Sidney Gottlieb died March 7, 1999 MK-ULTRA
CIA Official Sidney Gottlieb, 80, Dies
Sidney Gottlieb, 80, the former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's technical services division who in the 1950s and '60s directed CIA mind control experiments, including the administration of drugs and LSD to unwitting human subjects, died March 7 at his home in Washington, Va. He had a history of heart ailments.
Dr. Gottlieb retired from the CIA in 1973 after 22 years of service out of the public spotlight. But he emerged from the clandestine shadows in the mid-1970s on Capitol Hill at widely publicized congressional hearings on CIA procedures, practices and expenses.
He defended the CIA drug program before the Senate human resources subcommittee in 1977, arguing that the aggressive use of drugs in intelligence operations by other countries in the early years of the Cold War called for an appropriate response by the United States. The lack of drug knowledge on the part of the United States, he said, "posed a threat of the magnitude of national survival."
He acknowledged that the CIA had administered drugs, including LSD, to as many as 40 unwitting human subjects in experiments at houses the agency maintained in New York and San Francisco. But he said this activity enabled the CIA to understand better what other countries were doing in the drug field.
He said there were at least 20 documented instances in which diplomatic or military attaches of the United States or its allies had been attacked with incapacitating drugs by foreign countries. In one case, he said, a U.S. courier lost consciousness after a "potential enemy" slipped a pipe under his door and administered an odorless gas. The door was then opened and the courier's papers taken, Dr. Gottlieb said.
Dr. Gottlieb testified before the panel under grant of limited immunity from prosecution. Already suffering from serious heart ailments, he gave his testimony in a small antechamber. His voice was piped out to the media through a public address system.
Dr. Gottlieb, a native of New York, attended City College of New York and graduated from the University of Wisconsin. He received a doctorate in biochemistry from the California Institute of Technology.
He joined the CIA in 1951, at a time when the Korean War was raging. Tension and hostility between the United States and the Soviet Union were at a peak. U.S. officials feared Chinese brainwashing techniques would be used on prisoners of war in Korea, and the intelligence community feared the Soviet Union might try to use LSD or some other drug as a chemical weapon.
To counter these threats, the CIA organized a program called MK-ULTRA, which Dr. Gottlieb eventually managed. It included 149 projects involving drug testing, behavior modification and secret administration of mind-altering drugs at 80 U.S. and Canadian universities, hospitals, research foundations and prisons. At least one participant died, and others have said they suffered serious psychological damage. Shortly before retiring, Dr. Gottlieb concluded that most of these experiments had been of little or no value.
MK-ULTRA also included research in hypnosis, human behavior, drugs and toxins in human tissue, electroshock, "harassment techniques for offensive use," and gas-propelled sprays and aerosols.
As chief of the technical services division, Dr. Gottlieb presided over what was sometimes known as the "gadget shop," which developed such devices as wristwatch radios, false mustaches, disappearing ink, dart guns that could kill without leaving any trace, and various poisons. Agency researchers collected "sizable amounts" of tick venom, which could be used to paralyze muscles and induce what an agency memo described as "involuntary sleep."
On retiring from the CIA, Dr. Gottlieb and his wife worked in a leprosy hospital in India for 18 months, then moved to a farm in Rappahannock County, Va., where they raised goats and did folk dancing.
Survivors include his wife, Margaret Gottlieb, and four children.
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