Why the CIA Loves Artichokes
From BLUEBIRD to ARTICHOKE to MKUltra. How far will the CIA go to turn us all into mindless zombies?
BY: PAYAL DASS
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an intelligence service of the federal government of the United States. Their duties include gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world. It is known to be the only agency that has the authority by law to carry out and oversee military actions on behalf of the President. The CIA is expanding its umbrella of operations, also conducting missions regarding covert paramilitary roles to combat terrorism and to conduct offensive cyber operations.
However, an agency of such global importance does not have a spotless record in the eyes of the public. They have been subject to many controversies that include human rights violations, propaganda, and drug trafficking. This has also been mentioned in many works of fiction, including books and film.
This can be seen in the novel The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon released in 1959, along with the film adaptations with the same titles released in 1962 and 2004 respectively. The novel follows the journey of the son of a prominent American political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy as this novel is set during the times of the Cold War. The idea of creating a method to successfully brainwash someone into sacrificing their own will to obey the commands of authority seems pretty far-fetched from reality.
Or is it?
The CIA has been revealed to have been conducting very controversial experiments that try to find methods of mind control through unethical means. Their first project on this subject was Project BLUEBIRD (1949-1950).
Photo by OFFSET via Pinterest
There are very limited resources of this particular project, however, limited information about the project has been revealed in CIA records available to the public. It should be noted that selected details have been disclosed.
“The purpose of this project is to provide for the immediate establishment of interrogation teams for the operational support of OSO and OPC activities. The teams will utilize the polygraph, drugs, and hypnotism to attain the greatest results in interrogation techniques.”
By using the methods listed above, they aimed to brainwash their subjects to see which techniques could ultimately make people give up their own free will—mind-control. The methods described in the document seem alarming as we are aware of what extreme effects this can have on the subjects used in the experiment. The documentation available for the public goes in-depth about the costs, personnel, equipment, rent of facilities, and security involved with the experiment. However, no results of the experiment have been revealed to the public. The secrecy of the results could be an indication that they had found something extremely useful, and it would be more useful kept secret for future trials. Or that the experiment did not go well.
But, if the experiment did not go well, they would've stopped their mind-controlling experiments there. But they didn’t. Out of BLUEBIRD, emerged Project ARTICHOKE.
The Project
Project ARTICHOKE officially came to light on August 20, 1951. An official CIA report states:
“ARTICHOKE is the Agency cryptonym for the study and/or use of “special” interrogation methods and techniques. These “special” interrogation methods have been known to include the use of drugs and chemicals. Hypnosis, and “total isolation,” a form of psychological harassment…”
Another main aspect of the project was to determine if a person could be made to carry out or attempt an act of assassination against their free will. It also studied the use of hypnosis and the effects of drug addiction and withdrawal to induce amnesia. The practitioners of this experiment had stated their objective with a particular subject:
“[A]n individual of [redacted] descent, approximately 35 years old, well educated, proficient in English and well established socially and politically in the [redacted] Government be induced under ARTICHOKE to perform an act involuntarily, of attempted assassination against a prominent [redacted] politician or if necessary, against an American official.”
We will be following the journey of this particular subject. For the sake of consistency, we will call him Subject X.
The Process
How exactly was the CIA planning on achieving their goal of successfully creating a real Manchurian Candidate?
There is very limited information as to how the actual experiments for this particular project were conducted. Some reports released by the CIA have six pages exempted at a time in addition to redacted paragraphs and statements.
From whatever information has been disclosed, we are aware that all methods listed earlier were used. None of which could be considered ethical.
The first agents tried to aid in effective hypnosis were marijuana, cocaine, heroin, mescaline, and peyote. It was later thought that LSD was the most effective drug as it showed the most promising results. Drugs would essentially be used to put the subjects out of their senses, making them more susceptible to the brainwashing and instructions of hypnosis.
Photo by the Herb Lubalin Study Center via Flickr
It was also said that subjects would be placed in complete isolation, while on drugs to serve as a method of physiological harassment. This was thought to be an effective method in getting information out when they were interrogating certain suspects. While interrogating they would inject more drugs into the suspect in question while using harsh, physically harmful interrogation techniques. It has been speculated that one of the subjects has died throughout the experiment. It is unclear as to what their exact cause of death was.
ARTICHOKE was considered a covert experiment. It was given top secrecy to the point where members of the CIA were not aware that they were being tested along with their usual guinea pigs. In 1952, LSD was increasingly distributed to unaware CIA agents to determine the drug’s effect on unsuspecting people.
