Posted on 11/04/2002 10:12:20 PM PST by Sabertooth
The General Accounting Office reported last week that 16 percent of our National Guard and reserve pilots and aircrew have transferred out of their combat positions. An additional 18 percent of those surveyed have stated their intent to transfer or leave. Did they suddenly lose their zeal for flying? Are they fatigued after years of service? Are they avoiding possible deployment for an invasion of Iraq? None of the above; the pilots' departure has nothing to do with flying or with war. The GAO discovered that those pilots departed because the Clinton administration ordered them to receive the anthrax vaccine, and 86 percent of those who did take the shots reported adverse side effects. Now, after scores of resignations and hundreds of careers destroyed by court-martial, we discover that our brave servicemen and women were right to resist the anthrax orders, and the government was fatally and corruptly wrong. A lawsuit filed by two Connecticut Air Force Reserve pilots asserted that the vaccine used on the military was never properly tested, and the Food and Drug Administration's recent response was to halt use of existing stocks of the vaccine. Several months earlier, the FDA had ordered that a warning be included on the vaccine's package insert stating that the vaccine can harm people with immunity disorders, can cause a host of serious long-term adverse reactions, and could already be responsible for six deaths and a number of birth defects. These warnings were based on complaints by military vaccine users since 1998 and show an injury rate that far exceeds casualty rates in combat. The FDA warning also states that adverse reactions are expected in 5 percent to 35 percent of people who get the injection. That is an absolutely shocking danger difference from the advertised 0.2 percent rate when Clinton ordered everyone in the military to be given the vaccine. Clinton saw in the anthrax vaccine a way to stick it to the military he "loathed," literally, while handing a pot of gold to an important political ally. It was win-win for the Clintonistas, but lose-lose for our finest servicemen and women. The biggest beneficiary of the order to force the anthrax vaccine on the military was Adm. William Crowe, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who had provided political "cover" for Clinton at a key moment during his bid for the presidency in 1992. Crowe personally vouched for Clinton against charges that he was a draft dodger. A grateful President Clinton rewarded Crowe with the plum appointment as Ambassador to England. But even that was not enough; Clinton handed BioPort, a corporation where Crowe was a director and a stockholder, an exclusive multimillion-dollar contract to supply 2.4 million servicemen with the anthrax vaccine. Crowe reportedly received substantial stock in BioPort's parent company without paying for it. A Pentagon audit in April 2000 revealed that BioPort wasted funds on "excessive travel costs, excessive severance pay and unsubstantiated consulting costs," including $1.28 million in "unreasonable" bonuses for senior management. About a year after BioPort contractually obligated itself to supply the anthrax for $25.7 million, the Clinton administration nearly doubled its promised payments to $49.8 million, even though the FDA repeatedly cited BioPort for quality deficiencies and BioPort failed federal inspections again and again. BioPort was even indemnified against all liability from adverse reactions to the vaccine, which Army Secretary Louis Caldera admitted was "unusually hazardous" for certain recipients. An emergency medicine physician at Keesler Air Force base in Mississippi, Capt. John Buck, chose to face a court-martial rather than be injected with the vaccine. "A red lump on the arm is not something that scares me," Buck said, "but an autoimmune disorder for the rest of my life is." The Clinton administration cruelly court-martialed hundreds of servicemen for declining the unsafe, untested vaccine. The anthrax vaccine, which was imposed on servicemen and women alike, was never tested for harm to unborn children. Clinton's feminist advisors would never permit treating women differently from men, even for the sake of avoiding birth defects. The number of deaths that the FDA now concedes could have been caused by the anthrax vaccine exceeds the casualties from the anthrax itself when the mails and office buildings were contaminated last year. The postal workers showed good common sense when 98 percent of them rejected the government's hard sell to be voluntarily injected with the vaccine. We are waiting for the Department of Defense to do the right thing: restore the careers, with rank and pay, of the hundreds of servicemen and women who were punished for refusing a corrupt order to be injected with the unsafe, untested and unnecessary vaccine. One reason we elected George W. Bush was to remedy Bill Clinton's mistakes, and this is a good place to start.
