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Project MKULTRA, The CIA's Program
Of Research In Behavioral Modification
Prepared Statement of Admiral Stansfield Turner,
Director of Central Intelligence
Mr. Chairman: In my letter to you of July 15, 1977, I reported
our recent discovery of seven boxes of documents related to Project
MKULTRA, a closely held CIA project conducted from 1953-1964.
As you may recall, MKULTRA was an "umbrella project"
under which certain sensitive subprojects were funded, involving
among other things research on drugs and behavioral modification.
During the Rockefeller Commission and Church Committee investigations
in 1975, the cryptonym became publicly known when details of
the drug-related death of Dr. Frank Olsen were publicized. In
1953 Dr. Olsen, a civilian employee of the Army at Fort Detrick,
leaped to his death from a hotel room window in New York City
about a week after having unwittingly consumed LSD administered
to him as an experiment at a meeting of LSD researchers called
by CIA.
Most of what was known about the Agency's involvement with behavioral
drugs during the investigations in 1975 was contained in a report
on Project MKULTRA prepared by the Inspector General's office
in 1963. As a result of that report's recommendations, unwitting
testing of drugs on U.S. citizens was subsequently discontinued.
The MKULTRA-related report was made available to the Church Committee
investigators and to the staff of Senator Kennedy's Subcommittee
on Health. Until the recent discovery, it was believed that all
of the MKULTRA files dealing with behavioral modification had
been destroyed in 1973 on the orders of the then retiring Chief
of the Office of Technical Service, with the authorization of
the DCI, as has been previously reported. Almost all of the people
who had had any connection with the aspects of the project which
interested Senate investigators in 1975 were no longer with the
Agency at that time. Thus, there was little detailed knowledge
of the MKULTRA subprojects available to CIA during the Church
Committee investigations. This lack of available details, moreover,
was probably not wholly attributable to the
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destruction of MKULTRA files in 1973; the 1963 report on MKULTRA
by the Inspector General notes on page 14: "Present practice
is to maintain no records of the planning and approval of test
programs."
When I reported to you last on this matter, my staff had not
yet had an opportunity to review the newly located material in
depth. This has now been accomplished, and I am in a position
to give you a description of the contents of the recovered material.
I believe you will be most interested in the following aspects
of the recent discovery:
How the material was discovered
and why it was not previously found;
The nature of this recently located
material;
How much new information there
is in the material which may not have been previously known and
reported to Senate investigators; and
What we believe the most significant
aspects of this find to be.
To begin, as to how we discovered these materials. The material
had been sent to our Retired Records Center outside of Washington
and was discovered sent to our Retired Records Center outside
of Washington and was discovered there as a result of the extensive
search efforts of an employee charged with responsibility for
maintaining our holdings on behavioral drugs and for responding
to Freedom of Information Act requests on this subject. During
the Church Committee investigation in 1975, searches for MKULTRA-related
material were made by examining both the active and retired records
of all branches of CIA considered at all likely to have had association
with MKULTRA documents. The retired records of the Budget and
Fiscal Section of the Branch responsible for such work were not
searched, however. This was because financial papers associated
with sensitive projects such s MKULTRA were normally maintained
by the Branch itself under the project file, not by the Budget
and Fiscal Section. In the case at hand, however, the newly located
material was sent to the Retired Records Center in 1970 by the
Budget and Fiscal Section as part of its own retired holdings.
The reason for this departure from normal procedure is not known.
As a result of it, however, the material escaped retrieval and
destruction in 1973 by the then-retiring Director of the Office
as well as discovery in 1975 by CIA officials responding to Senate
investigators.
The employee who located this material did so by leaving no stone
unturned in his efforts to respond to FOIA requests. He reviewed
all listings of material of this Branch stored at the Retired
Records Center, including those of the Budget and Fiscal Section
and, thus, discovered the MKULTRA-related documents which had
been missed in the previous searches. In sum, the Agency failed
to uncover these particular documents in 1973 in the process
of attempting to destroy them; it similarly failed to locate
them in 1975 in response to the Church Committee hearings. I
am convinced that there was no attempt to conceal this material
during the earlier searches.
Next, as to the nature of the recently located material, it is
important to realize that the recovered folders are finance folders.
The bulk of the material in them consists of approvals for advance
of funds, vouchers, accountings, and the like -- most of which
are not very informative as to the nature of the activities that
were undertaken. Occasional project proposals or memoranda commenting
on some aspect of a subproject are scattered throughout this
material. In general, however, the recovered material does not
include status reports or other documents relating to operational
considerations or progress in the various subprojects, though
some elaboration of the activities contemplated does appear.
