Truth drug
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A truth drug (or truth serum) is a psychoactive drug used to attempt to obtain information from an unwilling subject, often by a police, intelligence, or military organization. The use of truth drugs is classified as a form of torture according to international law.[1] It has been reported that "truth drugs" have been used by Russian secret services, successors of the KGB.[2][3]
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[edit] Substances
So-called truth drugs have included ethanol, scopolamine, 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate, temazepam, and various barbiturates including the anesthetic induction agent sodium thiopental (commonly known as sodium pentothal): all are sedatives that interfere particularly with judgment and higher cognitive function. A book by the former Soviet KGB officer Yuri Shvets based in Washington details the use of near-pure ethanol to verify that a Soviet agent was not compromised by U.S. counterintelligence services.[4] Cisatracurium, invented by J.J. Savarese, has been used by Japanese torture squads as a truth drug.[citation needed] Cannabis and its active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) has also been tried as a truth drug by certain U.S. law-enforcement agencies.[5]
[edit] Applications
[edit] Russian secret services
A defector from the biological weapons department 12 of the KGB "illegals" (S) directorate (part of Russian SVR service) claimed that a truth drug codenamed SP-17 is highly effective and has been widely used. "The 'remedy which loosens the tongue' has no taste, no smell, no color, and no immediate side effects. And, most important, a person has no recollection of having the 'heart-to-heart talk'" (the subject feels afterwards as if they had suddenly fallen asleep). Officers of the S directorate used the drug primarily to determine the trustworthiness of their own illegal agents who operated overseas.[3] The assassinated ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko suggested that Russian presidential candidate Ivan Rybkin was drugged with the same substance (identified as SP-117) by FSB agents during the 2004 Russian presidential election (he dropped out of the presidential race due to the alleged kidnapping and drugging by FSB agents).[2]
[edit] CIA
There are several documented CIA operations such as Edgewood Arsenal experiments and Projects MKNAOMI, MKULTRA, MKDELTA, BLUEBIRD, ARTICHOKE and CHATTER.
[edit] CBI
Allegedly India's Central Bureau of Investigation use sodium pentothal regularly for interrogation, but it was not proven until plans were announced for its use on the terrorist captured during the November 2008 Mumbai Attacks.[6]
[edit] Reliability
According to information obtained by public disclosure, sodium amytal can be highly unreliable, with subjects apparently freely mixing fact and fantasy. Much of the claimed effect relies on the belief of the subject that they cannot tell a lie while under the influence of the drug. It has also been said that the use of sodium amobarbital does not increase truth-telling, but merely increases talking; therefore, truth is more likely to be revealed, but so are lies.[7]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Winfried Brugger (2000). "May government ever use torture? Two responses from German law". The American Journal of Comparative Law 48 (4): 661–678. doi:. "These provisions state clearly that the application of considerable physical coercion with the intent of obtaining a statement, or the use of other methods to weaken the resolve of a detainee, such as "truth" drugs, falls under the definition of torture".
- ^ a b Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB. New York: Free Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1416551652.
- ^ a b Alexander Kouzminov Biological Espionage: Special Operations of the Soviet and Russian Foreign Intelligence Services in the West, Greenhill Books, 2006, ISBN 1-853-67646-2 [1].
- ^ Yuri B. Shvets, Washington Station: My Life as a KGB Spy in America, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1994.
- ^ Alexander Cockburn; Jeffrey St. Clair (1998). Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press. Verso. pp. 117–118. ISBN 1859841392. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=s5qIj_h_PtkC&printsec=frontcover#PPA118,M1.
- ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3661948/Mumbai-attacks-Militant-kept-in-underwear-to-prevent-suicide.html
- ^ August Piper Jr., M.D. "'Truth serum' and 'recovered memories' of sexual abuse: a review of the evidence". Journal of Psychiatry & Law, Winter 1993 447-471.
[edit] Further reading
- Brown, David. "Some Believe 'Truth Serums' Will Come Back", The Washington Post, Monday 20 November 2006; page A08.
