A secret CIA program allegedly experimented with the idea of psychological training to use individuals as unwitting assassins against American leaders themselves.
Declassified documents, quietly added to the CIA's public archives in 1999, show that Project Artichoke was a secret mind control plan, developed from 1951 to 1956, focused on influencing human behavior and psychological manipulation.
In January 1954, the CIA released a classified report revealing that the American intelligence community had selected a target for the Artichoke experiments and was planning to turn this foreign official into an assassin without his knowledge. The report also added that the technique could also be used against American officials “if necessary.”
The file, from a senior CIA official who was anonymized, indicated that Artichoke agents had visited the site between January 8 and 15 to clarify a daunting question: “Could an individual of [REDACTED] background be compelled to commit attempted murder under the influence of ARTICHOKE?”
A handwritten note suggested that the plan was to deliver the drugs to the would-be killer “through an alcoholic cocktail at a social gathering.”
However, the scheme remained hidden until 1979, when a group of citizens secured the documents through the Freedom of Information Act.
Project Artichoke served as a precursor to the CIA's MKUltra program, which later expanded psychological experiments on a larger scale. Many files were destroyed in the 1970s, leaving the full extent of the research and its progress unknown.
Although the names of government officials and the subject of the operation were anonymized, the memo provided a detailed picture of the CIA's assassination scheme.
The agents who were chosen for this mission were around 35 years old, well-educated, with a fluent knowledge of English, and connected in the social and political circles of the unidentified foreign government.
CIA agents had already spied on the would-be assassin, learning that he was a heavy drinker, which allowed the agency to plan to spike his drinks to take control of his mind.
The CIA report in 1954 indicated that the subject had recently left another job or been fired and was working directly with the government of his country.
Since the agency felt that the opportunities for psychological training of this person were limited, the memo emphasized that agents should use "a single social encounter" to slip the drug Artichoke into his drinks.
However, the intelligence community wasn't just speculating on foreign leaders: the memo suggested that this trainable assassin could also be used against "a prominent politician [REDACTED] or, if necessary, a U.S. official."
Other declassified reports show that experiments with mind-control drugs also targeted American citizens during the Cold War.
The four-page document claimed that the plan was “simulated,” suggesting that it was never implemented. However, recent government documents have fueled conspiracy theories linking the CIA to high-profile global assassinations, including the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, just nine years after the Artichoke memo was written.
The JFK files released in 2025 did not prove this, but they did show that one of the president's top advisers urged the CIA to be disbanded in 1961, calling it a "state within a state."
In November, Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett declared that mind-control programs are still in use today, transforming American citizens into would-be murderers. He claimed, without evidence, that failed presidential assassin Thomas Crooks was psychologically manipulated online using techniques similar to MKUltra.
Burchett said Crooks was "programmed" to act as a disposable victim, warning that Trump and his supporters were the target of the "deep state" - a description almost identical to that of JFK advisor Arthur Schlesinger in 1961.
"This guy was programmed. A guy with access to weapons or basic knowledge of them, he was programmed," Burchett said on November 14, 2025.
The portrayal of Crooks as a usable victim by the American intelligence community was shockingly similar to Project Artichoke's intentions towards their target in 1954.
“After the attempted murder was committed, the OBJECT was supposed to be taken into Government custody [REDACTED] and 'terminated,'” the document explained. /GazetaExpress/
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