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 AIDS: a U.S.-made monster?

 PREFACE
 In an extensive article in the Summer-Autumn 1990 issue of "Top Secret", Prof
J. Segal and Dr. L. Segal outline their theory that AIDS is a man-made disease,
originating at Pentagon bacteriological warfare labs at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
Top Secret is the international edition of the German magazine Geheim and is
considered by many to be a sister publication to the American Covert Action
Information Bulletin (CAIB). In fact, Top Secret carries the Naming Names
column, which CAIB is prevented from doing by the American government, and
which names CIA agents in different locations in the world. The article, named
"AIDS: US-Made Monster" and subtitled "AIDS - its Nature and its Origins," is
lengthy, has a lot of professional terminology and is dotted with footnotes.
The following is my humble attempt to encapsulate its highlights.


AIDS FACTS
 "The fatal weakening of the immune system which has given AIDS its name
(Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome)," write the Segals, "has been traced back
to a destruction or a functional failure of the T4-lymphocytes, also called
'helper cells`, which play a regulatory role in the production of antibodies in
the immune system." In the course of the illness, the number of functional T4-
cells is reduced greatly so that new anti-bodies cannot be produced and the
defenseless patient remains exposed to a range of infections that under other
circumstances would have been harmless. Most AIDS patients die from
opportunistic infections rather than from the AIDS virus itself.

The initial infection is characterized by diarrhea, erysipelas and intermittent
fever. An apparent recovery follows after 2-3 weeks, and in many cases the
patient remains without symptoms and functions normally for years. Occasionally
a swelling of the lymph glands, which does not affect the patient's well-being,
can be observed.

After several years, the pre-AIDS stage, known as ARC (Aids- Related Complex)
sets in. This stage includes disorders in the digestive tract, kidneys and
lungs. In most cases it develops into full-blown AIDS in about a year, at which
point opportunistic illnesses occur. Parallel to this syndrome, disorders in
various organ systems occur, the most severe in the brain, the symptoms of
which range from motoric disorders to severe dementia and death.

This set of symptoms, say the Segals, is identical in every detail with the
Visna sickness which occurs in sheep, mainly in Iceland. (Visna means tiredness
in Icelandic). However, the visna virus is not pathogenic for human beings.

The Segals note that despite the fact that AIDS is transmitted only through
sexual intercourse, blood transfusions and non- sterile hypodermic needles, the
infection has spread dramatically. During the first few years after its
discovery, the number of AIDS patients doubled every six months, and is still
doubling every 12 months now though numerous measures have been taken against
it. Based on these figures, it is estimated that in the US, which had 120,000
cases of AIDS at the end of 1988, 900,000 people will have AIDS or will have
died of it by the end of 1991. It is also estimated that the number of people
infected is at least ten times the number of those suffering from an acute case
of AIDS. That in the year 1995 there will be between 10-14 million cases of
AIDS and an additional 100 million people infected, 80 percent of them in the
US, while a possible vaccination will not be available before 1995 by the most
optimistic estimates. Even when such vaccination becomes available, it will not
help those already infected. These and following figures have been reached at
by several different mainstream sources, such as the US Surgeon General and the
Chief of the medical services of the US Army.

Say the Segals: "AIDS does not merely bring certain dangers with it; it is
clearly a programmed catastrophe for the human race, whose magnitude is
comparable only with that of a nuclear war." They later explain what they mean
by "programmed," showing that the virus was produced by humans, namely Dr.
Robert Gallo of the Bethesda Cancer Research Center in Maryland. When
proceeding to prove their claims, the Segals are careful to note that: "We have
given preference to the investigative results of highly renowned laboratories,
whose objective contents cannot be doubted. We must emphasize, in this
connection, that we do not know of any findings that have been published in
professional journals that contradict our hypotheses."

 DISCOVERING AIDS
 The first KNOWN cases of AIDS occurred in New York in 1979. The first
DESCRIBED cases were in California in 1979. The virus was isolated in Paris in
May 1983, taken from a French homosexual who had returned home ill from a trip
to the East Coast of the US. One year later, Robert Gallo and his co-workers at
the Bethesda Cancer Research Center published their discovery of the same
virus, which is cytotoxic, i.e poisonous to cells.

