Creation of a Super Germ Was the AIDS virus, or other so-called “emerging viruses” such as Ebola and Marburg viruses, created in bio-warfare laboratories during the 1970s? 1974, newborn chimpanzees were taken at birth and weaned on milk from virus-infected cows. Some sickened and died with two new diseases that had never been observed in chimps. The first was a parasitic pneumonia known as Pneumocystis Carinii pneumonia (later known as AIDS); the second was leukemia A decade before the first cases of AIDS, Dr. Donald M. MacArthur, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense, told a Congressional Hearing that a “super germ” could be developed as part of our experimental bio-warfare program. This genetically engineered germ would be very different from any previous microbe known to mankind. The agent would be a highly effective killing agent because the immune system would be powerless against this super-microbe (Testimony before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Department of Defense Appropriations for 1970, dated July 1, 1969). A transcript of this meeting on “Synthetic Biological Agents” records the following comments of Dr. MacArthur: 1. All biological agents up to the present time are representatives of naturally occurring disease, and thus are known by scientists throughout the world. They are easily available to qualified scientists for research, either for offensive or defensive purposes. 2. Within the next 5 to 10 years, it would probably be possible to make a new infective microorganism which could differ in certain important aspects from any known disease-causing organisms. Most important of these is that it might be refractory to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease. 3. A research program to explore the feasibility of this could be completed in approximately 5 years at a total cost of $10 million. 4. It would be very difficult to establish such a program. Molecular biology is a relatively new science. There are not many competent scientists in the field, almost all are in university laboratories, and they are generally adequately supported from sources other than the Department of Defense. However, it was considered possible to initiate an adequate program through the National Academy of Sciences — National Research Council (NAS-NRC). The matter was discussed with the NAS-NRC, and tentative plans were made to initiate the program. However, decreasing funds in CB (chemical/biological) research, growing criticism of the CB program, and our reluctance to involve the NAS-NRC in such a controversial endeavor have led us to postpone it for the past two years. It is a highly controversial issue and there are many who believe such research should not be undertaken lest it lead to yet another method of massive killing of large populations… Should an enemy develop it, there is little doubt that it is an important area of potential military technological inferiority in which there is no adequate research program. Was the AIDS virus, or other so-called “emerging viruses” such as Ebola and Marburg viruses, created in bio-warfare laboratories during the 1970s? During the 1970s, the U.S. Army’s bio-warfare program intensified, particularly in the area of DNA and gene splicing research. Renouncing germ warfare except for “medical defensive research,” President Richard Nixon in 1971 ordered that a major part of the Army’s bio-warfare research be transferred over to the National Cancer Institute (where HIV would be discovered a decade later by Gallo). That same year, Nixon also initiated his famous War on Cancer, and offensive bio-warfare research (particularly genetic engineering of viruses) continued under the umbrella of orthodox cancer research. Cancer virologists learned “to jump” animal cancer viruses from one species of animal to another. Chicken viruses were put into lamb kidney cells; baboon viruses were spliced into human cancer cells; the combinations were endless. In due process, deadly man-made viruses were developed, and new forms of cancer, immunodeficiency, and opportunistic infections were produced when these viruses were forced or adapted into laboratory animals and into human tissue cell cultures.14 As predicted by the bio-warfare experts, new cancer-causing monster viruses were created that had a deadly effect on the immune system. In one government-sponsored experiment reported in 1974, newborn chimpanzees were taken away from their mothers at birth and weaned on milk obtained from virus-infected cows. Some of the chimps sickened and died with two new diseases that had never been observed in chimps. The first was a parasitic pneumonia known as Pneumocystis Carinii pneumonia (later known as AIDS); the second was leukemia.15
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 05:49:34 +0000
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