FTR#585—Update on Lyme
disease and Biological Warfare--(Two 30-minute segments) (Sources are noted in
parentheses.) (Recorded on 2/11/2007.)
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Summary of FTR#585—(Note: The massive
volume of ‘For The Record’ programs about 9/11 and related topics is summarized
and analyzed in the periodically-updated description for FTR#391. FTR#’s
454, 455, 456 are compilations of much of the key documentation
culled from Mr. Emory’s investigation into 9/11. Along with FTR#391, they should give
listeners/readers a substantive grasp of this momentous event. It is
recommended that listeners use this description and e-mail it to others.) Continuing the inquiry
undertaken in FTR#480,
this program explores the relationship between Lyme disease and biological
warfare research. After reviewing American employment of Nazi biological
warfare chief Erich Traub in the aftermath of World War II, the broadcast notes
that Traub may well have experimented with disease-infected ticks on Plum
Island. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Lyme disease may have stemmed
(accidentally or deliberately) from biological warfare research experiments on
Plum Island. At every turn, Lyme disease research is inextricably linked with
biological warfare research. Divided into the “Steere” and “ILADS” camps, the
Lyme disease research community is split between the view that the disease is
“hard-to-catch, easy-to-cure” and the diametrically opposed view that the
disease is very serious and produces long-term neurological disorder. The
Steere camp diminishes the significance of the disease and is closely
identified with biological warfare research. At the epicenter of Lyme disease
research (and the Steere camp) are members of the Epidemic Intelligence
Service, or EIS. EIS personnel are to be found at every bend in the road of
Lyme disease research.
Program Highlights Include: The discovery by Willy Burgdorfer of the
microbe that causes Lyme disease; Burgdorfer’s work as a biological warfare
(BW) researcher; Burgdorfer’s work on Lyme disease conducted in concert with BW
researchers Jorge Benach and Alan Barbour; the appointment of BW researchers
Edward McSweegan and Mark Klempner to head up official research into Lyme
disease; the “accidental” classification of Lyme disease as a potential
biological warfare weapon by both the NIH and the CDC; the Pentagon’s use of a
real-time satellite system that enables troops in the field to assess the
threat of Lyme-infected ticks in their area; the fact that Lyme disease sheds
its outer coat in such a way as to be resistant to antibiotics; the difficulty
in diagnosing Lyme disease; the designation of Lyme disease as a “sentinel”
ailment to aid in the detection of biological warfare agents.
1.
Side “A” of the broadcast consists of review of information
from FTR#480. All of the actual text is available at: http://www.spitfirelist.com/f480.html.
Highlighting an aspect of Project Paperclip (the
importation of Nazi scientists to work for the U.S. after World War II), the
program details the work of Eric Traub. In charge of bacteriological and
virological warfare research for the Third Reich, he went to work for the U.S.
after the conflict. Circumstantial evidence suggests he may have conducted
biological warfare research on tick-borne diseases on, among other places, Plum
Island, off the coast of Long Island. FTR#480 presents information suggesting
that the spread of Lyme disease in this country may have originated from
Plum Island BW tests.
2.
The second half of the program sets forth a thought-provoking paper
about the ubiquitous presence of biological warfare specialists in the Lyme
disease research community. By the same token, the history of Lyme
disease research is associated with biological warfare research at virtually
every turn. Lyme research is controlled by the Steere Camp, whose members
are inextricably linked to the biological warfare research community in this
country. The opposing camp-the ILADS—contends that Lyme disease is a serious
ailment that produces prolonged neurological symptoms. The Steere Camp
maintains that Lyme is “hard-to-catch, easy-to-cure.” “The world of Lyme disease medicine is split into two camps
– the US government-backed ‘Steere camp’, which maintains the disease is
hard-to-catch, easily cured, and rarely causes chronic neurological damage, and
the ‘ILADS camp’, which maintains the opposite. The Steere camp is intricately
bound up with the American biowarfare establishment, as well as with giant
insurance and other corporate interests with a stake in the issue. The ILADS
doctors lack such connections, but are supported instead by tens of thousands
of patients rallying behind them. Because the Steere camp has been massively
funded and promoted by federal agencies, its view has dominated Lyme medicine
not just in the US, but across much of the world. The result has been suffering
on a grand scale. Below is a concise history of the military aspects of this
cover-up.” (“History of Lyme disease as a Bioweapon: Lyme is a
Biowarfare Issue” by Elena Cook; privately published manuscript available at: http://ftrsupplemental.blogspot.com/2007/02/history-of-lyme-disease-as-bioweapon.html.)
