"CIA Secret Experiments" on National Geographic Channel

Tonight, National Geographic Channel is airing a special program titled "CIA Secret Experiments," about the organization's secret research on mind control, germ warfare, and other questionable methods that they thought could give the US an upper hand in the Cold War. The video teaser on the site is a bit cheesy with the re-enactments, but I expect there will be some good info in the show. From National Geographic Channel:

• In the wake of World War II, the U.S. government was engaged in a large number of confidential medical experiments designed to help win the Cold War. During these elicit experiments they exposed unknowing members of the public to biological and chemical agents, developed techniques for mind control, and even planned assassinations on powerful leaders of developing nations.

• Some methods that were considered for the distribution of these chemicals were to poison cigars, toothpaste, and ink.

• The CIA embarked upon a multimillion dollar, highly classified research program into the covert use of biological and chemical materials such as bacteria to infect the enemy, poisons for assassinations, and truth drugs for interrogations.

• Included in the medicine chest used for these experiments would have been anthrax, the plague, and brucellosis.

• A U.S. army experiment on New York City in 1966 exposed over a million people to the bacterium bacillus subtilis variant niger. Scientists used light bulbs filled with a combination of bacteria and charcoal particles, which they then dropped through vents onto the subway tracks.

• During this experiment, trillions of germs were released into the transit system during peak travel hours. The trials were conducted without the knowledge or cooperation of the NYC Transit Authority or Police Department.

• During this period, the CIA was also looking into the use of chemical substances for ways to manipulate and control human behavior; one such chemical that caught their attention was lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD.

• The CIA recruited prisoner volunteers to be administered LSD as part of their experimentation. The prisoners who cooperated were sometimes given heroin as a reward. In one experiment, prisoners were kept on increasing doses of LSD for 77 consecutive days.

"CIA Secret Experiments"