Monday 10 November 2014

The Congo's Legacy of Imperialism - Ebola, Jews and Bats


From the Nigerian Blog, PublicWellness :
(Emphasis Added)

"Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a dreaded viral disease and the first case of the virus was recorded in 1976 in Zaire which was where it got its first name, Zaire Ebola Virus and out of the 318 persons that got hit by the virus only 38 lived to tell the story. Today, it is spreading like a wild fire in Africa and we all need to watch it. 


Symptoms 
The early symptoms of Ebola virus disease could be a bit difficult to notice because they are similar to other viral infections. Here are the common symptoms:
  •  Elevation in temperature
  •  Fatigue
  •  Chills
  • Dry and persistent cough
  • Sore throat
  •  Crippling headaches
  •  Chest, Joint and muscle pain
  • Lack of appetite
Complications
  • Severe vomiting
  • Diarrhoea
  • Stomach pain
  • Sudden Rash
  •  Internal and external bleeding – which could be from the eyes, nose, ears, mouth or anus

Mode of transmission
EBOV is transmitted through;
  • Direct contact with blood and other body fluids (saliva, urine, semen, sweat) of infected persons or animals.
  • Direct contact with contaminated medical equipment such as needles.
  • Eating the meat of infected animals like bats, rats and monkeys.

[IMPLICITLY : Do not fuck a monkey - not even a little one, when you really need to. Or any bats - because that's how it's spreading and why it's now gone epidemic.]

Prevention
EVD is a killer disease and the only known cure now is prevention. Here are a few preventive measures:
  • Wash your hands regularly and properly. Buy hand sanitizers and always carry it with you.
  • Mortuary attainders should avoid contacts with corpses of Ebola patients and they should not embalm their corpses.
  • Don’t eat meats of sketchy sources.
  • Persons who have recovered from the disease should confirm from their doctor when they could have sex with their partner. Ebola virus is carried in the semen.

The Nigeria Federal Ministry of Health have given out some numbers we could contact them with if we notice anyone with a possible EBOV infection... I know what’s on your mind now but don’t mind the Nigerian system. This was why, out of anger, a friend said that the country will keep descending into more and more orgy of chaos because we keep allowing situations to get out of hand before looking for the solutions- the rise and rise of Boko Haram is a typical example.

Here are the contacts;
E-mail: ebolainfo@health.gov.ng


P.S- Please help rid our society of this monster by reporting all cases to them. Remember it takes two hands to get a clap.

Marburg virus disease (MVD) (formerly known as Marburg haemorrhagic fever) was first identified in 1967 during epidemics in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany and Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia from importation of infected monkeys from Uganda. MVD is a severe and highly fatal disease caused by a virus from the same family as the one that causes Ebola virus disease. These viruses are among the most virulent pathogens known to infect humans. Both diseases are rare, but have a capacity to cause dramatic outbreaks with high fatality.

Illness caused by Marburg virus begins abruptly, with severe headache and severe malaise. Many patients develop severe haemorrhagic manifestations between days 5 and 7, and fatal cases usually have some form of bleeding, often from multiple sites. Case fatality rates have varied greatly, from 25% in the initial laboratory-associated outbreak in 1967, to more than 80% in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1998-2000 and the outbreak in Angola in 2005.

The Marburg virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected persons. Transmission of the Marburg virus also occurred by handling ill or dead infected wild animals (monkeys, fruit bats). The predominant treatment is general supportive therapy


AIDS and Ebola - Where Did They Really Come From?
by Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz



During the 1960s and early 1970s the World Health Organization (WHO) functioned as the omnipotent supplier and standardizing authority of the world's experimental pharmaceuticals. In the field of virology, the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) directed theNational Cancer Institute (NCI) to become, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the WHO's chief distributor of viruses and antiviral vaccines.

 

The WHO Chronicle noted by 1968—ten years into the WHO's viral research program—"WHO virus reference centers" had served as authorized technical advisors and suppliers of "prototype virus strains, diagnostic and reference reagents (e.g., antibodies), antigens, and cell cultures" for more than "120 laboratories in 35 different countries." Within a year of this announcement, this number increased to "592 virus laboratories.. [and] only 137 were outside Europe and North America."

