Who will tell Amy Goodman? - AC
CIA And The Washington Post: Joined At The Hip
By Melvin A. Goodman
www.pubrecord.org
27 April 2009
Under the stewardship of Fred Hiatt, the editorial and op-ed pages of the Washington Post have gradually moved to the right. Post editorials and op-eds have defended the decision to go to war in Iraq; opposed any improvement in bilateral relations with Russia; refused to acknowledge Israel’s misuse of military power in the Middle East; and lobbied against the need for investigation of the detention and interrogation programs of the Bush administration.
As part of the campaign to prevent a rigorous examination of “enhanced interrogation techniques” (read: “torture and abuse”), the Washington Post's editorial pages have been particularly protective of the Central Intelligence Agency and its senior leaders--the ideological drivers for torture and extraordinary renditions policies. These CIA leaders, particularly deputy director Steven Kappes and acting general counsel John Rizzo, are not trying to protect the reputation and mission of the CIA; they are trying to protect themselves.
Surely senior journalists from the mainstream media must understand that reliance on anonymous CIA clandestine sources is neither good reporting nor professional journalism. Many of these “anonymous sources” almost certainly are former and current CIA officials seeking to protect themselves. George Tenet, John McLaughlin, and John Brennan are individuals who fit that description.
In the past several days, the Post has carried editorials and op-eds by its own editorial writer David Ignatius; its longtime national security writer Walter Pincus; former CIA director Porter Goss; former CIA operative Michael Scheuer; and Marc Thiessen, a former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush. These articles have been similar in content and similar to the statements of other CIA directors past and present (Leon Panetta, Michael Hayden, Goss, Tenet, and John Deutch) who opposed the release of the memoranda of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that justified the use of torture and abuse.
The Scheuer article is particularly scurrilous, accusing President Obama of self-righteousness and intellectual arrogance” in deciding to release the torture memos. Scheuer believes that an end to torture will lead to future terrorist attacks that could involve the “loss of major cities and tens of thousands of countrymen,” and that the president will bear some responsibility. ...
The leader of the Washington Post editorial squad has been Ignatius, who has developed close relations with CIA clandestine operatives over a period that spans three decades. ... Over the years, retired and active members of the directorate of operations have taken their stories to Ignatius; they have been rewarded by Ignatius’ one-sided accounts of CIA derring-do and willingness to ignore operational and analytical failures....
Both Ignatius and Goss argue that, because of the release of the memos, CIA clandestine operatives will keep their heads down and avoid assignments that carry political risk, and that the decline in CIA “morale and effectiveness” will harm American national security. More nonsense! ...
FULL STORY
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Specter's JFK Specter
By Lisa Pease
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/042909a.html
April 29, 2009
While Specter is perhaps most famous for coming up with the "single bullet theory" which purports that one bullet entered and exited two people (President Kennedy and Governor Connally) seven times, only to emerge nearly intact, his legislative efforts of late also give cause for concern.
I had a personal experience with Specter, in a way. When the Internet was first opened to the public, I found, by pure chance, a newsgroup discussing the Kennedy assassination. I jumped in with no data whatsoever to voice my completely uninformed opinions, and was roundly criticized.
Properly chastised, I decided I should actually learn some facts before I could contribute in any meaningful way. I went to a local library and found a full set of the Warren Commission volumes.
The first volume was the now infamous "Warren Report," but there were 26 other volumes filled with witness testimony, photos, Dallas Police reports from eyewitnesses, FBI files, and many other items I'd never seen before.
Having no clue where to begin my research, I pulled a volume out at random and flipped it open. It was Volume VI, and I had flipped to Arlen Specter's questioning of Malcolm Perry, a doctor who had operated on Kennedy in Dallas in a fruitless attempt to save his life.
I started reading, and instantly had this queasy feeling. It was obvious to me that Specter was not trying to ascertain the truth; he was trying to craft it.
That experience, more than any other, convinced me that the Warren Commission's version of the Kennedy assassination was open to serious questioning, and started me on a multiyear quest to ascertain the real history of the event.
Dr. Perry had originally been quoted in the media as having identified Kennedy's throat wound as an entrance wound. Perry, under Specter's questioning, denied having ever taken a specific position on that matter.
Regardless of what Perry had said, it is clear, from reading the transcript, that Specter was not interested in pursuing this possibility, and clearly wanted to get a statement from Perry in support of the throat wound being an exit wound.
Specter’s Leading Question
During the questioning, Specter asked Perry a bizarre question. Specter started by referring to a purported wound in the back of the neck, a point to which we'll return shortly. Specter than asked Perry this:
"Assuming that was a point of entry of a missile, which parenthetically was the opinion of the three autopsy surgeons, and assuming still further that the missile which struck the President at that spot was a 6.5-mm. jacketed bullet shot from a rifle at a distance of 160 to 250 feet, having a muzzle velocity of approximately 2,000 feet per second, and that upon entering the President's body, the bullet traveled between two strap muscles, through a fascia channel, without violating the pleural cavity, striking the trachea, causing the damage which you tested about being on the interior of the President's throat, and which exited from the President's throat in the wound which you have described in the midline of his neck, would your findings and observations as to the nature of the wound on the threat be consistent with the set of facts I have just presented to you?"
Perry's answer was guaranteed by Specter’s complete framing of the situation: "It would be entirely compatible."
Perry noted that he did not have enough information to determine whether the wound was one of entry or exit, from the facts he had been able to personally ascertain, and that all answers he had given anyone were in answer to hypotheticals. Specter then asks:
"And in the hypothetical of the rather extended nature that I just gave you that your statement is consistent with what you found, is that also predicated upon the veracity of the factors, which I have asked you to assume?"
Perry answers, "That is correct, sir. I have no way to authenticate either by my own knowledge."
Perry had never turned the President over, so he never saw the actual placement of the wound in Kennedy's back, which would have put the lie to Specter's hypothesis.
Warren Commission member and eventual President Gerald Ford, as the AP reported (July 2. 1997), personally moved the wound, with a stroke of the pen, from "his back" to "the back of his neck." Ford claimed he made the edit to be more precise. But the evidence of Kennedy's coat makes this claim specious. Kennedy's jacket has a hole in it about five inches below the neck.
Gaeton Fonzi, then a reporter for Philadelphia Magazine and later an investigator for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, questioned Specter in 1966 about the difference between the Commission's assertion that the wound was in the "back of the neck" vs. the physical hole placement in the coat.
How, Fonzi asked Specter, could a shot have entered the back and exited the neck if the shot had come from the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository where Oswald was supposed to have been firing from?
The Bunched-Up Coat Theory
The only path from the hole in the shirt to the wound would have been an upward trajectory, not the necessary downward trajectory had the shot been fired from behind and above. Fonzi was surprised, and a little unnerved, to see a man he had until then respected and admired start to hem and haw.
"I still remember Specter hesitating, stuttering, making a few false starts in attempting to answer that question," Fonzi noted at a researchers' conference in 1998. "Finally, he got up from his desk and came around to stand behind me. Well, he said, it was because the President was waving his arm, and then, trying to illustrate why the jacket would ride up, Specter pulled my arm high over my head - far higher than the Zapruder film showed Kennedy waving his hand.
"'Wave your arm a few times,' Specter said, 'wave at the crowd.' And then jabbing a finger at the base of my neck - not six inches below my collar, where the holes in Kennedy's jacket and shirt were - Specter said, 'Well, see, if the bullet goes in here, the jacket gets hunched up. If you take this point right here and then you strip the coat down, it comes out at a lower point.'
"'A lower point?' I repeated, wondering if Specter were trying to confuse me or was confused himself.
"If the entrance holes were at a lower point than the exit hole, how could Oswald have shot Kennedy from the sixth floor window of the Book Depository?
"In the end, Specter admitted they had what he described as - quote – 'some problems with that.'"
Fonzi also asked Specter about how a bullet could go through seven wounds and two people and emerge nearly intact. As Fonzi noted in his 1966 article, the conversation went like this:
"'The way the bullet went through the Governor’s wrist,' explains Specter, 'it really tumbled through his wrist.'
"Were any tests made to determine the results of a bullet tumbling through a cadaver wrist?
“'You can’t fire a bullet to make it tumble,' says Specter.
"Wouldn’t a tumbling bullet be more likely to be deformed than one hitting at a higher velocity on its streamlined nose?
“'I think it was unusual for the bullet to come out in such perfect shape,' Specter says, 'but very plausible.'
"Did any of the test bullets come out in such shape?
“'No.'”
Fonzi later came to regret his shyness in directly labeling the Warren Commission's conclusion as what he knew it to be: a deliberate lie. Not so, Specter.
Judging Specter
If Specter ever had any doubts, he's never aired them, leading me to conclude one of two possibilities: 1) Specter truly believes that Oswald, alone, was guilty, or 2) Specter is still aiding and abetting a cover-up of the facts surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy.
To judge which answer is closer to the truth, I suggest one look at Specter's more recent behavior regarding the NSA's taps on Americans.
When the illegal taps were revealed, Specter immediately called for hearings. While some praised him for his stand, knowing his history, I was instantly skeptical. He was putting himself out front so he could control the debate, I assumed.
My assumption seemed justified when Specter proposed a bill which was widely regarded as providing legislative cover to the Bush administration, despite Specter's public pronouncements to the contrary.
Specter's bill removed FISA as the sole authority for wiretaps and left the door open for the executive branch to make their own decisions independently. In addition, his bill would have amended existing law to prohibit the prosecution of any companies who were illegally wiretapping if they had presidential authorization.
Other provisions further weakened existing FISA safeguards protecting Americans from being the subject of warrantless wiretaps.
So why would the Democrats want Specter in their corner? The magic number. Sixty votes. A filibuster-proof majority, the holy grail of any administration.
I can understand why President Obama himself has said he'll raise money for Specter. But given Specter's history, I can't help but feel the Democrats are welcoming the fox into the hen house.
Lisa Pease is a historian and writer who specializes in the mysteries of the John F. Kennedy era.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/042909a.html
April 29, 2009
While Specter is perhaps most famous for coming up with the "single bullet theory" which purports that one bullet entered and exited two people (President Kennedy and Governor Connally) seven times, only to emerge nearly intact, his legislative efforts of late also give cause for concern.
I had a personal experience with Specter, in a way. When the Internet was first opened to the public, I found, by pure chance, a newsgroup discussing the Kennedy assassination. I jumped in with no data whatsoever to voice my completely uninformed opinions, and was roundly criticized.
Properly chastised, I decided I should actually learn some facts before I could contribute in any meaningful way. I went to a local library and found a full set of the Warren Commission volumes.
The first volume was the now infamous "Warren Report," but there were 26 other volumes filled with witness testimony, photos, Dallas Police reports from eyewitnesses, FBI files, and many other items I'd never seen before.
Having no clue where to begin my research, I pulled a volume out at random and flipped it open. It was Volume VI, and I had flipped to Arlen Specter's questioning of Malcolm Perry, a doctor who had operated on Kennedy in Dallas in a fruitless attempt to save his life.
I started reading, and instantly had this queasy feeling. It was obvious to me that Specter was not trying to ascertain the truth; he was trying to craft it.
That experience, more than any other, convinced me that the Warren Commission's version of the Kennedy assassination was open to serious questioning, and started me on a multiyear quest to ascertain the real history of the event.
Dr. Perry had originally been quoted in the media as having identified Kennedy's throat wound as an entrance wound. Perry, under Specter's questioning, denied having ever taken a specific position on that matter.
Regardless of what Perry had said, it is clear, from reading the transcript, that Specter was not interested in pursuing this possibility, and clearly wanted to get a statement from Perry in support of the throat wound being an exit wound.
Specter’s Leading Question
During the questioning, Specter asked Perry a bizarre question. Specter started by referring to a purported wound in the back of the neck, a point to which we'll return shortly. Specter than asked Perry this:
"Assuming that was a point of entry of a missile, which parenthetically was the opinion of the three autopsy surgeons, and assuming still further that the missile which struck the President at that spot was a 6.5-mm. jacketed bullet shot from a rifle at a distance of 160 to 250 feet, having a muzzle velocity of approximately 2,000 feet per second, and that upon entering the President's body, the bullet traveled between two strap muscles, through a fascia channel, without violating the pleural cavity, striking the trachea, causing the damage which you tested about being on the interior of the President's throat, and which exited from the President's throat in the wound which you have described in the midline of his neck, would your findings and observations as to the nature of the wound on the threat be consistent with the set of facts I have just presented to you?"
Perry's answer was guaranteed by Specter’s complete framing of the situation: "It would be entirely compatible."
Perry noted that he did not have enough information to determine whether the wound was one of entry or exit, from the facts he had been able to personally ascertain, and that all answers he had given anyone were in answer to hypotheticals. Specter then asks:
"And in the hypothetical of the rather extended nature that I just gave you that your statement is consistent with what you found, is that also predicated upon the veracity of the factors, which I have asked you to assume?"
Perry answers, "That is correct, sir. I have no way to authenticate either by my own knowledge."
Perry had never turned the President over, so he never saw the actual placement of the wound in Kennedy's back, which would have put the lie to Specter's hypothesis.
Warren Commission member and eventual President Gerald Ford, as the AP reported (July 2. 1997), personally moved the wound, with a stroke of the pen, from "his back" to "the back of his neck." Ford claimed he made the edit to be more precise. But the evidence of Kennedy's coat makes this claim specious. Kennedy's jacket has a hole in it about five inches below the neck.
Gaeton Fonzi, then a reporter for Philadelphia Magazine and later an investigator for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, questioned Specter in 1966 about the difference between the Commission's assertion that the wound was in the "back of the neck" vs. the physical hole placement in the coat.
How, Fonzi asked Specter, could a shot have entered the back and exited the neck if the shot had come from the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository where Oswald was supposed to have been firing from?
The Bunched-Up Coat Theory
The only path from the hole in the shirt to the wound would have been an upward trajectory, not the necessary downward trajectory had the shot been fired from behind and above. Fonzi was surprised, and a little unnerved, to see a man he had until then respected and admired start to hem and haw.
"I still remember Specter hesitating, stuttering, making a few false starts in attempting to answer that question," Fonzi noted at a researchers' conference in 1998. "Finally, he got up from his desk and came around to stand behind me. Well, he said, it was because the President was waving his arm, and then, trying to illustrate why the jacket would ride up, Specter pulled my arm high over my head - far higher than the Zapruder film showed Kennedy waving his hand.
"'Wave your arm a few times,' Specter said, 'wave at the crowd.' And then jabbing a finger at the base of my neck - not six inches below my collar, where the holes in Kennedy's jacket and shirt were - Specter said, 'Well, see, if the bullet goes in here, the jacket gets hunched up. If you take this point right here and then you strip the coat down, it comes out at a lower point.'
"'A lower point?' I repeated, wondering if Specter were trying to confuse me or was confused himself.
"If the entrance holes were at a lower point than the exit hole, how could Oswald have shot Kennedy from the sixth floor window of the Book Depository?
"In the end, Specter admitted they had what he described as - quote – 'some problems with that.'"
Fonzi also asked Specter about how a bullet could go through seven wounds and two people and emerge nearly intact. As Fonzi noted in his 1966 article, the conversation went like this:
"'The way the bullet went through the Governor’s wrist,' explains Specter, 'it really tumbled through his wrist.'
"Were any tests made to determine the results of a bullet tumbling through a cadaver wrist?
“'You can’t fire a bullet to make it tumble,' says Specter.
"Wouldn’t a tumbling bullet be more likely to be deformed than one hitting at a higher velocity on its streamlined nose?
“'I think it was unusual for the bullet to come out in such perfect shape,' Specter says, 'but very plausible.'
