The film “Selma” depicts the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Selma, Alabama. In AFA #8, we note profound evidentiary tributaries between that event and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Links between King’s murder and those of Robert F. Kennedy and his brother are discussed in AFA #9. Others are covered in The Guns of November, Part IV. Even as people celebrate the remarkable Dr. King’s life, our society manifests what the late playwright Arthur Miller warned against in “The Death of a Salesman”, speaking through Willie Loman’s widow: “You can’t just eat the orange and throw away the peel.” Neither his friends, nor those who profess to honor him, will break their silence about the circumstances of his death, despite the extensive body of information on the public record documenting a conspiracy behind his murder. All of the contents of this website as of 12/19/2014–Dave Emory’s 35+ years of research and broadcasting–as well as hours of videotaped lectures are available on a 32GB flash drive. Dave offers his programs and articles for free–your support is very much appreciated.
Officially pinned on James Earl Ray, the killing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was actually the result of a large conspiracy of powerful interests.
Listen: One segment In spite of the death of patsy James Earl Ray in the spring of 1998, the quest for the truth about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King continues. The broadcast contains a review of the basic facts of the assassination. The segment begins with analysis of information allegedly contained in documents […]
In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, there has been wall-to-wall coverage of his murder and of the world-wide demonstrations stemming from it. The advent of smart phone (with cameras) and the internet affords detailed and intimate experience of such an event.
However, the orgiastic coverage of that event, the memorial service led by FBI informant and alleged [by the late Warren Hinckle] CIA operative in Grenada Al Sharpton stands in stark contrast to the utter silence across the board on the circumstances of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination.
On the fiftieth anniversary of King’s murder, Mr. Emory did a twelve hour program about the circumstances of the assassination, reprising AFA #8 (done in 1985 on the 17th anniversary of the killing) and FTR #46, recorded a decade later and supplemented on 4/3/2018.
Despite exhaustive and perilous research done by the likes of Dr. William F. Pepper, 4/4/2018 was notable for the absence of substantive discussion of King’s murder.
The political and historical significance of such an event was presented by Dr. Pepper in his third book about the King assassination, The Plot to Kill King: ” . . . . . . . . When one is confronted with the assassination of a major leader who personifies the most treasured values of the species and it becomes clear that those responsible for the murder are officials of his own government acting with the sanction of those in the shadows who actually rule, surely one should strive to understand what that means now and for the future. In other words, when the removal of a leader who has offended powerful forces and special interests in the Republic takes on the status of an act of state, citizens must contemplate what this reveals about their culture and its civil and political systems, their freedom, the quality and status of the rule of law, and their entire way of life. . . . ”
It seems that–for many–black lives matter, but not Dr. King’s, apparently, past a point.
Again, Dr. Pepper noted that: ” . . . . citizens must contemplate what this reveals about their culture and its civil and political systems, their freedom, the quality and status of the rule of law, and their entire way of life. . . . ”
In said contemplation, this program supplements our previous work on the killing.
Although Dr. Pepper reprises the stunning information he set forth in Orders to Kill in The Plot to Kill King, we will not reprise that here, in the interests of time. (We do recap a short excerpt from Orders to Kill comprising an apparent evidentiary tributary between King’s murder and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, which occurred two months later.)
The bulk of the discussion in this program is presentation and analysis of the political machinery in Memphis, Tennessee that engineered Dr. King’s murder. (Discussion of the Special Forces team that was in Memphis as a back-up unit in case the civilian sniper missed King is detailed in FTR #46.)
In Pepper’s investigation of King’s murderers, he detailed the apparent role of the late Russell Lee Adkins, a member of the Dixie Mafia in Memphis, Tennessee. (The Dixie Mafia is distinct from the Mafia, per se, that operated in the South, although–as Pepper makes clear–they worked with Mafiosi like New Orleans capo Carlos Marcello and Marcello associate Frank Liberto, like Adkins, an operator in Memphis.)
His son Russell Jr. took over executive management of the assassination machinery after his father’s death in 1967.
Note the cooperation between the Ku Klux Klan and elements of the Masons in Memphis. This should NOT be misunderstood as buying into the myriad of anti-Masonic conspiracy theories which have proliferated on the Internet. The bulk of Freemasonry are what they represent themselves as being–civic activists and philanthropists. The Third Reich planned to exterminate the Masons, along with the Jews and others.
That having been said, there have always been networks within the Masons which, due to to their clandestine operating structure, have been utilized for conspiratorial purposes. In these broadcasts, we have noted the P‑2 lodge of Licio Gelli as one such entity.
The Russell Adkins Klan/Mason nexus is another. Note Russell Sr.‘s son Ron Adkins deposition about the decisive influence of this institutionally racist entity and its powerful operational connections:
1.–It dominated Memphis municipal politics empowering Mayor Henry Loeb and Fire and Police Commissioner Frank Holloman, among others figuring in the murder of King.
2.–The Adkins/Klan milieu had long-standing operational links with the FBI. Number two man in the bureau at the time, as well as J. Edgar Hoover’s live-in lover, was close to Russell Adkins and used him to dispense payments to bureau operatives, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
2.–The Adkins/Klan milieu networked with the Mafia, as stated above.
3.–Ron Adkins, Russell Sr.‘s son, deposed under oath that: ” . . . . Ron said that his father took him to his first lynching when he was just six years old. . . .”
