Luna’s hearing put MKULTRA back in the spotlight
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s House Oversight Task Force hearing on the declassification of federal secrets was built around a simple question that Washington usually hates most: what else did the government know, and when did it know it? Luna said the CIA’s MKULTRA program was not just a cold war oddity, but a deliberate operation that used LSD, hypnosis, electroshock, sensory deprivation, and other abuse on unwitting Americans, including hospital patients, prisoners, and veterans. She said Congress and the public were told for years that the program was a dead end, while the paper trail tells a much uglier story.
The file burn in 1973 did not help the trust problem
Luna said then-CIA Director Richard Helms ordered MKULTRA records destroyed in 1973 as he left office, and that Sidney Gottlieb’s team spent a full day burning 152 files. Gottlieb’s own papers were also destroyed, and the head of the CIA records center objected in writing before being overruled. That is not exactly the kind of housekeeping that builds public confidence. No one went to prison, and no victims received formal compensation, which is how these stories so often end in Washington: a lot of damage, a lot of denial, and a suspiciously clean desk.
New documents and missing boxes keep the pressure on
Luna said the CIA is now working to declassify newly found records tied to what she called a forgery program. CIA whistleblower and former officer James Erdman III testified that about 40 boxes of sensitive records were removed from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence during declassification review efforts. He had already told the Senate Homeland Security Committee in May that the CIA took back 40 boxes of JFK and MKULTRA files being processed for declassification by DNI Tulsi Gabbard. Luna and House Oversight Chairman James Comer sent a preservation letter demanding the records be kept and returned. Luna said the removal was not a raid, but it still raises the same old question: does the agency think oversight is a rule, or just a suggestion?
Germany allegations and one former officer’s warning
Luna also said she is looking into disturbing claims of a CIA facility in Germany where MKULTRA victims may have been tortured. She said she plans to reach out to the German government, including possible law enforcement help, to locate and identify any victims or remains if the allegations prove true. A witness at the hearing claimed to have identified what could be a secret prison or black site tied to the program. Then came the line that will keep this story alive: a former CIA officer testified, ‘I don’t believe that the research stopped.’ In other words, the official story may have aged about as well as the records that were set on fire.
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