 

Over these 12 months, the NCI and CDC helped the WHO distribute 2,514 strains of viruses, 1,888 ampoules of antisera mainly for reference purposes, 1,274 ampoules of antigens, and about 100 samples of cell cultures. More than 70,000 individual reports of virus isolations or related serological tests had been transmitted through the WHO-NCI network.12 




At the NCI in Bethesda, Maryland, from the late 1960s to the present, the chief retrovirus research laboratory was associated with the Department of Cell Tumor Biology, and chaired by Dr. Robert Gallo—an esteemed member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) who was hailed by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler in 1984 as the discoverer of the AIDS virus, HTLV-III.

 

LAV, identical to HTLV-III had been isolated by Montagnier's French team and allegedly forwarded to Gallo in 1983.3 


MILITARY ORDERS FOR AIDS-LIKE VIRUSES: THE BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS CONTRACTORS

As early as 1970, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) appropriated at least $10 million to "initiate an adequate program through the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council (NAS-NRC)" to make a new infective microorganism which could differ in certain important aspects from any known disease-causing organisms.

 

Most important of these [aspects] is that it might be refractory to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease. Members of the NAS-NRC had instructed scientific leaders in the DOD this work might be accomplished "within 5 years."4 This research was then carried out by American defense contractors despite the authorization and signing of the Geneva accord by Dr. Henry Kissinger and President Nixon outlawing the production and testing of such biological weapons.5 

Also in 1970 Gallo and his co-workers presented research describing the experimental entry of bacterial ribonucleic acid (RNA) into human white blood cells (WBCs) before a special symposium sponsored by NATO.6 The paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences discussed several possible mechanisms prompting the "entry of foreign nucleic acids" into lymphocytes—the cells principally attacked by HIV.

 

Prior to this, Gallo et al. had published studies identifying:

  • mechanisms responsible for reduced amino acid and protein synthesis by T-lymphocytes required for immunosuppression;7

  • specific enzymes required to produce such effects along with a "base pair switch mutation" in the genes of WBCs to create immune system dysfunction;8

  • methods by which WBC "DNA degradation" and immune system decay may be prompted by the "pooling" of purine bases and/or the addition of specific reagents.9

Subsequent studies published in 1970 by Gallo and co-workers identified "RNA dependent DNA polymerase" (i.e., the unique AIDS-linked enzyme, reverse transcriptase) responsible for "gene amplification... biochemical cyto-differentiation," (i.e., the development of unique WBC characteristics including cancer cell production) and "leukaemogenesis";10 and identified L-Asparaginase synthetase—a key enzyme that, if repressed, will induce treatment resistant leukemias and other cancers.11 

The year following the $10 million appropriation by the DOD for AIDS-like biological weapons research, the NCI acquired the lion's share of the facilities at America's premier biological weapons testing center, Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland.12

 

Perhaps not coincidentally, the Cell Tumor Biology Laboratory's output increased in 1971 as measured by the publication of eight scientific articles by Gallo and co-workers compared to at most four in previous years.

 

These reports included Gallo's discovery that by adding a synthetic RNA and feline (i.e., cat) leukemia virus (FELV) "template" to "human type C" viruses (associated with cancers of the lymph nodes), the rate of DNA production (and subsequent provirus synthesis) increased as much as thirty times. The NCI researchers reported that such a virus may cause many cancers besides leukemias and lymphomas including sarcomas.13 

In this 1971 report Gallo et al. also reported modifying simian (i.e., monkey) viruses by infusing them with cat leukemia RNA to make them cause cancers as seen in AIDS patients.13 

Furthermore, Fujioka and Gallo concluded from studies conducted in late 1969 or early 1970 that they would need to further "evaluate the functional significance of tRNA changes in tumor cells," by designing an experiment in which "specific tumor cell tRNAs" would be "added directly to normal cells." They explained that one way of doing this was to use viruses to deliver the foreign cancer producing tRNA to normal cells. The viruses which were then employed to do this, the researchers noted, were the simian virus (SV40) and the mouse parotid tumor (polyoma) virus.14 

Such experiments clearly advanced immunodeficiency virus technology and even provided a model for the development of HIV, the AIDS virus—allegedly of simian virus descent—which similarly delivered unique enzymes and a foreign RNA to normal cells necessary to cause an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in animals and humans. 
 


