Vietnam Veterans of America, a nonprofit veterans' rights group, Bruce Price, Franklin D. Rochelle, Larry Meirow, Eric P. Muth, David C. Dufrane and Wray C. Forrest filed a class action complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California naming as defendants the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA Director Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the U.S. Department of Defense, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, U.S. Department of the Army, Secretary of the Army Pete Geren, the United States of America and U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
The veterans claim that they volunteered for military experiments as part of a program started by the government in the 1950s. The plaintiffs claim that the program was designed to test the effects of nerve agents, biological weapons and mind-altering drugs. The plaintiffs maintain that at least 7,800 U.S. military personnel served as volunteers to test experimental drugs, including LSD, at the Edgewood Arsenal in Edgewood, Md. The experimental program lasted into the 1970s, and the Edgewood location was just one of many that conducted similar experiments, the plaintiffs allege.
The plaintiffs compare the volunteers to laboratory rats and claim that the test subjects were not properly informed of the nature of the experiments. The plaintiffs maintain some of the test subjects were part of a CIA project known as MKULTRA. The project was conducted during the '50s and '60s and involved brainwashing and administering of experimental drugs like LSD to unsuspecting individuals. The plaintiffs maintain that the project was the subject of several congressional inquiries and resulted in at least one death.
The plaintiffs claim that many of the volunteers' records have been destroyed or have been sealed with a top secret classification. The plaintiffs claim that they and other test subjects were denied recognition that was promised to them as part of their participation. The plaintiffs claim that the defendants have unconstitutionally infringed on class members' life, property and liberty rights protected by the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The plaintiffs seek to represent a class of all persons who were exposed to allegedly harmful experiments by the defendants without their knowledge. The plaintiffs seek declaration that the consent forms signed by members of the putative class are not valid or enforceable. The plaintiffs further seek to require that the defendants turn over all documents and evidence concerning class members' exposures and known health effects of the experiments performed.
