![[image]](img/pg19_1.jpg)
| ||
 |
Testing documented by Freedom included spraying bacteria on passengers in Washington, D.C.’s National Airport. A suitcase was specially rigged so that agents could spray passengers without being detected. | |
Lethal Drug Testing
Freedom’s investigations into MK-ULTRA and related projects also resulted in the exposure of massive psychiatric testing of dangerous, mind-altering substances on unwitting subjects. The drug experiments took place under the sponsorship of the CIA’s Technical Services Staff, the agency’s Office of Security, or the Army Chemical Corps.
One of the substances, a hallucinogen called BZ, was developed as an “incapacitating agent” for use against opposing military forces. Ten to 100 times more potent than LSD, it caused delirium for as long as four days, with other effects continuing far longer. According to Army calculations, BZ was so powerful that the amount in the Army’s inventory—50 tons at the time Freedom published its articles in 1979 and 1980—could kill every person in the United States four times over or incapacitate 10 times the world’s population.
In tests in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland and elsewhere, researchers administered BZ and other biochemical substances to an estimated 6,000 American service personnel, a number of whom later approached Freedom to talk about the lack of information or warnings about the effects they experienced, and the effects themselves.
“I was out of my mind for 48 hours or more,” said one soldier. “When I eventually returned home,” said another, “my parents were very, very concerned. I had changed.” Another’s daughter was born with serious birth defects, including both kidneys on one side, brain abnormalities and partial paralysis.
The power of the hallucinogen was demonstrated when a soldier who entered a supposedly “clean” room—one that had been thoroughly hosed down—became delirious and ill from a microscopic residue. At the hospital, the last thing he remembered before unconsciousness was someone administering the last rites. Months later, he still suffered from hallucinations. As he told Freedom, “It felt like someone else was in control of my mind and wouldn’t give it back.”
Gottlieb himself slipped LSD into the drink of fellow CIA employee Frank Olson, whose personality altered radically. Shortly thereafter, Olson, even though under watch by a fellow CIA employee, crashed through a closed window and plunged 10 stories to his death.
| Your view on this Scientology Website | Scientology Related Sites | Bookstore | Church of Scientology Freedom Magazine |
