4,358 New MKUltra Docs To Be Released After Crowdfunding Campaign
John Greenewald has been FOIA requesting undisclosed, government documents since he was 15 years old, having filed roughly 9,000 requests. So, when he realized a batch of documents he received regarding the CIA’s mind control project MKUltra, was missing thousands of pages, he demanded an answer. Now, after a two-year battle to acquire those documents, the CIA finally acquiesced, though it commanded a fee.
Greenewald was made aware of the documents by a Reddit user who cross-checked his cache with their original index, finding 4,358 missing. Greenewald called the CIA to request them and was unsurprisingly met with resistance.
He was told the documents contained information regarding behavioral modification and were unrelated to MKUltra. But he wasn’t convinced, so he filed another FOIA to attain them.
Typically, Greenewald can submit a fee waiver for a FOIA request, under the grounds that he is a journalist and the publication of the files is for public interest, bettering the public’s understanding of the way government operates.
But this time his waiver was denied, with the CIA requiring a payment of $425.80 for his request. Unfortunately, Greenwald couldn’t come up with the money, instead turning to a GoFundMe crowdsourcing campaign. His goal was met within five days.
The disclosure of documentation surrounding the MKUltra program is of high public interest lately, especially with the release of the Netflix docudrama Wormwood, which investigates the death of former CIA scientist Frank Olsen, who became a victim of the program.
MKUltra was a program focused on studying the potential to control the minds of unwitting subjects, often through the administration of psychoactive substances, such as LSD.
Frank Olson was one of the CIA’s own, who was unknowingly given LSD before his suspicious death, falling from the 13th story window of a New York hotel.
Greenwald’s website was one of the first publications to release the CIA’s MKUltra documents after acquiring them in 2004. Since then, they have become the most commonly searched documents of more than 2,000,000 on the CIA’s website.
It will still take some time before this missing batch of documents makes its way into Olson’s hands and is published on his website, but we look forward to seeing what else the CIA has kept hidden from the public regarding one of its most nefarious and clandestine programs.
Watch this episode of Beyond Belief, in which John Greenewald discusses his career filing FOIA requests to uncover secret government programs:
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Unsolved: The Mysterious Disappearance of Santiago Flight 513
On September 4, 1954, Santiago Airlines Flight 513 departed from Aachen, West Germany, destined for Porto Alegre, Brazil. The flight should have taken around 18 hours.
Instead, it took 35 years. On October 12, 1989, without any contact with air traffic controllers, Santiago Flight 513 was spotted circling the Porto Alegre airport, where it eventually made a successful landing. Witnesses at the airport reported an eerie sense of disbelief as the ghostly plane descended, unannounced and seemingly out of nowhere, stirring questions that no one was prepared to answer. How did Santiago Flight 513 disappear so suddenly, only to reappear decades later in such an inexplicable manner?
Flight 513: The Plane That Never Arrived
Santiago Flight 513’s journey began like any other flight from that era. Piloted by Captain Miguel Victor Cury, the aircraft had been checked, cleared, and prepped for its scheduled 18-hour flight from Aachen, Germany, to Porto Alegre, Brazil. The plane, a Lockheed Super Constellation, was known for handling long flights, was in top condition, and had taken similar routes several times in the past.
With 88 passengers and four crew members on board, the plane set off smoothly. Passengers likely settled into the flight, unaware of any unusual circumstances or issues. But somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, all contact with Santiago Airlines Flight 513 ended without warning. Attempts to reach the crew through radio communications failed, and the sudden silence led to a number of search and rescue operations. Rescue teams searched vast stretches of ocean for days on end, holding out hope for survivors, however, no trace of the aircraft or its passengers could be found. The routine flight had inexplicably vanished, leaving behind only questions.
