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1. On Thursday, 15 July 1953, between 2:00 and 3:15 PM, an ARTICHOKE Conference was held in the SO Conference Room 2065 I Building. Present at this Conferencc wcrecsazahnBe
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irepresenting SOrerrepresenting TSS:
representing the Medical Staff;C representing the Director's Office and OSI; andL representingDDP.

2.  opened the Conference by introducing es as the DDP representative.

. 3. r stated the Sidetcne Delay machine had been delivered by Ema of Chicago to and of the Technical Branch and others of'SO had examined the machine. stated that the examination had been of a general plained that after certain studies and tests were made by the Technical Branch IRB, the device would be turned over to TSS for their study and any tests they cared to'make in connection with this device..

4. Several newspaper clippings which bore directly on ARTICHOKE matters were displayed. Bwe then discussed the situation of a former Agency official who had become a chroniç alcoholic and who, at the present time, was undergoing operative treatment in Dallas, Texas, for a possible brain tumor. This individual had called the Agency prior to the operation and warned that when given certain types of anesthetics (sodium pentothal) previously he had been known to talk coherently. The matter was taken care of by placing an SSD representative in the operation room and by bringing the various personnel participating in the operation under the Secrecy Agreethe influence of sodium pentothol and revealed internal problems of the Agency.  added that he was acquainted with the details in the case.

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Chief, Security Rescarch Staff

30 July 1953

Chief, Technical Branch

ARTICHOKE Conference, 15 July 1953

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. 5. ren then commented that nis type oi tung nad been a so..ce of gre, concern to himself and others 2 operations work and stated he hoped that the ARTICHOKS efforts to produce some meihod that would perhaps guarantee amnssias on the parts of those knowing of Agency operations in vital spots would be successful. He stated that some individuals in the Agoncy had to know tremendous amounts of informatior and if any way could be found to produce amnesias for this type of information -- for instancc, after the individual had lcft the Agency -- it would bc a remarkable thing.stated the need for amnesias was particularly great in operations work. andarh both explaincd that work was continually being done in an effort to produce conitrolled amnesias by various means.

6. y called attention to the fact that at the preceeding conference, eshad advanced the idea of testing new mcthods, new chemicals and new techniques (and corbinations thereof) on certain carefully selected employees of the Agency, probably individuals in the Training groups. pointed out also the matter was scheduled for discession at this time. A discussion followed in which 'all hands were in agreement that if the testing could properly be protected and controlled and if it were thoroughly governed by the Medical Staff that the work would be of extreme value both from an experience point of view for those tested and from a research point of view for ARTICHOKE. stated that it was his idea that staff employees (in. Training) be carefully screened and that they betested on a volunteer basis with any new or untried chemicals or technigues provided that the Medical Staff was given complete authority to determine whether er not such testing was safe. m insisted that prctection. of Agency personnel would be paramount in such matters and oniy after certification by the Medical Staff and the Medical Staff completely handling the chemicals or drugs in question could the testing then be carried out. It was suggested by agreement among all hands that the matter be taken up with certain key officials in the Training Branch as to whether or not they considered the matter feasible and sound and stated he andatwould approach the Trainingofficials. It was further agreed that after this had been done and basic details ironed out, the matter should then be taken up at the proper level with the top administrative people of the Agency for . approval.

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8. At this point in the conference,  distriluted a paper entitled "ARTICHOKE; Restatcment of Program" dated 16 July 1953 and signed by explained that the paper had been prepared at the direction of espaa and was being distributed to all hands for their study and comment. Esr then stated that the paper set forth in gcneral a rcstatement of the ARTICHOKE program and redefined certain proposed work in connection with the project. CHOKE mission was entirely sound and we were handling with the proper priority the various broad fields we were studying. of those assembled, whether or not the work was going too far or not far enough or if it were properly in line. stated it was his principal desire to make certain the entire ARTICHOKE group and all participating divisions completely and by stating that he hoped at the next meeting we would have a full discussion concerning the ARTICHOKE work and that if any of the participating groups or individuals present had any ideas or suggestions that they would be taken up at this time.

9. Followingassdiscussion, stated that TSS was making successful progress in items of interest to ARTICHOKE.  stated that in conncction with the d some progress was being made and wemea would work with the Surgeon General's Office in this connection.  further stated that intended to talk with all doctors that he could reach that were involved will, in the future, approach the principal in the case if a to do this.

10. er then briefly reported for OSI and discussed the matter of the communication contemplated with the meofficials engaging in work somewhat parallel to that of ARTICHOKE. seexplained in some detail the background of theweletter and then passed out copies of the OSI reply to the trofficials for study by the group.

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very advantageous since he stated that thekogovernment permitted ccrtain activities which were not permitted by the United States government (i.e. experiments on anthrax, etc.).

1l. Following this,stated that he felt that if the ARTICHOKE organization would set up a list of requirements for infcrmation, he would survey the possibilities of the transmission of these requirements to the various field stations and the various desks in the operations end. mgalso suggested that possibly a requirement sent to the Security Officers and  informed  they regarded his ideas as sound and would assemble a list of requirements and give them to him in the immediate future.

12.Ksdiscussed briefly certain interesting aspects of the delivery of food by the U. S. Government to East Germany with the possible charges of food poisoning, etc. which the Soviets would make against frce food.

14.  made the concluding statement of the conference by pointing out that in general the ARTICHOKE work was quite well defined but often the "by-products"of ARTICHOKE experimentation and research would be of interest to many divisions throughout the Agency. sssexplained that where a discovery was made through the ARTICHOKE efforts and did not apply to the ARTICHOKE work immediately that discovery whether chemical or otherwise wouid be given at once to the properly intcrested division of the Agency.

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15, Thc rnecti.adjourned at approxitnately 31..i after Thursday, 20 August 1953, had been selected as the time of the next mceting. The ineeting will tc held as usual in the SO Confercnce Room.