Special series on accountability for the US and Israel: the intelligence world.
H.P. Albarelli Jr. joins us to talk about his 2009 book, A Terrible Mistake, the Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Cold War Experiments. You can read the first chapter here.
Produced by Dori Smith
TRT: 29:04
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org
H.P. Albarelli shares his story of a ten year long investigation culminating in a book that proves that Olson was murdered, and at the same time takes us on a journey through the many crimes, cover ups, and attempts at accountability, that is America's secret intelligence legacy.
The CIA, Central Intelligence Agency, grew out of the intelligence office that fought against the Nazis during the Second World War. Secretly, toward the end of that war, the OSS and then CIA began to work with some of the world’s most unsavory people, including Nazis, helping thousands of Nazi leaders escape prosecution, and even incorporating the kind of military experimentation that the Nazis might have used into secret US operations.
There is a long history of complete impunity for the CIA for crimes including murder and secretly dosing US Military Personnel, patients in mental hospitals, even children under age ten, with LSD. We consider how a lack of prosecution for the early crimes of the CIA helped lead the Bush/Cheney administration down a similar path as they institutionalized policies like torture and rendition and authorized the CIA to work domestically in the United States.
"Between five and six hundred people basically, as a result of the experiment, went stark raving mad for a day and four committed suicide". H.P. Albarelli
H.P. Albarelli Jr. or "Hank" is an investigative reporter and writer for over 20 years. He had been doing articles on biological warfare and intelligence when he stumbled across documents about a case dating back to CIA and Army projects of the 1950s known as MKULTRA, Artichoke and Bluebird. He had found reason to believe the notorious case involving the suicide of former Army Special Operations Division official, Frank Olson, should have been investigated as a murder. That becomes important as we realize that the CIA had entered into a dark age of assassination during the years of Olson's death, one that has been covered up carefully, but has nevertheless been impacting US foreign and domestic policy over decades.
Documents published in, 'A Terrible Mistake' show that former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were also linked to the cover up of these early CIA crimes. See documents and photos here but you should be warned that some photos are graphic and upsetting.
Next time we'll hear more on the CIA’s secret operations, CIA contractors and the impact of Artichoke and Bluebird on America’s past, present and future.
Biography: H.P. Albarelli Jr. is a writer and investigative reporter who lives in the Tampa Bay area of Florida . He has written numerous feature articles about the 9/11 anthrax attacks; the history of biological warfare; the mysterious death of Dr. Frank Olson; the Cuban revolution; and social and political affairs. Some of these articles can be found on the World Net Daily, Pravda, Cubanet, Counterpunch, and Crime Magazine websites.
Albarelli has also written feature articles for Tampa 's alternative newspaper, The Weekly Planet . His work has been acknowledged and cited in American History magazine, and in books by many distinguished authors, including: The Biology of Doom by Ed Regis (Henry Holt and Co., 2001); Alston Chase's classic, Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist (W.W. Norton, 2003); and The Eighty Greatest Conspiracies of All Time by Jonathan Vankin and John Whalen (Citadel Press, 2004). An accomplished scriptwriter and playwright, Albarelli's LIFE GOES ON , written with his brother, Dean Albarelli, was published by Witness, a literary journal; in 1995 he produced and directed a regional production of Academy Award winner's Steve Tesich's play, On the Open Road . (Brilliantly scored by composer Sam Geppi.)
Albarelli's six-year investigation into the controversial death of Army biochemist Dr. Frank Olson was the focal point of an hour long television documentary, Mind Control Murder , produced by London's award-winning Principal Films (David Presswell, director) for A&E's Investigative Reports, and by independent film producer, Scott Calonico, for the short film LSD a Go-Go shown at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Albarelli is a graduate of Antioch Law School and has traveled extensively throughout Europe, South Africa , and Asia. He is a noted expert on the history of the CIA's behavior modification and assassination programs of the 1950s.
See articles: Truthout.org The Real Roots of the CIA's Rendition and Black Sites Program, Wednesday 17 February 2010
Counterpunch, March 13, 2002, Anthrax Investigation Provokes Charges of Cover-Up, By H.P. Albarelli Jr.
