by David Wayne
▸ Murder of Frank Olson
Olson became disturbed at the macabre events to which he was privy and became openly talkative and critical about the secret work the CIA was conducting. Among the things Olson apparently talked about, in addition to the lethal interrogation techniques, were the use of anthrax as a bacteriological weapon during the Korean War, and the fact that the “recanted confessions” of dozens of returning POWs who witnessed BW in North Korea were the apparent result of "debriefings” utilizing techniques garnered from Operation Artichoke.12
A close associate and colleague of Olson at Ft. Detrick, Norman Cournoyer, testified that Olson personally told him that in the course of Operation Artichoke, he had witnessed torture interrogations in Europe that had disturbed him deeply at a moral level, so much so that he was disgusted with the CIA and intended to leave. Cournoyer also stated Olson was convinced that, despite official denials, the U.S. had employed the use of biological weapons, including the use of anthrax, during the Korean War. A film, Code Name ARTICHOKE, documents the events surrounding the secret program and can be accessed on YouTube.
Close friends, family, and coworkers document that Frank Olson was a very decent man boxed into a corner by a very indecent position, who became increasingly outraged by what he saw.
Olson was deemed a security risk. The same advanced interrogation techniques under LSD and talk-inducing drugs that were perfected by his Special Operations Division were then used on Olson himself. He then informed the CIA that he was resigning his position, and a few days later he was apparently again drugged, subdued, and thrown out of a thirteenth floor window.
The methods of Operation Artichoke did not disappear. Quite to the contrary, some have apparently been applied at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and most notably, in the CIA secret prisons for extraordinary rendition. Some have accused the government of using Artichoke-type techniques on Josè Padilla prior to his terrorism conviction in 2007 that made him into a “human vegetable.”13
Events Leading to Death of Frank Olson
▸ Late 1940s
In a secret facility at Fort Detrick, Maryland, a massive arms program was underway to develop bacteriological weapons, primarily anthrax spores, which were proven to be highly resistant and therefore suitable for biological warfare.
▸ 1949
As Acting Director of the CIA’s highly secretive Special Operations Division, Olson was privy to many secrets. As a leader of Operation Artichoke (brainwashing and mind control interrogation techniques via drugs, hypnosis, and torture), he witnessed unscrupulous experiments on human beings that resulted in their deaths. The experience left a noticeable mark on him, according to friends and family, and he began to question the morality of their work.
▸ October, 1949
Olson’s free-thinking and talkative lifestyle was considered dangerous in relation to his work in military secrets. He was suspected of disclosing government secrets (an accusation that was never proven) and interrogated by Military Intelligence. Olson was from then on considered a security risk. The Military Intelligence report stated that:
“Olson is violently opposed to control of scientific research, either military or otherwise, and opposes supervision of his work. He does not follow orders, and has had numerous altercations with MP’s … ”
Norman Cournoyer, a co-worker who was close to Olson, summarized:
“He was very, very open and not scared to say what he thought. For that matter, to the contrary. He did not give a damn. Frank Olson pulled no punches at any time … That’s what they were scared of, I am sure.”
▸ April, 1950
Olson was given a diplomatic passport, highly unusual for an Army scientist, and began making frequent trips to Europe, especially to Germany.
▸ 1950-1953
In CIA safe-houses in Germany, Olson witnessed horrific brutal interrogations on a regular basis. Detainees who were deemed “expendable,” suspected spies or “moles,” security leaks, etc., were literally interrogated to death in experimental methods combining drugs, hypnosis, and torture to attempt to master brainwashing techniques and memory erasing … The “live” testing on human beings was designed to extract information from the detainee and then leave him in a blank mental state in which he was unaware what happened to him.
▸ June, 1952
Family and co-workers reported that Olson’s behavior had markedly changed. He became openly critical and talkative about the work being conducted at the CIA.
▸ 1952-1953
CIA established that large doses of LSD are much better “tongue-looseners” than alcohol. They tested the technique on unsuspecting victims right in New York City’s Greenwich Village section, having prostitutes slip the drug into the drinks of customers who were then interrogated.
▸ August, 1953
After returning from another trip to Germany where he witnessed the CIA’s torture-to-death interrogations, Olson became extremely moody. Friends and family commented that he began to behave like he was boxed into a corner and could not do anything about it. He informed close friend and co-worker Norman Cournoyer that he was planning on resigning his CIA position:
“He said ‘Norm, you would be stunned by the techniques that they used. They made people talk! They brainwashed people! They used all kinds of drugs, they used all kinds of torture.’ He said that he was going to leave. He told me that. He said, ‘I am getting out of that CIA. Period.’”
Olson and Cournoyer were both aware of two disturbing truths:
1.The use of anthrax as a biological weapon during the Korean War;
2.The fact that the “recanted confessions” of dozens of returning POWs who witnessed BW in North Korea were the apparent result of “debriefings” utilizing techniques garnered from Operation Artichoke.
