Spitfire List

Failure in Afghanistan

Posted by Dave Emory ⋅ July 5, 2020 ⋅ One comment

A relatively rare piece of quality, incisive analysis from the Mainstream Media, Craig Whitlock’s “At War With The Truth” presents an honest, albeit attenuated, analysis of the failure of the war in Afghanistan. In addition, this paper presents the background to, and foundation of, the latest iteration of the Russia-gate psy-op: “Bountygate.” A thoughtful piece by Scott Ritter in “Consortium News” parses the deep politics of “Bountygate” and the reality of Russian policy vis a vis the Taliban and Central Asia.

FTR #1137 Lyme Disease and Biological Warfare, Part 3

Posted by Dave Emory ⋅ June 30, 2020 ⋅ 2 comments

Further developing the links between biological warfare research and the Lyme Disease establishment, we review information from FTR #585.

At every turn, Lyme disease research is inextricably linked with biological warfare research. Divided into the “Steere” and “ILADS” camps, the Lyme disease research community is split between the view that the disease is “hard-to-catch, easy-to-cure” and the diametrically opposed view that the disease is very serious and produces long-term neurological disorder. The Steere camp diminishes the significance of the disease and is closely identified with biological warfare research. At the epicenter of Lyme disease research (and the Steere camp) are members of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, or EIS. EIS personnel are to be found at every bend in the road of Lyme disease research.

The Borrelia genus has long been researched as a biological warfare vector. Note that Unit 731 personnel and their files were put to work for the United States after World War II, much like the Project Paperclip scientists from Germany. ” . . . borrelia were known for their ability to adopt different forms under conditions of stress (such as exposure to antibiotics). Shedding their outer wall, (which is the target of penicillin and related drugs), they could ward off attack and continue to exist in the body. . .”

Much of the program is devoted to excerpting and analysis of a 2013 posting by Elena Cook. This discussion of “Spirochete Warfare,” in turn, makes liberal use of material from a 1944 text about Japan’s biological warfare program. This book “Japan’s Secret Weapon,” contains a great deal of information about Japanese pioneering of the use of spirochetes as biological warfare organisms.

This material is to be considered in the historical and political context of the incorporation of the key personnel and files of the notorious Japanese Unit 731 biological warfare division into the U.S. BW program after World War II.

Apparently decades ahead of their Allied counterparts, Japanese use of spirochetes encompassed a number of important points to consider.

