Aids Essay, Research Paper
AIDS: A U.S.- Made Monster? PREFACE In an extensive article in the Summer-Autumn 1990 issue of “Top Secret”, ProfJ. Segal and Dr. L. Segal outline their theory that AIDS is a man-made disease,originating at Pentagon bacteriological warfare labs at Fort Detrick, Maryland.”Top Secret” is the international edition of the German magazine Geheim and isconsidered by many to be a sister publication to the American Covert ActionInformation Bulletin (CAIB). In fact, Top Secret carries the Naming Namescolumn, which CAIB is prevented from doing by the American government, andwhich names CIA agents in different locations in the world. The article, named”AIDS: US-Made Monster” and subtitled “AIDS – its Nature and its Origins,” islengthy, has a lot of professional terminology and is dotted with footnotes. AIDS FACTS “The fatal weakening of the immune system which has given AIDS its name(Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome),” write the Segals, “has been traced backto a destruction or a functional failure of the T4-lymphocytes, also called’helper cells`, which play a regulatory role in the production of antibodies inthe immune system.” In the course of the illness, the number of functional T4-cells is reduced greatly so that new anti-bodies cannot be produced and thedefenceless patient remains exposed to a range of infections that under othercircumstances would have been harmless. Most AIDS patients die fromopportunistic infections rather than from the AIDS virus itself.The initial infection is characterized by diarrhea, erysipelas and intermittentfever. An apparent recovery follows after 2-3 weeks, and in many cases thepatient remains without symptoms and functions normally for years. Occasionallya swelling of the lymph glands, which does not affect the patient’s well-being,can be observed.After several years, the pre-AIDS stage, known as ARC (Aids- Related Complex)sets in. This stage includes disorders in the digestive tract, kidneys andlungs. In most cases it develops into full-blown AIDS in about a year, at whichpoint opportunistic illnesses occur. Parallel to this syndrome, disorders invarious organ systems occur, the most severe in the brain, the symptoms ofwhich range from motoric disorders to severe dementia and death.This set of symptoms, say the Segals, is identical in every detail with theVisna sickness which occurs in sheep, mainly in Iceland. (Visna means tirednessin Icelandic). However, the visna virus is not pathogenic for human beings.The Segals note that despite the fact that AIDS is transmitted only throughsexual intercourse, blood transfusions and non- sterile hypodermic needles, theinfection has spread dramatically. During the first few years after itsdiscovery, the number of AIDS patients doubled every six months, and is stilldoubling every 12 months now though numerous measures have been taken againstit. Based on these figures, it is estimated that in the US, which had 120,000cases of AIDS at the end of 1988, 900,000 people will have AIDS or will havedied of it by the end of 1991. It is also estimated that the number of peopleinfected is at least ten times the number of those suffering from an acute caseof AIDS. That in the year 1995 there will be between 10-14 million cases ofAIDS and an additional 100 million people infected, 80 percent of them in theUS, while a possible vaccination will not be available before 1995 by the mostoptimistic estimates. Even when such vaccination becomes available, it will nothelp those already infected. These and following figures have been reached atby several different mainstream sources, such as the US Surgeon General and theChief of the medical services of the US Army. “AIDS does not merely bring certain dangers with it; it isclearly a programmed catastrophe for the human race, whose magnitude iscomparable only with that of a nuclear war”, say the Segals. ” They later explain what they mean by “programmed,” showing that the virus wasproduced by humans, namely Dr. Robert Gallo of the Bethesda Cancer Research Center inMaryland. When proceeding to prove their claims, the Segals are careful to note that:”We have given preference to the investigative results of highly renowned laboratories,whose objective contents cannot be doubted. We must emphasize, in thisconnection, that we do not know of any findings that have been published inprofessional journals that contradict our hypotheses.” DISCOVERING AIDS The first KNOWN cases of AIDS occurred in New York in 1979. The firstDESCRIBED cases were in California in 1979. The virus was isolated in Paris inMay 1983, taken from a French homosexual who had returned home ill from a tripto the East Coast of the US. One year later, Robert Gallo and his co-workers atthe Bethesda Cancer Research Center published their discovery of the samevirus, which is cytotoxic. ( i.e poisonous to cells )Shortly after publishing his