Latest news with #mindcontrol
Daily Mail
13-06-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Inside the CIA's secret squad of adorable assassins dubbed 'Project 94'
A secret CIA project conducted bizarre experiments on wildlife in the hopes of creating an army of 'animal assassins' that could eliminate America's enemies. Called Subproject 94, the chilling plot saw scientists implant electrodes into the brains of rats, cats, dogs, monkeys, donkeys, guinea pigs, and birds in order to control their movements through electrical impulses during the 1960s. It was all part of MKUltra, an infamous CIA program led by chemist Sidney Gottlieb to develop mind control techniques during the Cold War. Declassified records about MKUltra have revealed how Americans were drugged and tortured during dozens of different experiments more than 60 years ago. The subjects included criminals, mental patients, and drug addicts, but Army soldiers and average citizens were also given drugs like LSD and cocaine without their knowledge. However, more declassified files delving into Gottlieb's oversight of these dangerous experiments have revealed that people weren't the only weapons the CIA was planning to use against the Soviet Union. Heavily redacted documents from the 1960s show that the CIA were looking to send 'payloads' of these remote-controlled animals to carry out 'direct executive actions' - which some experts now believe meant assassinating officials who opposed the US. Eventually, scientists working on Subproject 94 planned to take what they learned from animals and apply them to people, creating mind-controlled soldiers programed to kill. In the new book, 'Project Mind Control,' author John Lisle revealed how Subproject 94 was one of 149 MKUltra experiments aimed at harnessing cutting-edge neuroscience to manipulate behavior. This particular experiment was inspired by Swedish psychologist Valdemar Fellenius, who taught trained seals how to attach explosives to submarines during World War II. Gottlieb turned this idea into a plot to have animals plant listening devices, deliver deadly toxins, or even rig larger creatures like bears to serve as mobile bombs. This was done by stimulating the pleasure centers of the animals' brains with positive feedback. Scientists successfully managed to make the animals to move how they wanted them to, controlling their speed and direction in field tests. In one test, researchers were able to make a dog follow an visible path 'with relative ease.' In fact, Lisle revealed that the hardest part of these experiments was finding isolated areas where the public couldn't see what the CIA was doing. Lisle, a historian and professor specializing in the history of the US intelligence community, revealed that rats were the easiest creatures to control. Uncovered notes from Subproject 94 researchers noted that they had to be careful not to 'overdo the pleasure reaction' in these animals because it would cause them to become immobile. On the other hand, experiments with negative feedback in the brain's punishment centers only caused the animals to panic and become unresponsive to mind control. Uncovered CIA documents revealed that the cost of Subproject 94 was more than $55,000, which was hidden as part of the Geschickter Fund for Medical Research Documents uncovered by in the CIA's declassified archives revealed that Subproject 94 began in December 1961. The CIA covered up the funding for these experiments by hiding it in the Geschickter Fund for Medical Research. This private foundation was established in 1939 by Dr Charles Geschickter, a prominent American pathologist and professor at Georgetown University. It was created to support research in areas like cancer, but later became infamous in 1977 when a congressional investigation revealed that the fund was acting as a front for MKUltra's experiments for decades. However, the full scope of Subproject 94 and MKUltra's mind control operations may never be known, as Gottlieb had many of the project's files destroyed in 1973. A previous discovery of more than 1,200 declassified pages revealed that MKUltra also attempted to weaken individuals and force confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture between 1953 and 1964. Those files documented how the CIA used methods such as induced sleep, electroshocks, and 'psychic driving' on drugged subjects for weeks or months to reprogram their minds . While it has long been said that subjects only included prisoners, mental patients, and drug addicts, one report showed that some CIA and Army officials and 'subjects in normal life settings' were 'unwittingly' given LSD over the decade-long experiment. Unlike people, however, many animals are capable of achieving feats that even mind-controlled humans simply couldn't do. Researchers with Subproject 94 wrote that yaks and bears "are capable of carrying heavy payloads over great distances under adverse climatic conditions." It's unknown if the CIA ever used mind-controlled animals in an actual operation or assassination attempt of a foreign official. The revelations about MKUltra in the mid 1970s led to public distrust of the CIA and US intelligence community as a whole, leading to stricter congressional oversight of intelligence agencies. Some victims of MKUltra experiments pursued legal action. Notably, the family of Frank Olson, a CIA scientist who died in 1953 after being unknowingly dosed with LSD, received a $750,000 settlement from the government in 1976, acknowledging the CIA's role in his death. Other lawsuits, such as those by former prisoners and mental patients, faced challenges due to lack of evidence and CIA denials.
CTV News
10-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Survivors of MK-Ultra brainwashing experiments want judge to approve class-action lawsuit
It was called the MK Ultra project, meant to experiment on mind control using patients as guinea pigs. Lana Dean Ponting remembers her parents having her hospitalized at the Allan Memorial Institute, because she was a troublesome teen who often ran away. 'I was drugged up so bad I can't remember half of what they did to me,' explains the woman, who is about to turn 84. The abuse wasn't just medical. 'I bore a son when i was at the Allan Memorial and I got pregnant without ever knowing who the father was.' Ponting says she suffered from the debilitating effects of the treatments all her life. The experiments were sponsored by the CIA, funded by the Canadian government, and handled by a McGill University independent researcher named Donald Ewen Cameron between the 1940s and 1960s. It's reported the medical team used electroshocks, and experimental drugs on patients, including LSD. Ponting and several other survivors and their families were in court Monday as their lawyer is trying to get authorization for a class-action lawsuit filed in 2019. It's the first step before the case can move ahead. 'I think there is no question no one has ever taken responsibility. No one has ever apologized. There was some modest compensation in 1992 without any admission of liability,' said lawyer Jeff Orenstein, who's taking on the case on behalf of the consumer law group. He said that in the early 1990s, some survivors were offered settlements, without anyone taking responsibility for what happened. The courts already prevented the group from suing the U.S government. The CIA successfully argued the courts here have no jurisdiction. The other parties, such as the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and the Canadian government, argue they can't be sued because the plaintiffs waited too long. 'There are many psychological reasons of blockages that just don't allow people to take action,' Orenstein said, liking it to women who wait decades to denounce sexual aggressors because of fear and stigma. Julie Tanny remembers how her father, Charles Tanny, was admitted over a neurological pain issue in his face. The doctors thought he had psychiatric issues, and began treating him. His daughter says he came out with permanent mental health damages from which he never recovered. 'He didn't know me or my two siblings. He remembered my mother, but he didn't remember he had children or that he had a business or anything. And he was very detached. That never changed. He never came back to the person he was before,' Tanny said. It could take a few months for the court to decide if the class-action can be authorized. If the case moves forward, the plaintiffs may finally have a shot at getting some closure that has eluded them for seven decades.
