DISCLAIMER The following is a staff memorandum or other working document prepared for the members of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. It should not be construed as representing the final conclusions of fact or interpretation of the issues. All staff memoranda are subject to revision based on further information and analysis. For conclusions and recommendations of the Advisory Committee, readers are advised to consult the Final Report to be published in 1995. * * * * * * *STAFF MEMORANDUM* * * * * * TO: Members of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments FROM: Advisory Committee Staff DATE: June 27, 1994 RE: Methodological Review of Agency Data Collection Efforts: Initial Report on the Central Intelligence Agency Document Search This initial report provides: (1) background on the Central Intelligence Agency, its involvement with human experimentation, and its records; (2) a description of the CIA's records search; and (3) staff observations and recommendations to the Committee for future action. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. CIA History and Records The CIA was created in 1947 to serve as the government's principal intelligence collection and analytical agency, as well as to engage in covert actions to influence events in foreign countries through propaganda, economic, political, and paramilitary means. In the 1950s and 60s, the CIA engaged in an extensive program of human experimentation, using drugs, psychological, and other means, in search of techniques to control human behavior for counterintelligence and covert action purposes. The possibility that CIA itself engaged in human radiation experiments emanates from references in a 1963 CIA Inspector General's (IG) report on Project MKULTRA, which was a program "concerned with research and development of chemical, biological, and radiological materials capable of employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior." MKULTRA was the subject of extensive internal, congressional, and outside investigations in the 1970s. In 1973, the CIA purposefully destroyed most of the MKULTRA files concerning its research and testing on human behavior. In 1977, the agency uncovered additional MKULTRA files in the budget and fiscal records that were not indexed under the name MKULTRA. These documents detailed over 150 subprojects that the CIA funded in this area, but no evidence was uncovered at that time concerning the use of radiation. CIA records are maintained at CIA Headquarters and the CIA record center. Most older records, before 1980, are in paper form with electronic databases of the file-folder titles. The MKULTRA files are held by the CIA General Counsel, although most have been released to the public. 1 2. CIA Search Process The Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) directed a search for records on human radiation experiments on January 4, 1994, even before the President called on agencies to search for records. The initial phase of the search uncovered no records. Accordingly, on January 21, 1994, the Acting DCI established a Human Radiation Experiments Steering Group composed of representatives from all the directorates and the DCI area to continue the search. The CIA's search process focused principally on whether the CIA itself "deliberately subjected human beings to ionizing radiation, whether in tests to determine the effects of radiation on human beings or in efforts to discover operational uses for radioactive substances or their emissions." Memorandum from David Gries to Human Radiation Experiments Steering Group, Jan. 21, 1994 (unclassified excerpts) ["Gries Memo"] [Attachment 1.]. Gries made clear that the search should not be limited to U.S. citizens, but also should include tests on foreigners, as well as "on animals to see if human testing was also contemplated." The Gries Memo stated that "it will not be sufficient to simply check the results of computer-driven keyword searches. In some cases, important folders will have to be searched by hand." The Gries Memo did not explicitly refer to the 1949 Green Run experiment or other intentional releases that may have been tied into Soviet nuclear weapons development (although there is a reference to radiation "emissions"). The CIA also contacted at least 22 former employees and other persons with knowledge about its activities. 3. Findings to Date To date the CIA has uncovered no records on agency involvement in human radiation experiments or relating to intentional releases of information. The agency has provided the Committee with its regulations on human experiments dating from 1976. Part of one document is currently classified, and the agency is attempting to declassify it [Attachment 2.] 4. Observations and Recommendations The CIA appears to have conducted a thorough search for records on its use of radiation on humans. It has not focused as extensively on records relating to intentional releases, nor on foreign intelligence information and reports that may have influenced other agencies to conduct experiments. The CIA's search is continuing, and the agency has indicated its willingness to respond to specific search suggestions from the Committee. Staff has identified four main areas on which the CIA should focus its search, with greater emphasis on CIA intelligence on Soviet weapons activities and experiments that may have influenced the conduct of other agencies. 