Project MKDELTA
MKDELTA, and its associated program MKULTRA, were mind control and interrogation operations run by the Central Intelligence Agency. Both MKULTRA and MKDELTA involved the surreptitious use of LSD and other biochemicals in clandestine operations; MKULTRA was a domestic program whose subjects were unwitting Canadian and U.S citizens, whereas MKDELTA was established to govern the surreptitious use of LSD and other biochemicals abroad.
On 26 April 1976, the Church Committee of the United States Senate issued a report, "Final Report of the Select Commititee to Study Governmental Operation with Respect to Intelligence Activities",[1] In Book I, Chapter XVII, p 389 this report states:
- LSD was one of the materials tested in the MKULTRA program. The final phase of LSD testing involved surreptitious administration to unwitting non-volunteer subjects in normal life settings by undercover officers of the Bureau of Narcotics acting for the CIA.
- A special procedure, designated MKDELTA, was established to govern the use of MKULTRA materials abroad. Such materials were used on a number of occasions. Because MKULTRA records were destroyed, it is impossible to reconstruct the operational use of MKULTRA materials by the CIA overseas; it has been determined that the use of these materials abroad began in 1953, and possibly as early as 1950.[2][3][4][5][6]
- Drugs were used primarily as an aid to interrogations, but MKULTRA/MKDELTA materials were also used for harassment, discrediting, or disabling purposes.[2][3][4][5][6]
In his 2009 book, A Terrible Mistake, H. P. Albarelli Jr. concludes that CIA operative Frank Olson was murdered because a personal crisis of conscience made it likely he would divulge state secrets concerning several CIA programs, chief among them Project ARTICHOKE and an MKDELTA project code-named Project SPAN. Albarelli alleges that Project SPAN involved the contamination of food supplies and the aerosolized spraying of a potent LSD mixture in the village of Pont-Saint-Esprit, France in August, 1951. The Pont-Saint-Esprit incident resulted in mass psychosis, 32 committals to mental institutions, and at least seven deaths. As acting chief of the Special Operations Division, Olson was involved in the development of aerosolized delivery systems; he had been present at Pont-Saint-Esprit in August, 1951; and several months before resigning his position he had witnessed a terminal interrogation conducted in Germany under Project ARTICHOKE. Paranormal author John Grant Fuller comes to similar conclusions about the incident in his book The Day of Saint Anthony's Fire.[7][8] However, academic sources attribute the incident to ergot poisoning through a local bakery.[9][10][11]
Ingestion of moldy grains that are contaminated with trichothecenes has been associated with mycotoxicosis.[12]
Popular culture
- M.K.DELTA is the name of a track about mind control by the UK band Subgenerates.
- MK-DELTA is the 5th track on Arsonists Get All The Girls' album "Listen to the Color" (The prior track is MK-ULTRA, both references to the secret programs.)
See also
- Human experimentation in the United States
- Project ARTICHOKE
- Project CHATTER
- Project MKNAOMI
- Project MKULTRA
Notes and references
- ↑ "Final report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, United States Senate : together with additional, supplemental, and separate views". Archive.org. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
- 1 2 Estabrooks, G.H. Hypnosis comes of age. Science Digest, 44-50, April 1971
- 1 2 Gillmor, D. I Swear By Apollo. Dr. Ewen Cameron and the CIA-Brainwashing Experiments. Montreal: Eden press, 1987.
- 1 2 Scheflin, A.W., & Opton, E.M. The Mind manipulators. New York: Paddington Press, 1978.
- 1 2 Thomas, G. Journey into Madness. The Secret Story of Secret CIA Mind Control and Medical Abuse. New York: Bantam, 1989 (paperback 1990).
- 1 2 Weinstein, H. Psychiatry and the CIA: Victims of Mind Control. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1990.
- ↑ H. P. Albarelli (2009). A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments. Trine Day. pp. 350–58, 490, 581–83, 686–92. ISBN 0-9777953-7-3.
- ↑ Samuel, Henry (2010-03-11). "French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
- ↑ Gabbai, Lisbonne and Pourquier (15 September 1951). "Ergot Poisoning at Pont St. Esprit". British Medical Journal. 2 (4732): 650–651. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.930.650-a. PMC 2069953. PMID 14869677.
- ↑ Finger, Stanley (2001). Origins of Neuroscience: A History of Explorations Into Brain Function. Oxford University Press. pp. 221–. ISBN 978-0-19-514694-3. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
- ↑ Jeffrey C. Pommerville; I. Edward Alcamo (15 January 2012). Alcamo's Fundamentals of Microbiology: Body Systems Edition. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. pp. 734–. ISBN 978-1-4496-0594-0. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
- ↑ "Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare, Chapter 34 TRICHOTHECENE MYCOTOXINS p.659" (PDF). Retrieved 26 June 2012.
Government documents
- Results of the 1973 Church Committee Hearings, on CIA misdeeds, and the 1984 Iran/Contra Hearings
- The CIA Inspector General's 1963 report on MKULTRA and MBDELTA
- U.S. Congress: The Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Foreign and Military Intelligence