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CIA’s mind-control program in turmoil after scientist’s mysterious death

A congressional hearing to examine the CIA’s secretive mind-control program has been set for this month.

Florida Rep Anna Paulina Luna announced on Wednesday that the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets will hold a hearing on the Cold War-era MKUltra program on May 13.

The CIA’s MKUltra program, conducted from 1953 to 1964, aimed to develop procedures and drugs for interrogations, weakening individuals and forcing confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture.

Luna had pushed to restart congressional hearings on the matter in February, citing a Daily Mail article that reported a newly surfaced document on mind-control experiments had been placed in the CIA’s reading room the year before.

The renewed focus has placed the CIA’s MKUltra program back under the microscope, particularly its use of drugs, hypnosis and psychological testing on human subjects, as well as the death of one of its scientists. 

Dr Frank Olson, a biological warfare scientist, was covertly dosed with LSD at a meeting and died nine days later after falling out of his hotel room in New York City, which was declared a suicide – although some people, including family members, believe he was murdered.

A total of 144 projects were carried out under MKUltra during that period, highlighting the vast scale of the CIA’s secret experimentation program.

One such document from 1956 detailed how the CIA considered testing the substances on foreign nationals, but ultimately concluded that ‘unwitting testing on American citizens must be continued.’ 

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Bombshell sex harassment suit against Lorna Hajdini, JPMorgan branded ‘complete fabrication’ as John Doe is unmasked

A former JPMorgan staffer whom sources identified as Chirayu Rana has been accused of making fabricated sexual harassment claims against a high-ranking executive at the bank after an internal investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing, The Post has learned.

Multiple sources told The Post that 35-year-old Rana, now a principal at investment firm Bregal Sagemount, is the man who brought the bombshell lawsuit against Lorna Hajdini earlier this week.

Rana’s suit, filed on Monday under the pseudonym John Doe, accused the 37-year-old executive director of turning him into her “sex slave” by drugging him with Rohypnol and Viagra and threatening to slash his bonus if he did not comply.

The Daily Mail broke the story on Wednesday evening, citing lurid details from a now-retracted court document that has been withdrawn for “corrections.”

The British tabloid, quoting the now-deleted court papers, reported that Hajdini, executive director on JPMorgan’s leveraged finance team, even turned up unannounced at Rana’s apartment and forced him to have sex.

Hajdini hit back in a statement issued to The Post via her lawyers: “Lorna categorically denies the allegations. She never engaged in any inappropriate conduct with this individual of any kind and has never even been to the location where the alleged sexual assault supposedly took place.”

Rana, who did not reply to The Post’s multiple requests for comment, claimed that the alleged coercion began shortly after he joined JPMorgan’s leveraged finance team in the spring of 2024.

He filed an internal complaint in May 2025, alleging race- and gender-based harassment and abuse of power, before trying to negotiate a payoff that ran into “millions” to leave the company, sources said.

The suit also named JPMorgan Chase as a defendant, accusing the bank of retaliation and failing to investigate properly.

Daniel J. Kaiser, the attorney listed on the New York County Supreme Court docket as representing “John Doe,” did not return The Post’s calls seeking comment.

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Delaware Bill Would Require Intoxicating Hemp Products to Be Sold Through Licensed Marijuana Stores

A bill filed today in the Delaware House would place hemp-derived THC products under the state’s marijuana regulatory system, requiring products above a set THC threshold to be sold only through licensed marijuana stores.

House Bill 395 was filed by State Representative Nnamdi Chukwuocha (D), with State Senator Darius Brown (D), State Representative Edward Osienski (D), State Representative Debra Heffernan (D) and State Representative Alonna Berry (D) signed on as sponsors. The measure was assigned to the House Economic Development/Banking/Insurance and Commerce Committee.

The proposal would revise Delaware law so that industrial hemp is measured by total THC, rather than only delta-9 THC. Under the bill, a marijuana product would include any product intended to be ingested, inhaled, absorbed or otherwise introduced into the body that contains more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container. The bill specifies that, for multipacks and similar products, the limit would apply to the combined THC content of the full package.

HB 395 would also define THC broadly to include delta-7, delta-8, delta-9 and delta-10 THC, along with salts, isomers and related compounds. It would create a new offense for maintaining an unlicensed marijuana establishment, applying to businesses that facilitate the sale, storage, delivery, distribution or cultivation of marijuana products without a valid Delaware marijuana license or endorsement.

Most violations would be a Class A misdemeanor, but the offense would rise to a Class G felony if the business is within 1,000 feet of a school, daycare or public park, operates by mail or without a storefront, involves individuals under 21, or has a prior violation within five years.

The bill would also make selling or providing marijuana or marijuana products to someone under 21 a Class B misdemeanor, while preserving an affirmative defense if the person presented identification that reasonably appeared to show they were 21 or older.

Proponents of the legislation say that it is not intended to criminalize lawful industrial hemp, but rather to address unregulated intoxicating THC products being sold outside Delaware’s licensed marijuana system.