1.–The Japanese understood that “cell-wall deficient spirochetes, ” “granule” and “L‑forms” had tremendous significance for biological warfare. ” . . . This WW2-era book helps to confirm what some investigating the history of Lyme disease have long suspected; that the official denial of the devastating pathogenic nature of the granule and other ‘L‑forms’(1) of Lyme-causing Borrelia, is related to their biological warfare significance. . .”
2.–” . . . To put it bluntly, Newman’s book provides cogent circumstantial evidence that many Cell-wall deficient forms of Borrelia are in fact weaponized spirochetes, nurtured, cultured and optimized for aerosol delivery. . .”
3.–According to author Barclay Newman, a combined Japanese and Nazi biological warfare offensive against Hawaii using the spirochetal disease leptospirosis against Hawaii two or three years before the attack on Pearl Harbor: ” . . . . ‘Nazi and Japanese scientists cooperated in warfare against or with spirochetes — in Hawaii.’ (original author’s italics). What he is referring to is an exceptionally virulent outbreak of the spirochetal disease leptospirosis, also known as Weil’s disease, and known at the time in Germany as ‘slime fever’. With official reports of 44% mortality from the outbreak, Newman states: Consult the authorities, and you will find out that, very definitely, so high a mortality is attained only by Japanese strains of spirochetes of slime fever. . . .”
4.–According to Newman, the Japanese had concluded that spirochetes, although very close to bacteria in form, were not actually bacteria and therefore: ” . . . . a spirochete can also break itself into many tiny granules, each as small as the invisible molecule of a virus, and each capable of recreating a new spirochete. . . .”
5.–Again, according to Newman: ” . . . The Japanese have reported that you can increase the virulence, or killing power, of these spirals by growing them in flesh and blood, of guinea pig or man. . .” This is interesting to consider in light of the evidence of Lyme Disease as the product of biological warfare. Might some of the “tests” have had the goal of “growing” such organisms in humans? ” . . . The resistance of many spirochetes, including borrelia, to culture in vitro remains a problem for lab scientists even today. . .”
6.–The “granule” spirochete form was found by the Japanese to have great value for aerosolized BW applications: ” . . . Inada has reported that the Japanese know how to get virus-like, quite invisible particles or spirochete-fragments from special cultures of spirochetes of infectious jaundice. The Japanese say that such infinitesimals can be used to infect animals and men, by spraying droplets containing these spirochete-creating bits into the air, or spreading them through water, or scattering them in mud or damp soil. . . .”
7.–The above-mentioned leptospirosis or “slime fever” may have been used as a “softening-up” agent prior to Japanese invasions in World War II” ” . . . ‘Immediately before the Japanese invasions of China, Indo-China, the Dutch East Indies, and the Malay States, and shortly before the Japanese invasion of India and the Japanese strokes at Australia, the very first outbreaks of slime fever were reported from every one of these areas’ . . .”
8.–The Japanese had discovered the application of infection via multiple pathogens. This may have figured into the development of Lyme Disease as well. ” . . . Fujimori (sic) was testing out the effects of spreading two different parasites into the same guinea pig at the same time. The Japanese discovered that one parasite promotes the lethal action of the other. . . .”
9.–The Japanese developed with spreading spirochetal disease via spraying droplets into the eyes of targets. We wonder if Willy Burgdorfer’s possible Lyme infection from diseased Rabbit-urine may have stemmed from this technology? This is discussed below. ” . . . ‘Sometimes the Japanese think up the damnedest experiments, such as the transmission of syphilis by spraying the spirochetes into the air or into the eyes of animals or volunteers. Infection is thus accomplished. . . . if you want to speculate further about the possibilities of spirochete warfare, you can be sure that the Japanese know how to spread any spirochete disease . . . by spraying droplets laden with specially cultured spirochetes. . . .”
10.-Among the diseases apparently harnessed for BW use by the Japanese was African relapsing fever. Willy Burgdorfer did his graduate thesis about this tick-borne spirochetal disease and it was researched at length by his mentor Rudolf Geigy. (Geigy’s possible role as an I.G. Farben intelligence agent and Paperclip recruiter is discussed in FTR #1135. Note that some forms of Borrelia Burgdorferi–a primary causative agent of Lyme Disease–resemble the spirochete that causes relapsing fever. ” . . . Relapsing fever is caused by the Borrelia genus of bacteria, and is generally transmitted to man either by lice, or by the bite of a tick. It is worth noting, too, that recent investigations into the genetic make-up of Lyme borrelia have found some strains apparently more closely related to relapsing fever Borrelia than to Borrelia burgdorferi, long considered the only borrelia capable of causing Lyme disease. . . .”

Next, the program details Rudolf Geigy’s work on relapsing fever. We suspect that his interest in such afflictions was not as benign and altruistic as his defenders maintain. As mentioned above, Lyme Disease “discoverer” and biological warfare veteran Willy Burgdorfer did his graduate thesis on relapsing fever.

Again, as mentioned above, Willy Burgdorfer contracted what he felt was Lyme Disease after urine from an infected rabbit splashed into his eyes. We wonder if some of the techniques of using aerosolized spirochete granules might have been involved in Willy’s accidental infection? ” . . . .While he was rinsing off one of the trays in the sink, Lyme-infected rabbit urine splashed into his eyes. A few weeks later, on April 13, he noticed five Lyme bull’s-eye rashes under his armpit and on his torso. . . .”

In an unpublished manuscript, Willy Burgdorfer noted not only the persistence of Lyme Disease but its ability to remain dormant in the nervous system: “. . . . It is now clear that Borrelia burgdorferi can persist within the nervous system for years, causing progressive illness, and increasing evidence suggests also that the spirochete can remain latent there for years before producing clinical symptoms. . . .”