The subjects who left the experiment were fogged with amnesia so they wouldn’t be able to accurately recall their experiences throughout the experiment. If they did, this would pose a security risk to the CIA. They would also do this to ensure the instructions given to the subjects during their time of hypnosis were ingrained into their subjects’ hardwire, making sure they would have no recollection of an assassination they committed—if the CIA were ever successful on reaching this far.
Art by James Fenner via Pinterest
The Aftermath
The results of the experiment were not extremely promising.
In regards to Subject X, he was noted to be uncooperative throughout the experiment and was unwilling to go through with their plans. Noting that Subject X was a heavy drinker, the practitioners proposed to spike his drink with their tested drugs at a party before they induced Subject X to perform an act of attempted assassination. They assumed that after this attempt, he would be taken by [redacted] Government officials and would thereby be “disposed of.”
The documentation later states:
“Whether the proposed act of attempted assassination was carried out or not by the SUBJECT was of no great significance in relation to the overall project.”
This statement alone shows some big red flags.
The team then formed a conclusion to their hypothetical question proposed regarding Subject X. They concluded that someone of that particular background was unlikely to become a Manchurian Candidate because of the limitations listed below.
The SUBJECT would be involuntary.
“We” would have none or limited physical control and custody of the SUBJECT.
Access to SUBJECT is strictly limited to a social engagement among a mixed group of both “cleared and uncleared personnel.”
It would be assumed that after observing these negative results of creating a Manchurian Candidate, the CIA would put their objectives behind them, and move onto other research topics. However, after listing the reasons why the experiment was unlikely to succeed, they stated that their “final answer” was whether it was carried out or not, under “crash conditions” and appropriate authority from Headquarters, “the ARTICHOKE Team would undertake the problem in spite of the operational limitations.”
It must have been this same persevering attitude that led to the development of the well-known, extremely controversial experiment, Project MKUltra in 1953. This experiment was conducted under a more aggressive approach of using unwitting subjects—which is illegal as no informed consent was taken—and affecting a wider population of people. This has deeply impacted Canadians on a large scale as experiments were conducted at McGill University in which many Canadians were victimized as unwitting subjects. No particular results have been noted nor revealed, but many consequences have been paid.
So What?
We will never know what findings the CIA has made throughout the multiple phases of their mind-control experiments. Perhaps, they have cracked the code. Perhaps, they have figured out how to create the perfect Manchurian Candidate. Perhaps this is what upsets me the most.
None of this is done with the public’s knowledge. The same public they swore to protect. One may argue that all this was done for the sake of protection, but for me, this is simply part of an arms race done to prove which country is more noble.
With the experiments starting in the 1950s, amidst the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union, it was commonly thought that in an attempt to beat the Soviet Union in creating brave soldiers that lacked free will, America would do it first. It also aimed to create such brutal interrogation techniques that any Soviet spies would have to tell all of their information.
The government is ultimately formed in the best interest of the public with full faith that they will help their country progress towards prosperity, stability, and healthy living, providing a safer future for their children. If I found out that the government was utilizing citizens of my country without informed consent in an experiment that was this unethical, I would lose faith in the government I elected.
It would be hard for me to trust their intentions and think that they would always have my back. One questionable move made by the government raises multiple questions as to how they are actually using our money, what are they actually doing behind closed doors, and what are their real intentions?
This can be thought of during the Black Lives Matter protests taking place in May across the world, fueled by the passion to dismantle the discrimination that the American—and Canadian (a separate conversation)—justice system is founded on. To add to the chaos, there were multiple tweets going around said to be exposed by worldwide, famous hacker society known as “Anonymous” of all crimes done by the Minneapolis Police Department as well as all pending sexual assault cases against the current President of the United States—hopefully not after November 03, 2020, Donald Trump.
It’s funny how it only started to receive much-needed attention in 2020, when there had been an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to all of President Donald Trump’s lawsuits available for public knowledge—it also serves as a good read.
What I’m trying to say is that one should be careful as to who they vote for to ensure that the future of their loved ones, their society, and their country is in safe hands. Had people known more about the cases filed against President Trump, I am sure that he wouldn’t have won—or at least, I hope.
Be aware of your government’s doing, have faith but also be vigilant, and do not tolerate injustice. If we do, then there may be more Manchurian Candidates in the making. It won’t be long before we all turn into zombies for them to rule over.