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Newly Released Documents Show UAP “Space Tiger Team” Built Around Space and Transmedium Cases

A newly released Department of War document obtained through a Freedom of Information Request request (FOIA case #24-F-1205) originally filed with U.S. Space Command (FOIA case #24-R-020), outlines the 2023 formation of a “UAP Space Tiger Team,” a coordinated effort led by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to address unidentified anomalous phenomena specifically within the space domain.

The document, a Joint Staff Action Processing Form dated November 20, 2023, describes a structured initiative aimed at integrating UAP considerations into space-based operations and detection frameworks.

Framework for “Spaceborne and Transmedium UAP”

The document explicitly defines the scope of the effort as extending beyond traditional aerial encounters, focusing on phenomena operating across multiple domains:

“The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) will convene and chair a Space Tiger Team to guide the Department’s development of the space integration framework for spaceborne and transmedium UAP…”

The use of the terms “spaceborne” and “transmedium” indicates that the framework is intended to address objects or phenomena operating not only in space, but also across different physical environments.

The document further states that the effort will:

“identify opportunities for space-based UAP detection in support of other domains, and to identify reporting and deconfliction mechanisms for space-based UAP detections.”

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As Hegseth Touts Autonomous Warfare Command, Human Rights Expert Pushes Civilian Protections

As the US military accelerates its adoption of autonomous weapons systems amid a growing global artificial intelligence arms race, one expert told Common Dreams on Wednesday that “greater action needs to be taken urgently” to protect civilians and ensure meaningful human control over rapidly developing technologies.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told congressional lawmakers Wednesday during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the proposed $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget for 2027 that the military will soon have a new “sub-unified command” dedicated to autonomous warfare.

Hegseth, who advocates “maximum lethality” for US forces, has expressed disdain for what he called “stupid rules of engagement” designed to minimize civilian harm. He has overseen the dismantling of efforts meant to mitigate wartime harm to civilians – hundreds of thousands of whom have been killed in US-led wars during this century, according to experts.

This “maximum lethality” ethos, combined with AI-powered systems allowing for exponentially faster and more numerous target selection, has raised concerns that have been underscored by actions including Israel Defense Forces massacres in Gaza and Lebanon, and US attacks like the cruise missile strike on a school in Iran that killed 155 children and staff.

“A sole focus on achieving maximum lethality is inherently incompatible with civilian protection,” Verity Coyle, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) crisis, conflict, and arms division, told Common Dreams. “If the United States truly seeks to protect civilians, it should forgo this limited focus and ensure it has guardrails in place that assess the proportionality of its actions and guarantee a distinction between civilians and combatants.”

“Under international humanitarian law, civilian protection requires that military actions abide by the principles of distinction and proportionality,” Coyle noted. “In other words, military actors must distinguish between civilians and combatants and ensure that the resulting harm to civilians from their actions would not be excessive in comparison to the perceived military gain.”

Experts on lethal autonomous weapons systems – commonly called “killer robots” – stress the need for meaningful human control. However, with industry-backed efforts afoot to ban state and local governments from placing guardrails on AI development, retaining such control could become increasingly difficult as the technology advances.

“The lack of serious guardrails… shows a troubling lack of concern for these real and immediate risks to civilians both in the United States and abroad,” Coyle said. “While we have seen some Congress members and state legislators express concern over these developments, greater action needs to be taken urgently.”

Asked about the “if we don’t build it, they will” mentality of many US proponents of unchecked AI development that is reminiscent of the Cold War nuclear arms race, Coyle said the United States is ignoring its “ability to set the global agenda and international humanitarian law norms.”

“As we see greater integration of AI in the military domain and resulting civilian harm, we need strong international leadership to respond to these threats, not states relinquishing their responsibilities,” she asserted.

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The Vaccine Safety Signal the Media Still Won’t Read

The serious-adverse-event signal found in the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA Covid-19 vaccine trials has been in the peer-reviewed literature for nearly four years. Mainstream media outlets, on the rare occasions they address it, have treated it not as evidence to be weighed but as misinformation to be managed — dismissed on the authority of experts without relevant expertise, or simply ignored. A recent BBC Radio 4 broadcast is a near-textbook example.

The broadcast aired on Everything Is Fake and Nobody Cares, a BBC Radio 4 series hosted by Jamie Bartlett, whose stated purpose is to ask why, in so much of modern life, fakery is no longer punished but rewarded. It is a reasonable question. The most direct answer the series has produced to date appears inside one of its own episodes.

In the episode in question, Bartlett devoted his broadcast to Dr. Aseem Malhotra and Covid-19 vaccine safety. As part of that segment, he aired a specific claim about a peer-reviewed paper I led, published in the journal Vaccine in September 2022. To evaluate Dr. Malhotra’s on-air statements, Bartlett brought in Dr. Vicky Male, a reproductive immunologist at Imperial College London. Dr. Male told listeners that the authors of the paper had been “specifically told to make it clear this paper should not be used” to support the kinds of claims Dr. Malhotra was making.