Contact Phyllis Schlafly | Read her biography
©2002 Copley News Service
Hell, that may have been his (and her) objective all along...
Clinton saw in the anthrax vaccine a way to stick it to the military he "loathed," literally, while handing a pot of gold to an important political ally. It was win-win for the Clintonistas, but lose-lose for our finest servicemen and women.
The biggest beneficiary of the order to force the anthrax vaccine on the military was Adm. William Crowe, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who had provided political "cover" for Clinton at a key moment during his bid for the presidency in 1992. Crowe personally vouched for Clinton against charges that he was a draft dodger.
My Marine jet-jockey brother terminated his service rather than take the anthrax shots. And folks called us tin-foilers back then for not trusting our benevolent gummint.
BioPort Corporation was founded in 1998 for the sole purpose of acquiring the assets of the Michigan Biologic Products Institute from the State of Michigan. For seventy years prior to 1998, the State of Michigan, through various agencies, had manufactured vaccines.
In 1996, Michigan Governor John Engler created a new state agency, the “Michigan Biologics Products Institute.” This new agency was limited to a two-year term of existence. This action, along with the creation of a three-person commission (Michigan Biologics Products Commission) was the beginning of the privatization of Michigan’s vaccine facility.
Because the anthrax vaccine is important to the National Defense, the Department of Defense agreed in 1997 to fund much-needed improvements to the facilities used in the production, testing, and storage of the vaccine.
Following the State of Michigan’s decision to privatize the facility and after an extensive open bid process, BioPort Corporation acquired the assets of Michigan Biologics Products Institute on September 4, 1998. In addition to Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed, there were three other products manufactured by the State: Rabies Vaccine, Human Albumin, and Intra-Muscular Immune Globulin.
After the purchase, BioPort Corporation signed a new contract with the Department of Defense to produce the anthrax vaccine. Since that time, BioPort has performed the necessary renovations of its manufacturing facility, gaining FDA approval in late 2001.
Admiral William J. Crowe Jr., former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is making a lot of money selling anthrax vaccine. If it smells fishy, it isn't because the Admiral spent so much time at sea. He mostly steered his career from desk to desk, as an aide to admirals, a White House assistant, a staff officer, an Ambassador, graduate student, Pentagon planner, and the top dog at JCS.
Intervac L.L.C., of which Retired Adm William J. Crowe Jr. is director--a pharmaceutical investment firm in Maryland--under the newly formed BioPort Inc. bid $25 million to buy the Michigan Biologic Products Institute. The offer included $3.25 million in cash at closing, $12.1 million in secured notes, $4.6 million in rabies vaccine and immune globulin donations to the state and $5 million in royalties over five years. Adm. William J. Crowe Jr. was the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Reagan administration.
BioPort has negotiated with the DoD to make enough anthrax vaccine to inoculate everyone in the military. You figure it out. There are 2.4 million U.S. military personnel. That translates into millions of dollars (about $130 mil.) and they have to be revaccinated on an annual basis. Nice job if you can get it.
The lab he bought, opened in 1926 is the ONLY SOURCE OF ANTHRAX VACCINE IN THE NATION. By the way, it was a state-owned lab, which the Admiral acquired. A real sweet deal.
It is Intervac that has the most interesting history. According to Crowe’s associate and spokesman, Jay Coupe, Crowe owns 22.5 percent of Intervac shares, though he hasn’t “invested a penny” in the venture. Another 30 percent of Intervac shares are owned by Nancy El-Hibri, a mother and homemaker in suburban Maryland and the rest of the company is in the hands of “I&F Holdings,” a company directed by Nancy El-Hibri’s father-in-law, Ibrahim El-Hibri, a Venezuelan citizen, and her husband, Fuad El-Hibri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent.
Fuad El-Hibri appears to be the real day-to-day director of Intervac and is listed by Dun & Bradstreet as the “chief executive” of Bioport. Mrs. El-Hibri laughed when questioned by a reporter for ABC about Intervac and referred the network to her husband who did not return a call.
