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.
Henry Samuel in Paris
11 Mar 2010
In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly
and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations.
At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and
hundreds afflicted.
For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly
poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American
investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA
peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a
mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War.
The mystery of Le Pain Maudit (Cursed Bread) still haunts the
inhabitants of Pont-Saint-Esprit, in the Gard, southeast France.
On August 16, 1951, the inhabitants were suddenly racked with
frightful hallucinations of terrifying beasts and fire.
One man tried to drown himself, screaming that his belly was being
eaten by snakes. An 11-year-old tried to strangle his grandmother.
Another man shouted: "I am a plane", before jumping out of a
second-floor window, breaking his legs. He then got up and carried on
for 50 yards. Another saw his heart escaping through his feet and
begged a doctor to put it back. Many were taken to the local asylum
in strait jackets.
Time magazine wrote at the time: "Among the stricken, delirium rose:
patients thrashed wildly on their beds, screaming that red flowers
were blossoming from their bodies, that their heads had turned to
molten lead."
Eventually, it was determined that the best-known local baker had
unwittingly contaminated his flour with ergot, a hallucinogenic mould
that infects rye grain. Another theory was the bread had been
poisoned with organic mercury.
However, H P Albarelli Jr., an investigative journalist, claims the
outbreak resulted from a covert experiment directed by the CIA and
the US Army's top-secret Special Operations Division (SOD) at Fort
Detrick, Maryland.
The scientists who produced both alternative explanations, he writes,
worked for the Swiss-based Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company, which was
then secretly supplying both the Army and CIA with LSD.
Mr Albarelli came across CIA documents while investigating the
suspicious suicide of Frank Olson, a biochemist working for the SOD
who fell from a 13th floor window two years after the Cursed Bread
incident. One note transcribes a conversation between a CIA agent and
a Sandoz official who mentions the "secret of Pont-Saint-Esprit" and
explains that it was not "at all" caused by mould but by
diethylamide, the D in LSD.
While compiling his book, A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank
Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments, Mr Albarelli spoke
to former colleagues of Mr Olson, two of whom told him that the
Pont-Saint-Esprit incident was part of a mind control experiment run
by the CIA and US army.
After the Korean War the Americans launched a vast research programme
into the mental manipulation of prisoners and enemy troops.
Scientists at Fort Detrick told him that agents had sprayed LSD into
the air and also contaminated "local foot products".
Mr Albarelli said the real "smoking gun" was a White House document
sent to members of the Rockefeller Commission formed in 1975 to
investigate CIA abuses. It contained the names of a number of French
nationals who had been secretly employed by the CIA and made direct
reference to the "Pont St. Esprit incident." In its quest to research
LSD as an offensive weapon, Mr Albarelli claims, the US army also
drugged over 5,700 unwitting American servicemen between 1953 and 1965.
None of his sources would indicate whether the French secret services
were aware of the alleged operation. According to US news reports,
French intelligence chiefs have demanded the CIA explain itself
following the book's revelations. French intelligence officially denies this.
Locals in Pont-Saint-Esprit still want to know why they were hit by
such apocalyptic scenes. "At the time people brought up the theory of
an experiment aimed at controlling a popular revolt," said Charles
Granjoh, 71.
"I almost kicked the bucket," he told the weekly French magazine Les
Inrockuptibles. "I'd like to know why."
.
No comments:
Post a Comment