For all those nutters who cry “Conspiracy theory” whenever it is stated that the CIA have ever done anything wrong, here is a story from that impeccably conservative source, the Daily Telegraph:
A 50-year mystery over the ‘cursed bread’ of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which left residents suffering hallucinations, has been solved after a writer discovered the US had spiked the bread with LSD as part of an experiment.
As up-to-date as ever.
Note to self:
Stay away from french bread covered with LSD.
I wouldn’t recommend anyone takes LSD, and haven’t done such a thing since 1984.
Some people go completely insane, and never come back to be able to do what they once could so brilliantly – like for example Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. For others like Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac, they stay there for around 30 years before finding a way back to recovery.
I don’t know if LSD is still available, but its extremely weird very powerful stuff. I have no experience of the modern equivalent Ecstasy, though I suspect it is a very much milder experience.
I have been told that Magic Mushrooms can be even stranger than LSD. I used to work with an artist who was still getting horrendous flashbacks, years after taking them.
Incidentally, I would recommend the new film Alice In Wonderland in 3D, no matter how old you are, providing there is still something remaining of the Child in You. If you have no imagination and innocence left in your heart and soul, then you will probably hate it.
Tony
‘For all those nutters who cry “Conspiracy theory” whenever…’
Now that’s how you turn the tables! You really ought to dedicate some more time to this writing lark, Craig. How about a novel or two?
Exactly. There was a conspiracy – one that actually happened. One wonders which conspiracies are being hidden from us today, only to be revelaed years later.
Sandoz. Christopher Mayhew. R. D. Laing and the IRD. Baroness Caroline Cox.
How did she get away with it?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8564017.stm
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/05/a_gentlemans_di.html refers
“For all those nutters who cry “Conspiracy theory” whenever it is stated that the CIA have ever done anything wrong”
Now that’s just silly.
Name one person who shouts “conspiracy theory” when it is pointed out that the CIA did anything wrong.
If that’s a swipe at me – I can count numerous things that the CIA did wrong over the years. I think they should start anew, and have everyone interview for their jobs.
However, I do shout “conspiracy theory” when people claim that the CIA is hiding Bigfoot or the space aliens or that the CIA preplanted Building 7 with supersecretnanothermie because there was a CIA office in there.
I think you should familiarize yourself with the notion of what a “conspiracy theory” is, as at least 80% of your regular commenters seem to buy into anything, like bin Laden buzzing the WTC in a black helicopter just prior to 911.
But, in any event, what do we have here with this LSD thing? I’d like to see more evidence, of course. This might very well be true, as it’s a claim that is not entirely extraordinary.
However, unlike you, I don’t automatically believe it because it’s in the Telegraph.
You’re starting to have some weird faith in some weird things, Mr. Ambassador. You’re starting to sound like your commenters.
Larry,
As you obviously think I am a conspiraloon, I will mention a few things that have arrived over the last 24 hours direct to our home. I don’t think the CIA were responsible for any of them, though one of them was the result of an interview for a job.
1. A Chinese Lantern complete with enormous red heart. It arrived sometime in the night and landed right outside our back door.
2. A Mobile Fast Broadband Dongle that I plug into my laptop. The most amazing thing about this – is that it actually works – incredibly well – unlike other offerings I have tried – and is very cheap indeed.
3. Confirmation from my daughter’s new employer about her new job. Now you may think it is easy trying to get a job when you are 19 at University, to help pay for all the stuff you want to do, but many people get to the age of 23 with a first class degree and can’t find any kind of paid employment whatsoever.
Sure its only the minimum wage for a 19 year old, but the experience will be invaluable.
As regards people who believe the official conspiracy theory, I can explain that very easily, because I have also studied psychology and taken part in psychological based leadership training, though I refused the brainwashing course, where they basically destroy your own inate personality, and rebuild it in the company’s image.
Tony
What’s that strange, vaguely annoying whine wafting in from St. Louis…..?
This is not so interesting as Karl Rove, declaring that, water boarding is not torture.
I would like him to undertake some water boarding, to see if he changes his mind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Olson
Has more on that bit. It seems to have been where the popular ‘think you can fly and jump out of the window’ story originated.
Several years back, I was chatting on a newsgroup with a retired New York copper, he said he’d been hoping to meet such a case, because he knew what to do about it. “Nah, you don’t really think you can at all. No confidence, see ? If you really believe you can fly, you’d go down to ground-level and do a proper take-off like everyone else”.
Bread Mould Madness…
Oh & see http://preview.tinyurl.com/yhko45c for a thourough analysis/debunking of David Aaronovitch conspiracy theory of ‘conspiracy theories’…..
I sometimes wonder, in a ‘Man Who Was Thursday’ sort of a way, if there are any conspiracy theories which are *not* true, when what they have most conspicuously in common is a clear antithesis to establishment narratives. In this propagandistic method anyone expressing doubt of an official narrative is, ipso facto, delusional. CTs are worse than errors, they are dangerous heresies.
