Office of Security's
human experimentation activities under BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE. CIA
historically has employed the facilities of other agencies, including DOD
and DOE (and its predecessors) to assist in agency research. For example, in
1965 CIA entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with AEC's Lawrence
Livermore Laboratory to perform a number of projects for CIA's Office of
Scientific Intelligence. CIA has been asked to search for documents
specifically related to the work performed under this agreement that might
relate to human radiation experiments. With regard to the history of
CIA's ethics policies, the MKULTRA experiment program gestated from 1951 to
1952. This was the very period in which DOD's CMS, with CIA participation,
engaged in discussions that led to the Secretary of Defense's 1953 enactment
of an ethics policy for human experiments based on the Nuremberg Code. The
relationship between these Nuremberg Code discussions (and policy) and CIA's
MKULTRA activities is a subject of the Committee's inquiry. Through the
course of MKULTRA, CIA sponsored numerous experiments on unwitting humans.
After the death of one such individual (Frank Olson, an army scientist who
was given LSD in 1953 and committed suicide a week later), an internal CIA
investigation warned about the dangers of such experimentation. Ten years
later, a 1963 IG report recommended termination of unwitting testing;
however, Deputy Director for Plans Richard Helms (who later became Director
of Central Intelligence) continued to advocate covert testing on the ground
that "positive operational capability to use drugs is diminishing, owing to
a lack of realistic testing. With increasing knowledge of the state of the
art, we are less capable of staying up with the Soviet advances in this
field. "The Church Committee noted that "Helms attributed the cessation of
the unwitting testing to the high risk of embarrassment to the Agency as
well as the moral problem He noted that no better covert situation had been
devised than that which had been used and that 'we have no answer to the
moral issue '"
[ 9 ]
Following revelations of MKULTRA and other unethical CIA practices President
Gerald Ford issued the first Executive Order on Intelligence Activities in
1976 which, among other matters. prohibited "experimentation with drugs on
human subjects, except with the informed consent, in writing and witnessed
by a disinterested third party, of each such human subject and in accordance
with the guidelines issued by the National Commission for the Protection of
Human Subjects for Biomedical and Behavioral Research." Subsequent Executive
Orders by Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan expanded the directive
to apply to any human experimentation: "No agency within the Intelligence
Community shall sponsor, contract for, or conduct research on human subjects
except in accordance with guidelines issued by the Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare. The subject's informed consent shall be documented
as required by those guidelines."
[ 10 ] CIA has issued guidelines
implementing the Executive Order and has provided them to the Committee.
[ 11 ] Remaining Tasks 残りのタスク The primary focus of CIA's initial search
was records on the use of ionizing radiation on humans by the U.S.
Government. The agency did not initially search specifically for information
on such topics as the 1949 "Green Run" release (an intentional release of
radiation in Hanford, Washington) or the activities of the JAEIC, CMS, or
Joint Panel on the Medical Aspects of Atomic Warfare. Nor did CIA initially
focus on activities of the Soviet Union and other countries that may have
prompted U.S. agencies to consider human radiation experiments (e.g., when
the Soviet Union sent approximately 40,000 troops to a test area to conduct
military exercises 30 minutes after an atomic bomb test in Totsk,
Kazakhstan, on September 14, 1954). In response to specific Committee
queries, CIA has provided documents that describe activities of the OSI. CIA
continues to search for records in light of five Committee requests. These
requests include: (1) records on CMS, the Joint Panel on the Medical Aspects
of Atomic Warfare, and other DOD and/or interagency medical intelligence
organizations involving human experiments, (2) foreign medical intelligence
records on human radiation experiments, (3) records on work done by other
agencies, (4) records on ethics policies, and (5) records on the Green Run
and other intentional releases. The Committee awaits completion of
ongoing records searches that CIA has been conducting on the above and other
topics raised by the Committee. Notes Notes
[ 1 ] In contrast to all
other agencies, CIA maintains custody of virtually all of its records; only
a small number have been transferred to the National Archives and none to
any Federal Records Center. No publicly available index or inventory
describes the size and organization of the records that CIA maintains.