Lyme disease is difficult to diagnose, another factor that makes it ideal for BW use. Might the Japanese Unit 731 research into spirochetal warfare described by Barclay Newman have figured into some of the boiler-plate research that went into the development of Lyme Disease? ” . . . Lyme’s ability to evade detection on routine medical tests, its myriad presentations which can baffle doctors by mimicking 100 different diseases, its amazing abilities to evade the immune system and antibiotic treatment, would make it an attractive choice to bioweaponeers looking for an incapacitating agent. Lyme’s abilities as ‘the great imitator’ might mean that an attack could be misinterpreted as simply a rise in the incidence of different, naturally-occurring diseases. . . .”

There is experimental evidence that infection with Borrelia burgdorferi can produce the amyloid plaques symptomatic of Alzheimer’s Disease. ” . . . Here is hypothesized a truly revolutionary notion that rounded cystic forms of Borrelia burgdorferi are the root cause of the rounded structures called plaques in the Alzheimer brain. Rounded “plaques’ in high density in brain tissue are emblematic of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). . . .”

The program concludes with more experimental evidence of the production of amyloid deposits characteristic of Alzheimer’s Disease: ” . . . To determine whether an analogous host reaction to that occurring in AD could be induced by infectious agents, we exposed mammalian glial and neuronal cells in vitro to Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes . . . Morphological changes analogous to the amyloid deposits of AD brain were observed following 2–8 weeks of exposure to the spirochetes. . . These observations indicate that, by exposure to bacteria or to their toxic products, host responses similar in nature to those observed in AD may be induced. . . .”

FTR #1136 Lyme Disease and Biological Warfare, Part 2

Posted by Dave Emory ⋅ June 30, 2020 ⋅ Post a comment

A recent book about Lyme Disease sets forth credible information that the disease is an outgrowth of U.S. biological warfare research.

Bitten, The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons chronicles the career of Willy Burgdorfer, a Swiss-born expert on tick and flea-borne diseases who spent most of his career researching those areas as a U.S. biological warfare scientist.
” . . . . if Willy’s claim was true, a crime against humanity had been committed by the U.S. government, and then covered up. . . ” “Bitten,” p. 103.

Listeners are emphatically encouraged to purchase and read this book, as well as sharing it with others.

Author Kris Newby presents substantive evidence that the disease stems from BW research done by Burgdorfer and associates. (Burgdorfer was the scientist who “discovered” the organism that causes Lyme Disease.)

NB: The material in this broadcast is deliberately overlapped with that in the last program.

In this post, we highlight information about what Willy termed “the Swiss Agent”–a rickettsia that was present in the vast majority of Lyme sufferers tested early in research into the disease.

Eventually, discussion of the possible role of Swiss Agent dropped out of discussion. The disappearance of the Swiss Agent from the scientific analytical literature coincided with Willy’s telephone conversations with biological warfare research veterans.

Key points of discussion:

1.–” . . . . I would engage the scientific part of his brain in answering my two questions: why the Lyme discovery files were missing from the National Archives, and why images of the organism labeled ‘Swiss Agent’ were located in the archive folders in the time-frame where one would expect the Lyme spirochete pictures to be. . . .”
2.–” . . . . He told me that in late 1979, he had tested ‘over one hundred ticks’ from Shelter Island, located about twenty miles from the Lyme outbreak, and all but two had an unidentified rickettsial species inside. It looked like Rickettsia montana (now called Rickettsia montanensis) under a microscope, a non-disease-causing cousin of the deadly Rickettsia ricketsii, but it was a different species. . . .”
3.–” . . . .‘You say they’re not looking for it anymore?’ I asked. ‘They probably paid people off,’ he said. ‘There are folks up there who have a way to enable that.’ . . .”
4.–” . . . . Next, I showed Willy an unlabeled image of a microbe and asked him what it was. ‘That is a Swiss Agent,’ said Willy. I asked him a series of questions on this microbe and he recited what seemed like well-rehearsed lines: the Swiss Agent is a Rickettsia montana-like organism found in the European sheep tick, Ixodes Ricinus, and it doesn’t cause disease in humans. . . .”
5.–” . . . . Then I asked him why he brought samples of it from Switzerland back to his lab. He replied with the response that he often used when he seemed to know the answer but wasn’t going to divulge it: ‘Question mark.’. . .”
6.–” . . . . The real ‘smoking gun,’ though, was Willy’s handwritten lab notes on the patient blood tests from the disease outbreak in Connecticut. These tests showed the proof-of-presence of what I named ‘Swiss Agent USA,’ the mystery rickettsia present in most of the patients from the original Lyme outbreak, a fact that was never disclosed in journal articles. It didn’t take a PhD in microbiology to see that almost all the patient blood had reacted strongly to an antigen test for a European rickettsia that Willy had called the Swiss Agent. . . .”
7.–” . . . . In March, he wrote to Anderson and Steere again: ‘Most specimens, with a few exceptions, reacted only against antigens prepared from the Swiss Agent.’ In short, the disease clusters in Connecticut and Long Island seemed to have been caused by Swiss Agent USA. Then, in April, the Swiss Agent USA rickettsia vanished. It was never again mentioned in talks, letters, interviews, or journal articles. . . . There is, without a doubt, something suspicious about the sudden disappearance of the Swiss Agent USA from all correspondence. . . .”
8.–The disappearance of the Swiss Agent USA from the literature on Lyme Disease corresponded with an important conversation that Willy had: ” . . . . It was in the beginning of 1980—two years before the first Lyme spirochetes were found—that the Swiss Agent USA disappeared. This about-face coincided with a series of discussions Willy had with old bioweapons developers on the Rickettsial Commission of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, as recorded in his personal phone log. These scientists were most certainly familiar with the secret history of incapacitating rickettsial and viral agent testing, and they may have discussed with Willy the possibility of there having been an undisclosed field test in the Long Island region. . . .”
9.–Roundworms similar to organisms studied by Willy at the Naval Research Unit in Cairo turned up in some of the ticks: ” . . . . That’s when Willy found parasitic roundworm larvae in the main body cavity of two of the ticks. They were similar to the deer worms he’d found in ticks on his 1978 trip to Switzerland, and similar to the roundworms that he, Sonenshine, and the Naval Research Unit in Cairo had worked with for a project exploring the ‘relatively new field of endo-parasitic transmission of disease agents.’ In these experiments, multiple disease agents were put inside mosquito-borne roundworms, according to an NIH research report from 1961. . . .”
10.–Numerically, it appears that the Swiss Agent rickettsias outnumbered the spirochetes that ultimately were tabbed as the causative agent for Lyme Disease: ” . . . . When Willy dissected 124 more Shelter Island deer ticks, 98 percent had the new rickettsias in them and only 60 percent carried the new spirochetes. Willy thought that either microbe might be causing Lyme disease, but, for unknown reasons, this alternative theory fell into a black hole. . . .”

Pivoting to discussion of the politics of Lyme Disease treatment, we note that legal and regulatory rulings have enabled the patenting of living organisms and that has exacerbated the monetizing of Lyme Disease treatment. That monetization, in turn, has adversely affected the quality of care for afflicted patients. As we will see later, Willy Burgdorfer was not the only Lyme Disease researcher to become involved with biological warfare research. ” . . . . All of a sudden, the institutions that were supposed to be protectors of public health became business partners with Big Pharma. The university researchers who had previously shared information on dangerous emerging diseases were now delaying publishing their findings so they could become entrepreneurs and profit from patents through their university technology transfer groups. We essentially lost our system of scientific checks and balances. And this, in turn, has undermined patient trust in the institutions that are supposed to ‘do no harm.’ . . .”

Ms. Newby went up against the “Lyme Disease establishment” in an attempt to find out why the disease was being mis-diagnosed and ineffectively treated. Strikingly, a FOIA suit she filed was stonewalled for five years, before finally yielding the documents she had so long sought.

The “experts” and their agenda was neatly, and alarmingly, summed up by Ms. Newby: ” . . . . The emails revealed a disturbing picture of a nonofficial group of government employees and guidelines authors that had been setting the national Lyme disease research agenda without public oversight or transparency. . . . Bottom line, the guidelines authors regularly convened in government-funded, closed-door meetings with hidden agendas that lined the pockets of academic researchers with significant commercial interests in Lyme disease tests and vaccines. A large percentage of government grants were awarded to the guideline authors and/or researchers in their labs. Part of the group’s stated mission, culled from these FOIA emails, was to run a covert ‘disinformation war’ and a ‘sociopolitical offensive’ to discredit Lyme patients, physicians, and journalists who questioned the group’s research and motives. In the FOIA-obtained emails, Lyme patients and their treating physicians were called ‘loonies’ and ‘quacks’ by Lyme guidelines authors and NIH employees. . . .”

