MKUltra Subproject 35

Subproject 35 was a plan to help pay for a new hospital research wing. The Director of Central Intelligence first approved it in January 1955. The hearing testimony names the building as the Gorman Annex at Georgetown University Hospital. The CIA's first promised contribution was $125,000. It was later raised, bringing the total agency contribution to $375,000.

The money was hidden. It was passed through a private fund acting as a cut-out, so the university and hospital would not know the CIA was the source. Because the gift looked like a private donation, it then drew an equal amount of federal matching money under Public Law 221. A 1977 memo in the record calls this a "possibly improper" contribution, since the matching funds were boosted by what was really government money.

The CIA expected real benefits in return. The documents list them plainly. One-sixth of the new wing's space would go to the Chemical Division of TSS. The agency's sponsorship of sensitive research would be "completely deniable." Full cover would be provided for up to three of the division's biochemical employees. And human patients and volunteers would be available for experiments under controlled clinical conditions.

The agency's General Counsel, Lawrence Houston, wrote an opinion in December 1954 about the plan. He found no firm legal objection if the likely benefits were a fair return for the money. At the hearing, the committee noted that the wing's purpose seemed clear from these papers. Later material showed that Dr. Geschickter kept doing research on sleep- and amnesia-producing drugs at Georgetown under a follow-up program, MKSEARCH, through July 1967.