Shortly after publishing his discovery, Gallo stated to newspapers that the
virus had developed by a natural process from the Human Adult Leukemia virus,
HTLV-1, which he had previously discovered. However, this claim was not
published in professional publications, and soon after, Alizon and Montagnier,
two researchers of the Pasteur Institute in Paris published charts of HTLV-1
and HIV, showing that the viruses had basically different structures. They also
declared categorically that they knew of no natural process by which one of
these two forms could have evolved into the other.

According to the professional "science" magazine, the fall 1984 annual meeting
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), was almost
entirely devoted to the question of: to what extent new pathogenic agents could
be produced via human manipulation of genes. According to the Segals, AIDS was
practically the sole topic of discussion.

THE AIDS VIRUS
 The Segals discuss the findings of Gonda et al, who compared the HIV, visna
and other closely-related viruses and found that the visna virus is the most
similar to HIV. The two were, in fact, 60% identical in 1986. According to
findings of the Hahn group, the mutation rate of the HIV virus was about a
million times higher than that of similar viruses, and that on the average a
10% alteration took place every two years. That would mean that in 1984, the
difference between HIV and visna would have been only 30%, in 1982- 20%, 10% in
1980 and zero in 1978. "This means," say the Segals, "that at this time visna
viruses changed into HIV, receiving at the same time the ability to become
parasites in human T4-cells and the high genetic instability that is not known
in other retroviruses. This is also consistent with the fact that the first
cases of AIDS appeared about one year later, in the spring of 1979."

"In his comparison of the genomes of visna and HIV," add the Segals, "Coffin
hit upon a remarkable feature. The env (envelope) area of the HIV genome, which
encodes the envelope proteins which help the virus to attach itself to the host
cell, is about 300 nucleotides longer than the same area in visna. This
behavior suggests that an additional piece has been inserted into the genomes
of the visna virus, a piece that alters the envelope proteins and enables them
to bind themselves to the T4-receptors. BUT THIS SECTION BEHAVES LIKE A
BIOLOGICALLY ALIEN BODY,  which does not match the rest of the system
biochemically. (emphasis mine)

The above mentioned work by Gonda et al shows that the HIV virus has a section
of about 300 nucleotides, which does not exist in the visna virus. That length
corresponds with what Coffin described. That section is particularly unstable,
which indicates that it is an alien object. According to the Segals, it
"originates in an HTLV-1 genome, (discovered by Gallo-ED) for the likelihood of
an accidental occurrence in HIV of a genome sequence 60% identical with a
section of the HTLV-1 that is 300 nucleotides in length is zero." Since the
visna virus is incapable of attaching itself to human T4 receptors, it must
have been the transfer of the HTLV-1 genome section which gave visna the
capability to do so. In other words, the addition of HTLV-1 to visna made the
HIV virus. In addition, the high mutation rate of the HIV genome has been
explained by another scientific team, Chandra et al, by the fact that it is "a
combination of two genome parts which are alien to each other BY ARTIFICIAL
MEANS rather than by a natural process of evolution, because this process would
have immediately eliminated, through natural selection, systems that are so
replete with disorders."

"These are the facts of the case," say the Segals.  "HIV is essentially a visna
virus which carries an additional protein monomer of HTLV-1 that has an epitope
capable of bonding with T4 receptors. Neither Alizon and Montagnier nor any
other biologist know of any natural mechanism that would make it possible for
the epitope to be transferred from HTLV-1 to the visna virus. For this reason
we can come to only one conclusion: that this gene combination arose by
artificial means, through gene manipulation."

"THE CONSTRUCTION OF HIV"
 "The construction of a recombinant virus by means of gene manipulation is
extraordinarily expensive, and it requires a large number of highly qualified
personnel, complicated equipment and expensive high security laboratories.
Moreover, the product would have no commercial value. Who, then," ask the
Segals, "would have provided the resources for a type of research that was
aimed solely at the production of a new disease that would be deadly to human
beings?"

