Untitled Document

"No drug is ever brought to market without being an experiment on the public," said Krimsky of Tufts. "The real issue is that we have to pay more attention to adverse events. We have to be serious about looking hard for them."

The CIA, the Irradiation of Brains and the Dirty Bomb - a History Lesson - by John Kelly

       "Did CIA Consider Developing Radiological Weapons of Mass Destruction?
      "Yes. One of CIA's early missions was to create secret paramilitary forces that could harass the rear of a Soviet advance into Western Europe ..."
      "Did CIA Analysts believe the Soviets would wage radiological warfare?"
      "No"
                - CIA Officer Michael Warner Memorandum for the Record, February 14, 1995

On April 10, 1953, CIA Director Allen Dulles told a Princeton alumni audience that the Soviet Union was conducting "brain warfare" of the most devious kind. "The Soviets," said Dulles, "are now using brain-perversion techniques as one of their main weapons in prosecuting the Cold War. Some of these techniques are so subtle and so abhorrent to o

Usually when Dulles accused the Soviets of conducting an operation or program, the CIA was doing the same, or worse. Brain warfare was no exception. In this case, the Soviets were not researching brain warfare or radiation warfare, and some twenty years later, then-CIA Director Stansfield Turner described the CIA's program as "abhorrent."

Around the time of Dulles' speech, a CIA researcher was recommending the use of radioisotopes to identify a drug which would produce a "chemical lobotomy": "A non-toxic drug may be found, by radioactive tracer techniques, that will be attracted to such an area (of the brain), and so produce a taming that can last for some time." The same researcher proposed studying the amygdaloid nucleus of the brain for control and manipulation purposes wrote the researcher, by a current passed brain by operation."At present," wrote the researcher, "this brain center can be stimulated by a current passed through wires inserted through the brain by operation. "Such a procedure is obviously useless to this project; but ultrasonics or other means of radiant energy may yet be improved or modified so that a cross-fire'(with X-rays) arrangement could be focussed on a selected small region in the brain without affecting the surrounding areas. "The Amygdaloid nucleus is interesting because it has been stimulated in humans (as in first paragraph above); producing fear or anger. Monkeys' amygdaloids have been removed, producing tameness. "Temporary inhibition of this region (possibly of others) should tame humans."

Elsewhere, under the heading of "Radiant Energy," the researcher wrote that: "It is also possible that some newer field of radiant energy, some atomic particles, could be aimed at sleep centers in the brain, or at brain centers that inhibit the waking state. Sudden sleeping might be produced in this way, with an unwitting subject if the apparatus were worked from the other room. "This reporter admits that he has not found a hypothetical 'sleep ray' in the literature. He believes it either is, or will be, there. It would be so valuable that more searching is highly recommended. Certainly there are sleep centers in the brain."

At this time, the late Dr. Charles Geschickter, in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health, was exposing monkeys to radiation in the form of radar, for the CIA, which was looking for a technique to secretly render someone unconscious. Geschickter late testified that "if you got into too deep a sleep, you injured the heat center of the brain the way you cook meat, and there was a borderline there that made it dangerous." Geschickter also experimented on patients at the Georgeton University Medical Center which he had turned into a "hospital safehouse," according to the CIA.

CIA officers also met at this time with the late Dr. Webb Haymaker of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology concerning the use of radiation to affect "emotional centers in the brain or elsewhere in the neryous system." It is not known what came of this meeting, but Haymaker went on to pioneer the use of Boron Neutron Capture Therapy wherein a beam of neutrons are shot at the brain where they are captured by the boron resulting in a tiny atomic explosion. The theory was that this explosion would only destroy tumors where the boron concentrated. However, the vast majority of patients had their brains fried, like Geschickter's monkeys, and died shortly thereafter. Haymaker, who co-authored a book with the notorious Nazi scientist, Hubertus Strughold, also conducted human radiation experients. In one such experiment, a 43-year-old comatose man received eight injections to the brain of radioactive tritiated thymidine over a six month period with the last injection being given four hours before he died. Obviously, there was no informed consent nor was there any benefit to the patient or future patients.

