by emad » Mon Sep 05, 2005 1:01 pm
MI5 officers tried out truth drugs <br>By Cahal Milmo <br>Published: 05 September 2005 <br><br>MI5 interrogators experimented on themselves with "truth drugs" to assess whether they should be used on German prisoners to extract information. <br><br>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.<br><br>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."<br><br>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." <br><br>MI5 interrogators experimented on themselves with "truth drugs" to assess whether they should be used on German prisoners to extract information. <br><br>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.<br><br>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."<br>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." <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article310343.ece">news.independent.co.uk/uk...310343.ece</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <br> <p></p><i></i>
