By Sean MacKenzie – 1993
Copied from"The Collected Works of Col. L. Fletcher Prouty", A cd produced by Len Osanic osanic@prouth.org http://www.prouty.org
This five part series examines the origins of AIDS and its possible links to the development of biochemical warfare in this country. The article was written and researched over a period of three years by award winning, Seattle based journalist Sean Mackenzie.
Scope Of The Epidemic
This week begins a five-week series that examines the origins of AIDS and its possible
links to the development of biochemical warfare in this country. The article was written
and researched over a period of three years by award-winning, Seattle-based journalist
Peter MacKenzie. We start the series with the following introductory article that
examines the scope of the AIDS problem.
GOVERNMENT HEALTH AUTHORITIES may have grossly underestimated the number of people infected with the AIDS virus, according to Dr. Robert Strecker, Los Angeles pathologist. The AIDS virus is actually a "retrovirus" - an infective organism that inserts itself into the genetic structure of its host, which It forces to constantly breed new viruses. Veterinarians know most about retroviruses," Strecker said in The Strecker Memorandum, his 97-minute videotape concerning the AIDS pandemic. "These are slow viral diseases of humans and represent a major new kind of problem that most medical doctors have had little experience in dealing with".
Already the number of deaths in the United States from AIDS has exceeded the number of Americans killed in the Korean and Vietnam wars combined, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). From 1981 through May 31, 1991, a total of 136,204 cases of AIDS had been logged by the CDC. Of that number, 83,145 have died.
While those numbers are appalling, they may represent only the barest tip of the iceberg, according to Strecker, "in general, the rule of thumb (when dealing with retroviruses) is there are 99 cases 'subclinical' for every case reported," Strecker said. In other words, waiting in the wings behind the 136,204 cases reported to the CDC through mid-l991 are 13,484,196 cases just waiting to be diagnosed, Strecker's formula suggests.
According to the latest figures revealed by the CDC, the total number of AIDS cases in the United States was 339,250 through Sept. 30,1993. If Strecker's contention holds true, the actual number of infected Americans may be closer to 34 million. That would represent more than 10 percent of the nation's total population. Strecker's contention seems to be supported by a study of Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), a retrovirus very similar in function to HIV, conducted in the fall of 1990. Sponsored by Idexx Corporation of Portland, Maine, the study involved 1558 veterinary clinics and 27,976 cats across the United States.
Of the total number of cats, 7.4 percent tested positive for FIV. This figure comes strikingly close to supporting Strecker's "general rule of thumb". One of the main characteristics distinguishing retroviruses from any other infectious agent is the span of time across which they operate - approximately 20 percent of the lifespan of the host organism, according to Strecker. In the case of the AIDS virus in humans, that equation supports the 7 to 14-year incubation period now reported for the virus. A person may carry the virus and not manifest any symptoms of opportunistic infection for up to 14 years - but the person would be fully infectious at any time during that long period.
A notably grim aspect of the AIDS epidemic is its apparent one-year doubling time, according to statistics offered by Strecker. There were about 40,000 cases of AIDS reported worldwide in 1987, he said, and 80,000 the following year. Given the speed at which the virus spreads and its long incubation period, the resulting mathematics become frightening indeed. "This means nearly everyone in the U.S. could be infected before anyone showed any symptoms,- according to Strecker.
"In the face of a lethal disease, Journalists and media editors have been frightened to contradict the conventional wisdom being put across by the scientists. There has been no serious attempt at investigative journalism into the wealth of scientific scandals surrounding AIDS."
Dr. John Seale, Royal Society of Medicine, United Kingdom in a Memorandum to the Social Services Committee, House of Commons, 1987.
AIDS: Biowarfare Experiment Out Of Control? A NEWLY UNCOVERED TRAIL of evidence regarding the true nature of the AIDS pandemic points to these startling conclusions:
The deadly AIDS virus is a genetically engineered 'bioweapon' designed to kill mass populations.
The virus was created in a U.S. Army laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland and was transported to Africa by the World Health Organization in contaminated smallpox vaccines.
Contrary to "official" views of the green monkey and Patient Zero (see related story), the virus was introduced into the homosexual male population in the United States through the experimental 'Hepatitis B' vaccine trials in New York City in 1978 and two years later in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Condoms offer little or no protection against the AIDS virus; the vast number of possible mutations of the virus make an effective vaccine virtually impossible, and the numbers of infected may be dramatically greater than the American public has been led to believe (see related story).
The trail of evidence begins with a formerly classified Secret document expressing official military interest in a synthetic virus. Dated May 21, 1953, the document reports the proceedings of an "Artichoke Conference" held on that same date.
The participants' names have been deleted from the document, but the general thrust of the meeting is made clear by the nature of "Project Artichoke" itself. Examined in detail in the book "The Search for the Manchurian Candidate" by journalist John Marks, "Artichoke" was a secret CIA program designed to arrive at methods of controlling human behavior.
"Artichoke" experimentation upon human guinea pigs involved electro-shock, sensory deprivation and drugs, sometimes to the point of physical injury and, according to Marks, even death.
"Inexorably, the Artichoke men crossed the clear ethical lines," Marks states in his book.
It was within this shady environment that the first official interest in an artificial virus appears to have surfaced. The 1953 document states "an East German scientist had succeeded in developing a new virus or mutation of a virus which Dr. (name deleted) regarded as very important if true.
A "SUBSTITUTE FOR WAR" The next piece in the AIDS "puzzle" did not materialize until 1967 with the publication of Report from Iron Mountain on the Possibility and Desirability of Peace. The report allegedly followed a study by a secret, government-sponsored group of professors, scientists, business leaders and other credentialed civilians to determine the consequences of a transition to a peace-based society.
Author Leonard C. Lewin has admitted in the New York Times that the report is a work of fiction. At the same time, the report's value is not discounted by at least one highly placed source. The Report from Iron Mountain is considered a very accurate reflection of the high-level government thinking at the time.
The report asserted that war is the basic organizing force of modern society and that a transition to peace may not even be desirable. Further, the report stated, "as a system of gross population control to preserve the species, it (war) cannot be fairly faulted.
