Hank Albarelli

I'm not sure at all if LHO was involved in MK/ULTRA or any other CIA or Army mind control projects. But there is *no* doubt the key facilities were all around him and were going full-steam ahead while he was in NYC. That most of the CIA's mind control files have been destroyed [in 1973 and earlier] was no coincidence. Helms said the "public would not understand the motivations" of the various projects. There is also the issue that LSD was documented as being at Atsugi Naval base in Japan in 1953. [We know this *only* thru Frank Olson case documents.] Most likely it was there well after that date, and it is well documented that Artichoke teams traveled to Atsugi on several occasions in the years following 1953, until about 1961. It's important to distinguish between Artichoke and MK/ULTRA primarily because they were operated as separate CIA programs and under the direction of separate officials. Plus Artichoke was an "operational" program as opposed to a "research project." That LSD was at Atsugi could possibly account for Oswald's later interest in the drug. I consider it doubtful that Oswald was any sort of mind-control operative [or assassin]: for all intents, the creation of a Manchurian Candidate-type assassin did not work out very well for the Agency, plus there was no shortage of willing assassins who didn't need drug or hypnotic [or both] inducement. This is *not* to say that narco-hypnosis has not played a critical role the actions of some individuals over past decades. Hope this answers your question, Martin.

Most important: Chapter on June Cobb, which is to be followed up on with twice as much info in subsequent book and articles. I'm intrigued with Ms. Cobb, who is much overlooked in the entire assassination saga. I also think the section on Spas Rankin is quite revealing, as are a few of the book's other sections. I don't attempt to 'solve' the case or to advance any theory in this volume as that is not the purpose of the book. Groundwork needs to be established first. I'm headed to the UK and France in two days for research and other work over the next few weeks, so I may not be checking this page often-- but I will try to do so once in a while, as time and situation allows.

Thanks, Allen. Thank you for your comments. I understand your point, and I do know there are lots of excellent folks here on site. I, however, find the approach of many here [skully and DiG] to be a bit strident and quite rude. I have no idea who Skully is, yet he makes demands of me like I were someone he well knows; the same with DiG, who I have never met or communicated with, and whose work leaves much to be desired in places. I am not a conspiracy buff or huge JFK buff; I'm a historian who looks closely at facts, regardless the source in some cases. In my latest book I acknowledge many of the folks who work I admisre the most on this forum. You use the word outsider and I find that interesting for many reasons {many related to Colin Wilson] but please know that I choose to be an outsider to many of the theories advanced by some on this forum because I simply disagree with them, but, I guess I'm old fashioned, I don't make strident demands of people I do not know... is there no decorum here or effort to be courteous to anyone: Skully says "I owe the public"-- which public is that, Tom? Most folks in the US could care less who killed Mary M. And as time goes by, most folks in the US care less and less about who killed JFK ? ask any teenager picked at random.... in my view, the so-called "JFK assassination community" leaves a lot to be desired, but that's another day's topic... my book, A SECRET ORDER merely took a few very seriopus topics that were/are strange and formatted them into stopry-chapters: it is no attempt to solve the murder, but, and this is a big but, it dows contain many facts, many well corrobrated facts, that do turn certain things on their heads, but lets leave that for the "experts" who have yet to address these matters. In closing, thanks for being a gentleman and offering kind words of wisdom. As siad to the others, I enjoy discourse thru e-mails and don't mostly have the time to sort thru this forum on a regular basis... if you're ever on the Gulf coast of FL. give me a ring and I'll buy you dinner and a drink or two.

My options are laid out here? I don't even know who the hell Tom is? or what his agenda is... he seems to have a hard on for Peter and I have no interest in attacking a serious researcher... Jim: I don't need you to set yourself up as some sort of fixer here; what Peter reported in his book about our conversatiopn is accurate; as to the rest of his book I don't know because as I said yesterday I have not read it. [My source knew Mr. Mitchell quite well and indeed still communicates and occasionally visits with him; that I passed this on to peter was entirely appropriate.} There is far more to the Mary M. story than has been released thus far. I expect that will come out soon. If Tom has info he should it out in the proper places. [Few read this forum.] You didn't reply on my comments on what you know and don't know about my sources, Jim. Peter did not violate my trust. I spoke to him freely and told him all that I knew, with a few exceptions regarding names and places of residence. He can verify this. I provided my e-mial above; it's hankalbarelli@mac.com. Anyone here or elsewhere can write to me about anythingh of legitimate interest. Again, I don't engage here because I don't find it particularly useful and it frankly takes too much time.

