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Comment by AndyMcConachie | Hacker News Reader

I'm not making fun of anyone. I'm interested in what's new in this book. MKULTRA is old news. Surely there must be something new in this book that previous books haven't covered. What is it?

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The making fun part doesn't apply, but my point is that just because this isn't new to you doesn't mean it is something "everyone knows". So when you say "There's nothing in that article that we didn't already know" it is both incorrect and dismissive of those who haven't learned of this yet.

I don't think many people know the full extent of the MKULTRA programs, especially the attempts at mind control, brainwashing, dosing people with psychedelics unknowningly, extensive torture with drugs, experimentation on prisoners and stuff. Some of it approaches the Nazi experiments in just the sheer immorality of it all.

I agree no one knows "the full extent", and I do not think we ever will. A lot of information is out there though - available as far back as the late 80s. A lot of this came out when Harold Blauer's [0] sued the U.S. government [1] for testing drugs on him without anyone's consent when he was institutionalized for depression. The drug tests were covered up for 22 years...

I'm happy to see some headlines to hopefully inform some more folks, but you really have to go digging for this stuff intentionally to get to juicy details. If you are interested in doing so, I recommend picking up Weiner's "Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA".

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Blauer [1] https://apnews.com/2e5220ecb195844edacfbffdb0a37a5a

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