Sarah Anne Johnson | Hospital Hallway

When the CIA ran a LSD sex-house in San Francisco

On an elegant dead-end block on the north side of Telegraph Hill is 225 Chestnut St., a swanky modernist building with panoramic bay views. It’s about the last place you would have expected to find a clandestine CIA program during the Cold War.


Yet from 1955 to 1965, this building was the site of “Operation Midnight Climax” — a top-secret mind-control program in which CIA agents used hookers to lure unsuspecting johns from North Beach bars to what they called “the pad,” then dosed the men with LSD and observed the X-rated goings-on through a two-way mirror while sitting on a portable toilet swilling martinis.

As John Marks notes in his 1977 book, “The Search for the ‘Manchurian Candidate’: The CIA and Mind Control,” the CIA’s obsession with mind control had its origins during World War II, when the agency’s predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services, set up a “truth drug” program whose purpose was to discover a substance that would make subjects reveal their secrets.

The drug of choice was a concentrated liquid form of marijuana. The first field test in 1943 was administered to a New York mobster by George White, a tough-guy OSS captain who had been an agent in the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The results were promising — White’s sidekick said “every (subject) but one — and he didn’t smoke — gave us more information than we had before” — but ultimately inconclusive...

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/When-the-CIA-ran-a-LSD-sex-house-in-San-Francisco-7223346.php

Operation Midnight Climax: How the CIA Dosed S.F. Citizens with LSD - SF Weekly

It's been over 50 years, but Wayne Ritchie says he can still remember how it felt to be dosed with acid.

He was drinking bourbon and soda with other federal officers at a holiday party in 1957 at theU.S. Post Office Building on Seventh and Mission streets. They were cracking jokes and swapping stories when, suddenly, the room began to spin. The red and green lights on the Christmas tree in the corner spiraled wildly. Ritchie's body temperature rose. His gaze fixed on the dizzying colors around him.

The deputy U.S. marshal excused himself and went upstairs to his office, where he sat down and drank a glass of water. He needed to compose himself. But instead he came unglued. Ritchie feared the other marshals didn't want him around anymore. Then he obsessed about the probation officers across the hall and how they didn't like him, either. Everyone was out to get him. Ritchie felt he had to escape...

http://www.sfweekly.com/2012-03-14/news/cia-lsd-wayne-ritchie-george-h-white-...

The Chertoff Group Expands With New Office in San Francisco

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2011 -- /PRNewswire/ -- The Chertoff Group, a global security advisory firm founded by Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is pleased to announce the opening of a new office in San Francisco.  Founded in 2009, The Chertoff Group provides consulting, business development, and merger and acquisition (M&A) advisory services for clients in the security, defense and government services industries.

"We are excited to be expanding our presence in Silicon Valley - the heart of innovation and home to so many truly transformative technologies," said Michael Chertoff, Chairman of The Chertoff Group.  "This office will enable us to share our analysis and insight in the homeland security, defense and intelligence space with this unique community that is developing many of the critical technologies needed to confront today's global security challenges.  Our team has helped an array of companies grow and meet their business objectives especially in the federal and international markets and we look forward to continuing this work on the West Coast."

Brian White, Managing Director at The Chertoff Group, will oversee the San Francisco office and its continued growth throughout the region and in Asia.   Mr. White specializes in providing strategic advice on M&A activity as well as on issues relating to cyber security, border and supply chain security, and international homeland security matters.  

via sacbee.com