NP? CIA, LSD, Greenwich Village

re Pynchon's references to the CIA and to LSD,  Slothrop's questioning
while under the influence, and perhaps the Whole Sick Crew, some of you may
find this entertaining:


http://www.counterpunch.org/

June 21, 2002

CounterPunch Special Report

Sex, Drugs & the CIA

by Douglas Valentine


[Editors' Note: We are once again pleased to publish an exclusive
investigative report by Douglas Valentine, author of The Phoenix Program,
the best book on the CIA's assassination program in Vietnam. This time
Valentine, who has just put the finishing touches on Strength of the Wolf
(a history of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and the origins of the war on
drugs), explores one of the Agency's more disgusting chapters, the doping
of unsuspecting American citizens with LSD. With the Bush administration
and members of congress from both parties clamoring to unfetter the spy
Agency in the wake of 9/11, this cautionary tale from the CIA's recent past
couldn't come at a more apt time. For more on George Hunter White and the
CIA's MK-Ultra program read our book Whiteout: the CIA, Drugs and the
Press.--jsc/ac]




" [...] The main reason White was given the MKULTRA LSD testing assignment,
was that he had acquired clandestine drug testing experience during the
Second World War. In 1943 he had been transferred from the FBN to the
Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Assigned to the spy agency as a
counter-intelligence officer, Major White became deeply involved in OSS
"truth drug" experiments, in which distilled marijuana was used in the
interrogation of prisoners of war, suspected double agents, and
conscientious objectors. White's 'truth drug" experiments continued until
at least 1947. [...] "Tine knew that George was dosing people," Gil Fox
explains. "It was his job, and when George was working LSD he rented an
apartment in the Village at 81 Bedford Street. He set himself up as an
artist/painter named Morgan Hall. He had Pat, who was an artist, paint
murals on the walls." [...] White wrote famous letter to Sid Gottlieb, in
which he said: "I was a very minor missionary, actually a heretic, but I
toiled wholeheartedly in the vineyards because it was fun, fun, fun. Where
else could a red-blooded American boy lie, kill, cheat, steal, rape and
pillage with the sanction and blessing of the All-Highest?" [...]  "