I have been looking into Rivera and have found lots of disinformation and erroneous reporting, however, that is not to say he is a most interesting character who factors well into the Oswald saga. Submitted for your approval: Dr Winston de Monsabert Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA) - June 11, 2009 Deceased Name: DEMONSABERT Winston Russel deMonsabert died on Monday, June 8, 2009 in Chantilly, VA. Son of the late Joseph Francis and Davida Elizabeth (Gullett) deMonsabert. Husband of the late Eleanor Ray Ranson deMonsabert. Father of Winston (Sharon M.) Russel deMonsabert, Jr. of Chantilly, VA. Grandfather of W. Russel deMonsabert, III and Katherine Marie deMonsabert of Chantilly, VA. Uncle of Sandra A. Kemmerly, M.D. of New Orleans. Mr. deMonsabert was born in New Orleans. He was the Count deMonsabert and cousin to the King Louis' of France, deMonsabert Castle in Coutours, France. He received a B.S. in Chemistry from Loyola University in New Orleans in 1937. In 1945 he received an M.A. in Education from Tulane University. He received a PhD in Chemistry in 1952. He was Professor of Chemistry at Loyola University, New Orleans from 1948-66. He was the Chief chemist, National Center for Disease Control, Dept. of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, from 1966-69. He served as Chief Contract Liaison, National Center for Health Services Research from 1969-73. He held the position of Chief Extramural Programs, Bureau of Drugs, FDA from 1973-79. He was Scientist Administrator, Office of the Commissioner, FDA from 1979-83. He was a Fellow American Institute of Chemists (Chairman Louisiana chapter 1958-60, Chairman Georgia Chapter 1968-69, President D.C. Chapter 1982-83). He belonged to the American Chemical Society serving as Chairman, Louisiana Section in 1954. He was a member of Saint Timothy's Parish, Chantilly, VA. He was affectionately referred to as "Dr. de" by his many students. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the Graveside services at LAKE LAWN PARK CEMETERY on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 PM. To view and sign the Family Guest Book, go to www.lakelawnmetairie.com. Thanks for that Robert, I'm sure Adele will want to see it. BK I am a little confused about the reference to his being the "cousin to King Louis of France," but if it was meant literally the legitimate claim to that title in 2009, is Henri VII, Count of Paris, Duke of France, whose first wife was Marie Therese of Württemberg. Haven't I seen her name cited in some genealogical threads? Or am I imagining that?

Yes, it was reported in the U.S. by several publications including the NYT.

I'm curious to know if Jack White is a psychologist, psychiatrist, physician, or psychotherapist ????? Do folks on this site now diagnose characters so easily? Should there not be a proper modicum of respect for others? One can have problems or questions about other people without resorting to publicly diagnosing them medically or mentally... Do not some members of this very forum seek to gain some form of internal gratification by posting information? I think it's a sad day when people resort to this type of tactic. I myself have questions about Ms. Baker but I would never act to diagnose her on a public forum; this not for the reason that she could file civil suit for slander, but simply because people deserve a proper degree of respect regardless their personal beliefs. In general, just because a person is legally insane does not mean that they can't be correct about certain things. I must say, what a herd of individuals we have here on this forum.

This article by myself and Dr. Jeff Kaye was published last week by Truthout. I thought a lot of folks at this site might enjoy reading it. I've recently been digging into the Dimitrov case and his connections to the JFK assassination and to other possible CIA murders, and expect to have a long, detained article completed soon on the subject. I'll also post that piece here. -H.P. Albarelli ________________________________________________________________________ The Real Roots of the CIA's Rendition and Black Sites Program by H.P. Albarelli Jr. and Jeffrey Kaye Originally published at Truthout On Tuesday, February 10, the British High Court finally released a "seven-paragraph court document showing that MI5 officers were involved in the ill-treatment of a British resident, Binyam Mohamed." The document is itself a summary of 42 classified CIA documents given to the British in 2002. The US government has threatened the British government that the US-British intelligence relationship could be damaged if this material were released. The revelations regarding Mohamed's torture, which include documentation of the fact the US conducted "continuous sleep deprivation" under threats of harm, rendition, or being "disappeared," were criticized by the British court as being "at the very least cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the United States authorities," and in violation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture. The Mohamed case is the most prominent of a number of cases that have come to public attention. While the timeline of Mohamed's torture places the implementation of the Bush administration's so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" many months prior to their questionable legal justification in the August 1, 2002, Jay Bybee memo to the CIA, the use of torture and rendition has a much earlier provenance. Over the past decade, many Americans have been shocked and disturbed about the CIA's secret