The MKUltra program was created by Sidney Gottlieb in 1953. He ran it until it was shut down in the early '60s. Gottlieb was also the CIA's chief chemist, creating poisons and innovative ways of surreptitiously administering them.
He also became head of the CIA program that creates high-tech gadgets for spies to use. Stephen Kinzer's new book is called "Poisoner In Chief: Sidney Gottlieb And The CIA Search For Mind Control." It's now out in paperback.
One of Kinzer's previous books was about the Dulles brothers, Allen and John Foster Dulles. Allen Dulles was the CIA director during most of the years MKUltra was in operation. Kinzer spoke with Terry in September of last year, when "Poisoner In Chief" was released in hardback.
The events of Project MK ULTRA are cloaked in mystery, as almost all of the records of the project were destroyed in 1973 by Richard Helms, the director of the CIA at the time. Several boxes of records were subsequently uncovered in 1977, revealing sparse but important information regarding the nature of the experiments.
Most of the information regarding the project comes from these files that were recovered, and from the Senate hearings that were held and which included interviews with former CIA employees involved in MK ULTRA. During the hearings, these members admitted to the purpose of the project, as well as the unethical nature of several of the experiments.
