MK-Ultra and the Patriot Act: A Privacy Dilemma

MK-ULTRA. It was a “classified covert mind-control and chemical interrogation research program, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence”. It began in the early 1950’s. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) insists it has been shut down. But a 14-year veteran of the CIA, Victor Marchetti, has stated in many interviews, that the claim is a “cover story.” The program is likely still in operation.

From the CIA’s own website we read that the CIA is “prepared to accomplish what others cannot accomplish and go where others cannot go” and that they are “the Nation’s eyes, ears, and sometimes, its hidden hand”.

Since they are the self-declared extra-legal arm of the US government, and from their history the extra-ethical arm of the country, we may deduce there are many activities conducted by the Agency we simply cannot see. Yet.

In a redacted Memorandum for the Record dated June 9, 1953 Director Gottlieb penned these words about MK-ULTRA, “The estimated budget of the project at XXXXXX is $39,500.00. The XXXXXX will serve as a cut-out and cover for this project and will furnish the above funds to the XXXXX as a philanthropic grant for medical research. A service charge of $790.00 (2% of the estimated budget) is to be paid to the XXXXXX for this service.”

The direct quotations printed above are from the CIA Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) page on their website. Therefore, I’m not making any unsubstantiated claims. I’m just the messenger for their own message. From this point forward I will be making wild unsubstantiated claims and speculate like an unrestrained adolescent.

MK-ULTRA isn’t the only CIA program to use US citizens for experimentation. It’s just the one we used for this article. But since smoke indicates fire, maybe we should feel free to speculate. Which leads me to the technical portion of this article.

Most people treat the details of their personal life on the World Wide Web very carelessly. People who (in person) are very guarded and suspicious, disclose the most sensitive information about themselves on Facebook, or in an email. Which, by the way, are both unencrypted and easily accessible by anyone.

Most people use Gmail and Google Docs – the free one. They are under the mistaken impression that since they have it protected with a password, only they have access to it. They forget that Google also has access to it. And through the PATRIOT ACT, so does any arm of the Federal Government, or law enforcement; even without a warrant. The Big Tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple et.al. provide wonderful free cloud-based services like email, word processor, spreadsheets, etc. We fail to understand the scope of the reach tech companies have into our lives.

You may think, “but I am a law-abiding citizen. I have nothing to worry about.” The truth is, you are only partially correct. In his blog, Moxie Marlinspike, the creator of the encryption tool Signal, said the following, “Imagine if there were an alternate dystopian reality where law enforcement was 100 percent effective, such that any potential offenders knew they would be immediately identified, apprehended, and jailed.” Our entire culture has evolved when a critical mass of citizens pushed back against laws we collectively decided were outdated or just plain wrong. That couldn’t have happened in a world where even a whiff of social disobedience is detectable.

This may sound a little like the movie “Minority Report”. If law enforcement could peer into the digital lives of us all, would they possibly use artificial intelligence to prognosticate whether someone was contemplating a crime? Would there be a law to punish such a person? Furthermore, have you ever made a comment that might be construed as terrorist leaning? I bet you have but you didn’t know.

Truth be told, maybe we all have lives that we should have the power to keep private. Even from the CIA.

This article was originally published here.