program of rendition and torture carried out in numerous secret sites (dubbed "black sites" by the CIA) around the globe. The dimensions of this program for the most part are still classified "Eyes Only" in the intelligence community, but the program's roots can be clearly discovered in the early 1950's with the CIA's Artichoke Project. Perhaps the best and strangest case illustrating this can be found in the agency's own files. This is the so-called "Lyle O. Kelly case." The facts of this case are drawn from declassified government documents. An Early Example of Torture and Rendition: "The Kelly Case" In late January 1952, Morse Allen, a CIA Security Office official, was summoned to the office of his superior, security deputy chief Robert L. Bannerman, where he met with another agency official to discuss what Bannerman initially introduced as "the Kelly case." Wrote Allen, in a subsequent memorandum for his files, the official "explained in substance the Kelly case as follows: "Kelly, (whose real name is Dimitrov), is a 29-year-old Bulgarian and was the head of a small political party based in Greece and ostentively [sic] working for Bulgarian independence." The official described Dimitrov [whose first name was Dimitre] to Allen as "being young, ambitious, bright ... a sort of a 'man-on-a-horse' type but a typical Balkan politician." The official continued explaining to Allen that months earlier CIA field operatives discovered that Dimitrov was seriously considering becoming a double agent for the French Intelligence Service. "Accordingly," states the memo, "a plot was rigged in which [Dimitrov] was told he was going to be assassinated and as a protective he was placed in custody of the Greek Police." Successfully duped, Dimitrov was then thrown into prison. There he was subjected to interrogation and torture, and he witnessed the brutal torture of other persons the CIA had induced authorities to imprison. Greek intelligence and law enforcement agencies were especially barbaric in their methods. Highly respected Operation Gladio historian Daniele Ganser describes the treatment of prisoners: "Their toes and fingernails were torn out. Their feet were beaten with sticks, until the skin came off and their bones were broken. Sharp objects were shoved into their vaginas. Filthy rags, often soaked in urine, and sometimes excrement, were pushed down their throats to throttle them, tubes were inserted into their anus and water driven in under very high pressure, and electro shocks were applied to their heads." According to Allen's memo, after holding Dimitrov for six months the Greek authorities decided he was no more than "a nuisance" and they told the CIA "to take him back." Because the agency was unable to dispose of Dimitrov in Greece, the memo states, the CIA flew him to a secret interrogation center at Fort Clayton in Panama. In the 1950's, Fort Clayton, along with nearby sister installations Forts Amador and Gulick, the initial homes of the Army's notorious School of the Americas, served as a secret prison and interrogation centers for double agents and others kidnapped and spirited out of Europe and other locations. Beginning in 1951, Fort Amador, and reportedly Fort Gulick, were extensively used by the Army and the CIA as a secret experimental site for developing behavior modification techniques and a wide range of drugs, including "truth drugs," mescaline, LSD and heroin. Former CIA officials have also long claimed that Forts Clayton and Amador in the 1950's hosted a number of secret Army assassination teams that operated throughout North and South America, Europe and Southeast Asia. There in Panama, Dimitrov was again aggressively interrogated, and then confined as "a psychopathic patient" to a high-security hospital ward at Fort Clayton. Allen's memo makes a point of stating: "[Dimitrov] is not a psychopathic personality." The Artichoke Treatment This remarkable summary brought the official to the purpose of his meeting with CIA security official Morse Allen. After months of confinement in Panama, Dimitrov had become a serious problem for the agency and the military officials holding him in the hospital. Dimitrov had become increasingly angry and bitter about his treatment and he was insisting that he be released immediately. Dimitrov, through his strong intellect and observation powers, was also witnessing a great deal of Project Artichoke activity and on occasion would engage military and agency officials in unauthorized conversations. The official explained to Allen that the CIA could release Dimitrov to the custody of a friend of his in Venezuela, but was prone not to because Dimitrov was now judged to have become extremely hostile toward the CIA. "Hence," explained the official, "[CIA] is considering an 'Artichoke' approach to [Dimitrov] to see if it would be possible to re-orient [Dimitrov] favorably toward us." Wrote Allen in his subsequent summary memorandum: "This [Artichoke] operation, which will necessarily involve the use of drugs is being considered by OPC with a possibility that Dr. Ecke and Mike Gladych will carry out the operation presumably at the military hospital in Panama. Also involved in this would be a Bulgarian interpreter who is a consultant to this Agency since neither Ecke nor Gladych speak Bulgarian." Allen noted in his memo that security chief Bannerman "pointed out" that this type of operation could "only be carried out" with his or his superior's (security chief Sheffield Edwards) authorization, and "that under no circumstances whatsoever, could anyone but an authorized