"Did any of the test bullets come out in such shape?
“'No.'”
Fonzi later came to regret his shyness in directly labeling the Warren Commission's conclusion as what he knew it to be: a deliberate lie. Not so, Specter.
Judging Specter
If Specter ever had any doubts, he's never aired them, leading me to conclude one of two possibilities: 1) Specter truly believes that Oswald, alone, was guilty, or 2) Specter is still aiding and abetting a cover-up of the facts surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy.
To judge which answer is closer to the truth, I suggest one look at Specter's more recent behavior regarding the NSA's taps on Americans.
When the illegal taps were revealed, Specter immediately called for hearings. While some praised him for his stand, knowing his history, I was instantly skeptical. He was putting himself out front so he could control the debate, I assumed.
My assumption seemed justified when Specter proposed a bill which was widely regarded as providing legislative cover to the Bush administration, despite Specter's public pronouncements to the contrary.
Specter's bill removed FISA as the sole authority for wiretaps and left the door open for the executive branch to make their own decisions independently. In addition, his bill would have amended existing law to prohibit the prosecution of any companies who were illegally wiretapping if they had presidential authorization.
Other provisions further weakened existing FISA safeguards protecting Americans from being the subject of warrantless wiretaps.
So why would the Democrats want Specter in their corner? The magic number. Sixty votes. A filibuster-proof majority, the holy grail of any administration.
I can understand why President Obama himself has said he'll raise money for Specter. But given Specter's history, I can't help but feel the Democrats are welcoming the fox into the hen house.
Lisa Pease is a historian and writer who specializes in the mysteries of the John F. Kennedy era.
'NO OPENING OF PIUS XII FILES'
Jesuits deny reports on pope expert collection
(ANSA) - Vatican, April 24 - The Jesuit order on Friday officially denied media reports that it had approved the opening of files on controversial wartime pope Pius XII.
The order said the authorisation to open a Pius XII expert's collection ''was never given''.
Up to his death in 1997, Jesuit Father Robert Graham was considered one of the world's top experts on the pope whose silence on the Holocaust is a contentious issue as he heads towards sainthood. The order said there had only been discussion of approving the classification and digitalisation of Father Graham's archives in view of possible publication.
It said this could only happen when the Vatican opens its archives on Pius, expected to happen in 2013.
Top Jewish bodies say the Pius question may only be satisfactorily resolved when the full Vatican archives are available.
Pius has been accused of not speaking out openly against the Holocaust, a charge the Vatican denies while stressing his efforts to save Jews.
Thursday reports on the Father Graham move, from various Catholic sources, was hailed by the inter-faith Pave the Way Foundation which will classify the files.
''I'm very, very enthusiastic (about the project),'' foundation president Gary Krupp, a Jew, told the Catholic News Service.
One of the researchers who will start digitally scanning the documents this summer said the collection included ''very promising'' material.
The Vatican has been building evidence of how Pius helped Jews in Italy but many Jewish organisations will not accept the argument that he kept silent on the Shoah for fear of unleashing even greater savagery from the Nazis.
Last month Father Peter Gumpel, the so-called 'postulator' of Pius's cause for beatification, presented a newly discovered document urging Rome nuns to shelter whoever was being ''persecuted''.
Gumpel said the document - together with a similar one sent to then bishop of Assisi, Monsignor Giuseppe Nicolini - proved that Pius did all he could to help Jews during the Nazi occupation of Italy.
The accusations by critics that he did nothing to prevent the infamous round-up of 1,022 Jews in the Rome Ghetto on October 16,1943 was ''an absolute falsehood,'' Gumpel said.
BEATIFICATION PROCESS.
Referring to the beatification process - the final step towards sainthood - Gumpel said the paperwork was completed and was awaiting Pope Benedict XVI's signature.
Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said recently that moves to make Pius a saint were the Vatican's business.
''The representation of Pius XII as indifferent towards the victims of the Nazis...or even as 'Hitler's Pope' (the title of a recent book) is outrageous and historically unsustainable,'' Bertone told a conference marking the recent 50th anniversary of Pius's death.
Bertone said the polemics - revived last October when a Jewish minister called plans to put Pius one step from sainthood ''unacceptable'' - were ''biased and ever less comprehensible''.
Pius was the victim of ''a defamatory legend,'' Bertone said, reiterating a view expressed by Pius's supporters.
Jewish groups say the only way to settle the issue of Pius's wartime role is to open the Vatican's archives on the war years.
But officials have said it would take ''at least six to seven years'' to collate the thousands of files.
The International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations met with Pope Benedict XVI in November to ask him to put off Pius's beatification until after the archives are available for study.
Benedict replied that he was ''seriously considering'' it, the Jewish group said.
Vatican sources later stressed the pope was answering a private question and not taking an official stance.
Benedict praised Pius at a Mass on the 50th anniversary of his death on October 9.
He reiterated that Pius saved the ''largest possible number of Jews'' by acting in silence to ''avert the worst''.
He told the mass that Pius's action had been recognised after the war by Jewish leaders including Golda Meir.
Benedict said he was ''praying'' that the beatification process would continue but gave no indication of when he would sign a key decree.
Pius XII, who was pope from 1939 to 1958, took a crucial step towards sainthood last year when a panel of top Catholic prelates voted in favour of recognising Pius's ''heroic virtues''.
This is the key requirement for beatification, but the relevant decree has yet to be signed by Benedict.
The lag has been taken by some observers as indicating the pope believes more reflection on the case is needed.
The Pius question, and a Holocaust museum in Jerusalem where he is accused of remaining silent, was widely considered to have been a hurdle to Benedict's trip to the Holy Land next month, despite denials on both sides.
After vain Catholic calls for the anti-Pius exhibit to be removed, it was eventually decided that Benedict will visit the Yad Vashem Memorial, but not the museum itself.
http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2009-04-24_124333546.html
(ANSA) - Vatican, April 24 - The Jesuit order on Friday officially denied media reports that it had approved the opening of files on controversial wartime pope Pius XII.
The order said the authorisation to open a Pius XII expert's collection ''was never given''.
Up to his death in 1997, Jesuit Father Robert Graham was considered one of the world's top experts on the pope whose silence on the Holocaust is a contentious issue as he heads towards sainthood. The order said there had only been discussion of approving the classification and digitalisation of Father Graham's archives in view of possible publication.
It said this could only happen when the Vatican opens its archives on Pius, expected to happen in 2013.
Top Jewish bodies say the Pius question may only be satisfactorily resolved when the full Vatican archives are available.
Pius has been accused of not speaking out openly against the Holocaust, a charge the Vatican denies while stressing his efforts to save Jews.
Thursday reports on the Father Graham move, from various Catholic sources, was hailed by the inter-faith Pave the Way Foundation which will classify the files.
''I'm very, very enthusiastic (about the project),'' foundation president Gary Krupp, a Jew, told the Catholic News Service.
One of the researchers who will start digitally scanning the documents this summer said the collection included ''very promising'' material.
The Vatican has been building evidence of how Pius helped Jews in Italy but many Jewish organisations will not accept the argument that he kept silent on the Shoah for fear of unleashing even greater savagery from the Nazis.
Last month Father Peter Gumpel, the so-called 'postulator' of Pius's cause for beatification, presented a newly discovered document urging Rome nuns to shelter whoever was being ''persecuted''.
Gumpel said the document - together with a similar one sent to then bishop of Assisi, Monsignor Giuseppe Nicolini - proved that Pius did all he could to help Jews during the Nazi occupation of Italy.
The accusations by critics that he did nothing to prevent the infamous round-up of 1,022 Jews in the Rome Ghetto on October 16,1943 was ''an absolute falsehood,'' Gumpel said.
BEATIFICATION PROCESS.
Referring to the beatification process - the final step towards sainthood - Gumpel said the paperwork was completed and was awaiting Pope Benedict XVI's signature.
Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said recently that moves to make Pius a saint were the Vatican's business.
''The representation of Pius XII as indifferent towards the victims of the Nazis...or even as 'Hitler's Pope' (the title of a recent book) is outrageous and historically unsustainable,'' Bertone told a conference marking the recent 50th anniversary of Pius's death.
Bertone said the polemics - revived last October when a Jewish minister called plans to put Pius one step from sainthood ''unacceptable'' - were ''biased and ever less comprehensible''.
Pius was the victim of ''a defamatory legend,'' Bertone said, reiterating a view expressed by Pius's supporters.
Jewish groups say the only way to settle the issue of Pius's wartime role is to open the Vatican's archives on the war years.
But officials have said it would take ''at least six to seven years'' to collate the thousands of files.
The International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations met with Pope Benedict XVI in November to ask him to put off Pius's beatification until after the archives are available for study.
Benedict replied that he was ''seriously considering'' it, the Jewish group said.
Vatican sources later stressed the pope was answering a private question and not taking an official stance.
Benedict praised Pius at a Mass on the 50th anniversary of his death on October 9.
He reiterated that Pius saved the ''largest possible number of Jews'' by acting in silence to ''avert the worst''.
He told the mass that Pius's action had been recognised after the war by Jewish leaders including Golda Meir.
Benedict said he was ''praying'' that the beatification process would continue but gave no indication of when he would sign a key decree.
Pius XII, who was pope from 1939 to 1958, took a crucial step towards sainthood last year when a panel of top Catholic prelates voted in favour of recognising Pius's ''heroic virtues''.
This is the key requirement for beatification, but the relevant decree has yet to be signed by Benedict.
The lag has been taken by some observers as indicating the pope believes more reflection on the case is needed.
The Pius question, and a Holocaust museum in Jerusalem where he is accused of remaining silent, was widely considered to have been a hurdle to Benedict's trip to the Holy Land next month, despite denials on both sides.
After vain Catholic calls for the anti-Pius exhibit to be removed, it was eventually decided that Benedict will visit the Yad Vashem Memorial, but not the museum itself.
http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2009-04-24_124333546.html
When Goering was a Pin-Up: The German Women's Magazines that Mixed Fashion with Fascism
By DAVID WILKES
www.dailymail.co.uk
14th April 2009
Hermann Goering poses with his daughter Edda for the cover of Frauen Warte in February 1940 just months before as commander of the Luftwaffe he launched the Battle of Britain
With knitting patterns, recipes and fashion, it seems to offer a diverting read for housewives and mothers. But a clue to the sinister aims of this women's magazine lies in the choice of cover model - Hermann Goering, a Hitler henchman and few people's idea of a pin-up. The Nazi publishers had more on their minds than merely entertaining German women while their menfolk were fighting the Allies.
Each issue of Frauen Warte (translated as Women Wait) contained articles full of propaganda designed to brainwash readers into accepting Hitler's tyranny.
The cover photograph from February 1940 shows Luftwaffe chief Goering cuddling baby daughter Edda in a warped version of the kind of 'tough but sensitive man' images often seen today.
A two-page article claims England is responsible for the Second World War, before more familiar stories on home economics and fashion news
Inside is an article entitled The Expert Housewife of Today, discussing schooling for women in home economics. But there are also two pages devoted to claiming England was responsible for the Second World War because it wanted to take over the world. It is among 65 issues of the magazine belonging to a private collector, which are to be auctioned.
Frauen Warte, the Nazi Party's biweekly magazine for women, ran from 1935 to 1945. In 1939, it had a circulation of 1.9million. Richard Westwood-Brookes, of Mullock's Auctioneers, said: 'As you turn through the pages you get an incredibly creepy feeling.
'It shows the Nazi propaganda machine was so well-oiled it infiltrated every area of human society.
Hitler salutes the troops on one cover of the women's magazine. The collection is going under the hammer at Mullock's Auctioneers and is expected to fetch around £700
'You've got magazines very much in the mould of today's glossy women's mags, filled with things you would expect, but then with propaganda inside.'
The magazines are expected to fetch at least £700 in total at the Mullock's auction at Ludlow Racecourse in Shropshire on April 23.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169882/When-Goering-pin-The-German-womens-magazines-mixed-fashion-Fascism.html
Can't happen here. - AC
www.dailymail.co.uk
14th April 2009
Hermann Goering poses with his daughter Edda for the cover of Frauen Warte in February 1940 just months before as commander of the Luftwaffe he launched the Battle of BritainWith knitting patterns, recipes and fashion, it seems to offer a diverting read for housewives and mothers. But a clue to the sinister aims of this women's magazine lies in the choice of cover model - Hermann Goering, a Hitler henchman and few people's idea of a pin-up. The Nazi publishers had more on their minds than merely entertaining German women while their menfolk were fighting the Allies.
Each issue of Frauen Warte (translated as Women Wait) contained articles full of propaganda designed to brainwash readers into accepting Hitler's tyranny.
The cover photograph from February 1940 shows Luftwaffe chief Goering cuddling baby daughter Edda in a warped version of the kind of 'tough but sensitive man' images often seen today.
A two-page article claims England is responsible for the Second World War, before more familiar stories on home economics and fashion newsInside is an article entitled The Expert Housewife of Today, discussing schooling for women in home economics. But there are also two pages devoted to claiming England was responsible for the Second World War because it wanted to take over the world. It is among 65 issues of the magazine belonging to a private collector, which are to be auctioned.
Frauen Warte, the Nazi Party's biweekly magazine for women, ran from 1935 to 1945. In 1939, it had a circulation of 1.9million. Richard Westwood-Brookes, of Mullock's Auctioneers, said: 'As you turn through the pages you get an incredibly creepy feeling.
'It shows the Nazi propaganda machine was so well-oiled it infiltrated every area of human society.
Hitler salutes the troops on one cover of the women's magazine. The collection is going under the hammer at Mullock's Auctioneers and is expected to fetch around £700'You've got magazines very much in the mould of today's glossy women's mags, filled with things you would expect, but then with propaganda inside.'
The magazines are expected to fetch at least £700 in total at the Mullock's auction at Ludlow Racecourse in Shropshire on April 23.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169882/When-Goering-pin-The-German-womens-magazines-mixed-fashion-Fascism.html
Can't happen here. - AC
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
"No Infected Pigs in Mexico"
No sick pigs ... but Baxter International has a lab in Veracruz, where the contagion began ... - AC
" ... the Mexican government has dismissed the Perote outbreak as the source of the illness, arguing that all but one of the 20 or so victims tested positive for another type of human flu virus known as H3N2. A 4-year-old boy later tested positive for the H1N1 swine flu.
"Mexican agriculture officials say they inspected pig farms around the town over the weekend and found no pigs infected with respiratory ailments. No infected pigs have been found anywhere in Mexico, the government said in a statement on Tuesday."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_flu_mexico_origin
" ... the Mexican government has dismissed the Perote outbreak as the source of the illness, arguing that all but one of the 20 or so victims tested positive for another type of human flu virus known as H3N2. A 4-year-old boy later tested positive for the H1N1 swine flu.
"Mexican agriculture officials say they inspected pig farms around the town over the weekend and found no pigs infected with respiratory ailments. No infected pigs have been found anywhere in Mexico, the government said in a statement on Tuesday."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_flu_mexico_origin
Appleton Post-Crescent's Ed Lowe Pens another Shallow, Cookie-Cutter Story on the Birch Society
Commentary from a Nazi at the Birch Society: "Words have specific meanings. When you claim that 'Birchers are fascists' you presumably mean that JBS members subscribe to fascist ideas and proposals ... "
No, it means that you are a smarmy little liar with severe cognitive problems who can't make sense of the English language - just as no one else can make sense of your own bullshit Nazi beliefs - yet you feel that pariah like yourself should lecture your betters. Late at night, when you parade around your bedroom in a Nazi uniform, you feel like a big man. Screwballs like yourself are ridiculed by the average person, so you aren't even that. You're a mouse with rabies. Does that answer your question, little rodent?