The recovered documents fall roughly into three categories:
First, there are 149 MKULTRA subprojects,
many of which appear to have some connection with research into
behavioral modification, drug acquisition and testing or administering
drugs surreptitiously.
Second, there are two boxes of
miscellaneous MKULTRA papers, including audit reports and financial
statements from "cut-out" (i.e., intermediary) funding
mechanisms used to conceal CIA's sponsorship of various research
projects.
Finally, there are 33 additional
subprojects concerning certain intelligence activities previously
funded under MKULTRA which have nothing to do either with behavioral
modification, drugs, and toxins or with any other related matters.
We have attempted to group the activities covered by the 149
subprojects into categories under descriptive headings. In broad
outline, at least, this presents the contents of these files.
The activities are placed in the following 15 categories:
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1. Research into the effects of behavioral drugs and/or
alcohol:
17 subprojects probably not involving
human testing;
14 subprojects definitely involving
tests on human volunteers;
19 subprojects probably including
tests on human volunteers. While not known, some of these subprojects
may have included tests on unwitting subjects as well;
6 subprojects involving tests on
unwitting subjects.
2. Research on hypnosis: 8 subprojects, including
2 involving hypnosis and drugs in combination.
3. Acquisition of chemicals or drugs: 7 subprojects.
4. Aspects of magicians' art useful in covert
operations: e.g., surreptitious delivery of drug-related materials:
4 subprojects.
5. Studies of human behavior, sleep research,
and behavioral changes during psychotherapy: 9 subprojects.
6. Library searches and attendance at seminars
and international conferences on behavioral modification: 6 subprojects.
7. Motivational studies, studies of defectors,
assessment, and training techniques: 23 subprojects.
8. Polygraph research: 3 subprojects.
9. Funding mechanisms for MKULTRA external research
activities: 3 subprojects.
10. Research on drugs, toxins, and biologicals
in human tissue; provision of exotic pathogens and the capability
to incorporate them in effective delivery systems: 6 subprojects.
11. Activities whose objectives cannot be determined
from available documentation: 3 subprojects.
12. Subprojects involving funding support for
unspecified activities connected with the Army's Special Operations
Division at Fr. Detrick, Md. This activity is outline in Book
I of the Church Committee Report, pp. 388-389. (See Appendix
A, pp. 68-69.) Under CIA's Project MKNAOMI, the Army Assisted
CIA in developing, testing, and maintaining biological agents
and delivery systems for use against humans as well as against
animals and crops. The objectives of these subprojects cannot
be identified from the recovered material beyond the fact that
the money was to be used where normal funding channels would
require more written or oral justification than appeared desirable
for security reasons or where operational considerations dictated
short lead times for purchases. About $11,000 was involved during
this period 1953-1960: 3 subprojects.
13. Single subprojects in such areas as effects
of electro-shock, harassment techniques for offensive use, analysis
of extrasensory perception, gas propelled sprays and aerosols,
and four subprojects involving crop and material sabotage.
14. One or two subprojects on each of the following:
"Blood Grouping" research,
controlling the activity of animals, energy storage and transfer
in organic systems; and
stimulus and response in biological
systems.
15. Three subprojects canceled before any work
was done on them having to do with laboratory drug screening,
research on brain concussion, and research on biologically active
materials to be tested through the skin on human volunteers.
Now, as to how much new the recovered material adds to what has
previously been reported to the Church Committee and to Senator
Kennedy's Subcommittee on Health on these topics, the answer
is additional detail, for the most part: e.g., the names of previously
unidentified researchers and institutions associated on either
a witting or unwitting basis with MKULTRA activities, and the
names of CIA officials who approved or monitored the various
subprojects. Some new substantive material is also present: e.g.,
details concerning proposals for experimentation and clinical
testing associated with various research projects, and a possibly
improper contribution by CIA to a private institution. However,
the principal types of activities included have, for the most
part, either been outlined to some extent or generally described
in what was previously available to CIA in the way of documentation
and was supplied by CIA to Senate investigators. For example:
Financial disbursement records for the period 1960-1964 for 76
of the 149 numbered MKULTRA subprojects had been recovered from
the Office of Finance by CIA and were made available to the Church
Committee investigators in August or September 1975.
The 1963 Inspector General report on MKULTRA made available to
both the Church Committee and Senator Kennedy's Subcommittee
mentions electro-shock
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and harassment substances (pp. 4, 16); covert testing on unwitting
U.S. citizens (pp. 7, 10-12); the search for new materials through
arrangements with specialists in universities, pharmaceutical
houses, hospitals, state and federal institutions, and private
research organizations (pp. 7, 9); and the fact that the Technical
Service Division of CIA had initiated 144 subprojects related
to the control of human behavior between 1953-1963 (p. 21).
