Did the CIA seize MKUltra files on controversial ‘mind control’ experiment from Tulsi Gabbard’s office?

Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence in the United States, is in the news for all the wrong reasons. A huge uproar has broken out after allegations were made that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials seized approximately 40 boxes of classified files from Gabbard’s office on May 13.

Such was the uproar that Gabbard’s office had to issue a statement, refuting the claims of a CIA raid and seizure of files.

What exactly happened? Which are the files in question? We unpack the entire situation.

A CIA raid on Gabbard’s office?

On Wednesday, Fox News television host Jesse Watters reported that the CIA, the foreign intelligence service of the US, “raided” DNI chief Tulsi Gabbard’s office and seized files related to the JFK assassination and MKUltra, a Cold War-era CIA programme associated with covert mind-control experiments.

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“The CIA just raided Tulsi Gabbard’s office,” Watters said during the broadcast. “Agents hauled out dozens of boxes. Files on the JFK assassination and MKUltra, the CIA mind control operation, which she was in the process of declassifying.”

Waters was citing testimony by James Eardman III, a CIA whistleblower, who made this allegation during a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Erdman said that the files were about to be processed for declassification — a long-standing public demand — when the CIA swooped in and seized the files.

Claims of a CIA raid on Gabbard’s office were further amplified when US House Representative Anna Paulina Luna also made similar accusations. She wrote on X, “The CIA has 24 hours to return the documents to Tulsi Gabbard’s office or else I will make a motion to issue a subpoena. These documents have been requested by Congress.”

Speaking to News Nation, the US lawmaker noted that such an action by the CIA was “troubling”. She added, “There was an executive order that the president directed the full declassification of JFK, but then also to the MKUltra files, famously the CIA said that all documents were released, and other documents had been destroyed. So, these are allegedly those documents that apparently never existed.”

The Florida Congresswoman further said that she had contacted House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and that lawmakers were preparing a formal preservation request to the CIA to prevent the destruction or alteration of any records related to the matter.

There was shock when news reports emerged that the CIA had seized files from the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard's office. File image/Reuters

How has the DNI reacted?

However, in a surprising twist, Gabbard’s office denied these claims of a CIA “seizure”. Press Secretary for the Director of National Intelligence, Olivia Coleman, noted on X that the DNI offices had not been raided.

“This is false – the CIA did not raid the DNI’s office,” Coleman wrote on X.

What are the MKUltra files being mentioned?

According to the whistleblower and the US lawmaker, the CIA seized classified files on the assassination of former US President John F Kennedy as well as human rights activist Martin Luther King.

The CIA was also accused of seizing files related to the MKUltra operation. But what exactly is that?

The MKUltra programme was a mind-control research programme that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operated between 1953 and 1964 in the Cold War era. It was originally intended to make sure the US government kept up with presumed Soviet advances in mind-control technology.

The MKUltra project began on the order of CIA director Allen Dulles on April 13, 1953, and was headed by Sidney Gottlieb. File image/AFP

Then CIA director Allen Dulles ordered the US government agency to conduct experiments focusing on behaviour modification using electroshock therapy, hypnosis, polygraphs, radiation, and various drugs, toxins and chemicals.

According to a report by History.com, these experiments relied on a range of test subjects: some who freely volunteered, some who volunteered under coercion, and some who had absolutely no idea they were involved in a sweeping defense research program.

The report adds that from mentally-impaired boys at a state school, to American soldiers, to “sexual psychopaths” at a state hospital, MKUltra’s programmes often preyed on the most vulnerable members of society. The CIA considered prisoners especially good subjects, as they were willing to give consent in exchange for extra recreation time or commuted sentences.

According to journalist Stephen Kinzer, who spent several years investigating MKUltra, it was the “most sustained search in history for techniques of mind control.” He also revealed that the CIA recruited World War II Nazi torturers to continue experimenting on “thousands” of subjects, with some of them teaching CIA officers about the lethal uses of sarin gas, which was being developed as a weapon during the war.

In 1963, MKUltra project came to an end. However, it came to light in 1974 when reporter Seymour Hersh revealed the existence of it in a New York Times story. File image/Reuters

As part of the search for drugs that would allow people to control the human mind, CIA scientists became aware of the existence of LSD, and this became the focus of the MKUltra programme.

In fact, MKUltra scientists used LSD on Whitey Bulger — the boss of the largely Irish Mob in Boston. Writing about his experiences, which he described as quite horrific, he noted he was going insane. He wrote, “I was in prison for committing a crime, but they committed a greater crime on me.”

In 1963, MKUltra came to an end. However, it remained unknown and secret until 1974 when reporter Seymour Hersh revealed the existence of MKULTRA in a New York Times story. Three government investigations followed, but they were hampered by the destruction of the documents.

In 2024, records related to MKUltra were published by the National Security Archive and ProQuest.

But the question today is: were all documents related to the CIA programme revealed?

With inputs from agencies