Alfred Richards, a pharmacologist, headed the Committee on Medical Research coordinating wartime medical research initiated by Department of Defense (DOD), Atomic Energy Commission (AEC, later EPA), and the CIA. In 1942, Richards requested permission from the Secretaries of the Army and Navy to . . . Continue reading →

1942–1945: U.S. Navy initiated poisonous Mustard Gas and Lewisite (derivative of arsenic) experiments to test protective clothing and anti-blister ointments at the Naval Research Laboratory and at the Army’s Edgewood Arsenal. According to declassified records and reports, mustard gas experiments were conducted . . . Continue reading →

In early summer of 1951, officials within the CIA’s Security Office — working in tandem with cleared scientists from Camp Detrick’s Special Operations Division and worked closely with a select group of scientists from a number of other Army installations, including Edgewood . . . Continue reading →

1947–1960: Sarin, soman and tabun, the deadly weaponized nerve gases developed by Nazi scientists and imported from Hitler’s chemical weapons arsenal, were tested on soldiers. Sarin was the focus of intense testing at Edgewood Arsenal; within one year (1947–1948) an Army study . . . Continue reading →

Declassified Edgewood document AD351962 – LSD tests on “volunteers” states: “When this document has served its purpose, DESTROY it in accordance with AR 380-5. DO NOT return the document to U. S. Army Edgewood Arsenal Chemical Research and Development Laboratories.”   (David Martin. . . . Continue reading →

1943–1973: Operation Whitecoat conducted at Ft. Detrick on 2,300 Seventh Day Adventist draftees who volunteered in lieu of active duty on the battlefield. They were subjected to 157 experiments testing deadly pathogens and disease-causing agents, and experimental vaccine safety trials. Among the . . . Continue reading →

CIA’s Project ARTICHOKE involved extreme methods of interrogation — “enhanced interrogation” — these included hypnosis, forced morphine addiction, drug withdrawal, the use of chemicals and electroshock aimed at inducing amnesia. The experiments induced paranoia and hallucinations in U.S. soldiers who were the . . . Continue reading →

James Stanley, a career soldier was one of these unwitting subjects who was given LSD in 1958. He suffered hallucinations, memory loss incoherence, and severe personality changes and exhibited uncontrollable violence. It destroyed his family, impeded his working ability, and he never . . . Continue reading →

Following the compelling testimonies of the soldiers who had been subjected to poison gas experiments, Jay Katz, MD the distinguished Yale professor of law and medical ethics wrote a letter to the IOM Committee, strongly criticizing the IOM for severely limiting the Committee’s task . . . Continue reading →

Following public hearings by the Committee of the IOM (1991) and by the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, the IOM Committee issued a seminal report, Veterans at Risk: The Health Effects of Mustard Gas and Lewisite (1993) which revealed that by the . . . Continue reading →

On May 6, 1994, the Senate Committee on Veterans held a hearing titled: “Is Military Research Hazardous to Veterans’ Health? Lessons from World War II, the Persian Gulf and Today.” Rudolph R. Mills had been in a gas chamber experiment when he . . . Continue reading →

In 2009, Gordon Erspamer, a San Francisco lawyer filed suit against the CIA and the US Army on behalf of the Vietnam Veterans of America and six former American soldiers who claim they are survivors of classified government tests conducted at the . . . Continue reading →

The Veterans Affairs website demonstrates that the agency is a source for disinformation about unethical medical experiments conducted on military personnel. It states: From 1955 to 1975, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps conducted classified medical studies at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland. The purpose . . . Continue reading →

In 2012, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in California ruled that a class action lawsuit on behalf of 100,000 veterans, who were used as guinea pigs to test hundreds of drugs, can proceed. The suit seeks to lift the oath of secrecy . . . Continue reading →

NPR’s six month investigation shows the continued utter disregard the Veterans Affairs Department has for it suffering veterans who had been abused as human guinea pigs in mustard gas experiments. NPR created the first publicly searchable database including 3,900 names Charlie Cavell . . . Continue reading →