M.D. administer drugs to any subject of this Agency of any type." (The "Dr. Ecke" mentioned above was Dr. Robert S. Ecke of Brooklyn, New York, and Eliot, Maine, where he died in 2001. "Mike Gladych," according to former CIA officials, was a decorated wartime pilot who after the war became "deeply involved in black market trafficking in Europe and the US," and then in the early 1950's was recruited to join a "newly composed Artichoke Team operating out of Washington, DC.") Allen also wrote that Bannerman was concerned that the military hospital at Fort Clayton may not approve of or permit an Artichoke operation to be conducted on the ward within which Dimitrov was being held, thus necessitating the movement of Dimitrov to another location in Panama. Lastly, Bannerman stated to the official and Allen that "[the CIA's Office of] Security [through its Artichoke Committee] would have to be cognizant" of the operation, and may even want to "run the operation themselves since this type of work is one which Security handles for the Agency. Here it is interesting to note that among the many members of the agency's Artichoke Committee in 1952 was Dr. Frank Olson, who would about a year later be murdered in New York City. Morse Allen concluded his memo: "While the [Artichoke] technique that Ecke and Gladych are considering for use in this case is not known to the writer [Allen], the writer believes the approach will be made through the standard narco-hypnosis technique. Re-conditioning and re-orientating an individual in such a matter, in the opinion of the writer, cannot be accomplished easily and will require a great deal of time.... It is also believed that with our present knowledge, we would have no absolute guarantee that the subject in this case would maintain a positive friendly attitude toward us even though there is apparently a successful response to the treatment. The writer did not suggest to [bannerman and the CIA official] that perhaps a total amnesia could be created by a series of electro shocks, but merely indicated that amnesia under drug treatments was not certain." Interesting also is that Allen noted in his memo, about thirty days prior to his meeting, an official in the CIA's Technical Services Division, Walter Driscoll, discussed "the Kelly case" with him. No details of that discussion were provided. About a month later, according to former CIA officials, after Artichoke Committee approval to subject Dimitrov to Artichoke techniques, a high-ranking CIA official objected to treating Dimitrov in such a manner. That objection delayed application of the techniques for about "three weeks." In March 1952, according to the same former officials, Dimitrov was "successfully given the Artichoke treatment in Panama for a period of about five weeks." In late 1956, the CIA brought Dimitrov, at his request, to the United States. Apparently, the Agency felt comfortable enough with Dimitrov's diminished hostility and anger to agree to bring him to America from Athens, where he had returned for undetermined reasons. CIA files state, "The Agency made no further operation use of Dimitrov after he came to the United States, however, former CIA officials dispute this and relate that Dimitrov was "used on occasion for sensitive jobs." This, however, was not the end of Dimitre Dimitrov's story. After being relocated to the United States, Dimitrov either remained bitter or resumed his bitterness toward the CIA. In June 1960, he contacted the CIA's Domestic Contact Division and requested financial assistance for himself and additional covert support and assistance for activities against Bulgaria. In 1961, he contacted an editor at Parade, a Sunday newspaper magazine then with reported strong ties to the CIA, with the intention of telling his story. A Parade editor contacted the CIA and was informed, according to CIA documents, that Dimitrov was "an imposter" who was "disreputable, unreliable, and full of wild stories about the CIA." About ten years after the JFK assassination, Dimitrov, operating sometimes under the aliases Lyle Kelly, James Adams, General Dimitre Dimitrov and Donald A. Donaldson, informed a number of people that he had information about who ordered the murder of JFK and who had committed the act. Reportedly, he had encountered the assassins while he had been imprisoned in Panama. He also told several people that he knew about military snipers who had murdered Martin Luther King. In 1977, Dimitrov actually met with US Sen. Frank Church, head of a Senate Committee investigating the CIA, and President Gerald Ford to share his information. Dimitrov said after the meeting that Ford had asked him to keep the information confidential until he could verify a number of facts. Immediately following the March 29, 1977, death of Lee Harvey Oswald's friend George de Mohrenschildt, Dimitrov became extremely frightened and contacted a reporter with a foreign television station who either mistakenly, or intentionally, revealed Dimitrov's name publicly on American television. Not long after this, Dimitrov disappeared in Europe where he had fled. He has never been seen or heard from since. Former CIA officials say privately, "Dimitrov was murdered" and "His body will never be found." A 1977 memorandum written, before Dimitrov's disappearance, by an attorney in the CIA's General Counsel's Office, A. R. Cinquegrana, states: "[it appears] to me that the nature of the Agency's treatment of Dimitrov might be something which should be brought to the attention of appropriate officials both within and outside the Agency. The