DEVELOPING MORE AIDS-LIKE VIRUSES

In 1972, Gallo, his superiors and inferiors studied portions of simian viruses to determine differences in RNA activity between infected versus uninfected cancer cells, and whether the differences could be ascribed to the infection and related DNA alterations.15

 

They stated that "by studying viral or cellular mutants or cell segregants... which have conditional variations in virus-specific cellular alterations, it should be possible to more precisely determine the biological significance of the RNA variation reported here." Clearly, the group was working to determine the relevance of various viral genes on the development of human cancers and immune system collapse. They reported their desire to use this information to find a cure for cancer, but at this time their activity was more focused on creating various cancers as well as new carcinogenic viruses which could infect humans.

For example, Smith and Gallo published another National Academy of Sciences paper examining DNA polymerase (i.e., reverse transcriptase) activity in immature normal versus acute leukemic lymph cells. To do so, they evaluated the single stranded 70S RNA retrovirus found in chickens which causes prominent features of AIDS including WBC dysfunction, sarcomas, progressive wasting and death.16

 

Borrow, Smith and Gallo injected this chicken virus RNA into human WBCs to determine if the cells were prompted to produce proteins (including new viruses) encoded by the viral RNA.17 Robert, Smith and Gallo also evaluated the neoplastic effects of single stranded 70S RNA reverse transcriptase delivered by the cat leukemia virus (FELV) and the mason-Pfizer monkey virus on nor-mal human lymphocytes (NHL).18 

This work foreshadowed the observation made ten years later by the CDC's chief AIDS researcher, Dr. Donald Francis who noted the "laundry list" of feline leukemia-like diseases associated with AIDS.3 

Other examples are detailed by Gallo and co-workers while discussing their adapting monkey, rat, and bird leukemia and tumor viruses for experimental use in a human (NC-37) cell line.19 Wu, Ting and Gallo20 discussed the synthesis of new RNA tumor viruses "induced by 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine, IdU (a constituent of RNA) in rodent cell cultures, and noted that chemotherapy might be used to halt the reverse transcriptase-linked viral reproduction. 

However, had HIV been synthesized for military purposes from various species components, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to prove. As Gillespie, Gillespie and Gallo et al. noted in 1973 concerning the origin of the RD114—another cat/human bioengineered virus—"it can always be argued that" a virus which naturally jumped species (as HIV is alleged to have done from the monkey) would be expected to have antigens that differ "from the antigen found on the viruses of known" origin.21 
 


LITTON BIONETICS - GALLO'S LINK TO THE DOD

Four years later, during a U.S. Senate investigation of illegal "biological testing involving human subjects by the Department of Defense," Senators learned that Bionetics, Bionetics Research Laboratories, and Litton Bionetics—an organization which, along with the NCI, administered and provided Dr. Gallo's research funding10,13,15,17-19,22,26 were not only acknowledged DOD biological weapons contractors, but their affiliated Litton Systems, Inc., was among the most frequently contracted institutions involved in biological weapons research and development between 1960 and 1970 (the end of the reported period).23

 

Additional bio-logical weapons contractors with whom Dr. Gallo and/or his co-workers associated during the late 1960s and early 1970s included the University of Chicago,24 Texas,13 Virginia,25 and Yale,17 Merck and Co. Inc.,20 and Hazelton Laboratory, site of the famous 1989 Marburg-Ebola-like (Reston) virus outbreak.22 

NCI staff reports revealed that Litton Bionetics had been granted the service contract to supply all NCI researchers, worldwide, with virtually every primate cancer research material requested, including seed viruses, viral hybrids, cell lines, experimental reagents, and African colony born monkeys including M. mulatta and C. aethiops which were associated with the major monkey AIDS virus outbreaks in California's Davis Lab, and the 1967 Marburg virus outbreaks in three European vaccine production facilities.15-17 

