“Frank was viewed as a dissident. You understand that in 1953 if you thought somebody was detrimental to the war against the Russians, you have no problem dealing with them. It wouldn’t be a question of saying you just have to leave the agency (laughs…) tell me about that, think about that somebody who has secrets, I mean are you kidding me.  Frank was, was out there. He was letting them know that he was marching to a different drummer and you couldn’t do it back then. He was a man who was profoundly, profoundly distressed about what he was learning… and he was dangerous, that I can tell you.”

Seymour Hersh — Pulitzer Prize winner

September 5 2017 — Errol Morris — one of the most acclaimed and influential documentarians of all time — is back with a project unlike anything he has ever done before. Wormwood, told in six parts, deals with CIA mind-control experiments in the 1950s and the infamous death of US Major Frank Olson. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

RELATED POST: WORMWOOD — Seymour Hersh : “Frank Olson was a man profoundly distressed about what he was learning… And he was dangerous.”

RELATED POST: Wormwood — Q&A with Dr Jeffrey Kaye

RELATED POST: Wormwood — Why Did The CIA Murder US Army Scientist Frank Olson?

RELATED POST: Wormwood — Searching the Truth to the Bitter End

RELATED POST: One Year Ago — MK-ULTRA in Popular Culture

RELATED POST: DARPA to Resurrect Top-Secret “PANDORA Project”

RELATED POST: The “STARGATE Project”: The CIA Psychic Spies

“I believe that Frank Olson knew that the US Military had used biological weapons in the Korean war. Moreover, I suspect that Frank Olson could prove it and he was about to reveal the truth.”

Intel Today (Sept. 5 2021)

UPDATE (Sept. 5 2022) — Frank Rudolph Olson (July 17, 1910 – November 28, 1953) was an American bacteriologist, biological warfare scientist, and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee who worked at Camp Detrick (now Fort Detrick) in Maryland. Some term his death a suicide, while others allege murder.

Did you know? In May 1946, Army Chemical Corps Lt. Col. Arvo Thompson delivered a report on Japanese Bio-Weapons activities to Ft. Detrick. Thompson had interviewed Japanese BW scientists, including Shiro Ishii. On May 23 1951, he was found shot to death in a hotel room in Tokyo. It was also ruled a suicide.

END of UPDATE

“While the court must limit its analysis to the four corners of the complaint, the skeptical reader may wish to know that the public record supports many of the allegations [in the family’s suit], far-fetched as they may sound.”

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg — Frank Olson Case

UPDATE (Sept. 5 2021) — In the final chapter, Seymour Hersh states that he believes the CIA murdered Frank Olson. Although, he has a source that backs up this story, Hersh refuses to speak out because the story would expose how his source acquired the necessary information. Hersh claims he knows what Frank did that got him killed.  But he does not reveal it. 

 I agree with Eric Olson and Hersh Seymour. The death of Frank Olson was neither an accident — induced or not by LSD — nor a suicide. But Frank Olson was not merely murdered. I suggest that Olson was executed to prevent him from revealing an ugly truth.

I believe that Frank Olson knew that the US Military had used biological weapons in the Korean war. Moreover, I suspect that Frank Olson could prove it and he was about to reveal the truth. Therefore, the US government had “no choice” but to silence him in order to avoid a major international crisis.

Published in Japan in 2001, the book Rikugun Noborito Kenkyujo no shinjitsu — The Truth About the Army Noborito Institute — revealed that members of a covert section of the Imperial Japanese Army that took part in biological warfare during World War II also worked for the “chemical section” of a U.S. clandestine unit hidden within Yokosuka Naval Base during the Korean War as well as on projects inside the United States from 1955 to 1959.

“The United States and Biological Warfare: Secrets of the Early Cold War and Korea” — written by Stephen Endicott and Edward Hagerman — provides an in-depth analysis of the U.S. military use — and coverup — of  biological weapons against the Korean and Chinese people during the Korean War of 1950-53.

Endicott and Hagerman conducted extensive archival research and interviews with Chinese, U.S., Canadian, Japanese, and British officials and civilians. They were the firsts to gain access to declassified U.S. records regarding the Korean War.

Endicott and Hagerman concluded that the U.S. Military had employed biological weapons whose use was banned by the 1925 Geneva Protocol.

Prof Masataka Mori — a professor of history at Shizuoka University in Japan, who has studied the activities for Unit 731 for many years — believes that a new investigation should be carried out and that it is time the US, China and both North and South Korea open up their archives and provide unfettered access to their documents.

END of UPDATE

“To what extent can a democracy lie to its citizens and still, in the end, remain a democracy? (…) I believe what separates us from dumb animals is that we pursue, maybe we don’t achieve it, but we pursue certainty. It’s a goal. A dream. To deny that importance of that goal or that dream is unspeakable. Where would we be without it?”

Errol Morris — Statement about Wormwood

In a post dated August 17 2017, I wrote:

“The story of the CIA program MK-ULTRA is definitely one of these truly bizarre episodes of the cold war.

The circumstances of the highly suspicious death of former CIA scientist Dr. Frank Olson should be better known to the Americans.

I plan to write a post about this affair… Is this an old story? A recent MIT experiment shows that people’s mind — and therefore decisions – can be affected by electromagnetic waves.

When exposed to GSM-like radiations, the subjects systematically display lower moral standards.

Officially MK-ULTRA has been shut down. Not everyone is convinced.”

I am therefore delighted by the news of a mini-series/documentary about the circumstances of Major Frank Olson’s death.