discovery, Gallo stated to newspapers that thevirus had developed by a natural process from the Human Adult Leukemia virus,HTLV-1, which he had previously discovered. However, this claim was notpublished in professional publications, and soon after, Alizon and Montagnier,two researchers of the Pasteur Institute in Paris published charts of HTLV-1and HIV, showing that the viruses had basically different structures. They alsodeclared categorically that they knew of no natural process by which one ofthese two forms could have evolved into the other.According to the professional “science” magazine, the fall 1984 annual meetingof the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), was almostentirely devoted to the question of: to what extent new pathogenic agents couldbe produced via human manipulation of genes. According to the Segals, AIDS waspractically the sole topic of discussion. THE AIDS VIRUS The Segals discuss the findings of Gonda et al, who compared the HIV, visnaand other closely-related viruses and found that the visna virus is the mostsimilar to HIV. The two were, in fact, 60% identical in 1986. According tofindings of the Hahn group, the mutation rate of the HIV virus was about amillion times higher than that of similar viruses, and that on the average a10% alteration took place every two years. That would mean that in 1984, thedifference between HIV and visna would have been only 30%, in 1982- 20%, 10% in1980 and zero in 1978. “This means,” say the Segals, “that at this time visnaviruses changed into HIV, receiving at the same time the ability to becomeparasites in human T4-cells and the high genetic instability that is not knownin other retroviruses. This is also consistent with the fact that the firstcases of AIDS appeared about one year later, in the spring of 1979.”"In his comparison of the genomes of visna and HIV,” add the Segals, “Coffinhit upon a remarkable feature. The env (envelope) area of the HIV genome, whichencodes the envelope proteins which help the virus to attach itself to the hostcell, is about 300 nucleotides longer than the same area in visna. Thisbehaviour suggests that an additional piece has been inserted into the genomesof the visna virus, a piece that alters the envelope proteins and enables them
to bind themselves to the T4-receptors. BUT THIS SECTION BEHAVES LIKE ABIOLOGICALLY ALIEN BODY, which does not match the rest of the systembiochemically. The above mentioned work by Gonda et al shows that the HIV virus has a sectionof about 300 nucleotides, which does not exist in the visna virus. That lengthcorresponds with what Coffin described. That section is particularly unstable,which indicates that it is an alien object. According to the Segals, it”originates in an HTLV-1 genome, (discovered by Gallo-ED) for the likelihood ofan accidental occurrence in HIV of a genome sequence 60% identical with asection of the HTLV-1 that is 300 nucleotides in length is zero.” Since thevisna virus is incapable of attaching itself to human T4 receptors, it musthave been the transfer of the HTLV-1 genome section which gave visna thecapability to do so. In other words, the addition of HTLV-1 to visna made theHIV virus. In addition, the high mutation rate of the HIV genome has beenexplained by another scientific team, Chandra et al, by the fact that it is “acombination of two genome parts which are alien to each other BY ARTIFICIALMEANS rather than by a natural process of evolution, because this process wouldhave immediately eliminated, through natural selection, systems that are soreplete with disorders.”"These are the facts of the case,” say the Segals. “HIV is essentially a visnavirus which carries an additional protein monomer of HTLV-1 that has an epitopecapable of bonding with T4 receptors. Neither Alizon and Montagnier nor anyother biologist know of any natural mechanism that would make it possible forthe epitope to be transferred from HTLV-1 to the visna virus. For this reasonwe can come to only one conclusion: that this gene combination arose byartificial means, through gene manipulation.” THE CONSTRUCTION OF HIV “The construction of a recombinant virus by means of gene manipulation isextraordinarily expensive, and it requires a large number of highly qualifiedpersonnel, complicated equipment and expensive high security laboratories.Moreover, the product would have no commercial value. Who, then,” ask theSegals, “would have provided the resources for a type of research that wasaimed solely at the production of a new disease that would be deadly to humanbeings?”The English sociologist Allistair Hay (as well as Paxman et al in “A HigherForm of Killing”-ED), published a document whose authenticity has beenconfirmed by the US Congress, showing that a representative of the Pentagonrequested in 1969 additional funding for biological warfare research. Theintention was to create, within the next ten years, a new virus that