Litton Bionetics chief John Landon reported an experiment begun in 1965 when he inoculated 18 monkeys with rhaabdovirus simian—a rabies virus known to cause Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever in monkeys. "Nine [monkeys] died or were transferred," to allied laboratories or vaccine production facilities. This shipment was likely to have started the first hemorrhagic fever "Marburg virus" outbreak among European vaccine laboratory workers in 1967. As noted by the world's leading simian virus expert at the time, Dr. Seymour Kalter, the Marburg virus was apparently manmade.23-25 

In fact, Litton Bionetics, the chief military and industrial supplier of primates for cancer virus experimentation during the 1960s and early 1970s, also maintained the colony of the specific genus of monkeys associated with all of the major monkey AIDS virus outbreaks in the United States.23 

Through telephone interviews with Litton Bionetics and MedPath administrators, I learned that Bionetics Research Laboratories had been sold to MedPath Corporation—one of America's largest medical and blood testing laboratories—a division of Dow Corning. Dow Coming's parent, Dow Chemical Company, was also listed among the Army's chief biological weapons contractors during the 1960s and early 1970s.26,27

 

Litton Bionetics, a subsidiary of Litton Industries, Inc. remains in business as a proprietor of the Frederick Cancer Research Center, a "privately owned, government contracted" facility. Bionetics, it was noted, currently acts as an agency under,

"contract to manage and operate the Frederick (Md.) [Fort Detrick affiliated] Cancer Research Center for the National Cancer Institute."27

Besides administering research grants and government funds earmarked for the NCI, Litton Bionetics also developed a division which produced and marketed test kits for blood-borne, infectious diseases including mononucleosis, hepatitis B, and AIDS.28 This division was sold to Organon Teknica in 1985.26 

Apparently, the military-medical-industrial complex was well aware of Litton Industries' service as a DOD and NATO contractor. In 1978, the company was indicted for filing false claims for $37 million in cost-over-runs during the building of three nuclear submarines under one of several multi-billion dollar defense contracts.29'34 
 


ZAIRE AND ANGOLA: A CIA MILITARY ARENA

Between 1970 and 1975, the period the NAS-NCR scientific advisors informed DOD decision-makers that AIDS-like viruses could be readied,4 American cold war efforts focused on Zaire and Angola.33-35 Following the withdrawal of American forces in Vietnam, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger ordered theCIA to begin a major covert military operation against MPLA (communist bloc backed) "rebels" in Angola.36-37

 

Zaire, indebted by over $4.5 billion to the International Monetary Fund, and headed by President Mobutu—paradoxically regarded as one of the world's wealthiest men with "a personal fortune put at $2,939,200,000 [1984 estimate] banked in Switzerland—was wooed by NATO allies during the 1970s (principally the U.S.) to be a staging area for CIA backed, Portuguese, French, and mainly South African mercenaries.38,39

"American corporate investment, notably in copper and aluminum, doubled to about $50 million following a 1970 visit by Mobutu to the United States. Major investors included Chase-Manhattan, Ford, General Motors, Gulf, Shell, Union Carbide, and several other large concerns."43

However, in 1975 Mobutu apparently turned against NATO allies and increased negotiations with China and Russia40-41 He proclaimed his intention to nationalize foreign owned enterprises.4243 In June 1975, following the CIA's thwarted efforts to convince the U.S. Congress to appropriate more funds for Mobutu and the Angola program (A total of $31.7 million had already been "drawn from the CIA's FY 75 contingency fund" which was "exhausted on 27 November 1975").39 Mobutu expelled the American ambassador and arrested many of the CIA's Zairian agents, placing some under death sentences.40,41 

The following year, in October 1976, the "Ebola Zaire virus" broke-out in "fifty five villages surrounding the [Yambuku] hospital" first killing "people who had received injections." Mobutu then ordered his army to "seal off the Bumba zone with roadblocks" and "shoot anyone trying to come out" so "no one knew what was happening, who was dying, [or] what the virus was doing."44 