3.
The Borrelia genus has long been researched as a biological warfare
vector. Note that Unit 731 personnel and their files were put to work for the
United States after World War II, much like the Project Paperclip scientists
from Germany. “ . . . The Borrelia genus of
bacteria, which encompasses the Borrelia burgdorferi species-group (to which
Lyme disease is attributed), was studied by the infamous WW2 Japanese biowar
Unit 731, who carried out horrific experiments on prisoners in Manchuria,
including dissection of live human beings. [iii] Unit 731 also worked on a
number of other tick-borne pathogens. After the war, the butchers of Unit 731
were shielded from prosecution by the US authorities, who wanted their
expertise for the Cold War. [iv] The US government also protected and recruited
German Nazi bioweaponeers under the aegis of the top-secret Operation Paperclip.
. . .” (Idem.)
4.
The extraordinary mutability of borrelia bacteria makes that genus
especially well-suited for biological warfare purposes. “ . . . borrelia were known for their ability to adopt
different forms under conditions of stress (such as exposure to antibiotics).
Shedding their outer wall, (which is the target of penicillin and related
drugs), they could ward off attack and continue to exist in the body. Lyme
disease is not usually fatal, and it is sometimes argued that, with rapidly
lethal agents like smallpox and plague available, an army would have no
interest in it. However, what is important to understand here is that
incapacitating or ‘non-lethal’ bioweapons are a major part of biowarfare
R&D [vi], and have been for decades. . . . Military strategists understand
that disabling an enemy’s soldiers can sometimes cause more damage than killing
them, as large amount of resources are then tied up in caring for the
casualties. An efficient incapacitating weapon dispersed over a civilian
population could destroy a country’s economy and infrastructure without firing
a shot. People would either be too sick to work, or too busy looking after
those who were.” (Idem.)
5.
Research into Lyme disease has been dominated by personnel from the
Epidemic Intelligence Service, whose members are the premier biological warfare
experts in the country. The EIS personnel make up the Steere Camp. EIS
personnel administered Lyme disease research from the beginning: “ . . . When Polly Murray made her now-famous call to the Connecticut
health department to report the strange epidemic among children and adults in
her town, her initial reception was lukewarm. However, some weeks later, she
got an unexpected call from a Dr David Snydman, of the Epidemic Intelligence
Service (EIS), who was very interested. He arranged for fellow EIS officer Dr
Allen Steere to get involved. By the time Mrs. Murray turned up for her
appointment at Yale, the doctor she had expected to see had been relegated to
the role of an onlooker. Allen Steere had taken charge – and his views were to
shape the course of Lyme medicine for the next thirty years, up till today.
[x]” (Idem.)
6.
More about the EIS and its importance to the international biological
warfare research community: “The EIS is an elite,
quasi-military unit of Infectious Disease experts set up in the 1950’s to
develop an offensive biowarfare capability. Despite the banning of offensive
biowar in the 1970’s, the crack troops of the EIS continue to exist, ostensibly
for non-offensive research into ‘emerging disease’ threats, a blanket phrase
covering both bioweapon attacks and natural epidemics at the same time.
Graduates of the EIS training program are sent in to occupy strategic positions
in the US health infrastructure, taking leadership at federal and state health
agencies, in academia, industry and the media. The organization also extends
its influence abroad, training officers for public health agencies in Britain,
France, the Netherlands etc. [xi] [xii]” (Idem.)
7.
“In fact a high proportion of Steere camp Lyme experts are
involved with the EIS. Given that the EIS is a small, elite force, (in 2001 the
CDC revealed there were less than 2500 EIS officers in existence since the unit
was first created in 1951 [xiii]), it seems incredible that so many of America’s
top Infectious Disease experts would devote their careers to what they
themselves claim is a ‘hard-to-catch, easily-cured’ disease. . . .” (Idem.)
