CIA Project MK-ULTRA Larry Romanoff

Note to readers:

This essay is an edited and abridged version, with content reformatted, of that originally posted here. It is updated with some new material and full references. A list of the most important references is at the end of the essay, before the notes. I deleted the small portion on P. W. Botha because I was unable to locate my primary reference which was text extracted from the Truth and Reconciliation hearings held in South Africa. The content was testimony by one of Botha’s underlings at a hearing that Botha refused to attend. Rather than leave questions about the validity of statements, I deleted that section.

CIA Project MK-ULTRA The United States government funded and performed countless psychological experiments on unwitting humans, especially during the Cold War era, perhaps partially to help develop more effective torture and interrogation techniques for the US military and the CIA, but the almost unbelievable extent, range and duration of these activities far surpassed possible interrogation applications and appear to have been performed from a fundamental monstrous inhumanity. To simply read summaries of these, even without the details, is almost traumatising in itself.

In studies that began in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the US Military began identifying and testing truth serums like mescaline and scopolamine on human subjects, which they claimed might be useful during interrogations of Soviet spies. These programs eventually expanded to a project of vast scope and enormous ambition, centralised under the CIA in what would come to be called Project MK-ULTRA, a major collection of interrogation and mind-control projects. Inspired initially by delusions of a brainwashing program, the CIA began thousands of experiments using both American and foreign subjects often without their knowledge or against their will, destroying countless tens of thousands of lives and causing many deaths and suicides. Funded in part by the Rockefeller and Ford foundations and jointly operated by the CIA, the FBI and the intelligence divisions of all military groups, this decades-long CIA research constituted an immense collection of some of the most cold-blooded and callous atrocities conceivable, in a determined effort to develop reliable techniques of controlling the human mind.

MK-ULTRA was an umbrella for a large number of clandestine activities that formed part of the CIA’s psychological warfare research and development, consisting of about 150 projects and sub-projects, many of them very large in their own right, with research and human experimentation occurring at more than 80 institutions that included about 50 of America’s best-known colleges and universities, 15 or 20 major research Foundations including Rockefeller, dozens of major hospitals, a great many prisons and mental institutions, and many chemical and pharmaceutical companies. At least 200 well-known private scientific researchers were part of this program, as were many thousands of physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists and other similar. Many of these institutions and individuals received their funding through so-called “grants” from what were clearly CIA front companies. In 1994 a Congressional subcommittee revealed that up to 500,000 unwitting Americans were endangered, damaged or destroyed by secret CIA and military tests between 1940 and 1974. Given the deliberate destruction of all the records, the full truth of the MK-ULTRA victims will never be known, and certainly not the death toll. As the inspector general of the US Army later stated in a report to a Senate committee: “In universities, hospitals and research institutions, an unknown number of chemical tests and experiments … were carried out with healthy adults, with mentally ill and with prison inmates.” According to one government report, “In 149 separate mind-control experiments on thousands of people, CIA researchers used hypnosis, electroshock treatments, LSD, marijuana, morphine, Benzedrine, mescaline, seconal, atropine and other drugs.” Test subjects were usually people who could not easily object – prisoners, mental patients and members of minority groups – but the agency also performed many experiments on normal, healthy civilians without their knowledge or consent.

MUCH MORE: https://www.unz.com/lromanoff/cia-project-mk-ultra/?__cf_chl_f_tk=Hg9wl7Ykh6QVY706B27vaOWmV2JQBgPCcQ7CgKiHWbg-1783294674-1.0.1.1-UI.dk_1apAPbxZRBt.UwGwyaXHc5ddHn0_Mf8x5miEQ

AI Response to watch the water ai data centers

The massive scale of artificial intelligence requires an extraordinary amount of computing power, which in turn generates intense heat. To prevent servers from failing, massive cooling operations circulate and evaporate millions of gallons of freshwater daily.