2 I. INFORMATIONAL SOURCES CIA representatives met with Committee staff on June 16, 1994. Following that meeting, the CIA provided information concerning its search process in response to a staff request. Prior to the meeting. the CIA had provided information on ethics procedures dating from 1976. II. HISTORY/ORGANIZATION OF THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY A. General The CIA was created in 1947 under the National Security Act which also established the Department of Defense (by merging the War and Navy Departments and creating an independent Air Force) and the National Security Council. The agency was largely modelled on the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which served as the principal intelligence organization during World War II and engaged in intelligence collection, analysis. and covert actions. The primary motivation for a peacetime civilian intelligence organization, which never before existed in the United States, was to create a centralized mechanism to provide senior policymakers with objective intelligence analysis based on information collected by the military services and other agencies. The CIA has maintained a significant analytical function, and from the beginning it also possessed its own intelligence collection capability - i.e., espionage. And within a short time, the CIA also began to engage in covert actions to influence events in foreign countries through propaganda, economic, political, and paramilitary means. The head of the CIA is the Director of Central Intelligence (DCD)1{1 From 1961-65, the DCI was John A. McCone, who had previously been the head of the Atomic Energy Commission. }; he is also head of the entire intelligence community, which consists of the intelligence services of the military branches, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and several others. The CIA is currently divided into four directorates: Operations (DO), Intelligence (DI), Science and Technology (DS&T), and Administration (DA). DS&T was not created until 1962, and Operations used to be called Plans (DDP). In addition, there are a number of CIA components that come directly under the DCIs control (DCI Area), including the General Counsel, the Inspector General (1G), the Comptroller, the Office of Congressional Affairs, the National Intelligence Council (which produces National Intelligence Estimates [NIE's]), and the Center for the Study of Intelligence (which includes the CIA Historian). 3 B. Radiation Experimentation and Related Intelligence 1. EXPERIMENTATION: In the 195Os and 60s, the CIA engaged in an extensive program of human experimentation, using drugs, psychological, and other means, in search of techniques to control human behavior. The possibility that CIA itself engaged in human radiation experiments emanates from references in a 1963 CIA Inspector General's (IG) report on Project MKULTRA, which was a program "concerned with research and development of chemical, biological, and radiological materials capable of employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior." The IG report apparently quotes from MKULTRA implementing documents that "additional avenues to the control of human behavior" were to include "radiation, electroshock, various fields of psychology, sociology, and anthropology, graphology, harassment substances, and paramilitary devices and materials."2{2 The IG report itself is still classified. This language was referenced in the investigative reports of the Rockefeller Commission and the Senate Church Committee. See Final Report of the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Governmental Operations, Book I, at 389-90, 94th Cong. 2d Sess., No. 94-755 (Apr. 26, 1976) ("Church Committee").} The CIA states that it conducted human experimentation using every listed "avenue" except radiation. The agency states that after an extensive search, it has found no records of any kind indicating that the agency used or even explored the possibility of ionizing radiation on human.3 {3 The CIA did investigate the use and effect of microwaves on humans in response to a Soviet practice of beaming microwaves on the U.S. embassy. The agency determined that this was outside the scope of the Advisory Committee's purview.} (They did find a reference to an experiment involving the use of irradiated LSD on laboratory animals for purposes of tracing the drug.) MKULTRA was motivated by perceived Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean use of mind control techniques. The CIA's human behavior program originated in 1950 under the name BLUEBIRD and under the control of the Office of Security. For the next two years, control interchanges with the office of Scientific Intelligence, and the name changed to ARTICHOKE. MKULTRA formally began in April 1953 as a special, clandestine funding mechanism for all human behavior research. It was run by the Technical Services Division (TSD) in the DDP, for potential use in espionage and covert action. It was the subject of investigations by the Rockefeller Commission in 1975, the Senate Church Committee in 1976, and hearings by Senator Kennedy in 1975 and 1977. Among the many known experiments, the most well-known were the LSD testing and brainwashing. 4 Most of the MKULTRA records were deliberately destroyed in 1973 by the order of then DCI Richard Helms, who waived the internal CIA regulation (CSI-7O-l0) governing retirement of inactive records.4 {4 Helms testified that he agreed to destroy the records because "there had been relationships with outsiders in government agencies and other organizations and that these would be sensitive in this kind of a thing but that since the program was over and finished and done with, we thought we would just get rid of files as well, so that anybody who assisted us in the past would not be subject to follow-up questions, embarrassment, if you will." Church Committee, Book I, at 404.} The Church Committee found some records, but also noted that the practice of MKULTRA at the time was "to maintain no records of the planning and approval of test programs." Church Committee, Book I, at 406. MKULTRA itself was technically closed out in 1964, but some of its work was transferred to the Office of Research and Development (ORD) within the DS&T under the name MKSEARCH and continued into the l97Os.5{5 John Marks, in The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate" cited one ORD project that involved bombarding "bacteria with ultraviolet radiation in order to create deviant strains."