An American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD
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."
So, anybody's got anything to debunk this? Or, alternatively, drag the CIA to court?
Given that "Image of Jesus appears in a frying pan" is its companion piece, I'm a little bit skeptical.
"Maybe next time a girl touches his scrote he won't jump and run away."
"Well Quetz doesn't seem like a complete desperate loser, and seems like an OK guy... almost to the point of being a try hard OK guy IMO "How dare you fondle my jewels young lady!"
And even if it was, after ingesting substantial amounts of LSD, I wouldn't be surprised if the villagers had seen Jesus in a frying pan.
"Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too—ready to understand heaven and earth. In everything you do, even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring the earth." M.A.A.A
Witch wrote:Or, alternatively, drag the CIA to court?
There are parts which are most certainly true. Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company was part of the very real CIA mind control project, and if anything, this article only proves that MKULTRA goons were willing to use unwitting foreign nationals as guinea pigs. That's all. It is well known that the CIA did drug unwitting subjects without any consent beforehand. This would indicate they also wanted to drug French, among others.
I think people will hardly be able to press any charges. It's the fucking CIA, who cares? Death squads, mind control, it all has been quite well known before. Nothing happened.
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Lì paludi, minacce, cecchini coi fucili, documenti, file notturne e clandestini
Qui incontri, lotte, passi sincronizzati, colori, capannelli non autorizzati,
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This story is a little old and people have been skeptical about it; see here. Also, the story is partly plagiarized from a New York Times article. See first link for similarities in the articles.
I have numerous objections to this paltry evidence against the CIA. First of all, it’s clinically incoherent: LSD takes effects in just a few hours, whereas the inhabitants showed symptoms only after 36 hours or more. Furthermore, LSD does not cause the digestive ailments or the vegetative effects described by the townspeople…
It is absurd, this idea of transmitting a very toxic drug by putting it in bread. As for pulverising it [for ingestion through the air], that technology was not even possible at that time. Most compellingly, why would they choose the town of Pont-Saint-Esprit to conduct these tests? It was half-destroyed by the US Army during fighting with the Germans in the Second World War. It makes no sense.
It might not have been LSD but another drug. It certainly doesn't seem like a natural event.
A lot of people were killed and property destroyed by the Americans in driving out the Germans during the lead-up and wake of D-Day, far more damage than the German occupiers inflicted. There was a lot of local French resentment on the paths of devastation, however good it was for France. Its not often mentioned in the history books. Perhaps the feeling was reciprocated by whomever decided the drug needed a test population.
General Brock wrote:It might not have been LSD but another drug. It certainly doesn't seem like a natural event.
A lot of people were killed and property destroyed by the Americans in driving out the Germans during the lead-up and wake of D-Day, far more damage than the German occupiers inflicted. There was a lot of local French resentment on the paths of devastation, however good it was for France. Its not often mentioned in the history books. Perhaps the feeling was reciprocated by whomever decided the drug needed a test population.
Or those feelings of resentment lead them to point the finger at the US?
General Brock wrote:It might not have been LSD but another drug. It certainly doesn't seem like a natural event.
A lot of people were killed and property destroyed by the Americans in driving out the Germans during the lead-up and wake of D-Day, far more damage than the German occupiers inflicted. There was a lot of local French resentment on the paths of devastation, however good it was for France. Its not often mentioned in the history books. Perhaps the feeling was reciprocated by whomever decided the drug needed a test population.
Or those feelings of resentment lead them to point the finger at the US?
Very easily. It may not even have been an American drug project; perhaps something left over from the Nazis. You can't rule out French intelligence themselves or the Soviet Union or even some kind of accident. All you can be certain of, it that is likely wasn't a natural event.
Unfortunately it has become all to easy to expect the worse of the CIA for some reason, and writing it off to them may make it more difficult to ever discover the truth.
Why would you experiment on foreign nationals, anyway? Did America hate Charles de Gaulle that much?
Anyway, this is one awesome thing I'd like to see an actual-factual 1950s graph of.
"DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source) shroom is a lovely boy and i wont hear a bad word against him - LUSY-CHAN! Shit! Man, I didn't think of that! It took Shroom to properly interpret the screams of dying people - PeZook Shroom, I read out the stuff you write about us. You are an endless supply of morale down here. :p - an OWS street medic Pink Sugar Heart Attack!
Shroom Man 777 wrote:Why would you experiment on foreign nationals, anyway? Did America hate Charles de Gaulle that much?
A lot of this kind of stuff does seem to be more often perpetrated by a government on its own people. Whomever did this wouldn't care what the American or French people thought, though. Maybe a joint American-French operation. It would explain why the French aren't reacting officially.
I have heard of this french case before, but obviously no mention of CIA involvement.
Eventually, it was determined that the best-known local baker had unwittingly contaminated his flour with ergot, a hallucinogenic mould that infects rye grain
Interestingly I saw this from a documentary saying that the hallucinations of some of those people during the Salem witch hunts weren't just because the accusers were lying shits, it was that hallucinogenic fungi had contaminated their food. They based this on a few other things which I don't recall all of it, but some other arguments cited were weather patterns during those times (to see if it matched ideal conditions for the mould during that time) plus journal entries which suggests that farm animals also seem to have gone mad (since farm animals aren't likely to put on an act for us) etc. The French case was cited as an example of how with the right conditions it could happen.
Little did I know the CIA had time travel technology all along and tested it in Salem. Although I was unaware it could travel back more seven days
Never apologise for being a geek, because they won't apologise to you for being an arsehole. John Barrowman - 22 June 2014 Perth Supernova.
Countries I have been to - 14.
Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Germany, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, USA.
Always on the lookout for more nice places to visit.
Well, this would have occured right around the time when the CIA was doing a lot of experimenting with MKULTRA, and France had gone through some turmoil with parliamentary elections in June. It's easy to forget that the communists could very well have taken power in France through the ballot box - I believe they technically won more votes than any other party that year, but due to the balloting system did not receive a porportional amount of seats. If this area of France was identified as politically leaning communist then, I can certainly see the CIA being less concerned about the consequences of experimentation there.
"A country without a Czar is like a village without an idiot."
- Old Russian Saying
"
Although I was unaware it could travel back more 
