The CIA’s MKUltra project was kept secret partly because behavior modification was deemed illegitimate.

Evidence

Thus began a morbidly fascinating and often bizarre chapter in the history of American spy craft. Much of the new work was conducted in the context of the CIA’s highly classified MKUltra project, which was tasked with “research and development of chemical, biological, and radiological materials capable for employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior.” According to testimony in the 1975 Senate investigation of covert CIA Foreign and Military Intelligence operations, a 1963 Inspector General’s report on MKUltra noted several reasons for the program’s secrecy, but chief among them was the fact that behavior modification was seen as illegitimate. “Research in the manipulation of human behavior is considered by many authorities in medicine and related fields to be professionally unethical, therefore the reputation of professional participants in the MKUltra program are on occasion in jeopardy,” the report began. It also noted that many of the program’s activities were illegal, violated the rights and interests of US citizens, and would alienate public opinion. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1007

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the deeper narrative of how behavioral modification, once illegitimate in the state sector, becomes normalized in the commercial surveillance-capital model this book traces. — connects to: The CIA’s MKULTRA program involved unethical biochemical experimentation. — Nicholson Baker, Baseless- My Search for Secrets in the…, 106

Broader Connections

• The CIA’s MKULTRA program involved unethical biochemical experimentation. #expands (0.80) — Nicholson Baker, Baseless- My Search for Secrets in the…, 106