- AC
By Alex Constantine
Birch Society's founding Nazi proagandist, Bob Welch
Every once in awhile, I pick up a "mainstream" newspaper and find one of those diluted, generic stories on the John Birch Society - they are strictly formula, always the same. You get a smattering of rehashed history - "John Birch was a missionary ... " - polite, knowing snickers over brain-dead, right-wing conspiracy theories, references to the Society's "conservative" membership, a disingenuous interview with the group's officials (keeping it balanced) - and no mention of the Society's ties to surviving Nazis of WW II, who funded the organization early on and were feverishly communicating with Birchers at the time Kennedy was gunned down on a public street, in broad daylight, by Birchers (who shift the blame to LBJ and the Mafia in their disgusting propaganda), with intelligence and (height of hypocrisy) multinational ties.
The press doesn't care about all that. Keep it status quo, redundant, and asphyxiatingly, willfully ignorant.
"During the Cold War, the John Birch Society branded President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, as a 'dedicated, conscious agent of the communist conspiracy,' writes Ed Lowe of Appleton, Wisconsin's Post-Crescent. Who doesn't already know that? When it comes to Birchers, the press can only repeat itself ad nauseum because it's easier and safer to regurgitate echo-chamber bilge: "'Communist agents infiltrated or manipulated every level of the American government,' John Birch Society founder Robert Welch claimed."
This is hackery, transcription, self-censorship. This is laziness and superficiality. This is one more cookie-cutter story on the Birch Society.
They are all alike. I read this same tepid story ten years ago in a Dallas motel room waiting to do a BBC interview about the murder of Kennedy by CIA-directed Birchers. I read it a few years before over breakfast in Dayton, Ohio. I've read it in the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post. It's always the same, never digs too deeply, never tells the truth.
Birchers are fascists and that's why they are devoted anti-communists. But most Nazis adopt a respectable, if more-or-less pellucid facade. They wave the flag, make constant references to Christianity, liberty, freedom, "America First."
Lowe: "Art Thompson, the organization's 70-year-old chief executive officer, believes the John Birch Society saved America. ... "
Fascism is corporatism and inherently conspiratorial. Birchers are the private propaganda army of the ruling class. Lowe doesn't mention this, somehow.
Is America "saved?" Or has fascism brought America to its knees via political assassination, economic destabilization, Consitutional outrages, meaningless wars, corporate looting, concentration camps, "special" operations, media lies, the usual fascist agenda? A competent reporter would challenge Thompson, discuss the Nazi links ...
You get none of this from reporter (by some measure, his paycheck) Ed Lowe, but the usual euphemistic, giggly approach to the topic: "Thompson, a widower turned newlywed in March" (who cares? - he's a fascist!), "possesses a deep voice, a hearty laugh and a genuine fear that democracy poses a fundamental threat to the American Way."
Many in Wisconsin agree with Thompson. I've been harassed by these fascist idiots while doing a radio talk show in Madison. I was given time to make an opening statement that "the American government is deeply corrupt ... " when I was told, "we have a call." The caller was a Bircher who let loose with a stream of ad hominems, beginning with "crazy." I wasn't given a chance to speak a complete sentence, how would he know?
"I just said the government's corrupt - most people would probably agree - and this makes me 'crazy?'" I responded. Then, one after another, the ugly smears came in, an orchestrated call-in campaign, obviously, and I was not allowed to say much of anything for most of the hour. I wasn't even given a chance to run down the Society's Nazi connections. Birchers feared what I might say.
They don't fear Ed Lowe, who e-mailed me before writing the article. I explained the fascist history, the Nazi funding, etc. Lowe offered to feature me in the story and allow me to run down the contemptible facts. Instead, he dropped me without a word of explanation - and instead interviewed Chip Berlet, a weasel who mischaracterizes information on fascism ("conspiracy theories") ... which, I point out constantly, is inherently conspiratorial. Berlet is in all those formulaic media stories I spoke about. Berlet is probably CIA funded and doesn't "cross the line." I was out, not that Lowe bothered to explain it to me. When I found the story on the Net, I had to swallow my disappointment. Once again, censorship rules and the cookie-cutter presses out another toxic story.
Ed Lowe lied to me. The article he published is a waste of petroleum. Lowe has betrayed not only myself, but his readers, and that is shameful - but I learned long ago that these "mainstram" wankers only hold onto their jobs by doing a second-rate job of it, so I'm not too surprised by the oversight or bad reporting. It's par for the course, and that's why this blog does fine while the "mainstream" papers weep that their circulation is waning.
No, it means that you are a smarmy little liar with severe cognitive problems who can't make sense of the English language - just as no one else can make sense of your own bullshit Nazi beliefs - yet you feel that pariah like yourself should lecture your betters. Late at night, when you parade around your bedroom in a Nazi uniform, you feel like a big man. Screwballs like yourself are ridiculed by the average person, so you aren't even that. You're a mouse with rabies. Does that answer your question, little rodent?
- AC
By Alex Constantine
Birch Society's founding Nazi proagandist, Bob WelchEvery once in awhile, I pick up a "mainstream" newspaper and find one of those diluted, generic stories on the John Birch Society - they are strictly formula, always the same. You get a smattering of rehashed history - "John Birch was a missionary ... " - polite, knowing snickers over brain-dead, right-wing conspiracy theories, references to the Society's "conservative" membership, a disingenuous interview with the group's officials (keeping it balanced) - and no mention of the Society's ties to surviving Nazis of WW II, who funded the organization early on and were feverishly communicating with Birchers at the time Kennedy was gunned down on a public street, in broad daylight, by Birchers (who shift the blame to LBJ and the Mafia in their disgusting propaganda), with intelligence and (height of hypocrisy) multinational ties.
The press doesn't care about all that. Keep it status quo, redundant, and asphyxiatingly, willfully ignorant.
"During the Cold War, the John Birch Society branded President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, as a 'dedicated, conscious agent of the communist conspiracy,' writes Ed Lowe of Appleton, Wisconsin's Post-Crescent. Who doesn't already know that? When it comes to Birchers, the press can only repeat itself ad nauseum because it's easier and safer to regurgitate echo-chamber bilge: "'Communist agents infiltrated or manipulated every level of the American government,' John Birch Society founder Robert Welch claimed."
This is hackery, transcription, self-censorship. This is laziness and superficiality. This is one more cookie-cutter story on the Birch Society.
They are all alike. I read this same tepid story ten years ago in a Dallas motel room waiting to do a BBC interview about the murder of Kennedy by CIA-directed Birchers. I read it a few years before over breakfast in Dayton, Ohio. I've read it in the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post. It's always the same, never digs too deeply, never tells the truth.
Birchers are fascists and that's why they are devoted anti-communists. But most Nazis adopt a respectable, if more-or-less pellucid facade. They wave the flag, make constant references to Christianity, liberty, freedom, "America First."
Lowe: "Art Thompson, the organization's 70-year-old chief executive officer, believes the John Birch Society saved America. ... "
Fascism is corporatism and inherently conspiratorial. Birchers are the private propaganda army of the ruling class. Lowe doesn't mention this, somehow.
Is America "saved?" Or has fascism brought America to its knees via political assassination, economic destabilization, Consitutional outrages, meaningless wars, corporate looting, concentration camps, "special" operations, media lies, the usual fascist agenda? A competent reporter would challenge Thompson, discuss the Nazi links ...
You get none of this from reporter (by some measure, his paycheck) Ed Lowe, but the usual euphemistic, giggly approach to the topic: "Thompson, a widower turned newlywed in March" (who cares? - he's a fascist!), "possesses a deep voice, a hearty laugh and a genuine fear that democracy poses a fundamental threat to the American Way."
Many in Wisconsin agree with Thompson. I've been harassed by these fascist idiots while doing a radio talk show in Madison. I was given time to make an opening statement that "the American government is deeply corrupt ... " when I was told, "we have a call." The caller was a Bircher who let loose with a stream of ad hominems, beginning with "crazy." I wasn't given a chance to speak a complete sentence, how would he know?
"I just said the government's corrupt - most people would probably agree - and this makes me 'crazy?'" I responded. Then, one after another, the ugly smears came in, an orchestrated call-in campaign, obviously, and I was not allowed to say much of anything for most of the hour. I wasn't even given a chance to run down the Society's Nazi connections. Birchers feared what I might say.
They don't fear Ed Lowe, who e-mailed me before writing the article. I explained the fascist history, the Nazi funding, etc. Lowe offered to feature me in the story and allow me to run down the contemptible facts. Instead, he dropped me without a word of explanation - and instead interviewed Chip Berlet, a weasel who mischaracterizes information on fascism ("conspiracy theories") ... which, I point out constantly, is inherently conspiratorial. Berlet is in all those formulaic media stories I spoke about. Berlet is probably CIA funded and doesn't "cross the line." I was out, not that Lowe bothered to explain it to me. When I found the story on the Net, I had to swallow my disappointment. Once again, censorship rules and the cookie-cutter presses out another toxic story.
Ed Lowe lied to me. The article he published is a waste of petroleum. Lowe has betrayed not only myself, but his readers, and that is shameful - but I learned long ago that these "mainstram" wankers only hold onto their jobs by doing a second-rate job of it, so I'm not too surprised by the oversight or bad reporting. It's par for the course, and that's why this blog does fine while the "mainstream" papers weep that their circulation is waning.
Swine/Avian/Human H3N2 Influenza Timeline
Posted by TahoeBlue
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=101338.1200
1997 The CDC agency already has made hybrid viruses with H5N1 samples isolated from patients in Hong Kong in 1997, when the virus first caused human disease. The results of that research have not yet been published,
Feb. 28 1997 - Schering-Plough Mexico Dedicates Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Facility
Before 1998, mainly “classical” H1N1 SI viruses (SIV) were isolated from swine in the United States
August 1998 - A North Carolina herd exhibiting clinical signs of influenza was identified with H3N2 SIV" In 1998, H3N2 viruses emerged and rapidly spread throughout the US swine population (2–4).
These were unique triple reassortant genotype viruses, with hemagglutinin (HA), neuraminidase (NA), and RNA polymerase (PB1) genes of human influenza virus lineage; nucleoprotein (NP), matrix (M), and nonstructural (NS) genes of classical swine virus lineage; and RNA polymerase (PA and PB2) genes of North American avian virus lineage.
Further reassortment between these viruses and classical H1N1 swine viruses led to the emergence of reassortant H1N2 and H1N1 viruses among pigs in the United States
August 1998 - Since that time, isolates from pigs in Texas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois have been typed as H3N2 SIV.
December 1998 - swine influenza virus (SIV) with H3N2 was first identified in Iowa swine
December 1998 - January 1999, a H3N2 subtype of swine influenza virus (SIV) was isolated from clinically affected swine in Iowa (IA), Minnesota, North Carolina (NC), and Texas (TX). A genetic analysis demonstrated that Midwest isolates (IA, MN, TX) and NC isolate were distinct (5).
It suggested the risk for the emergence of new subtype(s) due to reassortment between H1N1 and H3N2.
2001 - 2004 - Mr. Sabatino was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Baxter International, Inc. from 2001 to 2004
2004 - Mr. Sabatino joined Schering-Plough in 2004 as Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Mr. Sabatino was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Baxter International, Inc. from 2001 to 2004
2004 - H5N1 outbreak
Jan 14, 2004 - (CDC) will soon launch experiments designed to combine the H5N1 virus and human flu viruses and then see how the resulting hybrids affect animals. For the human virus, investigators will use A (H3N2), the strain that has caused most human flu cases in recent years, according to the CP report
October 2004 - 1,000-head swine farm in Minnesota experienced a severe respiratory disease outbreak in 14-week-old pigs. This suggests that A/Swine/Minnesota/00395/2004 H3N1 influenza virus is a reassortant containing genes from triple-reassortant H3N2 and contemporary H1N1 SIVs.
The recovery of an H3N1 subtype is further evidence of reassortment and antigenic shift in SIVs, justifying ongoing surveillance of animal populations for influenza A viruses that could represent a direct health threat, not only to swine populations, but also to humans
Jan 2005 - H3N2 influenza viruses swept rapidly across Canada. We describe the genetic characterization of reassortant H3N2 viruses from pigs, turkeys, and a swine farm worker in contact with sick pigs during this outbreak.
To our knowledge, this report describes the first isolation of a human/classical swine/avian triple reassortant H3N2 virus from a human.
Jan 01, 2005 First report in Mexico of the prevalence of antibodies to swine influenza virus in humans
Jan 09, 2005 - GSK's Global Launch with Rotarix(TM) starts in Mexico (for rotavirus
July 26, 2005 - Isolation and Genetic Characterization of New Reassortant H3N1 Swine Influenza Virus from Pigs in the Midwestern United States
The recovery of an H3N1 subtype is further evidence of reassortment and antigenic shift in SIVs, justifying ongoing surveillance of animal populations for influenza A viruses that could represent a direct health threat, not only to swine populations, but also to humans
Sep 02, 2005 - GSK purchases Wyeth's vaccine facility - The 90-acre manufacturing site, located in Marietta, Pennsylvania, which Wyeth closed in December, will be used to help develop future vaccines for GlaxoSmithKline
Nov 09, 2005 - DRL to acquire Roche's Mexico business - Reddy's Laboratories has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Roche's active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) business at the latter's state-of-the-art manufacturing site in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Aug 2006 - Swine influenza viruses (SIV) naturally infect pigs and can be transmitted to humans. In the pig, genetic reassortment to create novel influenza subtypes by mixing avian, human, and swine influenza viruses is possible.
July 2007 - Efficacy of swine influenza A virus vaccines against an H3N2 virus variant. Vaccination against SIV is now a routine method of respiratory disease control in swine farms because SIV has become 1 of the common causes of respiratory disease in pigs.
Sep 26, 2007 - Roche Inaugurates Facility In Toluca Mexico - The Toluca facility is one of three Roche facilities in the world to produce high-powered drugs
March 2009 - Baxter attempts to spread H5N1 Bird Flu in test vaccines
03/09/2009 - MERCK AND SCHERING-PLOUGH TO MERGE for 41.1 billion
March 12 2009 - Sanofi-aventis (EURONEXT: SAN and NYSE: SNY), has announced the signing of an agreement with the Mexican authorities to build a € 100 million facility to manufacture influenza vaccine in Mexico. The announcement was made during a ceremony attended by Felipe Calderon, President of Mexico, and Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, who was in Mexico City for a State visit
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=101338.1200
1997 The CDC agency already has made hybrid viruses with H5N1 samples isolated from patients in Hong Kong in 1997, when the virus first caused human disease. The results of that research have not yet been published,
Feb. 28 1997 - Schering-Plough Mexico Dedicates Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Facility
Before 1998, mainly “classical” H1N1 SI viruses (SIV) were isolated from swine in the United States
August 1998 - A North Carolina herd exhibiting clinical signs of influenza was identified with H3N2 SIV" In 1998, H3N2 viruses emerged and rapidly spread throughout the US swine population (2–4).
These were unique triple reassortant genotype viruses, with hemagglutinin (HA), neuraminidase (NA), and RNA polymerase (PB1) genes of human influenza virus lineage; nucleoprotein (NP), matrix (M), and nonstructural (NS) genes of classical swine virus lineage; and RNA polymerase (PA and PB2) genes of North American avian virus lineage.
Further reassortment between these viruses and classical H1N1 swine viruses led to the emergence of reassortant H1N2 and H1N1 viruses among pigs in the United States
August 1998 - Since that time, isolates from pigs in Texas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois have been typed as H3N2 SIV.