▸ Thursday, November 19, 1953
The same LSD interrogation technique that was perfected by his Special Operations Division was then used on Olson himself. At a work retreat just prior to Thanksgiving, the CIA’s “Dirty Tricks” Division met with ten of its scientists at a remote location. Olson was given a large dose of the drug, without his knowledge or permission, and was then interrogated under the influence of LSD using Artichoke techniques.
▸ Friday evening, November 20, 1953
Olson returned home to his family and was visibly and deeply disturbed. He told his wife that there were very serious problems with his work and that he had made “a terrible mistake."
▸ Saturday & Sunday, November 21-22, 1953
Olson stayed inside alI weekend and was very quiet and thoughtful all weekend long. His children recall the weekend as being very somber and serious and vividly remember their father at that time as sitting for hours on the sofa and staring thoughtfully out the window.
▸ Monday, November 23, 1953
Olson informed his boss, Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Ruwet, that he “wanted out of the germ warfare business” to “devote his life to something else” and that he, therefore, was resigning from his position. LTC Ruwet refused to accept Olson’s resignation.
▸ Tuesday, November 24, 1953
Olson returned of the office of LTC Ruwet and again formed him that he was resigning from his position. Lt. Colonel Ruwet advised Olson not to resign and told him that they would take him to New York City to get treatment for his depression about his work.
▸ Friday, November 27, 1953
Olson was brought to New York City by Lt. Colonel Ruwet and was also in the constant accompaniment of a CIA agent who was assigned as his shadow. They checked Olson and the CIA agent into room 1018a (which is actually the thirteenth floor when the first three unnumbered floors are counted) of the Hotel Statler (which is now the Hotel Pennsylvania). They were visited there by a CIA doctor who administered medication to Olson.
▸ Saturday, November 28, 1953, 2:30 AM
In the early morning hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning, Frank Olson went through the closed thirteenth floor window of his hotel room,
crashing through a canvas window shade, a cloth curtain covering the shade, and a closed plate glass window, before landing on the 7th Avenue sidewalk.
▸ Saturday, November 28, 1953, 2:30-2:35 AM
Hotel manager Armand Pastore rushed outside, attempting to comfort the victim, who died in his arms.
▸ Saturday, November 28, 1953, 2:30-2:35 AM
CIA agent Robert Lashbrook phoned Dr. Harold Abramson (the doctor working with the CIA who had sedated Olson earlier) from the hotel room. Via the system in use in 1953, Lashbrook had to use the hotel operator to place the call to a number in Long Island. The hotel operator stayed on the line and heard the call in its entirety. After the call was connected and answered, the caller only stated the following:
“Well, he’s gone.”
The other party then stated:
“Well, that’s too bad.”
Both parties then hung up.
▸ Saturday, November 28, 1953, 2:40-3:00 AM
Hotel manager Armand Pastore notified police and also determined that the victim must have fallen from Room 1018a on the thirteenth floor and that there was another occupant of that room. Pastore led police to 1018a and opened the door for them. The police entered, guns drawn, and encountered the room’s other occupant, Robert Lashbrook, seated on the toilet. The police said, “What happened?” and Lashbrook responded: “I don’t know, I just heard a crash of glass and then I see that Frank Olson is out of the window and he is down on the street.”
▸ Sunday, November 29, 1953
The case was classified as a suicide and immediately closed.
▸ Post-Mortem—Summer, 1975
The report of The Rockefeller Commission was released in which it was made public that the CIA had drugged U.S. citizens with LSD without their permission. The Olson family investigated the information contained in the report and confirmed that one of the subjects referred to was indeed Frank Olson. They held a press conference and demanded that the case of their father’s death be investigated.
▸ Post-Mortem—Summer, 1975
Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Cheney, aides to President Ford, confidentially recommended to the President that he contain the “Olson matter” by setting out of court to preclude “the possibility that it might be necessary to disclose highly classified national security information,” because it had become known that the CIA did indeed drug Frank Olson with LSD just prior to his death. Therefore, in what is known in Intelligence parlance as a “limited hangout,” the CIA settled out of court with the Olson family for $750,000 retribution for past wrongdoing. Ten days after the memo from Rumsfeld and Cheney recommending retribution and an apology, President Ford hosted the Olson family at the White House for photos and handshakes with the family after the President apologized on behalf of the U.S. Government.
▸ Post-Mortem
Former longtime CIA agent lke Feldman investigated the circumstances of Olson’s death:
“The source that I have was the New York City Police Department, the Bureau of Narcotics Agents, and the CIA agents themselves. They all say the same thing: that he was pushed out of the window and that he did not jump.
People who wanted him out of the way said he talked too much and he was telling people about the things he had done, which is American secret. If you work on a top government secret, a city secret, a state secret, and it spills out to people who should not know, there is only one way to do it: kill him.”
▸ Post-Mortem — June 2, 1994
Olson’s body was exhumed and autopsied at the insistence of relatives suspicious of foul play. Eminent forensic scientist James Starrs, Professor of Law and Forensic Science at the National Law Center at George Washington University, led the autopsy team, also selecting a diverse team of scientific experts in the appropriate fields. The team determined that the original medical report in 1953 was “manipulated” and “totally inaccurate in some very important respects.” Forensic finding is that the victim suffered a severe hematoma, i.e., a blunt force trauma to the head, prior to his fall through the window:
“That is only reasonably explainable as having occurred by reason of his being shall we say silenced, being rendered unable to defend himself, so that he could be tossed out of the window.”
