LAWSUIT FORCES CIA CONFESSION ON MK-ULTRA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150073-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 29, 2012
• Sequence Number: 73
• Publication Date: August 28, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150073-8
ARTICLE'A.W.?1,10 aFfa,
ON PAGE -17
WASHINGTON POST
28 AUGUST 1982
Lawsuit Forces
CIA Confession
On MK-ULTRA
More than six years ago, I first ex-
posed the horror of MK-ULTRA,
the CIA's supersecret program that
used unwitting victims.as living test-
tubes for bizarre, mind-altering
drugs. The nightmare still isn't over
for some of the tortured guinea pigs.
Bits and pieces of the story have
come out over the years in various
forums. But now, for the first time,
the CIA has been forced to acknowl-
edge in a judicial proceeding the ter-
rifying, scope of its experiments.
The CIA confessions were ex-
tracted in writing by Atlanta attor-
ney Thomas E. Maddox Jr., who
represents four of the prisoners who
were experimented on in the Atlanta
federal penitentiary in the 1950s and
1960s. The victims, in their 50s, are
seeking $500,000 apiece in damages
from the government.
One of the plaintiffs, Farrell V.
Kirk, was used as a chemical mixing
bowl even though the CIA knew he
was mentally unstable. After being
dosed with a variety of 'drugs, Kirk
attempted suicide by burning and
hanging, and once tried to gnaw an
arm off.
A second victim, Don Roderick
Scott, says he suffered pern;nent
brain damage from the tests. A
third, John R. Maole, is a fugitive,
and the fourth, James T. Knight, is
still in prison. All four say they suf-
fered flashbacks and other severe
symptoms for years after they were
drugged by the CIA.
Here are some of the shocking ad-
missions made by the Justice De-
partment on behalf of the CIA,
under questioning by the victims' at-
torney:
? MK-ULTRA's purpose was "re-
search and development of chemical,
biological and radiological materials
[for use] in clandestine operations to
control human behavior." The CIA
hoped the "psychoactive chemicals'
would work on the victim's mind
and emotions to "release him from
the restraint of self-control."
? The program was also intended
to develop an "anti-interrogation"
drug to counter Soviet truth serum,
or possibly to scramble a CIA agent's'
brain so that any confession to his
captors would be useless.
? MK-ULTRA and its successor
program, MK-SEARCH, were ter-
minated in part because the drugs
and other techniques proved "too
unpredictable in their effect on
human beings." , -
? Nevertheless, the CIA pursued
another chemical pregram,
MX-
BURN, until at least 1970. One of
its researchers was Dr. Carl Pfeiffer,
who also worked on MK-ULTRA.
Pfeiffer has sworn he was merely
trying to find a cure for mental ill-
ness. That is what the Atlanta con-
victs were told.
? The materials developed and
tested were "hallucinogenic or
[would] otherwise affect the central
nervous system of humans." The
substances included various LSDs,
mescaline, a truth serum and pow-
erful amphetamines.
? The CIA can produce no written
consent forms, and admits no fol-
lowups were made of the guinea pigs.,
Normally there weren't even doctors
on hand the night after the convicts
were drugged. Some prisoners were
so -hopped up they had to be given
more drugs "to attain sleep."
? Two victims were transferred to
a medical facility "because of appar-
ent mental problems,' but the CIA
denies this was because of "an ad-
verse reaction" to its drugs, which
were intended to duplicate psycho-
sis.
? Though expense records were ?
kept meticulously-4349,445.10 for
the Atlanta subproject?the overall
records were ordered destroyed in
1973 by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, a top
CIA scientist Pfeiffer destroyed the
records in 1972.
? Footnote: The CIA refused com-
ment Gottlieb told my associate Les
Whitten the Atlanta project "was in
keeping with the kind of experi-
ments being done at that time."
Pfeiffer "doesn't ordinarily take
calls," according to a voice at his
New Jersey office.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150073-8