In the 1950s, during the time of the Korean war, Project ARTICHOKE formally known as Project BLUEBIRD involved the CIA beginning to venture more into the area of mind control. To be more specific, ARTICHOKE involved “special” interrogations. Both of these projected had a great deal of work in the creation of amnesia, hypnotic couriers and the Machurian Candidate which many believe to be fiction. The basis of this post will be on points I can find within the few resources I have. Many aspects of this project was kept secret within the CIA and many declassified documents have been redacted.
The Machurian Candidate
The purpose of the Machurian Candidate is to experimentally create a dissociative identity disorder which meets a criteria of four points:
- “Created deliberately
- A new identity is implanted
- Amnesia barriers are created
- Used in simulated or actual operations” (BLUEBIRD)
To start simple, the Machurian Candidate is a believed to be a person who is brainwashed into being an assassin or for use for special operations. According to ARTICHOKE, the proof of “hypnotic couriers function effectively in real-life simulations.” (BLUEBIRD) However, the degree at which an individual was used in still classified. Apart of the Machurian Candidate involved interrogations in order to “detect mind-controlled agents of other agencies and governments.” (BLUEBIRD) The documents show that these related methods were part of the counter-intelligence work.
Interrogations
ARTICHOKES first confirmation of operation on US soil begins in January of 1955. The director of Security was sent a memo which described an interrogation of a foreign national CIA agent. This subject had given high quality intelligence which provoked suspicion. The team’s interrogation was to confirm the subject was not a double agent. The process of the interrogation for the subject is described as follows:
“The interrogation was conducted in a safe house staffed by security cleared personnel. It was conducted under medical cover of a routine physical and psychological assessment. The subject was transported to the safe house in a “covert car.” At the safe house he was given a conventional interrogation and then some whiskey. This was followed by two grams of phenobarbital, which put him to sleep.” (BLUEBIRD)
In the following day, the subject was given a lie detector test and given an array of chemicals. Then, the ARTICHOKE techniques were implied in three stages:
“A false memory was introduced into the subject’s mind without his conscious control of the process, which took 15 to 20 minutes, The procedure was repeated, this time taking 40 to 45 minutes. The procedure was repeated again with interrogation added.” (BLUEBIRD)
The team used many medications including barbiturates, amphetamines and scopolamine, hypnosis, interrogation and the introduction of false memories. The subject walked away confused with vague memories of what happened. According to the team ARTICHOKE was a successful process
“BLUEBIRD: Deliberate Creation of Multiple Personality by Psychiatrists – MCRAIS.” Google Sites, sites.google.com/site/mcrais/bluebird.
Photo
“Document Friday: Project ARTICHOKE, or the CIA Attempt to Create an Unwitting Assassin Through Hypnosis.” UNREDACTED, 26 Apr. 2010, unredacted.com/2010/04/23/document-friday-project-artichoke-or-the-cia-attempt-to-create-a-manchurian-candidate/.
admin, Author. Interference, http://www.interference.cc/page/17/.
“A Timeline of CIA Atrocities*.” Hwaairfan’s Blog, 10 Dec. 2014, hwaairfan.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/a-timeline-of-cia-atrocities/.
“Project ARTICHOKE.” Project ARTICHOKE – Wikispooks, wikispooks.com/wiki/Project_ARTICHOKE.
Human Experiment and Ethics 