Editing Conspiracy BBS Archive/cia info (section)

==CHAPTER THREE==

In the first two decades following its establishment,
the CIA initiated a number of programs to develop a chemical
and biological warfare capacity.  Project NKNAOMI was begun
to provide the CIA with a covert support base to meet its
clandestine operational requirements.  This was to be
accomplished by stockpiling several incapacitating and lethal
materials for specific use by the Technical Services Division
of the CIA.  Under this plan, the TSD was to maintain in
operational readiness special and unique items for the
dissemination of biological and chemical materials.  The
project also provided for the required surveillance, testing,
upgrading, and evaluation of materials and items in order to
assure the absence of defects and the complete predictability
of results to be expected under operational conditions.   In
1952, the Special Operations Division of the U.S. Army was
asked to assist the CIA in developing, testing, and
maintaining biological agents and delivery systems for the
purposes mentioned above. 
     
The SOD helped the CIA develop darts coated with
biological agents and different types of pills.  The two also
devised a special gun which could fire darts enabling an
agent to incapacitate guard dogs, enter the installation the
dogs were guarding, and return the dogs to consciousness upon
departure from the facility.  In addition, the CIA asked the
SOD to study the feasibility of using biological agents
against crops and animals.  Indeed, a CIA memo written in
1967 and uncovered by the Church Committee gives evidence of
at least three methods of covert attack against crops which
had been developed and evaluated under field conditions.
     
[[Project NKNAOMI]] was discontinued in 1970, and on
November 25, 1969, President Richard Nixon renounced the use
of any form of biological weapons that could kill or
incapacitate.  Nixon also ordered the disposal of existing
stockpiles of bacteriological weapons.  On February 14, 1970,
Nixon clarified the extent of his earlier order and indicated
that toxins--chemicals that are not living organisms but
produced by living organisms--were considered bacteriological
weapons subject to his previous directive.  Despite the
presidential order, a CIA scientist acquired around 11 grams
of a deadly shellfish toxin from SOD personnel at Fort
Detrick and stored it in a little-used CIA laboratory where
it remained, undetected, for over five years.
     
Another project, MKULTRA, provided for the research and
development of chemical, biological, and radiological
materials which could be employed in clandestine operations
to control human behavior.  According to the Church
Committee, a CIA memo was uncovered which stated the purpose
of the project.  The memo indicated that MKULTRA's purpose
was to develop a capability in the covert use of
biological and chemical materials...Aside from the
offensive potential, the development of a
comprehensive capability in this field of covert
chemical and biological warfare gives us a thorough
knowledge of the enemy's theoretical potential,
thus enabling us to defend ourselves against a foe
who might not be as restrained in the use of these
techniques as we are.


Eighty-six universities or institutions were involved to some
extent in the project.
     
As early as 1947, the CIA had begun experimentation with
different types of mind-altering chemicals and drugs.  One
Project, CHATTER, involved the testing of "truth drugs" for
interrogation and agent recruitment.  The research included
laboratory experiments on animals and human volunteers
involving scopolamine, mescaline, and Anabasis aphylla in
order to determine their speech-inducing qualities.  The
project, which was expanded substantially during the Korean
War, ended in 1953.
     
Another, more controversial, program involved testing
the hallucinogenic drug LSD on human subjects.  LSD testing
by the CIA involved three phases.  In the first phase, the
Agency administered LSD to 1,000 soldiers who volunteered for
the testing.  Agency scientists observed the subjects and
noted their reactions to the drug.  In the second phase of
research, Material Testing Programme EA 1729, 95 volunteers
received LSD to test the potential intelligence-gathering
value of the drug.  The third phase of the testing, Projects
THIRD CHANCE and DERBY HAT, involved the interrogation of
eighteen unwitting non-volunteers in Europe and the Far East
who had received LSD as part of operational field tests.
     
A tragic twist in the LSD experimentation occurred on
November 27, 1953.  Dr. Frank Olson, a civilian employee of
the U.S. Army died following participation in a CIA
experiment with LSD.  He unknowingly received 70 micrograms
of LSD which was placed in his drink by Dr. Robert Lashbrook,
a CIA officer, as part of an experiment.  Shortly after the
experiment, Olson exhibited the symptoms of paranoia and
schizophrenia.  Accompanied by Lashbrook, Olson began
visiting Dr. Harold Abrahamsom for psychological assistance. 
Abrahamson's research on LSD had been funded indirectly by
the CIA.  Olson jumped to his death from a ten-story window
in the Statler Hotel while receiving treatment.     
     
It was disclosed by Senate Committees investigating the
activities of the CIA in 1977 that the Agency was involved in
testing drugs like LSD on "unwitting subjects in social
situations".  In some situations, heroin addicts were enticed
into participating in order to get a reward--heroin.  Perhaps
most disturbing of all is the fact that the extent of
experimentation on human subjects cannot readily be
determined, since the records of all MKULTRA activities were
destroyed in January 1973 at the instruction of then CIA
director Richard Helms.  
     
At least one project undertaken by the CIA in 1950 was
aimed at finding ways to protect the security of agents in
the field.  Project BLUEBIRD attempted to discover means of
conditioning personnel to prevent unauthorized extraction of
information from them by known means.  The project
investigated the possibility of controlling an individual by
employing special interrogation techniques.  BLUEBIRD also
looked into memory enhancement and ways to establish
defensive means against the hostile control of Agency
personnel.  As a result of interrogations conducted overseas
during the project, another goal was established--the
evaluation of the offensive uses of unconventional
interrogation methods, including the use of hypnosis and
various drugs.
     
In August 1951, the project was renamed ARTICHOKE. 
Project ARTICHOKE included "in-house experiments on
interrogation techniques, conducted 'under medical and
security controls which would ensure that no damage was done
to the individuals who volunteer for the experiments'". 
Although the CIA maintains that the project ended in 1956,
evidence indicates that the Office of Security and Office of
Medical Services use of "special interrogation" techniques
continued for several years thereafter.
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