Originally published June 28, 2023 2:00 pm PDT
In a disturbing revelation, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been linked to inhumane experiments on Indigenous children and African American prisoners during the Cold War.
As per a recent report by nonprofit organization Truthout, these revelations add to the already infamous “mind control” experiments that were a part of the CIA’s ‘MK Ultra’ program.
MK Ultra, a program run by the CIA from 1953 to 1973, aimed to develop interrogation methods using drugs to weaken individuals for forced confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture. It involved illegal human experimentation with mind-altering substances like LSD.
The report alleges that the CIA, along with the U.S. and Canadian military and powerful U.S. charitable foundations, are directly implicated in the atrocious ordeal.
Notably, the CIA initiated the program in the wake of the Nuremberg Trials, which exposed the extent of Nazi atrocities carried out in the name of science.
“Newly revealed evidence exposes previously hidden links between MK Ultra experiments on Indigenous children in Canada and imprisoned Black people in the U.S.,” states the report.
Testimonies and archival documents further corroborate the allegations, leading to a surge in efforts to unravel the truth behind these abusive practices.
In court testimony, Lana Ponting, a white Winnipeg resident, recounted her traumatic experiences at the Allan Memorial Institute, a former psychiatric hospital affiliated with McGill and the Royal Victoria Hospital, in 1958 when she was 16 years old.
Ponting spoke of being held against her will, drugged with LSD and other substances, subjected to electroshock treatments, and exposed to auditory indoctrination.
She claimed that “some of the children I saw there were Indigenous,” implying that they were also subjected to similar treatments.
According to the report, the CIA-sponsored MK Ultra program extended its operations to penal institutions as well.
As part of the initiative, a team of McGill consultants collaborated with the New York prison system in 1966.
This collaboration aimed to develop new methods for preventing recidivism and to conduct “experimental studies of various aspects of criminal behavior.”
A large number of program participants were Black, according to a 1969 conference attendee.
Archival documents indicate that notorious experiments, such as injecting prisoners with adrenaline and subjecting them to electric shocks, were conducted as part of these prison-based scientific experiments.
The Truthout report further alleges that prisoners were surreptitiously drugged with behavior modification substances, fostering an environment evoking “the spectre of the resocialization, rethinking, and brainwashing camps of totalitarian societies.”
The report also outlines parallels between the MK Ultra experiments and current “war on terror” tactics, with both employing coercive techniques on marginalized groups.
“Researchers targeted and assaulted vulnerable populations who were incapable of granting consent and who were viewed as disposable,” the report argues.
Finally, the report emphasizes the need to continue investigating these horrific practices to shed light on the victims’ experiences.
It concludes by saying, “While we may never know the full truth, we owe it to those harmed and killed to illuminate their stories.”
On Wednesday, Democrat 2024 Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) tweeted a link to the Truthout report, calling the events it described “[h]orrific.”