"-. . . a viable substitute for war as a social system cannot be a mere symbolic charade," the report stated. "It must involve real risk of personal destruction, and on a scale consistent with the size and complexity of modem social systems. Credibility is the key . . . The existence of an external menace, then is essential to social cohesiveness as well as to the acceptance of political authority.
The report devoted an entire chapter to consideration of "Substitutes for the Functions of War". Mentioned in this category were dramatic expansion of health services, education, housing, mass public transportation, preserving the environment, and the elimination of poverty.
"However unlikely some of the possible alternate enemies we have mentioned may seem," the report said, "we must emphasize that one must be found, of credible quality and magnitude, if a transition to peace is ever to come about without social disintegration. It is more probable, in our judgment, that such a threat will have to be invented, rather than developed from unknown conditions."
While there is no evidence directly linking this report with the genesis of the AIDS virus, a global pandemic would certainly fit the scenario outlined above.
The Report from Iron Mountain states it was not originally meant for mass consumption. Its introduction claimed it was leaked by a member of the special group who, at the conclusion of his efforts, suffered a guilty conscience. The audience at which the report was initially aimed was, according to its introduction, "unnamed government administrators of high rank; it (the report) assumed considerable political sophistication from this select audience."
The report from this alleged super-secret government body was followed two years later by what may be the true point of origin of the AIDS virus
$10 MILLION APPROPRIATED TO CREATE "NEW INFECTIVE MICROORGANISM" On June 9, 1969, Dr. Donald MacArthur made a momentous presentation before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Department of Defense Appropriations.
The hearing is recorded in "Department of Defense Appropriations 1970, Part 6 and begins on page 104 of that volume. According to that report, MacArthur in July 1968, was designated Deputy Director (Research and Technology), Defense Research and Engineering in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
It is important to understand MacArthur's exact position in the Department of Defense (DOD) chain of command before his statements during the hearing can be placed in their proper context.
"As Deputy Director (Research and Technology), he is responsible for management of the DOD overall research and technology programs," - according to the Hearing record. "The programs which he directs, cover such diverse fields as rocket and missile propulsion, materials technology, medical, and life sciences, social and behavioral sciences, environmental sciences, and chemical technology."
MacArthur's position can be even more specifically pinpointed, according to Col. L. Fletcher Prouty (USAF - retired). During the years 1955 through 1964, Prouty served as a "focal point officer",- providing a critical liaison between the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon. Prouty was also posted during this time as Chief of the Office of Special Operations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"MacArthur is ideally situated as Deputy Director of Research and Technology in the office of the Deputy Director of Research and Engineering, John S. Foster, under the Secretary, of Defense, Clark Clifford - in June 1969," Prouty states. "This protocol is important. In the entire listing of senior personnel in the telephone book of the Pentagon (about 35,000 people), he is listed about 15 names below the Secretary of Defense. Someone had decided that his job and his physical location in the Pentagon were most important."
He was the ideal man to send to the Congress to make a case for these funds. He was successful according to Prouty.
The topic of MacArthur's presentation was quite specific: chemical and biological warfare about which, MacArthur stated in the Hearing record, "I know most of the facts."
"Molecular biology is a field that is advancing very rapidly," MacArthur told the subcommittee in 1969, "and eminent biologists believe that within a period of five to 10 years it would be possible to produce a synthetic biological agent, an agent that does not naturally exist and for which no natural immunity could have been acquired."
POINTS OF CONTENTION MANY FACTS CONCERNING AIDS as presented by the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health and scientific "experts are not as ironclad as the American public has been led to believe".
The AIDS virus began in the green monkey of Africa, which then bit a native and "transmitted the Virus to humans.
In his videotape, The Strecker Memorandum, Los Angeles gastroenterologist and pathologist Dr. Robert Strecker states that the green monkey can't be cited as the source of the AIDS virus. "The spread of the disease in Africa has moved from the cities to the jungles, not from the jungles, as one would think if the green monkey were involved," Strecker said. Further; the genes of the AIDS virus don't look like those of any monkey virus, according to Strecker.
In the January 1988 edition of Skin and Allergy News, Dr. Luc Montagnier (co- discoverer of the AIDS virus) of the Pasteur Institute in Paris was quoted as calling the origin of the AIDS virus "a continuing mystery, adding that there is no evidence that any monkeys actually test positive for HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus)
In a Los Angeles Times article of June 2, 1988, headlined "Research Refutes Idea That Human AIDS Virus Originated in Monkeys," University of Tokyo researchers were reported to have discovered "distinct differences in the molecular structure of the human and monkey viruses.
In the same article, Carol Mulder of the University of Massachusetts Medical School was quoted as saying, "We don't know what the origins of the human AIDS virus are. It is not the African green monkey. We don't know of any other monkey virus that is similar enough to the human viruses that it could be their predecessor."
The AIDS virus was brought to the United Stated by Patient Zero The idea that a young, gay Canadian airline steward named Gaetan Dugas first introduced the AIDS virus into the homosexual population of Manhattan was first advanced by the late San Francisco writer Randy Shilts and given further credence by coverage on the CBS television news program, 60 Minutes.
In his book! AIDS and the Doctors of Death, Hollywood dermatologist and cancer researcher Dr. Alan Cantwell stated that a large number of homosexual men in New York, City had the disease before Dugas was ever diagnosed.
"As evidence for this, we know that Cladd Stevens and her group from the New York City Blood Center have traced the first and earliest known 'positive' AIDS virus antibody test back to young Manhattan gays who were injected with the hepatitis experimental vaccine at the Blood Center beginning in November 1978,-' Cantwell writes in his book. ''
"Re-examined blood specimens taken during 1978-1979 show 'positive' AIDS virus antibodies in 6.6% of those men injected with the experimental hepatitis vaccine (Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume255, pp.2167-2172,1986). In 1980, the year Dugas was 'diagnosed with AIDS, twenty percent of the Manhattan men in the experimental hepatitis vaccine study were 'positive' for AIDS virus antibodies! There is no conceivable way Dugas could ever have infected such a large number of New York City gays, as early as 1978-1979
The AIDS virus cannot be borne by insects Equine infectious anemia, an AlDS-like virus affecting horses, is borne by blood sucking insects, according to Dr. Robert Strecker. "The burden of proof is on those who say that the AIDS virus is not mosquito transmitted," Strecker said. Further, even if it could be conclusively proven that known strains of the virus are not borne by insects, there is no way to guarantee that the virus, with its tendency to rapidly mutate, will not someday change into an insect-borne form.
