Project MKUltra

[SpiritOfRock]

I posted a similar thread in GameFAQs but got mostly joke replies so I figured I'd try SB.

For the uninformed, here's a few bulletpoints.

-Top Secret CIA Program from early 50's to early-70's
-6% of the CIA's budget for most of its existence (so pretty big in scope)
-Human experimentation in frequent and rampant violation of the Nuremberg Code
-Subjects studied included "information extraction" methods, altering personalities, methods of torture and inducing Stockholm Syndrome, and other crazy stuff of that nature
-Drugs were an essential component to the research, largely including LSD which was an experimental drug at the time
-Often called a "mind control operation" although in effect may differ from what one normally thinks of when hearing "mind control"
-Influenced by and elaborated on work done by Nazi scientists, competed with similar projects being conducted by the KGB at the time
-Most of the documents related were destroyed in 1973, information about the project avoided public eyes until 1975
-Surviving documents officially declassified as of 2001

For further reading there's an extensive Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mk_ultra

Just remember to check the sources because there are some false claims sourced to conspiracy websites with questionable legitimacy (for example, "Manchurian Candidates" are highly discussed but I have never seen legitimate evidence for such activity)

And for reading straight from the source you can BitTorrent some of the surviving documents at:
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6613897/ ... 3581_Pages

(This is a legal download and the documents are public domain.)

That all being said, what are your thoughts on Project MK Ultra? Do you think the CIA was justified in committing the same crimes that Nazi/Soviet scientists were so heavily criticized for? Do you think their research is still in use today, for example in Guantanamo Bay? Do you think the results of their research had anything to do with the subsequent implementation of the War on Drugs?

[pyronius]

I think you can't trust a damn thing the U.S. government says in terms of what it will and won't do and I'd be damn surprised if they weren't pulling the same shit right this instant. I doubt it affected the war on drugs though. As a rule our society allows only three drugs, caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco. They don't care whatsoever what any other drugs do. If it has recreational potential it gets scheduled no research necessary. MK ultra was purely weapons research and didn't affect civilian drug availability at all because it never would have been allowed in the first place. Just look at the histories of weed and opium bans, they weren't connected to rich white men and therefore were automatically immoral and thus banned.