Further developing the links between biological warfare research and the Lyme Disease establishment, we review information from FTR #585.

At every turn, Lyme disease research is inextricably linked with biological warfare research. Divided into the “Steere” and “ILADS” camps, the Lyme disease research community is split between the view that the disease is “hard-to-catch, easy-to-cure” and the diametrically opposed view that the disease is very serious and produces long-term neurological disorder. The Steere camp diminishes the significance of the disease and is closely identified with biological warfare research. At the epicenter of Lyme disease research (and the Steere camp) are members of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, or EIS. EIS personnel are to be found at every bend in the road of Lyme disease research.

The Borrelia genus has long been researched as a biological warfare vector.

” . . . . The Borrelia genus of bacteria, which encompasses the Borrelia burgdorferi species-group (to which Lyme disease is attributed), was studied by the infamous WW2 Japanese biowar Unit 731, who carried out horrific experiments on prisoners in Manchuria, including dissection of live human beings. [iii] Unit 731 also worked on a number of other tick-borne pathogens. . . . . borrelia were known for their ability to adopt different forms under conditions of stress (such as exposure to antibiotics). Shedding their outer wall, (which is the target of penicillin and related drugs), they could ward off attack and continue to exist in the body. . . .”

Note that Unit 731 personnel and their files were put to work for the United States after World War II, much like the Project Paperclip scientists from Germany.

FTR #‘s 1135, Lyme Disease and Biological Warfare, Part 1

Posted by Dave Emory ⋅ June 25, 2020 ⋅ Post a comment

” . . . . if Willy’s claim was true, a crime against humanity had been committed by the U.S. government, and then covered up. . . ” Bitten, p. 103.

A recent book about Lyme Disease sets forth credible information that the disease is an outgrowth of U.S. biological warfare research.

Bitten, The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons chronicles the career of Willy Burgdorfer, a Swiss-born expert on tick and flea-borne diseases who spent most of his career researching those areas as a U.S. biological warfare scientist.

Author Kris Newby presents substantive evidence that the disease stems from BW research done by Burgdorfer and associates. (Burgdorfer was the scientist who “discovered” the organism that causes Lyme Disease.)

In past discussion of Lyme Disease, we have explored the incorporation of Nazi scientists via Operation Paperclip into the American biological warfare program and possible links between their work and the spread of the disease in Connecticut, across Long Island Sound from Plum Island.

(FTR #‘s 480 and 585 highlight discussion about Lyme Disease and biological warfare.)

Burgdorfer’s entree into the American biological warfare program resulted from his professional relationship with long time mentor and patron Rudolf Geigy. Geigy belonged to a family whose business, J.R. Geigy AG, was a Swiss chemical firm marketing dyes and insecticides.

Significantly, J.R. Geigy, Ciba and Sandoz comprised a Swiss chemical cartel formed in the aftermath of World War I to compete with the I.G. Farben cartel.

(Today, the three companies have coalesced as the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis.)

Eventually, the Swiss consortium was absorbed into, and became a key component of, the I.G. Farben cartel. They readily collaborated with the Third Reich:

1.–” . . . . The chapters on Switzerland’s chemical industry are the most embarrassing section of the commission’s report. It is now clear that the directors of Swiss companies in Basel were very well aware what was going on at the time in Germany and had knowledge of the coerced employment of forced laborers in their branch plants in Germany as well as of the fact that forced laborers died as a result of the conditions in which they were held. . . .”
2.–” . . . . several leading Swiss chemical firms — including JR Geigy, Ciba, Sandoz and Hoffmann-La Roche — put their own interests ahead of humanitarian concerns in their dealing with the Nazis. . . .”
3.–” . . . .The ICE [Independent Commission of Experts] concluded that the chemical firms’ bosses in Switzerland ‘possessed a high level of detailed knowledge about the political and economic situation in Nazi Germany... [and] incorporated their knowledge... into their economic planning and used it as a basis for decision-making’ . . . .”
4.–” . . . . ‘Geigy maintained particularly good relations with Claus Ungewitter, the Reich commissioner for chemicals.’ . . .”
5.–” . . . . During the war, it [Geigy] produced insecticides and, most notably, the iconic ‘polar red’ dye that colored the background of Nazi swastika flags. . . .”

