Detainees Drugged? Torture Memo Makes it Possible, History Makes it Probable

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/analysis/327
Recently, the infamous 2003 "torture memo" by John Yoo revealed that the government has been working under the assumption that it can legally use drugs on detainees. While the use of mind-altering substances on prisoners has been banned for decades in this country, Yoo interpreted the law differently. He said that as long as the drugs don't "disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality," their use is not prohibited.

Just because we're missing hard evidence of detainee drugging, however, doesn't mean it's not happening. Further back in our history, our military showed no qualms about drugging law-abiding, U.S. citizens.

In a fascinating article for Congressional Quarterly, Jeff Stein this week tells the story of survivors of MKULTRA, the mind-control experiments carried out by the CIA in the 1950s and 1960s. As a part of those experiments, the CIA used drugs as a "truth serum" in interrogations. Though the CIA and others laughed off stories about MKULTRA for years, a couple of declassified CIA reports remain which detail the experiments. Stein compared MKULTRA to the current mind-altering chemical usage he believes is occurring at Guantanamo Bay and other U.S. detention facilities:

"Today, the agency and the Pentagon stoutly deny they have used hallucinogenic and other mind-altering drugs on prisoners at Guantanamo and secret sites elsewhere. Just as in the 1970s, however, as I wrote in April, evidence to the contrary is mounting. The Washington Post's Joby Warrick also tracked down former prisoners at Guantanamo who said their minds were destabilized by repeated drug injections. Such stories have been told for 40 years now. Who are you going to believe?"