Condoms effectively prevent the spread of the disease Dr. William O'Connor, a California physician and surgeon, cites a study involving 9 female sexual partners of 93 men infected with HIV, as reported in the August 14 1987 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The article states "Condom use was not significantly associated with protection from infection."
- Dr. Strecker thinks he may have the answer. The latex material of which condoms are made has naturally occurring microscopic holes which measure roughly 1.5 microns in diameter, according to Strecker. These holes are from one to 10 times larger than the virus, hardly impeding the possibility of infection. The permeability of latex may play an important role in the case of Kimberly Bergalis, who became infected with AIDS in 1987 by her dentist in a fashion completely unforeseen by the "experts". -
In an article written by John Crewdson of The Chicago Tribune and carried in The Seattle Times of July 27, 1990, it was reported that while the dentist did have AIDS, the dentist and woman had not had sex and there was no known exchange of bodily fluids. Further, the woman had had sex with two men prior to her infection, but neither of them were AIDS carriers. The woman was not a health care worker and had not been exposed to anyone else's blood, infected or otherwise.
The article stated, "The cases reported without fanfare yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control here (in Atlanta, Georgia), also raises new questions about the ways the AIDS virus can be transmitted - and about the very nature of the virus itself. The article further stated that ". . . the CDC kept it (the case) under a tight lid of secrecy for more than a year while double-checking every possibility."
"How did the virus pass? That's really what we don't know," Dr. Harold Jaffe, head of the CDC s AIDS research program, was quoted as saying. "This case isn't as solid as we would like, but I don't think we had any choice about publishing it."
The American Dental Association, according to the article, apparently disagreed.
The article ended with this paragraph: "The American Dental Association issued a statement calling the CDC report 'inconclusive' and said its release 'did not serve the best interests of the public and (dental) profession.'"
The nation's blood supplies are safe In an Associated Press story carried on the front page of The Seattle Times on May 16, 1990, it was reported that tests used to screen AIDS-infected blood fail to catch a significant number of positive samples.
Under the headline "AIDS virus test proves inaccurate, the article stated: "Scientists at Emory University in Atlanta tested the blood of 165 people who tested negative for the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and found that 30 actually were infected with the virus."
The scientists reportedly used a new type of test on blood samples that had been already pronounced disease-free following routine laboratory tests. The number of samples re- tested and found to be positive comes close to 20 percent of the total
The following day's edition of The Seattle Times ran a story declaring the blood supply safe. based on a comment made by Dr. Merlyn Sayers, medical director of the Puget Sound Blood Center. Dr. Sayers was quoted as saying that people "at risk" for contracting the disease do not donate blood.
The distinction between "risk groups" and the general population blurs when one notes an observation attributed to Dr. Robert Gallo, co-discoverer of the AIDS virus.
"Ninety percent of the people infected (with AIDS) don t even know it," Dr. Gallo has been quoted as saying.
The AIDS virus has been around for several decades, if not hundreds of years Dr. Jakob Segal, professor and former Director of the Institute of Biology at Berlin University, Germany, stated there is no evidence to support the existence of the-AIDS virus before 1979. Tests that suggest otherwise are the result of "false positives", Dr. Segal stated, alluding to another shortcoming in a blood-testing system that already imperils America's health.
In a 57-page report released in 1986 and titled, "AIDS: Its Nature and Origin," Dr. Segal mentioned a study of American blood samples conducted in 1984. One batch of samples was collected in 1954; the other batch even earlier.
Dr. Segal wrote in his report: "Ninety-four percent of the sera of 1954 displayed a positive reaction against LAV/HTLV-111, and even in the older sera the apparent prevalence of antibodies against LAV/HTLV-ill reached 53%. As we cannot suppose that 30 years ago the AIDS virus had spread to nearly the whole population of the USA only to decrease suddenly to the present prevalence of 0.25%, we must conclude that we are dealing with 'false positive' reactions due to a loss of specificity during the long storage . . "This confirms our concept," Dr. Segal wrote, "according to which, in fresh sera, separate groups of antibodies are differentiated by the modern testing methods, whereas in partial denaturation by . . . inadequate cooling, or moderate heating. 'false-positive' values will be obtained . . ."
A vaccine against AIDS is only a few years away At the Sixth International Conference on AIDS held in San Francisco in early 1991, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief of AIDS research at the National Institutes of Health, stated that a vaccine against the virus should be available by the year 2000.
Dr. Robert Strecker disputes this claim for three reasons. The first is the long incubation period of the virus. Any study of a vaccine would theoretically involve a 14-year waiting period to determine if it worked, according to Strecker.
Second, it has been established that the AIDS virus grows in the "macrophage", the cellular structure responsible for processing the virus so it can be effectively destroyed by the immune system. Any vaccine against the AIDS virus would involve introduction of an antibody, according to Strecker. The antibody and virus would then form a cohesive unit, enabling the macrophage to ingest the new configuration easier.
"You die quicker than if you had not been vaccinated," Strecker said. "This is in my opinion the central reason why vaccination against AIDS may not only be detrimental but prove to be ultimately impossible.
Finally, the genes of the AIDS virus contain 9,000 base pairs (four possible genetic outcomes), according to Strecker. This means the number of possible mutations of the AIDS virus is calculated by multiplying 9000 times itself four times. The final number defies comprehension: 6.5 quadrillion different strains of AIDS, each with its own set of characteristics. While not all of these mutations are infective or even biologically viable. Strecker contends that there would be enough new strains to prove his point.
Writes Dr. Jakob Segal in his report: "-This revelation, that the AIDS virus is a chimera created only a few years ago, both parts of which have not yet had time to co-ordinate with each other, explains an important phenomenon, the effects of which may perhaps prove to be tragic.
