Tag: mk ultra

CIA Denies Conspiracy Theory That It Used MKUltra on Trump Shooter

Was the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump earlier this month part of a secret CIA program involving brainwashed killers? That’s the claim being made by some far-right accounts on X, but the U.S. intelligence agency is taking the unusual step of directly and forcefully denying the claims.

When it was revealed in the 1970s that the CIA had tried to develop a mind-manipulation program called MKUltra, it sounded like the most absurd conspiracy theory around. Unfortunately, it turned out to be true, even if the suggestive results of the program–and potential for creating Manchurian Candidate-like killers–have been exaggerated in the subsequent decades.

But MKUltra has become quite a meme in the 2020s, with many conspiracy theorists jumping into the fray after Trump was shot at by a 20-year-old during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. The shooter was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks who acted alone. But some people on social media are trying to claim Crooks was somehow trained by the CIA under an MKUltra program to go after Trump.

“What if US President Joe Biden’s ‘mean tweets’ triggered Thomas Matthew Crooks?” one X account that goes by the name Real Global News tweeted a couple days after the shooting. “Yes like an #MKUltra test subject. I dont want to go into conspiracy theories here but the CIA did mind control experiments like the #ManchurianCandidate. Wait for the trigger before acting.”

Another account with the handle @MJTruthUltra tweeted “MKUltra anyone?” with a list of supposedly suspicious claims about Crooks and the way local police handled the investigation into the assassination attempt against Trump.

The CIA, for its part, decided to push back very publicly against these claims, something the agency doesn’t often do when weird conspiracy theories are floating around on the internet.

“These claims are utterly false, absurd, and damaging,” a CIA spokesperson told Gizmodo on Thursday. “The CIA had no relationship whatsoever with Thomas Crooks. Regarding MKULTRA, the CIA’s program was shut down more than 40 years ago, and declassified information about the program is publicly available on CIA.gov.”

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The “Family Jewels” Collection (CIA)

The CIA’s “Family Jewels” is a compilation of documents that expose a series of controversial and often illicit activities conducted by the agency from the 1950s to the 1970s. First released to the public in 2007, this 702-page dossier reveals the depths of the CIA’s covert operations, which included assassination plots, illegal surveillance, and experiments on unwitting subjects.

Origins and Release

The Family Jewels documents were originally compiled in response to a 1973 request by then-CIA Director James Schlesinger, who wanted to know if there were any agency operations that might be considered illegal or improper. This internal investigation was prompted by the Watergate scandal and increasing public scrutiny of government agencies. The resulting reports were intended to be kept confidential, but they eventually became part of the public record due to the persistent efforts of journalists and researchers, along with Freedom of Information Act requests.

In 2007, under pressure from a lawsuit filed by the National Security Archive, the CIA finally declassified and released the Family Jewels. The release was significant, not only because it shed light on past abuses but also because it marked a rare instance of transparency for an agency known for its secrecy.

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Assassination Plots

One of the most shocking revelations in the Family Jewels was the CIA’s involvement in plots to assassinate foreign leaders. The documents detail various attempts to eliminate Cuban leader Fidel Castro, including collaboration with the Mafia to poison him and plans to use exotic devices like exploding cigars. In one instance, the CIA even considered using a contaminated diving suit to kill Castro.

The agency’s involvement in assassination plots was not limited to Cuba. The documents also reveal efforts to target leaders in the Congo, the Dominican Republic, and other countries. These revelations raised significant ethical and legal questions about the extent to which the United States was willing to go to influence foreign governments and political outcomes.

Illegal Surveillance

The Family Jewels also uncovered extensive illegal surveillance operations conducted by the CIA within the United States. Despite its mandate to operate only outside U.S. borders, the agency engaged in domestic spying activities, including the monitoring of American journalists, political activists, and dissidents. Operation CHAOS, one of the programs detailed in the documents, aimed to uncover foreign influences on domestic protest movements during the 1960s and early 1970s. However, it quickly expanded to include broad surveillance of American citizens, violating their constitutional rights.

Human Experimentation

Perhaps the most disturbing revelations in the Family Jewels are related to the CIA’s human experimentation programs. The documents detail Project MK-Ultra, a clandestine program focused on mind control and behavioral modification. Under this program, the CIA conducted experiments on unknowing subjects, including administering LSD and other drugs, subjecting individuals to sensory deprivation, and using psychological manipulation techniques. These experiments were often conducted without the informed consent of the participants, leading to severe psychological and physical harm in many cases.

One of the most infamous incidents involved the death of Frank Olson, a CIA scientist who was secretly dosed with LSD and later fell to his death from a hotel window under suspicious circumstances. The Family Jewels documents shed light on the agency’s attempts to cover up the true nature of Olson’s death and the broader unethical practices of the MK-Ultra program.

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THE CIA’S APPALLING HUMAN EXPERIMENTS WITH MIND CONTROL

ON APRIL 10, 1953, ALLEN DULLES, THE NEWLY APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF THE CIA, delivered a speech to a gathering of Princeton alumni. Though the event was mundane, global tensions were running high. The Korean War was coming to an end, and earlier that week, The New York Times had published a startling story asserting that American POWs returning from the country may have been “converted” by “Communist brain-washers.”

Some GI’s were confessing to war crimes, like carrying out germ warfare against the Communists–a charge the U.S. categorically denied. Others were reportedly so brainwashed that they had refused to return to the United States at all. As if that weren’t enough, the U.S. was weeks away from secretly sponsoring the overthrow of a democratically elected leader in Iran.

Dulles had just become the first civilian director of an agency growing more powerful by the day, and the speech provided an early glimpse into his priorities for the CIA. “In the past few years we have become accustomed to hearing much about the battle for men’s minds–the war of ideologies,” he told the attendees. “I wonder, however, whether we clearly perceive the magnitude of the problem, whether we realize how sinister the battle for men’s minds has become in Soviet hands,” he continued. “We might call it, in its new form, ‘brain warfare.’”

Dulles proceeded to describe the “Soviet brain perversion techniques” as effective, but “abhorrent” and “nefarious.” He gestured to the American POWs returning from Korea, shells of the men they once were, parroting the Communist propaganda they had heard cycled for weeks on end. He expressed fears and uncertainty–were they using chemical agents? Hypnosis? Something else entirely? “We in the West,” the CIA Director conceded, “are somewhat handicapped in brain warfare.” This sort of non-consensual experiment, even on one’s enemies, was antithetical to American values, Dulles insisted, as well as antithetical to what should be human values.

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