fact that he is still active and is making allegations connected with the Kennedy assassination may add yet another dimension to this story." Binyam Mohamed's Torture Dimtrov's story takes on added significance when one considers the latest stories of the unraveling torture conspiracy and operations conducted by the American CIA and Department of Defense, in conjunction with their British allied organizations, and a host of other governments, including Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Poland and numerous others. After a series of exposures during the 1970's, many assumed the worst excesses of the Cold War torture research program, and its implementation in programs such as the CIA's Operation Phoenix in Vietnam were a fixture of the past. However, subsequent revelations, e.g. the appearance of a US-sponsored torture manual for use in Latin America in the 1980's, including documentation of torture by US forces in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan, demonstrate that a direct line exists between the torture and rendition programs of the past and the practices of the present day. Recently, articles have detailed how the 2006 rewrite of the Army Field Manual allowed for use of ongoing isolation, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, induction of fear and the use of drugs that cause temporary derangement of the senses. The Binyam Mohamed story is unfortunately not unique, but it does demonstrate that the implementation of a SERE-derived experimental torture program began months before it was given legal cover by the memos written by John Yoo and Jay Bybee. Other stories, for instance of "War on Terror" captives being drugged and tortured, have been related by the prisoners themselves, by their attorneys, and by US and international rights agencies, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, whose report on the torture of CIA "high-value detainees" was leaked to Mark Danner of the New York Review of Books. While Binyam in many ways had a very different personal background than Dimitrov, like the Bulgarian political leader, he was rendered to a US foreign ally for torture. He was drugged. He was considered unreliable and a "disposal" problem for US leaders, who kept secret the actual treatment they endured. Both were victims of a torture program run by the CIA. Both were sent from their foreign torturer back to US custody, where they endured intense psychological torture. Binyam Mohamed was arrested in Pakistan in April 2002, where his torture, as evidenced by the latest UK court release, was supervised by US agents. This torture was akin to the treatment meted out to Abu Zubaydah. Binyam was subsequently sent to Morocco in July 2002, where he was hideously tortured for 18 months, including a period where multiple scalpel cuts were made to his penis, and a hot stinging fluid poured on the wounds in an attempt to get him to confess to a false "dirty bomb" plot. (The US only dropped the bombing claims in October 2008.) At one point, a British informer was used to try to "turn" Mohamed into an informant for the US or Britain, just as the Artichoke treatment was used to "re-orient" Dimitrov in a pro-US direction. Mohamed also indicated that he had been drugged repeatedly. In January 2004, Binyam Mohamed was flown to a CIA "black" site in Afghanistan, the infamous "Dark Prison." Mohamed is one of five plaintiffs in an ACLU suit against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen DataPlan Inc., which ran the aircraft for the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program. According to an ACLU account: In US custody, Mohamed was fed meals of raw rice, beans and bread sparingly and irregularly. He was kept in almost complete darkness for 23 hours a day and made to stay awake for days at a time by loud music and other frightening and irritating recordings, including the sounds of "ghost laughter," thunder, aircraft taking off and the screams of women and children. Interrogations took place on almost a daily basis. As part of the interrogation process, he was shown pictures of Afghanis and Pakistanis and was interrogated about the story behind each picture. Although Mohamed knew none of the persons pictured, he would invent stories about them so as to avoid further torture. In May 2004, Mohamed was allowed outside for five minutes. It was the first time he had seen the sun in two years. Amazingly, this was not the end of Mohamed's ordeal. From the Dark Prison he was sent to Bagram prison, and then later to Guantanamo. In August 2007, the British government petitioned the US for release of their subject. Eighteen months later, and after being subjected to more abuse at Guantanamo, he was finally able to leave US custody and return to Britain. The Use of Drugs in Torture by the United States The allegations of drugging by Mohamed and other prisoners are redolent of the use of hallucinogenic and other powerful mind-altering drugs by the US in its Artichoke, MK-ULTRA and other programs. A recent account, by Joby Warrick of The Washington Post, described some of these allegations of drugging of "detainees." The Post article subsequently led to an ongoing DoD Inspector General investigation into Possible Use of Mind Altering Substances by DoD Personnel during Interrogations of Detainees and/or Prisoners Captured during the War on Terror (D2007-DINT01-0092.005) "to determine if DoD personnel conducted, facilitated, or otherwise supported interrogations of detainees and /or prisoners using the threat or administration of mind altering drugs." According