October 17, 1996 Feature Stories 
[What if everything we have been told about HIV and AIDS is a lie?]  
[The HIV Model Timetable as presented by Project AIDS International]  
[Their tithing dollars at work]  



WHAT IF EVERYTHING WE HAVE BEEN TOLD ABOUT HIV AND AIDS IS A LIE? 
BY JEFF OFSTEDAHL  
OCTOBER 17, 1996, ECHO MAGAZINE



  It is the plague of the 20th century. It is grounds upon which people are drummed out of military service.  
  It is upon which people lose their jobs. They lose their health insurance. 
  They are denied life insurance.  
  They have been denied housing, food and even pastoral counseling. Some are disenfranchised from their  families.  
  It is a four letter word, an acronym which spells certain death to all who are labeled as such.  
  It is AIDS.  


  Fifteen years into the "epidemic," it has become a multi-billion dollar a year industry which has made  millionaires of scientists and drug pushers alike.  Some 15 years later, people still are dying.  With annual federal funding at more that $7 billion, AIDS research is better funded than any other  disease. Yet, it has produced the fewest results. Why?  


  Some important questions which need to be answered are:  


	If HIV causes AIDS, why have thousands of AIDS victims never had HIV?  
	Why have hundreds of thousands who have had HIV for many years remained perfectly healthy?  
	Why does the co-discoverer of HIV now claim it cannot be the sole cause of AIDS?  
	Why has more than ten years of AIDS research costing tens of billions of dollars failed to show how (or even if) HIV causes AIDS or attacks the immune system?  
	What if AIDS is not, in fact, caused by a virus? 
	What if for all these years the search for the definitive  answer to the one of the worst afflictions to hit mankind in recent record has followed the wrong path?  
	What if everyone is wrong?  


  Impossible you ask? Not really. It has happened before.  
  In the American 1930s, a devastating disease began to grip the poverty-stricken areas of the country. They called it PELLAGRA. The condition was marked with skin lesions, gastrointestinal disturbances and nervous  disorders.  


  Because of its "outbreak" appearance, scientists were quick to label the calamity as viral or bacterial in  nature. As such, doctors were instructed how to treat their patients. Thousands died before the falsehood was discovered. It turned out, the disease was caused by simple malnutrition due to a B vitamin (nicotinic  acid) deficiency.  


  By the time the truth was discovered, scientists had come up with an elaborate life cycle for this new  virus, which they said came from corn mold, involved farm animals, crows, and eventually ended up in  people, who then died. In fact, the malady stemmed from an over-dependence on corn in the diet (which  has little nutritional value), and the new process of bleaching flour for white bread, a process which  introduced toxic cysteine hydrochlorides into the body.  


  An even greater example of the medical industry's mishandling of a disease occurred in Japan. It came  after an observed outbreak of alleged immune suppression lasting from 1955 to 1978.  


  In this case, subacute-myelo-optico-neuropathy (SMON) also was thought to be caused by a virus. After 20  years and countless deaths, researchers discovered the true cause of SMON: the chemical clioquinol,  which was sold in Japan to treat upset stomachs. When ingested, it actually induced the same upset  stomach. Thus, more was prescribed and ingested, perpetuating the vicious cycle.  


  Current day AIDS dissidents believe the SMON model (the treatment causing the very disease it was  supposed to fight) parallels what they call the AZT (zidovudine, known generically as Retrovir) cycle  precipitating AIDS.  


  Wait a minute. 
  You ask: AZT is the cause of AIDS? 
  AIDS dissidents?  Once they were thought to be the fringe of the scientific community. The wackos, if you will. Today, a  growing number of distinguished and world-renowned scientists and researchers is joining the AIDS  dissident movement.  


  "[The HIV model of AIDS] is without a doubt the biggest scientific medical error in the history of the  world," said Dick Joslyn, founder and director of the AIDS dissidence group SPEAK-UP! The organization  has no official membership. It is a network of activists and researchers who question whether AIDS  actually is caused by a virus.  


  "Despite the government's claims to the contrary, HIV has never been proven to cause disease," Joslyn  said. "Scientists who have reviewed what researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  (CDC) have offered as proof that HIV causes AIDS have found the evidence to be inadequate,  inconclusive and downright fraudulent."  


  Joslyn's belief is supported by more than 200 distinguished doctors and scientists, some of whom are  Nobel Prize recipients. No longer can these people be waved off as the lunatic fringe.  


  Their arguments begin with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) itself. Joslyn contends the virus,  if it truly exists, is a harmless organism within the body.  


  To date, he contends no one has isolated the actual virus. Methods to determine the alleged virus include  searching for antibodies to the virus through the use of Western Blot and Elisa tests. These labs tests do  not isolate the virus. They react to certain antibodies in the blood.
  "The tests are inaccurate because there are at least 50 other conditions, including mumps, diphtheria and  venereal warts, that will give a false positive," Joslyn explained. "They all produce antibodies that will  react to the materials used in labs tests."  


  "The tests are inconsistent because some people have tested positive, then tested negative three months  later," Joslyn said research has proved. "Someone may test positive at one lab, and the same blood sample  will test negative at another."  