[ 2 ] A redacted version of
the IG report was reprinted in Joint Hearings on Biomedical and Behavioral
Research, 1975, before the Subcommittee on Health of the Senate Labor and
Public Welfare Committee and the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and
Procedure of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 94th Cong., 1st Sess., at 877
(the complete report is still classified), see also "Final Report of the
Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to
Governmental Operations, Book I" at 389-90, 94th Cong.,2d Sess., No. 94-755
(Apr.26,. 1976)("Church Committee").(sb 'Covert'?)
[ 3 ] CIA did investigate the use and effect
of microwaves on humans in response to a Soviet practice of beaming
microwaves on the U.S. Embassy but determined that this was outside the
scope of the Committee's purview. CIA also sponsored radioisotope tracer
experiments involving irradiated LSD and other chemicals on laboratory
animals as part of MKULTRA. The Army conducted similar tracer studies on
humans at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland during this period. Beginning in
1967, CIA's Office of Research and Development and the Edgewood Arsenal
undertook a Joint program for research in influencing human behavior with
drugs, which included human experimentation (including on prison inmates)
and was performed by the same University of Pennsylvania researchers who had
performed the tracer studies. It is not known whether the joint program
included radioisotope trace studies on humans.
[ 4 ] Helms testified in 1975 that he
ordered the records destroyed because "there had been relationships with
outsiders in government agencies and other organizations and that these
would be sensitive in this kind of a thing but that since the program was
over and finished and done with, we thought we would just get rid of the
files as well, so that anybody who assisted us in the past would not be
subject to follow-up questions, embarrassment, if you will." Church
Committee, Book 1. at 403-04.
[ 5 ] CIA officials have suggested this
reference to radiation might have meant "ultrasonic radiation" because they
found another document in which the possibility of using "ultrasonics and
other radiant energy" was proposed and rejected. This suggestion. however,
seems unlikely because the summary document also lists "sound" as a field
that was explored in addition to radiation.
[ 6 ] The Geschickter Fund for Medical
Research served as a principal "cut-out source" for CIA's secret funding of
numerous MKULTRA human experiment projects.
[ 7 ] See discussion in Part I of the
Interim Report.
[ 8 ]
Although this organization apparently was never created, the basic division
of labor between CIA and DOD suggested here seems to have been maintained by
the Armed Forces Medical Policy Committee.
[ 9 ] Church Committee, Book I, at 402. The
Church Committee noted that "the project involving the surreptitious
administration of LSD...was marked by a complete lack of screening, medical
supervision, opportunity to observe, or medical or psychological follow-up.
The intelligence agencies allowed individual researchers to design their
project. Experiments sponsored by these researchers...call into question the
decision by the agencies not to fix guidelines for the experiments." Id.
[ 10 ] Executive Order
11905 (Feb. l9, 1976) (Ford); Executive Order 12036, [[section]] 2-302 (Jan.
26, 1978) (Carter); Executive Order 12333, [[section]] 2.10 (Dec. 4, 1981)
(Reagan).
[ 11 ] One
section of the most recent guidelines originally was classified, i.e., HR 7-
l a(6)(c)(4), but was declassified upon the request of the Committee.
|
See also
Love,
Espionage, and Weird Federal Dope. There is also a much slower, but
generally more reliable
mirror site.
さらに愛、スパイ活動および不思議な連邦ドープを参照してください。さらに多くがあります、より遅いが、一般に、もっと信頼できる、ミラーサイト。
Also see
Cults and
Systematic/Ritual Abuse -- Dissociative Disorders and Dissociative Identity
Disorders This also has a much slower, but generally more reliable
mirror site.
さらにカルトおよび系統的な/儀式の乱用を見る――分離させる混乱および分離させる同一性はこれを乱します、さらに多くを持っている、より遅いが、一般に、もっと信頼できる、ミラーサイト。