No exit strategy for the new Cold War

 

Weapons Used in Bioterrorism

Weapons Used in Bioterrorism

The nature of terrorism is such that it uses fear as a means of intimidation. Thus, bioterrorism uses biological agents to instill that fear. Victor Sidel, MD,^[5] Distinguished Professor of Social Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, New York City, reviewed the nature of terrorism, and its effects. The incitement of extreme fear can lead to political and economic destabilization. The identification of symbolic or random targets further contributes to people’s fear and anxiety.

The agents of terror include small arms/light weapons, explosives, incendiaries, chemical weapons, and biological weapons. Dr. Sidel described how anthrax was stockpiled and tested during World War II. In the recent past, the US military began immunizing members of the armed forces against certain biological weapons, including anthrax. However, this required immunization became controversial because of uncertainty regarding the vaccine’s effectiveness and the attendant side effects. Some members of the military were dismissed when they refused to be immunized.

Dr. Sidel also addressed the issue of smallpox, which had been virtually eliminated from the globe by 1979 but could be a devastating biological weapon. When smallpox was declared eradicated, only 3 samples of the virus remained in the world. Current concern about smallpox is fueled largely by past reports from Soviet Union defectors that some Soviet scientists had continued to weaponize smallpox. The current concern is exacerbated by the suspicion that people with the intent to incite terror may now have samples of the organism. Consequently, the US Government has ordered an increase in the manufacture of smallpox vaccines so that they are available in the event that they are needed.

The Effects of War on Public Health

War creates large numbers of refugees and displaced persons, drains financial and human resources, poisons the environment, and supports violence and military engagement as a legitimate approach to settling disputes. In a seminar entitled “War and Public Health”, Barry Levy, MD, MPH,^[1] past President of the APHA, described some of the long-term physical and mental effects of war, listing 10 issues that need immediate attention from the public health community:

• Improving the public health infrastructure so that it is sufficient to combat terrorism
• Improving the public health infrastructure’s ability to address a wide range of public health issues
• Educating and informing the public so that it can deal appropriately with threats
• Supporting policy and programs aimed at providing adequate mental health services
• Ensuring protection of the environment, particularly food and water
• Preventing hate crimes and promoting civil liberties
• Protecting civilian communities
• Reducing poverty and disparity throughout the world
• Controlling and eliminating biological and nuclear weapons
• Ending armed conflict in Afghanistan

Many of the concerns described by Dr. Levy were previously reflected in a joint statement by the Public Health Association of New York City and the APHA, released soon after the September 11 attacks in New York City and Washington, DC.

^[6]

While strongly condemning all acts of terrorism, the statement urged public health workers throughout the United States to work to prevent responses of bias, hatred, vengeance, and violence in local communities. It also called for “…local, national and international policies to alleviate social and economic disparities, health disparities, injustices and violations of human rights that contribute to hatred, conflict and violence.”

^[6]

On Overview of Current Threats to Public Health

Bioterrorism raises issues that need to be addressed globally. Robert Gould, MD,^[7] President of Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Peace Caucus of the APHA, emphasized this expanded focus during his overview of current threats to public health and assessed US responses to these threats.

Approximately 70 different types of germs can be “weaponized” for use as agents of biological warfare. The term “weaponized” refers to packaging or treating an agent so that it becomes easier to distribute to a large area. For example, manufacturing anthrax spores as a fine powder increases the ability of the spores to become airborne and be inhaled.

According to Dr. Gould about 11 nations have the capacity to develop biological agents. But the ability to weaponize biological agents is limited.

Approximately 30% of the diseases that would be caused by the known available agents can be treated, Dr. Gould said. However, this percentage does not take into account the potential for genetic engineering and its potential contribution to exacerbating problems caused by currently treatable organisms. He described 4 current objective threats to the public’s health. These threats include:

• Emerging infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis and West Nile Virus and serious outbreaks of salmonella
• Recent incidents of terrorism, including bombings and the use of sarin gas in the Tokyo subways in 1995.
• Use of Fusarium oxysporum, an agent the United States is urging Colombia to use for eradication of cocoa plants
• Hoaxes, particularly those seen in the aftermath of confirmed reports of anthrax exposure in New York City and Washington, DC

Tuberculosis (TB) is the most significant reemerging infectious disease; it has once again become endemic in some areas of the United States. For example, The New York State Department of Corrections reported a 500% increase in the incidence of TB between 1985 and 1991.

^[8]

Many of these cases were attributed to a multi-drug resistant strain of TB.

The West Nile virus is also an emerging infectious disease. The virus was reported for the first time in the Western Hemisphere during the summer of 1999. Transmitted by mosquitoes, the effects of human infection range from an asymptomatic response to encephalitis, resulting in neurological impairment or death.^[9]

Another example of a recently emergent infectious disease cited was the Salmonella outbreaks that occurred on the US West Coast between 1996 and 1998. The alfalfa sprout-associated events resulted in an estimated 22,800 cases of gastrointestinal illness and 2 deaths.^[10]

Other incidents of terrorism include the World Tread Center bombings of 1993, the 1995 sarin gas attack in the subways of Tokyo, Japan, and the more recent bombing of the US Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The third concern described by Dr. Gould was the use of Fusarium oxysporum, a fungal agent that the United States is urging Colombia to employ to destroy cocoa plants. This is being done, according to Dr. Gould, without regard to the effect the agent could have if it gained entry into the food chain. Case reports of human deaths have documented death due to disseminated infection from the fungus, despite appropriate antimicrobial and antifungal therapy.^[11] Like anthrax, theFusarium fungus causes death via a hemmorrhagic toxin, which has been isolated from soybean seeds.^[12] A high risk of death has been associated with this agent, one that can be transported easily by food grains.

Finally, Dr. Gould noted the problems and disruptions that occur with hoaxes. Any perceived threat to the public health must be investigated. When a hoax is perpetuated, resources being used to address real events are diverted. For example, in a recent 2-week period (October 2001), US postal inspectors have investigated over 6000 incidents of false alarms or practical jokes related to concern about possible anthrax.^[13]

In Dr. Gould’s view, the likelihood of anthrax causing a large-scale national catastrophe is not great at this point. However, he expressed some concern about the possibility of a future smallpox epidemic and the damage it could do.

Smallpox was reportedly first used as a biological weapon during the French and Indian War (1754-1767). British soldiers distributed blankets used by smallpox patients to native Americans; subsequent outbreaks killed more than 50% of the members of infected tribes.

The smallpox organism is spread by droplets or aerosols produced by sneezing or coughing.^[14]There are no known animal or insect reservoirs. Patients are infectious from the onset of a chicken pox-like rash until the rash scabs over. Unlike chicken pox, the rash begins peripherally on the hands and feet, then migrates centrally.

In 1977, the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated from the world. Thus by 1980, most countries no longer required vaccination of their citizens. Given the length of time since vaccination, previously vaccinated individuals are also likely to be at risk, as vaccine effectiveness theoretically wanes over time. Given the high fatality rate in unvaccinated individuals, use of smallpox as a biological weapon would seriously threaten large populations.^[14]

According to Dr. Gould, several US agencies are now reconsidering their previous decision recommending that Americans not receive a smallpox vaccination. However the balance between the negative side effects of vaccination and the positive aspect of protection from the disease have not yet tipped in the direction of recommending large-scale vaccination programs.

Dr. Gould recommended several specific alternative responses that the public health community could adopt in response to these concerns. These include: increasing and improving surveillance and treatment, particularly of TB; ensuring a good and safe food supply; reducing chemical accidents; tending to global public health needs; and advocating for a strong biological weapons convention.

Medscape Family Medicine/Primary Care.  2001;3(2) ©2001 Medscape

SOURCE: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/407930_2

Incendiary Devices

Incendiary Weapons

The purposes of incendiaries are to cause maximum fire damage on flammable materials and objects and to illuminate. Incendiary agents are used to burn supplies, equipment, and structures. Initial action of the incendiary munition may destroy these materials, or the spreading and continuing of fires started by the incendiary may destroy them. Even experienced troops may suffer increased battle fatigue when confronted with a surprise enemy weapon, tactic, or attack. Examples include napalm bombs (Israel against Egypt, US against North Vietnam).

The use of flame weapons, such as Fougasse, the M202A1 Flash, white phosphorous, thermobaric, and other incendiary agents, against military targets is not a violation of current international law. They should not, however, be employed to just cause unnecessary suffering to individuals. The use of flame weapons should be addressed in the ROE. Flame weapons are characterized by both physical (flame and overpressure) and psychological casualty-producing abilities.

Flame does not normally need to be applied with pinpoint accuracy to accomplish its mission. Efforts must be made to ensure that certain types of flame munitions effects do not spread to structures needed by friendly forces. Large fires in urban areas are catastrophic, and these fires can create an impenetrable barrier for hours.

Flame weapons can be used against fortified positions, interior buildings, tunnels (to include subways and sewers), and open areas. They can also be used to control avenues of approach for personal and lightly armored vehicles. When employed properly, even if the round or burst misses, enough flaming material and overpressure enters the position or area to cause casualties and disrupt operations. Thermobaric munitions provide a more effective and selective flame capability that is easier and safer to employ at all levels of tactical operations without the side effect of large area destruction due to uncontrolled fires.