Morris has issued the following statement about the series, alluding to its timely political spin:

“Isn’t journalism the pursuit of truth? But what if the truth proves to be elusive, hard to get at? How far does one go? Where does one stop? Are there limits, emotional and otherwise, to the pursuit of truth? Can it be injurious to one’s health?

Here we have the story of one man’s sixty-year quest to identify the circumstances of his father’s death. Did he jump from a hotel window? Or was he pushed? And if he was pushed, why? What for?

A shadowy world of hidden and imagined intentions coupled with dark and horrifying revelations. In many ways, a personal family story, but in many other ways, a story of America’s decline in the period following World War II.

It asks the question: To what extent can a democracy lie to its citizens and still, in the end, remain a democracy?” [The Hollywood Reporter ]

Morris spoke with Variety about his passion for truth-finding, the virtues of working with Netflix, and why he wanted to do something radical with his latest series.

How did the CIA’s involvement complicate solving the mystery of Frank Olson’s death? Presumably they’re good at covering their tracks. 

You’re always hoping to find something definitive in a sea of confusion, error, misdirection. But you wonder whether you ever can find something out given there’s so many people out there who want to prevent you from doing so. The CIA is there to obfuscate, not elucidate.

I wrote this book called “Wilderness of Error,” about the Jeffrey MacDonald case. It always surprises me that people never link my books with my movies, because the two are closely connected. I have another book coming out at the end of the year called “The Ashtray: The Man Who Tried to Abolish Reality.” It is an essay on truth and our attempts to deny truth, in particular. “Wilderness of Error” is a story about a murder case where in the end I admit I can’t prove Jeffrey MacDonald is innocent. I don’t believe that any of the court cases have proved his guilt except in some technical way, but I believe this case is a horror show for a detective. The detective can’t in the end prove the defendant’s innocence, even though I believe he is innocent.

Does the story at the heart of “Wormwood” defy a definitive conclusion?

In the case of Frank Olson, there’s a strong and growing feeling that he was murdered at the behest of the CIA. Can I prove it? Maybe I can be very close to proving it. When people write detective fiction that’s always the assumption, that some definitive proof will be forthcoming. You don’t want to end in a miasma. You want to end somewhere, you want to have your feet on solid ground. There are two mechanisms that I feel really powerfully in the story — the mechanism of moving toward the proof of a murder and the mechanism of trying to deny that fact. Maybe that’s what the world consists of.

Given how much of your career has been about fact-finding, are you dismayed by the “fake news” era?

We live in a world where people are denying truth. You have someone like Kellyanne Conway saying, “alternative facts.” That’s what my new book is about — the corruption of post-modernism. The belief there’s a truth for you and a truth for me, as opposed to just truth, period. I’m a truth, period person. I believe what separates us from dumb animals is that we pursue, maybe we don’t achieve it, but we pursue certainty. It’s a goal. A dream. To deny that importance of that goal or that dream is unspeakable. Where would we be without it? We’d be out in the jungle having various temper tantrums like the president of the United States.

Do you see “Wormwood” as a conspiracy thriller?

I do not. I think it’s much more interesting than that. How many discussions have I had with people about Oliver Stone’s “JFK,” which I would describe as a perfect example of a conspiracy thriller. We learn at the end of it that everyone’s in the conspiracy, perhaps even Earl Warren, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Conspiracies are for people that want certainty. There’s some kind of satisfaction that comes with a conspiracy. What I’m trying to capture is the agony of investigation and the pursuit of truth. Maybe there are conspiracies. I’m not going to say people never conspire with one another to do one thing or another. This is a story of a coverup, of a murder, of the pursuit of truth without the guarantee that the truth can be proved.

Are documentaries becoming more formally daring?

Yes, and that’s a good thing. Form exists to be played around with. There used to be a documentary police that said, “no, you can’t do this. No, this isn’t proper.” I’ve always hated it and I’ve never agreed with it, but I think they’re growing weaker. I’ve never believed that style guarantees truth. I’ve never believed that because I’m running around with a handhold camera and available light that I’m making something that’s more truthful.

About Frank Olson

Frank Rudolph Olson (July 17, 1910 – November 28, 1953) was an American bacteriologist, biological warfare scientist, and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee who worked at Camp Detrick (now Fort Detrick) in Maryland.

In rural Maryland, he was covertly dosed with LSD by his CIA supervisor and, nine days later, plunged to his death from the window of a New York City hotel room. Some — including the U.S. government — term his death a suicide, while others allege murder. [Wikipedia]

Wormwood | Teaser [HD] | Netflix

Witness the untold true story of the CIA, LSD experiments, mind control, and the death of a family man. Wormwood, only on Netflix December 15.

REFERENCES

Wormwood, Errol Morris’ Netflix Docuseries About CIA Experiments with LSD — SPIN

Project MK-Ultra —  WIKIPEDIA

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Wormwood — The mysterious death of Cold War-era military scientist Frank Olson[Netflix]

Wormwood — The mysterious death of Cold War-era military scientist Frank Olson [UPDATE]

One Year Ago — Wormwood : The mysterious death of Cold War-era military scientist Frank Olson

Two Years Ago — Wormwood : The Mysterious Death of Cold War Era Military Scientist Frank Olson

Three Years Ago — Wormwood : The Mysterious Death of Cold War Era Military Scientist Frank Olson

Four Years Ago — Wormwood : The Mysterious Death of Cold War Era Military Scientist Frank Olson

Five Years Ago — Wormwood : The Mysterious Death of Cold War Era Military Scientist Frank Olson [Poll]