"Whereas HTLV- I, HTLV- II, Visna and the other retroviruses investigated in this connection show genetic stability and only a few mutations. The genetic behavior of the AIDS virus is dominated by numerous mutations . . . the genomes isolated by Montagnier and Gallo from viruses of AIDS patients from the American East Coast differed from one another by approximately 1 percent, but the viruses isolated a year later by Luciv on the west coast deviated from them by as much as 5 percent
". . . the AIDS virus," Dr. Segal declared. "constitutes a combination of two uncoordinated genome components, artificially joined by means of genetic engineering. It could hardly be assumed that a system with such a marked genetic instability should be the result of a biological evolution."
Doctor Donald MacArthur was asked why work had not been done in this field; was it lack of money or lack of interest?
"Certainly not lack of interest," MacArthur answered. <> According to information supplied to the Subcommittee by MacArthur, "Within the next five to 10 years, it would be possible to make a new infective microorganism which could differ in certain aspects from any known disease-causing organisms. Most important of these is that it might be refractory (defined in Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary as- 'resisting control or authority; stubborn, unmanageable') to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend
"A research program to explore the feasibility of this could be completed in approximately five years at a total cost of $10 million.
While the Hearing record acknowledged "many who believe such research should not be undertaken lest it lead to yet another method of massive killing of large populations," Page 129 of that volume clearly states "tentative plans were made to initiate the program."
"It must be acknowledged that the role of Congress in continuing to supply funds for MacArthur's project, among many others, becomes a much more important role than most of us would understand," according to Prouty
Referring to the Hearing record, Prouty stated, "I have read it carefully and find nothing unusual about the process and about what we find. I do find what most certainly may be considered as the focus of the origin of AIDS
Prouty was in a position to know.
"Because I was the official 'Focal Point' officer in the Pentagon for CIA clandestine activities, all CIA operations that involved the military for support had to be brought to my office," Prouty stated. "Then I would 'cover' them and get them done anywhere in the world - even the Soviet Union. Since the CIA is highly compartmented, they do not know each other's business; but because my role was not, I saw them all over a period of nine years (1955-1964)
"I believe I have participated in more covert operations than anyone of that period, perhaps in any period, for this reason," Prouty states.
In 1973, Prouty wrote The Secret Team, perhaps the definitive study of the internal functioning of the CIA and how it carries out its secret plans domestically and around the world. For example, Prouty is certain that the Report from Iron Mountain is a completely factual assessment disguised as fiction.
Prouty is familiar with the military's long history of "biowarfare" experimentation.
"In 1955, when I first went to the Pentagon. I was given a desk and chair in an office in the Unconventional Warfare Division of the US Air Force Directorate of Plans," Prouty stated. "This happened to be the locale of the famous CIA Lt. Col. James Monroe."
In The Search for the Manchurian Candidate, journalist John Marks mentioned Monroe in connection with the descendent of Artichoke, the ClA's "MK ULTRA" program.
Referring to Monroe, Prouty stated. "His activities covered this area of biowarfare and the support of CIA activities in that area.
"During this time I became well aware of those activities, and Fort Detrick was mentioned frequently," Prouty said. "During my own work with the CIA, I attended many meetings in which such activity was the subject, and the function of Fort Detrick was a common topic of discussion."
THE FORT DETRICK CONNECTION Fort Detrick is a U.S. Army facility located at Frederick, Maryland. The installation was the subject of comments made on June 30. 1969 by Professor Martin Dworkin to the House of Representatives (Congressional Record, July 1, 1969; Page 180777).
"I hold a Ph.D. in microbiology," Dworkin told Congressmen. "I am a professor of microbiology at the Medical School of the University of Minnesota and am speaking today as a representative both of the Minnesota New Democratic Coalition and the Scientists, Committee on Chemical and Biological Warfare.
"It seems that there is only one essential feature of biological warfare which makes it unique, and that is its epidemic quality - its ability to start a chain reaction," according to Dworkin. "There is, however, one flaw in this approach and that is, fortunately, scientists simply do not know how to start epidemics. Unfortunately, neither do we know in many cases how to stop epidemics.
In connection with the large-scale biowarfare experimentation begun by the military establishment during World War II. "Fort Detrick was founded in, I believe, 1943, and went into active and vigorous operation," Dworkin said.
"By the way, the biological warfare activities of Fort Detrick were secret even from Congress," he said."The operations were administered and funded through the executive branch without any approval or control whatsoever from the legislative arm of the government. From this beginning there emerged the biological warfare establishment at Fort Detrick.
"The fact that the tactical utility of germ warfare (if it ever existed) has been eclipsed by the more effective chemical warfare weapons has had no effect whatever on the biological warfare establishment," according to Dworkin. "Like many other government organizations their mere existence has become their justification."
In an article headlined "Is the Pentagon Preparing for Biotech Warfare?", the August 10, 1987 edition of Business Week reported the Defense Department "scuttled its programs when President Nixon swore the U.S. off biological and most chemical weapons in 1969."
Activities at Fort Detrick then assumed what military officials called a purely "defensive" posture, but the biowarfare research apparently continued unabated.
"The research that goes into developing a biological weapon is all but identical to that needed to develop a defense against the agent," the Business Week article states. "The military says it needs to test defensive clothing and equipment against airborne toxins and live organisms. But skeptics complain that, to test bioweapons, the military must first make them.
Dr. Jakob Segal, former Director of the Institute of Biology at Berlin University, Germany, mentions Fort Detrick in a 57-page report, which he wrote with his wife, Dr. Lilli Segal. The Segals' report, published in 1986, is titled AIDS - Its Nature and Origin.
"Gene manipulation of pathogenes entails grave danger to the population and is subject to strict legal regulations. In particular, a P-4 type laboratory is required which should exclude all leakages of pathogenes," according to Segal. "The first laboratory of this kind in the USA - presumably in the whole world - was installed at Fort Detrick, Maryland, in building 550 in 1977," Segal stated in his report. "The first appearance of AIDS exactly coincides with the opening of a P-4 laboratory at Fort Detrick. . .
A copy of Segal's report was obtained from Prouty, who lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and from another source at the opposite end of the continental United States.