4.–The Adkins milieu was close to Dr. Breen Bland, whose alleged role in King’s death is discussed below.
Next, we present the role of the Adkins machine as a conduit for Hoover and Tolson’s financing for the escape of patsy-to-be James Earl Ray: ” . . . . . . . . [FBI official Clyde] Tolson was a substantial connection for his [Ronnie Adkins’] father . . . . Of particular interest to this case is that he brought the money which was to be paid to Harold Swenson, the Warden of the Missouri State prison, in Jefferson City, Missouri, in order for him to arrange for the escape of James in 1967. At Hoover’s request, James had been profiled as a potential scapegoat, although the nature of the crime was not revealed. Ron told us about this assignment because he was an actual observer. He saw the money being delivered by Tolson and then, at his father’s invitation, he rode to the prison where the money was paid to Swenson by his father. . . Ray (who was always kept in the dark about this arrangement) successfully escaped from prison on April 23, 1967, and then . . . was monitored, controlled . . . . and moved around until the plans for the assassination and his use were finalized. . . . .”
In the run-up to the assassination of king: ” . . . . In early 1968, two workers, thirty-five-year-old Echole Cole and twenty-nine-year-old Robert Walker were literally swallowed by a malfunctioning ‘garbage packer’ truck. We would later learn this was a planned murder by the Dixie Mafia family of Russell Adkins, in coordination with Memphis Police Department Director of Police and Fire Frank Holloman, in order to compel Dr. King to return to support the strikers. . . .”
Sworn depositions by Lenny Curtis (a custodian for the Memphis Police Department) and Nathan Whitlock, a Memphis policeman named Frank Strausser was the actual shooter selected to execute King: ” . . . . On that day, he [Strausser] broke to take lunch with [MPD Captain Earl] Clark, and when he returned he resumed firing. When he left at around 3:30 p.m., he put the top down on the convertible, took off his powder blue shirt, and threw it over the rifle in the backseat, leaving only his white T‑shirt on. He ruffled his hair and put on a pair of sunglasses. When he left, Mayor Loeb, Holloman, and the other visiting police officers were still there. They had met in Lieutenant Bullard’s office. . . .”
After highlighting the alleged role of Frank Strausser as the actual assassin, we present the operational sequence of events on the ground in Memphis, Tennessee. Again, note the ubiquitous presence of the Adkins/Dixie Mafia/Klan machine in the progression of events. ” . . . . Also observed arriving at the MPD firing range building where he met with the shooter and Earl Clark were Director Holloman and Mayor Henry Loeb. . . .”
Note, also, the roles of Jesse Jackson and the Reverend Billy Kyles in these maneuvers. (As discussed in FTR #1005, both were being paid by FBI official Clyde Tolson, through the Adkins machine. Jackson’s apparent role was to help secure Room 306 in the Lorraine Motel, overlooking the pool and affording a clear shot, as well as to maneuver the Invaders out of the area. (The Invaders were a local Black Power group who were present for security purposes.) Kyles was there to help lure King out onto the balcony for the kill shot.
After King was shot, he was taken to St. Joseph’s hospital, where, again the influence of the Adkins machine came into play: ” . . . . . . . . Ron Adkins Tyler, under oath, told me that Dr. Breen Bland, who, remember was also the Adkins’ family doctor, was in fact, the head surgeon at the hospital. . . . He said he was present and overheard conversations between his father and Dr. Bland, and then, following his father’s death, between his brother (Russell Junior), Police and Fire Director Frank Holloman, and Dr. Bland about the importance of Dr. King being taken to St. Joseph’s if he was still alive. . . . Ron Adkins Tyler has no doubt that they were determined to make certain that Dr. King would never leave the emergency room at St. Joseph’s Hospital alive. Though he did not know the details of the final cause of death, it appears that he was correct. . . .”
Next, we focus on events at St. Joseph’s Hospital on 4/4/1968:
1.–Among those events ” . . . . was the large presence of military intelligence officers who had taken up positions in the hospital well before the shot was fired. According to Dr. Causeway, who was on duty at the time, the military intelligence officers knew the names of all of the emergency room nurses and doctors on duty. . . .”
2.–The attention given to the gravely wounded Dr. King: ” . . . . He [Dr. Causeway] observed that no consideration was given to moving the critically injured victim to the operating room and he saw no surgical effort being made to save him. When he inquired about treatment, he was told that he was being treated. . . .”
3.–According to surgical aide Lula Mae Shelby: ” . . . . there were many MPD officers and army people milling about, in addition to men in suits. . . . Dr. King was lying on a bloodied gurney. She saw the huge hole in the lower left side of his face, but heard one of the ER doctors say that he has a pulse. The ER doctors had performed a tracheotomy and inserted a breathing tube. . . . in a while, the head of surgery (who appears to have been Dr. Breen Bland–the Adkins’ family doctor and collaborator discussed earlier) came into the emergency room with a couple of men in suits and shouted at the staff working on Dr. King, ‘Stop working on the nigger and let him die. Now, all of you get out of here, right now. Everybody get out.’ . . . . as she was leaving, she heard three sounds of the men gathering or sucking up saliva in their mouths–and then she heard two or three spitting sounds. This caused her, on the way out, to glance back over her shoulder, and see that the breathing tube had been removed and Dr. Bland put a pillow on and over the face of Dr. King. . . .”
