BEHIND THE DOORS OF CIA 'SAFE HOUSES'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100210012-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 18, 2011
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: August 4, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/18: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100210012-7
G AR 17CL E APPIA4,KJ v
~y THE WASHINGTON STAR (GREEN LINE)
O.Y P.4 G? Jq -
Behind the Doors of CIA _'Sa "e. oases
By Jeremiah O'Leary Senators said they would call Cot- California safe house because he was
WuhIngtonStar StaffWriter tlieb to testif
i
f
y aga
n a
ter Turner a psychologist trying to develop an-
The CIA set up a pretty fair imita- declared he could not draw any con- thropoligical data on overseas cut-
tion of a brothel in San Francisco, clusion about what was going on in tures. His original work was on the
complete with the two safe houses. Chinese culture, the witness said. In
French furnishings a dttwo-wayomir- "He'd know the drugs that were those days, he said, little was known
rors. to carry out mind-control drug used and the volume and how they about drugs and the CIA did not have
experiments. were administered." Kennedy said., much information about how people
The operation was disclosed in But Kennedy recalled that Gottlieb reacted to drugs.
testimony and documents during a : has testified before and has what be "And the prostitutes were able to.
Senate committee hearing yesterday called a "fuzzy" memory. slip drugs to people?". Kennedy
on the CIA's clandestine experiments Kennedy gave a graphic descrip= asked.
in the 1950s and '60s. Sen
tion of how the bedroom of the San "Some of them
Edward M
h
d ch
k
l
-
.
.
a
at
now
-
Kennedy, D-Mass., led the question- Francisco 'house was decorated, edge," said Gittinger,,"I have no di-
ing of three CIA witnesses which pro- based on CIA vouchers connected. rest knowledge.. but
Gottlieb would ~
duced most of the disclosures about -with the human-behavior experi know."
the operation in San Francisco. - ments~
Using documents provided by CIA ~, Members of- the Senate Select
Director Stansfield Turner, Kennedy. IN THE: BEDROOM; I under- Committee on Intelligence and the
brought out that the agency kept so- stand.T there were elaborate decora Senate Health subcommittee holding
called "safe houses" in New York eons; Kennedy said. "There??was the joint hearing believe some $100
-and San Francisco for eight or nine one French can-can dancer's picture.. checks, handed over. by the CIA,
years. The object appeared to-.have three framed Toulouse. Lautrec post- were used to. pay., persons who took.
been for CIA operatives to encounter ers with black silk mats, red , part in the drug experiments. The
a cross-section of people from- all so- bedroom curtains and' red metallic;' names on the checks have been -de-
cial levels and entice or invite them . Panels." Kennedy added that two- leted, sources said, but there appears.
to come to the "safe.houses" where way mirrors were used in the safe to be little doubt that this Is how the
they could be drugged and observed..- houses, and Turner confirmed this. prostitutes were paid.
Under questioning by '.Kennedy, Sources said happenings in the CIA What was not made clear was
Turner acknowledged that certain houses also-were photographed and whether any of the test subjects ever
tests were conducted at the houses on conversations tape recorded. knew they were being used in a CIA
individuals selected at random but he The senators were unable to obtain drug experiment or. whether the ,
said he did twt know how many. ' any direct testimony that the prosti-- prostitutes knew they were working_i
tutes were hired by Hall and the CIA for the spy agency.
KENNEDY SAID the code names to administer drugs to the unwitting
chosen by an operative for the safe- subjects of the experiments. But ANOTHER FORMER CIA official.
house operations were Midnight and sources who have seen the classified who was allowed by the committees ,
Climax. Kennedy said the operative CIA documents said there was a to use the pseudonym of "Philip
was called Morgan Hall. which-prob. strong circumstantial case that.this Goldman" to protect his identity,
ably was not his real name, and that - was what occurrred. was described by Kennedy as the
Hall has been dead for two years. John Gittinger, a former CIA psy- monitor of 'the safe-house experi-
Hall. according to Kennedy, had two. - chologist,;-acknowledged that he had ments. Goldman, said he disbursed
additional' agents working' with him' ",been to the-San Francisco safe house.- the. money spent ~ an.. the. San- Fra
but Turner said it has not been possi He said that Hall had used prosti-- Cisco project and collected the reble to identify them. .:. - tutes and provided informants be.. ceipts. But he said he has literally-
The master mind of both operations -cause the- CIA. needed information on, washed all details out of his mind and
appparently was Dr. Sidney Gottlieb.. sex acts: -Gittinger. a veteran of 26' would be able to do no more than
Kennedy said Gottlieb's -name ap- years with the agency, said he ha4 verify the accuracy of documents.
pears on e.Verydocument about teitsaslnterviewed. some of these people as N'
CIA .. Goldman 'said her understood-the
on human behavior, and two former part of the project from 1956 to 1961:
two-way mirrors were to b
ffi
i
d b
l
e use
o
c
y
a
s-testified Gottlieb was isL' .a, '-:' federal narcotics a eats:
charge. GITTINGER SAID he went to the g
Earlier Turner said that the CIA
now has the names of 183 nongovern-
STAT
meat researchers and assistants who
worked on 149 CIA human-behavior
knowledge. - - -
were done on criminal sexualpsycho-
wane y suggested that.
Turner inform universities, founds-
tions and.other organizations if they'
had been used by CIA without being
now known to have been used by the
CIA for experiments, both with and i
without knowing the CIA was in-bt
volved K d
He-said most of-the people. and-,
'
Institutions Involved in the CIA dru=?.
programs had not been awareof
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/18: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100210012-7