1975 CIA Memorandum on Project ARTICHOKE
What This Image Shows
This is a scan of a declassified CIA memorandum for the record dated 31 January 1975, headed "SUBJECT: Project ARTICHOKE." It is a retrospective internal review, written more than two decades after the program, during the period when the agency was assembling material in response to congressional scrutiny.
Its opening definition is the most quoted passage: "ARTICHOKE is the Agency cryptonym for the study and/or use of 'special' interrogation methods and techniques. These 'special' interrogation methods have been known to include the use of drugs and chemicals, hypnosis, and 'total isolation,' a form of psychological harassment." The memo then reports a records problem: "A review of available file information obtained from Office of Security resources failed to reflect a comprehensive or complete picture of the ARTICHOKE program." It notes that fragmentary material showed that prior to 1952 the Office of Security had studied "the use of drugs and chemicals in 'unconventional interrogation,'" coordinated with the unit then called OSI, and that an Office of Security team existed as early as 1949.
This is a primary government document confirming both the program and, notably, that the agency's own files on it were incomplete. That second point is why researchers cite it: it means the absence of records is not evidence that something did not happen. It is not evidence that anything in particular did.
See the Project Artichoke memo, MKUltra program, and the CIA Assassin sub-cluster, which holds the 1954 feasibility memo.
Related Areas
- Cluster: Artichoke Project
- All photo evidence: Photos