After the murder, the above-mentioned Lenny Curtis heard rumors about Frank Strausser being the assassin of King, as well as discussion of Strausser being pressured to leave the MPD because of civil rights complaints being lodged against him.
Concerned that Curtis might disclose information about him to the FBI, Strausser confronted him during a drive and delivered a warning: ” . . . . ‘Lenny, you be careful now.’ The look he gave him was clearly threatening. . . .”
Following this incident, Curtis experienced strange, frightening things: ” . . . . . His gas was strangely turned on once when he was about to enter his house. He had lit a cigarette, but as he opened the door he smelled gas and quickly put out the cigarette. A strange Lincoln was occasionally parked across the street from his apartment house. . . . One morning when the car was there, he got into his own car and quickly drove off, and the strange car pulled out and followed him. He managed to see the driver. It was Strausser. At that time, new evidence in the case came up. He said that every time new evidence arose the officer would pop up. He tried to move to a new house without notice but the landlord of the new complex would report seeing a man in the back of his house. When Lenny checked the area, he found a ‘tree stand,’ a V‑shaped stand where you could rest a rifle. When he put a stick in it, it focused on his kitchen and bathroom windows. He moved again, without notice. . . .”
Pepper found Curtis to be inspiring, waiting until after his death in 2013 to come forward with his testimony out of fear for Lenny’s safety. ” . . . . I safeguarded his information and his deposition for all of these years, fearful that the assassin’s masters would kill him if they learned about his cooperation with me. . . .”
Before concluding the program, we revisit the statement of one of the Special Forces officers comprising the back-up fire team–a man Pepper described under the pseudonym “Warren.” ” . . . . . . . . Warren said that on that occasion they also had a secondary mission, which was to do recon (reconnaissance of a home up in the Western Hills near the UCLA campus.) The recon was to determine the feasibility of a ‘wet insert ops determined’ operation. (‘Wet insert ops determined’ means that the unit carries out a surreptitious entry at night into the targeted residence, kills everyone there, and leaves without a trace.) He said that their recon determined the feasibility of such an operation. Warren subsequently learned that the house was used by Senator Robert F. Kennedy when he was in Los Angeles in 1967–68. . . .”
We end the program with a caveat delivered to former Representative Walter Fauntroy [of Washington D.C.]–a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus. After informing then Speaker of the House of Representatives Carl Albert that he wished to head what was to become the House Select Committee on Assassinations: ” . . . . Albert said to him, ‘Walter, you don’t want that job.’ To which Fauntroy replied, ‘But I do want it; why not?’ Albert whispered, ‘Walter, they will kill you.’ . . .”
The power behind the throne during the Third Reich, Martin Bormann arranged for the secreting of Germany’s wealth in neutral countries and then presided over the resulting economic and political network in the postwar period.
This program continues our coverage of Ukraine.
The title of the series comes from the 1976 autobiography Heartland by the late, brilliant political comedian Mort Sahl, one of New Orleans DA Jim Garrison’s investigators his probe of President Kennedy’s assassination.
Amid the highly politicized accounts of alleged “Russian atrocities” in the Ukraine war, it is of the highest importance to remember that the “news” reaching the West is coming exclusively through the Ukrainian security authorities, chiefly the Azov-imprinted Ukrainian National Police and the associated Interior Ministry, which retains the dominant influence of Azov-associated Arsen Avakov and Vadim Troyan–the former head of the Ukrainian national police and, before that, Deputy Commander of the Azov Battalion.
Further clouding access to accurate information about what is actually occurring in the war is an accelerated American disinformation process enthusiastically touting dubious intelligence as a vehicle for—supposedly—“getting inside Putin’s head.”
It is highly unlikely that the purveyors of that low-quality intelligence are actually trying to influence Putin. The low-grade intelligence is more likely to be directed at the American people.
Also worth contemplating is the grotesque history of U.S. disinformation—a track record of egregious, official lying that dominates the American political and historical landscape.
The assassination of President Kennedy, the Vietnam War that, in large measure, resulted from that murder, the killings of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the Iraq War and countless other fundamental official political lies do not appear to have taught the American people anything!
Their appetite for b.s. appears undiminished.
For more information about the “low-quality” intel being disseminated for psychological warfare purposes, see: https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr1237-how-many-lies-before-you-belong-to-the-lie-part-10/comment-page‑1/#comment-370625
Next, we visit the satellite photos, also allegedly showing photos of the alleged “Russian atrocities” in Bucha, including the digging of the alleged mass grave to hold victims of said abominations.
Maxar is the company whose satellite photos are highlighted by our media to demonstrate the alleged atrocities.
Maxar, in turn, is the parent company of DigitalGlobe, a firm started by veterans of Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”).
Growing out of late 1992 legislation that legalized the entry of private firms into the strategic reconnaissance satellite business, DigitalGlobe was the source of propagandized pictures alleging a Russian “invasion” of Ukraine in 2014!
DigitalGlobe/Maxar’s track record warrants scrutiny of the firm’s “evidence” in the context of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.”
More about Maxar can be found here: https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr1237-how-many-lies-before-you-belong-to-the-lie-part-10/comment-page‑1/#comment-370595
In FTR#808, we set forth information about DigitalGlobe.
The satellite imagery purporting to show Russian armor and self-propelled artillery inside of Ukraine comes from a private company–DigitalGlobe. That company was founded by key personnel from Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.
