A new document suggests that the CIA, using LSD, launched Frenchmen into electric ladyland in 1951.
Traveler’s tip: If you find yourself abroad at a bar with a shifty American in tweeds, finish your drink before going to the lavatory. Going on new details that suggest the CIA dosed unsuspecting Frenchmen with LSD in 1951, it could save you from falling prey to the dreaded roofie trap.
In the middle of last century, an outbreak of hallucinations gripped the small town of Pont Saint Esprit, sending many to the local hospital with symptoms typically associated with a young Phil Lesh. These individuals experienced the colloquial “bad trip,” while not even aware they were on hallucinogens.
According to the BBC, the original explanation placed the blame on a psychedelic fungus that infected the local bakery. But recently, in 2009, an American investigative journalist revealed a CIA document labelled: “Re: Pont-Saint-Esprit and F.Olson Files. SO Span/France Operation file, inclusive Olson. Intel files. Hand carry to Belin—tell him to see to it that these are buried.”:
“F. Olson is Frank Olson, a CIA scientist who, at the time of the Pont St Esprit incident, led research for the agency into the drug LSD.”
If the CIA indeed did dope these innocent villagers, treating them like lab mice, there should be some apologies sent through the mail, and pronto. As one octogenarian reports to the British press, it was tantamount to cerebral torture:
“‘It was terrible. I had the sensation of shrinking and shrinking, and the fire and the serpents coiling around my arms,’ he remembers.
He was put in a straitjacket but he shared a room with three teenagers who had been chained to their beds to keep them under control.
‘Some of my friends tried to get out of the window. They were thrashing wildly… screaming, and the sound of the metal beds and the jumping up and down… the noise was terrible.
‘I’d prefer to die rather than go through that again.’”
Whoa, sounds intense!
This doesn’t appear to be an isolated incident either. The CIA recently came under investigation for an agent who allegedly date-raped a woman in Algeria; similarly, in 2006, Russian agents assassinated a critic of Putin by placing a lethal tab of thallium in his drink. And just this summer, the Department of Homeland Security reportedly ran experiments on Boston commuters via the subway air ducts.
Mind your cups, people, because spies are all over the place, trying to date rape you and your daughter. Just remember this the next time you go out: these agents of death train in the arts of deception, philandering, and creative killing. They will fuck you up, and it won’t be a pleasurable experience.
[BBC]
