Reminder: CIA directory Richard Helms ordered the destruction of all MK Ultra files

posted 332 days ago by AntonioOfVenice 332 days ago by AntonioOfVenice +57 / -0

In one of his last acts as director of central intelligence, Helms ordered all MK-ULTRA records destroyed. The chief of the CIA Records Center in Warrenton, Virginia, was alarmed. He called [Sidney] Gottlieb and asked for confirmation. Gottlieb took the matter seriously enough to drive to the Records Center, present the order in person, and insist that it be carried out forthwith. On January 30, 1973, seven boxes of documents were shredded.

“Over my stated objections, the MK-ULTRA files were destroyed by order of the DCI (Mr. Helms) shortly before his departure from office,” the chief of the Records Center wrote in a memo for his file.

Around the same time, Gottlieb directed his secretary to open his office safe, remove files marked “MK-ULTRA” or “Secret Sensitive,” and destroy them. She did as she was told. Later she said she had made no record of what she destroyed and “never thought for a moment to question my instructions.” With these blows, a historic archive was lost.

The only reason it came to light at all as anything more than a rumor, is that they hadn't been diligent enough in destroying all (then physical) files:

Senators also believed they were finished with MK-ULTRA. Nearly two years had passed since “Joseph Scheider” testified about it in secret. With documents destroyed and the few people who knew the truth resolved to stay silent, the case had gone cold.

A sudden discovery reopened it. In 1977 the newly installed director of central intelligence, Stansfield Turner, whom President Jimmy Carter had appointed with a mandate to bring transparency to the CIA, received a Freedom of Information Act request for any MK-ULTRA files that might have escaped destruction. He passed it on to an archivist and encouraged him to make a thorough search. The archivist, as Turner later put it, “did a very diligent job of Sherlock Holmesing.” In a depot where CIA financial records were stored, he found a collection of MK-ULTRA expense reports. Among them were references to various “subprojects.” The Washington-based researcher whose FOIA request had led to the discovery, John Marks, released a batch of the documents at a press conference.

“Central Intelligence Agency documents released yesterday revealed new details of experiments on unsuspecting citizens designed to control their behavior through exotic drugs, electroshock, radiation and other means,” the Washington Post reported. “More than 1,000 pages of documents obtained from the Agency under the Freedom of Information Act provided the details on the super-secret project, code-named MK-ULTRA.”

This is from Stephen Kinzer's excellent book on MK Ultra: Poisoner In Chief. It details a lot of deep state crimes. It has received positive coverage in some mainstream media outlets, in case someone shouts "CONSPIRACY THEORIST" at you.

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– AntonioOfVenice [S] 8 points 331 days ago +8 / -0

Unfortunately, MK Ultra was not that. People were killed, driven mad and driven to suicide with this program. They helped some Nazi and Japanese 'doctors' performing revolting "experiments" on people to get free so they could come work for the deep state.

For the brave of heart and strong of stomach, here are some of the experiments in which the lives of prisoners were taken at Unit 731. They were exposed to poison gas so that their lungs could later be removed and studied; slowly roasted by electricity to determine voltages needed to produce death; hung upside down to study the progress of natural choking; locked into high-pressure chambers until their eyes popped out; spun in centrifuges; infected with anthrax, syphilis, plague, cholera, and other diseases; forcibly impregnated to provide infants for vivisection; bound to stakes to be incinerated by soldiers testing flamethrowers; and slowly frozen to observe the progress of hypothermia. Air was injected into victims’ veins to provoke embolisms; animal blood was injected to see what effect it would have. Some were dissected alive, or had limbs amputated so attendants could monitor their slow deaths by bleeding and gangrene. According to a U.S. Army report that was later declassified, groups of men, women, and children were tied to stakes so that “their legs and buttocks were bared and exposed to shrapnel from anthrax bombs exploded yards away,” then monitored to see how long they lived—which was never more than a week.

Some of these victims were American prisoners of war.

What happened to the guy responsible for this? His name was Ishii.

“If you will give me documentary immunity for myself, superiors, and subordinates, I can get all the information for you,” Ishii replied. “I would like to be hired by the U.S. government as a biological warfare expert.”

Both sides had reason to pursue this deal. Ishii knew he faced trial and likely execution if he refused to cooperate. Camp Detrick scientists wanted to learn what he knew and were driven by a sense of urgency that overwhelmed whatever moral qualms they might have felt. At their request, the Supreme Command of Allied Powers, led by General Douglas MacArthur, secretly promulgated a new principle: “The value to the US of Japanese biological weapons data is of such importance to national security as to far outweigh the value accruing from war-crimes prosecution.”

The next step was to apply this principle to Ishii and his comrades. General MacArthur had to move quickly because the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was about to open its epochal trial of suspected Japanese war criminals. He signed a secret decree granting amnesty to Ishii and all who had worked with him at Unit 731.

This is from the same book.

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