Actually, three years before Dulles' speech, the CIA proposed the use of a radiological weapon known as "The Thing.." In January 1950, Boris T. Pash proposed "the formulation of doctrine and policy, the evolving of operational techniques, the making of plans, and the preparation of projects for the conduct of Biological, Chemical and Radiological operations" with the following objectives.

Selecting the targets and establishing their priority.
Determining suitable agents and methods operationally feasible for use against the selected targets.
Compiling of data pertinent to the development execution of projects relating to these targets.
With the assistance of established channels, developing sources and maintaining liaison with agencies, installations, and/or specialists possessing the specific knowledge, data, or materials necessary for the effective planning of BC & R operations.

Pash was a man of action who usually got what he wanted. He would not have hesitated to use radiological weapons. During World War II, he was the chief counterintelligence officer on the Manhattan Project which built the first atomic bomb. Also during the war, he directed the Alsos Mission which captured Nazi radiation and chemical warfare scientists. In addition, Pash's forces seized more than 70,000 tons of uranium ore and radium products. The radium was eventually used in making U.S. atomic weapons.

After the war, Pash served as the Army's representative for Operation Bloodstone which recruited rightwing emigres and Nazi collaborators for use by the CIA which was represented on the Bloodstone team by John S. Earman, Jr. According to Pentagon documents, Operation Bloodstone's "special operations ... include clandestine warfare, subversion, sabotage and assassination."

In March 1949, Pash was assigned by the Army to the OPC division of the CIA where he headed a five-member unit known as PB/7. According to its written charter, "PB/7 will be responsible for assassinations, kidnapping, and such other functions as from time to time may be given it ... by higher authority."

In 1949, a CIA proposal for assassination weapons included the use of X-rays. "Another possibility," stated the proposal, "would be the exposure of the entire individual to X-ray. When the whole body is exposed, a relatively small amount of radiation is sufficient to produce effects that would lead to death within a few weeks, and it is highly probable that sporadic deaths of this kind would be considered as due to blood dyscrysias. As little as 800 r. could do it."

In 1976, the Church Committee reported that Pash had been specifically delegated responsibility for planning the agency's assassinations, kidnappings, and similar "wet work. Obviously, Colonel Pash would not have winced a the idea of zapping someone with a radiation ray gun out of Darth Vader.

Pash worked with the "Father of Dirty Tricks," Frank Wisner, then assistant director of the CIA's Office of Policy Coordination (OPC). A few months after Pash's proposal, Wisner wrote that the "OPC is at present engaged in covert unconventional activity on a limited scale," and for that reason "wanted to make use of the latest scientific and technological advances to modernize the field of clandestine unconventional warfare ... We are particularly interested in the possibilities of BW, CW and RW (biological, chemical, and radiological warfare)," including the application of "nuclear energy."

"These proposals moved a step closer to implementation," according to a CIA memo, "when CIA officials subsequently tried to interest the military and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in developing nuclear and radiation weapons suitable for use by guerrillas or saboteurs."

While the Pentagon was not interested, the AEC was. So,"[I]n October 1951, Acting DCI Allen Dulles asked AEC Chairman Gordon Dean to meet with Joseph Frank about the feasibility of 'research, development or adaptation of atomic weapons and radiological warfare materials that would be suitable and appropriate for employment by clandestine means.'"

Dean met with Frank, and in March 1952, the AEC told Frank Wisner that a nuclear weapon could be built to CIA specifications but at "appalling costs and only with the approval of higher authority. CIA Director Walter B. Smith promised Wisner that he would consider raising the matterat the proper levels if he specified "in the clearest and most convincing terms the strategic or tactical value of our proposed use of The Thing."