Fire is an effective way of interrupting operations of enemy personnel and in damaging supplies stored in the open. Complaints of smelling something burning is a common symptom among Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD] sufferers who were exposed to napalm or burning flesh in various wars.

Incendiaries produce intense, localized heat designed to ignite adjacent combustible target materials. The true incendiary produces no fireball and relatively little flame. The basic damage mechanism of firebomb weapons comes from the fireball and burning residual fuel globules, impact momentum of the fuel and container, and damage from fires started by the weapon. The sharp cutoff of casualty-producing mechanisms outside the incendiary pattern allows delivery close to friendly troops, usually parallel to the forward line of battle, with minimum risk. Munitions have been developed with full fragmentation and penetrating capabilities coupled with reactive incendiary devices. These improved incendiaries are highly effective against fuel and other flammable targets. A drawback, however, in planning for the employment of incendiary weapons is that incendiary/fire effects are not evaluated in current weaponeering methodologies.

Incendiary Munitions

As refined models with better capabilities were developed, the concept of propelling a jellied oil of thick fuel that splattered and stuck to targets at ranges over 60 yards endured until the early 1970s, when rocket powered flame weapons provided greater standoff capabilities, such as the 4-barrel M202 rocket launcher, the M72 LAW, and MK 153 SMAW. The most common US flame weapons currently employed are the M202A1 Flash, flame field expedients (Fougasse), and the M14 TH3 incendiary hand grenade. The M202A1 Flash may be replaced by a new shoulder-fired, thermobaric warhead, soft-launched rocket to support soldiers.

The main incendiary agents are thermite (TH), magnesium (MG), WP, and combustible hydrocarbons (including oils and thickened gasoline).

Thermite incendiaries are a mixture of powdered aluminium metal and ferric oxide and are used in bombs for attacks on armoured fighting vehicles. Thermite burns at about 2000°C and scatters molten metal, which may lodge in the skin producing small multiple deep burns.

Magnesium (Mg) burns at about 2000ºC with a scattering effect similar to that of thermite. Its particles produce deep burns.

At ordinary temperatures, white phosphorus (WP) is a solid which can be handled safely under water. When dry, it burns fiercely in air, producing a dense white smoke. Fragments of melted particles of the burning substance may become embedded in the skin of persons close to a bursting projectile, producing burns which are multiple, deep and variable in size. The fragments continue to burn unless oxygen is excluded by flooding or smothering.

Combustible hydrocarbons fall into two categories:

1. flame-throwers, oil incendiary bombs. During a flame-thrower attack, as flame and burning fuel fills an enclosed fortification, the oxygen content of the air is reduced and a hot toxic atmosphere containing large amounts of carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons and smoke is produced.
2. fire bombs containing thickened gasoline. A fire-bomb is a large tank containing thickened (gelled) gasoline that is air dropped. When it strikes the ground, the fuel is ignited by phosphorus igniters and a large fireball of intense heat is produced, lasting about 4 to 6 seconds. Also, a wide area of ground is covered with burning thickened gasoline, which may continue to burn for as long as 10 to 12 minutes.

The Marine Corps uses flame weapons systems, such thermobaric systems, that belong to a new class of fuel-rich compositions that release energy over a longer period of time (more so than standard explosives). When detonated in confined spaces, a chemical reaction causes a vigorous evolution of heat, pressure, and flame or spattering of burning particles as the warhead cloud expands. The result is a deflagration, a rapid [though sub-sonic] combustion process that gives off heat and light [in contrast to a detonation, which produces a super-sonic shock wave].

Incendiary Munitions – Application

To be effective, incendiary munitions should be used against targets susceptible to fire or heat damage. A considerable part of the target must be flammable, so the fire can spread.

Weather conditions have little influence on incendiary munitions themselves. Wind and precipitation, however, may greatly influence the combustibility of the target and its susceptibility to fire spread. Winds assist in the effectiveness of incendiaries, increase the rate of combustion, and can spread fires downwind more rapidly. Actually, each large fire can create a wind system of its own. This wind system results from the tremendous heat generated and the resulting vertical wind currents. Incoming winds can feed more air to the fire. This increases the rate of combustion, which, in turn, can increase the wind. In extreme cases, this wind is called a fire storm and sometimes exceeds 60 knots.

Smoke, sparks, and flames fly in the direction of the wind. Incendiary strikes (at successive targets) should be planned to begin with the farthest downwind target and proceed upwind. This will prevent aiming points from becoming obscured by smoke traveling downwind of initial fires. Additionally, the position of friendly forces or facilities that must not be damaged must be considered (in relation to the wind direction) when planning incendiary strikes.

Temperature, temperature gradient, and clouds have little if any effect on incendiaries. Humidity also has little effect upon incendiary munitions but may affect combustible material. Wood, vegetation, and similar material absorb some moisture from the air over a period. If relative humidities have been high for some time, as in the tropics, it may be more difficult to achieve combustion from incendiary action.

Rain or snowfall, even when light, can render grass and brush quite incombustible and make a continuing fire unlikely. Heavy timbers are not affected unless they have been exposed to long periods of precipitation. Combustible materials exposed to rain may be susceptible to fire damage, such as in mass incendiary attacks. In these attacks, the heat of combustion may be sufficient to dry combustible materials in the target area. In regions of high humidities, such as the tropics, mass incendiary attacks generate tremendous amounts of heat, causing vertical wind currents. This rising air can cause thunderstorms, counteracting the effects of the incendiaries.

It is difficult to extinguish burning metals with water; a spray actually speeds the burning. Water surrounding the area of burning metals prevents fire spread. Water extinguishes burning phosphorus, but unconsumed particles will burn again when dry.

Three elements of terrain affect the efficient use of incendiaries. These are soil, vegetation, and topography. The type of soil affects the impacting of the munition; combustibility of the vegetation affects the efficiency of the incendiary; and topography influences wind speed and direction. 

SOURCE: GlobalSecurity.org

Microbiologists and other leading researchers die mysterious deaths

List of Dead Scientists 

Died 2009

#93: Keith Fagnou, 38. Died November 11 of H1N1. His research focused on improving the preparation of complex molecules for petrochemical, pharmaceutical or industrial uses. Keith’s advanced and out–of-the-box thinking overturned prior ideas of what is possible in the chemistry field.

#92: Stephen Lagakos, 63. Died October 12 in an auto collision, wife, Regina, 61, and his mother, Helen, 94, were also killed in the crash, as was the driver of the other car, Stephen Krause, 52, of Keene, N.H. Lagakos centered his efforts on several fronts in the fight against AIDS particularly how and when HIV-infected women transmitted the virus to their children. In addition, he developed sophisticated methods to improve the accuracy of estimated HIV incidence rates. He also contributed to broadening access to antiretroviral drugs to people in developing countries.

#91: Malcolm Casadaban, 60. Died Sept. 13 of plague. Casadaban, a renowned molecular geneticist with a passion for new research, had been working to develop an even stronger vaccine for the plague. The medical center says the plague bacteria he worked with was a weakened strain that isn’t known to cause illness in healthy adults. The strain was approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for laboratory studies.

#90: Wallace L. Pannier, 81. Died Aug. 6 of respiratory failure and other natural causes. Pannier, a germ warfare scientist whose top-secret projects included a mock attack on the New York subway with powdered bacteria in 1966. Mr. Pannier worked at Fort Detrick, a US Army installation in Frederick that tested biological weapons during the Cold War and is now a center for biodefense research. He worked in the Special Operations Division, a secretive unit operating there from 1949 to 1969, according to family members and published reports. The unit developed and tested delivery systems for deadly agents such as anthrax and smallpox.

#89: August “Gus” Watanabe, 67. Died June 9, found dead outside a cabin in Brown County. Friends discovered the body, a .38-caliber handgun and a three-page note at the scene. They said he had been depressed following the death last month of his daughter Nan Reiko Watanabe Lewis. She died at age 44 while recovering from elective surgery. Watanabe was one of the five highest-paid officers of Indianapolis pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly and Co. when he retired in 2003.

#88: Caroline Coffey, 28. Died June 3, from massive cuts to her throat. Hikers found the body of the Cornell Univ. post-doctoral bio-medicine researcher along a wooded trail in the park, just outside Ithaca, N.Y., where the Ivy League school is located. Her husband was hospitalized under guard after a police chase and their apartment set on fire.

#87: Nasser Talebzadeh Ordoubadi, 53. Died February 14, of “suspicious” causes. Dr. Noah (formerly Nasser Talebzadeh Ordoubadi) is described in his American biography as a pioneer of Mind-Body-Quantum medicine who lectured in five countries and ran a successful health care center General Medical Clinics Inc. in King County, Washington for 15 years after suffering a heart attack in 1989. Among his notable accomplishments was discovering an antitoxin treatment for bioweapons.

 Died 2008

#86: Bruce Edwards Ivins, 62. Died July 29, of an overdose. He committed suicide prior to formal charges being filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for an alleged criminal connection to the 2001 anthrax attacks. Ivins was likely solely responsible for the deaths of five persons, and the injury of dozens of others, resulting from the mailings of several anonymous letters to members of Congress and members of the media in September and October, 2001, which letters contained Bacillus anthracis, commonly referred to as anthrax. Ivins was a coinventor on two US patents for anthrax vaccine technology.

