MI5 officers tried out truth drugs

[pynchonoid]

MI5 officers tried out truth drugs
By Cahal Milmo
Published: 05 September 2005

MI5 interrogators experimented on themselves with
"truth drugs" to assess whether they should be used on
German prisoners to extract information.

The intelligence service considered slipping
benzedrine sulphate, a form of amphetamine, into food
given to captured sailors and airmen in the belief it
would render them garrulous, according to the secret
papers. In behaviour reminiscent of syringe-wielding
Nazi scientists, officers acted on a tip-off that the
drug had been used by US police to extract
confessions.

A memo sent to MI5 by a former US intelligence
officer, Edward Whiteley, said: "It enables the
British service to get information voluntarily without
undue coercion. It takes 10 minutes for this to become
effective and a 'talking spell' lasts for about half
an hour."

The documents show that British interrogators had
already experimented with the drug to judge its
efficacy, and did not share American enthusiasm for
it. One MI5 interrogator wrote: "I tried a compound of
the drug but the effects were deleterious temporarily
to the body rather than to the mind."

MI5 interrogators experimented on themselves with
"truth drugs" to assess whether they should be used on
German prisoners to extract information.

The intelligence service considered slipping
benzedrine sulphate, a form of amphetamine, into food
given to captured sailors and airmen in the belief it
would render them garrulous, according to the secret
papers. In behaviour reminiscent of syringe-wielding
Nazi scientists, officers acted on a tip-off that the
drug had been used by US police to extract
confessions.

A memo sent to MI5 by a former US intelligence
officer, Edward Whiteley, said: "It enables the
British service to get information voluntarily without
undue coercion. It takes 10 minutes for this to become
effective and a 'talking spell' lasts for about half
an hour."

The documents show that British interrogators had
already experimented with the drug to judge its
efficacy, and did not share American enthusiasm for
it. One MI5 interrogator wrote: "I tried a compound of
the drug but the effects were deleterious temporarily
to the body rather than to the mind."

© 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article310343.ece



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