The CIA claims that nothing came of these proposals. But,in 1954, shortly after Dulles' speech, CIA deputy chief of the Southeastern European Division, Christian M. Freer, presented Wisner's successor, Richard Helms, with a full--scale plan for the use of radiological weapons, including their use in Vietnam on behalf of the French. Author Richard Rhodes recently revealed that in 1954 the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff had approved the use of nuclear weapons against the Vietnamese fighting the French at Diem Binh Phu, but the plan was vetoed by President Eisenhower.Freer's plan* was as follows.

It is suggested that consideration be given to the development of a radiological weapon which, it is hoped, would make profitable use of substantial quantities of radioactive waste materials -- which now constitute a considerable disposal problem -- to neutralize or interdict enemy activity in localized areas for relatively short periods wi thout simultaneously causing substantial loss of life and the destruction of property.
In exploring this idea, the writer had gained the impression that:
- the present concept of radiological warfare is along the lines of developing only lethal weapons; no thought has apparently been given to the possibility of developing a weapon of this kind, or for the purposes proposed below; and
- the technical problems could probably be worked out provided that a safe means could be evolved for handling the radioactive materials in concentrated form or in large quantity.
To this end it is suggested that it may be possible to disseminate quantities of radioactive by-product materials (in the form of dust, mist or otherwise) sufficient to cause short-term illness on the part of persons in the immediate area and incapacitate them for a limited time without, however, being lethal. By virtue of the relatively short 'life time' of the incapacitating radioactivity level, occupation of the area, by friendly forces should be possible before local defenders were capable of offering serious resistance.
In amplification of the above, and in light of the indications of an abnormal Soviet sensitivity to radioactive contamination, several applications of such a weapon appear reasonable. These include employment along the lines of a rolling barrage; employment in conjunction with appropriate psychological warfare measures; and paramilitary exploitation. Thus, for example, if such a weapon were used to effect a rolling barrage, an entire front might be conveniently sterilized of enemy potential, in successive depths, permitting a frontal advance over an extended area. As a psychological weapon the employment of light dosage contamination might be combined with radio broadcasts and warning leaflets designed to reduce to a minimum civilian and even military resistance; such psychological warfare measures might on the one hand emphasize that use of this relatively benign weapon reflected the humanitarian concern of the United States to avoid needless loss of life and property and on the other stress that full recovery would depend upon complete inactivity, in the absence of which sterility, prolonged illness and possibly death would ensue. In paramilitary employment a wide diversification of uses is suggested including the contamination of warehousing or storage areas, preliminary softening-up operations to reduce the defensive capabilities of well-defended areas, and the introduction of confusion into closely integrated defenses. Obviously, the contamination of food and water supplies as an end result is included in the above potential use.
The logistics problem involved in the use of such weapons might be complex because of the short life of the materials employed; however, this problem might well be counter-balanced by ease of packaging and of delivery resulting from the smaller concentration of radioactivity required.
The potential of such a weapon is obviously not only in military terms of overruning selected resistance points at a minimum loss in casualties to the attacking force and in the preservation of the physical assets in the area (which both our military forces and the local civilian population could use to good advantage) but also from the important humanitarian and psychological standpoint of waging war without causing the widespread destruction of life and property attendant upon the use of lethal weapons of whatever kind. It would also appear that such a weapon might be used to advantage defensively in fighting delaying actions or in such battles as the one in Diem Bien Phu, where a protective ring might have been thrown around the town to prevent the attacking forces from approaching beyond a certain perimeter.

[*Source: MEMORANDUM FOR: DD/P, THROUGH: C/SE C/OP, SUBJECT: Suggestions for New Radiological Warfare Development, DC/SE 28 October 1954.]

Freer's plan had come with the recommendation of the CIA's Nuclear Energy Division, and he had presented his plan to Helms "for your information and any further action you deem appropriate." Shortly thereafter, Helms approved a large project, supported by the AEC, for the research and development of "covert biological, chemical and radiological warfare" techniques at the Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington , D. C. under the direction of Dr. Charles Geschickter. As suggested by the AEC with regard to "The Thing," this project had the approval of the highest authority, the Presidential Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, and the AEC initially pledged $500,000 for the project.