"I personally have no doubts about the authenticity and value of the Segals' work," Prouty says. "I have worked at Fort Detrick and it fits. I have been in MK ULTRA-type meetings, perhaps some of the real ones, too, and I recall such things as 'the search for ethnic weapons' and 'what can be done to kill a human being leaving no trace whatsoever' In that milieu, such a thing as Segal reports is only natural
"I do not question the Segals' work," states Prouty. "And associates whom I respect do likewise. One of my correspondents, a professor in Germany, has met Dr. Segal. He says he is for real."
DID WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SMALLPOX VACCINE TRIGGER EPIDEMIC? Not long after the Segals released their report, the front page of the London Times carried a headline which received virtually no coverage in the United States. The May 11, 1987 edition of the Times declared "Smallpox vaccine triggered Aids virus."
"The Aids epidemic may have been triggered by the mass vaccination campaign which eradicated smallpox," the London Times article states. "The World Health Organization, which masterminded the 13-year campaign, is studying new scientific evidence suggesting that immunization with the smallpox vaccine Vaccinia awakened the unsuspected, dormant human immuno defence virus infection (HIV)," the article continued.
"But an adviser to WHO who disclosed the problem, told The Times 'I thought it was just a coincidence until we studied the latest findings about the reactions which can be caused by Vaccinia. Now I believe the smallpox vaccine theory is the explanation to the explosion of Aids." the article stated, adding, "The greatest spread of HIV infection coincides with the most intense immunization programme . . . The article said about 14,000 Haitians who were involved in the vaccination program then brought the disease home to the Caribbean.
The London Times article went on to quote Dr. Robert Gallo, the American co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, "The link between the WHO programme and the epidemic in Africa is an interesting and important hypothesis." The article further quoted Gallo as saying, " . . . if the hypothesis is correct it is a tragic situation and a warning that we cannot ignore.
This "tragic situation may have been predicted in 1981 when, according to Los Angeles pathologist and gastroenterologist Dr. Robert Strecker, the publication "Microbiological Reviews" carried an article declaring bovine visna virus was a known contaminant of fetal calf serum, from which smallpox vaccine was made.
Also little known is the WHO's call in 1972 for an examination of the possible effects of a virus on the immune system. The request is stated in the WHO's annual bulletin on page 259 of the article, "Virus-associated immunopathology: Animal models and implications for human disease":
"An attempt should be made to ascertain whether viruses can in fact exert selective effects on immune function, e.g., by depressing 7S versus 19S antibody, or by affecting T cell function as opposed to B cell function," the WHO article states. "The possibility should also be looked into that the immune response to the virus may itself be impaired if the infecting virus damages more or less selectively the cells responding to the viral antigens.
A study reported in the 1976 edition of "Cancer Research" may have a direct bearing on this call for experimentation. An article titled "A Viral Immunodepressive Factor Associated With Experimental Mouse Tumors" cites the 1972 WHO bulletin, inferring that the scientists conducting the mouse tumor study were acting on the suggestion from the WHO.
It is important to note that the modern AIDS virus - or Human T-cell Leukemia/ Lymphoma Virus-III (HTLV-III) - acts in precisely the fashion called for: it selectively demolishes human T-cell function, thereby paving the way for opportunistic infection, such as Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.
THE NATURE OF THE BEAST Dr. Robert Strecker said a virus of this type was predicted in 1973 by J. Clemenson, a member of the Danish Cancer Registry, when she addressed an international assembly of leukemia experts.
In The Strecker Memorandum, his 97 minute videotape presenting the case for the artificial origin of AIDS, Strecker quotes Clemenson as saying, 'We are in fact establishing conditions for a possible pandemic of an oncogenic virus varied on the scale of influenza of 1918.
"It is possible," the Clemenson quote continued, "to visualize the mutation of a virus into a variety of high contageosity to man, resulting in a pandemic of neoplastic disease before we could develop a vaccine."
"Isn't that just exactly what has happened with the AIDS pandemic?" Strecker posed in an interview in his Los Angeles clinic in June, 1990.
In 1983, Strecker and his attorney brother Ted contracted with Security Pacific Bank in California to study the long-term effects that AIDS might have on the operation of a health-maintenance organization for the bank.
"Initially, we were just trying to calculate the actuarial costs," Strecker said.
He and his brother spent the years between 1983 and 1986 - and thousands of hours - researching the nature of AIDS.
The two scrutinized reams of medical literature and came to a staggering conclusion: the AIDS virus, or Human T-cell Leukemia/ Lymphoma Virus-III (since renamed Human T- cell Lymphotrophic Virus-III and then Human Immunodeficiency Virus. or HIV), is actually a combination of bovine leukemia virus, normally found in cattle, with visna virus, found in sheep, simultaneously injected into a growth medium composed of human tissue.
Strecker acknowledged that the media establishment regards his contention as utter lunacy. But the medical literature, he said, supports his views. Strecker points to a paper by Stuart A. Aaronson written for the National Institutes of Health in 1971 entitled "Common Genetic Alterations of R Tumor Viruses grown in Human Cells". According to Strecker, this paper reported experiments which altered a mouse retrovirus so that it could grow only in human tissue.
It is important to understand the "retrovirus". Viruses are "the smallest replicating organisms," Strecker said, and they require other cells in which to grow themselves. The genetic makeup of the host organism remains intact as the virus proliferates throughout the system.
A retrovirus, on the other hand. by way of a small enzyme called "reverse transcriptase", takes the RNA (a nucleic acid found chiefly inside cells) of the virus, transforms it into DNA (a nucleic acid that functions in transfer of genetic characteristics) and inserts itself into the genetic structure of host organism. In other words, a retrovirus becomes part of the basic genetic makeup the host organism, forcing its cellular systems to constantly produce more and more virus during routine cell division
ACCORDING TO STRECKER, with the emergence of the AIDS virus, other human retroviruses are suddenly running amok. Also found in the general population is HTLVI, also known as "T4ell leukemia" HTLV-II is known also as "hairy cell leukemia" and then there are HTLV-IV, HTLV-V and HTT VI "look" alike.
While HTLV-I and II are "proliferative in tissue culture,. HTLV-III (the AIDS virus) is destructive, leaving only dead tissue and other debris," Strecker says.
Strecker has studied photographs of the AIDS virus and has also personally examined the virus under a microscope. Further, he has conducted base pair homology tests of the virus, chemical analyses enabling him to make an exact assessment of its genetic characteristics.