Perhaps someone who uncritically believes all of them ends up with a more realistic view of the world than someone who believes none.
I can attest that being spiked is truly terrifying. I was spiked with LSD back in the early 90’s by ‘a friend’ who thought it would be a laugh to drop a tab of acid into my pint after work. It scared the crap out of me when he started to turn into a strange liquid metal/mercury being in front of my eyes (think Robert Patrick in Terminator 2). Apparently I started laughing hysterically and was whisked home in a taxi by which time I had to be pinned to the floor by two rugby playing housemates for several hours until I finally stopped screaming and fell asleep. I woke up on the living room floor two days later. I suspect that had I been living in a leafy suburb rather than a dodgy and noisey estate in Hammersmith I would have been carted off in as straightjacket as I was according to eyewitnesses ‘proper mental’. I have had the odd flashback over the years and a few problems with my memory – most of the 1990’s are just a jumble to me.
Sorry to ‘spike’ your guns, but thoroughly debunked here: http://tinyurl.com/y9gtup5
One further reason why we should all strictly follow the Murray diet:
one shot of whisky, four times a day, will kill off any pesky mind-altering pollutants.
And, of course, stay away from Nouvelle cuisine!
“I can attest that being spiked is truly terrifying.”
I bet. Among people already familiar with it who’d recognise what was happening when it kicked in, and in a social setup where other people were friendly with such states, it might be different, but to have that kind of stuff happening without knowing any explanation (except the obvious, that your mind was going wrong), among other people who ditto … bleargh. And, to be surrounded by people who were doing it deliberately for manipulative purposes ? Much, much worse, if they knew what they were doing.
The article doesn’t go much into the purpose of the experiment, apart from a vague comment about ‘offensive weapon’ – incapacitation, pure and simple ? The Olson thing was supposed to be about use in interogation; which leads me to notice that we haven’t heard much about drugs being used in this current era of interrogation-by-torture. I wonder if they gave up on the whole program in despair of finding any meaning in what they were hearing, or whether we still have those discoveries to come ?
One thing that strike me as strange is why do it overseas? I would of thought it would be easier to observe and cover up in the USA. Do it in Smallsville USA and if someone asks questions tell them to think of Uncle Sam and keep quiet!
“thoroughly debunked here”
Eh? The writer picks up on the misuse of the word “diethylamide”. How on earth does that debunk the overall veracity of the story?
“For all those nutters who cry “Conspiracy theory” whenever it is stated that the CIA have ever done anything wrong”
Oh come on now. Conspiracy theories are implausible, elaborate and incoherent musings based on made-up narratives such as that David Kelly was murdered in July 2003 to pave the way for the Iraq War in March 2003.
“Sorry to ‘spike’ your guns, but thoroughly debunked here: http://tinyurl.com/y9gtup5”
The article itself looks like bollocks, but there are some possibly-good points about ergot, etc, down towards the bottom of the comments.
I say ‘possibly’ because it also asserts that the telegraph talks about ‘aerosols’, and is thereby debunked by tracing it to bread; which ain’t so, if you look at the telegraph *headline*. Sheesh. Which seems, to me, to call the rest into doubt, too.
There is a certain amount of vague talk, conflation and general journalese in the telegraph piece, too, though.
I guess I did it about 25 times in the early 80’s over 3 years or so.
I was always in a very safe envirnoment with people I could trust, and in a very good mood.
If in an unsafe environment, or it being done without pre-knowledge – ie in being spiked as in the example above, (or even in a depressed state even in a safe environment), I can well believe that it could be like a trip through the worst parts of hell, and possibly drive you permanently insane from which there is no escape.
On the other hand…I never had a bad trip, but would never do it again. I once had a bad experience with something else, which made me totally give up all such experiences.
I have no personal experience of what I believe are the most destructive drugs like cocaine, heroin etc. I have never personally known anyone who took heroin, though I do know someone who went to her best friend’s funeral at the age of 23 as a result of heroin, and I know a quite a few people, who have successfully managed to give up cocaine after it almost completely destroyed their lives.
Cigarettes and Alcohol may well be more physically harmful and kill and injure Millions more people, but if you have lost your mind, there is often no way back.
My sister refused to take any opiates, even when she was dying of cancer, because she didn’t want to be turned into a zombie, having personally seen the effects in the people she had cared for as a Nurse.
Tony
Bert,
I’d agree with the writer of that article who said that Aaronovitch’s definition of “conspiracy theory” is inadequate. That’s true but the writer makes some mistakes of his own.
“Aaronovitch seems to be unaware of Christopher Andrew’s book, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 (2009).”
That’s probably because Andrew’s book was published after Aaronovitch’s book had been written. Voodoo Histories came out in May 2009 (I think) and Andrew’s book came out towards the end of the year.
