A System of Oversight: The Fight for Accountability in the CIA

FAIN: FZ-286787-22

John Lisle
Louisiana Tech University (Ruston, LA 71272-0001)

Research and writing of a book on a lawsuit filed in the 1980s against the CIA over its MK-Ultra program, which involved experiments in mind control on unwitting human subjects.

My book will tell the story of two attorneys and their daunting attempt to hold the CIA accountable for its programs of human experimentation. Throughout the 1980s, famed civil rights attorney Joseph Rauh and his young law partner James Turner represented the victims of these programs in a lawsuit against the CIA. Rauh and Turner eventually secured a lucrative settlement for the victims, but not before the CIA frustrated them at every turn. Most importantly, their efforts laid the groundwork for understanding the failures of the CIA’s system of oversight and how to avoid them in the future.

Associated Products

Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA (Book)
Title: Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA
Author: John Lisle
Abstract: Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s most cunning chemist. As head of the infamous MKULTRA project, he oversaw an assortment of dangerous―even deadly―experiments. Among them: dosing unwitting strangers with mind-bending drugs, torturing mental patients through sensory deprivation, and steering the movements of animals via electrodes implanted into their brains. His goal was to develop methods of mind control that could turn someone into a real-life “Manchurian candidate.” In conjunction with MKULTRA, Gottlieb also plotted the assassination of foreign leaders and created spy gear for undercover agents. The details of his career, however, have long been shrouded in mystery. Upon retiring from the CIA in 1973, he tossed his files into an incinerator. As a result, much of what happened under MKULTRA was thought to be lost―until now. Historian John Lisle has uncovered dozens of depositions containing new information about MKULTRA, straight from the mouths of its perpetrators. For the first time, Gottlieb and his underlings divulge what they did, why they did it, how they got away with it, and much more. Additionally, Lisle highlights the dramatic story of MKULTRA’s victims, from their terrible treatment to their dogged pursuit of justice. The consequences of MKULTRA still reverberate throughout American society. Project Mind Control is the definitive account of this most disturbing of chapters in CIA history.
Year: 2025
Publisher: St Martin's Press
ISBN: 9781250338747

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