The True Cost of AI CoolingBecause the chips that power generative AI run incredibly hot, hyperscale data centers require constant cooling.Global Demand: Operations—such as the ones supporting ChatGPT—are estimated to consume up to 148 million liters (39 million gallons) of water per day globally.Local Impact: A single large facility can draw up to 5 million gallons of water daily, straining local aquifers, depleting well water, and competing with surrounding agricultural and residential needs.The "ChatGPT" Formula: Studies suggest that engaging in about 20 to 50 questions with an AI chatbot can result in the consumption of roughly 500 ml of water (depending on the specific servers and the facility's location).

Environmental Concerns and ControversiesAs the AI boom expands, communities are facing major resource shortages, sparking protests and legal battles.In places like the Imperial Valley in California, developers are attempting to use Colorado River water originally tied to farmland to support massive AI data centers.Some facilities in Texas (such as the sprawling Stargate project) are constructing dedicated fossil fuel plants to keep up with the power needs, drawing further backlash from environmental groups.

The first task of AI and Quantum computing should be supplying FREE ENERGY to the entire world.

President Trump's favorite uncle was Professor John George Trump who was in possession of Nikola Tesla's papers after Tesla died. Trump has hinted at "hidden technology" and I feel sure this is much of what has been hidden.

What say you?

Tulsi Gabbard has resigned as the Director of National Intelligence after quite a remarkable run.

Enrique Alejandro had a remarkable rundown on X of her accomplishments:

Tulsi Gabbard’s Record as America’s TOP Director of National Intelligence❗️🇺🇸

– Referred Russiagate Criminals to DOJ for Prosecution

– Declassified “Russian Collusion” & Impeachment Conspiracy Documents

– Spearheaded the Investigation into Voter Fraud in Georgia

– Investigated the Dark Origins of COVID-19

– Fought the CIA to Declassify Hidden JFK Assassination + MK-Ultra Files

– Revoked Security Clearances From 37 Officials (Russia Hoaxers, Biden/Obama Holdovers, and Impeachment Letter Signers)

– Fired Officials Who Contradicted Trump on Venezuelan Gangs

– Moved CIA’s In-Q-Tel Under DNI Oversight for Greater Accountability

– Uncovered Ukraine Government Plot to Illegally Reroute Hundreds of Millions in U.S. Taxpayer Dollars to Biden’s 2024 Campaign

– Launched Declassification Effort to Expose the Truth About UAPs

– Slashed Bloated Intel Bureaucracy With 50% Staff Cuts at ODNI, Saving $700 Million

– Exposed the Intel Community’s Political Weaponization

All of this, even as the CIA breathed down her neck and tried to tie her hands at every turn.

THIS IS WHAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE VOTED FOR.

We looked into Enrique’s claims below and they all checked out.

Referred Russiagate Criminals to DOJ for Prosecution — True. Gabbard issued criminal referrals to the DOJ over the Obama-era Russia collusion investigation (Crossfire Hurricane) and related matters, leading to a grand jury probe. (Source)

Declassified “Russian Collusion” & Impeachment Conspiracy Documents — True. Her office led major declassifications (including batches in 2025) on the Russia hoax, Obama admin surveillance of Trump’s 2016 campaign, and the 2019 impeachment whistleblower complaint. (Source)

Spearheaded the Investigation into Voter Fraud in Georgia — True (with context). She personally attended/observed an FBI raid on Fulton County’s election offices in January 2026 to seize 2020 records, as part of a broader probe into election integrity/foreign interference claims (directed by Trump). Democrats called it politicized and based on debunked theories; her office framed it as assessing vulnerabilities. (Source)

Investigated the Dark Origins of COVID-19 — True. She established a task force/review for declassifying and investigating COVID-19 origins (including lab-leak hypothesis and gain-of-function research), collaborating with HHS/RFK Jr. and pushing against alleged prior suppression. (Source)