That statement is not true. No one told us that. The paper does not contain such an instruction. I am one of its authors; I have the peer review correspondence; I know what the journal asked of us and what it did not. Anyone could have checked this in five minutes by reading the paper, which runs eight pages and is open-access online. Jamie Bartlett did not check.

On the basis of an unchecked false claim about a scientific paper, Bartlett told his audience that Dr. Malhotra was spreading false information — on a podcast whose central premise is that modern life now rewards exactly this kind of thing.

Whether that reflected willful dishonesty or plain incompetence, I cannot say. The case that follows lays out what happened in enough detail for readers to decide for themselves. Both possibilities reflect poorly on a national broadcaster. Only one of them would be excusable.

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Ex-Liberal MP continues fight against child sex charges

A former state MP will face a second child abuse trial after continuing to deny allegations he sexually assaulted a teenage boy in a communal toilet.

Rory Amon, 36, has consistently argued he thought a 13-year-old boy was of legal age before meeting him at the youth’s apartment block in 2017.

The former Liberal politician has admitted having sex with the teen on one occasion in the building’s car park toilet, but says he had a reasonable belief the boy was over 16.

The pair met online on an adults-only website.

After a NSW Supreme Court trial, jurors were discharged in March, having failed to reach a verdict over separate counts of indecent assault and the rape of a child.

Amon again pleaded not guilty to these two charges as he was arraigned on Friday.

An estimated two-week retrial will commence on November 9.

In March, the jury acquitted Amon of four counts of child rape, two counts of attempted child rape and two counts of indecent assault of a child.

These charges related to an alleged second meeting with the teen, which Amon denied occurred.

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US: Open shipping for me but not for thee (looking at you China)

During a recent meeting of the House Foreign Affairs Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, Chairwoman Maria Salazar (R-Fla.) laid out an eyebrow-raising vision of the U.S. role in Latin America’s affairs under the so-called Donroe Doctrine.

Salazar praised President Donald Trump for strong-arming Colombian President Gustavo Petro into temporarily re-initiating Colombia’s failed drug war against Clan de Golfo. She fawned over a deadly American oil embargo of Cuba, urging Trump to “pull the plug” on Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel’s government. And she framed the illegal capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as a bold move that “spread freedom and democracy” across Latin America.

But most important, and least remarked upon, were the congresswoman’s comments about ports. Praising the Trump administration’s successful effort to kick Chinese-linked port operator CK Hutchison from sites near the Panama Canal, Salazar turned her attention to the Port of Chancay in Peru — the State Department’s latest target in its effort to root out Chinese influence in Latin America.

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Car giant brags about huge profit margins on new money grab drivers cannot avoid 

Remember when buying a car meant paying once, grabbing the keys, and driving off into the sunset?

That era may be fading fast. Automakers are quietly transforming the way drivers pay for their vehicles – and your next car could come with a growing list of monthly charges long after you’ve left

General Motors is leading the charge, betting that subscriptions for features like navigation, safety systems, and hands-free driving will soon become a major profit engine – potentially generating billions of dollars a year and, in some cases, even more than selling the cars themselves.

GM says its software arm keeps about 70 cents of every dollar it makes – a staggering level of profitability in an industry where selling a car typically brings in just 4 to 10 cents on the dollar. 

Instead of paying upfront for everything, drivers now get certain features included for a limited time – often just a few years – before being asked to pay monthly or annually to keep them.

In its latest earnings update on Tuesday, GM said it expects to generate $3.1 billion from digital subscriptions this year.

‘We think there’s a growth opportunity there with very attractive margins,’ CEO Mary Barra told investors.

GM already has around 13 million subscribers paying for various in-car services, and that number is expected to climb rapidly as more vehicles come equipped with built-in technology.

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Missing Republican Oklahoma Senate candidate Barry Christian, 54, found dead in rural area

The body of a missing Republican Oklahoma state Senate candidate was found in a truck in a rural area — turning his family’s world “upside down,” his devastated daughter said.

Barry Christian, a 54-year-old Trump-supporting candidate for District 38 in western Oklahoma, was discovered dead Thursday after he mysteriously vanished just two days prior, his campaign said in a news release obtained by KOCO.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation confirmed to the outlet that Christian’s 2024 charcoal gray Ram truck was found just off Highway 30, south of Erick, with a body inside.

The truck was located by a ravine near the Sandy Sanders Wildlife Management Area. Because of where the vehicle is located, officials are unable to remove his body, delaying identification, the outlet reported.

A large campaign sign for Christian, however, was photographed eerily tossed onto the prairie land as authorities scoured the area.

The circumstances surrounding his death are unclear. The OSBI did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Christian was reported missing Tuesday after he failed to show up to a scheduled meeting. He was last seen driving his Ram truck, according to the Harmon County Sheriff’s Office.

He last posted on Facebook on Saturday, asking his district’s residents to attend a meet-and-greet at the Mangum Oklahoma Rattlesnake Festival to discuss “issues that matter most to our community.”

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