Then there’s lots of JFK stuff in which the writer seems to be unhappy that Aaronovitch hasn’t read enough about. The problem is that by now, no one can possibly have read enough of the JFK assassination to satisfy conspiracy buffs. They’ll always be just another book or video to watch. That’s not in itself a good enough reason to suspend judgment (and what conspiracy theorists usually mean when they ask people to suspend judgment or be “open-minded” it is to believe in a conspiracy).
“Oh come on now. Conspiracy theories are implausible, elaborate and incoherent musings based on made-up narratives such as that David Kelly was murdered in July 2003 to pave the way for the Iraq War in March 2003.” angrysoba
No, if it was political assasination, it would’ve been likely to have been effected because Kelly knew too much and had been perceived as a loose cannon at that particular juncture, someone who had information which could have posed a political threat to the Blair government and seriously undermined the justification for the attack and invasion of Iraq and thus exposed (from the inside) neocon war strategy.
Here is clear evidence of a CIA conspiracy in relation to LSD, an attack on an ally by the US state. What more is required, to demonstrate the malevolence of those who propel the machine of the US hard state and its war economy (of which the UK is a courtier and to which it is a contributor)?
Angrysoba, Why always mention the David Kelly conspiracy theory and not ones on the other side of the fence, like the conspiracy theories that Iraq had WMD and were working with Al Queda?
Is something only a conspiracy theory if you think it’s false *and* it is unofficial?
Lots of official explanations for things are theories about conspiracies and have implausible, elaborate plots to boot in many cases. Are they somehow exempt from your scepticism?
Plenty of official explanations turn out to be false, too.
Some false official explanations are also theories about conspiracies, yet somehow don’t get labelled as conspiracy theories and the people who believe(d) in them don’t get the ridicule they deserve.
Personally, I hold contempt for people who believe anything dodgy without sufficient evidence. I don’t care who came up with the crazy explanation that just-so-happens to fit their agenda/prejudices/fantasies, whether they’re a nutter in the street or in the government.
A country that ‘nuclearised’ people on purpose to find out what it would do to them, including pregnant women, can be trusted with more than a special relationship.
I find this plausible and just as the CIA was dealing in cocaine during the 70’s, arms and drugs always went together, this LSD story is just down their street.
The British army did the same and found it to have a devastating effect on soldiers,i.e. they sat down, through their guns away and stopped fighting.
Should anybody ever disperse LSD over a battlefield, you will see organised carnage turn to chaotic hilarity.
As for all the bad trips we experienced during the 60’s and 70’s, what did people expect?
These LSD doses were cooked up in some welsh valley by amateurs who were partial to the stuff during its production, hoe could they possibly get it right.
In my days it was always advisable to take a half at first, if it was too strong you’ll soon noticed.
Potency today is far less, todays illict manyfacturers do tend to use modern methods of dosing.
The story is a good subject for David Mitchells new programme ‘the bubble’, perfect.
Jacob’s Ladder.
“Is something only a conspiracy theory if you think it’s false *and* it is unofficial?”
angrysoba’s position is actually simpler – a narrative is a conspiracy theory if it is not the official narrative. Abstruse considerations like ‘truth’ do not concern him – he is himself wont to spell it ‘troof’, to emphasise its irrelevance. What he opposes is heterodoxy. It’s a religious position.
My weirdest experience was when I was about 27. I had split up with my girlfriend. I was very straight and very hard working at the time. I hadn’t even smoked a cigarette for around 5 years.
And then I met this hippie girl. She said try this. And so I smoked a couple of joints a couple of times – and thought – what is all the big fuss about cannabis? I’d rather have a couple of pints any day. This stuff is a waste of time.
And then on the third occasion….
I was sat in her lounge and there were a few people there talking and chatting about nothing much really and Jimi Hendrix was playing on the radio.
And I came out of myself, and I left my body, and I went up to the ceiling, in the top corner of the room, and I could clearly see my body below, and I could clearly see everyone else in the room chatting through the smoke haze.
I thought fucking hell, it does work. I wasn’t expecting this.
It has never happenned again.
Now, of course I tried to rationalise this experience, and did not come to the conclusion that this was proof of my soul as an existence totally seperate from my brain and body.
I put it down as a mental illusion as a result of being stoned.
I will be extremely impressed, if I can repeat the experience when I am dead, but think this rather unlikely.
Tony
“No, if it was political assasination, it would’ve been likely to have been effected because Kelly knew too much and had been perceived as a loose cannon at that particular juncture, someone who had information which could have posed a political threat to the Blair government and seriously undermined the justification for the attack and invasion of Iraq and thus exposed (from the inside) neocon war strategy.”
No, the theory on these pages was that the Dr Kelly was the first casualty of the Iraq War.
“Angrysoba, Why always mention the David Kelly conspiracy theory and not ones on the other side of the fence, like the conspiracy theories that Iraq had WMD and were working with Al Queda?”
I’ve said that I didn’t believe them either right here on these very pages.