DigitalGlobe co-founder Doug Gerull had previously worked for the Zeiss firm, discussed in FTR #272 as one of the German/Underground Reich/Bormann firms that were moving into satellite imagery technology in the U.S.
An article published after FTR#808 was recorded noted the dubious nature of the claims of a “Russian Invasion” of Ukraine.
A major consideration to be weighed concerns the Azov-imprinted Ukrainian police’s use of an American AI facial recognition software called Clearview.
The brainchild of Alt-right lynchpin Charles Johnson, Clearview received key start-up investment capital from Peter Thiel, one of the driving forces behind Trump and a major player in the Big Tech and electronic surveillance scene.
Critics have expressed concern about Clearview’s potential for abuse. Note that the firm uses a database of 20 billion faces, scraped from social media.
Pivoting to the subject of apparent Russian discoveries of an advanced American-financed biological warfare program in Ukraine, we access the commentary of M.K. Bhadrakumar, a former Indian diplomat.
Bhadrakumar underscores some terrifying aspects of the apparent B.W. program, including “digitized” migratory birds, tracked by satellite and fitted with capsules of deadly microbes. When the birds are over a targeted country, they can be killed, triggering a pandemic.
” . . . . A mind-boggling ‘discovery’ that Russian forces in Ukraine stumbled upon is the use of numbered birds by the Pentagon-funded labs. . . . On the basis of this data, groups of migratory birds are caught, digitized and capsules of germs are attached to them that carry a chip to be controlled through computers. . . . During the long flight of the birds that have been digitized in the Pentagon bio-labs, their movement is monitored step by step by means of satellites and the exact locations are determined. . . . During the long flight of the birds that have been digitized in the Pentagon bio-labs, their movement is monitored step by step by means of satellites and the exact locations are determined. . . . The idea is that if the Biden Administration (or the CIA) has a requirement to inflict harm on, say, Russia or China (or India for that matter), the chip is destroyed when the bird is in their skies. Plainly put, kill the bird carrying the epidemic. . . . once the ‘digitized’ bird is killed and the capsule of germs it carries is released, the disease spreads in the ‘X’ or ‘Y’ country. It becomes a highly cost-effective method of harming an enemy country without any need of war or coup d’état or color revolution. The Russians have made the shocking claim that they are actually in possession of such migratory birds digitized in the Pentagon’s bio-labs. . . .”
A 2014 blog post details a 1960’s program in India that may have been a precursor to the apparent “digitized/weaponized” migratory birds program in Ukraine.
” . . . . It appeared that a unit of the U.S. Army called Migratory Animal Pathological Survey was interested in the project. The Army’s interest lay in knowing whether bacteria were being transmitted by the migrating birds. The project offered an excellent means of investigation and therefore had acquired an ominous significance. . . .”
Another possible 1960’s precursor of the “migratory birds of mass destruction” in Ukraine was a program to place voracious, disease-carrying Lone Star ticks in the Atlantic Flyway, through which migratory birds travel from Latin America through to the American Northeast.
” . . . . The sites were located on the Atlantic Flyway, the migratory bird superhighway that runs along the eastern South American and North American coasts. . . . . . . . Lone star ticks have several survival advantages over their deer tick cousins. They don’t wait patiently on a stalk of grass for passing prey; they are active hunters that crawl toward any carbon dioxide-emitting animal, including birds. . . . But in the 1970s, these ticks began rapidly expanding their range. 7 The first lone star tick observed on Montauk, Long Island, was in 1971, and as of 2018, established populations have been observed as far north as Maine. 8 . . . . All this begs the question: What is driving this mass migration of the lone star tick and its disease-causing hitchhikers northward? . . . .”
The program concludes with review of a Daily Mail article highlighting [confirmed] e‑mails from Hunter Biden’s laptop that partially confirm Russian discoveries of U.S.-financed biological warfare program in Ukraine.
To comprehend the political maelstrom engulfing the country as 2020 and the Trump administration are drawing to a close, it is essential to understand the transnational corporate landscape—the foundation of contemporary power political dynamics.
Beginning with an outgrowth of the pivotally important cartel agreements reached by Standard Oil and I.G. Farben between the World Wars, we note the apparent “gentleman’s agreement” between U.S. and German businessmen not to bomb the Third Reich’s synthetic fuel plants during the Second World War.
Those synthetic fuel plants were a direct outgrowth of the Standard‑I.G. Agreement of 1929, highlighted in—among other programs—FTR #’s 511, and 1108.
That apparent agreement exemplifies and signifies the decisive position of transnational corporate interests in the manifestation of international power politics.
Next, we set forth the dominant position of the remarkable and deadly Bormann capital network in the global “corporocracy.”
In addition to control of the German corporate establishment and interlocked European interests, the Bormann group has been buying share in Blue Chip U.S. stocks for the better part of the last hundred years. This puts the network in a controlling position in the transnational corporate community.
With electronic, computer-controlled buying and selling of equities in the world’s capital markets, a relatively small share of capital ownership in one of the giant transnationals is disproportionally important. Ownership of 2% or more of the stock in one of the world’s giant corporations constitutes a major position, in that when that number of shares is sold at one time, such an event can kick-in an electronic sell-off.
Illustrating the position of the Bormann network in U.S. economic life, we review the fact that Bormann drew funds on three demand accounts in New York banks in August of 1967. Nothing illustrates the nature of transnational corporate power and the position of the remarkable and deadly Bormann group in the corporate pantheon.
