CIA's Alleged Human Guinea Pigs Can't Sue

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) – A federal judge granted the CIA’s request to be dismissed from a case in which U.S. veterans say the government used them as human guinea pigs in Cold War-era drug experiments. The veterans can’t sue the CIA because they can’t prove they took “secrecy oaths,” U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled.

Vietnam Veterans of America filed a class action against the Army and CIA in 2009, claiming that at least 7,800 soldiers had been used as guinea pigs in “Project Paperclip.”

Soldiers were administered at least 250 and as many as 400 types of drugs, among them Sarin, one of the most deadly drugs known, amphetamines, barbiturates, mustard gas, phosgene gas and LSD.

Using tactics it often attributed to the Soviet enemy, the U.S. government sought drugs to control human behavior, cause confusion, promote weakness or temporary loss of hearing and vision, induce hypnosis and enhance a person’s ability to withstand torture.

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