What is known now about MKUltra was that it was a CIA operation developed during the 1950s that extended into the 1970s that tortured people.
The scheme, apparently led by chemist and spymaster Sidney Gottlieb, involved 149 projects that dosed people with LSD and other drugs, without their consent. It used electroshock, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse and worse.
It’s long been considered an example of the CIA’s abuse of power and corrosive impact on democracy.
And members of Congress now have been told that it may still be going on.
The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday heard testimony from two experts who investigated the secretive program and cannot confirm it continues, but have their suspicions.
Its goal allegedly was to develop ways to use on prisoners being interrogated during the Cold War.
Stephen Kinzer, a senior fellow in International and Public Affairs at Brown University, and investigative journalist Tom O’Neill warned House members that the sinister CIA experiments could still be happening in secret decades later, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
“There have been enormous advances in cyber technology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. Covert agencies may have access to tools for mind control that Sidney Gottlieb could not have imagined,” Kinzer said.
And O’Neill pointed out: “Is it happening today? Did it continue? I don’t know. I can’t imagine that it didn’t, though, because the technology they worked to establish over 20-25 years and spent more money than any operation the CIA ever conducted was successful. I imagine it’s being used, I have no evidence it’s being used.”
U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said, “This hearing is about the crimes committed by the Central Intelligence Agency.”
She said, “Administering drugs to people without their knowledge or consent, subjecting humans to psychological torture, and using prisoners and hospital patients as non-consenting research subjects, these are crimes against humanity. … The Central Intelligence Agency committed them, and then the director of the CIA was ordering the destruction of evidence.”
🚨Rep. Luna MKUltra Opening Statement: “This hearing is about the crimes committed by the Central Intelligence Agency.”
“Administering drugs to people without their knowledge or consent, subjecting humans to psychological torture, and using prisoners and hospital patients as… pic.twitter.com/oxRQGyrK9I
— High Strangeness (@HighlyStrange) June 30, 2026
According to today’s expert witnesses: JACK RUBY AND CHARLES MANSON WERE MKULTRA ASSETS.
I am following up directly with the CIA to demand the full release of MKUltra records. The American people deserve and will be delivered the truth. pic.twitter.com/ZDjQxnRxob
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) June 30, 2026
For decades, questions about MKUltra were dismissed or ignored. Today, investigative journalist Tom O’Neill lays out why those questions still deserve answers. @chaosmansonbook
WATCH his compelling opening statement below👇 pic.twitter.com/aWJl8CYdKR
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) June 30, 2026
🔥 WATCH: @RepLuna opens our hearing and SLAMS the CIA’s MKULTRA project:
“MKULTRA was not a policy failure or an overzealous program that got out of hand. It was a deliberate, systematic, governmental operation that subjected American citizens, prisoners, hospital patients,… pic.twitter.com/dt0a8UIss1
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) June 30, 2026
Members questioned whether the alleged mind control operations could turn citizens into assassins. And were any subjects used to target President Donald Trump?
The Daily Mail reported, “Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee asked both Kinzer and O’Neill if they suspected that failed presidential assassin Thomas Crooks could have been the pawn of a brainwashing program which now uses computer algorithms instead of mind-altering drugs.”
O’Neill declined to speculate about the Butler, Pennsylvania, shooting and the murder of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, but did state that the CIA “developed means that we’ve never been told about many, many years ago, and I imagine they’ve evolved to be much more effective now,” the report said.
MKUltra projects reportedly were carried out under the guise of research at more than 80 institutions aside from the military, including colleges and universities, hospitals, prisons, and pharmaceutical companies.
It became known to the public in 1975 during revelations from the Church Committee and more.
