Friday 23 August 2002

Cheney and Rumsfeld Linked to "Murder of CIA Scientist"

by Gordon Thomas

Secret documents have revealed that Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld are “linked to the murder” of a former senior CIA scientist.

In 1953 Frank Olson, who was a key member of the CIAs secret brainwashing programme MK-ULTRA, was sent plunging from a New York hotel window.

He had threatened to reveal the CIA involvement in “terminal experiments” in post-war Germany and in Korea during the Korean War.

For almost half a century his son, Eric, a psychologist, has insisted his father was murdered “on orders from the highest level”.

Now a California history professor, Kathryn Olmstead, revealed she had discovered at the Gerald Ford library documents written by Cheney and Rumsfeld at the time of Frank Olson’s death.

They show how far the White House went to conceal information about Olson’s death – and his role in preparing anthrax and other biological weapons. Part of his work had been at Britain’s Porton Down Chemical-Bio Research Centre.

Cheney and Rumsfeld were given the task of covering up the details of Frank Olson’s death. At the time, Rumsfeld was White House Chief of Staff to President Gerald Ford. Dick Cheney was a senior White House assistant.

The documents uncovered by Professor Olmstead include one that states “Dr Olson’s job was so sensitive that it is highly unlikely that we would submit relevant evidence”.

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