} In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in 1977, the CIA came upon additional MKULTRA files in its Budget and Fiscal Section that were not indexed under the name MKULTRA (if they had been, they would likely have been destroyed in 1973).6{6 The CIA representatives informed staff that in 1978 the agency conducted a comprehensive search for any records concerning MKULTRA and related activities in light of the failure to locate records for the Church Committee that were then found in 1977, suggesting that any additional controversial activities concerning human testing in the 1950s and 1960s would likely have been uncovered then. All of the MKULTRA files that were recovered by the CIA have been preserved and are now held by the CIA's General Counsel.} These documents were the subject of the 1977 Kennedy hearings and the book by John Marks titled, The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate" (1979). These records list a total of 149 MKULTRA subprojects involving human testing, none of which involved radiation. The CIA noted that there were 33 additional subprojects that "have nothing to do either with behavioral modification, drugs and toxins, or any closely related matter."7 {7 Joint Hearing on Project MKULTRA. The CIA's Program of Research in Behavioral Modification, before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Senate Human Resources Committee, 95th Cong., 1st Sess., at 10 (Aug. 7, 1977) [Kennedy Hearing].} These 33 have probably not been declassified. 5 The CIA worked closely with the Army in conducting the LSD experiments.8{8 The Church Committee reports that one of the three principal functions of the Special Operations Division (SOD) of the U.S. Army Biological Center at Camp Detrick, Maryland was to conduct "biological research for the CIA." Church Committee, Book I, at 395. In early 1952, SOD agreed "to assist CIA in developing, testing, and maintaining biological agents and delivery systems. By this agreement, CIA acquired the knowledge, skill, and facilities of the Army to develop biological weapons suited for CIA use." Id. at 389. Thus, many of the early CIA LSD tests were conducted at Ft. Detrick. In the late 1960s, much of the work of MKSEARCH, at TSD, was transferred back to Ft. Detrick.} This connection with the Army is significant because MKULTRA began at the same time that Secretary of Defense Wilson issued his 1953 directive to the military services on ethical guidelines for human experiments. In 1975 the Army Inspector General reviewed Army policies in relation to its LSD drug testing program and issued a report that found that in 1953 clear guidelines existed in the Army with respect to human testing, but were not followed in this case. The closeness with which the CIA and Army worked on some of these experiments suggests that the CIA may have had some knowledge of these ethical standards as well. The Army IG report, however, did not cover CIA participation in the experiments. 2. INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: A major function of the CIA is to collect and analyze information about foreign countries. It is statutorily prohibited from collecting information or engaging in operations in the United States (with some exceptions, and the notable violations of the 50s-6Os). Its principle mission throughout the Cold War was monitoring and seeking countermeasures to Soviet military and intelligence developments. Thus, the CIA has collected and analyzed a massive amount of information on Soviet atomic and radiological warfare activities. The CIA, moreover, chaired the Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee,9 {9 The ]second director of the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) who sat on the JAEIC, was Dr. Marshall Chadwell. He came to the CIA in 1950, after serving as the Deputy Manager of the New York field office of the AEC} which was the principal government body responsible for monitoring the Soviet nuclear weapons program, and may have played a role relating to the Green Run. Because the CIA did not focus its search on these types of records, looking rather for human experiments, it is not yet clear whether it has records relating to the Green Run and other intentional releases. The agency may have reported on such Soviet activities as the biological and psychological effects of atomic weapons; treatment of radiation injury; and nuclear propulsion and related research safety, which may have influenced other U.S. agencies in their research on the effect of radiation on humans. 6 3. ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION: In the wake of MKULTRA, President Ford issued the first Executive Order on Intelligence Activities that, among other things, prohibited "experimentation with drugs on human subjects, except with the informed consent, in writing and witnessed by a disinterested third party, of each such human subject and in accordance with the guidelines issued by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects for Biomedical and Behavioral Research." Executive Order 11905 (Feb. 19, 1976). The CIA subsequently issued guidelines implementing the Executive Order and have provided them to the Committee. Subsequent Executive Orders by Presidents Carter and Reagan expanded the directive to apply to any human experimentation: "No agency within the Intelligence Community shall sponsor, contract for, or conduct research on human subjects except in accordance with guidelines issued by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The subject's informed consent shall be documented as required by those guidelines." Executive Order 12036,  2-302 (Jan. 26, 1978); Executive Order 12333,  2.10 (Dec. 4, 1981). The CIA revised its guidelines accordingly. However, one section of the most recent guidelines given to the Committee was classified -- HR 7-1a(6)(c)(4). (Attachment 2.) The CIA has reported to staff that it is attempting to declassify this section. Throughout the course of MKULTRA, the CIA sponsored numerous experiments on unwitting humans. After the death of one such individual (Frank Olson, an army scientist, was given LSD in 1953 and committed suicide a week later), an internal CIA investigation warned about the dangers of such experimentation. The CIA persisted in this practice for at least the next ten years. After the 1963 IG report recommended termination of unwitting testing, Deputy Director for Plans Richard Helms (who later became Director of Central