"The genes of the AIDS virus look like bovine leukemia virus or Visna virus of sheep," Strecker says. "These are retroviruses and cause leukemia in cattle and brain rot in sheep."
In his videotape, Strecker mentioned a paper published in Texas Medicine in 1973 by Dr. Koshi Taruyama and Leon Dmochowski entitled "Cross-species Transmission of mammalian RNA tumor viruses. According to Strecker, this study established that a cattle or sheep retrovirus can be altered to grow in the tissue culture of another species, such as man.
"If they re publishing in 1975 (for example), you know they were doing it some years before, Strecker contends.
Veterinarians have more experience with retroviruses, according to Strecker, having for years had to deal with diseases such as feline leukemia and feline AIDS. "Consequently, most medical doctors don't know enough about retroviruses and how they function," he said.
A simple test in Seattle proved Strecker correct. A general-practice physician in that city who treats AIDS patients, it must be assumed, would have to know something about the infective agent he was dealing with. Unfortunately, when asked to define the term "retrovirus", the physician stated that he did not know.
Strecker is not a lone wolf baying in the wilderness. A doctor a half-world away makes very similar claims.
"A large part of the genome of the AIDS virus is almost identical with part of the genome of the Visna virus, a pathogen which causes serious brain diseases in sheep," Dr. Jakob Segal of Germany wrote in his 1986 report.
"At some point HTLV-I was said to have changed into the similar form of HTLV-III.
The differences between them were not of a magnitude to be explained by mutations.
Segal wrote. "It was rather a matter of a complete restructuring, the disappearance of important structural parts and the emergence of new gene groups.
"The AIDS virus, Segal concluded, accordingly, must be an artificial product, the 'result of gene-manipulation.
While Strecker will not state that the "gene manipulations took place at Fort Detrick, Segal minced no words in his report
"In Fort Detrick it was by all means customary to make use of voluntary test persons for experiments with the pathogenes: persons sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, promised remission in case of survival," Segal writes. "Up to 1969, 423 cases of disease among test persons with four deaths were registered at Fort Detrick. At the end of 1977, the first test persons were probably infected by manipulated pathogenes from the P-4 laboratory, including AIDS."
In the complex world of retrovirology, it is crucial to understand that, according to Strecker, HTLV-I is actually bovine leukemia virus in man.
"We have seen that the AIDS pathogens is likely to result from a gene surgical combination of the HTLV-I and the Visna virus or forms very similar to these, according to Segal. "Who, if not the military, should come to think of coupling the pathogenes of two deadly and incurable diseases.
Segal acknowledged that, in the United States at least, the AIDS virus first appeared in groups of homosexual men. Strecker and Hollywood-area dermatologist and cancer researcher, Dr. Alan Cantwell, have an answer for this.
Writes Dr. Cantwell in his book AIDS and the Doctors of Death, "To my surprise I quickly discovered that much of the scientific knowledge that has accumulated on the spread of AIDS in America has come from the surveillance and blood testing of large groups of gay and bisexual men who volunteered as human test subjects in the original Hepatitis B vaccine trials which took place in six American cities during the years 1978- 1981.
Volunteers in the program were required to be homosexual or bisexual men under the age of 40, healthy and promiscuous, Cantwell and Strecker agree.
"After screening, the blood of almost ten thousand men, a final group of 1,083 were selected to participate in the first Hepatitis B Vaccine Study. The experiment took place at the New York City Blood Center in Manhattan, during November 1978 Cantwell stated in his book
"In November 1978, the first gay man was inoculated at the New York City Blood Center. By October 1979, all the men in (the) study were inoculated. "Within a decade, most of the men in the experiment would be doomed to die of AIDS," Cantwell wrote.
According to Strecker, "the appearance of AIDS in New York City in 1978 coincides exactly with the Hepatitis B vaccine trials conducted there. The first appearance of AIDS in San Francisco and Los Angeles in 1980 closely follows a similar vaccine program undertaken in those cities, Strecker said.
Jakob Segal's contention that human blood can falsely test positive for AIDS may, in further investigation of this subject, have a bearing on those participants in the Hepatitis B study who tested positive for AIDS. It would have to be determined when the participants' blood was drawn and when it was tested, according to Strecker.
A virologist reviewing Strecker and Cantwell's contentions poses the question: "Do these hepatitis trial participants have a statistically significant higher rate of AIDS infection in death than their non-trial homologues (counterparts)?"
"This is the ultimate question," according to Strecker. "How come it hasn't been looked at?
But he continues, "We think it has. Morbidity and Mortally Weekly Review has stated that six of the first 10 AIDS cases in San Francisco came from the Hepatitis B study."
Strecker and Cantwell are quick to recognize that most people cannot easily accept the idea that the government would play "cat and mouse" with their lives. Both doctors point to the experiments conducted on unwitting victims by the Public Health Service in Tuskegee, Alabama during the 40 years from 1932 to 1972.
"In the experiment," Cantwell wrote in his book, AIDS and the Doctors of Death, "about 400 black syphilitic sharecroppers were examined yearly by the Public Health Service doctors in Tuskegee. The purpose of the study was to record the destructive effects of untreated syphilis, and to follow closely the medical progress of the group until each man died.
"The black men were never told they had syphilis, nor were they told their disease could endanger their families . . . Even when a penicillin treatment cure for syphilis became available in the 1940s, the men in the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment were not allowed to receive the antibiotic.
"Unbelievably, the diabolic Tuskegee experiment was sanctioned by the American scientific community for five decades.
Cantwell writes. "Even the black doctors at Andrew Hospital kept quiet about what was going on right under their noses. Nobody: wanted to cause trouble.
"When the government finally ended the experiment after 40 years, it was discovered that fifty surviving wives and twenty surviving children were infected with syphilis."
The Tuskegee experiment is covered in detail in the book Bad Blood by author James Jones (ISBN # s 0-02-916670-5 and 0-029i6690-X ppbk).
The mentality behind the Tuskegee experiment may be especially important in light of the fact the experiment was supervised by the Centers for Disease Control, "the same government agency that now oversees the AIDS epidemic," Cantwell stated.