Fought the CIA to Declassify Hidden JFK Assassination + MK-Ultra Files — True. Her Director’s Initiatives Group (DIG) task force reviewed these for declassification per Trump orders; whistleblowers alleged CIA interference (e.g., reclaiming boxes of files and monitoring the group), leading to tensions and an IG probe. Some releases occurred. (Source)

Revoked Security Clearances From 37 Officials (Russia Hoaxers, Biden/Obama Holdovers, and Impeachment Letter Signers) — True. In 2025 she publicly revoked clearances from 37 current/former officials for alleged politicization, leaks, or related issues. (Source)

Fired Officials Who Contradicted Trump on Venezuelan Gangs — True. In May 2025 she fired two top National Intelligence Council officials after their assessment contradicted the White House line on Tren de Aragua/Venezuelan government coordination. (Source)

Moved CIA’s In-Q-Tel Under DNI Oversight for Greater Accountability — True (in process). She advanced/planned to shift oversight of the CIA’s venture capital arm In-Q-Tel to the ODNI for community-wide control, sparking internal pushback. (Source)

Uncovered Ukraine Government Plot to Illegally Reroute Hundreds of Millions in U.S. Taxpayer Dollars to Biden’s 2024 Campaign — True. Her office reviewed/declassified intercepts and materials alleging Ukrainian officials discussed rerouting U.S. aid/funds toward Biden’s campaign. (Source)

Launched Declassification Effort to Expose the Truth About UAPs — True. She coordinated rolling declassifications and releases of UAP/UFO-related files (multiple batches in May 2026) with the Pentagon, FBI, and others under Trump’s transparency directive. Slashed Bloated Intel Bureaucracy With 50% Staff Cuts at ODNI, Saving $700 Million — True (close match). Her “ODNI 2.0” reforms (announced August 2025) cut the office by over 40% (nearly 50% per some reports), eliminated hundreds of positions, and saved $700+ million annually. (Source)

Exposed the Intel Community’s Political Weaponization — Accurate framing of her overall efforts. This includes the DIG task force, declassifications, firings, and public statements on past politicization/leaks. (Source)

And who can forget this story, by the way?

In all, it was a remarkable run for Tulsi Gabbard, who will hopefully go on to bigger and better things. We’ll be keeping an eye on her.

The Daily Wire spent a decade building its identity around a simple promise. Legacy media had become bloated, ideologically captive, and incapable of telling the truth, and a leaner conservative outlet would replace it. On May 1, 2026, that outlet handed pink slips to a significant share of its own newsroom and production teams, with former host Candace Owens claiming on X that more than half the staff was let go. Editor-in-chief Brent Scher pushed back hard, calling the 50 percent figure “insane” and “nowhere near” accurate. The company itself confirmed only that the cuts spanned “a number of teams” and were concentrated at its Nashville production hub.

The exact percentage is contested. The trajectory is not. This is the second major round of layoffs in 13 months. Bentkey, the children’s streaming service launched as a conservative alternative to Disney, was shuttered in 2025 with its entire staff cut. Co-founder Jeremy Boreing stepped down as co-CEO in early 2025. Independent industry tracker layoffhedge.com estimates the cumulative workforce reduction at more than 60 percent in just over a year, and Boreing has since launched a solo podcast outside the company he helped build into a billion-dollar brand.

None of this happened in a vacuum. The financial pressure has been visible for those willing to look, and the audience numbers tell a story that no spokesperson statement can paper over.

The Numbers Don’t Lie Ben Shapiro built The Daily Wire’s audience on YouTube. He is now watching it leave. Channel analytics tracked by independent observers show monthly views down roughly 85 percent from their late 2023 peak of more than 170 million, settling somewhere between 18 and 26 million in early 2026. Subscriber counts have dropped by tens of thousands during certain stretches. The flagship voice of the outlet has lost the equivalent of a major network’s nightly audience, and that loss is reflected directly on the balance sheet.