Intelligence) continued to advocate covert testing on the ground that "positive operational capability to use drugs is diminishing, owing to a lack of realistic testing. With increasing knowledge of the state of the art, we are less capable of staying up with the Soviet advances in this field." Church Committee, Book I, at 402. The Church Committee noted that "Helms attributed the cessation of the unwitting testing to the high risk of embarrassment to the Agency as well as the 'moral problem.' He noted that no better covert situation had been devised than that which had been used, and that 'we have no answer to the moral issue.'" Id. The 1963 IG report states that the MKULTRA testing programs were "conducted under accepted scientific procedures...where health permits, test subjects are voluntary participants in the programs." Church Committee, Book I, at 422 (quoting IG report). However, the Church Committee noted that "[t]his was clearly not true in the project involving the surreptitious administration of LSD, which was marked by a complete lack of screening, medical supervision, opportunity to observe, or medical or psychological follow-up. The intelligence agencies allowed individual researchers to design their project. Experiments sponsored by these researchers...call into question the decision by the agencies not to fix guidelines for the experiments." Id. 7 III. DESCRIPTION OF CIA SEARCH A. Guidelines/Logic The CIA's search for records began in January 4, 1994. Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey directed David Gries, then director of the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence, to oversee the search, and appointed a steering group of representatives from each of the directorates and from offices dealing with congressional, legal, public, and historical issues to coordinate the effort. Instructions were then issued to the records managers of each of the directorates on how to conduct the search. The CIA states that its search to date has encompassed an electronic review of approximately 34 million documents, a hand review of 480,300 documents, plus nearly 50 interviews.10 {10 The CIA provided staff with a list of 22 persons whom it contacted; the identities of the remaining persons are classified.} It appears, however, that the primary focus of the search was limited to the use of ionizing radiation on humans. At a meeting with staff on June 16, 1994, the agency indicated that it had searched for records concerning the intentional release of radiation, but not specifically for the "Green Run," because it was apparently not aware of that event when the search was conducted. In response to that meeting, the agency has begun to search for such records. B. Search Organization/Staffing The DCI appointed David Gries, the Director of the Center for the Study of Intelligence, as chair of the Human Radiation Experiments Steering Group in charge of the search. Gries also served as the CIA representative to the inter-agency working group. He retired from the CIA in mid-June, 1994, and has been replaced by John Pereir. Representatives from the DCI Area, DI, DO, DS&T, and DA also sit on the Steering Group. Many of the directorates have different record keeping systems, which themselves have changed over the years. Messrs. Gries, Pereira, representatives from each of the directorates, the DCI area, and the CIA Historian's Office met with Committee staff on June 16, 1994 to review the search process and discuss substantive questions. At that meeting, Mr. Gries reiterated the substance of his statement before the Committee on April 22, when he asserted that the CIA has done an extensive search and found no evidence that the "CIA sponsored or conducted experiment [sic] using ionizing radiation on human beings." Mr. Gries acknowledged that the CIA's search process is not foolproof and that it has made mistakes in the past in failing to uncover records it possessed. He indicated that the search process would continue and that the CIA would welcome guidance from the Committee for specific search requests. 8 Although the CIA has offices around the world and elsewhere in the United States. its records are maintained in and controlled by CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia and at the CIA records center (which is independent from the National Archives and the federal records centers). The main database that the CIA has been searching is the Agency Records and Information System (ARCINS), which contains information on the holdings of most of the major components in the Agency Archives and Records Center. The data base contains subject listings down to the folder level. The following is a description of the record system in each of the four directorates and the DCI's offices and the CIA's report of its search process. (1) Director of Central Intelligence Area. The files under the control of the DCI are in paper from years 1947-80, and are indexed in the ARCINS. The agency conducted a key word search of these files for topics dealing with human radiation experiments. Many of the MKULTRA files, which are held by the General Counsel, were searched by hand; the agency also contacted and interviewed former staff who were involved in or had knowledge of MKULTRA projects, including Richard Helms and Sidney Gottlieb, the Director of TSD who ran the MKULTRA programs. It does not appear that the agency contacted persons on the IG staff who prepared the 1963 IG report on MKULTRA. (2) Directorate of Science and Technology. The DS&T used the ARCINS and focused its search primarily on two of its offices: the Office of Technical Service (formerly the TSD that conducted MKULTRA) and the Office of Research and Development. The directorate pulled approximately 30 cubic feet of documents and is still engaged in a hand search of this material. The agency brought in two retired persons ("annuitants") with knowledge of these activities to help with search. (3) Directorate of Intelligence. The DI has three central data bases which are computerized index systems of raw and finished intelligence reports (depending on the time frame), as well as two hard