December 1998 - swine influenza virus (SIV) with H3N2 was first identified in Iowa swine
December 1998 - January 1999, a H3N2 subtype of swine influenza virus (SIV) was isolated from clinically affected swine in Iowa (IA), Minnesota, North Carolina (NC), and Texas (TX). A genetic analysis demonstrated that Midwest isolates (IA, MN, TX) and NC isolate were distinct (5).
It suggested the risk for the emergence of new subtype(s) due to reassortment between H1N1 and H3N2.
2001 - 2004 - Mr. Sabatino was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Baxter International, Inc. from 2001 to 2004
2004 - Mr. Sabatino joined Schering-Plough in 2004 as Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Mr. Sabatino was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Baxter International, Inc. from 2001 to 2004
2004 - H5N1 outbreak
Jan 14, 2004 - (CDC) will soon launch experiments designed to combine the H5N1 virus and human flu viruses and then see how the resulting hybrids affect animals. For the human virus, investigators will use A (H3N2), the strain that has caused most human flu cases in recent years, according to the CP report
October 2004 - 1,000-head swine farm in Minnesota experienced a severe respiratory disease outbreak in 14-week-old pigs. This suggests that A/Swine/Minnesota/00395/2004 H3N1 influenza virus is a reassortant containing genes from triple-reassortant H3N2 and contemporary H1N1 SIVs.
The recovery of an H3N1 subtype is further evidence of reassortment and antigenic shift in SIVs, justifying ongoing surveillance of animal populations for influenza A viruses that could represent a direct health threat, not only to swine populations, but also to humans
Jan 2005 - H3N2 influenza viruses swept rapidly across Canada. We describe the genetic characterization of reassortant H3N2 viruses from pigs, turkeys, and a swine farm worker in contact with sick pigs during this outbreak.
To our knowledge, this report describes the first isolation of a human/classical swine/avian triple reassortant H3N2 virus from a human.
Jan 01, 2005 First report in Mexico of the prevalence of antibodies to swine influenza virus in humans
Jan 09, 2005 - GSK's Global Launch with Rotarix(TM) starts in Mexico (for rotavirus
July 26, 2005 - Isolation and Genetic Characterization of New Reassortant H3N1 Swine Influenza Virus from Pigs in the Midwestern United States
The recovery of an H3N1 subtype is further evidence of reassortment and antigenic shift in SIVs, justifying ongoing surveillance of animal populations for influenza A viruses that could represent a direct health threat, not only to swine populations, but also to humans
Sep 02, 2005 - GSK purchases Wyeth's vaccine facility - The 90-acre manufacturing site, located in Marietta, Pennsylvania, which Wyeth closed in December, will be used to help develop future vaccines for GlaxoSmithKline
Nov 09, 2005 - DRL to acquire Roche's Mexico business - Reddy's Laboratories has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Roche's active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) business at the latter's state-of-the-art manufacturing site in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Aug 2006 - Swine influenza viruses (SIV) naturally infect pigs and can be transmitted to humans. In the pig, genetic reassortment to create novel influenza subtypes by mixing avian, human, and swine influenza viruses is possible.
July 2007 - Efficacy of swine influenza A virus vaccines against an H3N2 virus variant. Vaccination against SIV is now a routine method of respiratory disease control in swine farms because SIV has become 1 of the common causes of respiratory disease in pigs.
Sep 26, 2007 - Roche Inaugurates Facility In Toluca Mexico - The Toluca facility is one of three Roche facilities in the world to produce high-powered drugs
March 2009 - Baxter attempts to spread H5N1 Bird Flu in test vaccines
03/09/2009 - MERCK AND SCHERING-PLOUGH TO MERGE for 41.1 billion
March 12 2009 - Sanofi-aventis (EURONEXT: SAN and NYSE: SNY), has announced the signing of an agreement with the Mexican authorities to build a € 100 million facility to manufacture influenza vaccine in Mexico. The announcement was made during a ceremony attended by Felipe Calderon, President of Mexico, and Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, who was in Mexico City for a State visit
Monday, April 27, 2009
Flight 3407 Crash: Two Passengers Worked for Invacare Corp. - with Facilities 1.8 MILES from the Boy in Elyria Diagnosed with Swine Flu
Also see: "Flight 3407 Crash: The Origin of Swine Flu Revisited - 60 MINUTES Report, Nov 4, 1979," and "More Swine Flu Profiteers."
By Alex Constantine (Posted 4.27, updated 4.28)
There has been a great deal of stammering speculation in the media to explain why the Mexican and American strains of Swine Flu behave differently. This is not your average Swine Flu virus. Something very peculiar is going on. USA Today via Slate.com: "Cases are appearing that have no link to Mexico." More grotesque "coincidences":
"ALERT: Swine Flu Strikes Northeast Ohio (9-Year-Old from Elyria in Lorain County)"
The boy had recently travelled to Mexico, true - but then "attended class at Ely Elementary for four days last week," WKYC reports. "Last week." "The boy and his family returned from Mexico last Monday."
The sick boy returned to school after flying in from Mexico - and no other passengers on the plane, or children attending class with him, or teachers, not his parents kissing him goodnight or friends walking home from school with him, not siblings or bus drivers or comic book store clerks in Elyria have contracted this potentially-lethal, highly-contagious flu that threatens to become a global killer pandemic? Lorain County Chronicle, April 28: "The young boy’s family is being tested for the disease, but all are reportedly in good health, including two siblings ages 5 and 7." Something's wrong.
Turn down the media, begin again.
Let's investigate this case of domestic Swine Flu in light of what we've learned so far about Pharma connections to Flight 3407. That may explain this mystery.
As it happens, two passengers of doomed Flight 3407 worked for Invacare Corp., Dawn Mossop, an executive secretary/administrative assistant, and Mary Julia Abraham (photo left), a product manager for the company headquartered in Elyria, Ohio (her specialty: respiratory devices of the sort that happen to effective in relieving flu symptoms) where the Swine Flu has stricken a nine year-old boy.
The school he attended is Ely Elementary, at 312 Gulf Road.
Invacare has a plant at 1200 Taylor Street - only 1.8 miles away from Ely Elementary School.
Let's do a Google map search to have a sense of the distance - 312 Gulf Road to 1200 Taylor Road, Elyria:
View Larger Map
CLICK THE "-" SYMBOL TO ZOOM OUT, AND THE TWO ADDRESSES "SPOON" TOGETHER, THEY ARE THAT CLOSE.
Driving directions to Ely Elementary from Invacare:
1. Head west on Taylor St toward Cook Ct - 0.2 mi
2. Turn right at SE Bypass/OH-301/OH-57/US-20 - 0.4 mi
3. Turn left at Cleveland St/OH-113/US-20 Continue to follow Cleveland St - 1.0 mi
4. Turn right at Gulf Rd - 0.2 mi
And someone from Invacare - say, just for the sake of argument, oh, a bio-terrorist - arrives at the nearest elementary school to spray a mist of Swine Flu virus (mixed with avian and human flu strains) with a shorter incubation period (more human flu strain in the mix) on a pre-selected child's desk before school began on Tuesday morning, or in his locker ... (And why not? It's not as though some blogger out there is going to figure it out.)
The proximity of Ely Elementary and Invacare is a "coincidence" practically beyond belief. IMhO, it isn't a coincidence at all.
"NO INFECTED PIGS IN MEXICO."
Invacare's Mary Julia Abraham and Dawn Mossop, as mentioned, was among the dead in Clarence on Feb. 12:
Invacare's Abraham Victim of Plane Crash
Feb 23, 2009 1:58 PM
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Invacare Corp. lost a member of its team Feb. 12 in the crash of Flight 3407. ... The 44-year-old Abraham ... had worked at Invacare for 10 years as a product manager and trainer, most recently in the Maine to New Jersey region. ... Abraham, [was] a retired First Sergeant of the U.S. Army Reserve. ...
http://homecaremag.com/news/invacare-mary-abraham-victim-plane-crash-20090223/
•••••••
Invacare, VA and the Bush Adminstration
Ohio Bush Donors Richly Rewarded
by JAMES DREW and STEVE EDER
The Toledo Blade
October 31st, 2005
Health Care Interests
... In the realm of health care, there are two Ohio firms with Bush fund-raisers as executives - HCR Manor Care Inc., a Toledo company that provides nursing home care, and Invacare, an Elyria health products manufacturer.
According to federal lobbying records, Invacare has spent more than $1.5 million since 1999 lobbying Washington officials on health-care issues. The company's CEO, Malachi Mixon, who was a Bush Ranger, and his employees and associates have contributed at least $1 million to political campaigns since 1989.
Mr. Mixon declined a request for an interview with The Blade, but it's clear from the company's statements that Invacare relies heavily on the support of the federal government.
In its Aug. 8, 2005, financial statement, Invacare wrote: "The Company is directly affected by government regulation and reimbursement policies in virtually every county in which it operates." ...
Invacare and its subsidiaries have received at least $3.1 million in contracts from the federal government since President Bush took office in 2001. Invacare largely provided hospital products for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
http://www.lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php?storyid=3259
•••••••
Marine Corps Gen. James Jones was on the Invacare Board until Obama Appointed him to the Position of National Security Advisor
"Gen. James Jones as National Security Adviser? He backed McCain!!" - Maria Jacinta
Gen. James L. Jones - Associate of Kissinger, Brzezinski, Bobby Ray Inman and CIA director John Deutch, memeber of Institute for International Affairs.
Jones and the U.S. Institute for Peace, Iraq Study Group: "Jones provided his expertise as a member of the Afghanistan Study Group, an offshoot of the U.S. Institute for Peace. USIP is the same quasi-governmental agency that spawned the Iraq Study Group, which set the present course in Iraq."
http://www.stlimc.org/free-tagging/obama
Also see: "James Jones: Obama's National Security Surprise," Time, Dec. 01, 2008.
Invacare CEO Malachi Mixon III and The Cleveland Clinic
Forbes profile: " ... Mr. Mixon serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, one of the world's leading academic medical centers ... "
http://people.forbes.com/profile/a-malachi-mixon/45160
The Cleveland Clinic recently gave Novavax (see the previous part on Flight 3407) an innovation award for its bird flu vaccine. Birds of a feather ... cough ... uh, oh ...
POSTSCRIPT - SWINE FLU IN ISRAEL: Invacare's outlet in Israel at IL-75704 Rishon-Le-Zion is even closer - 23.1 miles from the first reported case, in Tzoran. The second case in Israel was in Kfar Saba, 19.2 miles away from Rishon-Le-Zion - in the same direction as Tzoran. (The first case in Kfar Saba was less than ten miles away from the second in Tzoran - a statistical anomaly in itself since there is no relationship between the two men.)
*******
RAND, Rockefeller, Dole, Daschle & Flu Drills: Political Intimations of an Orchestrated Influenza Epidemic Before Swine Flu Struck
There were signs early in Obama's tenure as buck stopper, centering around flagrant conflicts of interest at the Department of Health & Human Services, that a manufactured flu epidemic was in the blender:
Tom Daschlle, Bob Dole and the Alston & Bird Law Firm
Daschle was a key health advisor to Barack Obama during the campaign, and his first choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Among Daschle's bona fidés (from his resumé):
"Intelligence officer, U.S. Air Force, 1969-72."
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86334
Daschle appointment appears to contradict Obama ethics policy
Taylor Lincoln
19 November 2008
Obama's reported selection of former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) to head Health and Human Services appears to flatly contradict his ethics policy, which says, "No political appointees in the Obama-Biden administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years."
Daschle is a special public policy advisor in Alston & Bird’s Washington, D.C., according to the firm's Web site, which singles out health care as an area of "particular emphasis." Elsewhere, the firm advertises that its health care legislative & public policy team "has the significant advantage of including two former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders – Senators Bob Dole and Tom Daschle." ...
http://www.becoming44.org/content/daschle-appointment-appears-contradict-obama-ethics-policy
Bob "Western Goals" Dole and Pharma: " ... More than 3,000 people over the past seven years have lobbied for the industry, including 75 former lawmakers. Those lawmakers include former Sens. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas), former Reps. Bob Livingston (R-La.) and Tom Foley (D-Wash.) and current Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America President Billy Tauzin (R-La.) ... "
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/27125.php
"Tom Daschle is Obama’s choice to head the department of Health and Human Services: “…board member of the Mayo Clinic and a highly paid adviser to health care clients at the law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird.”
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/daschle-the-advisor-to-heathcare-lobbyists-to-head-hhs/
" ... Tom Daschle, once considered assured of breezing through his confirmation as secretary of Health and Human Services, soon will face tough questioning on Capitol Hill about underpaying his income taxes and his extensive work for clients in the healthcare industry. ... "
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/01/nation/na-daschle1
•••••••
PhRMA Applauds Selection of Tom Daschle as HHS Secretary
Washington, D.C. (November 19, 2008) — Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) President and CEO Billy Tauzin issued the following statement today on Tom Daschle’s selection as incoming HHS Secretary:
“Tom Daschle is a wise choice to guide the President-elect on shaping healthcare reform. Sen. Daschle has what it takes to do the job: Smarts, toughness and a strong understanding of the healthcare challenges that face our nation in these tough economic times. ...
http://www.phrma.org/news_room/press_releases/phrma_applauds_selection_of_tom_daschle_as_hhs_secretary/
•••••••
BOB DOLE RETURNS
After Daschle dropped from consideration as DHH secretary, Obama nominated Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius.
Wikipedia: "On February 28, 2009, it was reported that Sebelius had accepted Obama's nomination for the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services. On March 2, 2009, Obama officially announced Governor Sebelius as his nominee. At Obama's announcement, Sebelius was accompanied by two Kansas Republicans, former U.S. Senator Bob Dole and current U.S. Senator Pat Roberts. ... Sebelius was confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services by the Senate on April 28, 2009 with a vote of 65-31.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Sebelius]
Bob Dole on Pharma's dole: "Bob Dole had been paid $500,000 in 2000 and 2001 by Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical company, to lobby to keep laws on the books that protect the drug company patents. It cited lobbying registration reports that said he was registered to lobby on 'Medicare, Medicare reform, patent extensions, and medical equipment technology appropriations.'"
http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:ayWgemFSeHQJ:pages.stern.nyu.edu/~jronen/articles/NorthCarolina.doc+bob+dole+and+pharmaceutical&cd=26&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
LOOK WHO'S DRAFTING AMERICA'S PENDING HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION
"Senator Dole, along with former Majority Leaders and BPC Founders
Senators Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, and George Mitchell, has spent the past year working on the BPC's 'Leaders' Project on the State of American Health Care'" The bipartisan Leaders' Project is expected to release its report
with recommendations for health care reform in May of 2009. ... "
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=pharma.story&STORY=/www/story/03-31-2009/0004998393&EDATE=TUE+Mar+31+2009,+06:29+PM
•••••••
Howard Koh, M.D., Flight 3407, the Dept. of Health and Human Services, and Public Health Preparedness Exercises
Excerpt: Obama appoints Howard Koh, M.D. as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services
" ... Dr. Koh has served as the Principal Investigator of multiple research grants related to community-based participatory research, cancer prevention, health disparities, tobacco control, and emergency preparedness. He is also Director of the HSPH Center for Public Health Preparedness. ...
This is Obama's appointment to oversee the Center for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institute of Health, a major position ...
The assistant secretary for health is responsible for the major health agencies, including the CDC, FDA and NIH, and is the leading health advisor to the Secretary of HHS. Dr. Koh has served as the Principal Investigator of multiple research grants related to ... emergency preparedness. He is also Director of the HSPH Center for Public Health Preparedness.
He is an elected member of ... the CDC's Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response. ...
