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  • Poisoner in Chief

  • Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control
  • By: Stephen Kinzer
  • Narrated by: James Linkin
  • Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (18 ratings)

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Poisoner in Chief

By: Stephen Kinzer
Narrated by: James Linkin
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Publisher's Summary

2019 Amazon.com Best Books of the Year

The best-selling author of All the Shah’s Men and The Brothers tells the astonishing story of the man who oversaw the CIA’s secret drug and mind-control experiments of the 1950s and ’60s.

The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentlehearted torturer - the agency’s “poisoner in chief.” As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he directed brutal experiments at secret prisons on three continents. He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace - including some intended for Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. He paid prostitutes to lure clients to CIA-run bordellos, where they were secretly dosed with mind-altering drugs. His experiments spread LSD across the United States, making him a hidden godfather of the 1960s counterculture. For years he was the chief supplier of spy tools used by CIA officers around the world.

Stephen Kinzer, author of groundbreaking books about US clandestine operations, draws on new documentary research and original interviews to bring to life one of the most powerful unknown Americans of the 20th century. Gottlieb’s reckless experiments on “expendable” human subjects destroyed many lives, yet he considered himself deeply spiritual. He lived in a remote cabin without running water, meditated, and rose before dawn to milk his goats.

During his 22 years at the CIA, Gottlieb worked in the deepest secrecy. Only since his death has it become possible to piece together his astonishing career at the intersection of extreme science and covert action. Poisoner in Chief reveals him as a clandestine conjurer on an epic scale.

©2019 Stephen Kinzer (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

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Quite Frightening

Even after having watched documentaries on MK Ultra this is still a frightening look at the experimentation on humanity of people who have no conscience. I think we all realize this is going on and that programmed assassins exist and people can be poisoned without a trace but this book explores the people who do these things to their fellow humans. Such a good job by Stephen Kinzer at opening our minds and it is very well read by the narrator. I highly recommend this book especially at this current time.

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Terrible performance

Narrator is horrific. Adopts a stutter for Gotlib and a terrible female voice. Buy the book.

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