We note, in passing, that Bormann’s security director—Gestapo chief Heinrich Muller—worked with CIA and U.S. intelligence in the postwar period.
The Bormann transactions took place in August of 1967. In April and June of the following year, Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were killed.
Bormann saw Fritz Thyssen as a pipeline to Allen Dulles.
In the concluding portion of the program, we present supplemental information from an unpublished manuscript. The author is well-known to veteran researchers, but will remain anonymous, since the work was never formally published.
In FTR #’s 1149 and 1150, we set forth portions of this manuscript. In this program, we recapitulate those portions of the document, and include discussion of the consummate influence of the I.G. Farben international espionage organization in the U.S. between the World Wars.
In addition to I.G.’s profound relationship with John Foster and Allen Dulles of Sullivan & Cromwell, I.G. has also manifested major influence in Democratic administrations: Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal and JFK’s attenuated postwar administration as well.
Beyond that, the author maintains, correctly in our opinion, that the transnational influence of the I.G. networks and the postwar political influence-buying of CIA and BND constitute a direct extension of the OSS-SS collaboration during the closing stages of World War II.
What was created in US. boardrooms and intelligence headquarters during and immediately after World War II is now morphing into a mass movement.
This is the corporate foundation of the current malaise!
Program Highlights Include: Review of the role of OSS (and later CIA) officers Allen Dulles, William Casey and Frank Wisner in paving the way for the incorporation of Nazi SS cadres into the embryonic CIA; review of the role of 1948 GOP Presidential candidate Thomas Dewey in advising the Mary Carter Paint Company (later named Resorts International) to pay Allen Dulles’s law partner David Peck to advise U.S. High Commissioner for Germany John J. McCloy on the commutation of sentences meted out to Nazi war criminals; review of the role of the Gehlen Org (as part of the then West German BND) in financing Eastern European fascist elements in the U.S.; review of the overlap between Resorts International and William Casey’s Capital Cities Incorporated; review of Casey’s role overseeing OSS activities in Germany during 1944 and 1945.
My feelings about the George Floyd killing and its aftermath are best expressed in a poem I have read on a number of programs. In FTR #46, I detailed the assassination of Martin Luther King. The research in FTR #46, in turn, updated information presented on the 17th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King more than a decade earlier. Two years ago, when doing ten hours of programming about Dr. King’s murder on the 50th anniversary of that event, I was struck by the utter passivity and silence, not just on the part of the mainstream media, but on the part of the African-American community, as well as the so-called “progressive sector.” How can people who have acquiesced in the cold-blooded assassination of America’s most prominent civil rights leader at the hands of powerful elements of government manifest surprise or outrage at Floyd’s death? Perhaps it is because “They are all bound on the wheel . . . .”
In addition to reviewing and highlighting cogent arguments that the SARS-Cov2 (Covid-19) virus may indeed have been made in a laboratory, the program examines significant aspects of the heretofore puzzling epidemiology of the virus. (We do NOT believe that the virus was synthesized by China, as “Team Trump” is charging.)
First, however, the broadcast sets forth information about the quest for a Covid-19 vaccine.
The makeup of Donald Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed” program to develop a Covid-19 vaccine in record time is alarming. (No vaccine has ever been developed for human use in less than four years.)
“Operation Warp Speed”:
1.–Is headed by Moncef Slaoui, formerly the chairman of Moderna’s product development committee: ” . . . . Dr. Slaoui served on the board of Moderna, a biotechnology company that has an experimental coronavirus vaccine that just entered Phase 2 of clinical trials to determine if it is effective. As the chairman of the Moderna board’s product development committee, Dr. Slaoui might have been privy to the early indications of tests of whether the company’s approach appeared promising, now that it is being injected into human subjects. . . .”
2.–Is seen by Slaoui as promising by Slaoui, who may well be referencing tests on Moderna’s mRNA vaccine: “. . . . Dr. Slaoui, now a venture capitalist, said that he had ‘recently seen early data from a clinical trial with a coronavirus vaccine, and these data made me feel even more confident that we will be able to deliver a few hundred million doses of vaccine’ — enough to inoculate much of the United States — ‘by the end of 2020.’ . . . .”
3.–Will be assisted by a four-star general: ” . . . . . . . . Mr. Slaoui will serve as the chief adviser on the effort, and Gen. Gustave F. Perna, a four-star general who is in charge the Army Matériel Command, will be the chief operating officer. . . .”
4.–Perna was recruited by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs: ” . . . . General Perna, who runs the Army’s complex supply chain, said that he was asked by Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to help run the manufacturing logistics related to the vaccine development. . . .”
Note that Moncef Slaoui holds 10 million dollars worth of Moderna stock, which has tripled in value since the Covid-19 outbreak began:” . . . . The former pharma executive tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the federal government’s hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine has more than $10 million in stock options in one of the companies receiving federal funding. . . . Described across four separate filings, Slaoui has 155,438 options in Moderna. The stake is worth $10,366,000 at Moderna’s current share price, $66.69 at the time of publication. Moderna shares have almost tripled in value during 2020. The $66.69 figure represents an increase of 184% from the $23.46 it was trading for on January 1. . . .” (The day the program was recorded, Moderna’s stock increased by 25% in value, and Slaoui announced he would sell his stock.)
In past posts and programs, we have noted the Moderna–one of the companies selected to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, has been substantially underwritten by the Pentagon (DARPA).
