The US Congress has decided to hold a hearing this month to examine the CIA's secret mind control program, known as "MKUltra".
Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna announced that the hearing will be held on May 13, organized by the Federal Secrets Declassification Task Force.
It is noted that the "MK Ultra" program was implemented between 1953 and 1964 (during the Cold War era), and aimed to develop drugs and methods used in interrogations, by weakening people and extracting confessions from them through brainwashing and psychological torture.
Last February, Luna called for the reopening of hearings on this matter, citing a report in the Daily Mail that a new document about mind control experiments had surfaced and been placed in the agency's reading room a year earlier.
These developments have brought renewed attention to the controversial program, particularly regarding the use of drugs, hypnosis, and psychological testing on humans, as well as the circumstances surrounding the death of one of the agency's scientists.
Dr. Frank Olson, a biological warfare scientist, was one of at least eight men who were secretly given LSD on November 19, 1953, as part of the program's experiments.
According to testimony given by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb at a 1977 hearing, a "very small dose" of the drug was added to a bottle of Cointreau served after dinner. In the following days, Olson became paranoid, nearly refusing food, and even disposed of his wallet, ID, and cash after believing his boss, Vincent Rowett, had ordered him to do so.
Olson was scheduled to travel to a mental health facility on November 27, but at approximately 2:45 a.m. on November 28, Rowett received a call from Gottlieb informing him of Olson's death.
His body was later found outside the Statler Hotel in New York, where he had been staying on the thirteenth floor. Authorities ruled his death a suicide by falling. But his nephew, Paul Vidich, rejects this account, asserting that his uncle had ethical concerns about the nature of his work and was later deemed a security risk. He added, "Throwing him out of a window was a very convenient way to get rid of a national security threat. In short, he was murdered."
The family was not allowed to see his body and were told that he had suffered severe facial disfigurement from the fall, but later reports confirmed the presence of LSD in his body at the time of death.
During the program, a total of 144 projects were carried out, reflecting the enormous scale of the secret experiments conducted by the CIA.
A document from 1956 shows that the agency considered testing the materials on foreigners, but ultimately concluded that "testing should continue without the knowledge of American citizens."
A spokesperson for the agency confirms that it is committed to transparency regarding this chapter of its history, and that it is declassifying information and publishing it on its website.
Members of Congress have expressed concern about the controversial program's past. Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee said the program's history of kidnapping, drugging, and attempting to erase people's memories is "disgusting." He added, "How can we believe the CIA after they ordered the destruction of all program documents in 1973, only to later admit to its existence? Which lie are we supposed to believe?
more than 1,200 pages of program documents, revealing that subjects included criminals, the mentally ill, drug addicts, soldiers, and ordinary citizens who were given drugs without their knowledge. Gangster James "Whitey" Bulger was among those given the drugs while imprisoned in 1957; he later described suffering from hallucinations, loss of appetite, and feelings of violence. The archive confirmed that the agency conducted horrific experiments using drugs, isolation, and sensory deprivation.
In 2025, the National Security Archive released
Most of the documents were destroyed in 1973, but an investigation led by Senator Frank Church in 1975 revealed the existence of the program, sparking widespread public outrage and sharp criticism of CIA practices, and ultimately leading to the creation of permanent parliamentary oversight committees for intelligence agencies