Shortly thereafter, Ebola victim specimens were sent to the CDC, Special (meaning "secret" within the American intelligence community) Pathogens Branch; to Porton, England's controversial chemical and bio-logical weapons (CBW) laboratories;45 and teams of WHO and CDC researchers were dispatched to the Ebola region in Mobutu's private, American supplied C-130 Buffalo troop transport plant.44 

By the end of 1976, the Zairian leader had reconciled his differences with the American intelligence and corporate communities believing that Zaire would continue to reap his non-communist allies' social and economic aid. On April 4, 1977, Mobutu suspended diplomatic relations with Cuba; on April 21, reduced ties with the Soviet Union; and on May 2, he cut ties with East Germany.46

 

Meanwhile, according to John Stockwell, Former Chief of the CIA's Angola Task Force, "the United States was exposed, dishonored and discredited in the eyes of the world," as "15,000 Cubans were installed in Angola"40 despite the CIA's best efforts and a continuing policy of lying "to State Department officials, Congressmen, American press, and world public opinion in varying degrees, depending on the need" about the CIA's covert military campaign in Angola and Zaire.39 

Throughout 1976 and 1977, Mobutu, NATO, and the CIA, constrained by the Tunney, Cranston and Clark amendment which prevented the expenditure of American funds in Zaire/Angola, except to gather intelli-gence,39 remained embroiled in the "Shaba rebellion" against allegedly Russian-backed "Katangan rebels."46 

At the same time, perhaps not coincidentally, NATO ally West Germany was pouring financial aid into Zaire and white ruled South Africa.47-49 The Northeast region of Zaire, believed to be the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic, was specifically targeted for West German economic aid and industrialization.50 

The "long tradition of friendship between Germans and South Africans" London's African Development noted, "dates back from the first waves of white immigrants to South Africa and the feeling of solidarity between Germans and Afrikaners during the Boer War, continuing throughout the First World War and then the Second World War.

 

Many of today's Nationalist leaders in Pretoria," the paper reported, "were Nazi sympathizers: many ex-Nazis settled in South Africa after 1945 . . ."48 
 


THE WEST GERMAN COMPANY OTRAG

Not surprising then, on March 26, 1976 Mobutu signed what the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) reported was a "secret agreement" with the West German company OTRAG (Orbital Transport-und Raketen-Aktiengesellschaft) to lease 260,000 square kilometers—essentially the complete Kivu province—for military/industrial purposes for the sum of DM 800,000,000 (approximately $250 million at that time).51-54

 

The contract "made OTRAG sovereign over territories once inhabited by 760,000 people"54 in the Eastern and South-central portion of Zaire. The leased property positioned North of the Shaba militarized region, expanded Southeast along the Congo River—the countries main waterway, and south of the Kinshasa highway—better known as the "AIDS Highway" which runs through Zaire's Northeast corridor and across central Africa bypassing the "Isle of Plaques," Mount Elgon and Kitum Cave allegedly by the author of The Hot Zone to be the breeding ground for the Ebola, Marburg, and AIDS viruses.44 

OTRAG was apparently authorized to conduct any "excavation and construction; including air fields, energy plants, communication systems, and manufacturing plants. All movement of people into and within the OTRAG territory was only with permission of OTRAG, [which was] absolved from any responsibility for damage caused by construction. Its people enjoy complete immunity from the laws of Zaire in the granted territory, until the year 2000."56 

Believed to be of military intelligence gathering significance to NATO46-48,55,56

 

OTRAG and its principals were traced back to the West German government and,

"to those Nazi scientists who worked on VI and V2 rockets during World War II. For example, Dr. Kurt H. Debus, Chairman of the Board of OTRAG, once worked at the Peenemude V2 program and later, until 1975, worked as director of the Cape Canaveral (now Cape Kennedy) space program.

 

Richard Gompertz, OTRAG's technical director and a U.S. citizen, once was a specialist on V2 engines and later presided over NASA's Chrysler space division. Lutz Thilo Kayer, OTRAG's founder and manager, when young was quite close to the Nazi rocket industry, often called 'Dadieu's young man,' a reference to Armin Dadieu, his mentor, who served as prominent SS officer and as Gorling's special representative for a research program on storing uranium.