  He points to the fact that Dr. Robert Gallo, the man co-credited with the discovery of HIV, filed for the  patent (worth billions) on the HIV test only three days after he fraudulently announced he had discovered  the virus which causes AIDS.  


  Gallo's discovery itself is the root of all questions pertaining to the viral causation of AIDS.  Since 1984, it has been assumed that HIV is the sole and direct cause of AIDS. The announcement didn't  come in the form of published reports in medical research journals from which other scientists examine  the data, retest the hypothesis and either prove or disprove the theory. The announcement came from a highly publicized Reagan administration press conference announcing an AIDS "cure" now was within  grasp.  


  At that time, the country was demanding progress in AIDS research. AIDS activists were in the streets. It  was an election year.  Jeremy Selvey director of Project AIDS International (PAI) maintains that never once has the HIV  hypothesis (which is HIV=AIDS=Death) been proven scientifically.  


  Even the alleged HIV co-discoverer Gallo admitted two years after his landmark "discovery"  announcement, in 1986, that he "saw no evidence" that LAV (the French version of HIV) was the cause of  AIDS.  


  In 1988, Gallo retracted his hypothesis of the "direct killing" of T4 cells by HIV, and he suggested perhaps  more important mechanisms than HIV are contributing to T4 cell depletion in patients diagnosed with  AIDS.  


  In 1992, Gallo was convicted of science fraud by the US Office of Research Integrity (a department of the  National Institutes of Health (NIH)) for claiming he had discovered HIV. The discovery was then credited  to French researcher Dr. Luc Montagnier who has stated on numerous occasions: "I do not believe that  HIV is in and of itself the cause of AIDS. I believe we should place as much emphasis on potential co- factors as we have on HIV."  


  According to Selvey, Gallo who has since left the CDC and is working independently for a university is  under investigation by Congress on various charges of science fraud. This, Selvey contends, further casts  doubts on the validity of all Gallo's research.  


  Dissidents to the HIV hypothesis, like Selvey, claim Gallo who for decades unsuccessfully tried to prove a  virus was the cause of cancer latched onto AIDS to revitalize funding for his research, and to take  attention away from his disappointing cancer research.  


  Further, they claim the US government eager to disseminate any new positive developments on the  AIDS front, and thus get AIDS activists off its back over-anxiously grabbed onto Gallo's "discovery" and  touted it as a miracle development.  


  "Based on Gallo's unproven hypothesis that HIV is the sole and direct cause of AIDS, the US Public  Health Service has embarked on a campaign of implied terror and misinformation that has continued to  state HIV, the virus which causes AIDS,' can be controlled by getting tested for the AIDS virus' and  starting early intervention' in the event of a positive test result.'" Selvey writes.  


  "HIV, the virus which causes AIDS," Joslyn restates for emphasis. "If you repeat a lie often enough, it  becomes fact."  "It is like a high priesthood in science," Joslyn explains. "What they believe is what is passed down to  other scientists, doctors and the media. We're on the lowest rung on the totem pole, and we're supposed  to believe everything they've told us."  


  Joslyn believes doctors have no idea what research at the highest level entails. Most merely prescribe the  course of treatment based on the dictates of the CDC. For the sake of argument, let us imagine that  everything we have been told about HIV and testing for HIV antibodies is based on false presumptions.  


What, then, causes AIDS?  


  Enter AZT, the drug nicknamed "AIDS by prescription" by HIV dissidents like Dr. Peter Duesberg,  professor of molecular and cell biology at University of California-Berkeley. A member of the National  Academy of Sciences, pioneer in retrovirus research, the first scientist to isolate a cancer gene, and author  of Inventing The AIDS Virus, Duesberg brings a world of credentials to the AIDS dissident movement.  


  But he is not new on the scene.  


  Duesberg has been challenging the HIV hypothesis for the past ten years. He believes AZT is one of the  factors which, at the least, makes AIDS worse.  


  AZT is a nucleoside analogue DNA chain terminator. In other words, it kills human cells  indiscriminately by terminating DNA synthesis, which is the central molecule of life.  AZT was claimed as the only drug of the AIDS crisis at a time when desperate AIDS patients had lost all  hope. Burroughs-Wellcome alleged they were the creators of AZT. This was "only after realizing that a  very profitable market existed for long-term' treatment with the drug," Selvey said. It was uncovered by  PAI that AZT originally was created in 1961 by NIH researcher Dr. Richard Beltz. The discovery was the  result of his research on nucleoside analogues dating back to 1951.  


  According to Beltz, the reasons AZT was abandoned were: 
1)  Its extreme toxicity made it unsuitable for  any chemotherapy even short-term, and 
2)  It was carcinogenic (cancer causing) at any dose.  


  Duesberg said, "Since AZT cannot distinguish HIV-infected cells from uninfected cells, and only one in  one thousand CD4 cells is ever infected, AZT must kill 995 healthy cells for every one infected cell. AZT  suppresses HIV by suppressing the manufacturing of CD4 cells, predictably causing anemia,  immunodeficiency and other degenerative diseases."  


