MKUltra

Project MKUltra, (sometimes stylized as MKULTRA or MK-ULTRA), was the code name for a covert, illegal human research program, run by the Central Intelligence Agency Office of Scientific Intelligence. This official U.S. government program began in the early 1950s, continuing at least through the late 1960s, using mainly U.S. and Canadian citizens as its test subjects.^{1) 2) 3)}

The published evidence indicates that Project MKULTRA involved the use of many methodologies to manipulate individual mental states and alter brain function, including the surreptitious administration of drugs and other chemicals, sensory deprivation, isolation, and verbal and sexual abuse.⁴⁾

Project MKULTRA was first brought to wide public attention in 1975 by the U.S. Congress, through investigations by the Church Committee, and by a presidential commission known as the Rockefeller Commission. Investigative efforts were hampered by the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MKULTRA files destroyed in 1973; the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations relied on the sworn testimony of direct participants and on the relatively small number of documents that survived Helms' destruction order.⁵⁾