Project ARTICHOKE

Declassified pages of ARTICHOKE-MKULTRA

Project ARTICHOKE (also referred to as Operation ARTICHOKE) was a CIA project that researched interrogation methods and arose from Project BLUEBIRD on August 20, 1951, run by the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence.^[1] A memorandum by Richard Helms to CIA director Allen Welsh Dulles indicated Artichoke became Project MKULTRA on April 13, 1953.^[2]

The project studied hypnosis, forced morphine addiction (and subsequent forced withdrawal), and the use of other chemicals, among other methods, to produce amnesia and other vulnerable states in subjects.

ARTICHOKE was an offensive program of mind control that gathered information together with the intelligence divisions of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and FBI. In addition, the scope of the project was outlined in a memo dated January 1952 that stated, "Can we get control of an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against fundamental laws of nature, such as self-preservation?"^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

See also

• Operation Dormouse
• Unethical human experimentation in the United States
• Project CHATTER
• Project MKDELTA
• Project MKNAOMI
• Frank Olson
• Brainwashing

Footnotes

1. ^ Science, Technology and the CIA
2. ^ Church Committee; p. 390 "MKULTRA was approved by the DCI [Director of Central Intelligence] on April 13, 1953"
3. ^ Estabrooks, G.H. Hypnosis comes of age. Science Digest, 44-50, April 1971
4. ^ Gillmor, D. I Swear By Apollo. Dr. Ewen Cameron and the CIA-Brainwashing Experiments. Montreal: Eden press, 1987.
5. ^ Scheflin, A.W., & Opton, E.M. The Mind manipulators. New York: Paddington Press, 1978.
6. ^ Thomas, G. Journey into Madness. The Secret Story of Secret CIA Mind Control and Medical Abuse. New York: Bantam, 1989 (paperback 1990).
7. ^ Weinstein, H. Psychiatry and the CIA: Victims of Mind Control. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1990.

References

• Ronson, Jon. The Men Who Stare At Goats. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004.

External links

• Transcriptions of Declassified Project ARTICHOKE Documents

Coordinates: 38°57′06″N 77°08′48″W / 38.95167°N 77.14667°W / 38.95167; -77.14667