Page 45 - 201210 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - October 2012

The CIA Testing LSD Did the CIA test LSD 1965, opting for a life of terrorizing his during their use. neighbors in Stinson Beach, Calif., by driving * Physical methods of producing shock and on unsuspecting his Jeep across their front lawns. Ike Feldman confusion over extended periods of time and retired later, forced out of a later job at the DEA capable of surreptitious use. Americans? [source: Stratton]. Dr. Gottlieb retired to spend * A knockout pill which could surreptitiously be administered in drinks, food, cigarettes, as an his remaining days volunteering with dying AIDS and cancer patients, working, he said, "on aerosol, etc., which will be safe to use, provide Continued from Page 43 the side of the angels instead of the devils" a maximum of amnesia, and be suitable for use [source: Budansky, et al]. by agent types on an ad hoc basis. Effects of MKULTRA There was one last footnote to the The CIA was fascinated by LSD, and MKULTRA LSD subproject, one unintended thought it a wonder drug that could be used not In the 1950s, a CIA operative generally knew and unforeseen side effect. Ken Kesey, author only to create zombie-like armies, but to drive better than to accept a drink from another of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," and enemy leaders like Fidel Castro insane. There operative if he didn't have a spare 12 hours to arguably the founder of the hippie movement of were few willing subjects in the research — break from perceived reality. Dr. Stanley Olson, the 1960s, was a willing participant in a often, LSD was secretly given to a range of a "perfectly normal" Army scientist, worked separate, legitimate MKULTRA LSD people, from CIA employees to prostitutes and outside this informed circle [source: Ruwet]. So experiment [source: Davenport-Hines]. Kesey the mentally ill. Sometimes, agents even posed it was with common trust that Dr. Olson brought his experience with acid to his friends, as prostitutes and secretly drugged their clients, accepted a spiked drink from an operative at a and by extension, whole generations of while fellow agents watched in two-way joint Army-Agency conference. Olson didn't American youth were introduced to LSD. mirrors. take the drug well. But once LSD was ruled out as being too Very quickly, Olson developed a bad trip INSIDE MIND unpredictable, other drugs were tested; (which he loudly shared) and experienced acute CONTROL participants had barbiturates injected on one paranoia long after the effects of the LSD arm and amphetamines in the other — the net should have discontinued. He missed result being incoherent babble. Other drugs, Thanksgiving dinner with his family out of fear It was the 1950s, a time of doo-wop, sock hops including heroin, alcohol and sodium pentothal of seeing them [source: Ruwet]. Eight days and Bobby Rydell, when Americans dusted off were tried, but ultimately none were the "dream later, Olson was dead. He'd apparently the remnants of WWII and looked toward a drug" the government hungered for. The project committed suicide, falling from a 10th-story more optimistic society. Or so it's often thought. was eventually scrapped and the "Manchurian window in a New York hotel. In the 1990s, But the '50s were often less Happy Days and Candidate" never came to be. In 1973 most of evidence emerged that he may have been struck more The Day the Earth Stood Still, as fears of the MK-ULTRA files were destroyed, and over the head with a blunt object before a Cold War and mistrust of the government Sidney Gottlieb died in 1999. plummeting from the window [source: Baker]. were just beginning to bloom. Since those fears But there are repercussions from the Barbara Newsome had a similar couldn't always be talked about, they came program, even today. In January 2007, a class experience. Newsome was an acquaintance of through in films like Invasion of the Body action suit was filed against the Canadian George White's, married to a member of the Snatchers, with themes of technology run riot government, which also took part in MK- operative's swinging social circle in New York. and the loss of free will. ULTRA research, by former psychiatric patients She hadn't been indoctrinated like her husband, These "delusional fears" were actually who claim they were used as guinea pigs. though: When she attended one of White's rooted in reality, as the government was taking Experiments included forced isolation, drug- parties without her husband, she brought her 20- steps toward turning American soldiers into induced comas and electro-shock therapy. One month old daughter. White dosed her with LSD unthinking, unfeeling machines with help from of the plaintiffs, a great-grandmother named anyway. brainwashing and LSD. The CIA, while Janine Huard, said, "They demolished me … Like Olson, Newsome had a bad trip. As learning how to bring down Communists, was they gave me terrible drugs, electroshocks, and was standard procedure for a George White acid also learning from them — specifically how made me stay in a bed with a mask over my face test, she was turned loose onto the street after they used mind control on Korean War listening to recordings for hours a day. I was just a couple of hours, at the peak of her LSD prisoners. Could this mind control also create a afraid." trip. Newsome was ostensibly changed by the zombie-like US soldier, one who would follow It may be a hard case to prove, as the dosing, committed on and off for 20 years to a orders no matter how grisly, or withstand any government is notoriously closed-mouthed mental hospital [source: Valentine]. She never amount of torture if captured? about MK-ULTRA. As one CIA reviewer wrote: mentioned the experience to her husband, who The combination of hypnosis, shock "Precautions must be taken not only to protect only came to suspect what had happened after therapy and drugs like LSD and Ketamine made operations from exposure to enemy forces, but MKULTRA came to light years later. this seem a possibility, and were investigated in also to conceal these activities from the The tests may have appeared overseas as a mind control research program called MK- American public in general. The knowledge that well. In France in 1952, a young American artist ULTRA. MK-ULTRA was funded by millions the agency is engaging in unethical and illicit named Stanley Glickman wandered the streets of U.S. dollars and led by a scientist named activities would have serious repercussions in of Paris terrified after having met a group of Sidney Gottlieb. In his book The Very Best political and diplomatic circles." [] American strangers in a bar. Glickman had Men, Evan Thomas describes Gottlieb as "born accepted a drink from a clubfooted man with a club foot and a stutter, he compensated (Gottlieb). After he consumed the drink, he by becoming an expert folk dancer and became delusional and frightened, especially obtaining a Ph.D. from Cal Tech … he drank when one of the men told him he could probably only goat's milk and grew Christmas trees, perform miracles at that point. Glickman which he sold at a roadside stand." That is, sequestered himself in his Paris apartment for when he wasn't drugging research subjects. several months, afraid to eat for fear of being The goals of MK-ULTRA included poisoned. He eventually transformed into a investigating the following: strange, quiet fixture of a small neighborhood in * Materials which will render the induction of New York [source: Baker]. hypnosis easier or otherwise enhance its On the record, MKULTRA was usefulness. disbanded in the early 1970s, just another * Substances which will enhance the ability of agency secret. Once it emerged, it confirmed individuals to withstand privation, torture and any "paranoid" or "delusional" fears of just coercion during interrogation and so-called what the U.S. government is capable of when it "brain-washing". believes it's threatened. The men involved * Materials and physical methods which will escaped punishment. George White retired in produce amnesia for events preceding and