Subscription growth slowed. Ad rates softened. Production costs kept climbing. Multiple reports indicated the company quietly retained bankruptcy counsel last year as the math stopped working. The billion-dollar valuation Boreing helped engineer in 2024 now looks less like proof of arrival and more like a high-water mark from a different media moment.

Hollywood Killed the Newsroom The Daily Wire’s identity crisis did not start with the layoffs. It started when the company decided it wanted to be a studio. Boreing’s vision pulled the outlet into expensive entertainment ventures, including The Pendragon Cycle, an ambitious Arthurian fantasy series of the kind that has bankrupted larger studios than this one. Bentkey was supposed to compete with Disney. Daily Wire+ was supposed to compete with streaming giants. The e-commerce arm, with its razors and chocolates and cigars, was supposed to monetize loyalty into recurring revenue.

Some of it worked. Matt Walsh’s Am I Racist? was the top-grossing documentary of 2024. Most of it consumed more cash than it produced. Running a newsroom and a film studio and a children’s entertainment platform and a private-label consumer goods company simultaneously requires either limitless capital or extraordinary discipline. The company appears to have run short of both. When Boreing departed, he reportedly negotiated his way out over a “shift in priorities,” which is a polite way to describe the moment when the creative empire stops paying for itself.

The Talent Exodus The most telling indicator of an institution’s health is whether its talent leaves and thrives or leaves and fades. The Daily Wire has been remarkably consistent on this question, and the answer has not been kind to its executives. Candace Owens, fired in 2024, has built a larger audience on her own than she ever commanded inside the company. Brett Cooper, who quit in late 2024 after a public dispute with Boreing over her replacement on her own show, is doing the same on YouTube. Boreing himself, the architect of the brand, is now producing independent content under his own name.

That is not a coincidence. It is a market signal. When the people who built your platform consistently outperform you after they leave, the audience is telling you that they followed the voice, not the logo. The Daily Wire spent years assuming the reverse, and the YouTube charts now show what that assumption costs.

Becoming What They Mocked There is a particular kind of irony in watching an outlet that built its brand attacking legacy media for being bloated, top-heavy, and ideologically captured, then run the exact same playbook in miniature. The Daily Wire chased prestige projects beyond its means. It centralized power around a small executive class. It treated dissenting talent as a liability rather than an asset. It hired bankruptcy counsel while telling subscribers everything was fine. The corporate behavior is indistinguishable from the legacy outlets it once delighted in mocking.

The conservative audience did not disappear. It migrated. Substacks, independent podcasts, X accounts with no payroll and no overhead are eating institutional brands across the political spectrum. The audience went looking for the unfiltered voices that Daily Wire-style outlets used to provide before they started worrying about valuations and Hollywood deals. The market has rendered its judgment, and the judgment was rendered by people clicking elsewhere.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” The principle applies to institutions as readily as to individuals. The Daily Wire sowed an empire of expensive ambitions, internal purges, and the assumption that brand loyalty would survive any executive decision. It is now reaping a leaner organization, a fragmented audience, and a workforce reduction that the company itself will not fully quantify.

Conservative media is not dying. It is being rebuilt outside the institutions that thought they owned it. Those institutions can either rediscover the discipline that made them worth following, or they can keep trimming staff while wondering where the audience went. The Daily Wire’s next year will tell which path it has chosen, but the layoff notices that went out on May 1 suggest the choice has already been narrowed considerably.

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/will-trump-cut-a-deal-with-iran

America’s love affair with Israel has hit an astonishing bump because President Donald Trump, in a political panic over the economic fallout from the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, is now “talking to Iran,” as an Israeli insider put it, about ending the current impasse in return for a payment from the United States of at least $25 billion, and possibly much more, to the government in Tehran. In return, Iran would end its blockade and open the strait to all traffic, ending a crisis for Trump, the US, and much of the world.

