SENATE PANEL TO FOCUS ON A LINKED TO C.I.A. DRUG

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Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP99-00498R000100120119-0
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RIPPUB
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K
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1
Document Creation Date: 
December 20, 2016
Document Release Date: 
August 20, 2007
Sequence Number: 
119
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Publication Date: 
September 20, 1977
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OPEN SOURCE
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Approved For Release 2007/08/20: CIA-RDP99-00498ROO0100120119-0 "-AR TICLE APPEARED ON PA GE I THE NEW YORK TIDIES 20 September 1977 Senate=Panel.:to Focus on It was written by Mr.`Crewdsort.::' - - : - . '. 'Special to The Yew York mm,. C L Ikea to C.I.A. _Drug WASHINGTON, Sept. -19-A Senate Charter Violations Hinted subcommittee reportedly has concluded Several' questions remain unresolved, that of the scores of scientific projects and among them these stand out, How undertaken by the Central- Intelligence many individuals were subjected to the A i it 2 r gency s n 5yea quest for control - of the human. mind none represented a greater potential abuse of, governmental authority or medical ethics than the agen- cy's testing of LSD-25 and other psycho. chemicals on unsuspecting subjects,. - - ? After- an. -..examination of - the :'sparse' public record and a score of. interviews with past and - present.-Federal: officials end others,: some new details, have emerged of the agency'shighly :secretive and long-running. drug-testing program,. the advisibility of 1.which seemed. uncer Lain to the agency itselfat times.'.;, The new- details- include -.: an-`unusual 'elationship between the r. and a sen- . . or narcotics official-:4-relationship that charter prohibiting domestic operations? vas not known to at least .one Commis- And most important, why did the C.I.A. loner of Narcotics. continue its inherently risky tests of C.I.A-'Safehouses' Used -psychochemicals on' what the agency Documents made public -by- the C.I.A. termed ."unwitting' subjects after the :hus far contain scant information about I 1953 death of Frank. Olson, an Army he experiments, part of a larger opera- scientist who developed a psychotic reac- ion known' by the' crytonym MX Ultra, lion and committed suicide after having end the documents . have.raised more been given a glass of liqueur that he did iuestions than, they have answered. . , not know contained LSD? Tomorrow; the, :Senate . Subcommittee The Kennedy subcommittee's search for ~n Health and Scientific Research, headed ` answers has been difficult, hampered by the C.I.A's destruction in 1973 of a large y Senator Edward M.. Kennedy, will portion of the MK Ultra: documents and _egin two days cf hearini:s the-panel: by the intervening deaths of several of ,opes will illuminate the C:LA.'s oblique eferences to "realistic tests of-'certain evelopmert items not suited to ordinary tboratory facilities." The documents show that the tests were arried out" in New- York City 'and San. rancisco- betweetr--1953r'and . 19681. in I.A..-"safehouses," mainly: apartments ad motel.roo s;.that.were-secretly.rent. I for the agency-by are ;official of the c l- Federal-- Bureau.--: oI: Narcotics, since tpplanted by the--Drug Enforcement Ad- inistratiom. Prostitutes, perhaps'men: as" well as omen,. may have been -employed- to lure e subjects to - the safehouses,., where ey . were offered, cocktails ` laced'. with ,rious chernicals.whiileunseen'C.LA. of vials ' '" observed; - .photographed and -orded their reactions- tests? Were the C.I.A. operatives who slipped them the- drugs trained in their proper use? Were qualified medical per.;. sonnel on hand ih' the event of an adverse re action, and did any occur? . Y:. Was any attempt made beforehand to insure ? that the subjects were in good physici}1:.and _psychologiralhealth? -were follow-up examinations conducted after- ward to determine, whether any harm to the;yictims had resulted? Were the C.I.A. 'safehouses used, as some officials have suggested, to intro- duce foreign intelligence agents into corn- 0 promising situations, something ..that would have directly violated the C LA 'sl t e projects key figures, - especially George H. White,- the flamboyant Federal narcotics official who, served as liaison "to the C.LA. testing program. But not all of those deeply- Involved in the safehouse project-are dead,. and tomorrow the Kennedy subcommittee will bear from Sidney Gottlieb, the man to whom Mr. White reported and, at the time he retired in 1973, the chief of the C.I.A.'s technical services division;, with administrative-, ? responsibility : fqr -: MK i? . Top-Secret Operation MK Ultra and its predecessor projects, code-named Bluebird and Artichoke were among the most. sensitive intelligence operations ever undertaken by this coun-- Extraordinary measures were adopted to' insure that hostile nations remained unaware of their 'parameters, and' the C.I.A.'s concern about adverse reaction at home, both within the. scientific com- munity and without, led it' to disguise its' role :as they source- of funding, ? and to -misstate the true intention of some . No took New Und of mus amp unde Pri we Arm in o subc a g Mich A Problem of Supplies. ' In the early= 1950's, when the C.I.A. first became interested in. the properties of the newly developed LSD and other relatively, exotic substances;' the agency was faced at once with.the problems of how to obtain such chemicals and how to determine their effect on individuals who were unaware, as the target of an intelligence operation would be, that they had just ingested some. - For - assistance the C.LA:' turned-- to George White, a senior official in the Bu- reau of Narcotics who had a wartime intelligence background as a lieutenant colonel. Mr. White was described by one former colleague as "sort of a curiosity in law-enforcement- "and by, another- as a "maverick." ... :. - An outspoken man who never lost the affection .for. publicity he first acquired as, a youthful newspaper reporter in Cali- fornia, Mr.' White alternately -distressed his superiors with his bluntness and im- pressed them with the superb police work of-which he was capable.-- Wouldn't Poison Friends"! One--longtime : friend,-who- asked that he not be identified, recalled that while the C.I.A. experiments were "under way -Mr. White once showed him some--glasrt ampules filled with a clear :liau4-1 -?- had come- from a Swiss Ona,:~- .uucal concern. -? . Mr. White, the '.?~':.td said, told him that he had s:fr ed some- of the liquid into cocktails at a drinking session with two men of his acquaintance? but that it was "a minimal dose--he wouldn't try. to poison his friends.".. - - -'.- .' - . According to Mr. White's papers, now In the possession of a small California! college, the C.I.A. sought to enlist his cooperation in a most unusual way, proposing that he continue his service with the Bureau of Narcotics but enter Into a formal, though secret relationship,.: Approved For Release 2007/08/20: CIA-RDP99-00498ROO0100120119-0 it before. STAT