#84 & 85: Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23. Died July 3, after being bound, gagged, stabbed and set alight. Laurent, a student in the proteins that cause infectious disease, had been stabbed 196 times with half of them being administered to his back after he was dead. Gabriel, who hoped to become an expert in ecofriendly fuels, suffered 47 separate injuries.

Died 2007

#83: Yongsheng Li, age 29. Died: sometime after 4 p.m. on March 10, when he was last seen as a result of unknown causes. He was found in a pond between the Women’s Sports Complex and State Botanical Gardens on South Milledge Avenue Sunday and had been missing 16 days. Li was a doctoral student from China who studied receptor cells in Regents Professor David Puett’s biochemistry and molecular biology laboratory.

#81:   Dr. Mario Alberto Vargas Olvera, age 52. Died: Oct. 6, 2007 as a result of several blunt-force injuries to his head and neck. Ruled as murder. Found in his home. He was a nationally and internationally recognized biologist. 

Died 2006

#80:   Lee Jong-woo, age 61. Died: May 22, 2006 after suffering a blood clot on the brain. Lee was spearheading the organization’s fight against global threats from bird flu, AIDS and other infectious diseases. WHO director-general since 2003, Lee was his country’s top international official. The affable South Korean, who liked to lighten his press conferences with jokes, was a keen sportsman with no history of ill-health, according to officials.

Died 2005

#79:  Leonid Strachunsky. Died: June 8, 2005 after being hit on the head with a champagne bottle. Strachunsky specialized in creating microbes resistant to biological weapons. Strachunsky was found dead in his hotel room in Moscow, where hed come from Smolensk en route to the United States. Investigators are looking for a connection between the murder of this leading bio weapons researcher and the hepatitis outbreak in Tver, Russia. 

#78:  Robert J. Lull, age 66. Died: May 19, 2005 of multiple stab wounds. Despite his missing car and apparent credit card theft, homicide Inspector Holly Pera said investigators aren’t convinced that robbery was the sole motive for Lull’s killing. She said a robber would typically have taken more valuables from Lull’s home than what the killer left with. Lull had been chief of nuclear medicine at San Francisco General Hospital since 1990 and served as a radiology professor at UCSF. He was past president of the American College of Nuclear Physicians and the San Francisco Medical Society and served as editor of the medical society’s journal, San Francisco Medicine, from 1997 to 1999. Lee Lull said her former husband was a proponent of nuclear power and loved to debate his political positions with others. 

#77:  Todd Kauppila, age 41. Died: May 8, 2005 of hemorrhagic pancreatitis at the Los Alamos hospital, according to the state medical examiner’s office.  Picture of him was not available to due secret nature of his work. This is his funeral picture.  His death came two days after Kauppila publicly rejoiced over news that the lab’s director was leaving.  Kauppila was fired by director Pete Nanos on Sept. 23, 2004 following a security scandal.  Kauppila said he was fired because he did not immediately return from a family vacation during a lab investigation into two classified computer disks that were thought to be missing. The apparent security breach forced Nanos to shut down the lab for several weeks. Kauppila claimed he was made a scapegoat over the disks, which investigators concluded never existed. The mistake was blamed on a clerical error.  After he was fired, Kauppila accepted a job as a contractor at Bechtel Nevada Corp., a research company that works with Los Alamos and other national laboratories. He was also working on a new Scatter Reduction Grids in Megavolt Radiography focused on metal plates or crossed grids to act to stop the scattered radiation while allowing the unscattered or direct rays to pass through with other scientists: Scott Watson (LANL, DX-3), Chuck Lebeda (LANL, XTA),  Alan Tubb (LANL, DX-8), and Mike Appleby (Tecomet Thermo Electron Corp.)

#76:  David Banks, age 55. Died: May 8, 2005. Banks, based in North Queensland, died in an airplane crash, along with 14 others. He was known as an Agro Genius inventing the mosquito trap used for cattle. Banks was the principal scientist with quarantine authority, Biosecurity Australia, and heavily involved in protecting Australians from unwanted diseases and pests. Most of Dr Banks’ work involved preventing potentially devastating diseases making their way into Australia. He had been through Indonesia looking at the potential for foot and mouth disease to spread through the archipelago and into Australia. Other diseases he had fought to keep out of Australian livestock herds and fruit orchards include classical swine fever, Nipah virus and Japanese encephalitis.

#75:  Dr. Douglas James Passaro, age 43. Died April 18, 2005 from unknown cause in Oak Park, Illinois. Dr. Passaro was a brilliant epidemiologist who wanted to unlock the secrets of a spiral-shaped bacteria that causes stomach disease. He was a professor who challenged his students with real-life exercises in bioterrorism. He was married to Dr. Sherry Nordstrom.. 

#74:   Geetha Angara, age 43. Died: February 8, 2005. This formerly missing chemist was found in a Totowa, New Jersey water treatment plant’s tank. Angara, 43, of Holmdel, was last seen on the night of Feb. 8 doing water quality tests at the Passaic Valley Water Commission plant in Totowa, where she worked for 12 years. Divers found her body in a 35-foot-deep sump opening at the bottom of one of the emptied tanks. Investigators are treating Angara’s death as a possible homicide. Angara, a senior chemist with a doctorate from New York University, was married and mother of three.

#73:   Jeong H. Im, age 72. Died: January 7, 2005. Korean Jeong H. Im, died of multiple stab wounds to the chest before firefighters found in his body in the trunk of a burning car on the third level of the Maryland Avenue Garage.  A retired research assistant professor at the University of Missouri – Columbia and primarily a protein chemist, MUPD with the assistance of the Columbia Police Department and Columbia Fire Department are conducting a death investigation of the incident. A “person of interest” described as a male 6′–6′2″ wearing some type of mask possible a painters mask or drywall type mask was seen in the area of the Maryland Avenue Garage. Dr. Im was primarily a protein chemist and he was a researcher in the field.

Died in 2004

#72:  Darwin Kenneth Vest, born April 22, 1951, was an internationally renowned entomologist, expert on hobo spiders and other poisonous spiders and snakes. Darwin disappeared in the early morning hours of June 3, 1999 while walking in downtown Idaho Falls, Idaho (USA). The family believes foul play was involved in his disappearance. A celebration of Darwin’s life was held in Idaho Falls and Moscow on the one-year anniversary of his disappearance. The services included displays of Darwin’s work and thank you letters from school children and teachers. Memories of Darwin were shared by at least a dozen speakers from around the world and concluded with the placing of roses and a memorial wreath in the Snake River. A candlelight vigil was also held that evening on the banks of the Snake River.

Darwin was declared legally dead the first week of March 2004 and now the family is in the process of obtaining restraining orders against several companies who saw fit to use his name and photos without permission. His brother David is legal conservator of the estate and his sister Rebecca is handling issues related to Eagle Rock Research and ongoing research projects.

Media help in locating Darwin is welcome. Continuing efforts to solve this mystery include recent DNA sampling. Stories about his disappearance continue to appear throughout the world. Issues surrounding missing adult investigations have received new attention following the tragedies of 911.

#s70-71:   Tom Thorne, age 64; Beth Williams, age 53; Died: December 29, 2004. Two wild life scientists, Husband-and-wife wildlife veterinarians who were nationally prominent experts on chronic wasting disease and brucellosis were killed in a snowy-weather crash on U.S. 287 in northern Colorado.

#69:   Taleb Ibrahim al-Daher. Died: December 21, 2004. Iraqi nuclear scientist was shot dead north of Baghdad by unknown gunmen. He was on his way to work at Diyala University when armed men opened fire on his car as it was crossing a bridge in Baqouba, 57 km northeast of Baghdad. The vehicle swerved off the bridge and fell into the Khrisan river. Al-Daher, who was a professor at the local university, was removed from the submerged car and rushed to Baqouba hospital where he was pronounced dead.

#68:   John R. La Montagne, age 61. Died: November 2, 2004.  Died while in Mexico, no cause stated, later disclosed as pulmonary embolism.  PhD, Head of US Infectious Diseases unit under Tommie Thompson.  Was NIAID Deputy Director.  Expert in AIDS Program work and Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

#67:  Matthew Allison, age 32.  Died: October 13, 2004. Fatal explosion of a car parked at an Osceola County, Fla., Wal-Mart store.  It was no accident, Local 6 News has learned. Found inside a burned car. Witnesses said the man left the store at about 11 p.m. and entered his Ford Taurus car when it exploded. Investigators said they found a Duraflame log and propane canisters on the front passenger’s seat.  Allison had a college degree in molecular biology and biotechnology. 

#66:  Mohammed Toki Hussein al-Talakani, age 40. Died: September 5, 2004: Iraqi nuclear scientist was shot dead in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad. He was a practicing nuclear physicist since 1984.