 The English sociologist Allistair Hay (as well as Paxman et al  in "A Higher
Form of Killing"-ED), published a document whose   authenticity has been
confirmed by the US Congress, showing that a representative of the Pentagon
requested in 1969 additional   funding for biological warfare research. The
intention was to   create, within the next ten years, a new virus that would
not be susceptible to the immune system, so that the afflicted patient  would
not be able to develop any defense against it. Ten years later, in the spring
of 1979, the first cases of AIDS appeared in New York.

"Thus began a phase of frantic experimentation," say the Segals.

One group was working on trying to cause animal pathogens to   adapt themselves
to life in human beings. This was done under the cover of searching for a cure
for cancer. The race was won by   Gallo, who described his findings in 1975. A
year later, Gallo   described gene manipulations he was conducting. In 1980 he
published his discovery of HTLV.

In the fall of 1977, a P4 (highest security category of laboratory, in which
human pathogens are subjected to genetic   manipulations) laboratory was
officially opened in building 550   of Fort Detrick, MD, the Pentagon's main
biological warfare   research center. "In an article in 'Der Spiegel`, Prof.
Mollings point out that this type of gene manipulation was still extremely
difficult in 1977. One would have had to have a genius as great as Robert Gallo
for this purpose, note the Segals."

Lo and behold. In a supposed compliance with the international   accord banning
the research, production and storage of biological  weapons, part of Fort
Detrick was "demilitarized" and the virus  section renamed the "Frederick
Cancer Research Facility". It was  put under the direction of the Cancer
Research Institute in   neighboring Bethesda, whose director was no other than
Robert   Gallo. This happened in 1975, the year Gallo discovered HTLV.
Explaining how the virus escaped, the Segals note that in the US,  biological
agents are traditionally tested on prisoners who are  incarcerated for long
periods, and who are promised freedom if   they survive the test. However, the
initial HIV infection   symptoms are mild and followed by a seemingly healthy
patient.

"Those who conducted the research must have concluded that the new virus
was...not so virulent that it could be considered for  military use, and the
test patients, who had seemingly recovered,  were given their freedom. Most of
the patients were professional  criminals and New York City, which is
relatively close, offered them a suitable milieu. Moreover, the patients were
exclusively men, many of them having a history of homosexuality and drug abuse,
as is often the case in American prisons. 1111

It is understandable why AIDS broke out precisely in 1979, precisely among men
and among drug users, and precisely in New York City," assert the Segals. They
go on to explain that whereas in cases of infection by means of sexual contact,
incubation periods are two  years and more, while in cases of massive infection
via blood  transfusions, as must have been the case with prisoners, incubation
periods are shorter than a year. "Thus, if the new virus was ready at the
beginning of 1978 and if the experiments  began without too much  delay, then
the first cases of full- blown  AIDS in 1979 were  exactly the result that
could have been  expected."

In the next three lengthy chapters, the Segals examine other   theories,
"legends" as they call them, of the origins of AIDS.   Dissecting each claim,
they show that they have no scientific   standing, providing also the findings
of other scientists. They   also bring up the arguments of scientists and
popular writers who have been at the task of discounting them as "conspiracy
theorists" and show these writers' shortcomings. Interested readers will have
to read the original article to follow those debates. I will only quote two
more paragraphs:

"We often heard the argument that experiments with human volunteers are part of
a barbaric past, and that they would be   impossible in the US today... We wish
to present one single   document whose authenticity is beyond doubt. An
investigative   commission of the US House of Representatives presented in
October 1986 a final report concerning the Manhattan Project. According to this
document, between 1945 and 1975 at least 695   American citizens were exposed
to dangerous doses of radioactivity. Some of them were prisoners who had
volunteered,   but they also included residents of old-age homes, inmates of
insane asylums, handicapped people in nursing homes, and even   normal patients
in public hospitals; most of them were subjected to these experiments without
their permission. Thus the 'barbaric  past` is not really a thing of the past."

"It is remarkable that most of these experiments were carried out in university
institutes and federal hospitals, all of which are named in the report.
Nonetheless, these facts remained secret until 1984, and even then a
Congressional committee that was equipped with all the necessary
authorization needed two years in order to bring these facts to life. We are
often asked how the work on the AIDS virus could have been kept secret. Now,
experiments performed on a few dozen prisoners in a laboratory that is
subject to military security can be far more easily kept secret than could
be the Manhattan Project."