Experts in defense policy suggested that the Pentagon would be highly unlikely to approve the sale to a foreign national of a company that is the sole manufacturer of a vaccine considered vital to national security.
Indeed, Coupe stresses that between Mrs. El-Hibri and Admiral Crowe, the majority of the stock in Intervac is held by Americans, since Mrs. El-Hibri is a U.S.-born citizen, her husband Fuad was educated at Yale and has applied for U.S. citizenship and Admiral Crowe “served this country for 51 years” including two terms as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Reagan administration and as ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1994-1997.
According to Coupe, when Crowe returned from England in 1997, he was approached by Fuad El-Hibri’s father, Ibrahim El-Hibri. The elder El-Hibri, whom the admiral had met a decade before, invited Crowe to serve on the board of Intervac.
ABC News - 20/20 Investigation
According to Fuad, "Three companies currently hold voting equity in BioPort: Intervac LLC and Intervac Management LLC, which are both Maryland limited liability companies, and Michigan Biologic Products, Inc., a Michigan corporation.
"Intervac LLC is the controlling shareholder. Intervac LLC is owned by Admiral Crowe, my wife Nancy and me, and I and F Holdings N.V., a Netherlands Antilles investment company owned by my father Ibrahim El-Hibri ...
"Admiral Crowe and I are the controlling members of Intervac LLC.”
Other links:
"FACA: Conflicts of Interest and Vaccine Development
Investigation Into Vaccine Maker For Anthrax
Questionable sources...
Adm. Crowe, Bioport and the Put Option Activity Before 9-11
***GASP***...He is a CFR member!
In the mid-1980’s, El Hibri had also engineered a private buyout of Britain’s secret lab involved in production of vaccines and experimentation with chemical and biological weapons materials. The ownership was split among three El Hibri controlled entities; Porton Products, Porton Instruments and Porton International. The Porton laboratory was the sole source of anthrax vaccine used on British troops during the Gulf War.
What was even more intriguing is that around 1994 Bioport President and CEO Fuad El-Hibri managed the takeover of the plant in the UK that manufactured our ally's anthrax vaccine. Interestingly, this company's name was Porton International. This obviously served as the inspiration for the Michigan facility's current name, Bioport. Now, I will mention that Mr. El-Hibri personally assured me that he has 'no equity interest with Porton.' One more piece of information I found intriguing is that Porton International, now under different management, struck a deal with DynCorp, a billion dollar government contractor. The new partnership was named, predictively enough, DynPort. This new entity was recently awarded a billion dollar-plus contract with the Department of Defense to investigate, research, and develop a list as long as 17 new 'experimental' biological and chemical warfare vaccines (ie. botulism toxoid, small pox, etc.) The government refers to this initiative as the Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program (JVAP). Of which, the anthrax vaccine is the prototype.
Somebody make the ex-CIC pay. Let's start by injecting HIM with it.
WHO CONTROLS ANTHRAX VACCINE BOTTLER?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/616797/posts
Sole Source of Anthrax Vaccine Isn't a Source at All
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/543113/posts
I know there were several others about this -- they are probably still archived at the *Anthrax_Scare_List, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/involved?group=78
link does not work...go figure.
For some reason, Larry Ford's death cries out as a major unsolved mystery. Not only that but there is some connection with Bioport and the death of that principal in the Ok. gas company takeover (via the Lums and Ron Brown)
from Anthrax.Anthrax, GOCOs And Designer Germs By Jim Rarey 1-13-2
The following is the result of an in-depth investigation into the current anthrax scare, the anthrax vaccine and the decoding of the human genome. While this writer was among the first to question the ownership, motives and associations of the only U.S. manufacturer of the anthrax vaccine ( Bioport), credit must be given to other researchers who have broadened the field of inquiry. Two in particular have opened up the proverbial "can of worms" involved in the scientific progress of biological weapons. Dr. Leonard Horowitz and Patricia Doyle, Ph.D. have zeroed in on a little publicized but powerful entity named Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI). This relatively unknown (by the public) organization has its tentacles spread into virtually every field of current scientific endeavor, in partnership with the federal and state governments and the military. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. First some background. What are "GOCO's?" At the end of the Second World War, the federal government found itself with several secret laboratories involved mainly in nuclear, chemical and biological weapons research and development. A decision was made to utilize the labs, not only for further weapons research, but also for "peaceful" inventions and discoveries benefiting private industry and commerce.