THE WALL OF SILENCE "In every genocide program, who talks? "No one," Cantwell told this writer.
No German doctors spoke out against Hitler's "final solution," Cantwell said, and no doctors protested the Tuskegee experiments.
"I just refuse as a professional person to be a part of this madness," Cantwell stated. "I just think it's terrible that doctors are silent on this issue.
Cantwell's book is self-published, and he said it's next to impossible to get any publication to review it or any doctor to research his findings.
Strecker said he produced his 97-minute videotape in an effort to get his message out to as many people as possible, as rapidly as possible. However, according to jack Carpenter, marketing agent for Strecker and Cantwell, they are generally refused advertising space to market the products. Earlier in 1990 Strecker produced a 30 second radio spot which mentioned alternative AIDS therapies, but said nothing of the possible biowarfare connection.
"It's been refused by everyone," Strecker said. "No one will run it. It just shows you that there's clear-cut suppression of our information. They don't want our viewpoint being out there at all."
The "they" Strecker referred to may be the "official" government sources of AIDS information: the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Doctors or scientists are not willing to challenge the inconsistencies in this country's AIDS policy, Strecker said, because they know the CDC or NIH will withdraw their research grants if they don't tow the "party line.
As a result, "it's been an uphill battle getting Strecker's story out to the public," said Carpenter.
"We just can't do it. We've approached everyone. I give a lot of credit to Tony Brown." Carpenter said, citing four installments of "Tony Brown's Journal" that ran on PBS a few years ago.
Carpenter said he has discussed the matter privately with journalists who are interested in the story, but their editors invariably prevent the story from seeing print.
"The biggest job in the editorial game is omission," according to Prouty. "Reporters will write the truth; their editors won't print it."
In an interview ironically conducted inside the National Press Club in downtown Washington DC, Prouty told this writer, "It's the machine that won't take the truth - and the machine hires the editors. If you could sit in this building for two months and listen to the distinctions (between what COULD BE printed and what IS printed), you'd be astounded."
Prouty would not have to convince Carpenter.
"It's just been a real impossibility to get this into any kind of a mainstream publication," Carpenter said. "It's been a nightmare basically. But that just makes me push harder. We keep hoping that we're all proven wrong, but until then we aren't going to give up on this thing."
"We don't ask people to believe anything," Strecker said, "just take some time and look."
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was originally designed to enable ordinary citizens to look into the actions of government agencies. But in practice, according to Prouty, government agencies have a tendency to stall FOIA requests.
"You just cannot tell what a bureaucracy will do." Prouty said. "If I'm working for the organization, they put it (the requested information) on my desk in minutes. But if I m on an FOIA request, it might take forever."
The U.S. Army may have proven Prouty's point.
An April 2, 1990 FOIA request to Army headquarters in the Pentagon regarding biowarfare experimentation at Fort Detrick was followed 25 days later with a letter stating that the request had been forwarded to the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command at Fort Detrick. In response to a letter seeking the status of the original FOIA request, a letter dated May 31 from Fort Detrick said, "the former letter was incorrectly referred to this Headquarters for action" and added that the request had gone back to the Pentagon.
This letter was followed by a letter dated June 14 from the Army's Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans signed by Allan D. Robb on behalf of Louis J Del Rosso, Major General, US Army, Director, Space and Special Weapons.
"This office does not know of or have any files or records on . . . the artificial creation of viruses that attack the human immune system," the Army's June 14 letter stated.
In an act of what could be called "double-speak, the letter went on to say ". . . there are thousands of documents potentially responsive to your request as it is currently written. We request that you refine your request and become more specific, to allow a better search to be made."
After carefully reviewing the Segal material, on September 11. 1990 a very specific new FOIA request was sent to General Del Rosso's office.
The response, dated September 24, was signed by General Del Rosso himself. It stated that the modified FOIA request "has been forwarded to the National Institutes of Health as the cognizant federal agency for direct response to you."
One of the more striking unanswered questions of this investigation may be: why was an inquiry to one of this country's leading biowarfare facilities eventually passed on to the National Institutes of Health (NIH)?
A response from the NIH was finally received in mid-December, 1990 - and no records were forthcoming. In a letter dated December 14, NIH Freedom of Information Specialist Mary Flint stated, 'We have conducted a search of the minutes of the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee and the records of the NIH Biosafety Committee and could find no mention of such experiments. These committees would have been involved in approving any experiment of this nature. We also queried several scientists who are familiar with work in the P-4 facility and they could not recall any such work.
This latest development in this search for the true origin of the AIDS virus must be viewed in light of a particularly ominous statement made by Anthony Fauci, who coordinates AIDS research at NIH.
Writing in the September 1, 1989 edition of The AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Observer, Fauci stated, "Scientists need to get more sophisticated about expressing themselves. But the media have to do their homework. They have got to learn the issues and the background. And they should realize that their accuracy is noted by the scientific community. Journalists who make too many mistakes, or who are sloppy, are going to find that their access to scientists may diminish."
Compelling Evidenced Warrants Investigation In a signed statement, a former Washington State Supreme Court Justice has recognized "compelling evidence" surrounding the case for the artificial origin of the AIDS virus and has declared it warrants an immediate official investigation.
In September, 1990, retired Justice William C. Goodloe of Seattle was confronted with much of the material cited in the accompanying article, "AIDS: Biowarfare Experiment Out of Control" Goodloe declared in his written statement: "I have heard and seen reports of the possible artificial origin of the AIDS virus, but until this report have not seen such compelling evidence of its truth. Mr. MacKenzie has assembled a remarkable documentation of heretofore unpublished data . . ."
Goodloe ended with the statement ". . . an immediate governmental investigation at the highest level should be commenced."
It is significant that Justice Goodloe used the word "evidence" in his: statement. When asked in a telephone conversation if the documents cited in the article could qualify as circumstantial evidence, he replied, "Certainly!"
In a court of law, Justice Goodloe said, circumstantial evidence carries as much weight as direct evidence. For example, fingerprints and eyewitness testimony placing a suspect at the scene of a crime, though circumstantial, are considered as important as if the suspect had admitted committing the crime.
Justice Goodloe's comments seem to support the contention of Jack Carpenter, the marketing associate of Dr. Robert Strecker and Dr. Alan Cantwell.
