The spy who drugged me
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In the early 1950s, the Soviet Union put a double agent on trial. Observers from the US, including CIA personnel,
noticed that the agent was under the influence of a strong drug. This
is said to have kicked off a wave of experimentation with mind-altering
drugs by the agency, with civilians in the US and Canada serving as
unwitting test subjects. There were several such operations with
codenames like Bluebird and Midnight Climax. One of the objectives of
Operation Bluebird was to evaluate whether accurate information could be
obtained from willing or unwilling individuals . Operation Artichoke,
Bluebird's successor, wanted to "get control of an individual to the
point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against
such fundamental laws of nature such as self-preservation ." Operation
Midnight Climax, on the other hand, involved young women who lured men
to hideaways in New York and San Francisco and fed them LSD or
marijuana, while other men watched the action through two-way mirrors
and taperecorded the sounds.
The New Yorker profiles Colonel James Ketchum, one of the scientists involved in the US psychochemical program at Edgewood Arsenal. At Edgewood, volunteers were routinely fed cocktails of drugs, from LSD to sarin nerve gas. One subject, who had been exposed to sarin gas a week earlier, was handed a glass of whiskey laced with 20 milligrams of the drug PCP. He passed out, and began breathing in a pattern associated with neurological trauma or cardiac stress. Ketchum maintained detailed records, and is now expected to be the star witness in a class action lawsuit against the US government brought on by the volunteers who, in several cases, have had their lives or sanity ruined by these experiments.
The New Yorker profiles Colonel James Ketchum, one of the scientists involved in the US psychochemical program at Edgewood Arsenal. At Edgewood, volunteers were routinely fed cocktails of drugs, from LSD to sarin nerve gas. One subject, who had been exposed to sarin gas a week earlier, was handed a glass of whiskey laced with 20 milligrams of the drug PCP. He passed out, and began breathing in a pattern associated with neurological trauma or cardiac stress. Ketchum maintained detailed records, and is now expected to be the star witness in a class action lawsuit against the US government brought on by the volunteers who, in several cases, have had their lives or sanity ruined by these experiments.
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