A method was devised to keep the labs under government ownership but allow maximum participation of private interests. Thus "GOCO's" (Government owned contractor operated) facilities were born. This procedure provides a means to fund projects with taxpayers dollars and transfers of the resulting technology to selected private interests. Various government agencies and the military (Department of Defense) select organizations (through a Byzantine bidding process) to control and operate the government owned facilities. There are currently at least nineteen government owned national laboratories (that we know of) being operated by private contractors. All but one of the contractors is a "non-profit" organization or combination of two or more. The one exception is the Sandia lab, which devolved from the WWII atomic bomb Manhattan Project. The first contractor operator, invited by President Harry Truman, was AT&T. It managed the lab until October, 1993 in the first year of the Clinton Administration, when the contract was awarded to Martin Marietta Corp. in Georgia (now Lockheed Martin). Undoubtedly the influence of "Mr. Defense" Georgia Senator Sam Nunn had something to do with that award. (Republican Congressman Newt Gingrich of Georgia would not become Speaker of the House until two years later.) However, the government got a "real deal" since Lockheed/Martin Marietta has not charged a fee for its management of the lab. (Cui bono?)
Back to BMI (Battelle Memorial Institute) with headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. The institute was the brainchild of industrialist Gordon Battelle whose multi-millionaire father (John Battelle) had established a coal and steel empire in that state. A bequest of one million dollars in Gordon's will set up the institute in 1923. Named to the first board of directors was then President of the United States, Warren G. Harding, a close associate of Gordon's father John. Harding also died later that year. The mission of the Institute, described in the trust is "the encouragement of creative and research work and the making of discoveries and inventions." The trust also required that a share of the institute's net earnings (20%) be given to charitable institutions, needy enterprises or persons. In practice, the "needy" institutions seem to be other research organizations (some indirectly related to BMI). From its humble beginnings with one lab and 20 employees BMI has grown to encompass over 10,000 employees (including 7,500 scientists and engineers), six major technology centers and eight specialized facilities. It has offices in 71 U.S. cities and four in foreign countries including Russia and the Ukraine. BMI also has nine subsidiaries.
The BMI trust was set up as a "non-profit" organization under the laws of the State of Ohio. However, according to BMI's associate general counsel in congressional testimony, BMI does not qualify as non-profit under IRS guidelines and is not tax exempt. (His testimony was given in an apparently successful request that BMI and other "non-profit" contract operators of government facilities be exempted from collection of civil damages for "incidents" with nuclear, chemical or biological materials causing damage or harm to people or the environment.) BMI's fiscal 2000 revenue was nearly one billion dollars, mostly from government contracts and grants. During that year BMI had 6,783 projects in progress for 1,565 "clients." The institute manages or "co-manages" four top secret facilities for the Department of Energy (DOE). The names of the nominal operators of many government facilities do not tell one who is really running the show. One of the favorite stratagems is for the real manager to join in a partnership with a university or a third entity is created as a joint venture with a university or other company.
The DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York is operated by Brookhaven Science Associates a corporation consisting solely of Battelle and Stoney Brook University. BMI is co-manager of DOE's Oak Ridge laboratory with the University of Tennessee. Battelle and other prime contractors have no problem getting universities to "partner" with them in managing laboratory facilities. Entering into such agreements with the favored contractors virtually guarantees a steady flow of government research grants, the lifeblood of many major universities.
Battelle has partnering agreements, in addition to the Univ. of Tennessee, with the entire California State university system and the same in Oregon. While details of the partnering agreements are not made known to the public, occasionally a local newspaper will dig up an interesting provision. One of the provisions in an agreement signed last spring between Battelle and Ohio University for joint gene research allows BMI to transfer any facet of the project to its own laboratories at BMI's discretion. The import of a provision like that will become apparent in part three of this report.