"we have more evidence on the manmade nature of the AIDS virus than the State of California has on some death-row prisoners," Carpenter has said.
STRANGE EVENTS AND BIZARRE COINCIDENCES People involved in tracking down the two origins of the AIDS viruses have been subjected to inexplicable occurrences in their lives; others have died under strange circumstances.
In 1988, Jack Carpenter, marketing agent for Dr. Robert Strecker and Dr. Alan Cantwell, formed a production company with two partners to put together a film documentary about an alternative theory behind the AIDS epidemic. One of Carpenter's partners, through his connections in the film industry, contacted a person on the east coast who come up with seed money for the documentary. "We were offered $200,000 in cash," Carpenter told this writer. "We were told up front that it was foundered drug money, so we turned it down." Carpenter shortly afterwards contacted his attorney, who told him the aborted cash deal had been a setup.
This feeling was echoed by a woman who had been stated to produce the documentary, Carpenter sold. The woman contacted a friend within the Federal Bureau of Investigation to alert that agency to the $200,000 in drug money. That friend later contacted the Los Angeles office of the bureau, and it was his understanding that an agent would investigate the matter. "I called the FBI," Carpenter said, "each time leaving a detailed message for the agent. We were totally ignored, so we just let it slide by. What really got me was that the FBI never followed up on it the drug money!" It is quite possible that had Carpenter and his associates accepted the cash, few people today would have heard of Strecker or Cantwell or the other side of the AIDS story. Asked to provide some insight into this strange tale, L. Fletcher Prouty, a retired Air Force Colonel with extensive familiarity with covert operations, told the offer of illegal cash to Carpenter was "a formula set-up".
Under the headline "AIDS Made in lab Shack", the London Sunday Express of October 26, 1986 reported that East Berlin professor Jakob Segal, Author of the report quoted extensively in the accompanying article received two special visitors apparently not long after his report was released.
"Sunday Express investigations have revealed that two U.S. Embassy officials made a two-hour visit to Professor Segal at his home two weeks ago, questioning him about what he knows, what he thinks. where he got his information from, and what he intends doing with his report," the Express article stated. "The Professor said: "The two men showed me their credentials. One said he was a historian and the other said he was a political consul. But I am positive they were from the CIA and that they were deeply concerned that the cover-up over the origin of AIDS was going to be exposed. I told them everything I knew and believed."
The article continued: "A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in East Berlin told (Express reporter Alfred Lee) 'Two representatives from the embassy did visit Professor Segal to talk to him about AIDS.' The spokesman would give no details."
TED STRECKER, the attorney brother of Dr. Robert Strecker, was fatally shot to death alone in his home in Springfield, Missouri on August 11, 1988. After spending three years researching the origin of AIDS, Ted Strecker reportedly become frustrated with the general lack of interest in his findings that the virus may have been man-made. Officials consider the death a suicide, but Robert Strecker spoke with his brother on the telephone the night before and reported him to be in good spirits. "I don't think my brother died from a self inflected gunshot wound," Robert Strecker has stated. Ted Strecker, a .22- calibre rifle found near his body, left behind no written message to survivors, an omission considered very untypical of him.
In the process of researching these articles, this writer uses his computer in Seattle to access electronic 'bulletin board systems' across the country. In the spring of 1989, this writer connected to a computer system then located in Colorado. This writer contacted the system's manager, expressing an interest in the subject of the possible artificial origin of the AIDS virus. The system manager stated that among the users of his BBS was a former Harvard Ph.D. candidate who planned to write his doctoral thesis on that very subject. The Harvard student, the system manager said, had been told by his academic superiors in no uncertain terms to leave the subject alone. The system manager offered to put this writer in touch with the student and this writer expressed his interest in such a contact. A week later, the BBS mysteriously went 'off-line' and no connection has been re-established since that time.
Included with material that C & C Marketing mails with Robert Strecker's videotaped presentation, The Strecker Memorandum, is the story of Illinois Representative Douglas Huff of Chicago.
Huff was found alone in his home, dead from an apparent overdose of cocaine and heroin, on September 22, 1988. Representative Huff did everything in his power to make the Illinois State Legislature and the people of Chicago aware of Dr. Strecker's work. He was very vocal, gave many press interviews, was constantly on television and radio urging people to wake up to the cover-up concerning AIDS . . . "Representative Huff associates doubt he died accidentally. . ." the C & C Marketing material states.
Early in September, 1990, Robert Strecker was a guest on a radio show in Florida. Accompanying him was marketing associate Jack Carpenter. During the course of the program, Carpenter mentioned his company's 1-800 number that interested listeners could call for further information. Upon returning home to California on September 10, Carpenter found that his answering machine had apparently been tampered with, preventing it from taking any calls.
In an effort to interest the London Sunday Express in publishing this article in the United Kingdom, reporter Alfred Lee (author of the previously mentioned article) was contacted in November, 1990. In a telephone conversation with this writer on December 4, Lee said he had taken this article to his senior editors, but after reviewing it, they decided against printing it. The reason was wholly unpredicted.
According to Lee, his editors considered the idea that the AIDS virus originated in an American laboratory to be old news and therefore not worthy of further coverage. Lee said this writer's article only supports what his article in the Sunday Express stated four years ago. "We wouldn't have printed it if it wasn't true," Lee told this writer.
IN MARCH, 1991, Jack Carpenter contacted this writer to say he (Carpenter) had received a telephone call from a person on the East Coast who claimed to have a copy of a secret memo smuggled out of Fort Detrick. The memo, allegedly bearing the signature of Dr. Robert Gallo (American co-discoverer of HTLV-III, the AIDS virus), attested to the man-made nature of the virus. Carpenter was very enthusiastic about traveling back east to obtain what would clearly have been 'the smoking gun' of his investigation. Further, Carpenter expressed an interest in having this writer accompany him on the trip. This writer declined the invitation, telling Carpenter the entire scenario sounded very suspicious. Neither this writer nor Dr Alan Cantwell nor Dr. Robert Strecker have heard from Carpenter since this time. Carpenter's telephone number has been alternately disconnected and working on several occasions since his apparent disappearance, but messages left on his answering machine have not been returned.