Son probes strange death of WMD worker (Frank Olson)

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Sunday, September 12, 2004 | Scott Shane, Baltimore Sun

[Buddy B]

Son probes strange death of WMD worker
He believes agents murdered employee of Army to protect government secrets

He was 9 years old when his mother woke him before dawn half a century ago in Cold War America. Eric Olson came blinking into the living room of their Frederick, Md., home, where his father's boss and friend, Col. Vincent Ruwet, sat with the family doctor.

"Everybody had this stony-faced expression," Olson recalls. "I remember Ruwet saying, 'Your father was in New York and he had an accident. He either fell out the window or jumped.' "

After decades of dogged inquiry, Eric Olson now has a new verb for what happened to his father, Frank Olson, who worked for the Army's top-secret Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, where he developed bioweapons and experimented with mind-control drugs.

[Buddy B]

In Olson's case, it took the government until 1975 to admit to the LSD experiment. When an investigation of CIA abuses exposed the facts in 1975, two White House aides named Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld helped set up a meeting at which President Gerald Ford apologized to the Olson family.

The goal, according to a declassified White House memo, was to avert a lawsuit in which it "may become apparent that we are concealing evidence for national security reasons."

[Socratic]

I wonder why this is being rehashed now? This is old news which has been around forever. Oops! Foolish me - this is a political season and everyone has their guns out.

[Henchman]

Yes, I remember when that guy took a dive through the window. There were a lot of crazy experiments back then, like using some LSD type gas on the NYC Subway System. I also remember those poor GI's who had to be subjected to A-bomb tests. Things happened back then.

I think / hope the US Gov has straightened out. You cannot equate then to now - other than for cover ups- National Security? Both the Dems and Reps will do it. I just don't like it when things like Agent Orange or Gulf Syndrome are denied and then found true.

[ShugahPop]

you know, I SAW a segment about this case on "Unsolved Mysteries" YEARSSSSSSSSS ago... I always wondered how this could have happened and why the government didnt help them at the time...

[nmh]

"In Olson's case, it took the government until 1975 to admit to the LSD experiment. When an investigation of CIA abuses exposed the facts in 1975, two White House aides named Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld helped set up a meeting at which President Gerald Ford apologized to the Olson family. "

"The goal, according to a declassified White House memo, was to avert a lawsuit in which it "may become apparent that we are concealing evidence for national security reasons."

"What evidence was concealed, the memo does not reveal. But people who are far from wild-eyed conspiracy theorists accept the plausibility of Frank Olson's death as an execution."

Another hit piece on those evil Republicans.

LOL!

[expatpat]

How could this happen? Timothy Leary told us that LSD was perfectly safe.

[gutshot]

Forever is right. People have been "exposing" this scandal anew for 30 years.
http://www.frankolsonproject.org/Contents.html

[DBrow]

This was part of a project named MK ULTRA.

Olson was probably working on MK NAOMI.

Two good books detailing parts of MK ULTRA (including killing a zoo elepant with a 325 mg dose of LSD) are

In Search of the Mancurian Candidate

and

Acid Dreams

or search for MK ULTRA with the tinfoil filter setting to "high".

This probably is coming up because of Cheney's link to the affair. Alan Gottlieb was the man in charge, though.

[Socratic]

Thanks for the link. I see a new book is to be released in February. This explains renewed interest in old news.

[Slump Tester]

I don't know how true all this is, but it's interesting reading:

MKULTRA: CIA Mind Control

Do a Google on mkultra for more.

I remember reading somewhere about how it was SOP at CIA headquarters to dose a couple fellow workers with LSD and not tell them. Nice bunch of folks, huh?

[Publius6961]

If a WMD is never used as a WMD, how can it be characterized as such?
I seem to have missed that aspect of the article.

If LSD caused that man's death, then can we say that dozens of hippies and druggies died of self-inflicted WMDs during that same period?

[WorkingClassFilth]

"I think / hope the US Gov has straightened out."

1992-2000: Rapist CIC gave national defense secrets to China including nuclear weapon information and critical guidance systems.

2000- : Nothing has been done to set the record straight or prosecute wrong do-ers.

Comment: We ain't there quite yet.

[nvcdl]

Curiously enough many of the original CIA leaders & officers seem to have been Leftists and World Government types. I wouldn't put it past them to off an inconvienent employee.