Thursday Night

Program Notes Something’s Happening 09-07-23




12 AM

Dave Emory – For the Record #1304 Albert Hofmann, the Nazis and the CIA

https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr1304-albert-hofmann-the-nazis-and-the-cia/

Transformed into something of an icon during the “Psychedelic Era” of the 1960’s, Sandoz’s Albert Hofmann’s political affiliations are fundamentally different from his “Peace and Love” persona minted during that time. The reality of that time is fundamentally different from the surviving cultural and political narrative. This program sets forth disturbing facts about Hofmann, his relationship with the CIA and the Sandoz firm’s activities in World War II.



“. . . . In the same interview [Gordon] Wasson said that Albert Hofmann ‘worked in some way with the CIA’ and that Hoffman’s ‘discoveries were imparted in whole by Sandoz to the U.S. government. Sandoz wanted to be on the right side of things.’ Hofmann’s connection to the CIA has never been officially confirmed by the CIA, which maintains a policy of not commenting on or revealing information on foreign citizens who find their way into its employment. Former agency officials have commented anonymously that several Sandoz scientists and officials, including Hofmann, maintained a close relationship with the CIA, but the ‘Agency never fully trusted the Swiss’ and ‘always held a dual insurance policy with Sandoz’ by vetting and placing covert employees within the firm’s laboratories and administration. . . .”



Elements of Discussion and Analysis Include: The World War II indictment of Sandoz for collaborating with Nazi Germany; Hofmann’s work for the CIA; the presence of U.S. biological warfare personnel in France at the time of the disastrous Pont St.-Esprit ergot/LSD outbreak; Hofmann’s presence in Pont St.-Esprit in the immediate aftermath of the outbreak; Hofmann’s misrepresentation of the cause of the outbreak, attributing it to the use of a mercury compound used to preserve seeds: ” . . . . ‘The mass poisoning in the southern France city of Pont-St. Esprit in the year 1951, which many have attributed to ergot-containing bread, actually had nothing to do with ergotism. It rather involved poisoning by an organic mercury compound that was utilized for disinfecting seeds]’ . . . .”; Hofmann’s discussion with doctors investigating the outbreak in the immediate aftermath of the event–a discussion in which the mercury poisoning theory was dismissed: ” . . . .The doctors at the meeting agreed that mercury poisoning was not evident in any manner, specially because of the persistent lack of kidney or liver damage. . . .”; an account of the Pont St.-Esprit outbreak.

1 AM

It’s Going Down from sister station KPFA

Report from Final Straw Radio on the Asheville NC anarchist book fair presentation by a member of the Jane Collective, a clandestine group of women who arranged to provide abortions for other women who needed them during the late 1960s and into the 1970s, when abortion was widely illegal and criminalized in the US, and many women were dying from so-called “back-alley” abortions and individual personal efforts to terminate their pregnancies.

2 AM

Covert Action Bulletin: Will BRICS Break the US World Order?



After their closely-watched 15th summit, the core member nations of BRICS --Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- have accepted six new members: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who will become members on January 1, 2024. More than a dozen other countries have applied for membership.



But what is BRICS? As the world trends from a unipolar hierarchy led by the United States, to a multipolar reality with nations like Russia and China playing key political and economic roles challenging the reach of the West’s sphere of influence, we investigate what this grouping is, perhaps more importantly what it isn’t, and how the U.S. empire is reacting. We’re joined by Amanda Yee, host of Radio Free Amanda.



Rachel Hu is a journalist with “BreakThrough News,” a new independent media project, where she hosts the podcast “It’s Not You, It’s Capitalism.” She is also a host on WBAI 99.5FM in NYC and has been an anti-war and anti-racist activist with the ANSWER Coalition for the last decade. Rachel can be reached at: rachel@wbai.org.



Chris Garaffa has been an anti-imperialist and social justice organizer since joining the movement against the Iraq war in 2003. Chris is a weekly guest on Sputnik Radio’s “By Any Means Necessary,” and co-hosts the podcast “The Reboot,” focusing on the intersection between technology and human rights. Chris can be reached at: chris.garaffa@gmail.com.

3 AM



Building Bridges from sister station WBAI, with Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash, presents:



A Dream Deferred: Over 500 Years of Black Economic Inequality & Counting with Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Chief of Organizing, Policy, and Equity with the National Community Investment Coalition (NCRC) and Sally Sims, Project Specialist of the Organizing, Policy, and Equity Division, of NCRC looking at the income inequality and wealth gap between white people and Black people in the US;



And an exclusive interview/conversation with Dr. Helen Caldicott, who birthed the international movement against atomic energy. Caldicott is a physician, activist, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, Academy Award-winning filmmaker, and author, whose advocacy focuses on the medical and environmental hazards of nuclear energy as well as weapons

4-6 AM

Final two hours of the Thom Hartmann Program from earlier on 09/06/23.