Scientist’s sons sue CIA over covert mind control testing and murder

In the 1950s and 60s, the CIA was covertly administering LSD to US citizens as it attempted to develop mind control technologies. One family is now alleging murder.

In 1953, biological warfare microbiologist Frank Olsen fell to his death nine days after the CIA had, unbeknownst to him, dosed his Cointreau with LSD.

It was only when details of the CIA’s mind control experiments, MKULTRA, became known in the mid to late-seventies, that Olsen’s family first heard that Frank had received the LSD. The CIA then paid them $750,000 compensation.

Now it seems that simply drugging people was not all the CIA was up to. Olsen’s family has just launched a lawsuit for damages against the CIA, alleging the agency was involved in his murder and a subsequent cover-up. Olsen’s sons, Nils and Eric, are claiming their father was murdered after he witnessed extreme interrogations in which the CIA killed suspects using the biological agents he had developed.

According to a recent article in The Guardian, the CIA originally told Olsen’s family his death was suicide as a result of job-induced stress. It was 20 years after his death that the agency was forced to admit that the scientist had been given LSD in a spiked glass of Cointreau. Ever since, the agency has maintained his death was a drug-induced suicide.

In 1953, CIA Director Allen Dulles warned the American public that the USSR may have developed brainwashing technology and authorised Project MKULTRA as a counter-offensive to this perceived threat. The purpose of MKULTRA was “to investigate whether and how it was possible to modify an individual’s behaviour by covert means”. Chemist and director of the CIA’s Technical Services Staff, Sidney Gottlieb, was placed in charge, and existing operations in mind and behaviour control were transferred to MKULTRA. Subprojects investigated hypnosis, neurosurgery, electroshock, torture, sexual blackmail, stage magic and poison, but their primary interest was psychoactive drugs.

MKULTRA came to light in 1974 following a New York Times article written by Seymour Hersh. The article revealed that the CIA had conducted clandestine operations inside the US in violation of its mandate.

In response to the ensuing public outcry, Presidents Ford and Reagan signed executive orders forbidding tests on humans by the intelligence community without informed consent. However, MKULTRA had already violated existing policies and laws, which raises troubling questions.

Does covert testing on humans continue today?