All three Swiss firms [Geigy, Sandoz and Ciba] were indicted in the United States in 1942 because of their collaboration with I.G. Farben and the Third Reich.

1.–” . . . . Those indicted included duPont; Allied Chemical and Dye; and American Cyanamid; also Farben affiliates the American Ciba, Sandoz and Geigy. . . .”
2.–” . . . . A long list of other co-conspirators included the Swiss Ciba, Sandoz and Geigy companies with Cincinnati Chemical works, their jointly owned American concern . . . .”
3.–” . . . . When Secretary of War Stimson and Attorney General Biddle agreed to postpone the trial until it would not interfere with war production, one Justice Department official was quoted as saying sourly, ‘First they hurt the war effort by their restrictive practices, and then if caught they use the war effort as an excuse to avoid prosecution.’ . . .”

Useful background research with which to flesh out understanding of the titillating information presented by Ms. Newby concerning Geigy and his activities can be obtained by reading some of the many books available for download on this website.

Numerous programs present research on the topic, including FTR #511.

A key foundational element for the discussion of Bitten is the Pentagon’s decades-long research into the genetic manipulation of microbial pathogens.

1.–Nobel Prize winner Joshua Lederberg warned of the consequences for humanity of this work: ” . . . .‘The large-scale deployment of infectious agents is a potential threat against the whole species: mutant forms of viruses could well develop that would spread over the earth’s population for a new Black Death,’ said Lederberg in a Washington Post editorial on September 24, 1966. He added, ‘The future of the species is very much bound up with the control of these weapons. Their use must be regulated by the most thoughtful reconsideration of U.S. and world policy.’ . . .”
2.–The Pentagon was dismissive of the warning: ” . . . . A month later, the army’s Biological Subcommittee Munitions Advisory Group thumbed its nose at this ‘national pronouncement made by prominent scientists.’ . . . The advisory group then continued discussing its plans for genetic manipulation of microbes, new rickettsial and viral agents, and the development of a balanced program for both incapacitating and lethal agents. . . .”
3.–By 1962, the military’s plans for development of genetically modified microbes were developing in earnest. ” . . . . Fort Detrick’s director of biological research, Dr. J.R. Goodlow, on February 16, 1962 . . . added, ‘Studies of bacterial genetics are also in progress with the aim of transferring genetic determinants from one type of organism to another.‘The goal of these experiments was to make biological agents more virulent and resistant to antibiotics. . . .”

The Pentagon’s genetic manipulation of microorganisms for biological warfare purposes involved the Rocky Mountain Lab and Willy Burgdorfer.

1.–” . . . . Bioweapons researchers such as Willy knew that infecting large populations would require exposing people to agents for which they had no natural immunity. And to do this, researchers would have to import and/or invent new microbes. They were, in essence, playing God, creating ‘bacteriological freaks or mutants,’ by using chemicals, radiation, ultraviolet light, and other agents, wrote modern investigative journalism pioneer Jack Anderson in a Washington Post column on August 27, 1965. . . .”
2.–” . . . . Willy had already been conducting a trial-and-error style of genetic manipulation in the same way that a corn farmer or a hog grower selectively breeds strains that result in desired outcomes. He was growing microbes inside ticks, having the ticks feed on animals, and then harvesting the microbes from the animals that exhibited the level of illness the military had requested. . . .”
3.–” . . . . He was also simultaneously mixing bacteria and viruses inside ticks, leveraging the virus’s innate ability to manipulate bacterial genes in order to reproduce, and thus accelerating the rate of mutations and desirable new bacterial traits. In 1966, Fort Detrick’s Biological Subcommittee Munitions Advisory Group put this emerging research area at the top of its priorities, describing it as ‘Research in microbial genetics concerned with aspects of transformation, transduction, and recombination.’ . .”

Interviewed by an indie filmmaker named Tim Grey, Willy Burgdorfer discussed the development of Lyme Disease as a biological warfare weapon. It was Burgdorfer who “discovered” the spirochete that caused Lyme Disease in 1982. As we will see later, it appears that more than one organism is involved with Lyme Disease.