#65:  Professor John Clark,  Age 52, Died: August 12, 2004.  Found hanged in his holiday home.  An expert in animal science and biotechnology where he developed techniques for the genetic modification of livestock; this work paved the way for the birth, in 1996, of Dolly the sheep, the first animal to have been cloned from an adult.  Head of the science lab which created Dolly the sheep.   Prof Clark led the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, one of the world s leading animal biotechnology research centers. He played a crucial role in creating the transgenic sheep that earned the institute worldwide fame. He was put in charge of a project to produce human proteins (which could be used in the treatment of human diseases) in sheep’s milk. Clark and his team focused their study on the production of the alpha-I-antitryps in protein, which is used for treatment of cystic fibrosis. Prof Clark also founded three spin-out firms from Roslin – PPL Therapeutics, Rosgen and Roslin BioMed. 

#64:   Dr. John Badwey, age 54. Died: July 21, 2004.  Scientist and accidental politician when he opposed disposal of sewage waste program of exposing humans to sludge.  Suddenly developed pneumonia like symptoms then died in two weeks.  Biochemist at Harvard Medical School specializing in infectious diseases.

#63:  Dr. Bassem al-Mudares.  Died: July 21, 2004.  Mutilated body was found in the city of Samarra, Iraq*. He was a Phd. chemist and had been tortured before being killed. He was a drug company worker who had a chemistry doctorate.

#62:  Professor Stephen Tabet, age 42. Died on July 6, 2004 from an unknown illness. He was an associate professor and epidemiologist at the University of Washington. A world-renowned HIV doctor and researcher who worked with HIV patients in a vaccine clinical trial for the HIV Vaccine Trials Network

#61: Dr. Larry Bustard, age 53. Died July 2, 2004 from unknown causes. He was a Sandia scientist in the Department of Energy who helped develop a foam spray to clean up congressional buildings and media sites during the anthrax scare in 2001. He worked at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. As an expert in bioterrorism, his team came up with a new technology used against biological and chemical agents.

#60:  Edward Hoffman, age 62. Died July 1, 2004 from unknown causes. Hoffman was a professor and a scientist who also held leadership positions within the UCLA medical community. He worked to develop the first human PET scanner in 1973 at Washington University in St. Louis.

#59:   John Mullen, age 67. Died: June 29, 2004.  A Nuclear physicist poisoned with a huge dose of arsenic.  A nuclear research scientist with McDonnell Douglas. Police investigating will not say how Mullen was exposed to the arsenic or where it came from. At the time of his death he was doing contract work for Boeing.

#58:  Dr. Paul Norman, age 52. Died: June 27, 2004.  From Salisbury Wiltshire.  Killed when the single-engine Cessna 206 he was piloting crashed in Devon.  Expert in chemical and biological weapons. He traveled the world lecturing on defending against the scourge of weapons of mass destruction.  He was married with a 14-year-old son and a 20-year-old daughter, and was the chief scientist for chemical and biological defense at the Ministry of Defense’s laboratory at Porton Down, Wiltshire. The crash site was examined by officials from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the wreckage of the aircraft was removed from the site to the AAIB base at Farnborough.

#57:   Dr. Assefa Tulu, age 45. Died: June 24, 2004.  Dr. Tulu joined the health department in 1997 and served for five years as the county’s lone epidemiologist. He was charged with trackcing the health of the county, including the spread of diseases, such as syphilis, AIDS and measles. He also designed a system for detecting a bioterrorism attack involving viruses or bacterial agents. Tulu often coordinated efforts to address major health concerns in Dallas County, such as the West Nile virus outbreaks of the past few years, and worked with the media to inform the public. Found face down, dead in his office. The Dallas County Epidemiologist died of a hemorrhagic stroke.

#56:   Thomas Gold, age 84. Died: June 22, 2004.  Austrian born Thomas Gold famous over the years for a variety of bold theories that flout conventional wisdom and reported in his 1998 book, “The Deep Hot Biosphere,” the idea challenges the accepted wisdom of how oil and natural gas are formed and, along the way, proposes a new theory of the beginnings of life on Earth and potentially on other planets.  Long term battle with heart failure. Gold’s theory of the deep hot biosphere holds important ramifications for the possibility of life on other planets, including seemingly inhospitable planets within our own solar system. He was Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at Cornell University and was the founder (and for 20 years director) of Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. He was also involved in air accident investigations.

#55:  Antonina Presnyakova, age 46. Died:  May 25, 2004.  A Russian scientist at a former Soviet biological weapons laboratory in Siberia died after an accident with a needle laced with ebola. Scientists and officials said the accident had raised concerns about safety and secrecy at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, known as Vector, which in Soviet times specialized in turning deadly viruses into biological weapons. Vector has been a leading recipient of aid in an American program.

#54:  Dr. Eugene Mallove, age 56. Died: May 14, 2004. Autopsy confirmed Mallove died as a result of several blunt-force injuries to his head and neck. Ruled as murder. Found at the end of his driveway. Alt. Energy Expert who was working on viable energy alternative program and announcement. Norwich Free Academy graduate.Beaten to death during an alleged robbery. Mallove was well respected for his knowledge of cold fusion. He had just published an “open letter” outlining the results of and reasons for his last 15 years in the field of “new energy research.” Dr. Mallove was convinced it was only a matter of months before the world would actually see a free energy device.

#53: William T. McGuire, age 39. Found May 5, 2004, last seen late April 2004. Body found in three suitcases floating in Chesapeake Bay. He was NJ University Professor and Senior programmer analyst and adjunct professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. He emerged as one of the world’s leading microbiologists and an expert in developing and overseeing multiple levels of biocontainment facilities.

#52: Ilsley Ingram, age 84. Died on April 12, 2004 from unknown causes. Ingram was Director of the Supraregional Haemophilia Reference Centre and the Supraregional Centre for the Diagnosis of Bleeding Disorders at the St. Thomas Hospital in London. Although his age is most likely the reason for his death, why wasn’t this confirmed by the family in the news media?

#51: Mohammed Munim al-Izmerly, Died: April 2004.  This distinguished Iraqi chemistry professor   died in American custody from a sudden hit to the back of his head caused by blunt trauma. It was uncertain exactly how he died, but someone had hit him from behind, possibly with a bar or a pistol. His battered corpse turned up at Baghdad’s morgue and the cause of death was initially recorded as “brainstem compression”. It was discovered that US doctors had made a 20cm incision in his skull.

#50: Vadake Srinivasan, Died: March 13, 2004. Microbiologist crashed car into guard rail in Baton Rouge, LA.  Death was ruled a stroke. He was originally from India, was one of the most-accomplished and respected industrial biologists in academia, and held two doctorate degrees.

#49: Dr. Michael Patrick Kiley, age 62. Died: January 24, 2004. Died of massive heart attack. Ebola, Mad Cow Expert, top of the line world class. It is interesting to note, he had a good heart, but it “gave out”. Dr. Shope and Dr. Kiley were working on the lab upgrade to BSL 4 at the UTMB Galvaston lab for Homeland Security. The lab would have to be secure to house some of the deadliest pathogens of tropical and emerging infectious disease as well as bioweaponized ones.

#48:   Robert Shope, age 74. Died: January 23, 2004.  Virus Expert Who Warned of Epidemics, Dies died of lung transplant complications.  Later purported to have died of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis which can be caused by either environmental stimulus or a VIRUS.  It would not be hard to administer a drug that would cause Dr. Shope’s lung transplant to either be rejected or to cause complications from the transplant. Dr. Shope led the group of scientists who had an 11 MILLION dollar fed grant to ensure the new lab would keep in the nasty bugs. Dr. Shope also met with and worked with Dr. Mike Kiley on the UTMB Galveston lab upgrade to BSL 4. When the upgrade would be complete the lab will host the most hazardous pathogens known to man especially tropical and emerging diseases as well as bioweapons. 

#47: Dr Richard Stevens, age 54. Died: January 6, 2004. He had disappeared after arriving for work on 21 July, 2003. A doctor whose disappearance sparked a national manhunt, killed himself because he could not cope with the stress of a secret affair, a coroner has ruled. He was a hematologist. (hematologists analyze the cellular composition of blood and blood producing tissues e.g. bone marrow). 

Died 2003

#46:  Robert Aranosia, age 61. Died: December 18, 2003. While driving south on I-75 his pickup truck went off the freeway near a bridge over the Kawkawlin River. The vehicle rolled over several times before landing in the median. Aranosia was thrown from the vehicle and ended up on the shoulder of the northbound lanes. He was the Oakland County deputy medical examiner. 

#45:  Robert Leslie Burghoff, age 45. Died: November 20, 2003.  Scientist. Killed by a hit and run driver that jumped the curb and ploughed into him in the 1600 block of South Braeswood, Texas. The driver was described as a short Hispanic man in his 50s with a slightly rounded face. He was studying the virus plaguing cruise ships.

#44:  Michael Perich, age 46. Died: October 11, 2003.  Died in one-vehicle car accident. The LSU West Nile research scientist was wearing his seat belt and drowned. He was LSU professor who helped fight the spread of the West Nile virus. Perich, who was known as one of the country’s experts on vector-borne diseases, had most recently led a crusade to keep down the effects of West Nile virus and to get many of the Louisiana’s parishes to work toward forming mosquito control districts.

