AIDS Essay, Research Paper

AIDS

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.

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

defenceless 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. “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”, say the Segals. ” 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 behaviour

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.

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 neighbouring 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. 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

resultthat 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.”