1.–” . . . . Willy paused, then replied, ‘Question: Has [sic] Borrelia Burgdorferi have the potential for biological warfare?’ As tears welled up in Willy’s eyes, he continued, ‘Looking at the data, it already has. If the organism stays within the system, you won’t even recognize what it is. In your lifespan, it can explode . . . We evaluated. You never deal with that [as a scientist]. You can sleep better.’ . . .”
2.–” . . . . Later in the video, Grey circled back to this topic and asked, ‘If there’s an emergence of a brand-new epidemic that has the tenets of all of those things that you put together, do you feel responsible for that?’ ‘Yeah. . . .’ ”
3.–” . . . . Grey asked him the one question, the only question, he really cared about: ‘Was the pathogen that you found in the tick that Allen Steere [the Lyme outbreak investigator] gave you the same pathogen or similar, or a generational mutation, of the one you published in the paper . . . the paper from 1952?’ ”
4.–” . . . . The left side of his mouth briefly curled up, as if he is thinking, ‘Oh, well.’ Then anger flashes across his face. ‘Yah,’ he said, more in German than English. . . .”
5.–” . . . . It was a stunning admission from one of the world’s foremost authorities on Lyme disease. If it was true, it meant that Willy had left out essential data from his scientific articles on the Lyme disease outbreak, and that as the disease spread like a wildfire in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions of the United States, he was part of the cover-up of the truth. . . It had been created in a military bioweapons lab for the specific purpose of harming human beings. . . . ”

To conclude the program, we highlight information about what Willy termed “the Swiss Agent”–a rickettsia that was present in the vast majority of Lyme sufferers tested early in research into the disease. Note that this element of analysis will be continued in our next program.

Eventually, discussion of the possible role of Swiss Agent dropped out of discussion. The disappearance of the Swiss Agent from the scientific analytical literature coincided with Willy’s telephone conversations with biological warfare research veterans.

Key points of discussion:

1.–” . . . . I would engage the scientific part of his brain in answering my two questions: why the Lyme discovery files were missing from the National Archives, and why images of the organism labeled ‘Swiss Agent’ were located in the archive folders in the time-frame where one would expect the Lyme spirochete pictures to be. . . .”
2.–” . . . . He told me that in late 1979, he had tested ‘over one hundred ticks’ from Shelter Island, located about twenty miles from the Lyme outbreak, and all but two had an unidentified rickettsial species inside. It looked like Rickettsia montana (now called Rickettsia montanensis) under a microscope, a non-disease-causing cousin of the deadly Rickettsia ricketsii, but it was a different species. . . .”
3.–” . . . .‘You say they’re not looking for it anymore?’ I asked. ‘They probably paid people off,’ he said. ‘There are folks up there who have a way to enable that.’ . . .”
4.–” . . . . Next, I showed Willy an unlabeled image of a microbe and asked him what it was. ‘That is a Swiss Agent,’ said Willy. I asked him a series of questions on this microbe and he recited what seemed like well-rehearsed lines: the Swiss Agent is a Rickettsia montana-like organism found in the European sheep tick, Ixodes Ricinus, and it doesn’t cause disease in humans. . . .”
5.–” . . . . Then I asked him why he brought samples of it from Switzerland back to his lab. He replied with the response that he often used when he seemed to know the answer but wasn’t going to divulge it: ‘Question mark.’. . .”
6.–” . . . . The real ‘smoking gun,’ though, was Willy’s handwritten lab notes on the patient blood tests from the disease outbreak in Connecticut. These tests showed the proof-of-presence of what I named ‘Swiss Agent USA,’ the mystery rickettsia present in most of the patients from the original Lyme outbreak, a fact that was never disclosed in journal articles. It didn’t take a PhD in microbiology to see that almost all the patient blood had reacted strongly to an antigen test for a European rickettsia that Willy had called the Swiss Agent. . . .”