#43:   David Kelly, age 59. Died: July 18, 2003.  British biological weapons expert, was said to have slashed his own wrists while walking near his home. Kelly was the Ministry of Defense’s chief scientific officer and senior adviser to the proliferation and arms control secretariat, and to the Foreign Office’s non-proliferation department. The senior adviser on biological weapons to the UN biological weapons inspections teams (Unscom) from 1994 to 1999, he was also, in the opinion of his peers, pre-eminent in his field, not only in this country, but in the world.
#42:   Dr. Leland Rickman, age  47.  Died: June 24, 2003.  Rickman died while on a teaching assignment in Lesotho, a small country bordered on all sides by South Africa. UC San Diego expert on infectious diseases and, since September 11, 2001 a consultant on bioterrorism.  He had complained of a headache, but the cause of death was not immediately known. The physician had been working in Lesotho with Dr. Chris Mathews, director of the UC San Diego Medical Center’s Owen Clinic, teaching African medical personnel about the prevention and treatment of AIDS. Rickman, the incoming president of the Infectious Disease Assn. of California, was a multidisciplinary professor and practitioner with expertise in infectious diseases, internal medicine, epidemiology, microbiology and antibiotic utilization.

#41: ‘Dr. Roger’ Died: Summer 2003. ‘Roger’ was pseudonym for this genetics scientist. He was 17 and lived in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 when the unexplained object crashed. He told a woman he worked with in 1977 named ‘Kate’ while employed by the Navy, who he helped to clean up the crash site of the 1947 UFO. He subsequently went to work for the government at this young age and ended up a geneticist working in China Lake for the Navy. Although he lived in fear and hiding soon after he told his story to Kate, he retired in late 1990s or early 2000’s and she saw him again once in early 2002 in San Diego. He told her she was in danger to talk to him and he left the store. In 2003 she received a phone call from his ‘friend’ who said he had been executed in his retirement home in Connecticut. The body had been removed by a black government looking vehicle. The home had been cleaned up and the body removed without any public notices of his death or existence. Many disfigured and abnormal animals were found in the desert near Groom Lake during his time there and after. Kate thought he might have been doing this gruesome experimental work.

#40:  Carlo Urbani, age 46. Died: in April 2003 in Bangkok from SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) – the new disease that he had helped to identify. Thanks to his prompt action, the epidemic was contained in Vietnam. However, because of close daily contact with SARS patients, he contracted the infection. On March 11, he was admitted to a hospital in Bangkok and isolated. Less than three weeks later he died. He was a dedicated and internationally respected Italian epidemiologist, who did work of enduring value combating infectious illness around the world. 

Died 2002

#39:  Roman Kuzmin. Died December 2002.  A 24-year-old Russian surgeon studying in Connecticut was fatally struck by a car as he fled a store with three stolen rolls of film, police said. He was studying to be an orthopedic surgeon. Doctors who worked with Roman Kuzmin at Waterbury Hospital said they were stunned to hear of his death Sunday evening and many couldn’t believe the circumstances. Kuzmin left Vladivostok in September to study orthopedic surgical techniques at Waterbury Hospital under a Keggi Othopedic Foundation program. Dr. Kristaps Keggi, who organized the program, said Kuzmin was “very able, very bright – a superb student and a superb individual.”

#38B:  Dr. David R. Knibbs, age 49. Died: August 5, 2002.  Respected pathobiologist specializing in electron microscopy.

#38:  Steven Mostow, age 63. Died: March 25, 2002.  One of the country’s leading infectious disease and bioterrorism experts and was associate dean at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He died in a plane crash near Centennial Airport.  He was known as “Dr. Flu” for his expertise in treating influenza, and expertise on bioterrorism. Mostow was one of the country’s leading infectious disease experts.

#37:   Dr. David Wynn-Williams, age 55. Died: March 24, 2002.  Hit by a car while jogging near his home in Cambridge, England. He was an astrobiologist with the Antarctic Astrobiology Project and the NASA Ames Research Center. He was studying the capability of microbes to adapt to environmental extremes, including the bombardment of ultraviolet rays and global warming.

s#35-36:  Tanya Holzmayer, age 46, Died: February 28, 2002: Two dead microbiologists in San Francisco. While taking delivery of a pizza, Tanya Holzmayer was shot and killed by a colleague, Guyang “Mathew” Huang, 38, who then apparently shot himself. Holzmayer moved to the US from Russia in 1989. Her research focused on the part of the human molecular structure that could be affected best by medicine. Holzmayer was focusing on helping create new drugs that interfere with replication of the virus that causes AIDS. One year earlier, Holzmayer obeyed senior management orders to fire Huang. Huang appeared from behind the deliveryman. He shot Holzmayer several times at close range in the chest and head. As Holzmayer fell in her doorway, Huang ran to a Ford Explorer and drove away. Less than an hour after the shooting, Huang called his wife, according to Foster City Police Capt. Craig Courtin. He told her about the shooting and that he was going to kill himself, then he hung up. Huang’s wife called the emergency services and Foster City police used search dogs to comb the area. They ran into a jogger who had seen Huang’s body lying off the walkway that locals call “The Levee.” He had fired a single bullet into his head.

#34:  Dr. Ian Langford, age 40, Died: February 12, 2002.  Found dead at his blood-spattered and apparently ransacked home A Russian who was a Senior Research Associate in CSERGE, UK.  He was a leading university research scientist working on Global Environment, specializing in links between human health and the environment risk, was. Specialist in leukemia and infections.

#33:   Dr. Vladamir ”Victor” Korshunov, age 56. Died: February 9, 2002.  Found dead on a Moscow street. Head was bashed in.  Korshunov was head of the microbiology sub-facility at the Russian State Medical University. He was found dead in the entrance to his home with a head injury. On Feb. 9 the Russian newspaper Pravda reported that Korshunov had probably invented a vaccine protecting from any biological arm.

#32: David W. Barry, age 58, Died: January 28, 2002. Scientist who co-discovered AZT, the antiviral drug that is considered the first effective treatment for AIDS. Circumstance of Death are unknown. 

#31: Dr. Ivan Glebov. Died: January 2002. Russian Microbiologist. Glebov died as the result of a bandit attack.  Well known around the world and members of the Russian Academy of Science.

#30: Dr. Alexi Brushlinski. Died: January 2002. Russian Microbiologist.  Murdered in  Moscow from bandit attack. Well known around the world and members of the Russian Academy of Science.

Died 2001

#29  Dr. Benito Que, age 52. Found:  November 12, 2001. Died: December 6, 2001.  Found Comatose from what was called a mugging. Died later in hospital. Found in the street near the laboratory where he worked at the University of Miami Medical School. Among Dr. Que’s friends and family there is firm belief that Dr. Que was attacked by four men, at least one of whom had a baseball bat. Dr. Que’s death has now been officially ruled “natural”, caused by cardiac arrest. He was a cell biologist, involved in research on aids, oncology research in the hematology department.

#28:  Dr. Vladimer Pasechnik, age 64. Died: December 23, 2001. Found dead in Wiltshire, England, a village near his home. Two different dates have been reported:  November 21 and December 23.  Death ruled stroke.  He had defected from Russia to UK.  He had been the #1 scientist in the FSU’s bioweapons program. It was thought he was involved with exhuming the bodies of the 10 London victims of the 1919 Type A flu epidemic. Pasechnik died six weeks after the planned exhumations were announced.  On November 23, 2001, Pasechnik’s death was reported in the New York Times as having occurred two days earlier.  Pasechnik’s death was made in the United States by Dr. Christopher Davis of Virginia, who stated that the cause of death was a stroke. Dr. Davis was the member of British intelligence who de-briefed Dr. Pasechnik at the time of his defection.  Pasechnik was heavily involved in DNA sequencing research.  He had just founded a company like three other microbiologists working to provide powerful alternatives to antibiotics.  Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik was the boss of William C. Patrick III who holds 5 patents on the militarized anthrax used by the United States.  Patrick is now a private biowarfare consultant to the military and CIA. Patrick developed the process by which anthrax spores could be concentrated at the level of one trillion spores per gram. No other country has been able to get concentrations above 500 billion per gram. The anthrax that was sent around the eastern United States last fall was concentrated at one trillion spores per gram.

#27:  Dr. Don Wiley, age 57. Vanished: December 16, 2001. Molecular Biologist with Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard University, top Deadly Contagious Virus expert, abandoned rental car was found on the Hernando de Soto Bridge outside Memphis, TN.  He was heavily involved in research on DNA sequencing, and was last seen at around midnight on November 16, leaving the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Advisory Dinner at The Peabody Hotel in Memphis, TN. Associates attending the dinner said he showed no signs of intoxication, and no one has admitted to drinking with him.  Body found floating one month later.  Workers at a hydroelectric plant in Louisiana found the body of Don Wiley on Thursday, about 300 miles south of where the molecular biologist was last seen on Nov. 18 at a medical meeting in Memphis.  On January 14, 2002 (almost two months later) Shelby County Medical Examiner O.C. Smith announced that his department had ruled Dr. Wiley’s death to be “accidental”; the result of massive injuries suffered in a fall from the Hernando de Soto Bridge. Smith said there were paint marks on Wiley’s rental car similar to the paint used on construction signs on the bridge, and that the car’s right front hubcap was missing. There has been no report as to which construction signs Dr. Wiley hit.

