Aspen Weather
66.0F 18.9C

The O. Zone

Fear and Loathing in San Francisco: Real Aspen's Troy Hooper digs deep into covert CIA drug testing

By David O. Williams
Real Aspen – March 14, 2012
My friend and colleague at Real Vail, Real Aspen and the Colorado Independent, longtime Aspen journalist Troy Hooper, has a remarkable cover story in the San Francisco Weekly this week. It's the twisted historical tale of covert CIA drug testing on unsuspecting San Francisco residents in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Lest you start believing the right-wing rhetoric that modern terrorism dictates the steady rollback in civil liberties we've seen since 9/11, give Hoop's story a good read. It's a terrifying cautionary tale about government run amok in the name of national security.
And the best part is the name given the testing program, which included at least three brothels where agents watched johns unknowingly dosed with LSD freaking out: “Operation Midnight Climax.”

The program was exposed decades ago by groundbreaking investigative journalist Seymour Hersch, whom Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney later wanted to bring up on charges for revealing sensitive national secrets, but Hooper delves into new details unearthed about the covert program's operations in San Francisco, including an interview with a former U.S. marshal who was allegedly victimized by the CIA.

Go to the San Francisco Weekly website to read the full article.

comments: 0 Comments on "Fear and Loathing in San Francisco: Real Aspen's Troy Hooper digs deep into covert CIA drug testing"

Be the first to comment below.

COMMENT
Comment Form Info  Comment Information
Real Aspen encourages you to post comments on our articles and blogs. Logged in email is required for monitoring purposes. Your email will not be published and will not be distributed to any third-party. Abusive, obscene, profane, threatening, libelous or defamatory comments are prohibited. By posting a comment, you agree to this policy and our terms of use. To report an abusive posting, please contact us.

To make a comment, please log in or create an account. This helps us prevent spam and other malicious attacks.

Please log in to comment

 

Create a user account to comment

Snow Report

  24hr snow mid dpth snow cond.
A-Basin n/a n/a
Aspen n/a n/a closed
BC n/a n/a closed
Breckenridge n/a n/a closed
Buttermilk n/a n/a closed
Copper n/a n/a closed
Crest. Butte n/a n/a closed
Eldora n/a n/a closed
Heavenly n/a n/a closed
Highlands n/a n/a
Howelsen n/a n/a closed
Keystone n/a n/a closed
Kirkwood n/a n/a closed
Loveland n/a n/a
Monarch n/a n/a closed
Northstar n/a n/a closed
Powderhorn n/a n/a closed
Purgatory n/a n/a closed
Silverton n/a n/a closed
Ski Cooper n/a n/a closed
Ski Granby n/a n/a closed
Snowmass n/a n/a closed
Steamboat n/a n/a closed
Sunlight n/a n/a closed
Telluride n/a n/a closed
Vail n/a n/a closed
WinterPark n/a n/a closed
Wolf Creek n/a n/a closed
More Weather Reports
VIDEO GALLERY
Vail powder day snow snake
Airing it out at Crested Butte
Feb. 17, 2011 Surprise 14 inches of Fresh Powder