Official finding of Professor James Starrs, George Washington University:
“HOMICIDE”
Regarding the assassination method detailed in the CIA Assassination Manual, Professor Starrs further states:
“What was spelled out in that ‘Assassination Manual’ was almost letter for letter what happened to Doctor Olson and it was a protocol, as we call it, for an assassination, which fit like the fingers in a glove.”
Source material for the above chart was derived primarily from the following:
“The Frank Olson Legacy Project,” http://www.frankolsonproject.org/Contents.html.
Code Name: Artichoke; The CIA’s Secret Experiments on Humans, film by Egmont R. Koch & Michael Wech, 2002, http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/code-name-artichoke/.
A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments; H. P. Albarelli Jr.; 2009, TrineDay.
“The Case of Frank Olson,” Oliver Boothby, February 11, 1996: http://www.frankolsonproject.org/Student%20papers/Oliver.html.
“Scientist was ‘Killed to Stop Him Revealing Death Secrets’; So Did Cheney and Rumsfeld Cover Up a CIA Assassination?,” Gordon Thomas, London Sunday Express, August 25, 2002.
“Frank Olson: Did a government scientist jump to his death from a New York hotel? Or was he pushed?,” http://www.unsolved.com/ajax-files/une_frank_olson.htm.
“LSD, Murder and the CIA: Frank Olson, Enemy Combatant,” David Swanson, Counterpunch, March 26-28, 2010.
The Biology of Doom: The History of America’s Secret Germ Warfare Project, Ed Regis, 2000.
"Rumsfeld & Cheney’s Dirty Little Spy Secret," Fintan Dunne, Editor, GuluFuture.com, March 6, 2006:
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/03-06-06/discussion.cgi.31.html.
The Men Who Stare at Goats, Jon Ronson, 2005.
Robert Lashbrook was the identity of the CIA agent shadowing Olson, day and night.
Armond Pastore, who was the night manager at the hotel, had seen more than his share of accidents, and immediately took the police up to room 1018A so the police could investigate. They found the CIA agent sitting in the bathroom. Pastore recalled very clearly:
“And here is Lashbook sitting on a john in his skivvies and the police thought to question him and I heard him say, ‘Well all I heard was a crash.’ I walked around the room to look around. Nobody ever jumps through a window. They open the window and they go out, not dash through a shade and a sheer drape. You know, there’s no sense to that.” 14
“The first call that Lashbrook made was not to the hotel management or the police, but to his superior, Dr. Sid Gottlieb, at his home in Virginia, to tell him what had happened. Then he reported to the hotel desk clerk and telephoned Dr. Abramson.” 15
“In those days all of the calls were manual. You call the operator and you tell her what number you want and she would dial it for you. And then she listened to see that you got connected. When the man in the room called this number he said, ‘Well, he’s gone.’ And the man on the other end said, ‘Well, that’s too bad.’ And they both hung up. I mean, what’s more suspicious than that? You don’t have to be a genius to figure out that there’s something amiss. Or, Hamlet said, ‘There’s something rotten in Denmark.’ I mean, I knew there was something rotten at the hotel that night.” 16
Kathryn Olmsted, Professor of History at the University of California, discovered documents indicating a White House-level cover-up of the Frank Olson case, related of the secret use of anthrax weapons. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were directly involved in concealing information about Olson’s death. Dr. Olmsted also said that part of Olson’s work was the making of anthrax and other biological weapons.
Rumsfeld, at that time, was White House
Chief of Staff to President Gerald Ford and Dick Cheney was a White House assistant.
One of the documents that Professor Olmsted obtained states:
“Dr. Olson’s job was so sensitive that it is highly unlikely that we would submit relevant evidence.” 17
In another memo, Cheney acknowledges the following:
“The Olson lawyers will seek to explore all the circumstances of Dr. Olson’s employment, as well as those concerning his death. In any trial, it may become apparent that we are concealing evidence for national security reasons and any settlement or judgment reached thereafter could be perceived as money paid to cover up the activities of the CIA.”18
Many observers, therefore, have “connected the dots” and concluded that Cheney and Rumsfeld were given the task in the 1970s of covering up the details of Olson’s death.
“The fact that Frank Olson had died shortly after being given LSD in a CIA experiment came out in 1975 as a consequence of President Ford’s Rockefeller Commission investigation into the CIA’s domestic activities. Further investigation was called for, but in a White House memo advisers to President Ford stated that this would risk revealing state secrets (probably meaning, in part, the use by the U.S. of germ warfare in Korea); further investigation was suppressed and the whole matter covered up. The names of those White House advisers were Dick Cheney, current U.S. Vice-President, and Donald Rumsfeld, current Secretary of Defense. They have never been questioned as to what they knew about Olson’s death.”19