copy indices. The former are queried by subject categories, area codes, and/or key words. The documents themselves (not merely "folder titles") are indexed. The initial search was for any records relating to ionizing radiation experiments on humans. In those instances where there is no keyword capability, broad subject codes were linked with the United States: i.e., if a document referred solely to foreign activities not including the United States, it would not have surfaced. (Soviet atomic bomb developments were not the subject of the initial request.) The DI also searched for records archived by the office of Scientific Intelligence using ARCINS for topics dealing with human radiation experiments. Approximately 18,600 pages were reviewed by hand, and no responsive documents were located. OSI files are still under review, and the Directorate is conducting additional searches based on new information supplied by the Committee. (4) Directorate of Administration. The DA's files are indexed primarily by name. However, it also searched the Office of Security, because of its early involvement in MKULTRA. 9 and pulled 60 feet of records. The initial search did not include references to Soviet testing, because relevant key words were not available at the time: reviewers were subsequently asked if they recalled mention of Soviets and/or Soviet testing in the materials reviewed; the answer was no. (5) Directorate of Operations. The DO has an automated index system that contains subject files and personality flies. They did a key word search that resulted in 14 feet (approximately 29,000 pages) of listings, totalling 252,000. All of those have been searched, and no records concerning to human radiation testing were found. C. Classification Virtually all records that the CIA produces are classified. The CIA has initiated an openness policy and is in the process of declassifying large amounts of historical records, such as its files on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The CIA reported to the Committee that its search of records was not limited by any classification, and that it has found no classified records on experiments relevant to the Committee. As noted above, one section of an internal regulation on human testing was originally classified, but the CIA is in the process of declassifying it. (See Attachment l.) The agency has agreed that the Committee and staff can review classified information that they believe may provide helpful background information once appropriate security clearances have been obtained. Portions of the agency directives initiating the search process in January 1994 are classified; staff has received redacted versions, and will be able to review the entire document once clearances are obtained. D. Results to Date The CIA provided to staff copies of its ethics regulations on human testing since they were first formally developed in 1976. It has also provided material on the search process, including search directives, description of databases, list of keywords and search terms, and list of persons contacted. It has found no evidence that it administered ionizing radiation on human beings. It is continuing to search its records for intelligence information relating to the Green Run and other possible intentional releases. E. Agency Observations/Concerns The CIA is reasonably confident that it has no records concerning CIA involvement in human radiation experiments and that the CIA in fact did not engage in such activities. It states that it has devoted thousands of person-hours to searching for any such information, and has come up with nothing. It is willing to conduct additional searches for specific records based on suggestions provided by the Committee. 10 IV. STAFF OBSERVATIONS The CIA states that it has devoted a considerable amount of effort in searching its records, including reviewing more than 480,000 pages of hard copy documents. CIA representatives have also expressed their willingness to follow specific guidance from the Committee for any additional material. As noted above, the CIA's search focused almost exclusively on human radiation experiments by the CIA itself. The agency did not initially search for records concerning the Green Run and other intentional releases. Moreover, the electronic database searches, although encompassing 34 million documents, were limited by the contents of the databases themselves. In some cases, only the file subject is accessible (and the files may contain multiple documents). Because there is no way of electronically retrieving information or documents that may be within a file but are not referenced by the file title, there is still a possibility that the CIA possesses relevant information that it has not found. However, it is not clear that there is any more effective way to conduct the search than has been done. V. STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS I. Staff recommends that the Committee direct it to continue to work with the CIA in searching for records discussed in this memorandum. II. Staff recommends that the Committee should recommend to the CIA that it: (1) focus its search on records about intentional releases of radiation, such as information collected on: Soviet activities that may have influenced U.S. policy concerning the Green Run; CIA's role on the Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee (JAEIC); search directives to the DO on Soviet plutonium production in the late 1940s; (2) explore, in consultation with staff, the fruitfulness of searching for records about perceived national security threats and foreign advantages that may have been disseminated to other agencies and thus influenced them to undertake human experiments: e.g., radiological warfare, nuclear propulsion (including safety research), biological and psychological effects of atomic weapons, treatment of radiation injury: (3) continue to search for ethics related documents prior to 1976 -- e.g., CIA records that may relate to the 1953 Secretary of Defense Wilson memo on human experimentation; (4) complete its search for records on the use of ionizing radiation on humans. 11