One motive for Trump’s extraordinary step—I was not told how or by whom Trump’s offer was communicated—may be personal. The president, I was told, “no longer trusts Israel. He now believes he was misled” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the potential for success of the recent joint US-Israeli bombing attack, a goal of which was to trigger an overthrow of the religious leadership in Iran. The president is said not to share Israel’s existential concern about the need to destroy or neutralize the large depot of partially enriched uranium that is allegedly stored in at least three deep tunnels in Iran. Iran as a member of the world’s nuclear club may be an existential threat for the Israeli leadership, but not for the president of the United States.

“He wants out,” the Israeli insider told me, and the Israeli leadership “is very upset because Trump”—in his fear of the political cost to him of a continuing blockade of the strait “has shown a willingness to ignore Israeli interests and desires.” People in the Israeli leadership “say he’s lost it. He doesn’t think of the consequences. You cannot do negotiations with Iran because every step we make he immediately broadcasts it on his social media posts. He is so obtuse.”

One clear sign of Trump’s indecision came this morning when the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg published similar stories quoting Trump telling “his aides” to prepare for a lengthy US Navy blockade of the strait in an effort to compel cash-strapped Iran to agree to giving up the nation’s stockpile of partially enriched uranium. The Journal depicted the offer as demonstrating that Trump, “who always seeks a quick and salable victory, is devoid of a silver bullet.”

The Israeli insider told me that the reports accurately reflected the conflicting opinions inside the administration about how to resolve the crisis, given the widespread belief that the Iranian leadership, facing steep losses of income, will eventually have to give in to economic pressure.

https://www.businessinsider.com/palantir-manifesto-alex-karp-technological-republic-summary-2026-4

Palantir's 22-point summary of Karp's book:

1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation.

2. We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps. Is the iPhone our greatest creative if not crowning achievement as a civilization? The object has changed our lives, but it may also now be limiting and constraining our sense of the possible.

3. Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public.

4. The limits of soft power, of soaring rhetoric alone, have been exposed. The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software.

5. The question is not whether A.I. weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose. Our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed.

6. National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost.

7. If a U.S. Marine asks for a better rifle, we should build it; and the same goes for software. We should as a country be capable of continuing a debate about the appropriateness of military action abroad while remaining unflinching in our commitment to those we have asked to step into harm's way.

8. Public servants need not be our priests. Any business that compensated its employees in the way that the federal government compensates public servants would struggle to survive.

9. We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness—a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche—may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret.

10. The psychologization of modern politics is leading us astray. Those who look to the political arena to nourish their soul and sense of self, who rely too heavily on their internal life finding expression in people they may never meet, will be left disappointed.

11. Our society has grown too eager to hasten, and is often gleeful at, the demise of its enemies. The vanquishing of an opponent is a moment to pause, not rejoice.

12. The atomic age is ending. One age of deterrence, the atomic age, is ending, and a new era of deterrence built on A.I. is set to begin.

13. No other country in the history of the world has advanced progressive values more than this one. The United States is far from perfect. But it is easy to forget how much more opportunity exists in this country for those who are not hereditary elites than in any other nation on the planet.

14. American power has made possible an extraordinarily long peace. Too many have forgotten or perhaps take for granted that nearly a century of some version of peace has prevailed in the world without a great power military conflict. At least three generations — billions of people and their children and now grandchildren — have never known a world war.

15. The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone. The defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price. A similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism will, if maintained, also threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia.

16. We should applaud those who attempt to build where the market has failed to act. The culture almost snickers at Musk's interest in grand narrative, as if billionaires ought to simply stay in their lane of enriching themselves . . . . Any curiosity or genuine interest in the value of what he has created is essentially dismissed, or perhaps lurks from beneath a thinly veiled scorn.

17. Silicon Valley must play a role in addressing violent crime. Many politicians across the United States have essentially shrugged when it comes to violent crime, abandoning any serious efforts to address the problem or take on any risk with their constituencies or donors in coming up with solutions and experiments in what should be a desperate bid to save lives.

