CIA TRIED TO USE GEORGETOWN MEDICAL CENTER IN 1950S

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300030004-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Sequence Number: 4
• Content Type: NEWSPAPER CLIPPING

Approved For Release 2006/12/19: CIA-RDP88-01315R
Trioed to Us,-",
once of operation and decision mak-
ing."
"They didn't approach us above
board or by open declaration," he
said. "They apparently. utilized foun-
dations and institutions of repute and
through them obtained the services of
scientists, but never with any disclo-
sure to the institutional leadership re-
sponsible for the conscience and eth-
ics of Georgetown and otlier?universi-
ties."
He said he probably never will be
fully informed about events of 15 and
20 years ago, long before his arrival
here in 1969.
In. part, he said, this is because sev
By Victor Cohn and John Jacobs
tVashinaoa Past Staff Writers
The Central Intelligence Agency in
the `1:S5Os sought to use Georgetown
University Medical Center to hide "a
cover or:,anization.'o.r highly sensitive
-projects"in `bicw>icai, chemical and
radiologiea1 warfare,'.' it was learned
..? ,
yesterdays ,-?
`lop. secret 'CIA documents made
avajlab;e to The, Washington. Post dis-
closed this purpose without mention-
in- university's name..They spoke,
too,'' W ',plans for research in
"psychochemical fields," "natural
toxla psychosis" and "what makes peo- .
plcxpass from mild disorientation into
delirium and coma"_ -- all fields that
fit at;that time into the CIA's .aim to
investigate mind. control.
Ali h oriiied source said these aiid
other. "` documents referring to
'research' on ter-minaUy.ill cancer pa-
tiei:js' pertained at least in part to
CI:I"aims ht Georgetown University
here.
The documents provided some of
the first specifics on CIA goals at
Georgetown since the disclosure last
week that in the mid-1950s the CIA
_? channeled funds through the Ge-
schickter Foundation -- a foundation
directed by a Georgetown professor -
to establish a secret base for sensitive
studies.
Dr. Matthew F. McNulty, head of
the Georgetown University Medical
Center, yesterday said.. nearly two
weeks of research and Interviews have
turned up no evidence that any re-'
search ever was done on medical cen-
ter premises on the CIA's_ behalf or
with hidden CIA financing.
But he also conceded that he is still
far from completely informed or sure
of what happened there in the 1950s
and '60s. . .
The evidence, he said, is that the
CIA indeed tried to establish a secret
mind-control research center. at the
_ university. -
And he called this "an abuse of an
institution's integrity and independ-
,?l';TIC?L1:_i t!Y*-LL THE l,'AS1iINGTON POST
U.ti`PAGE , 7 August 1977
era! officials of that day are dead and
in part because the university de-
stroys most research files after 7 to 10
years, to save space.
In addition, he said, the university
still has been unable to reach Dr.
Charles Geschickter, the reported
middleman in an apparent 1957 CIA-
Geschickter-Georgetown transaction.
Geschickter was a distinguished pa-
thologist and cancer researcher and- I
largely in a private medical practice
not on Georgetown premises-a doc-
tor who treated cancer patients.
rtYntil the late 1960s he was also the
medical center's director of clinical
(medical treatment) laboratories, one
of any hospital's most important units.
A 1959 university publication called
him the head of "one of the most pro-
lific cancer research laboratories in
the country," and a man ? whose
"fertile mind knows no limits."
He became emeritus in 1971, but
still retains, a small office and labora-
tory in the medical center's Gorman
Building, the last of a connected
string of buildings comprising George-
-town University Hospital.
Geschickter Is now 76. Georgetown
professors say they have seen him
very little in the last few years.
McNulty said he can be sure, from
the testimony. of present CIA Direc-
Stansfield Turner,. that the CIA
tor
gave the Geschickter Foundation
$375,000 to make use of some universi-
ty's facilities without. the university's
knowledge.
The foundation then openly gave
Georgetown University its "gift" of
$375,000 at the time the school was
putting tip three new buildings--a
dormitory, a nursing- school and the
Gorman Build ing.
The $3,035,000 Garman Building was
to house Geschickter's new clinical
laboratories. as well as offices and fa-
ellities'for several other departments.
McNulty said- rero iining university
records fait to show exactly which
building the $375,000 helped build but
it was apparently Gorman, which. was
begun in 1957 and dedicated in March
1959. - -
.NIeNuity, I)r. John Gillespie. a for-
mer Geschickter colleague and other
sources agreed that Geschickter saw
few patients at his Gorman laborator-
ies. "He.didn't.even have an examina-
room there," Gillespie said.
tion
McNulty maintained that: "I've in-
terviewed all the people who worked
with him; and they say all his inter-
ests were in cancer therapy. 1've
talked to technicians who wored'.a
next to him at the laboratory bench,,
where it would be almost impossible
to conceal anything. and they saw,
nothing of the subjects described by
the CIA." - .
As a private medical pratitloner,,,
Geschickter maintained an office on
Connecticut Avenue, near the Wash
Ington Hilton Hotel-
'Ire mostly treated cancer or unu-r
sual diseases with unusual treat-,
ments," Gillespie said. "He had a lot
of patients, and a lot of them were
very grateful. _
"Ile is a very bright and very gener-.
ous man. He is a very responsible'
man. I'd like to see him come forward.
now:
Geschickter has been out of-reach for the past two weeks, _Isince-report '
erg began phoning him to ask -clues-.
tions. He lives in Lorton, where fam-
ily members have regularly been say
Ing, "Iie's out of town. We don't know
when he'll be back." - r
Approved For Release 2006/12/19.: CIA-RDP88-01315R000300030004-5