The CIA would have us believe that all of this came to nought even though millions of dollars went to Geschickter who conducted human radiation experiments and the development of horrendous techniques for attacking the Central Nervous System and rendering someone unconscious.

As late as 1972, the CIA's Project Often was attempting to develop covert techniques to induce strokes and heart attacks, and it is currently conducting brain research at the Human Brain Research Laboratory and elsewhere. The key question, of course, is: Why is a secret police and paramilitary agency allowed to conduct such research.

In 2004, the federal government launched Operation Backfire, a wide-scale investigation of environmental and animal rights activists. It used paid informants and conducted warrantless spying on a range of organizations. Since then, numerous individuals around the country have been arrested and charged with arson, destruction of property and conspiracy in the government's attempts to target the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). Others were subpoenaed to testify before grand juries. Some were charged with the use of "destructive devices," one count of which carries a mandatory 30-year sentence-two counts call for mandatory life in prison. The government is over-charging people with offenses that carry severe sanctions to force them to accept guilty pleas for a lower sentence or to intimidate them into turning state's evidence. The government is misusing destructive device charges and engaging in selective prosecution. For example, in the SHAC7 (Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty) case the government in 2004 prosecuted the administrators of a website, charging them with 'conspiracy' to violate the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, an industry-specific statute that provides harsher sentences for those protesting animal-related businesses than say those protesting women's health clinics. The Animal Enterprise Protection Act is a clear violation of the First Amendment, as it makes certain types of political speech illegal. Three of the SHAC7 defendants were found guilty only of conspiracy, a charge that is rarely prosecuted without a substantive offense connected to it. "In the past few years, the Guild has witnessed a disturbing trend of targeting protesters engaged in dissent, and in imposing draconian sentences for expressing such dissent. Life sentences for property damage offenses where the actor has no intent to harm an individual are simply unconstitutional-the punishment does not fit the crime," said Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild. The FBI rates ALF and ELF as the number one domestic terrorist threat, calling eco-sabotage the government's top domestic terrorism priority. The State Department's definition of terrorism is: "premeditated politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatants." The expanded definition of domestic terrorism in the Patriot Act punishes a person who commits a dangerous criminal act intended to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population." The Guild is greatly concerned about the use of the word terrorism because it obfuscates issues about the evidence and the ability to fairly evaluate the merits of the case. The National Lawyers Guild has established a hotline, 888-NLG-ECOLAW, for individuals arrested or subpoenaed for offenses related to environmental or animal activism. The Guild held a symposium, "The Green Scare: What Lawyers Need to Know," at Cardozo Law School in New York last June. Update: In December of 2006, six suspects were arrested by the FBI and jailed in Oregon as part of Operation Backfire and charged with various ecotage crimes. Two weeks later, one of the detainees, William Rodgers, 40, committed suicide in his prison cell.

The next month saw the extradition of out-of-state defendants in the case, and a Jan 20 press conference in which (soon-to-be-ex- ?)Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez referred to the defendants as terrorists and a DOJ press release headlined "11 Indicted on Domestic Terrorism Charges." However, "terrorism" was not mentioned once in the 83-page indictment, nor were any of the defendants charged under domestic terrorism statutes.[ref] Since then seven of the defendants have been released, and the remaining four are scheduled forsentencing in early June. For updates, go to http://www.ecoprisoners.org and http://greenscare.org/OperationBackfire.html.


Alfred W. McCoy, A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror (New York: Henry Holt, 2006). "Uncovers the deep disturbing roots of Abu Graib and Guantanamo and shows that these abuses are the product of a long-standing covert program of interrogation.". Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond - yada yada A Peoples History of Science: Miners, Midwives, and "Low Mechanicks" (Nation Books - Paperback), by Clifford D Connor - looks at the "production and propagation of science [by] anonymous masses of humble people..."