  In its defense, Burroughs-Wellcome cites numerous studies to substantiate its claims that AZT both  "prolongs life" and "enhances its quality." PAI contends all studies that tout AZT's benefits were made  possible, either directly or indirectly, by grant money from Burroughs-Wellcome. Impartial studies done  without the influence of Burroughs-Wellcome indicate that AZT neither prolongs life or enhances its  quality, PAI charges, based on unreleased data from studies conducted by the CDC.  


  Following is a Burroughs-Wellcome list of side effects from AZT, the drug it says "improves the quality of  life:"  


Anemia, 
cancer, 
bone marrow depletion, 
nose bleeds, 
hematologic toxicity, 
fever, 
malaise, 
loss of mental  acuity, 
atrophy, 
diarrhea, 
diaphoresis, 
headaches, 
insomnia, 
confusion, 
anorexia, 
vomiting, 
neuropathy,  
skin rashes, 
anxiety, 
nausea, 
dizziness, 
impotence, 
depression, 
vertigo, 
hearing loss, 
photophobia,  
nervousness, 
seizures, 
and leukocytopenia the immunodeficiency of white blood cells.  


  In addition to the above, studies indicate that the original toxicity profile of AZT was fraudulently  reported. It actually is 1,000-times more toxic to human cells than was originally reported, PAI documents.  AIDS and gay activists ACTing-UP and demanding expedited drug approval, Selvey and Joslyn claim,  played right into the hands of Burroughs-Wellcome's bottom line. 


  Perhaps we should overlook the fact  that, according to Joslyn, BURROUGHS-WELLCOME PAID NIH A REPORTED SUM OF $300 MILLION FOR THE RIGHT TO  MARKET AZT, WHICH PAI SAYS NIH DEVELOPED WITH TAXPAYER FUNDS.  


  At the sinister level, Selvey has published a report which states he has a tape-recorded conversation with  a low-level attorney who represented Barr Labs of Canada which was working to try and wrestle patent  rights for AZT. The attorney allegedly explained to Selvey the trouble Barr Labs was having compared to  the powerful Burroughs-Wellcome.  


  Selvey wrote: 
  "Calmly [the attorney] said NIH sold AZT to Wellcome. Wellcome was supposed to kick- back a large portion [of the profits] to the FDA, NIH and the CDC, and the NIH would make grants to the  private AIDS organizations to promote the sale of more AZT, and the money would be spread around. 
  He  stated that the FDA studies showing AZT's effectiveness were so well done and the publicity campaign  was comfortably in place, no one expected this degree of success. Instead of following through with kick- backs, Wellcome just grabbed the ball and ran with it,' and paid the AIDS organizations directly."  


  After the senior partner of the law firm representing Barr/NIH was informed of the taped conversation,  the junior attorney was dismissed, Selvey said.  


  Additionally, PAI has a copy of a check (which was viewed by Echo magazine) it says Burroughs- Wellcome "laundered" through an NIH foundation called FAES (Foundation for the Advancement of  Education and Science) to Dr. Sam Broder, who was on the NIH drug approval team, for $55,000. The date  on the check is July 7, 1985, about the time AZT was licensed and approved for use on AIDS patients.  


  How convenient. 


  Imagine this hypothetical scenario from a drug company's point of view: 


	 *We have a disease which systematically breaks down the immune system and kills over a period of  time.  
	 *We have a drug company with a 20-year-old worthless albatross of a drug sitting on its shelves,  whose only benefit to the human body is that it breaks down the immune system over a period of  time and leads to death.  
	 *CDC estimates millions of people around the world will be suffering from HIV by the turn of the  century.  
	 *Get the government to approve the drug for people already experiencing immune system  breakdown. They will die anyway. Who is to say the drug did them in? Better yet, get AIDS  organizations and the government to recommend the use of AZT as soon as one gets a positive test  result.  


  What do you have? A billions-of-dollars-a-year cash cow revolving around treating people who are not  clinically ill by giving them a toxic course of treatment based upon an unproven hypothesis.  


  It's not a matter of just picking on AZT. Other antivirals such as ddI, ddC, D4t and 3TC, Joslyn says, also  wreak havoc on the body's immune system.  Selvey is more specific. He said these "synthetically manufactured molecules are being integrated into the genes of all human cells; therefore, they block the replication of genes; thus causing a deficit in new cells.  
  Sooner or later there exists a lack of newly produced immune cells which causes the condition called  AIDS."  


  What about tracking the amount of HIV in the bloodstream via the new "viral load" tests?  
  "Viral load PCR tests to measure the amount of HIV in the blood (if that is what they really measure) are  meaningless," Joslyn contends, "because HIV does not cause AIDS."  


Coming next issue are answers to such questions as:  


	Clearly, AIDS existed before AZT and other drugs. How do you explain that?  
	Where have all the T-cells gone?  
	What about protease inhibitors? 
	Does a "cure" currently exist, or will there ever be one?  


The answers will shock and surprise you. One thing is certain. The gay community will not be amused.   [end] 




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