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Howard-Koh-M-D--appointe-by-Stephen-Fox-090326-427.html
•••••••
Richard E. Besser, MD, Emergency Preparedness at the CDC, Department of Health and Human Services
BIOTERRORISM
CDC's preparedness chief named acting director
Robert Roos, News Editor
Jan 27, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – Richard E. Besser, MD, who formerly directed terrorism preparedness and emergency response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was named last week as the agency's acting director. ... Besser took the helm of the agency Jan 22, according to a brief notice on the CDC Web site. He had been director of the CDC Coordinatng Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response since August 29, 2005, according to Glen Nowak, CDC media relations director. ...
Besser, 49, started his CDC career in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) in 1991, working on foodborne diseases. ... He later returned to the CDC and served as epidemiology section chief in the Respiratory Diseases Branch, acting chief of the Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch in the National Center for Infectious Diseases, and as medical director of a CDC campaign to promote appropriate antibiotic use in the community.
He received a bachelor's degree in economics at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., and earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a residency and chief residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, the CDC said.
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/bt/bioprep/news/jan2709besser-jw.html
•••••••
Prior Flu Drill
Top Bush aides test bird flu preparedness
By Adam Entous
Dec 10, 2005
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Warning an outbreak may be inevitable, the White House on Saturday conducted a test of its readiness for a feared bird flu pandemic and said federal agencies fared "quite well" without offering any details.
Cabinet secretaries, military leaders and other top officials took part in the four-hour tabletop drill, which officials said was designed to assess the level of federal preparedness for a possible outbreak of bird flu or another deadly virus. ...
HHS has projected that in a pandemic 92 million Americans will become sick and that as many as 2 million will die. Schools will close, businesses will be disrupted and essential services may break down.
"We currently have no evidence that a pandemic flu in this country is imminent. That said, we are fairly warned, and the time to prepare for that pandemic is now," Townsend said.
The preparedness drill was conducted in offices next to the White House.
Approximately 20 officials took part, including Townsend, Leavitt, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.
U.S. President George W. Bush did not participate. ...
http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2005/12/top_bush_aides.html
•••••••
2005-2006: RAND and the Rockefeller Foundation Sponsor Pandemic Influenza Exercises in SE Asia
Pandemic Influenza in Southeast Asia
In late 2005 and early 2006, NTI developed a close working relationship with the Rockefeller Foundation (RF), whose Southeast Asia Regional Office has supported an important collaboration among the Ministries of Health in six countries in the Mekong Basin area (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and China-Yunnan province) to strengthen national and sub-regional disease surveillance capacity. The Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance (MBDS) members have identified challenges to developing a surveillance system that operates across borders, responds quickly to regional disease threats, and works to create equity in the national capacities to detect and respond or, better yet, prevent local outbreaks from developing into regional or even global emergencies.
NTI will utilize the infrastructure created by Rockefeller to engage the MBDS stakeholders in tabletop exercises to openly examine the challenges of a regional approach to the surveillance, early detection, and response to a major biological event such as that posed by avian or pandemic influenza.
NTI has previously worked with the RAND Corporation in similar exercises at the local and state level in Georgia. RAND is helping plan, develop and conduct simulation exercises for MBDS countries at the national and regional level. These exercises will help the individual countries, Rockefeller, and others in the planning and execution of responses needed in the event of a real pandemic influenza emergency.
http://www.ghsi.org/flu/flubar_page5.html
By Alex Constantine (Posted 4.27, updated 4.28)
There has been a great deal of stammering speculation in the media to explain why the Mexican and American strains of Swine Flu behave differently. This is not your average Swine Flu virus. Something very peculiar is going on. USA Today via Slate.com: "Cases are appearing that have no link to Mexico." More grotesque "coincidences":"ALERT: Swine Flu Strikes Northeast Ohio (9-Year-Old from Elyria in Lorain County)"
The boy had recently travelled to Mexico, true - but then "attended class at Ely Elementary for four days last week," WKYC reports. "Last week." "The boy and his family returned from Mexico last Monday."
The sick boy returned to school after flying in from Mexico - and no other passengers on the plane, or children attending class with him, or teachers, not his parents kissing him goodnight or friends walking home from school with him, not siblings or bus drivers or comic book store clerks in Elyria have contracted this potentially-lethal, highly-contagious flu that threatens to become a global killer pandemic? Lorain County Chronicle, April 28: "The young boy’s family is being tested for the disease, but all are reportedly in good health, including two siblings ages 5 and 7." Something's wrong.Turn down the media, begin again.
Let's investigate this case of domestic Swine Flu in light of what we've learned so far about Pharma connections to Flight 3407. That may explain this mystery.
As it happens, two passengers of doomed Flight 3407 worked for Invacare Corp., Dawn Mossop, an executive secretary/administrative assistant, and Mary Julia Abraham (photo left), a product manager for the company headquartered in Elyria, Ohio (her specialty: respiratory devices of the sort that happen to effective in relieving flu symptoms) where the Swine Flu has stricken a nine year-old boy.The school he attended is Ely Elementary, at 312 Gulf Road.
Invacare has a plant at 1200 Taylor Street - only 1.8 miles away from Ely Elementary School.
Let's do a Google map search to have a sense of the distance - 312 Gulf Road to 1200 Taylor Road, Elyria:
View Larger Map
CLICK THE "-" SYMBOL TO ZOOM OUT, AND THE TWO ADDRESSES "SPOON" TOGETHER, THEY ARE THAT CLOSE.
Driving directions to Ely Elementary from Invacare:
1. Head west on Taylor St toward Cook Ct - 0.2 mi
2. Turn right at SE Bypass/OH-301/OH-57/US-20 - 0.4 mi
3. Turn left at Cleveland St/OH-113/US-20 Continue to follow Cleveland St - 1.0 mi
4. Turn right at Gulf Rd - 0.2 mi
And someone from Invacare - say, just for the sake of argument, oh, a bio-terrorist - arrives at the nearest elementary school to spray a mist of Swine Flu virus (mixed with avian and human flu strains) with a shorter incubation period (more human flu strain in the mix) on a pre-selected child's desk before school began on Tuesday morning, or in his locker ... (And why not? It's not as though some blogger out there is going to figure it out.)
The proximity of Ely Elementary and Invacare is a "coincidence" practically beyond belief. IMhO, it isn't a coincidence at all.
"NO INFECTED PIGS IN MEXICO."
Invacare's Mary Julia Abraham and Dawn Mossop, as mentioned, was among the dead in Clarence on Feb. 12:
Invacare's Abraham Victim of Plane Crash
Feb 23, 2009 1:58 PM
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Invacare Corp. lost a member of its team Feb. 12 in the crash of Flight 3407. ... The 44-year-old Abraham ... had worked at Invacare for 10 years as a product manager and trainer, most recently in the Maine to New Jersey region. ... Abraham, [was] a retired First Sergeant of the U.S. Army Reserve. ...
http://homecaremag.com/news/invacare-mary-abraham-victim-plane-crash-20090223/
•••••••
Invacare, VA and the Bush Adminstration
Ohio Bush Donors Richly Rewarded
by JAMES DREW and STEVE EDER
The Toledo Blade
October 31st, 2005
Health Care Interests
... In the realm of health care, there are two Ohio firms with Bush fund-raisers as executives - HCR Manor Care Inc., a Toledo company that provides nursing home care, and Invacare, an Elyria health products manufacturer.
According to federal lobbying records, Invacare has spent more than $1.5 million since 1999 lobbying Washington officials on health-care issues. The company's CEO, Malachi Mixon, who was a Bush Ranger, and his employees and associates have contributed at least $1 million to political campaigns since 1989.
Mr. Mixon declined a request for an interview with The Blade, but it's clear from the company's statements that Invacare relies heavily on the support of the federal government.
In its Aug. 8, 2005, financial statement, Invacare wrote: "The Company is directly affected by government regulation and reimbursement policies in virtually every county in which it operates." ...
Invacare and its subsidiaries have received at least $3.1 million in contracts from the federal government since President Bush took office in 2001. Invacare largely provided hospital products for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
http://www.lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php?storyid=3259
•••••••
Marine Corps Gen. James Jones was on the Invacare Board until Obama Appointed him to the Position of National Security Advisor"Gen. James Jones as National Security Adviser? He backed McCain!!" - Maria Jacinta
Gen. James L. Jones - Associate of Kissinger, Brzezinski, Bobby Ray Inman and CIA director John Deutch, memeber of Institute for International Affairs.
Jones and the U.S. Institute for Peace, Iraq Study Group: "Jones provided his expertise as a member of the Afghanistan Study Group, an offshoot of the U.S. Institute for Peace. USIP is the same quasi-governmental agency that spawned the Iraq Study Group, which set the present course in Iraq."
http://www.stlimc.org/free-tagging/obama
Also see: "James Jones: Obama's National Security Surprise," Time, Dec. 01, 2008.
Ties to Chevron, Boeing raise concerns on possible NSA pick
November 25, 2008
Retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, a leading contender to become President-elect Barack Obama’s national security adviser, serves on the boards of directors of Boeing and Chevron and advises a number of other businesses that work closely with the military and intelligence community.
Jones, a former head of NATO and U.S. forces in Europe, retired in early 2007 after 40 years of military service. Since then, Jones has joined the boards of directors of Boeing and Chevron, as well as Invacare Corp., which produces medical equipment. ... The retired general earned $50,405 in 2007 from serving on Invacare’s board. ...
http://www.onemarinesview.com/one_marines_view/2008/11/ties-to-chevron-boeing-raise-concerns-on-possible-nsa-pick.html
Invacare CEO Malachi Mixon III and The Cleveland Clinic
Forbes profile: " ... Mr. Mixon serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, one of the world's leading academic medical centers ... "http://people.forbes.com/profile/a-malachi-mixon/45160
The Cleveland Clinic recently gave Novavax (see the previous part on Flight 3407) an innovation award for its bird flu vaccine. Birds of a feather ... cough ... uh, oh ...
POSTSCRIPT - SWINE FLU IN ISRAEL: Invacare's outlet in Israel at IL-75704 Rishon-Le-Zion is even closer - 23.1 miles from the first reported case, in Tzoran. The second case in Israel was in Kfar Saba, 19.2 miles away from Rishon-Le-Zion - in the same direction as Tzoran. (The first case in Kfar Saba was less than ten miles away from the second in Tzoran - a statistical anomaly in itself since there is no relationship between the two men.)
*******
RAND, Rockefeller, Dole, Daschle & Flu Drills: Political Intimations of an Orchestrated Influenza Epidemic Before Swine Flu Struck
There were signs early in Obama's tenure as buck stopper, centering around flagrant conflicts of interest at the Department of Health & Human Services, that a manufactured flu epidemic was in the blender:
Tom Daschlle, Bob Dole and the Alston & Bird Law FirmDaschle was a key health advisor to Barack Obama during the campaign, and his first choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Among Daschle's bona fidés (from his resumé):
"Intelligence officer, U.S. Air Force, 1969-72."
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86334
Daschle appointment appears to contradict Obama ethics policy
Taylor Lincoln
19 November 2008
Obama's reported selection of former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) to head Health and Human Services appears to flatly contradict his ethics policy, which says, "No political appointees in the Obama-Biden administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years."
Daschle is a special public policy advisor in Alston & Bird’s Washington, D.C., according to the firm's Web site, which singles out health care as an area of "particular emphasis." Elsewhere, the firm advertises that its health care legislative & public policy team "has the significant advantage of including two former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders – Senators Bob Dole and Tom Daschle." ...
http://www.becoming44.org/content/daschle-appointment-appears-contradict-obama-ethics-policy
Bob "Western Goals" Dole and Pharma: " ... More than 3,000 people over the past seven years have lobbied for the industry, including 75 former lawmakers. Those lawmakers include former Sens. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas), former Reps. Bob Livingston (R-La.) and Tom Foley (D-Wash.) and current Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America President Billy Tauzin (R-La.) ... "http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/27125.php
"Tom Daschle is Obama’s choice to head the department of Health and Human Services: “…board member of the Mayo Clinic and a highly paid adviser to health care clients at the law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird.”
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/daschle-the-advisor-to-heathcare-lobbyists-to-head-hhs/
" ... Tom Daschle, once considered assured of breezing through his confirmation as secretary of Health and Human Services, soon will face tough questioning on Capitol Hill about underpaying his income taxes and his extensive work for clients in the healthcare industry. ... "
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/01/nation/na-daschle1
•••••••
PhRMA Applauds Selection of Tom Daschle as HHS SecretaryWashington, D.C. (November 19, 2008) — Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) President and CEO Billy Tauzin issued the following statement today on Tom Daschle’s selection as incoming HHS Secretary:
“Tom Daschle is a wise choice to guide the President-elect on shaping healthcare reform. Sen. Daschle has what it takes to do the job: Smarts, toughness and a strong understanding of the healthcare challenges that face our nation in these tough economic times. ...
http://www.phrma.org/news_room/press_releases/phrma_applauds_selection_of_tom_daschle_as_hhs_secretary/
•••••••
BOB DOLE RETURNS
After Daschle dropped from consideration as DHH secretary, Obama nominated Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius.
Wikipedia: "On February 28, 2009, it was reported that Sebelius had accepted Obama's nomination for the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services. On March 2, 2009, Obama officially announced Governor Sebelius as his nominee. At Obama's announcement, Sebelius was accompanied by two Kansas Republicans, former U.S. Senator Bob Dole and current U.S. Senator Pat Roberts. ... Sebelius was confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services by the Senate on April 28, 2009 with a vote of 65-31.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Sebelius]
Bob Dole on Pharma's dole: "Bob Dole had been paid $500,000 in 2000 and 2001 by Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical company, to lobby to keep laws on the books that protect the drug company patents. It cited lobbying registration reports that said he was registered to lobby on 'Medicare, Medicare reform, patent extensions, and medical equipment technology appropriations.'"
http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:ayWgemFSeHQJ:pages.stern.nyu.edu/~jronen/articles/NorthCarolina.doc+bob+dole+and+pharmaceutical&cd=26&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
LOOK WHO'S DRAFTING AMERICA'S PENDING HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION
"Senator Dole, along with former Majority Leaders and BPC Founders
Senators Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, and George Mitchell, has spent the past year working on the BPC's 'Leaders' Project on the State of American Health Care'" The bipartisan Leaders' Project is expected to release its report
with recommendations for health care reform in May of 2009. ... "
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=pharma.story&STORY=/www/story/03-31-2009/0004998393&EDATE=TUE+Mar+31+2009,+06:29+PM
•••••••
Howard Koh, M.D., Flight 3407, the Dept. of Health and Human Services, and Public Health Preparedness Exercises
Excerpt: Obama appoints Howard Koh, M.D. as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services
" ... Dr. Koh has served as the Principal Investigator of multiple research grants related to community-based participatory research, cancer prevention, health disparities, tobacco control, and emergency preparedness. He is also Director of the HSPH Center for Public Health Preparedness. ...
This is Obama's appointment to oversee the Center for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institute of Health, a major position ...
The assistant secretary for health is responsible for the major health agencies, including the CDC, FDA and NIH, and is the leading health advisor to the Secretary of HHS. Dr. Koh has served as the Principal Investigator of multiple research grants related to ... emergency preparedness. He is also Director of the HSPH Center for Public Health Preparedness.
He is an elected member of ... the CDC's Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response. ...
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Howard-Koh-M-D--appointe-by-Stephen-Fox-090326-427.html
•••••••
Richard E. Besser, MD, Emergency Preparedness at the CDC, Department of Health and Human Services
BIOTERRORISM
CDC's preparedness chief named acting director
Robert Roos, News Editor
Jan 27, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – Richard E. Besser, MD, who formerly directed terrorism preparedness and emergency response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was named last week as the agency's acting director. ... Besser took the helm of the agency Jan 22, according to a brief notice on the CDC Web site. He had been director of the CDC Coordinatng Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response since August 29, 2005, according to Glen Nowak, CDC media relations director. ...
