The CIA considered using a drug it believed would act as a truth serum when interrogating prisoners about potential terror attacks following the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a recently declassified report.
The report, which was made public Tuesday, detailed “Project Medication,” in which the CIA’s Office of Medical Services researched on whether Versed, a psychoactive medication, could be used to interrogate prisoners.
The CIA believed that the drug should be considered for a trial if “unequivocal legal sanction first were obtained.” However, the report said the agency chose not to go forward with asking for approval for using the drug.
Versed is usually prescribed to people in order to treat their anxiety. At the time, though, medical staff at the CIA thought that it could be used to influence prisoners during interrogation.
The report notes the ethical dilemmas of administering the drug, including the fact that prisoners under the influence could credibly claim ignorance.
“A detainee speaking under the influence of drugs, however, could credibly claim ignorance of anything he had said,” the report states, adding that Versed is “one of the safest and most easily reversed benzodiazepines.”