to his attorney's filings in the Jose Padilla case, Padilla, who was also originally implicated in the "dirty bomb" so-called plot with Binyam Mohamed, was forced to take LSD or other powerful drugs while held in solitary confinement in the Navy brig in South Carolina. Another former Guantanamo prisoner, Mamdouh Habib, an Egyptian-born Australian Muslim released in 2005, has consistently told his tale of being subjected to electroshock, beatings and drugging while in US custody. The CIA has been accused of involvement in continuing interrogation experimentation upon prisoners. The recent release of the previously censored summary of Mohamed's treatment in Pakistan notes that "The effects of the sleep deprivation were carefully observed." As Stephen Soldz notes in an article on the British court revelations, "Why were these effects being 'carefully observed' unless to determine their effectiveness in order to see whether they should be inflicted upon others? That is, the observations were designed to generate knowledge that could be generalized to other prisoners. The seeking of "generalizable knowledge" is the official definition of "research," raising the question of whether the CIA conducted illegal research upon Binyan Mohamed." The role of doctors, psychologists and other medical professionals in the CIA/DoD torture program has been condemned by a number of individuals in their respective fields, and by organizations such as Center for Constitutional Rights and Physicians for Human Rights. Most recently, in an important article by Scott Horton at Harpers, the reexamination of the evidence in the supposed 2006 suicides of three prisoners at Guantanamo pointed to the possibility that the prisoners were killed in a previously unknown black site prison on the Guantanamo base - "Camp No" - run by the CIA or Joint Special Operations Command. This raises the question of why they were taken off site at all. One prisoner, 22-year-old Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani, had needle marks on both of his arms. The marks were notably not documented in the US military's autopsy report. Where Do We Go From Here? The tale of Dmitri Dimitrov documents the existence of a US-run torture and rendition program decades before the post-9/11 scandals of the Bush administration. Both the CIA and the Department of Defense have been implicated in both the research and implementation of torture for much of post-World War II US history. And yet, aside from the famous Church and Pike Congressional investigations of the 1970's, and the hearings and report from the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2008-09 on detainee abuse, the perpetrators of these crimes have gone unpunished. The current administration of President Barack Obama has clearly stated that it had little appetite to "look backwards" and seek accountability for the abuses of the past. Yet these abuses are never really "past," as the suffering of the victims and their families continues into the present. Additionally, the practice of torture, or use of "cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment" of prisoners has not ended, and the same generals, colonels, admirals and intelligence agency bureaucrats and politicians who have been linked to past programs are free to research or implement ongoing abuse of prisoners and experimentation. This country needs a clear and definite accounting of its past and present use of torture. Like a universal acid, torture breaks down the sinews of its victims, and in the process, the links between people and their government are transformed into the naked exercise of pure sadistic power of rulers over the ruled. The very purpose of civilization is atomized in the process. We need a full, open and thorough public investigation into the entire history of the torture program, with full power to subpoena, and to refer those who shall be held accountable for prosecution under the due process of law. .............................. H.P. Albarelli Jr. is the author of "A TERRIBLE MISTAKE: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments." He has written numerous newspaper and magazine articles on biological warfare and intelligence affairs. He can be contacted through his Web site: www.albarelli.net. Jeffrey Kaye, a psychologist living in Northern California, writes regularly on torture and other subjects for Firedoglake. He also maintains a personal blog, Invictus. His email address is sfpsych at gmail dot com Creative Commons License

Offizielle Anfrage der französischen Regierung an die USA über geheime LSD-Experimente in den 1950er-Jahren F. William Engdahl Dieser Tage entsteht ein diplomatischer und politischer Skandal, der erhebliche Auswirkungen auf die amerikanisch-französischen Beziehungen haben könnte. Ausgelöst wurde er durch neue Untersuchungen des mysteriösen Ausbruchs von »Massenwahnsinn« in einem südfranzösischen Dorf, bei dem etwa 500 Menschen erkrankten und fünf starben. Wie zuverlässige amerikanische Quellen berichten, ist beim Bureau of Intelligence and Research des US-Außenministeriums eine vertrauliche Anfrage des Büros von Erard Corbin de Mangoux, dem Chef des französischen Auslandsnachrichtendienstes DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure) eingegangen. Den Berichten zufolge bezieht sich die Anfrage auf die kürzlich veröffentlichte Darstellung über die Mitschuld der US-Regierung an dem mysteriösen Ausbruch von Massenwahnsinn in dem südfranzösischen Dorf Pont-Saint-Esprit im Jahr 1951. Neue Enthüllungen über den mysteriösen Ausbruch von Wahnsinn in dem französischen Dorf Pont-St.