Besser, 49, started his CDC career in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) in 1991, working on foodborne diseases. ... He later returned to the CDC and served as epidemiology section chief in the Respiratory Diseases Branch, acting chief of the Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch in the National Center for Infectious Diseases, and as medical director of a CDC campaign to promote appropriate antibiotic use in the community.
He received a bachelor's degree in economics at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., and earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a residency and chief residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, the CDC said.
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/bt/bioprep/news/jan2709besser-jw.html
•••••••
Prior Flu Drill
Top Bush aides test bird flu preparedness
By Adam Entous
Dec 10, 2005
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Warning an outbreak may be inevitable, the White House on Saturday conducted a test of its readiness for a feared bird flu pandemic and said federal agencies fared "quite well" without offering any details.
Cabinet secretaries, military leaders and other top officials took part in the four-hour tabletop drill, which officials said was designed to assess the level of federal preparedness for a possible outbreak of bird flu or another deadly virus. ...
HHS has projected that in a pandemic 92 million Americans will become sick and that as many as 2 million will die. Schools will close, businesses will be disrupted and essential services may break down.
"We currently have no evidence that a pandemic flu in this country is imminent. That said, we are fairly warned, and the time to prepare for that pandemic is now," Townsend said.
The preparedness drill was conducted in offices next to the White House.
Approximately 20 officials took part, including Townsend, Leavitt, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.
U.S. President George W. Bush did not participate. ...
http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2005/12/top_bush_aides.html
•••••••
2005-2006: RAND and the Rockefeller Foundation Sponsor Pandemic Influenza Exercises in SE Asia
Pandemic Influenza in Southeast Asia
In late 2005 and early 2006, NTI developed a close working relationship with the Rockefeller Foundation (RF), whose Southeast Asia Regional Office has supported an important collaboration among the Ministries of Health in six countries in the Mekong Basin area (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and China-Yunnan province) to strengthen national and sub-regional disease surveillance capacity. The Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance (MBDS) members have identified challenges to developing a surveillance system that operates across borders, responds quickly to regional disease threats, and works to create equity in the national capacities to detect and respond or, better yet, prevent local outbreaks from developing into regional or even global emergencies.NTI will utilize the infrastructure created by Rockefeller to engage the MBDS stakeholders in tabletop exercises to openly examine the challenges of a regional approach to the surveillance, early detection, and response to a major biological event such as that posed by avian or pandemic influenza.
NTI has previously worked with the RAND Corporation in similar exercises at the local and state level in Georgia. RAND is helping plan, develop and conduct simulation exercises for MBDS countries at the national and regional level. These exercises will help the individual countries, Rockefeller, and others in the planning and execution of responses needed in the event of a real pandemic influenza emergency.
http://www.ghsi.org/flu/flubar_page5.html
Flight 3407 Crash: More Swine Flu Profiteers
By Alex ConstantineWho else stands to benefit from a swine flu epidemic?
Venture capital firm set to reap rewards on swine flu
By Alexander Haislip
Apr 24, 2009
LOS ANGELES, April 24 (Reuters) - The swine flu outbreak is likely to benefit one of the most prolific and successful venture capital firms in the United States: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Thomson Reuters Private Equity Week reported on Friday.
Shares of the two public companies in the firm's portfolio of eight Pandemic and Bio Defense companies -- BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX.O) and Novavax (NVAX.O) -- jumped Friday on news that the swine flu killed a reported 60 people in Mexico and has infected people in the United States.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idAFN2425534220090424
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) Partners:
KPCB partner Thomas Monath, MD is at Novavax, one of the companies handled by the venture capital firm KPCB:Dr. Monath is a partner, Pandemic and Biodefense Fund ... also Adjunct Professor, Harvard School of Public Health. Between 1992 and 2006, Dr Monath was Chief Scientific Officer and an Executive Director, Acambis (a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company) where he directed R&D on dengue, West Nile, Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever, Clostridium difficile, and smallpox vaccines for defense against bioterrorism. COL Monath retired from the US Army in 1992 after 24 years in the uniformed services. Between 1973-1988, he was Director, Division of Vector-Borne Viral Diseases, Centers for Disease Control, Fort Collins CO and from 1989-92 Chief, Virology Division, US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). ... He has served on numerous government and international committees on infectious diseases, biosecurity, World Health Organization expert committees and the National Vaccines Advisory Committee (USA). Dr. Monath has published over 360 papers and edited 6 books on the epidemiology, immunology and pathogenesis of viruses and on vaccine development.
http://www.kpcb.com/team/index.php?Thomas%20Monath,%20M.D.
USAMIID gave us anthrax death. Thomas Monath, who ran the virology section, was a friend of Stephen Hatfill's.
Other partners at KPCB: Colin Powell, Al Gore and William Randolph Hearst III, among others.
Photo - "Former US Secretary of the Army, and former Virginia Congressman John O. Marsh Jr. , member of the National War Powers Commission waits for the start of a press conference on July 8, 2008 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Marsh along with former Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and James Baker III and other members of the commission released their findings and recommendations on the war powers of the president and Congress." (Getty Images)On the Novavax board of directors, you find John O. Marsh, Jr., co-chair of Independent Review Group for Walter Reed Hospital and Bethesda Navy Medical Center since 2007. Also, Secretary of the Army from 1981 to 1989. Counselor with Cabinet rank to the President of the United States from 1974 to 1977. Also Assistant for National Security Affairs to Vice President of the United States, 1974. Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1973 to 1974. U.S. Representative in Congress from 1963 to 1971.
http://www.novavax.com/go.cfm?do=Page.View&pid=10#John
BIOCRYST PHARMACEUTICALS Institutional Ownership - BioCryst is part-owned by Barclays Global Investors, N.A. and Texas Pacific Group Capital, L.P.http://finance.aol.com/company/biocryst-pharmaceuticals-inc/bcrx/nas/institutional-ownership
BARCLAY'S AND TEXAS PACIFIC GROUP
Nicole Korczykowski from Barclay's died on Flight 3407. She was made a director at Barclay's two days before the crash in Clarence. The firm will be recovering nicely from its current financial woes, thanks to swine flu.
Ms. Korczykowski spoke Arabic and would certainly have dealt with Barclay's Saudi owners had she survived the Flight 3407 crash.
The founder of the Texas Pacific Group is David Bonderman, a director of the World Wildlife Fund - a fairly well-known intelligence front.
RE BONDERMAN, NAZIS & CIA - From a prior post of mine relating to the 2006 Lexington Comair crash: Bonderman was co-founder of the Halifax Group, formed in January 1999 with David W. Dupree, a former director at The Carlyle Group, William L. Rogers, founding partner of Colony and the Robert M. Bass Group, also Thomas J. Barrack, chief executive of Colony Capital and a former principal at Robert M. Bass. .... Bonderman went to TPG in 1992 direct from the position of chief operating officer at the Bass Group, Inc., then based in Fort Worth, Texas. ...
Bonderman serves on the board of Gemplus International S.A.6 And this is where the Texas Pacific Group shows its true colors as a Nazi/CIA appendage. ...
In January 26th, 2000, Gemplus announced the signing of a financial agreement with the Texas Pacific Group. The latter agreed to pour $300-$500 million in equity into Gemplus: "Texas Pacific Group will join founder and chairman Marc Lassus, Gemplus employees and members of the QUANDT Family of Germany, as one of the major shareholders of Gemplus. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Gemplus will use the new capital to dramatically expand Gemplus' presence in the wireless communications, e-commerce, and Internet security markets."
The partnership was billed as one of the largest private equity investments in technology history. But there was no call for champagne at the next stockholder's meeting. The Quandts have well-deserved reputation for Nazi collaboration, as Jeffrey Myers, Department of History, Avila University, reports:
"With the rise of Hitler, the Quandts became enmeshed in the Nazi horror. The marriage of Gunther Quandt's ex-wife Magda to Joseph Goebbels initially linked the Quandt family to the Nazis, but Guenther Quandt and his sons all played significant independent roles in the Third Reich. Each eventually became a member of the Nazi party, and, more importantly, the Quandt firms of AFA and DWM (as well as the heavily Quandt-invested Daimler-Benz) utilized slave labor from the concentration camps of Hannover-Stcken, Mauthausen, and Sachsenhausen. In the immediate post-war period, the Quandts were subject to close scrutiny and heavy fines as a result of denazification. The family also faced the loss of factories due to wartime destruction and confiscation of properties in the Soviet zone. The Quandts' version of the Economic Miracle occurred largely thanks to the rearmament of West Germany in the mid-1950s, which made DWM and AFA profitable once again."
http://alexconstantine.blogspot.com/2006/11/lexington-comair-crash-part-11-gps.html
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Flight 3407 Crash: The Origin of Swine Flu Revisited - 60 MINUTES Report, Nov 4, 1979
Am I suggesting that some government agency ... of God's Apple Pie Republic ... albeit, gone a bit sour ... would ever play around with highly-lethal pig viruses? Sure, you bet, but you have to watch those affiliated partners in the corporate sector, as well ...
By Alex Constantine (Revised)
In today's news: GILEAD, Glaxo and Roche, a few other pharmaceutical concerns, stand to make handsome profits in the near future: "Drug and vaccine makers on standby over swine flu," Apr 26, 2009, LONDON/ZURICH (Reuters) - "Drugmakers said on Sunday they could supply millions of doses of medicine and were ready to work on a vaccine against a new type of swine flu that has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and infected around a dozen in the United States. Roche Holding AG's Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, and GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Relenza, or zanamivir, are both recommended drugs for seasonal flu and have been shown to work against viral samples of the new disease. ... The two companies have received contracts in recent years from individual governments and corporations for stockpiles of their medicines, following earlier fears over bird flu. Those sales provided windfall profits, especially for Roche, and also benefited their respective partners. Tamiflu was originally invented by U.S. biotech company Gilead Sciences Inc, while Relenza was licensed to Glaxo by Australia's Biota Holdings Ltd. ... Leading flu vaccine manufacturers include Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi-Aventis SA, Glaxo, Novartis AG and Baxter International Inc. Sanofi Pasteur, as the world leading producer of influenza vaccine, is standing ready to assess its capabilities to support public health efforts, should the WHO and other health authorities request support from influenza vaccine manufacturers," said spokesman Pascal Barollier."
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE53P1IU20090426
Baxter International and Austria's Orth-Donau Facility May be the Source of the Current Swine Flu Contagion in Mexico
Baxter? As in ... "Baxter working on vaccine to stop swine flu, though admitted sending live pandemic flu viruses to subcontractor"
http://www.legitgov.org/baxter_flu_vaccine_260409.html
Baxter admits sending live avian flu viruses to subcontractor: People familiar with biosecurity rules are dismayed by evidence that human H3N2 and avian H5N1 viruses somehow co-mingled in the Orth-Donau facility. 27 Feb 2009 The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses. ...
Donau, Austria. [Source: The Canadian Press]
Compare with:
Spectre of pandemic 26 Apr 2009 The new strain contains gene sequences from North American and Eurasian swine flus, North American bird flu and North American human flu, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of Mexico's dead were young, healthy adults, and none was aged older than 60 or or younger than three, the World Health Organization said. This has alarmed health officials... Pandemic flus - like the 1918 Spanish flu and the 1957 and 1968 pandemics - often strike young, healthy people the hardest. Mexican officials promised a huge immunisation campaign in the capital this week. ...
http://www.legitgov.org/baxter_flu_vaccine_260409.html
Baxter International and American Home Products
"Baxter Corporation, a subsidiary of American Home Products [now Wyeth]—another direct progeny of the decartelized German drug and chemical combine known as I.G. Farben. ... "
http://www.healingcelebrations.com/smallpoxandanthrax.htm
WARREN BUFFETT Stands to make a KILLING, too
Warren Buffett snaps up shares in Glaxo, Philip Scott, This is Money, 20 February 2008: "Warren Buffett, the world's most famous investor and the second richest man in the US, has recently invested in UK pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline ... "
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing/article.html?in_article_id=430704&in_page_id=166
Cheney (again), Bush, Rumsfeld and Gilead
John F. Cogan, CEO of Gilead, was economic advisor to President George W. Bush, appointed to serve on a bipartisan commission on Social Security reform in 2001.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/hoover-institution
ON April 20, 2009, I reported: "I've been sifting through the known leads for a couple of months now, and can report that Dick Cheney is the key to the parapolitics of the [Flight 3407] crash ... "
Reported elsewhere: Shultz, Rusmfeld and Gilead Profit from the Bird Flu Scare
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?
"The Gilead model also suggests a parallel to the Halliburton Corporation, whose former CEO is Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney’s company has so far gotten billions worth of US construction contracts in Iraq and elsewhere. Is it just a coincidence that Cheney’s closest political friend is Defense Secretary and Avian Flu beneficiary, Donald Rumsfeld?"
•••
Schering-Plough, Swine Flu Vaccine Makers and Flight 3407
From the DEADLINE investigation of 3407: " ... Schering Plough’s own links to Flight 3407 come second only to Amherst Systems and include the deaths of three employees, Jennifer Neil, Dawn Monachino and Dawn Mossop, (plus Mrs Mossop’s family members; her husband Donald, son Shawn and cousin Ferris Reid). Another 3407 passenger, Donald Macdonald, worked in pharmaceuticals as the quality control engineer for the Canadian pharmacy firm Pharmetics who sold vitamin supplied to the troops in Afghanistan. Pharmetics ... purchased its Canadian plant off Schering Plough client Patheon. ... Patheon ... was purchasing manufacturing plants in Cincinnati from drug manufacture Aventis (now Sanofi–Pasteur). ... "
STRATEGIC MOVE: NAZI MERCK BUYS IN
MARCH 10, 2009: " ... Merck & Co. agreed to buy rival Schering-Plough Corp. for $41.1 billion ... Schering-Plough brings to Merck biotech, consumer-health and animal-health businesses, as well as an expanded presence in Brazil, China and other emerging markets. ... "
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123659326420569463.html
MERCK, BORMANN, KISSINGER, ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, ETC.
"NAZI MONEY BURIED IN NEW CORPORATIONS At the end of the war Hitler ordered Martin Bormann, financial director of the Third Reich, to bury the treasure not only for Germany's economic recovery, but for the rise of the Fourth Reich. So Bormann buried it into 750 corporations as determined by their partners I.G. Farben and the Rockefellers, to establish a monopoly over the world's pharmaceutical and chemical industries because this would be essential for the 'New Ordnung' or 'New Order'. Among the 750 corporations that received the money, one of the principle recipients was Merck and Co. ... Merck has remained a major biological weapons contractor for CIA's top secret project NKNaomi, and Kissinger has remained all these years a major consultant to Merck. Two of the most important financial contributors to world population reduction have been the Merck Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation ... "
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123659326420569463.html
BACK TO DONALD A. HESS, RIP
DEADLINE investigation redux:
http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2009/04/flight-3407-crash-bugs-bombs-bucks.html
Ties things up rather nicely. But let's dig a bit further for the pre-history of the Swine (two-legged variety) Flu ...
- AC
••••••
Time Machine, 1976 ...
"Wallace: Where did this so called "deadly variety of flu", where did it first hit back in 1976? It began right here at Fort Dix in New Jersey in January of that year, when a number of recruits began to complain of respiratory ailments, something like the common cold. ... "
http://www.whale.to/vaccines/swine.html
MIKE WALLACE: The flu season is upon us. Which type will we worry about this year, and what kind of shots will we be told to take? Remember the swine flu scare of 1976? That was the year the U.S. government told us all that swine flu could turn out to be a killer that could spread across the nation, and Washington decided that every man, woman and child in the nation should get a shot to prevent a nation-wide outbreak, a pandemic.