#26:  Dr. Set Van Nguyen, age 44. Died:  December 14, 2001.  Found dead in the airlock entrance to the walk-in refrigerator in the laboratory he worked at in Victoria State, Australia. The room was full of deadly gas which had leaked from a liquid nitrogen cooling system.  Room was vented.  Working on a vaccine to protect against biological weapons, or a weapon itself.  In January, 2001, the magazine Nature published information that two scientists, Dr. Ron Jackson and Dr. Ian Ramshaw, using genetic manipulation and DNA sequencing, had created an incredibly virulent form of mousepox, a cousin of smallpox and Dr. Nguyen had worked for 15 years at the same Australian facility. Now for the intriguing part of this story. On Friday, November 2nd, the Washington Post reported: ”Officials are now scrambling to determine how a quiet, 61-year-old Vietnamese immigrant, riding the subway each day to and from her job in a hospital stockroom, was exposed to the deadly anthrax spores that killed her this week. They worry because there is no obvious connection to the factors common to earlier anthrax exposures and deaths: no clear link to the mail or to the media.

#25:  Dr. David Schwartz , age 57. Died: December 10, 2001.  Murdered by stabbing with what appeared to be a sword in rural home Loudon County, Virginia. His daughter, who identifies herself as a pagan high priestess, and three of her fellow pagans have been charged. He was extremely well respected in biophysics, and regarded as an authority on DNA sequencing.  Three teens that were into the occult were charged with murder in the slashing death. 

#s22-24: Avishai Berkman, age 50. (no photo) 

 Amiramp Eldor, age 59   Yaacov Matzner, age 54

All Died: November 24, 2001. Another airplane crash kills 3 scientists.  At about the time of the Black Sea crash, Israeli journalists had been sounding the alarm that two Israeli microbiologists had been murdered, allegedly by terrorists; including the head of the Hematology department at Israel’s Ichilov Hospital, as well as directors of the Tel Aviv Public Health Department and Hebrew University School of Medicine.  World experts in hematology and blood clotting.  Five microbiologists in this list of the first eight people that died mysteriously in airplane crashes worked on cutting edge microbiology research; and, four of the five were doing virtually identical research; research that has global political and financial significance.

#21:  Jeffrey Paris Wall, age 41. Died: November 6, 2001.  Body was found sprawled next to a three-story parking structure near his office. Mr. Wall had studied at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was a biomedical expert who held a medical degree, and he also specialized in patent and intellectual property.

#16-#20: Five Unnamed Microbiologists.  Died: October 4, 2001.  Four of Five unnamed microbiologists on a plane that was brought down by a missile near the Black sea on the Russian border. Traveling from Israel to Russia; business not disclosed. 3 scientists were experts in medical research or public health. The plane is believed by many in Israel to have had as many as four or five passengers who were microbiologists. Both Israel and Novosibirsk are homes for cutting-edge microbiological research. Novosibirsk is known as the scientific capital of Siberia. There are over 50 research facilities there, and 13 full universities for a population of only 2.5 million people. 

#15: Professor Janusz Jeljaszewicz, Died: on May 7, 2001, cause not disclosed. He was an expert in Staphylococci and Staphylococcal Infections. His main scientific interests and achievements were in the mechanism of action and biological properties of staphylococcal toxins, and included the immunomodulatory properties and experimental treatment of tumors by Propionibacterium.

Died 2000

#14: Linda Reese, age 52. Died: December 25, 2000 three days after she studied a sample from Tricia Zailo, 19, a Fairfield, N.J., resident who was a sophomore at Michigan State University. Tricia Zailo died Dec. 18, a few days after she returned home for the holidays. Dr. Reese was a Microbiologist working with victims of meningitis.

#13: Mike Thomas, age 35. Died: July 16, 2000 a few days after examining a sample taken from a 12-year-old girl who was diagnosed with meningitis and survived. He was a microbiologist at the Crestwood Medical Center in Huntsville. 

#12: Walter W. Shervington, M.D., age 62. Died: April 15, 2000 of cancer at Tulane Medical Hospital. He was an extensive writer/ lecturer/ researcher about mental health and AIDS in the African American community. 

Died 1998

#11: Jonathan Mann, age 51. Died September 1998, in Swissair Flight 111 over Canada. He was founding director of the World Health Organization’s global Aids program and founded Project SIDA in Zaire, the most comprehensive Aids research effort in Africa at the time, and in 1986 he joined the WHO to lead the global response against Aids. He became director of WHO’s global program on Aids which later became the UNAids program. He then became director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, which was set up at Harvard School of Public Health in 1993. He caused controversy earlier in 1998 in the media when he accused the US National Institutes of Health of violating human rights by failing to act quickly on developing Aids vaccines. 

#10: Elizabeth A. Rich, M.D., age 46. Died July 10, 1998, in a traffic accident while visiting family in Tennessee. She was an associate professor with tenure in the pulmonary division of the Department of Medicine at CWRU and University Hospitals of Cleveland. She was also a member of the executive committee for the Center for AIDS Research and directed the Bio-safety level 3 facility, a specialized laboratory for the handling of HIV, virulent TB bacteria, and other infectious agents. .

Died 1994 – 1996

#9: Sidney Harshman, age 67. Died: Dec. 25, 1997, from complications of diabetes. He was a professor of microbiology and immunology. He was the world’s leading expert on staphylococcal alpha toxins.

#s6-8: Mark Purdey, his Lawyer, and Veterinarian working with Purdey Die: CJD doctor Mark Purdey was familiar with the expression “abnormal brain protein.” Purdey’s house was burned down, his lawyer on mad cow issues was driven off the road and died and the veterinarian in the UK BSE inquiry also died in a mysterious car crash. CJD specialist Dr C. Bruton was killed in a car crash just before he went public with a new research paper. The veterinarian on the case also died in a car crash. Purdey’s new lawyer, too, had a car accident, but not fatal. Before Dr. Purdey’s death, he speculated that Dr. C. Bruton (#2 below) might have known more than what was revealed in his paper before he was killed.

#4-5  Dr. Tsunao Saitoh, age 46.  Died: May 7, 1996.   Shot and killed, along with his young daughter, in LaJolla, California. He was dead behind the wheel of the car, the side window had been shot out, and the door was open. His daughter appeared to have tried to run away and she was shot dead, also. The hit was compared to other killings of Japanese in this country by muggers. Expert in abnormal proteins in Alzheimer.

#3 Dr. Jawad Al Aubaidi. Died in 1994. A graduate doctor from Cornel, he was hired to head the mycoplasma biowar research project. One of Dr. Aubaidi’s projects was filling payloads of scud missles with mycoplasma strains. In 1995, Dr. Aubaidi was murdered by the Israelis Mussad. His demise, or, neutralization was made to look like an accident. He was killed in his native Iraq while he was changing a flat tire and was hit by a truck.

#2 Dr. C. Bruton, a CJD specialist — who had just produced a paper on the a new strain of CJD — was killed in a car crash before his work was announced to the public. Purdey speculates that Bruton might have known more than what was revealed in his paper.

#1  Jose Trias,  Died: May 19, 1994. Trias and his wife were murdered in their Chevy Chase, Maryland home. They met with a friend of theirs, a journalist, before the day of their murder and told him of their plan to expose HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) funding of “special ops” research. Grant money that goes to HHMI is actually diverted to special black ops research projects.

© Steve Quayle, 2004-2005. If you wish to reproduce this material,

SOURCE: http://www.stevequayle.com/index.html

22 SDI Researchers Commit Suicide

Did 22 SDI Researchers really ALL Commit Suicide?

Fifty-year-old Alistair Beckham was a successful British aerospace- projects engineer. His specialty was designing computer software for sophisticated naval defense systems. Like hundreds of other British scientists, he was working on a pilot program for America’s Strategic Defense Initiative–better known as Star Wars. And like at least 21 of his colleagues, he died a bizarre, violent death.It was a lazy, sunny Sunday afternoon in August 1988. After driving his wife to work, Beckham walked through his garden to a musty backyard toolshed and sat down on a box next to the door. He wrapped bare wires around his chest, attached the to an electrical outlet and put a handkerchief in his mouth. Then he pulled the switch.

With his death, Beckham’s name was added to a growing list of British scientists who’ve died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances since 1982. Each was a skilled expert in computers, and each was working on a highly classified project for the American Star Wars program. None had any apparent motive for killing himself.

The British government contends that the deaths are all a matter of coincidence. The British press blames stress. Others allude to an ongoing fraud investigation involving the nation’s leading defense contractor. Relatives left behind don’t know what to think.

“There weren’t any women involved. There weren’t any men involved. We had a very good relationship,” says Mary Beckham, Alistair’s widow. “We don’t know why he did it…if he did it. And I don’t believe that he did do it. He wouldn’t go out to the shed. There had to be something….”

The string of unexplained deaths can be traced back to March 1982, when Essex University computer scientist Dr. Keith Bowden died in a car wreck on his ay home from a London social function. Authorities claim Bowden was drunk. His wife and friends say otherwise.

Bowden, 45, was a whiz with super-computers and computer- controlled aircraft. He was cofounder of the Department of Computer Sciences at Essex and had worked for one of the major Star Wars contractors in England.