-Esprit im Jahr 1951 weisen auf geheime LSD-Experimente der CIA hin. Fast 500 Menschen waren damals betroffen, mindestens fünf von ihnen sind gestorben. Beinahe 60 Jahre lang hat man den Vorfall von Pont-St.-Esprit entweder auf eine Mutterkorn-Vergiftung – angeblich hatten die Dorfbewohner Brot gegessen, das mit bewusstseinverändernd wirkendem Schimmel verunreinigt war – oder auf eine organische Quecksilbervergiftung geschoben. Ein kürzlich in den USA erschienenes Buch erhebt aufgrund von ausführlichen Interviews mit inzwischen pensionierten US-Geheimdienstmitarbeitern, die über die Vorgänge in Frankreich im Jahr 1951 direkt informiert waren, den Vorwurf, bei dem bis heute nicht geklärten Ausbruch von »Massenwahnsinn« in dem entlegenen Dorf handele es sich in Wirklichkeit um ein Top-Secret-CIA-Experiment, das im Rahmen des CIA-Forschungsprogramms MKULTRA (wie in ultra-geheim) durchgeführt wurde. In seinem Buch A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments zu (Deutsch: Ein schrecklicher Fehler: Der Mord an Frank Olson und die CIA-Experimente im Kalten Krieg) dokumentiert der investigative Journalist H.P. Albarelli, dass der Krankheitsausbruch in Pont-St.-Esprit auf ein geheimes Projekt unter der Leitung der streng geheimen Abteilung Special Operations Division der US Army in Fort Detrick im US-Bundesstaat Maryland zurückzuführen ist, bei dem LSD versprüht wurde. Seiner Schilderung nach arbeiteten die Wissenschaftler, die mit der falschen Begründung verunreinigten Brotes oder einer Quecksilbervergiftung die wahre Ursache des Vorfalls vertuscht haben, für das Pharmaunternehmen Sandoz, das sowohl der US Army als auch der CIA mit LSD für Forschungszwecke geliefert hatte. Eine französische Zeitung hatte damals über bizarre Vorfälle berichtet: »Es ist weder Shakespeare noch Edgar Poe. Es ist – leider! – die traurige Realität von Pont-St.-Esprit und seiner Umgebung, wo sich furchtbare Szenen von Halluzinationen abspielen, die geradewegs aus dem Mittelalter stammen könnten, Szenen voller Schrecken und Pathos, voll dunkler Schatten.« Die amerikanische Zeitschrift Time Magazine, deren Herausgeber Henry Luce eng mit den Propagandaaktivitäten der CIA in den 1950er-Jahren verbunden war, berichtete: »Betroffene fielen ins Delirium: Patienten warfen sich auf dem Bett hin und her, sie schrien entsetzt, aus ihrem Körper sprießten rote Blumen, ihre Köpfe hätten sich in geschmolzenes Blei verwandelt. Aus dem Krankenhaus von Pont-Saint-Esprit wurden vier Selbstmordversuche gemeldet.« Laut Albarelli heißt es auf der Website des US-Justizministeriums bezüglich der Gefahren von LSD, Anfang der 1950er-Jahre sei »das Chemieunternehmen Sandoz so weit gegangen, der US-Regierung LSD als potenzielle geheime Waffen chemischer Kriegsführung anzupreisen. Sein Hauptverkaufsargument war dabei, schon eine kleine Menge könne, dem Trinkwasser zugesetzt oder in der Luft versprüht, eine ganze Armee von Soldaten orientierungslos, psychotisch und damit kampfunfähig machen.« Seiner Darstellung nach lagen der CIA verschiedene Vorschläge amerikanischer Wissenschaftler vor, der Wasserversorgung einer mittelgroßen bis großen Stadt eine größere Menge LSD unterzumischen, doch nach Angaben ehemaliger Beamter der Behörde »ist das Experiment wegen der unerwarteten Zahl von Todesopfern bei der Operation in Frankreich nie genehmigt worden«. Im Rahmen der Forschung über LSD als Offensivwaffe hat die US Army laut Albarelli in der Zeit von 1953 bis 1965 über 5.700 ahnungslose amerikanischen Militärangehörigen Drogen verabreicht. Aufgrund geheimer Verträge mit mehr als 325 Colleges, Universitäten und Forschungseinrichtungen in den USA, Kanada und Europa wurden gemeinsam mit der CIA an weiteren 2.500 Personen umfangreiche Tests mit LSD und anderen Drogen durchgeführt, viele davon waren Krankenhauspatienten und College-Studenten. Dr. Timothy Leary, LSD-»Guru« der Harvard University, hat zugegeben, mit der CIA gearbeitet zu haben. Ein Beamter der DGSE, der nicht namentlich genannt werden wollte, erklärt: »Sollten sich die Enthüllungen im Einzelnen als wahr erweisen, wäre dies für die Menschen in Pont-St.-Esprit und für alle Bürger Frankreichs äußerst bedrückend. Dass Regierungsbehörden der Vereinigten Staaten bewusst unschuldige ausländische Bürger zur Zielscheibe eines solchen Experiments machen würden, stellt einen Verstoß gegen das Völkerrecht und eine Verletzung internationaler Verträge dar.«

FRENCH GOVERNMENT QUERIES U.S. STATE DEPT. ABOUT LSD ATTACK Washington, D.C. — According to informed sources, the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research has received a confidential inquiry from the office of Erard Corbin de Mangoux, head of the French intelligence agency, Directorate General for External Security (DGSE), concerning a recent account of American government complicity in a mysterious 1951 incident of mass insanity in France. The DGSE is the French counterpart of the CIA. The incident took place in the village of Pont-Saint-Esprit in southern France, and is described in a recent book about the 1953 death of an American biochemist, A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments. The book, by investigative journalist H.P. Albarelli Jr., was published in late November 2009 by TrineDay, which specializes in books about “suppressed information.” The strange outbreak severely affected nearly five hundred people, causing the deaths of at least five. For nearly 60 years the Pont-St.