Azov International

Posted by Dave Emory ⋅ June 12, 2020 ⋅ 2 comments

In numerous programs, we have noted international networking between the Ukrainian Nazi Azov Battalion and elements around the world: Azov is part of the “Intermarium Revival” that is seen as using Nazification of the Ukraine “pivot point” as a springboard for a global Nazi takeover. American Nazis and white supremacists are among the elements networking with Azov and then “bringing it all back home” to their native lands. Azov Battalion and Pravy Sektor (“Right Sector”) elements have decamped to Hong Kong, networking with the so-called “Pro-Democracy” forces and working on behalf of EU NGOs. The Ukrainian Nazi influence has taken hold in Hong Kong: ” . . . . The interest has been mutual, with Hong Kong’s ‘democrats’ drawing inspiration from Ukraine’s pro-Western Euromaidan ‘revolution’ that has empowered far-right, fascistic forces. Hong Kong protesters have embraced the slogan ‘Glory to Hong Kong’, adapted from ‘Slava Ukrayini’ or ‘Glory to Ukraine’, a slogan invented by Ukrainian fascists and used by Nazi collaborators during WWII that was re-popularized by the Euromaidan movement. . . . ” Azov appears to have influence in Brazil, as well, allegedly having recruited fighters from that country: ” . . . . The country’s simmering neo-Nazi movement, with its secret world of swastikas, hate propaganda and street violence, was being recruited by rightwing extremists in Ukraine to fight against pro-Russian rebels in the European country’s civil war. Ukraine’s Misanthropic Division, an extreme right group aligned with the Azov Battalion, an ultranationalist paramilitary group aligned with Kiev, was behind the recruitment drive, Mr Jardim, Brazil’s foremost neo-Nazi hunter, alleged. . . .”

FTR #1133: The Plot to Kill King

Posted by Dave Emory ⋅ June 8, 2020 ⋅ Post a comment

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.’ . . .”

Complications With The “Chinese-Lab-Did-It” Theory

Posted by Dave Emory ⋅ May 28, 2020 ⋅ One comment

A new article from “GMWatch” details work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology involving genetic manipulation of bat-borne coronaviruses similar to the SARS CoV‑2. These manipulations involved genetic engineering techniques that would not be detectable as such. Most importantly, these experiments–reported in papers published in 2017–were joint U.S.-Chinese undertakings, with institutional participation and financing by organizations connected to American intelligence and the Pentagon. Specifically, the experiments were financed, in part, by USAID–a frequent “cut-out” for CIA and other agencies’ “ops.” In addition, the National Institutes of Health were financially and operationally involved in the experiments–NIH has networked with both the CIA and Pentagon on BSL‑4 (Bio-Safety-Level 4) projects. Worth noting is that the 2017 paper disclosed that some of the work was done at a Bio-Safety-Level 2 lab, a relatively low-security institution. This offered a would-be malefactor field intelligence that would be useful for staging a “virus-escaped-from-Chinese-Lab” gambit. A “Nature” article notes that China was about to open its first BSL‑4 lab with help from Europe. The profliferation of BSL‑4 labs is worrisome to some observers: ” . . . . The expansion of BSL-4-lab networks in the United States and Europe over the past 15 years — with more than a dozen now in operation or under construction in each region — also met with resistance, including questions about the need for so many facilities. . . . Some scientists outside China worry about pathogens escaping, and the addition of a biological dimension to geopolitical tensions between China and other nations.” Furthermore : ” . . . . [Professor Richard] Ebright is not convinced of the need for more than one BSL‑4 lab in mainland China. He suspects that the expansion there is a reaction to the networks in the United States and Europe, which he says are also unwarranted. He adds that governments will assume that such excess capacity is for the potential development of bioweapons. ‘These facilities are inherently dual use,’ he says. . . .” In 2007, “Newsweek” featured a story illustrating the use of university BSL‑4 labs by CIA and the Pentagon, as a condition of an NIH contract with Boston University: ” . . . .The original NIH mandate for the lab indicated that many groups—including the CIA and Department of Defense—would be allowed to use the lab for their own research, the nature of which BU might have little control over. . . .” The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases has networked with the WIV since the mid-1980s. As we have noted in a number of programs and posts, the USAMRIID was closed down in August of 2019 for safety violations.

FTR #1130 Bio-Psy-Op Apocalypse Now, Part 6: The Magic Virus Theory, Part 3

Posted by Dave Emory ⋅ May 19, 2020 ⋅ 14 comments

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.