wouldnot be susceptible to the immune system, so that the afflicted patient wouldnot be able to develop any defense against it. Ten years later, in the springof 1979, the first cases of AIDS appeared in New York.”Thus began a phase of frantic experimentation,” say the Segals.One group was working on trying to cause animal pathogens to adapt themselvesto life in human beings. This was done under the cover of searching for a curefor cancer. The race was won by Gallo, who described his findings in 1975. Ayear later, Gallo described gene manipulations he was conducting. In 1980 hepublished his discovery of HTLV.In the fall of 1977, a P4 (highest security category of laboratory, in whichhuman pathogens are subjected to genetic manipulations) laboratory wasofficially opened in building 550 of Fort Detrick, MD, the Pentagon’s mainbiological warfare research center. “In an article in ‘Der Spiegel`, Prof.Mollings point out that this type of gene manipulation was still extremelydifficult in 1977. One would have had to have a genius as great as Robert Gallofor this purpose, note the Segals.”Lo and behold. In a supposed compliance with the international accord banningthe research, production and storage of biological weapons, part of FortDetrick was “demilitarized” and the virus section renamed the “FrederickCancer Research Facility”. It was put under the direction of the CancerResearch Institute in neighbouring Bethesda, whose director was no other thanRobert Gallo. This happened in 1975, the year Gallo discovered HTLV.Explaining how the virus escaped, the Segals note that in the US, biologicalagents are traditionally tested on prisoners who are incarcerated for longperiods, and who are promised freedom if they survive the test. However, theinitial HIV infection symptoms are mild and followed by a seemingly healthypatient.”Those who conducted the research must have concluded that the new viruswas…not so virulent that it could be considered for military use, and thetest patients, who had seemingly recovered, were given their freedom. Most ofthe patients were professional criminals and New York City, which isrelatively close, offered them a suitable milieu. Moreover, the patients wereexclusively men, many of them having a history of homosexuality and drug abuse,as is often the case in American prisons. It is understandable why AIDS broke out precisely in 1979, precisely among menand among drug users, and precisely in New York City,” assert the Segals. Theygo on to explain that whereas in cases of infection by means of sexual contact,incubation periods are two years and more, while in cases of massive infectionvia blood transfusions, as must have been the case with prisoners, incubationperiods are shorter than a year. “Thus, if the new virus was ready at thebeginning of 1978 and if the experiments began without too much delay, thenthe first cases of full-blown AIDS in 1979 were exactly the resultthatcould have been expected.”In the next three lengthy chapters, the Segals examine other theories,”legends” as they call them, of the origins of AIDS. Dissecting each claim,they show that they have no scientific standing, providing also the findingsof other scientists. They also bring up the arguments of scientists andpopular writers who have been at the task of discounting them as “conspiracytheorists” and show these writers’ shortcomings. Interested readers will haveto read the original article to follow those debates. I will only quote twomore paragraphs:”We often heard the argument that experiments with human volunteers are part ofa barbaric past, and that they would be impossible in the US today… We wishto present one single document whose authenticity is beyond doubt. Aninvestigative commission of the US House of Representatives presented inOctober 1986 a final report concerning the Manhattan Project. According to thisdocument, between 1945 and 1975 at least 695 American citizens were exposedto dangerous doses of radioactivity. Some of them were prisoners who hadvolunteered, but they also included residents of old-age homes, inmates ofinsane asylums, handicapped people in nursing homes, and even normal patientsin public hospitals; most of them were subjected to these experiments withouttheir permission. Thus the ‘barbaric past` is not really a thing of the past.”"It is remarkable that most of these experiments were carried out in universityinstitutes and federal hospitals, all of which are named in the report.Nonetheless, these facts remained secret until 1984, and even then aCongressional committee that was equipped with all the necessaryauthorization needed two years in order to bring these facts to life. We areoften asked how the work on the AIDS virus could have been kept secret. Now,experiments performed on a few dozen prisoners in a laboratory that issubject to military security can be far more easily kept secret than couldbe the Manhattan Project.” >