MK-Ultra -- Once Again
- Fred Litwin
- 4 hours ago
- 6 min read
Anna Paulina Luna held hearings on MK-Ultra last week, and Stephen Kinzer, author of the 2019 Poisoner In Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control, and Tom O'Neill, author of the 2019 Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, & Secret History of the Sixties, testified on the program.
Kinzer made the sensible suggestion that the CIA unredact all the current documents on MK-Ultra. But O'Neill continued with the conspiracy nonsense from his book Chaos.
O'Neill discusses Louis Jolyon West's examination of Ruby in his jail cell:
Actually, Arlen's name is Specter, not Spector. And O'Neill typed "West had suffered" when he mean that "Ruby had suffered."
This paragraph is fundamentally wrong.
Note that Ruby had struck his head against a wall before West interviewed him.
O'Neill believes that West injected Ruby with some drug, during those two short sessions, and that accounted for Ruby's change from previous examinations.
West never had "several hours alone" with Ruby as alleged by O'Neill. West did spent more time with Ruby later on, but Ruby's mental problems were evident before West got involved with the case.
There is no evidence that Dr. West petitioned the court to examine Jack Ruby before his trial.
There is absolutely no evidence that Dr. Louis Jolyon West interfered with Jack Ruby's case.
And here is my reply.
Ruby was on a downward spiral. The trial, the guilty verdict, and the imposition of the death penalty, all caused Ruby to become increasingly mentally unbalanced. What really affected Ruby was the right-wing notion that Jews were behind the assassination of JFK. The reaction of the John Birch Society got to him. They always referred to Ruby as Rubenstein so as to emphasize a Jewish component of a supposed conspiracy to kill JFK. And that made Ruby worry that the Jews might be blamed (however unfairly) for the murder of Kennedy.
Robert Kaplan, a forensic psychiatrist from the University of Wollongong in Australia described his downward spiral in a 2015 paper:
Even at Ruby's trial, several witnesses wondered about his sanity.
Here is an excerpt from the testimony of William Serur, a friend of Ruby's who testified on his behalf:
Here is how this was reported in the New York Times:
New York Times, March 11, 1964
This was all before the involvement of Dr. West.
In addition, West's involvement with MK-Ultra was on a project involving hypnosis.
West was testing to see if certain drugs could make it easier to hypnotize people.
And his testing required sensory isolation:
West's interest was in using sensory isolation along with the use of various drugs. Could West have induced psychosis in Jack Ruby in two short visits in the jail?
The second possibility of a toxic psychosis could be entertained but is considered unlikely because of the protected situation and the fact that his thought and his mood seems to be extremely closely related.
Beavers dismissed the idea of "toxic psychosis" for two reasons. And none of the people close to Ruby ever supported O'Neill's allegation, as far as I can see.
In addition, O'Neill's description of Ruby's testimony is not quite right:
Here is the description of Ruby's testimony from Specter's book, Passion for Truth: (pages 112 - 114)
Quite a different description that that of O'Neill's, who didn't include this quote:
It turned out that Jack Ruby had been in charge from the time the deposition began, or even before it began. I didn't know that until I read the transcript of the first part of the deposition. As Ford put it to me recently, Ruby "flaunted his power and presence. He was a strange guy."
O'Neill finds it strange that Ruby told the Chief Justice Warren that "they're cutting off the arms and legs of Jewish children in Albuquerque and El Paso." This tells me that he does not understand the importance of antisemitism in Ruby's life and his reaction to the Weissman ad in the Dallas Morning News on the morning of November 22nd.
A look at the motivations of Jack Ruby.
O'Neil also believes that West was successful in using LSD to alter memories, etc. Kinzer writes in his book that MK-Ultra was a massive failure.
For ten years, Gottlieb directed systematic, intense, and far-reaching research into mind control. Finally he and his comrades were forced to face their cosmic failure. Their research had shown them that mind control is a myth -- that seizing another person's mind and reprogramming it is impossible.
Towards the end of the hearing, Anna Paulina Luna brought up Jack Ruby one more time: (1:41:10)
Anna Paulina Luna: So, just before we wrap up, is it, in your expert opinion, that Jack Ruby and Manson were assets of the intelligence agencies specifically pertaining to MK-Ultra? Were they MK-Ultra victims?
Tom O'Neill: Theoretically, Manson, I've never been able to prove absolutely. Jack Ruby. I believe, this is something else. The Warren Commission investigation -- on the Warren Commission was Allen Dulles, the former CIA director, who authorized and ran MK-Ultra until he was fired by President Kennedy. The liaison to the committee for the CIA, who handled the information coming from the CIA back and forth to the Warren Commission, was Richard Helms, who was a direct supervisor of Jolly West. They knew who West was, they knew that what West was capable of, and what they had paid him to do, and what he had reported to them that he could do, including inducing mental disorders in people. That was never disclosed to the Commission, as far as anyone knows. So, I believe that West was put in there to keep Jack Ruby from telling his story.
Anna Paulina Luna: Wow.
Allen Dulles did approve MK-Ultra. But, I see no evidence that Richard Helms was Dr. West's supervisor. I always thought that Sidney Gottlieb was his supervisor. And while Helms might have known about MK-Ultra, I doubt he knew all the particulars of every single project in the program. Both Dulles and Helms might have never known who Dr. Louis Jolyon West was.
And I should add that Ruby had lots of time to "tell his story" before he was examined by Dr West. And what he said before West's examination, and what he said after West's examination, was the same. And if the conspirators had to stop Ruby from "telling his story" then why did they wait until the end of April 1964 to act. That gave Ruby five months to spill the beans, no?
I certainly hope that more documents are released -- although the remaining boxes of MK-Ultra appear to be related to a forgery case funded under the auspices of MK-Ultra. I do agree with Kinzer's suggestion that all the redactions be removed from current documents.
The scandal of MK-Ultra doesn't need Jack Ruby and the JFK assassination. There is no need to sensationalize MK-Ultra.
“MK-Ultra is now used in a particular rhetorical way when you're talking about something being an inside job,” says Wood. “It’s because MK-Ultra has shown the US government is not above committing horrible acts against its own people. Whenever something goes wrong, MK-Ultra is an easy thing to blame and an easy online buzzword to use.”
Previous Blog Posts on Anna Paulina Luna
Morley will now work for Luna's Committee, but it's not clear he will be doing.
Something really interesting from Luna's work but no one wants to talk about it.
A first-hand account of Luna's hearings.
Some highlights of Luna's visit with Joe Rogan.
Luna says the Russians will be giving us their JFK files in the fall.
Luna, Bannon, and Tucker believe some crazy things about the assassination.
Luna's second hearing -- I don't know what was worse - the silly testimony of the witnesses or the brainless questions of the committee members.
An analysis of Congresswoman Luna's Congressional Hearings
Congresswoman Luna doesn't really know much about the JFK assassination.
Have a look at the book on Luna's desk
A link to an excellent article by Michael Isikoff.
Congresswoman Luna Finds a New Witness
Here is the conspiracy witness who knows the truth.