One night Bowden’s immaculately maintained Rover careened across a four-lane highway and plunged off a bridge, down an embankment, into an abandoned rail yard. Bowden was found dead at the scene.

During the inquest, police testified that Bowden’s blood alcohol level had exceeded the legal limit and that he had been driving too fast. His death was ruled accidental.

Wife Hillary Bowden and her lawyer suspected a cover-up. Friends he’d supposedly spent the evening with denied that Bowden had been drinking. Then there was the condition of Bowden’s car.

“My solicitor instructed an accident specialist to examine the automobile,” Mrs. Bowden explains. “Somebody had taken the wheels off and put others on that were old and worn. At the inquest this was not allowed to be brought up. Someone asked if the car was in a sound condition, and the answer was yes.”

Hillary, in a state of shock, never protested the published verdict. Yet, she remains convinced that someone tampered with her husband’s car. “It certainly looked like foul play,” Hillary maintains.

Four years later the British press finally added Bowden’s case to its growing dossier. First, there appeared to be two interconnected deaths, then six, then 12–suddenly there were 22.

Take 37-year-old David Sands, a senior scientist at Easams working on a highly sensitive computer-controlled satellite- radar system. In March 1987 Sands made a U-turn on his way to work and rammed his car into the brick wall of a vacant restaurant. His trunk was loaded with full gasoline cans. The car exploded on impact.

Given the incongruities of the accident and the lack of a suicide motive, the coroner refused to rule out the possibility of foul play. Meanwhile, information leaked to the press suggested that Sands had been under a tremendous emotional strain.

Margaret Worth, Sand’s mother-in-law, claims these stories are totally inaccurate. “When David died, it was a great mystery to us,” she admits. “He was very successful. He was very confident. He had just pulled off a great coup for his company, and he was about to be greatly rewarded. He had a very bright future ahead of him. He was perfectly happy the week before this happened.”

Like many of the bereaved, Worth is still at a loss for answers. “One week we think he must have been got at. The next week we think it couldn’t be anything like that,” she says.

This wave of suspicious fatalities in the ultrasecret world of sophisticated weaponry has not gone unnoticed by the United States government. Late last fall, the American embassy in London publicly requested a full investigation by the British Ministry of Defense (MoD).

Members of British Parliament, such a Labour MP Doug Hoyle, copresident of the Manufacturing, Science & Finance Union, had been making similar requests for more than two years. The Thatcher government had refused to launch any sort of inquiry.

“How many more deaths before we get the government to give the answers?” Hoyle asks. “From a security point of view, surely both ourselves and the Americans ought to be looking into it.”

The Pentagon refuses comment on the deaths. However, according to Reagan Administration sources, “We cannot ignore it anymore.”

Actually, British and American intelligence agencies are on the situation. When THE SUNDAY TIMES in London published the details of 12 mysterious deaths last September, sources at the American embassy admitted being aware of at least ten additional victims whose names had already been sent to Washington. The sources added that the embassy had been monitoring reports of “the mysterious deaths” for two years.

English intelligence has suffered several damaging spy scandals in the 20 century. The CIA may suspect the deaths are an indication of security leaks, that Star Wars secrets are being sold to the Russians. Perhaps these scientists had been blackmailed into supplying classified data to Moscow and could no longer live with themselves. One or more may have stumbled onto an espionage ring and been silenced.

As NBC News London correspondent Henry Champ puts it, “In the world of espionage, there is a saying: Twice is coincidence, but three times is enemy action.”

Where SDI is concerned, a tremendous amount is at stake. In return for the Thatcher government’s early support of the Star Wars program, the Reagan Administration promised a number of extremely lucrative SDI contracts to the British defense industry–hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars the struggling British economy can little afford to lose.

Britain traditionally has one of the finest defense industries in the world. Their annual overseas weapons sales amount to almost $250 billion. The publicity from a Star Wars spy scandal could seriously cut into the profits.

It would appear that only initial promises made to Prime Minister Thatcher hold the U.S. from cutting its losses and pulling out. A high-ranking American source was quoted in the SUNDAY TIMES saying, “If this had happened in Greece, Brazil, Spain, or Argentina, we’d be all over them like a glove!”

The Thatcher government’s PR problem is that the scandal centers around Marconi Company Ltd., Britain’s largest electronics-defense contractor. Seven Marconi scientists are among the dead.

Marconi, which employs 50,000 workers worldwide, is a subsidiary of Britain’s General Electric Company (GEC). GEC managing director Lord Wienstock recently launched his own internal investigation.

Yet, the GEC and the Ministry of Defense still contend that the 22 deaths are coincidental. A Ministry of Defense spokesman claims to have found “no evidence of any sinister links between them.”

However, an article in the British publication THE INDEPENDENT claims the incidence of suicide among Marconi scientists is twice the national average of mentally healthy individuals. Either Marconi is hiring abnormally unstable scientists or something is very wrong.

Two deaths brought the issue to light in the fall of 1986. Within weeks of each other, two London-based Marconi scientists were found dead 100 miles away, in Bristol. Both were involved in creating the software for a huge, computerized Star Wars simulator, the hub of Marconi’s SDI program. Both had been working on the simulator just hours before their death. Like the others, neither had any apparent reason to kill himself.

Vimal Dajibhai was a 24-year-old electronics graduate who worked at Marconi Underwater Systems in Croxley Green. In August 1986 his crumpled body was found lying on the pavement 240 feet below the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol.

An inquest was unable to determine whether Dajibhai had been pushed off the bridge or whether he had jumped. There had been no witnesses. The verdict was left open. Yet, authorities did their best to pin his death on suicide.

Police testified that Dajibhai had been suffering from depression, something his family and friends flatly denied. Dajibhai had absolutely no history of personal or emotional problems.

Police also claimed that the deceased had been drinking with a friend, Heyat Shah, shortly before his death, and that a bottle of wine and two used paper cups had been found in his car. Yet, forensic tests were never done on the auto, and those who knew Vimal, including Shah, say that he had never taken a drink of alcohol in his life.

Investigating journalists found discrepancies in other evidence. “A police report noted a puncture mark on Dijabhai’s left buttock after his fall from the bridge,” explains Tony Collins, who covered the story for Britain’s COMPUTER NEWS magazine. “Apparently, this was the reason his funeral was halted seconds before the cremation was to take place.

“Members of the Family were told that the body was to be taken away for a second postmortem, to be done by a top home- office pathologist. That’s not normal. Then, a few months later, police held a press conference and announced that it hadn’t been a puncture mark after all, that it was a wound caused by a bone fragment.

“I find it very difficult to reconcile the initial coroner’s report with what the police were saying a few months later,” Collins contends.

Officials didn’t fare any better with the second Bristol fatality. Police virtually tripped over themselves to come up with a motive for the apparent–and unusually violent–suicide of Ashaad Sharif.

Sharif was a 26-year-old computer analyst who worked at the Marconi Defense Systems headquarters in Stanmore, Middlesex. On October 28, 1986, he allegedly drove to a public park not far from where Dajibhai had died. He tied one end of a nylon cord around a tree and tied the other end around his neck. Then he got back into his Audi 80 automatic, stepped on the gas and sped off, decapitating himself.

Marconi initially claimed Sharif was only a junior employee, and that he had nothing to do with Star Wars. Co-workers stated otherwise. At the time of his death, Sharif was apparently about to be promoted. Also, Ashaad reportedly worked for a time in Vimal Dajibhai’s section.

The inquest determined that Sharif’s death was a suicide. Investigating officers maintained that the man had killed himself because he’d been jilted by an alleged lover. Ashaad hadn’t seen the woman in three years.

“Sharif was said to have been depressed over a broken romance,” Tony Collins explains. “But the woman police unofficially say was his lover contends that she was only his landlady when he was working for British Aerospace in Bristol. She’s married, has three children, and she’s deeply religious. The possibility of the two having an affair seems highly unlikely–especially since Sharif had a fiancee in Pakistan. His family told me that he was genuinely in love with her.”

Police suddenly switched stories. They began to say that Sharif had been deeply in love with the woman he was engaged to, and that he’d decapitated himself because another woman was pressuring him to call off the marriage.

Authorities claimed to have found a taped message in Sharif’s car “tantamount” to a suicide note. On it, officers said, he’d admitted to having had an affair, thus bringing shame on his family. Family members who’ve heard the tape say that it actually gave no indication of why Sharif might want to kill himself.

Sharif’s family was told by the coroner that it was “not in their best interest” to attend the inquest.

“It’s been almost impossible to get to information about deaths that should be in the public domain,” Tony Collins laments. “I’ve been given false names or incorrect spellings, or I’ve not been told where inquests have taken place. It’s made it very difficult for me to try to track down the details of these cases.”

In the Sharif case, two facts stand out: Ashaad had no history of depression, and there was absolutely no reason for him to be in Bristol.

A widely help theory among the establishment press is that the mysterious deaths are stress-related accidents or suicides. Such theories may not be far off the mark.