-Esprit incident has been attributed either to ergot poisoning, meaning that villagers consumed bread infected with a psychedelic mold, or to organic mercury poisoning. But Albarelli reports that the outbreak resulted from a covert LSD aerosol experiment directed by the US Army’s top-secret Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, Maryland. He notes that the scientists who produced both alternative explanations worked for the Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company, which was then secretly supplying both the Army and CIA with LSD. The effect was devastating, as a contemporary French report made clear: “It is neither Shakespeare nor Edgar Poe. It is, alas, the sad reality all around Pont-St.-Esprit and its environs, where terrifying scenes of hallucinations are taking place. They are scenes straight out of the Middle Ages, scenes of horror and pathos, full of sinister shadows.” Even Time magazine took notice: “Among the stricken, delirium rose: patients thrashed wildly on their beds, screaming that red flowers were blossoming from their bodies, that their heads had turned to molten lead. Pont-Saint-Esprit’s hospital reported four attempts at suicide.” A Department of Justice website on the dangers of LSD states that in the early 1950s “the Sandoz Chemical Company went as far as promoting LSD as a potential secret chemical warfare weapon to the U.S. Government. Their main selling point in this was that a small amount in a main water supply or sprayed in the air could disorient and turn psychotic an entire company of soldiers leaving them harmless and unable to fight.” The CIA entertained a number of proposals from American scientists concerning placing a large amount of LSD into the reservoir of a medium-to-large city, but, according to former agency officials, “the experiment was never approved due to the unexpected number of deaths during the operation in France.” Albarelli also describes a series of small, secret chemical attacks by the CIA on the New York City subway system during the 1950s. Recently, the Army has referred to these experiments as “simulated tests,” but contemporary documents make no reference to simulation. An August 1950 FBI memorandum refers to “planned BW [biological warfare] experiments in the New York Subway System in September, 1950,” expressing concerns about “poisoning the water supply of a large metropolitan area at the source … the poisoning of food … sold to the general public.” In its quest to research LSD as an offensive weapon, Albarelli claims, the Army drugged over 5,700 unwitting American servicemen between the years 1953 and 1965, and, with the CIA, experimented widely with LSD and other drugs through secret contracts with over 325 colleges, universities and research institutions in the U.S., Canada and Europe, involving about 2,500 additional subjects, many of them hospital patients and college students. According to an official with the DGSE, who declined to be identified, “If the details of this book’s revelations prove to be true, it will be very upsetting for the people of Pont-St.-Esprit, as well as all French citizens. That agencies of the United States government would deliberately target innocent foreign citizens for such an experiment is a violation of a number of international laws and treaties.” ###

James, I've been doing some research along those lines. I think the link to Gottlieb travels right through Dr. Jose Rivera to H. Warner Kloepfer and then Ruth Paine and LHO. I'm still convinced that there's a Gottlieb/Rivera connection when I consider Adele Edison's account of events prior to Nov. 63. Rivera was in Gottlieb's employ.

This is a pretty fascinating piece, John. I've received some really interesting e-mails about my book from readers in Europe and Israel, many mentioning Operation Gladio and its connections to the Olson and JFK cases... there was a Gladio connection to the Pont St. Esprit 1951 incident that I did not include in my book because I knew most American readers would not understand its ties to the CIA and American military at the time. I'm doing my best to finish parts II and III of the Olson-Oswald article. Hope to have part II up here by end of the week. (And to do a proper edit on part I.) Take care all. And keep the faith!

Amoss: After his time w/ the OSS, he founded the anti-Communist organization International Services for Information, Inc. headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. Amoss was involved in George White's OSS truth drug experiments in New Jersey, New Orleans, and D.C. Amoss is notable because he is claimed to have fathered a concept known as 'leaderless resistance.' This concept is best explained as a leaderless alternative for underground groups or cells under which group activity is autonomous and shared equally among a small tight knit band of individuals that operate without any deemed leader or point of central control. Sound familiar? It should. Today the model is favored by countless terrorist cells worldwide, as well as a few extremist groups in the U.S. Carleton Coon, who of course knew Amoss well, favored extreme actions (i.e. torture and assassination) against undesired elements in society (i.e. any race but the white race; anybody without money or 'culture'). Coon's racist philosophy was adopted by many early CIA top officials. As explained in my book, many of these early officials fancied themselves new world Knights Templar, and secretly fancied elements of the Nazi SS, especially the symbols and orderliness. Today a lot of that has been melded into a perverted form of nouveau Christian thinking and action. And, as you say, the rest is -- or may be-- history.