Project ARTICHOKE (also referred to as Operation ARTICHOKE) was a

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

(CIA) project that researched

interrogation Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...

methods. Preceded by Project BLUEBIRD, ARTICHOKE officially arose on August 20, 1951 and was operated by the CIA's

Office of Scientific Intelligence Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) also known as Scientific Intelligence Division was a department of the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1963, it was incorporated into the Directorate of Science & Technology.http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAE ...

. The primary goal of Project ARTICHOKE was to determine whether a person could be involuntarily made to perform an act of attempted assassination. The project also studied

hypnosis Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...

, forced

morphine Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a analgesic, pain medication, and is also commonly used recreational drug, recreationally, or to make ...

addiction Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use o ...

(and subsequent forced

withdrawal Withdrawal means "an act of taking out" and may refer to: * Anchoresis (withdrawal from the world for religious or ethical reasons) * ''Coitus interruptus'' (the withdrawal method) * Drug withdrawal * Social withdrawal * Taking of money from a ban ...

) and the use of other chemicals including

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...

, to produce

amnesia Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use ...

and other vulnerable states in subjects. Project ARTICHOKE led to

Project MKUltra Project MKUltra (or MK-Ultra) was an illegal human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), intended to develop procedures and identify drugs that could be used in interrogations to weak ...

, which began in 1953.

The project

ARTICHOKE was a

mind control Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashin ...

program that gathered information together with the intelligence divisions of the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

and

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

. In addition, the scope of the project was outlined in a memo dated January 1952 that asked, "Can we get control of an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against fundamental laws of nature, such as self-preservation?"Weinstein, H. ''Psychiatry and the CIA: Victims of Mind Control''. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press, 1990. Project ARTICHOKE was the Central Intelligence Agency's secret code name for carrying out in-house and overseas experiments using LSD, hypnosis and total isolation as forms of physiological harassment for special interrogations on human subjects.Goliszek, Andrew. In the Name of Science: A History of Secret Programs, Medical Research, and Human Experimentation. New York: St. Martins, 2003. Print. At first agents used cocaine, marijuana, heroin, peyote and mescaline, but they increasingly saw LSD as the most promising drug. The subjects who left this project were fogged with amnesia, resulting in faulty and vague memories of the experience. In 1952, LSD was increasingly given to unknowing CIA agents to determine the drug's effects on unsuspecting people. One record states that an agent was kept on LSD for 77 days. ARTICHOKE researched the potential of

dengue fever Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characterist ...

and other diseases. A declassified ARTICHOKE memo read: "Not all viruses have to be lethal… the objective includes those that act as short-term and long-term

incapacitating agent The term incapacitating agent is defined by the United States Department of Defense as: :"An agent that produces temporary physiological or mental effects, or both, which will render individuals incapable of concerted effort in the performance o ...

s." The CIA disputed which department would take over the operation. Finally, it was decided that an agent from the CIA research staff, former U.S. Army brigadier general Paul F. Gaynor, would oversee it. The CIA sought to establish control over what it perceived as the "weaker" and "less intelligent" segments of society, or for potential agents, defectors, refugees,

POWs A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...

and others. A CIA report states that if hypnosis succeeded, assassins could be created to assassinate "a prominent edactedpolitician or if necessary, nAmerican official." The overseas operations took place in locations throughout Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Philippines. Teams were assembled to manage these operations and they were told to "conduct at the overseas bases operational experiments utilizing aliens as subjects."

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External links

* {{coord, 38, 57, 06, N, 77, 08, 48, W, type:landmark_source:kolossus-eswiki, display=title 20th-century military history of the United States Central Intelligence Agency operations Code names History of the government of the United States American medical research Military psychiatry Mind control Psychedelic drug research United States documents American secret government programs

The project

See also

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External links