Showing posts with label CIA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CIA. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

THE BUCK STOPS WITH THE PEOPLE: STANLEY MILGRAM ON THE KITTY GENOVESE MURDER

At the end of a recent Newsday article, "The Killing of Kitty Genovese", http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs818a,0,313222,full.story, there is a very good Stanley Milgram quote: "The case touched on a fundamental issue of the human condition, our primordial nightmare,'' Milgram said. "If we need help, will those around us stand around and let us be destroyed or will they come to our aid? Are those other creatures out there to help us sustain our life and values, or are we individual flecks of dust just floating around in a vacuum?''
Imagine what might have been if people throughout the world were more involved with each other and their societies. In the United States, would there have been a miltary medical industrial complex conducting involuntary human experimentation programs? "We have identified hundreds of radiological, chemical and biological tests and experiments in which hundreds of thousands of people were used as test subjects." (Congressional Testimony of Frank C, Conahan of GAO http://archive.gao.gov/t2pbat2/152601.pdf. The knowledge that most citizens would not become involved(Kitty Genovese) or obey orders if they might think of becoming involved(Milgram's Yale obedience experiments) gave a green light to the growth of human and social experimentation programs.
To fully understand how "pathological apathy" affects everyone: Would 2007 United States citizen longevity be tied for 26th at 77.9 years as compared to # 1 Japan at 82.3 years if the American public were as involved with their own health as they are with professional sports? All presidential candidates have health proposals but no candidate considers citizens' life expectancy a winning issue.
If the importance of Stanley Milgram's work were fully understood, I wouldn't be an American Guinea Pig struggling at 62 for my health and freedom. The challenge is: In the Internet age, do we remain "flecks of dust just floating around in a vacuum"?

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Tuesday, August 7, 2007

A POLICY THAT GUARANTEED NO JUSTICE FOR MKULTRA VICTIMS

CIA DIRECTOR STANSFIELD TURNER'S LETTER TO SENATOR INOUYE, CHAIRMAN SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE http://healthycitizens.googlepages.com/stansfieldturnerletter.pdf
THE CIA GENERAL COUNSEL'S LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY http://healthycitizens.googlepages.com/ciageneralcounselslettertojohnshopki.pdf

In 1994, at the time of the exposure of the radiation testing program, U.S. News And World Reports published an article about the victims of previous programs: "MKULTRA. Most victims have never been informed by the government of the nature of the experiments they were subjected to or, in some cases, even fact that they were subjects. In a 1977 hearing, then CIA director Stansfield Turner said he found the experiments 'abhorrent' and promised that the CIA would find and notify the people used in the tests. Turner last week insisted that 'they found everyone they possibly could find.' But internal memos and depositions taken from CIA officials in a lawsuit against the agency in the 1980s reveal that of the hundreds of experimental subjects used in the CIA's mind-control program, code-named MKULTRA, only 14 were ever notified and only one was compensated -- for $15,000." http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/940124/archive_012286.htm

This policy is addressed in CIA Director Stansfield Turner's letter to Senator Inouye and the CIA General Counsel's letter to the President of Johns Hopkins University. In his letter to Senator Inouye, Stansfield Turner wrote, "I believe we all have a moral obligation to these researchers and institutions to protect them from any unjustified embarrassment or damage to their reputations which revelation of their identities might bring. In addition, I have a legal obligation under the Privacy Act not to publicly disclose the names of he individual resarchers without their consent." The fact is, as a consequence of this policy, the MKULTRA programs could continue if no one could identify the victims, the universities or the researchers. Despite Presidential commissions, Senate and House hearings, the United States has never attempted to locate, compensate, heal and rehabilitate victims.