In addition to the management of entire facilities, BMI supports (manages) an incredible variety of programs for various agencies. It supports programs in at least 18 military installations including bioweapons programs at Ft. Detrick in Maryland and the Army's Dugway facility in Utah. It was recently disclosed that BMI also supports an anthrax program for the CIA. In part two of this analysis BMI's deep involvement in anthrax programs, both weapons and vaccines, will be discussed. Part three will explore BMI's involvement and the implications of the decoding and deconstruction of the human genome as well as the murders and mysterious deaths apparently connected to it.
Battelle and Anthrax
The anthrax controversy began years before the mailing of the deadly toxin in October of last year. The issue was about an untested vaccine that nearly a half million U.S. service men and women were forced to take during and after the Gulf War.
A laboratory owned and operated by the State of Michigan produced the vaccine. The vaccine was a much more potent version of one that had been used successfully for several decades to protect against cutaneous (skin) anthrax in veterinarians and others workers who came into close contact with animals and animal products. The vaccine has never been proved to be effective against inhalation (pulmonary) anthrax and has not been licensed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for that purpose. Despite overwhelming evidence that the vaccine has resulted in the partial or total disability of a large number of the inoculated troops and a few deaths, the government (Dept. of Defense and Center for Disease Control) continues to insist the vaccine is safe and effective.
For decades, cultivation of anthrax as a military weapon has been ongoing. The major countries involved were the USSR (now Russia), The United States, the United Kingdom and South Africa. The South African program under the direction of Wouter Basson also developed anthrax for use in the assassination of individuals. In the U.S. the major research and development of "weaponized" anthrax was said to have been performed at the army's Fort Detrick installation. However, we have recently learned that effort received substantial "support" from Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI). (See part one for a detailed description of BMI.) At this point, the reader should be introduced to several individuals who have played important roles in the development of anthrax weapons and/or vaccines.
Two of the individuals the government relies on heavily for expert advice are William C. Patrick and Ken Alibek. Patrick was the director of the operation at Fort Detrick and now has his own private consulting firm on defenses against chemical and biological weapons. He still has close ties to the Dept. of Defense (DOD), the intelligence community including the CIA and BMI. Patrick says he taught army (and BMI) scientists how to aerosolize (weaponize) anthrax powder at the army's facility at Dugway, Utah.
Curiously, more than two years ago Patrick was commissioned by BMI to prepare a scenario where weaponized anthrax was delivered through the mail. Whether deliberately or not, Patrick's report underestimated the concentration of the hypothesized anthrax spores by a factor of twenty to one. His report was based on a concentration of 50,000 billion spores per gram The U.S. weaponized anthrax, for which Patrick holds five secret patents, had a concentration of one trillion spores per gram. No other country's program has reached higher than 500 billion per gram.
Ken Alibek (the Americanized version of his Russian name) was deputy chief of the USSR's bio-weapon program. In 1992 he "defected" to the U.S. The CIA asked William Patrick to "debrief" Alibek who was then welcomed with open arms by the intelligence community and other government agencies. Alibek was an employee of BMI for several years before he was set up with his own consulting company as a subsidiary of the notorious Hadron Corp. (a thinly veiled front for the CIA and other government agencies). Another deputy chief of the Soviet program had defected three years earlier to the U.K. where he was ensconced at Porton Down. Porton Down is the U.K's counterpart of Ft. Detrick in bio-weapons development and now vaccines. Then a consultant, he died suddenly and mysteriously (said to be from a stroke) three weeks after the first mailed anthrax last October.
