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JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
&
ALEXANDER COCKBURN
FROM THEIR BOOK:
WHITEOUT:
THE CIA,DRUGS, AND THE PRESS
Published by Verso (1997)
IN JULY 1968, A TEAM OF CIA PSYCHOLOGISTS SET UP SHOP AT BIEN HOA PRISON OUTSIDE SAIGON, WHERE NLF (NORTH VIETNAM'S NATIONAL LIBERATIONFRONT) SUSPECTS WERE BEING HELD AFTER OHOENIZ PROGRAM ROUND-UPS. THE CIA HAD BECOME INCREASINGLY FRUSTRATED WITH ITS INABILITY TO BREAK DOWN SUSPECTED NLF LEADERS BY USING TRADITIONAL MEANS OF INTERROGATION AND TORTURE. THEY HAD DOPED UP NLF OFFICERS WITH LSD, HOPING THAT BY INDUCING IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOR, THE SEEMINGLY UNBREAKABLE SOLIDARITY OF THEIR CAPTIVES COULD BE BROKEN AND THAT OTHER INMATES WOULD BEGIN TO TALK. THESE EXPERIMENTS ENEDED IN FAILURE, LEAVING THE PRISONERS LITTLE MORE THAN LAB MATERIAL FOR EXPERIMENTS.
ONE SUCH EXPERIMENT, THREE PRISONERS WERE ANESTHETIZED: THEIR SKULLS WERE THEN OPENED AND ELECTRODES WERE IMPLANTED BY CIA DOCTORS INTO DIFFERENT PARTS OF THEIR BRAINS. THE PRISONERS WERE REVIVED, PLACED IN A ROOM WITH KNIVESAND THE ELECTRODES IN THE BRAINS ACTIVATED BY THE CIA PSYCHIATRISTS WHO WERE COVERTLY OBSERVING THEM. THE HOPE WAS THEY COULD BE PROMPTED IN THIS MANNER TO ATTACK EACH OTHER. THE EXPERIMENTFAILED. THE ELECTRODES WERE REMOVED, THE PATIENTS WERE SHOT AND THEIR BODIES BURNED. THIS RIVALED ANYTHING IN DACHAU.
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