8.
The discoverer of the micro-organism that causes Lyme was a biological
warfare expert—Willy Burgdorfer. Two of the people with whom Burgdorfer worked
in the early phases of Lyme research (Jorge Benach and Alan Barbour) were also
BW [biological warfare] specialists. “ . . . The
microbe was accidentally found by biowarfare scientist Willy Burgdorfer
and was subsequently named for him. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] Burgdorfer has
championed the Lyme patients’ movement and is not suspected of any wrongdoing.
However it is not impossible that he was unwittingly caught up in a chain of
events that were not as random as they might have seemed. [Burgdorfer was a
Swiss scientist who had been recruited by the US Public Health Service in the
1950’s. He was highly experienced with both ticks and borrelia, but after being
told that the government was not interesting in funding work with the latter,
he switched to work with Rickettsia and other pathogens. [xiv] In 1981,
Burgdorfer was sent a batch of deer ticks by a team studying Rocky Mountain
Spotted Fever on the East Coast. In charge of the team was one Dr Jorge
Benach. [xv] Benach subsequently spent much of his career as a Steere camp Lyme
researcher. In 2004 he was chosen as recipient for a $3 million biowarfare
research grant. [xvi] [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] Cutting open some of
Benach’ ticks, Burgdorfer noticed microfilaria (microscopic worm young). This
was a subject he had been studying recently, only these microfilaria were
different. They were exceptionally large, large enough to be seen with the
naked eye.[xvii] His curiosity naturally piqued, he opened up several more
ticks. There he was surprised to find the spiral-shaped germs of borrelia.
Cultivation is necessary in order to isolate bacteria for study, so that
diagnostic tests, vaccines or cures can be developed. Borrelia are very
difficult to grow in culture. However, by ‘lucky coincidence’, another
scientist had recently joined the lab where he worked, and had apparently been
involved in an amazing breakthrough in this area. So naturally Burgdorfer
handed the infected ticks over to him. [xviii] That scientist was Dr. Alan
Barbour, an officer, like Steere and Snydman, of the Epidemic Intelligence
Service, with a background in work on anthrax, one of the most terrifying
biowarfare agents known. [xix] [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.]” (Idem.)
9.
Setting the template for future Lyme research, EIS researcher Alan
Barbour’s work on borrelia determined the nature of subsequent Lyjme disease
testing. Barbour has gone on to the top position in a biological warfare
research facility at the University of California at Irvine, where he is
working with another “Steerite,” Jonas Bunikis. “.
. . EIS man Barbour therefore became the first to isolate the prototype
organism on which all subsequent Lyme disease blood tests would be based. [xx]
This is very significant, as a huge body of evidence [xxi] indicates the
unreliability of these tests, which are routinely used to rule out the disease.
Additionally, all DNA detection of the Lyme agent in ticks and animals is
ultimately based, directly or indirectly, on the genetic profile of the strain
first isolated by Barbour. Shortly after Barbour’s discovery, other species and
strains of the Lyme-causing bacteria were isolated, especially in Europe. They
were all classified based on their resemblance to Barbour’s organism, and have
been grouped into a category called Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato or ‘Bbsl’
for short. . . . In 2005 Barbour, who
spent much of his career studying the ‘hard-to-catch, easy-to-cure’ Lyme
disease, was placed in charge of the multi-million new biowarfare mega-complex
based at University of California at Irvine (UCI). [xxiv] Barbour is joined
there by his close colleague and fellow Steerite Jonas Bunikis, author of
recent papers calling for a restrictive approach to Lyme diagnosis. [Italics
are Mr. Emory’s.]” (Idem.)
10.