Another player is Dr. Robert Myers. Myers was the head scientist at the Michigan lab making the anthrax vaccine. When the lab was sold to a private company ( Bioport) Myers became the chief scientist and part owner of Bioport. Myers is one of the prime movers in the army's mandatory anthrax vaccine inoculation program (AVIP) along with BMI who is said to be managing the program for DOD. Myers also has ties to South Africa's anthrax weapons program. He was a friend of scientist Larry Ford who worked with South Africa's Wouter Basson in developing assassination weapons using deadly germs. Myers was also an investor in Ford's company (Biofem). The ostensible goal of Ford's company was to produce a birth control device for women that would also protect against aids. Ford and his partner set up a network of shell companies through which money was laundered to keep Biofem afloat. The original source of that money has never been revealed. The company never came up with a product and had no sales. Ford is said to have committed suicide with his shotgun although police had supposedly confiscated all of his firearms three days earlier. Ford was a suspect in the attempted murder of his partner in Biofem.
Since the anthrax mailings last October, Patrick and Alibek have been widely quoted in the media, sometimes in direct contradiction to there own earlier statements. Their opinions on the possible source of the anthrax have ranged from a sophisticated laboratory to a "loner" with some knowledge and rudimentary equipment. The opinions seem to depend on which scenario government officials are pushing at the time.
However, other scientists have determined that the mailed anthrax has to have come originally from one of five known locations which had access to one trillion spore per gram anthrax developed by Patrick. It might have been narrowed down even further had not the University of Iowa and Iowa State University destroyed their collections of the various iterations of the "Ames" strain. The universities said they had permission from the FBI and CDC (some say they were directed) to destroy the collections.
The anthrax vaccine situation is just as muddled. Bioport has not been able to ship any vaccine because the FDA found multiple problems in the production of the vaccine. Another inspection by the FDA was made last month and Bioport claims to have corrected all the problems of sterility, contamination, etc. However, the increased potency issue is being avoided like the plague (pun intended) by all the parties involved.
In the meantime, BMI has entered into a contract with Bioport to develop a new anthrax vaccine. BMI also signed an agreement with the CDC to test the new vaccine when produced. Evidently the CDC has adopted the Bill Clinton concept of conflict of interest which is trying to watch simultaneously two lovely ladies walking in opposite directions.
The Aerosol Engineering and Biological Defense facility of BMI does FDA testing for licensing of drugs and vaccines assessing safety and efficacy of medical counter measures against chemical and biological agents.
BMI also has managed the Chemical and Biological Defense Information Analysis Center (CBIAC) for the Department of Defense (DOD) since its inception in August 1986. The CBIAC is a full service department of DOD.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is set to try another controversial treatment for anthrax attacks. An unnamed spokesman said the CDC wants to extract blood from vaccinated soldiers and stockpile a protein (immune globulin) obtained from the blood. The theory is that the protein could neutralize the deadly toxin produced by the anthrax bacterium.
That theory might stem from discoveries made during the production of weaponized anthrax. It was found that more virulent strains of anthrax were obtained from the blood that had been through the immune system. Successive tests were run on a series of monkeys with each subsequent strain of anthrax more deadly than the one originally introduced into the monkeys' systems.
At Fort Detrick, the phenomenon was further tested using blood from two lab workers who had died from anthrax. This was kept secret, even from relatives of the victims, until revealed by Baltimore Sun reporter Don Shane in a series of articles last year on Fort Detrick and anthrax.
The CDC has another problem. The prestigious Jawaharalal Nehru University in New Delhi, India has developed a new concept anthrax vaccine that has passed initial testing. It requires fewer doses, no booster shots, has virtually none of the side effects of the vaccines produced by the U.S. and Britain. It will be available within six months at a fraction of the cost of U.S. and British vaccines. So far there has been no reaction from U.S. officials.
India also has a generic version of Cipro (ciprofloxacin), the drug recommended by CDC for anthrax treatment. The Indian government offered to supply the U.S. with 20 million tablets which was turned down citing the Bayer patent on Cipro which doesn't expire until Dec. 31, 2003. This despite the fact that Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson used the threat of buying generic drugs, bypassing Bayer's patent, to get a reduction in price from over $3.00 per tablet to $.95. India is offering the drug at a fraction of even that lower Bayer price. India even offered a free gift of a million dollars worth of the drug to tide the CDC over its temporary shortage. That offer was also turned down.
