CAN ANYONE EXORCISE THE WITLESSNESS OF THE CIA?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100120112-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2007
• Sequence Number: 112
• Publication Date: September 25, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/08/20: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100120112-7
THE WASHINGTON STAR
25 September 1977
Admiral Stansfield Turner assures
us, whenever he can, that he has
driven evil out of the CIA. That could
be, but what can he do about the silli-
ness?
The, rich variety of twits retired
from the Company-:who filed past
Sen.. Edward Kennedy's committee
this week make you wonder if the
admiral's undertaking is "mission
impossible."
The former operatives'of "Opera-
tion MK-Ultra - and -MK-ChickWit
seemed without embarrassment or
remorse - as 'they- their
expensive and unproductive attempts
to drug their unwitting fellow-citi-
zens. Their memories of soluble
swizzle-sticks and LSD aerosol cans,
stink-bombs and Playboy-type - safe-
houses they recounted with amuse-
ment.
David Rhodes, a red-haired former
agency psychiatrist, who looked as if
he had wandered off the pages of a
Graham-Greene G.reene-'noy.el assured the
committee airily, that'-"at: the time
he thought the work-,,was. "worth-.
S'Jx7;f:
Kennedy asked him if administer
ing -drugs to people:without their
knowledge was something approved
under the canons of the. American
Psychological Association. _: ..
Rhodes replied, with that nimble
evasion which marked ;most of the
: testimony ? taken, from -'the. former
spooks, that he was "not, absolutely
sure.
What of his own opinion? - - }'...
Rhodes, seemed 1; mildly taken.
aback by a query that was obviously
not--- heard much around the
~3- ., .. .... .
Company.
"My personal feeling," he said, "is
that administering drugs to an unwit-
ting person - this is something, you.
know, we shouldn't do:"
Then, as if he had said something
indiscreet, or possibly socially unac-
ceptable, he added. `That -is - a per-
sonal opinion."
He. was on the stand with an ex
agent named Philip Goldman, who
bore a striking resemblance to
.Daddy Warbucks, and who gave
assurance that in slipping drugs to
-unsuspecting subjects, "We would
take the precautions of giving the.
.smallest possible dose."
Dr. Robert Lashbrook,~thedeputy
director of MK-Ultra, a small,..white-
haired man, enjoyed setting the sena-
tors straight about the CIA , docu-
ments - they-:..were;- questioning, him
about.-.,-
'-Just because a. "memo for the sys-
tem".stated something was no rea-
son to take it' seriously. They have
something - called ."boiler-plate
words" to describe projects , which
they wish to conceal from them-
selves
"It is`a . summary, he-.said'
merrily, to the bewilderment of his
audience. "Accurate- records were;
kent`_accurate_.files_were. main-
tained." What.happened to the good
stuff he did not say...
Dr. Lashbrook stepped back.;:
'
'
"I wouldn
t know," he said. -? "
?-
As a group, they were remarkably-
unconcerned, not at all your ordinary -
civil servant called to account by the
representatives.. of the people.. The
reason- was not hard, to find.. They
daily-life as the.'ultra-rich. They had
- all. the secret money they could ask-
..for, from- an indulgent -. Congress.
Their- z double-memo-keeping gave
them total deniability. They. were the,
The man who was- their chief did'
much to: explain their special cast of
mindlessness. --Dr. -Sidney-. Gottlieb,
who was heard-,but- not seen..--? his.
health is-not equal to the ordeal of
television coverage satin a back.
into the hearing room-. =r ?';:
He was clearly the most muddled
of them all. He had insisted on im-
munity for his covert. appearance,
but why is a mystery.-He remem-
bered next to nothing- He thought
."there might have been a doctor" at
the two-way mirror in the safehouse,
so that an unwitting subject could be
'ministered to if his government OD'd-
-Gottlieb said in his rapid voice that,
the death of Frank Olson, who threw-
himself out a window in 1953 after the
.CIA had slipped him some LSD, had
given him pause. But he consulted
two doctors who told him- that the
,two - betwen the dosage and
the - death -- was not "necessarily
(-.causal." So the CIA stayed on drugs
::unt41973.
r..- Admiral Turner, , in his - best.
quarter-deck manner, explained that
one program was basically a Defense
Department project,. and reminded .
the committee that it had all hap-
pened along time ago.
' Sen. - Kennedy ` countered that=
:human drug-testing had continued
until 1973. "But not on unwitting sub-
jects," said the admiral, as if the dis-
tinction were everything. A-.clear-eyed young -woman from
the . Pentagon, its general counsel,
-Deanne C. Siemer, stepped forward
and straightened out the record. She
spoke = in simple, - declarative sen-
tences.; She--dealt= with one set of
documents, one set- of facts- On the
projects in question, Defense had
worked for CIA,. not, the. other way
around
Hercrispness dazzled the senators.**.
,A hey praised? her extravagantly for-
t he completeness of her presentation.
Any agency that comes off second
best to the Defense Department, the
mother church of obfuscation, ex
travagance and general witlessness,
is in sad shape. The old submarine
skipper seems to feel he can shape it
sup. Maybe he should -torpedo- it in-
Approved For Release 2007/08/20: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100120112-7
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