The relevant section of a 1957 Inspector General report on the
Technical Service Division was also made available to the Church
Committee staff. That report discusses techniques for human assessment
and unorthodox methods of communication (p. 201); discrediting
and disabling materials which can be covertly administered (pp.
201-202); studies on magicians' arts as applied to covert operations
(p. 202); specific funding mechanisms for research performed
outside of CIA (pp. 202-203, 205); research being done on "K"
(knockout) material, alcohol tolerance, and hypnotism (p. 203);
research on LSD (p. 204); anti-personnel harassment and assassination
delivery systems including aerosol generators and other spray
devices (pp. 206-208); the role of Fort Detrick in support of
CIA's Biological/Chemical Warfare capability (p. 208); and material
sabotage research (p. 209). Much of this material is reflected
in the Church Committee Report, Book I, pp. 385-422. (See Appendix
A, pp. 65-102).
The most significant new data discovered are, first, the names
of researchers and institutions who participated in the MKULTRA
project and, secondly, a possibly improper contribution by CIA
to a private institution. We are now in possession of the names
of 185 non-government researchers and assistants who are identified
in the recovered material dealing with the 149 subprojects. The
names of 80 institutions where work was done or with which these
people were affiliated are also mentioned.
The institutions include 44 colleges or universities, 15 research
foundations or chemical or pharmaceutical companies and the like,
12 hospitals or clinics (in addition to those associated with
universities), and 3 penal institutions. While the identities
of some of these people and institutions were known previously,
the discovery of the new identities adds to our knowledge of
MKULTRA.
The facts as they pertain to the possibly improper contribution
are as follows: One project involves a contribution of $375,000
to a building fund of a private medical institution. The fact
that a contribution was made was previously known; indeed it
was mentioned in a 1957 Inspector General report on the Technical
Service Division of CIA, pertinent portions of which had been
reviewed by the Church Committee staff. The newly discovered
material, however, makes it clear that this contribution was
made through an intermediary, which made it appear to be a private
donation. As a private donation, the contribution was then matched
by federal funds. The institution was not made aware of the true
source of the gift. This project was approved by the then DCI,
and concurred in by CIA's top management at the time, including
the then General Counsel who wrote an opinion supporting the
legality of the contribution.
The recently discovered documents give a greater insight into
the scope of the unwitting drug testing but contribute little
more than that. We now have collaborating information that some
of the unwitting drug testing was carried on in safehouses in
San Francisco and New York City, and we have identified that
three individuals were involved in this undertaking as opposed
to the previously reported one person. We also know now that
some unwitting testing took place on criminal sexual psychopaths
confined at a State hospital and that, additionally, research
was done on knock-out or "K" drug in parallel with
research to develop pain killers for cancer patients.
These, then are the principal findings identified to date in
our review of the recovered material. As noted earlier, we believe
the detail on the identities of researchers and institutions
involved in CIA's sponsorship of drugs and behavioral modification
is a new element and one which poses a considerable problem.
Most of the people and institutions involved are not aware of
Agency sponsorship. We should certainly assume that the researchers
and institutions which cooperate with CIA on a witting basis
acted in good faith and in the belief that they were aiding their
government in a legitimate and proper purpose. I believe we all
have a moral obligation to these researchers and institutions
to protect them from any unjustified embarrassment or damage
to their reputations which revelation of their identities might
bring. In addition, I have a legal obligation under the Privacy
Act not to publicly disclose the names of the individual researchers
without their consent. This is especially true, of course, for
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those researchers and institutions which were unwitting participants
in CIA-sponsored activities.
Nevertheless, recognizing the right and the need of both the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Subcommittee
on Health to investigate the circumstances of these activities
in whatever detail they consider necessary. I am providing your
Committee with all of the names on a classified basis. I hope
that this will facilitate your investigation while protecting
the individuals and institutions involved. Let me emphasize that
the MKULTRA events are 12 to 25 years in the past. I assure you
that the CIA is in no way engaged in either witting or unwitting
testing of drugs today.
Finally, I am working closely with the Attorney General and with
the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare on this matter.
We are making available to the Attorney General whatever materials
he may deem necessary to any investigation he may elect to undertake.
We are working with both the Attorney General and the Secretary
of Health, Education and Welfare to determine whether it is practicable
from this new evidence to attempt to identify any of the persons
to whom drugs may have been administered unwittingly. No such
names are part of these records, but we are working to determine
if there are adequate clues to lead to their identification;
and if so, how to go about fulfilling the Government's responsibilities
in the matter.
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