Edward McSweegan and Mark Klempner are two of the other BW experts to
enter the Lyme disease research field. “ . . . The
National Institute of Health (NIH) appointed biowarfare expert Edward McSweegan
as Lyme Program officer. [xxv] [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] Under his
leadership the diagnostic criteria was skewed to exclude most sufferers,
especially those with chronic neurological illness. McSweegan’s successor at
NIH, Dr Phil Baker, is an anthrax expert [xxvi], and has continued his
policies. . . . In 2001, responding to the protest of thousands of patients
that standard two or three-week antibiotic courses were not sufficient, the
NIH commissioned biowarfare scientist Mark Klempner to study persistence of
Lyme infection. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] ILADS doctors had found that
patients left untreated in the early phase often needed long courses of
antibiotics, [xxix] sometimes for years. Klempner, however, concluded that
persistent Lyme infection did not exist. In 2003 Klempner was appointed head of
the new $1.6 billion biowarfare top-security facility being developed at Boston
University. Shortly after, the news emerged that there had been an escape of
the deadly bug tularemia, which was not properly reported to the authorities.
[xxx] . . .” (Idem.)
11.
Both the National Institute of Health and the Center for Disease
Control “accidentally” listed Lyme as a potential bioterrorism vector. “In 2005 the author discovered a document on the NIH
website listing Lyme as one of the potential bioterrorism agents studied in BSL-4
(top security) labs. After this was publicized, the NIH announced they had made
a ‘mistake’, and removed the words ‘Lyme disease’ from the page. (At the time
of writing, the original is still available in cached Internet archives.
[xxxi]) However, at around the same time, a CDC source leaked the identical
information to the Associated Press. [xxxii] Moreover, the Science Coalition,
comprising entities as prestigious as the American Medical Association, Yale
University, and the American Red Cross, maintain a website which, at the time
of writing, also lists Lyme as a disease studied for its biowarfare potential.
[xxxiii] Could these three major organizations all have, co-incidentally, made
the same ‘mistake’? . . .” (Idem.)
12.
Supplementing information in paragraph 4, the program notes that
the Lyme disease is difficult to diagnose, another factor that makes it ideal
for BW use. “ . . . Lyme’s ability to evade
detection on routine medical tests, its myriad presentations which can baffle
doctors by mimicking 100 different diseases, its amazing abilities to evade the
immune system and antibiotic treatment, would make it an attractive choice to
bioweaponeers looking for an incapacitating agent. Lyme’s abilities as ‘the
great imitator’ might mean that an attack could be misinterpreted as simply a
rise in the incidence of different, naturally-occurring diseases such as
autism, MS, lupus and chronic fatigue syndrome (M.E.). Borrelia’s inherent
ability to swap outer surface proteins, which may also vary widely from strain
to strain, would make the production of an effective vaccine extremely
difficult. (A vaccine developed for the public by the Steere camp in
collaboration with Glaxo Smithkline was pulled from the market a few years ago
amid class action lawsuits [xxxvi].) Finally, the delay before the appearance
of the most incapacitating symptoms would allow plenty of time for an attacker
to move away from the scene, as well as preventing people in a contaminated
zone from realizing they had been infected and seeking treatment. Often in the
early period there is no rash, only vague flu-like or other non-specific
symptoms which might be dismissed by GP’s, or ignored by the patient. . . .” (Idem.)
13.
Lyme disease has been proposed as a “sentinel” germ for biological
warfare detection. A Department of Defense satellite system gives soldiers
real-time data on the presence of Lyme-infected ticks in their vicinity. “ . . . The 2003 proposal for a rapid-detection method for
biowarfare by Dr JJ Dunn of Brookhaven National Lab seems to add further
grounds for suspicion. It is based on the use of two ‘sentinel’ germs – plague
and Lyme. [xxxvii] In 1999 Lyme patient advocacy leader Pat Smith was amazed to
find, on visiting an Army base at an old biowar testing ground in Maryland, that
the US Dept. of Defense has developed a satellite-linked system that enables
soldiers to read, in real-time, off a display on their helmet’s visor,
information about the rate of Lyme-infected ticks wherever they may be on
earth. Unit commanders could update the database using state-of-the-art
portable PCR machines, which test for Lyme DNA in soldiers bitten by ticks.
[xxxviii] The use of such cutting-edge technology for a supposedly
‘hard-to-catch, easy-to-cure’ illness seems odd, to say the least! . . .”(Idem.)
14.
The conclusion to the essay encapsulates its working hypothesis: “ . . . It’s possible to see the modern history of Lyme as a
string of events with an EIS member at every crucial node. . . .” (Idem.)