Well, 46 million of us obediently took the shot, and now 4,000 Americans are claiming damages from Uncle Sam amounting to three and a half billion dollars because of what happened when they took that shot. By far the greatest number of the claims - two thirds of them are for neurological damage, or even death, allegedly triggered by the flu shot.
We pick up the story back in 1976, when the threat posed by the swine flu virus seemed very real indeed.
PRESIDENT GERALD FORD; This virus was the cause of a pandemic in 1918 and 1919 that resulted in over half a million deaths in the United States, as well as 20 million deaths around the world.
WALLACE: Thus the U.S. government's publicity machine was cranked into action to urge all America to protect itself against the swine flu menace. (Excerpt from TV commercial urging everyone to get a swine flu shot.) One of those who did roll up her sleeve was Judy Roberts. She was perfectly healthy, an active woman, when, in November of 1976, she took her shot. Two weeks later, she says, she began to feel a numbness starting up her legs.
JUDY ROBERTS: And I joked about it at that time. I said I'll be numb to the knees by Friday if this keeps up. By the following week, I was totally paralyzed.
WALLACE: So completely paralyzed, in fact, that they had to operate on her to enable her to breathe. And for six months, Judy Roberts was a quadriplegic. The diagnosis: A neurological disorder called "Guillian-Barre Syndrome" - GBS for short. These neurological diseases are little understood. They affect people in different ways.
As you can see in these home movies taken by a friend, Judy Roberts' paralysis confined her mostly to a wheelchair for over a year. But this disease can even kill. Indeed, there are 300 claims now pending from the families of GBS victims who died, alledgedly as a result of the swine flu shot. In other GBS victims, the crippling effects diminish and all but disappear. But for Judy Roberts, progress back to good health has been painful and partial.
Now, I notice that your smile, Judy, is a little bit constricted.
ROBERTS: Yes, it is.
WALLACE: Is it different from what it used to be?
ROBERTS: Very different, I have a – a greatly decreased mobility in my lips. AndI can't drink through a straw on the right-band side. I can't blow out birthday candles. I don't whistle any more, for which my husband is grateful.
WALLACE: It may be a little difficult for you to answer this question, but have you recovered as much as you are going to recover?
ROBERTS: Yes. This - this is it.
WALLACE: So you will now have a legacy of braces on your legs for the rest of your life?
ROBERTS: Yes. The weakness in my hands will stay and the leg braces will stay.
WALLACE: So Judy Roberts and her husband have filed a claim against the U.S. government. They're asking $12 million, though they don't expect to get nearly that much. Judy, why did you take the flu shot?
ROBERTS: I'd never taken any other flu shots, but I felt like this was going to be a major epidemic, and the only way to prevent a major epidemic of a - a really deadly variety of flu was for every body to be immunized.
WALLACE: Where did this so called "deadly variety of flu", where did it first hit back in 1976? It began right here at Fort Dix in New Jersey in January of that year, when a number of recruits began to complain of respiratory ailments, something like the common cold. An Army doctor here sent samples of their throat cultures to the New Jersey Public Health Lab to find our just what kind of bug was going around here. One of those samples was from a Private David Lewis, who had left his sick bed to go on a forced march. Private Lewis had collapsed on that march, and his sergeant had revived him by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. But the sergeant showed no signs of illness. A few days later, Private Lewis died.
ROBERTS: If this disease is so potentially fatal that it's going to kill a young, healthy man, a middle-aged schoolteacher doesn't have a prayer.
WALLACE: The New Jersey lab identified most of those solders' throat cultures as the normal kind of flu virus going around that year, but they could not make out what kind of virus was in the culture from the dead soldier, and from four others who were sick. So they sent those cultures to the Federal Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, for further study. A few days later they got the verdict: swine flu. But that much-publicized outbreak of swine flu at Fort Dix involved only Private Lewis, who died, and those four other soldiers, who recovered completely without the swine flu shot.
ROBERTS: If I had known at that time that the boy had been in a sick bed, got up, went out on a forced march and then collapsed and died, I would never have taken the shot.
DR DAVID SENCER: The rationale for our recommendation was not on the basis of the death of a - a single individual, but it was on the basis that when we do see a change in the characteristics of the influenza virus, it is a massive public-health problem in the country.
WALLACE: Dr David Sencer, then head of the CDS - the Center of Disease Control in Atlanta - is now in private industry. He devised the swine flu program and he pushed it.
You began to give flu shots to the American people in October of '76?
DR SENCER: October 1st.
WALLACE: By that time, how many cases of swine flu around the world had been reported?
DR SENCER: There had been several reported, but none confirmed. There had been cases in Australia that were reported by the press, by the news media. There were cases in -
WALLACE: None confirmed? Did you ever uncover any other outbreaks of swine flu anywhere in the world?
DR SENCER: No
WALLACE: Now, nearly everyone was to receive a shot in a public health facility where a doctor might not be present, therefore it was up to the CDC to come up with some kind of official consent form giving the public all the information it needed about the swine flu shot. This form stated that the swine flu vaccine had been tested. What it didn't say was that after those tests were completed, the scientists developed another vaccine and that it was the one given to most of the 46 million who took the shot. That vaccine was called "X-53a". Was X-53a ever field tested?
DR SENCER: I-I can't say. I would have to -
WALLACE: It wasn't
DR SENCER: I don't know
WALLACE: Well, I would think that you're in charge of the program
DR SENCER: 1 would have to check the records. I haven't looked at this in some time.
WALLACE: The information form the consent form was also supposed to warn people about any risk of serious complications following the shot. But did it?
ROBERTS: No, I had never heard of any reactions other than a sore arm, fever, this sort of thing.
WALLACE: Judy Roberts' husband, Gene, also took the shot.
GENE ROBERTS: Yes, I looked at that document, I signed it. Nothing on there said I was going to have a heart attack, or I can get Guillain Barre, which I'd never heard of.
WALLACE: What if people from the government, from the Center for Disease Control, what if they had indeed, known about it, what would be your feeling?
JUDY ROBERTS: They should have told us.
WALLACE: Did anyone ever come to you and say, "You know something, fellows, there's the possibility of neurological damage if you get into a mass immunization program?"
DR SENCER: No
WALLACE: No one ever did?
DR SENCER: No
WALLACE: Do you know Michael Hattwick?
DR SENCER: Yes, uh-hmm.
WALLACE: Dr Michael Hattwick directed the surveillance team for the swine flu program at the CDC. His job was to find out what possible complications could arise from taking the shot and to report his findings to those in charge. Did you know ahead of time, Dr Hattwick that there had been case reports of neurological disorders, neurological illness, apparently associated with the injection of influenza vaccine?
DR MICHAEL HNITWlCK: Absolutely
WALLACE: You did?
DR HATIWICK: Yes
WALLACE: How did you know that?
DR HATrwICK: By review of the literature.
WALLACE: So you told your superiors - the men in charge of the swine flu immunization program - about the possibility of neurological disorders?
DR RATTWICK: Absolutely
WALLACE: What would you say if I told you that your superiors say that you never told them about the possibility of neurological complications?
DR HAJTWICK: That's nonsense. I can't believe that they would say that they did not know that there were neurological illnesses associated with influenza vaccination. That simply is not true. We did know that.
DR SENCER: I have said that Dr Hattwick had never told me of his feelings on this subject.
WALLACE: Then he's lying?
DR SENCER: I guess you would have to make that assumption.
WALLACE: Then why does this report from your own agency, dated July 1976, list neurological complications as a possibility?
DR SENCER: I think the consensus of the scientific community was that the evidence relating neurologic disorders to influenza immunization was such that they did not feel that this association was a real one.
WALLACE: You didn't feel it was necessary to tell the American people that information
DR SENCER: I think that over the - the years we have tried to inform the American people as - as fully as possible.
WALLACE: As part of informing Americans about the swine flu threat, Dr Sencer's CDC also helped create the advertising to get the public to take the shot. Let me read to your from one of your own agency's memos planning the campaign to urge Americans to take the shot. "The swine flu vaccine has been taken by many important persons," he wrote. "Example: President Ford, Henry Kissinger, Elton John, Muhammad Ah, Mary Tyler Moore, Rudolf Nureyev, Walter Cronkite, Ralph Nader, Edward Kennedy" -etcetera, etcetera, True?
DR SENCER: I'm not familiar with that particular piece of paper, but I do know that, at least of that group, President Ford did take the vaccination.
WALLACE: Did you talk to these people beforehand to find out if they planned to take the shot?
DR SENCER: I did not, no.
WALLACE: Did anybody?
DR SENC ER: I do not know.
WALLACE: Did you get permission to use their names in your campaign?
DR SENCER: I do not know.
WALLACE: Mary, did you take a swine flu shot?
MARY TYLER MOORE: No, I did not.
WALLACE: Did you give them permission to use your name saying that you had or were going to?
MOORE: Absolutely not. Never did.
WALLACE: Did you ask your own doctor about taking the swine flu shot?
MOORE: Yes, and at the time he thought it might be a good idea. But I resisted it, because I was leery of having the symptoms that sometimes go with that kind of inoculation.
WALLACE: So you didn't?
MOORE: No, I didn't.
WALLACE: Have you spoken to your doctor since?
MOORE: Yes.
WALLACE: And?
MOORE: He's delighted that I didn't take that shot.
WALLACE: You're in charge. Somebody's in charge.
DR SENCER: There are -
WALLACE: This is your advertising strategy that I have a copy of here.
DR SENCER: Who's it signed by?
WALLACE: This one is unsigned. But you--you'll acknowledge that it was your baby so to speak?
DR SENCER: It could have been from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. It could be from CDC. I don't know. I'll be happy to take responsibility for it.
WALLACE: It's been three years now since you fell ill by GBS right?
ROBERTS: Right.
WALLACE: Has the federal government, in your estimation, played fair with you about your claim?
ROBERTS: No, I don't think so. It seems to be dragging on and on and on, and really no end in sight that I can see at this point.
JOSEPH CALIFANO: With respect to the cases of Guillain Barre...
WALLACE: Former Secretary of HEW Joseph Caifano, too was disturbed that there was no end in sight. So a year and a half ago, he proposed that Uncle Sam would cut the bureaucratic red tape for victims suffering from GBS and would pay up quickly.
CALIFANO: We shouldn't hold them to an impossible or too difficult standard of proving that they were hurt. Even if we pay a few people a few thousand dollars that might not have deserved it, I think justice requires that we promptly pay those people who do deserve it.
WALLACE: Who's making the decision to be so hard-nosed about settling?
CALIFANO: Well, I assume the Justice Department is.
WALLACE: Griffin Bell, before he left?
CALIFANO: Well, the Justice Department agreed to the statement I made. It was cleared word for word with the lawyers in the Justice Department by my HEW lawyers.
CALIFANO: That-that statement said that we should pay Guillain Barre claims without regard to whether the federal government was negligent, if they - if they resulted from the swine flu shot.
GENE ROBERTS: I think the government knows its wrong.
JUDY ROBERTS: If it drags out long enough, that people will just give up, let it go.
GENE ROBERTS: I—I am a little more adament in my thoughts than my wife is, because I asked - told Judy to take the shot. She wasn't going to take it, and she never had had shots. And I'm mad with my government because they knew the fact, but they didn't realise those facts because they - if they had released them, the people wouldn't have taken it. And they can come out tomorrow and tell me there's going to be an epidemic, and they can drop off like flies to - next to me, I will not take another shot that my government tells me to take.
WALLACE: Meantime, Judy Roberts and some 4,000 others like her are still waiting for their day in court.
By Alex Constantine (Revised)In today's news: GILEAD, Glaxo and Roche, a few other pharmaceutical concerns, stand to make handsome profits in the near future: "Drug and vaccine makers on standby over swine flu," Apr 26, 2009, LONDON/ZURICH (Reuters) - "Drugmakers said on Sunday they could supply millions of doses of medicine and were ready to work on a vaccine against a new type of swine flu that has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and infected around a dozen in the United States. Roche Holding AG's Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, and GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Relenza, or zanamivir, are both recommended drugs for seasonal flu and have been shown to work against viral samples of the new disease. ... The two companies have received contracts in recent years from individual governments and corporations for stockpiles of their medicines, following earlier fears over bird flu. Those sales provided windfall profits, especially for Roche, and also benefited their respective partners. Tamiflu was originally invented by U.S. biotech company Gilead Sciences Inc, while Relenza was licensed to Glaxo by Australia's Biota Holdings Ltd. ... Leading flu vaccine manufacturers include Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi-Aventis SA, Glaxo, Novartis AG and Baxter International Inc. Sanofi Pasteur, as the world leading producer of influenza vaccine, is standing ready to assess its capabilities to support public health efforts, should the WHO and other health authorities request support from influenza vaccine manufacturers," said spokesman Pascal Barollier."
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE53P1IU20090426
Baxter International and Austria's Orth-Donau Facility May be the Source of the Current Swine Flu Contagion in MexicoBaxter? As in ... "Baxter working on vaccine to stop swine flu, though admitted sending live pandemic flu viruses to subcontractor"
http://www.legitgov.org/baxter_flu_vaccine_260409.html
Baxter admits sending live avian flu viruses to subcontractor: People familiar with biosecurity rules are dismayed by evidence that human H3N2 and avian H5N1 viruses somehow co-mingled in the Orth-Donau facility. 27 Feb 2009 The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses. ...
Donau, Austria. [Source: The Canadian Press]
Compare with:
Spectre of pandemic 26 Apr 2009 The new strain contains gene sequences from North American and Eurasian swine flus, North American bird flu and North American human flu, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of Mexico's dead were young, healthy adults, and none was aged older than 60 or or younger than three, the World Health Organization said. This has alarmed health officials... Pandemic flus - like the 1918 Spanish flu and the 1957 and 1968 pandemics - often strike young, healthy people the hardest. Mexican officials promised a huge immunisation campaign in the capital this week. ...
http://www.legitgov.org/baxter_flu_vaccine_260409.html
Baxter International and American Home Products
"Baxter Corporation, a subsidiary of American Home Products [now Wyeth]—another direct progeny of the decartelized German drug and chemical combine known as I.G. Farben. ... "
http://www.healingcelebrations.com/smallpoxandanthrax.htm
WARREN BUFFETT Stands to make a KILLING, tooWarren Buffett snaps up shares in Glaxo, Philip Scott, This is Money, 20 February 2008: "Warren Buffett, the world's most famous investor and the second richest man in the US, has recently invested in UK pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline ... "
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing/article.html?in_article_id=430704&in_page_id=166
Cheney (again), Bush, Rumsfeld and Gilead
John F. Cogan, CEO of Gilead, was economic advisor to President George W. Bush, appointed to serve on a bipartisan commission on Social Security reform in 2001.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/hoover-institution
ON April 20, 2009, I reported: "I've been sifting through the known leads for a couple of months now, and can report that Dick Cheney is the key to the parapolitics of the [Flight 3407] crash ... "
Reported elsewhere: Shultz, Rusmfeld and Gilead Profit from the Bird Flu Scare
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?
"The Gilead model also suggests a parallel to the Halliburton Corporation, whose former CEO is Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney’s company has so far gotten billions worth of US construction contracts in Iraq and elsewhere. Is it just a coincidence that Cheney’s closest political friend is Defense Secretary and Avian Flu beneficiary, Donald Rumsfeld?"
