вЂњThere is no question that these experiments were done,вЂќ Erspamer said by e-mail Tuesday, вЂњbut defendants say that they used private researchers and test subjects drawn from prisons, hospitals and nursing homes as subjects, not active duty military. Erspamer, lead attorney for the veterans, says вЂњwe are pursuing this as well.вЂќ 17 order exempted the agency from having to testify about electrode tests on humans, but Gordon P. Now, almost 40 years later, a federal magistrate has ordered the CIA to produce records and witnesses about the LSD and other experiments вЂњallegedly conducted on thousands of soldiers from 1950 through 1975,вЂќ according to news accounts. Victims have sought justice for years, in vain.

The CIA pursued such experiments because it was convinced the Soviets were doing the same. вЂExecutive actionвЂ™ was the CIA's euphemism for assassination.вЂќ

вЂњhis cold-blooded project,вЂќ Marks wrote, вЂњwas designed for the delivery of chemical and biological agents or for вЂexecutive action-type operations,вЂ™ according to a document. In 1961, a top CIA scientist reported in an internal memo that 'the feasibility of remote control of activities in several species of animals has been demonstratedВ…Special investigations and evaluations will be conducted toward the application of selected elements of these techniques to man,' according to вЂњ The CIA and the Search for the Manchurian Candidate,вЂќ a 1979 book by former State Department intelligence officer John Marks.

ItвЂ™s not just science fiction - or the imaginings of the mentally ill. Details have emerged in books and articles beginning more than 30 years ago.Д«ut if military veterans have their way in a California law suit, the spy agencyвЂ™s quest to turn humans into robot-like assassins via electrodes planted in their brains will get far more exposure than the drugs the CIA tested on subjects ranging from soldiers to unwitting bar patrons and the clients of prostitutes. The CIA is notorious for its Cold War-era experiments with LSD and other chemicals on unwitting citizens and soldiers.

The search for the manchurian candidate