THE HUMAN GENOME
Two years ago, an expert panel of the British Medical Association (BMA) warned, "Genetically engineered biological weapons capable of targeting particular ethnic groups could become a reality within 10 years. Viruses and other micro-organisms tailored to detect the differences in the DNA of races could offer warmakers and terrorists of the future a new means to carry out ethnic cleansing." The panel also declared that, while only a theoretical possibility now, this capability adds urgency to the need to add verification procedures to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention signed by 140 nations including the U.S., U.K. and Russia.
To that end, a conference of the signatories was held last year to discuss and implement verification procedures. Near the end of the conference, the U.S. representative raised several new objections resulting in postponing any action for a year.
Aside from the naivetÈ in believing a signature on a treaty or convention is going to shut down weapons development programs, the panel may have grossly underestimated the time frame in which the weapons could become reality.
The two key elements in developing such weapons are the decoding of the human genome (DNA) and advances in "gene therapy" (altering of genes). Both disciplines are advancing at an accelerated pace and the targeting capability may already be a reality.
Billions of taxpayer dollars and private funds are being pumped into research and development in the two areas. While the findings have tremendous potential in conquering various diseases, they also can be used for nefarious purposes. Various universities and non-profit entities are receiving grants to carry on studies.
Two approaches can be used in deploying the technology as weapons. Super germs can be developed that are resistant to known treatments along with development of vaccines that would protect only certain groups with similar DNA properties from the germs. Alternatively, toxins could be developed that attack only certain DNA groups.
To the casual observer it might seem, with all the entities involved in the research and development programs, that coordination of all the findings and results would be difficult to coordinate at best. As we have shown in part two of this analysis with regard to anthrax vaccine, the effort is quite controlled with Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI) exerting maximum influence as surrogate for the federal government. The same is true for the development of other vaccines.
BMI has "partnered" with a large, but unknown number of universities and other organizations in the field of DNA research. Such research requires the availability of significant funding for expensive equipment and highly paid scientists. BMI appears to have some influence in awarding of grants and its "partners" seem able to raise the large amounts of money necessary to continue the research.
Most of the visible government grants in the field flow through the Department of Energy (DOE) which is overseeing the human genome project. BMI is the operator or "co-operator" of four of the five national laboratories under the DOE. As such, BMI manages the collection and collation of data on the human genome into one database comprising the most comprehensive information available in the field.
Those who would pervert and convert the available information for the development of weapons have a problem. Many if not most of the scientists involved in the field are working for the betterment of mankind in conquering diseases. If they were to become aware of efforts to pervert the research, they might raise objections and expose those responsible. (Some may already have reached that point.) This might be the explanation of the recent mysterious deaths and murders of top scientists in the field. Then again it might just be the concept of "compartmentalization" where few are to be privy to the total picture. ,P. Since the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, no less than seven or eight top microbiologists have been murdered or died under suspicious circumstances.
Dr. Benito Que, a cell biologist working on infectious diseases at the University of Miami was found beaten to death outside of his laboratory. Authorities say a mugging is suspected.
Dr. Robert M. Schwartz, a well-known DNA sequencing researcher was found murdered in his secluded Loudoun County home in Virginia. Police have arrested a teenager and two unidentified adults in the case.
Set Van Nguyen, a skilled microbiologist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Center in Australia died in a low temperature storage area where biological samples were kept. The cause was said to be a leak of liquid nitrogen from the cooling system. It is probably just a coincidence that Nguyen has the same last name as the quiet, 61-year-old Vietnamese immigrant who died in New York from anthrax. She is the only anthrax case where the source of the anthrax has not been determined.
Already mentioned (but not by name) was the soviet defector who died, reportedly of a stroke, in Britain. Three weeks earlier just after the Sept. 11 WTC and Pentagon attacks, Vladimir Pasechnik had communicated with British officials about his knowledge on anthrax as a weapon.
An Israeli journalist has raised concern about the loss of Israeli scientists involved in genetic and DNA research. Two have been assassinated, supposedly by terrorists. Some other prominent scientists were lost when the chartered plane they were on was shot down over the Black Sea, reportedly by an arrant missile from a Ukranian training exercise.