Key points of discussion in that regard:
1.–Moderna is using novel vaccine technology using the injection of genetic material to create antibodies. This technology has never been used on human beings. “. . . . The second pharmaceutical company that was selected by CEPI to develop a vaccine for the new coronavirus is Moderna Inc., which will develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus of concern in collaboration with the U.S. NIH and which will be funded entirely by CEPI. The vaccine in question, as opposed to Inovio’s DNA vaccine, will be a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine. Though different than a DNA vaccine, mRNA vaccines still use genetic material ‘to direct the body’s cells to produce intracellular, membrane or secreted proteins.’ Moderna’s mRNA treatments, including its mRNA vaccines, were largely developed using a $25 million grant from DARPA and it often touts is strategic alliance with DARPA in press releases. . . .”
2.–The technology has alarming possible negative side-effects. “. . . . Both DNA and mRNA vaccines involve the introduction of foreign and engineered genetic material into a person’s cells and past studies have found that such vaccines ‘possess significant unpredictability and a number of inherent harmful potential hazards’ and that ‘there is inadequate knowledge to define either the probability of unintended events or the consequences of genetic modifications.’ Nonetheless, the climate of fear surrounding the coronavirus outbreak could be enough for the public and private sector to develop and distribute such controversial treatments due to fear about the epidemic potential of the current outbreak. . . .”
3.–Looming large in the background of the Moderna vaccine technology is DARPA funding of “gene drive” technology. “. . . . Concerns about Pentagon experiments with biological weapons have garnered renewed media attention, particularly after it was revealed in 2017 that DARPA was the top funder of the controversial ‘gene drive’ technology, which has the power to permanently alter the genetics of entire populations while targeting others for extinction. At least two of DARPA’s studies using this controversial technology were classified and ‘focused on the potential military application of gene drive technology and use of gene drives in agriculture,’ according to media reports. . . . Co-director of the ETC Group Jim Thomas said that this technology may be used as a biological weapon: ‘Gene drives are a powerful and dangerous new technology and potential biological weapons could have disastrous impacts on peace, food security and the environment, especially if misused, The fact that gene drive development is now being primarily funded and structured by the US military raises alarming questions about this entire field.’ . . . . However, the therapies being developed by Inovio, Moderna and the University of Queensland are in alignment with DARPA’s objectives regarding gene editing and vaccine technology. For instance, in 2015, DARPA geneticist Col. Daniel Wattendorf described how the agency was investigating a ‘new method of vaccine production [that] would involve giving the body instructions for making certain antibodies. Because the body would be its own bioreactor, the vaccine could be produced much faster than traditional methods and the result would be a higher level of protection.’ . . . .”
As discussed in FTR #1124–among other programs–it is now possible to create ANY virus from scratch, using “mail-order” or “designer” genes. In FTR #282–recorded in May of 2001–we noted the terrible significance of the development of such “Designer Gene” technology.
A BBC story from 1999 highlights the fears of experts that the advent of such technology could enable the development of ethno-specific biological weapons: ” . . . . Advances in genetic knowledge could be misused to develop powerful biological weapons that could be tailored to strike at specific ethnic groups, the British Medical Association has warned. A BMA report Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity says that concerted international action is necessary to block the development of new, biological weapons. . . . The BMA report warns that legitimate research into microbiological agents and genetically targeted therapeutic agents could be difficult to distinguish from research geared towards developing more effective weapons. . . . Dr Vivienne Nathanson, BMA Head of Health Policy Research said: ‘The history of humanity is a history of war. Scientific advances quickly lead to developments in weapons technology. . . .‘Biotechnology and genetic knowledge are equally open to this type of malign use. . . .”
We highlight information presented in FTR #1129, for purposes of emphasizing the flimsy nature of the argument presented in a paper from Nature Medicine.
Many scientific and medical people dismissing the argument that the Covid-19 coronavirus may have been created in a laboratory may be acting out of the sincere desire to preclude a full-dress Cold War between the U.S. and China. The Trump administration has tirelessly flogged the “China did it and it came from a laboratory” meme. Many liberals who dismissed the obvious fact that President Kennedy was murdered by a cabal of powerful U.S. national security interests did so because of what Peter Dale Scott calls a “level one cover-up”–alleged Soviet and/or Castro Cuban manipulation of Lee Harvey Oswald, fabricated by the executioners themselves.
Two telling, thoughtful, substantive critiques of the Nature Medicine article shed light on the flimsy nature of its arguments.
It would not be unfair to characterize the article as “The Warren Report” of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Genetic Engineering
Like the Bible, it is open to serious scientific refutation: ” . . . . To put it simply, the authors are saying that SARS-CoV‑2 was not deliberately engineered because if it were, it would have been designed differently. However, the London-based molecular geneticist Dr Michael Antoniou commented that this line of reasoning fails to take into account that there are a number of laboratory-based systems that can select for high affinity RBD variants that are able to take into account the complex environment of a living organism. This complex environment may impact the efficiency with which the SARS-CoV spike protein can find the ACE2 receptor and bind to it. An RBD selected via these more realistic real-world experimental systems would be just as ‘ideal’, or even more so, for human ACE2 binding than any RBD that a computer model could predict. And crucially, it would likely be different in amino acid sequence. So the fact that SARS-CoV‑2 doesn’t have the same RBD amino acid sequence as the one that the computer program predicted in no way rules out the possibility that it was genetically engineered. . . .”
