Naomi Klein on CIA Project MK-ULTRA

New World Notes #678, 29:19 (March 2)
Broadcast quality MP3 (40 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB) 

Psychiatrist and CIA collaborator Dr. Ewen Cameron (left) performed mind-control experiments on numerous patients.

For two decades, the CIA conducted secret experiments in torture and mind-control as Project MK-ULTRA. Among their experimental subjects were American and Canadian citizens--none of whom were aware of what was being done to them.

Naomi Klein tells the story of Gail Kastner, who discovered decades later that the CIA (via her psychiatrist) had permanently damaged her mind and body with drugs, sensory deprivation, and electroshock--all without her knowledge or consent.

Klein reads from her book, The Shock Doctrine. The recording--here slightly condensed by me--had previously been broadcast on "Unwelcome Guests." Thanks to Lyn Gerry and the Unwelcome Guests Collective.

This installment was previously broadcast, as NWN #279, in 2013.

Music added: The song "Short Memory" by Midnight Oil.

I chose "Short Memory" because of its theme--Americans' (and the American government's) habit of making the same mistakes over and over again. Later it dawned to me that my choice of song might be seen as mocking the memory loss that Kastner and other victims of MK-ULTRA had experienced. No such mockery is intended. --K.D.