18. The ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away from government service. The public arena—and the shallow and petty assaults against those who dare to do something other than enrich themselves—has become so unforgiving that the republic is left with a significant roster of ineffectual, empty vessels whose ambition one would forgive if there were any genuine belief structure lurking within.

19. The caution in public life that we unwittingly encourage is corrosive. Those who say nothing wrong often say nothing much at all.

20. The pervasive intolerance of religious belief in certain circles must be resisted. The elite's intolerance of religious belief is perhaps one of the most telling signs that its political project constitutes a less open intellectual movement than many within it would claim.

21. Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful.

22. We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what?

Defense AI

https://bigbendtimes.com/2026/02/28/the-1953-iran-coup-how-the-u-s-helped-overthrow-a-democracy-and-why-it-still-matters-today/

The 1953 Iran Coup: How the U.S. Helped Overthrow a Democracy — and Why It Still Matters Today

In August 1953, a covert operation orchestrated by the United States and the United Kingdom helped overthrow Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. The event — known as Operation Ajax — reshaped the Middle East, strengthened authoritarian rule in Iran for decades and continues to influence tensions between Tehran and Washington today.

Understanding what happened requires stepping back into the geopolitics of the early Cold War — and the global fight over oil.

A Popular Leader Challenges Western Oil Power Mossadegh came to power in 1951 with strong nationalist support after Iran’s parliament voted to nationalize the country’s oil industry. For decades, Britain — through the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now BP) — had controlled Iranian oil, paying Iran only a small share of the profits.

Nationalization was wildly popular inside Iran but unacceptable to Britain, which responded with sanctions, a global boycott of Iranian oil and covert efforts to undermine Mossadegh’s government.

Britain soon sought help from the United States.

Cold War Fears and Operation Ajax At first, the Truman administration hesitated to intervene. But by 1953, U.S. officials under President Dwight Eisenhower feared instability in Iran might open the door to Soviet influence — a major concern during the Cold War.

The CIA approved a covert plan with British intelligence (MI6) to remove Mossadegh from power. The operation included propaganda campaigns, funding protests, bribing officials and coordinating with military officers loyal to Iran’s monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

On Aug. 19, 1953, after several chaotic days of demonstrations and violence in Tehran, Mossadegh’s government collapsed. The shah — who had briefly fled the country — returned to power, and General Fazlollah Zahedi became prime minister.

About 200 to 300 people were killed during the unrest.

From Constitutional Monarchy to Authoritarian Rule Before the coup, Iran functioned as a constitutional monarchy with an elected government. Afterward, the shah consolidated power, ruling with increasing authoritarian control supported by U.S. military and intelligence assistance.

His regime lasted until 1979, when the Iranian Revolution overthrew the monarchy and established the Islamic Republic that still governs Iran today.

Many historians consider the coup a turning point that fueled anti-American sentiment in Iran. Iranian nationalists saw it as proof that Western powers would undermine democracy to protect strategic and economic interests.

U.S. Acknowledgment — Decades Later For years, the CIA’s role was denied or downplayed. But declassified documents and official statements eventually confirmed U.S. involvement.

In 2013, internal CIA records acknowledged that the coup was carried out “under CIA direction” as U.S. foreign policy.

More recently, the agency has described the intervention itself as undemocratic.

Why the Coup Still Matters The 1953 coup remains central to how Iranians — across political factions — view the United States.

It shapes debates over:

Nuclear negotiations Sanctions and diplomacy Regional conflicts Iranian distrust of Western intentions Many experts argue that ignoring this history makes it harder to understand current tensions.

A Complicated Legacy The coup was not solely driven by oil or imperial ambition; Cold War fears of communism were also real factors for U.S. policymakers at the time. But the outcome — removing an elected leader and empowering an autocratic monarchy — has led many scholars to rank the intervention among the most consequential and controversial decisions in American foreign policy.

More than 70 years later, the consequences are still unfolding.