Dr. Michael Antoniou notes that different genetic engineering processes than the one highlighted in the Nature Medicine paper can be used: ” . . . . There is another method by which an enhanced-infectivity virus can be engineered in the lab. A well-known alternative process that could have been used has the cumbersome name of “directed iterative evolutionary selection process”. In this case, it would involve using genetic engineering to generate a large number of randomly mutated versions of the SARS-CoV spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD), which would then be selected for strong binding to the ACE2 receptor and consequently high infectivity of human cells. . . .”
The notion that the “Nature Medicine” authors had not heard of the above process is not credible: ” . . . . Such a directed iterative evolutionary selection process is a frequently used method in laboratory research. So there is little or no possibility that the Nature Medicine article authors haven’t heard of it – not least, as it is considered so scientifically important that its inventors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018. . . .”
Of more than passing significance is another article that finds serious fault with the “Nature Medicine” paper. ” . . . . Professor Stuart Newman, professor of cell biology and anatomy at New York Medical College, says that a key argument used to deny that it could be a genetically engineered strain that escaped from a laboratory actually points to the exact opposite. In other words, it indicates that SARS-CoV‑2 could well be genetically engineered and that it could have escaped from a lab. . . . As Adam Lauring, an associate professor of microbiology, immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Michigan Medical School, has noted, Andersen’s paper argues that, ‘the SARS-CoV‑2 virus has some key differences in specific genes relative to previously identified coronaviruses – the ones a laboratory would be working with. This constellation of changes makes it unlikely that it is the result of a laboratory ‘escape’.‘But Professor Newman says that this is totally unconvincing because ‘The ‘key differences’ were in regions of the coronavirus spike protein that were the subject of genetic engineering experiments in labs around the world (mainly in the US and China) for two decades.’ . . .”
Professor Newman goes on to highlight other, serious flaws in the argument: ” . . . In an email interview with GMWatch, Newman, who is editor-in-chief of the journal Biological Theory and co-author (with Tina Stevens) of the book Biotech Juggernaut, amplified this speculation by noting, ‘The Nature Medicine paper points to variations in two sites of the spike protein of the new coronavirus that the authors claim must have arisen by natural selection in the wild. However, genetic engineering of one of these sites, the ACE2 receptor binding domain, has been proposed since 2005 in order to help generate vaccines against these viruses (see this paper). It is puzzling that the authors of the Nature Medicine commentary did not cite this paper, which appeared in the prominent journal Science.’ Moreover, Newman added, “The second site that Andersen et al. assert arose by natural means, a target of enzyme cleavage not usually found in this class of viruses, was in fact introduced by genetic engineering in a similar coronavirus in a paper they do cite. This was done to explore mechanisms of pathogenicity. . . . .”
Worth noting, again, is the British Medical Association’s warning discussed in FTR #1129, as well as above: ” . . . .The BMA report warns that legitimate research into microbiological agents and genetically targeted therapeutic agents could be difficult to distinguish from research geared towards developing more effective weapons. . . .”
As the GMWatch authors conclude: ” . . . . Such ‘enhanced infectivity’ research is carried out on viruses all over the world (and not just in China) to investigate their behaviour and to develop vaccines and other therapies, as well as for ‘biodefence’ purposes. . . .”
Reports are now emerging of possible Covid-19 infection among athletes who participated at the Military World Games in Wuhan in October 19.
We have speculated at some length about the possibility that infecting those very healthy, superbly-conditioned individuals might have been an excellent vehicle for spreading the virus around the world.
Further discussion of this can be found in FTR #‘s 1118 and 1122. We note that China has speculated about the Wuhan Military World Games being a vehicle for the U.S. to spread the infection.
We have noted that language is, past a point, inadequate to analyze and discuss some of the major considerations in the Covid-19 “op.” A bio-weapons would require a very small number of agents in order to be effectively disseminated. In addition, we note that–in the age of mind control–an operative can be dispensed to perform a function without their knowledge.
In addition to French athletes, contingents from Sweden, Spain and Italy appear to have become infected. The apparent infection of the French athletes pre-dates the first confirmed case in China by 20 days.
A fish merchant who worked near Charles De Gaulle Airport tested positive for the virus on December 27.
The apparently infected athletes participating in the Military World Games further complicates the puzzling epidemiology of the virus.
Doctors quoted in a New York Times piece underscore the anomalous epidemiology of the virus: ” . . . . In San Jose, tissue sampling from a woman who died on Feb. 6 revealed that she was probably the first known person in the U.S. whose death was linked to the coronavirus — a strong sign that the virus may have been circulating in that part of Northern California in January. But was it part of a large, previously unrecognized outbreak? . . .
“. . . . Dr. George Rutherford, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, theorized that perhaps the woman, who worked for a company that had an office in Wuhan, was one of only a small number of people who contracted the virus at that time and that transmissions probably petered out for some reason. Otherwise, he said, the region would have seen a much bigger outbreak. . . .
“. . . . Dr. [Trevor] Bedford said he also believed this was the more likely scenario, noting that up to half of people with coronavirus infections have no symptoms. . . .
“. . . . There could have been a tiny number of isolated coronavirus cases among travelers to the United States in December, Dr. Bedford said. But it is pretty clear that none of them spread.
“In part, scientists can tell that by looking at the genomic fingerprints of each case. But another clue is the rapid rate at which the virus spreads, Dr. Rutherford said. . . . Researchers are not seeing any chains that appear to go that far back. . . .”