•••
Schering-Plough, Swine Flu Vaccine Makers and Flight 3407
From the DEADLINE investigation of 3407: " ... Schering Plough’s own links to Flight 3407 come second only to Amherst Systems and include the deaths of three employees, Jennifer Neil, Dawn Monachino and Dawn Mossop, (plus Mrs Mossop’s family members; her husband Donald, son Shawn and cousin Ferris Reid). Another 3407 passenger, Donald Macdonald, worked in pharmaceuticals as the quality control engineer for the Canadian pharmacy firm Pharmetics who sold vitamin supplied to the troops in Afghanistan. Pharmetics ... purchased its Canadian plant off Schering Plough client Patheon. ... Patheon ... was purchasing manufacturing plants in Cincinnati from drug manufacture Aventis (now Sanofi–Pasteur). ... "STRATEGIC MOVE: NAZI MERCK BUYS IN
MARCH 10, 2009: " ... Merck & Co. agreed to buy rival Schering-Plough Corp. for $41.1 billion ... Schering-Plough brings to Merck biotech, consumer-health and animal-health businesses, as well as an expanded presence in Brazil, China and other emerging markets. ... "
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123659326420569463.html
MERCK, BORMANN, KISSINGER, ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, ETC.
"NAZI MONEY BURIED IN NEW CORPORATIONS At the end of the war Hitler ordered Martin Bormann, financial director of the Third Reich, to bury the treasure not only for Germany's economic recovery, but for the rise of the Fourth Reich. So Bormann buried it into 750 corporations as determined by their partners I.G. Farben and the Rockefellers, to establish a monopoly over the world's pharmaceutical and chemical industries because this would be essential for the 'New Ordnung' or 'New Order'. Among the 750 corporations that received the money, one of the principle recipients was Merck and Co. ... Merck has remained a major biological weapons contractor for CIA's top secret project NKNaomi, and Kissinger has remained all these years a major consultant to Merck. Two of the most important financial contributors to world population reduction have been the Merck Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation ... "
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123659326420569463.html
BACK TO DONALD A. HESS, RIP
DEADLINE investigation redux:
Boston University and UMDNJ along side Schering Plough along pharmaceutical research firm and institutes like Kintex Hauptmanwoodward can all identified as key recipients of Department of Defence funding. Kintex, Schering Plough and Hauptman-Woodward can also be identified as financial supporters of the Niagara Medical Campus Buffolo.
Hauptman-Woodward, gained prominence recently after they were appointed to head a project on how viruses mutate and transfer between animals and humans.
Hauptman-Woodward former chairman is Donald Hess, the cofounder of Amherst Systems (purchased in 1999 by defence giant Northrop Grumman) who died in a plane crash in November 2008, just three months before his employees Jerome Krasuski, Darren Tolsma Steve Johnston and Ernest West died on Flight 3407.
The three million dollars in federal funding required for Hauptman-Woodward species jumping research can be identified as having come from the 2008 Department of Defence Appropriations Bill.
Hess also served on the board of Kinex Pharmaceutical, whose vice president Dr Allen Barnett is the former vice president of Schering-Plough and, like Hess, a member of the board of the University of Buffalo’s Niagara Medical Campus.
All lab facilities involved in the missing plague cases in Newark and Buffalo have another common link in that they were all designed by CUH2A whose client list includes US Bio Warfare military contractors Abbot Merck, Pfizer, Schering Plough, plus the New Jersey Economic Development Authority who lobbied pharmeseutical firms to set up their hazardous bio research in heavily populated areas.
http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2009/04/flight-3407-crash-bugs-bombs-bucks.html
Ties things up rather nicely. But let's dig a bit further for the pre-history of the Swine (two-legged variety) Flu ...
- AC
••••••
Time Machine, 1976 ... "Wallace: Where did this so called "deadly variety of flu", where did it first hit back in 1976? It began right here at Fort Dix in New Jersey in January of that year, when a number of recruits began to complain of respiratory ailments, something like the common cold. ... "
http://www.whale.to/vaccines/swine.html
MIKE WALLACE: The flu season is upon us. Which type will we worry about this year, and what kind of shots will we be told to take? Remember the swine flu scare of 1976? That was the year the U.S. government told us all that swine flu could turn out to be a killer that could spread across the nation, and Washington decided that every man, woman and child in the nation should get a shot to prevent a nation-wide outbreak, a pandemic.
Well, 46 million of us obediently took the shot, and now 4,000 Americans are claiming damages from Uncle Sam amounting to three and a half billion dollars because of what happened when they took that shot. By far the greatest number of the claims - two thirds of them are for neurological damage, or even death, allegedly triggered by the flu shot.We pick up the story back in 1976, when the threat posed by the swine flu virus seemed very real indeed.
PRESIDENT GERALD FORD; This virus was the cause of a pandemic in 1918 and 1919 that resulted in over half a million deaths in the United States, as well as 20 million deaths around the world.
WALLACE: Thus the U.S. government's publicity machine was cranked into action to urge all America to protect itself against the swine flu menace. (Excerpt from TV commercial urging everyone to get a swine flu shot.) One of those who did roll up her sleeve was Judy Roberts. She was perfectly healthy, an active woman, when, in November of 1976, she took her shot. Two weeks later, she says, she began to feel a numbness starting up her legs.
JUDY ROBERTS: And I joked about it at that time. I said I'll be numb to the knees by Friday if this keeps up. By the following week, I was totally paralyzed.
WALLACE: So completely paralyzed, in fact, that they had to operate on her to enable her to breathe. And for six months, Judy Roberts was a quadriplegic. The diagnosis: A neurological disorder called "Guillian-Barre Syndrome" - GBS for short. These neurological diseases are little understood. They affect people in different ways.
As you can see in these home movies taken by a friend, Judy Roberts' paralysis confined her mostly to a wheelchair for over a year. But this disease can even kill. Indeed, there are 300 claims now pending from the families of GBS victims who died, alledgedly as a result of the swine flu shot. In other GBS victims, the crippling effects diminish and all but disappear. But for Judy Roberts, progress back to good health has been painful and partial.
Now, I notice that your smile, Judy, is a little bit constricted.
ROBERTS: Yes, it is.
WALLACE: Is it different from what it used to be?
ROBERTS: Very different, I have a – a greatly decreased mobility in my lips. AndI can't drink through a straw on the right-band side. I can't blow out birthday candles. I don't whistle any more, for which my husband is grateful.WALLACE: It may be a little difficult for you to answer this question, but have you recovered as much as you are going to recover?
ROBERTS: Yes. This - this is it.
WALLACE: So you will now have a legacy of braces on your legs for the rest of your life?
ROBERTS: Yes. The weakness in my hands will stay and the leg braces will stay.
WALLACE: So Judy Roberts and her husband have filed a claim against the U.S. government. They're asking $12 million, though they don't expect to get nearly that much. Judy, why did you take the flu shot?
ROBERTS: I'd never taken any other flu shots, but I felt like this was going to be a major epidemic, and the only way to prevent a major epidemic of a - a really deadly variety of flu was for every body to be immunized.
WALLACE: Where did this so called "deadly variety of flu", where did it first hit back in 1976? It began right here at Fort Dix in New Jersey in January of that year, when a number of recruits began to complain of respiratory ailments, something like the common cold. An Army doctor here sent samples of their throat cultures to the New Jersey Public Health Lab to find our just what kind of bug was going around here. One of those samples was from a Private David Lewis, who had left his sick bed to go on a forced march. Private Lewis had collapsed on that march, and his sergeant had revived him by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. But the sergeant showed no signs of illness. A few days later, Private Lewis died.
ROBERTS: If this disease is so potentially fatal that it's going to kill a young, healthy man, a middle-aged schoolteacher doesn't have a prayer.
WALLACE: The New Jersey lab identified most of those solders' throat cultures as the normal kind of flu virus going around that year, but they could not make out what kind of virus was in the culture from the dead soldier, and from four others who were sick. So they sent those cultures to the Federal Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, for further study. A few days later they got the verdict: swine flu. But that much-publicized outbreak of swine flu at Fort Dix involved only Private Lewis, who died, and those four other soldiers, who recovered completely without the swine flu shot.
ROBERTS: If I had known at that time that the boy had been in a sick bed, got up, went out on a forced march and then collapsed and died, I would never have taken the shot.
DR DAVID SENCER: The rationale for our recommendation was not on the basis of the death of a - a single individual, but it was on the basis that when we do see a change in the characteristics of the influenza virus, it is a massive public-health problem in the country.
WALLACE: Dr David Sencer, then head of the CDS - the Center of Disease Control in Atlanta - is now in private industry. He devised the swine flu program and he pushed it.
You began to give flu shots to the American people in October of '76?
DR SENCER: October 1st.
WALLACE: By that time, how many cases of swine flu around the world had been reported?
DR SENCER: There had been several reported, but none confirmed. There had been cases in Australia that were reported by the press, by the news media. There were cases in -
WALLACE: None confirmed? Did you ever uncover any other outbreaks of swine flu anywhere in the world?
DR SENCER: No
WALLACE: Now, nearly everyone was to receive a shot in a public health facility where a doctor might not be present, therefore it was up to the CDC to come up with some kind of official consent form giving the public all the information it needed about the swine flu shot. This form stated that the swine flu vaccine had been tested. What it didn't say was that after those tests were completed, the scientists developed another vaccine and that it was the one given to most of the 46 million who took the shot. That vaccine was called "X-53a". Was X-53a ever field tested?
DR SENCER: I-I can't say. I would have to -
WALLACE: It wasn't
DR SENCER: I don't know
WALLACE: Well, I would think that you're in charge of the program
DR SENCER: 1 would have to check the records. I haven't looked at this in some time.
WALLACE: The information form the consent form was also supposed to warn people about any risk of serious complications following the shot. But did it?
ROBERTS: No, I had never heard of any reactions other than a sore arm, fever, this sort of thing.
WALLACE: Judy Roberts' husband, Gene, also took the shot.
GENE ROBERTS: Yes, I looked at that document, I signed it. Nothing on there said I was going to have a heart attack, or I can get Guillain Barre, which I'd never heard of.
WALLACE: What if people from the government, from the Center for Disease Control, what if they had indeed, known about it, what would be your feeling?
JUDY ROBERTS: They should have told us.
WALLACE: Did anyone ever come to you and say, "You know something, fellows, there's the possibility of neurological damage if you get into a mass immunization program?"
DR SENCER: No
WALLACE: No one ever did?
DR SENCER: No
WALLACE: Do you know Michael Hattwick?
DR SENCER: Yes, uh-hmm.
WALLACE: Dr Michael Hattwick directed the surveillance team for the swine flu program at the CDC. His job was to find out what possible complications could arise from taking the shot and to report his findings to those in charge. Did you know ahead of time, Dr Hattwick that there had been case reports of neurological disorders, neurological illness, apparently associated with the injection of influenza vaccine?
DR MICHAEL HNITWlCK: Absolutely
WALLACE: You did?
DR HATIWICK: Yes
WALLACE: How did you know that?
DR HATrwICK: By review of the literature.
WALLACE: So you told your superiors - the men in charge of the swine flu immunization program - about the possibility of neurological disorders?
DR RATTWICK: Absolutely
WALLACE: What would you say if I told you that your superiors say that you never told them about the possibility of neurological complications?
DR HAJTWICK: That's nonsense. I can't believe that they would say that they did not know that there were neurological illnesses associated with influenza vaccination. That simply is not true. We did know that.
DR SENCER: I have said that Dr Hattwick had never told me of his feelings on this subject.
WALLACE: Then he's lying?
DR SENCER: I guess you would have to make that assumption.
WALLACE: Then why does this report from your own agency, dated July 1976, list neurological complications as a possibility?
DR SENCER: I think the consensus of the scientific community was that the evidence relating neurologic disorders to influenza immunization was such that they did not feel that this association was a real one.
WALLACE: You didn't feel it was necessary to tell the American people that information
DR SENCER: I think that over the - the years we have tried to inform the American people as - as fully as possible.
WALLACE: As part of informing Americans about the swine flu threat, Dr Sencer's CDC also helped create the advertising to get the public to take the shot. Let me read to your from one of your own agency's memos planning the campaign to urge Americans to take the shot. "The swine flu vaccine has been taken by many important persons," he wrote. "Example: President Ford, Henry Kissinger, Elton John, Muhammad Ah, Mary Tyler Moore, Rudolf Nureyev, Walter Cronkite, Ralph Nader, Edward Kennedy" -etcetera, etcetera, True?DR SENCER: I'm not familiar with that particular piece of paper, but I do know that, at least of that group, President Ford did take the vaccination.
WALLACE: Did you talk to these people beforehand to find out if they planned to take the shot?
DR SENCER: I did not, no.
WALLACE: Did anybody?
DR SENC ER: I do not know.
WALLACE: Did you get permission to use their names in your campaign?
DR SENCER: I do not know.
WALLACE: Mary, did you take a swine flu shot?
MARY TYLER MOORE: No, I did not.
WALLACE: Did you give them permission to use your name saying that you had or were going to?
MOORE: Absolutely not. Never did.
WALLACE: Did you ask your own doctor about taking the swine flu shot?
MOORE: Yes, and at the time he thought it might be a good idea. But I resisted it, because I was leery of having the symptoms that sometimes go with that kind of inoculation.
WALLACE: So you didn't?
MOORE: No, I didn't.
WALLACE: Have you spoken to your doctor since?
MOORE: Yes.
WALLACE: And?
MOORE: He's delighted that I didn't take that shot.
WALLACE: You're in charge. Somebody's in charge.
DR SENCER: There are -
WALLACE: This is your advertising strategy that I have a copy of here.
DR SENCER: Who's it signed by?
WALLACE: This one is unsigned. But you--you'll acknowledge that it was your baby so to speak?
DR SENCER: It could have been from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. It could be from CDC. I don't know. I'll be happy to take responsibility for it.
WALLACE: It's been three years now since you fell ill by GBS right?
ROBERTS: Right.
WALLACE: Has the federal government, in your estimation, played fair with you about your claim?
ROBERTS: No, I don't think so. It seems to be dragging on and on and on, and really no end in sight that I can see at this point.
JOSEPH CALIFANO: With respect to the cases of Guillain Barre...WALLACE: Former Secretary of HEW Joseph Caifano, too was disturbed that there was no end in sight. So a year and a half ago, he proposed that Uncle Sam would cut the bureaucratic red tape for victims suffering from GBS and would pay up quickly.
CALIFANO: We shouldn't hold them to an impossible or too difficult standard of proving that they were hurt. Even if we pay a few people a few thousand dollars that might not have deserved it, I think justice requires that we promptly pay those people who do deserve it.
WALLACE: Who's making the decision to be so hard-nosed about settling?
CALIFANO: Well, I assume the Justice Department is.
WALLACE: Griffin Bell, before he left?
CALIFANO: Well, the Justice Department agreed to the statement I made. It was cleared word for word with the lawyers in the Justice Department by my HEW lawyers.
CALIFANO: That-that statement said that we should pay Guillain Barre claims without regard to whether the federal government was negligent, if they - if they resulted from the swine flu shot.
GENE ROBERTS: I think the government knows its wrong.
JUDY ROBERTS: If it drags out long enough, that people will just give up, let it go.
GENE ROBERTS: I—I am a little more adament in my thoughts than my wife is, because I asked - told Judy to take the shot. She wasn't going to take it, and she never had had shots. And I'm mad with my government because they knew the fact, but they didn't realise those facts because they - if they had released them, the people wouldn't have taken it. And they can come out tomorrow and tell me there's going to be an epidemic, and they can drop off like flies to - next to me, I will not take another shot that my government tells me to take.
WALLACE: Meantime, Judy Roberts and some 4,000 others like her are still waiting for their day in court.