According to a high-ranking British government official, for the past year and a half the Ministry of Defense has been secretly investigating Marconi on allegations of defense- contract fraud–overcharging the government, bribing officials. The extensive probe has required most of the MoD’s investiga- tive resources, conceivably reaching as far as Marconi’s sub- contractors and into MoD research facilities such as the Royal Military College of Science and the Royal Air Force Research Center.

Almost all of the dead scientists were associated with one or more of these establishments.

If Marconi employees were being forced by management to perform or to cover up illegal activities, it may be that the stress did indeed get to them.

“In America, there are considerable incentives for people to blow the whistle if they’re being asked to perform illegal acts like ripping off the government,” a confidential source in Parliament explains. “However, in this country there have been perhaps 20 people who’ve blown the whistle, and none of them have ever worked again. They didn’t receive any compensation. Here, you don’t get any recognition. You get threatened with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act. They can fire you. Then they can take away your home and get you blacklisted.

“It’s an impossible position to be placed in,” the source adds. “It’s quite conceivable that these people could have killed themselves because they felt terribly ashamed of what they’d done. For that matter, some of the accidents or suicides could have been men who’d taken bribes but who couldn’t face the embarrassment of public disclosure.”

If Marconi was systematically defrauding the government for millions of pounds each year, perhaps an employee stumbled upon incriminating evidence and had to be done away with. It would be easy enough to make it look like an accident.

Consider the peculiar death of Peter Peapell, found dead beneath his car in the garage of his Oxfordshire home. Peapell, 46, worked for the Royal Military College of Science, a world authority on communications technology, electronics surveillance and target detection. Peapell was an expert at using computers to process signals emitted by metals. His work reportedly included testing titanium for its resistance to explosives.

On the night of February 22, 1987, Peapell spent an enjoyable evening out with his wife, Maureen, and their friends. When they returned home, Maureen went straight to bed, leaving Peter to put the car away.

When Maureen woke up the next morning, she discovered that Peter had not come to bed. She went looking for him. When she reached the garage, she noticed that the door was closed. Yet she could hear the car’s engine running.

She found her husband lying on his back beneath the car, his mouth directly below the tail pipe. She pulled him into the open air, but he was already dead.

Initially, Maureen thought her husband’s death an accident. She presumed he’d gotten under the car to investigate a knocking he’d heard driving home the night before, and that he’d gotten stuck. But the light fixture in the garage was broken, and Peter hadn’t been carrying a flashlight.

Police had their own suspicions. A constable the same height and wieght as Peter Peapell found it impossible to crawl under the car when the garage door was closed. He also found it impossible to close the door once he was under the car.

Carbon deposits from the inside of the garage door showed that the engine had been running only a short time. Yet, Mrs. Peapell had found the body almost seven hours after she’d gone to bed.

The coroner’s inquest could not determine whether the death was a homicide, a suicide or an accident. According to Maureen Peapell, Peter had no reason to kill himself. They had no marital or financial problems. Peter loved his job. He’d just received a sizable raise, and according to colleagues, he’d exhibited “absolutely no signs of stress.”

We may never know what is killing these scientists. Everyone has a theory.

The National Forum Foundation, a conservative Washington D.C., think tank, believes the deaths are the work of European- based, left-wing terrorists, such as those who took credit for gunning down a West German bureaucrat who’d negotiated Star Wars contracts. The group also claims the July 1986 bombing death of a researcher director from the Siemens Company–a high-tech, West German electronics firm. They have yet to take credit for any of the scientists.

A more outrageous theory suggests that the Russians have developed an electromagnetic “death ray,” with which they’re driving the British scientists to suicide. A supermarket tabloid contends the ultrathin waves emitted by the device interfere with a person’s brain waves, causing violent mood shifts, including suicidal depres- sion.

The genius of such a weapon is that the victim does all the dirty work and takes all the blame. Yet, if the Soviets have actually developed such a weapon, why waste it on 22 British defense workers?

Are the scientists victims of a corrupt defense industry? Have they been espionage pawns? Are the deaths nothing more than an extraordinary coincidence? Guess.

DOSSIER OF DEATH

1. AUTO ACCIDENT–Professor Keith Bowden, 45, computer scientist, Essex University. In March 1982 Bowden’s car plunged off a bridge, into am abandoned rail yard. His death was listed as an accident.
2. MISSING PERSON–Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Godley, 49, defense expert, head of work-study unit at the Royal Military College of Science. Godley disappeared in April 1983. His father bequeathes him more than $60,000, with the proviso that he claim it be 1987. He never showed up and is presumed dead.
3. SHOTGUN BLAST–Roger Hill, 49, radar designer and draftsman, Marconi. In March 1985 Hill allegedly killed himself with a shotgun at the family home.
4. DEATH LEAP–Jonathan Walsh, 29, digital-communications expert assigned to British Telecom’s secret Martlesham Health research facility (and to GEC, Marconi’s parent firm). In November 1985 Walsh allegedly fell from his hotel room while working on a British Telecom project in Abidjan, Ivory Coast (Africa). He had expressed a fear for his life. Verdict: Still in question.
5. DEATH LEAP–Vimal Dajibhai, 24, computer-software engineer (worked on guidance system for Tigerfish torpedo), Marconi Underwater Systems. In August 1986 Dajibhai’s crumpled remains were found 240 feet below the Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol. The death has not been listed as a suicide.
6. DECAPITATION–Ashaad Sharif, 26, computer analyst, Marconi Defense Systems. In October 1986, in Bristol, Sharif allegedly tied one end of a rope around a tree and the other end around his neck, then drove off in his car at high speed. Verdict: Suicide.
7. SUFFOCATION–Richard Pugh, computer consultant for the Ministry of Defense. In January 1987 Pugh was found dead, wrapped head-to- toe in rope that was tied four times around his neck. The coroner listed his death as an accident due to a sexual experiment gone awry.
8. ASPHYXIATION–John Brittan, Ministry of Defense tank batteries expert, Royal Military College of Science. In January 1987 Brittan was found dead in a parked car in his garage. The engine was still running. Verdict: Accidental death.
9. DRUG OVERDOSE–Victor Moore, 46, design engineer, Marconi Space Systems. In February 1987 Moore was found dead of a drug overdose. His death is listed as a suicide.
10. ASPHYXIATION–Peter Peapell, 46, scientist, Royal Military College of Science. In February 1987 Peapell was found dead beneath his car, his face near the tail pipe, in the garage of his Oxfordshire home. Death was due to carbon-monoxide poisoning, although test showed that the engine had been running only a short time. Foul play has not been ruled out.
11. ASPHYXIATION–Edwin Skeels, 43, engineer, Marconi. In February 1987 Skeels was found dead in his car, a victim of carbon-monoxide poisoning. A hose led from the exhaust pipe. His death is listed as a suicide.
12. AUTO ACCIDENT–David Sands, satellite projects manager, Eassams (a Marconi sister company). Although up for a promotion, in March 1987 Sands drove a car filled with gasoline cans into the brick wall of an abandoned cafe. He was killed instantly. Foul play has not been ruled out.
13. AUTO ACCIDENT–Stuart Gooding, 23, postgraduate research student, Royal Military College of Science. In April 1987 Gooding died in a mysterious car wreck in Cyprus while the College was holding military exercises on the island. Verdict: Accidental death.
14. AUTO ACCIDENT–George Kountis, experienced systems analyst at British Polytechnic. In April 1987 Kountis drowned after his BMW plunged into the Mersey River in Liverpool. His death is listed as a misadventure.
15. SUFFOCATION–Mark Wisner, 24, software engineer at Ministry of Defense experimental station for combat aircraft. In April 1987 Wisner was found dead in his home with a plastic bag over his head. At the inqust, his death was rules an accident due to a sexual experiment gone awry.
16. AUTO ACCIDENT–Michael Baker, 22, digital-communications expert, Plessey Defense Systems. In May 1987 Baker’s BMW crashed through a road barrier, killing the driver. Verdict: Misadventure.
17. HEART ATTACK–Frank Jennings, 60, electronic-weapons engineer for Plessey. In June 1987 Jennings allegedly dropped dead of a heart attack. No inquest was held.
18. DEATH LEAP–Russel Smith, 23, lab technician at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment. In January 1988 Smith’s mangled body was found halfway down a cliff in Cornwall. Verdict: Suicide.
19. ASPHYXIATION–Trevor Knight, 52, computer engineer, Marconi Space and Defense Systems. In March 1988 Knight was found dead in his car, asphyxiated by fume from a hose attached to the tail pipe. The death was ruled a suicide.
20. ELECTROCUTION–John Ferry, 60, assistant marketing director for Marconi. In August 1988 Ferry was found dead in a company-owned apartment, the stripped leads of an electrical cord in his mouth. Foul play has not been ruled out.
21. ELECTROCUTION–Alistair Beckham, 50, software engineer, Plessey. In August 1988 Beckham’s lifeless body was found in the garden shed behind his house. Bare wires, which ran to a live main, were wrapped around his chest. Now suicide note was found, and police habe not ruled out foul play.
22. ASPHYXIATION–Andrew Hall, 33, engineering manager, British Aero- space. In September 1988 Hall was found dead in his car, asphyxiated by fumes from a hose that was attached to the tail pipe. Friends said he was well liked, had everything to live for. Verdict: Suicide.