Leading the Trump administration’s rhetorical and political charge against China is Mike Pompeo. Charging that the virus “escaped” from a lab in Wuhan and equivocating about whether that release was intentional, Koch brothers-protege Pompeo cited alleged duplicity on behalf of China’s communist party in connection with the virus. ” . . . . ‘I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan,’ Pompeo said on ABC’s ‘This Week’ Sunday. ‘Do you think they intentionally released that virus, or it was an accident in the lab?’ Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz pressed. ‘I can’t answer your question about that,’ he said, ‘because the Chinese Communist Party has refused to cooperate with world health experts.’ . . .”
The Chinese medical and scientific establishment has worked closely with counterparts globally in an attempt to analyze and treat the virus.
The highly anomalous epidemiology, the lack of symptoms in half of infected patients, the wide variety of symptoms the virus causes and, lastly, the fact that this was a novel virus and resulting infection are all factors to be considered in evaluating the timeliness of the Chinese response.
Pompeo also asserts that the virus was not made in a laboratory.
Next, we highlight a misleading story in Rupert Murdoch’s “The Daily Telegraph” out of Sydney, Australia. The story alleges that the Five Eyes electronic intelligence network has corroborated the “it came from a Chinese lab” meme.
Of more than passing interest is the disclosure that the project on bat-borne coronaviruses conducted in the Wuhan laboratory was a joint U.S./Chinese project, and that Ralph Baric was a key American partner in the project.
This is the undertaking about which we have reported and discussed extensively in the past! ” . . . . One of Dr Shi’s co-authors on that paper, Professor Ralph Baric from North Carolina University, said in an interview with ‘Science Daily’ at the time: ‘This virus is highly pathogenic and treatments developed against the original SARS virus in 2002 and the ZMapp drugs used to fight ebola fail to neutralise and control this particular virus.’ . . . .”
Baric was the selectee to reconstruct the SARS Cov2 virus from scratch. Note that the article below discusses the U.S. suspension of the “gain of function” experiments and 2017 resumption of same, somehow spinning this into the “China did it” disinformation.
The military has links to the Wuhan lab in question: ” . . . . Furthermore, DARPA and the Pentagon’s past history with bioweapons and their more recent experiments on genetic alteration and extinction technologies as well as bats and coronaviruses in proximity to China have been largely left out of the narrative, despite the information being publicly available. Also left out of the media narrative have been the direct ties of both the USAMRIID and DARPA-partnered Duke University to the city of Wuhan, including its Institute of Medical Virology. . . .”
A “Guardian” article sources UK intelligence assets claiming that the 15-page dossier didn’t come from a Five Eyes intelligence assessment. They assert that it was based on open-source materials and put forward by the US as “a tool for building a counter-narrative and applying pressure to China.”
We conclude with analysis of Trump’s deputy national security adviser.
Against the background of the Trump administration’s anti-China campaign rhetoric and attempts to pin the blame for Covid-19 on a “laboratory” leak and/or deliberate release, we note that the offensive is being pushed by The Donald’s deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger.
“. . . . Matthew Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser who reported on SARS outbreaks as a journalist in China, pressed intelligence agencies in January to gather information that might support any origin theory linked to a lab. . . .”
Pottinger is the son of former Assistant Attorney General J. Stanley Pottinger.
Pottinger, Senior was: Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under Nixon and Ford; reported by Donald Freed and Fred Landis (in “Death in Washington”) to have foiled investigations into the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Orlando Letelier; the attorney for the Hashemi brothers in the October Surprise investigation; a close personal friend of George H.W. Bush (for whom CIA headquarters was named) and, last but certainly not least, Gloria Steinem’s lover for nine years.
Despite the fact that Steinem touted her CIA background as good journalistic credentials in both “The New York Times” and “The Washington Post” (both with long-standing CIA links themselves), Pottinger has defended her against charges that she worked for the CIA!!
Worth noting, as well, is the fact that the Letelier assassination was one of the murders conducted under Operation Condor, assisted by the CIA. Letelier was killed by a car bomb in Washington D.C., while J.Stanley Pottinger’s good friend George H.W. Bush was in charge of the CIA when Letelier was hit.
(We have covered Operation Condor in numerous programs, including AFA #19. One of the operational centers of Condor was the Chilean Nazi enclave Colonia Dignidad. In FTR #839, we set forth author Peter Levenda’s brave, frightening visit to “The Colony.” This should be digested by anyone interested in the history of which Pottinger, Sr., is a part.)
One wonders if Matthew may have followed J. Stanley into the CIA, if in fact Daddio is Agency, as Mr. Emory suspects.
In FTR #s 998, 999, 1000, we set forth what Mr. Emory calls “weaponized feminism.” Refashioning the doctrine of advancing the cause of women into a legal and political weapon for destroying targeted men, dominant manifestations of the #MeToo movement have served the cause of the far right.
Resembling–in its essence–the “libidinal McCarthyism” of Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible,” many high-profile manifestations of #MeToo have been propelled by evidentiary material that ranges from dubious to ludicrous to non-existent.
We find it more than coincidental that Bernie Sanders supporter Tara Reade’s shape-shifting accusations against Joe Biden have surfaced decades after the alleged incident–coinciding with Biden’s challenging of Trump and with Pottinger, Jr. helping to direct the administration’s traffic.