Rep. Luna Announces MKUltra Hearing on May 13

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida who chairs the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, announced that the panel will hold a hearing on the CIA's MKUltra program on May 13. The task force operates as a subpanel of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Luna made the announcement Wednesday in a post on X, stating, "Hearing on May 13. MK Ultra. House Oversight Taskforce."

MKUltra ran from 1953 to 1973 and involved CIA experiments on behavioral modification and mind control. The program originated from earlier efforts known as Projects Bluebird and Artichoke, which explored psychological warfare techniques amid Cold War competition with Soviet intelligence. Methods included administering high doses of psychoactive drugs such as LSD to unwitting subjects, along with electroshock therapy, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, and verbal and sexual abuse. Test subjects often included prisoners, mental patients, prostitutes, and others without their knowledge or consent. Sidney Gottlieb, head of the CIA's technical services chemical division, oversaw much of the program.

In 1973, CIA Director Richard Helms ordered the destruction...