Perhaps the most disturbing death is that of Harvard scientist Don C. Wiley. Wiley was one of America's preeminent researchers into infectious diseases and HIV in particular. After years of meticulous research, Wiley had just scored a breakthrough by identifying the properties of the HIV virus that make it infectious and how it avoids destruction by the antigens in the human immune system.
In theory, the discovery has application to other viruses that cause diseases. Viruses, as opposed to bacteria, seem to be immune to treatment by antibiotics.
The dark side of the discovery, as Wiley himself discussed, is that the same information could be used to change relatively benign viruses into killers.
Wiley disappeared from his rental car in the middle of a bridge over the Mississippi River when leaving after a dinner of the St. Jude Children's Research Advisory Associates.
A couple of weeks later, his body was found far downstream in the river. Although an autopsy was to be performed, no results have been made public despite the passage of several weeks.
A number of scientists, journalists and others are concerned about the direction this technology may take, however few are talking about it publicly. This writer believes more, not less light should be put on the subject.
Permission is granted to reproduce this article in its entirety.
The author is a free lance writer based in Romulus, Michigan. He is a former newspaper editor and investigative reporter, a retired customs administrator and accountant, and a student of history and the U.S. Constitution.
Well, a little update is in order:
Admiral Crowe is one of the people involved in this group below:
26 Former U.S. Officials Oppose Bush Associated Press ^ | Today, a little more than an hour ago. June 13, 2004
WASHINGTON - Angered by Bush administration policies they contend endanger national security, 26 retired U.S. diplomats and military officers are urging Americans to vote President Bush out of office in November. The group, which calls itself Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, does not explicitly endorse Democrat John Kerry for president in its campaign, which will start officially Wednesday at a Washington news conference. The Bush-Cheney campaign said Sunday it would have no response until the group formally issues its statement at the news conference. Among the group are 20 ambassadors, appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents, other former State Department officials and military leaders whose careers span three decades. Excerpted - click for full article ^ Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040614/ap_on_el_pr/diplomats_letter
A list of members includes:
... Prominent members include retired Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East during the administration of Bush's father; retired Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., ambassador to Britain under President Clinton and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Reagan; and Jack F. Matlock Jr., a member of the National Security Council under Reagan and ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991.... Also regarding this group (the DMCC):
Current and former top US military brass dispute White House claims that Iraq poses an immediate threat to the US and that it must be dealt with militarily. In late July 2002, The Washington Post reports that “top generals and admirals in the military establishment, including members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff” believe that Saddam Hussein's regime “poses no immediate threat and that the United States should continue its policy of containment rather than invade Iraq to force a change of leadership in Baghdad.” The report says that the military officials' positions are based “in part on intelligence assessments of the state of Hussein's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and his missile delivery capabilities.” The newspaper says that there are several reasons why these dissident officers disagree with their civilian bosses. They worry that if Saddam Hussein is removed, Iraq could “split up, ... potentially leading to chaos and the creation of new anti-American regimes and terrorist sanctuaries in the region.” It is also possible, they say, that an invasion of Iraq could provoke Saddam Hussein into using whatever weapons of mass destruction he may have. And even if the invasion is successful, the aftermath could see “mass instability, requiring tens of thousands of US troops to maintain peace, prop up a post-Saddam government, and prevent the fragmentation of Iraq,” the military brass warns. Their position is that the US should continue its policy of containment, specifically sanctions and the enforcement of the US- and British- imposed “no-fly” zones. [The Washington Post, 7/28/02] Responding to the dissenting opinions of these military officials, Richard Perle, current chairman of the Defense Policy Board, says that the decision of whether or not to attack Iraq is “a political judgment that these guys aren't competent to make.” [The Washington Post, 7/28/02]
Joseph P. Hoar, a retired Marine Corps general who commanded American forces in the Persian Gulf after the 1991 war, warns the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the proposed invasion is both “risky” and possibly unnecessary. [New York Times, 8/1/02]
Ha!! Yeah, 3 1/2 years later, it would be nice to start.
But what about the 'new tone'?
Thanks for the ping!
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