 

While working for OTRAG Kayser also acted as a contact for the West German government, a special advisor to the Minister of Research and Technology on matters concerning OTRAG. He was also on the ad hoc committee on... [America's] Apollo program."56

In 1979, under pressure from the Soviet Union and Zaire's neighboring countries, Mobutu announced OTRAG would "halt its rocket testing" program. It was clear, however, strong diplomatic, military, and economic ties between West Germany, the U.S. and Zaire continued.49-57 
 


COLD WAR PROPAGANDA VERSUS THE HARD CORE FACTS

According to the latest United States Army (USA) report, the "outlandish claim" that the AIDS virus was developed as a biological weapon for the Pentagon was communist propaganda

"disavowed in 1987 by then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who apologized to President Ronald Reagan for the accusation."58

However, more recently, the high ranking Soviet press official Boris Belitskiy, offered an alternative account regarding the origin of such "propaganda".59

"Several U.S. Administration officials such as USIA [CIA] Director Charles Wick, have accused the Soviet Union of having invented this theory for propaganda purposes. But actually it is not Soviet scientists at all who first came up with this theory," Belitskiy reported.

 

"It was first reported in Western journals by Western scientists, such as Dr. John Seale, a specialist on venereal diseases at two big London hospitals. 

"Just recently a Soviet journalist in Algeria, Aleksandr Zhukov, man-aged to interview a European physician at the Moustapha Hospital there, who made some relevant disclosures on the subject. In the early seventies, this physician, an immunologist, was working for the West German OTRAG Corporation in Zaire. His laboratory had been given the assignment to cultivate viruses ordinarily affecting animals but constituting a potential danger to man.

 

They were particularly interested in certain un-known viruses isolated from the African green monkey, and capable of such rapid replication that they could completely destabilize the immune system. These viruses, however, were quite harmless for human beings and the lab's assignment was to develop a mutant virus that would be a human killer."7-11,13-22

"Did they succeed?" the announcer asked.

 

"To a large extent, yes," Belitskiy replied. "The lab was ordered to wind up the project and turn the results over to certain U.S. researchers, who had been following this work with keen interest, to such an extent that some of the researchers believed they were in reality working not for the West German OTRAG Corp-oration but for the Pentagon."59

Two years after Belitskiy's announcement, in 1991, Dr. Jacobo Segal, professor emeritus of Berlin's Humboldt University told the international press that the Pentagon theory of AIDS made sense. He alleged the virus was likely developed "through gene technology" as a result of Pentagon sponsored animal research, "to permit the attack on human immune cells." Furthermore, he reported this theory is "supported by many European scientists and has not been refuted."60 

In 1977, at the height of OTRAG's Zairian missile testing phase, Litton Industries units received contracts worth: $5 million for medical electron-ic equipment from its Hellige division, in Freiburg, West Germany;61 $19.8 million worth of missile fire-control equipment from the Army;62 $32.9 million for electronic reconnaissance sensor equipment from the Air Force;63 and in 1978 $11.3 million worth of computerized communications systems for NATO.64 Some of these military supplies may have been earmarked for OTRAG.65 

Moreover, given the "cooperation between NATO and the World Health Organization with regard to the control and regulation of the international exchange of pharmaceutical products, [and] the possible necessity of facing the dangers created by the use of chemical or bacteriological weapons"66 it appears noteworthy that the outbreaks of the world's most feared and deadly viruses Marburg, Ebola, Reston, and AIDS—share the dubious distinction of breaking out in or around zones of U.S. and West German, NATO-allied, military experimentation at the height of the cold war.

 

Increased political/military interest in Central Africa, and a burgeoning of WHO and NCI contracts for the supply of simians for "defensive" research.44 
 


AIDS, GAYS, BLACKS AND THE CIA

It is also noteworthy that in 1975, five years following the signing of the Geneva accord by Nixon, congressional records revealed that the USPHS through the Special (i.e., covert) Operations Division of the Army continued to supply biological weapons including deadly neurotoxins and viruses to the CIA which illegally stored them in their Fort Detrick facility for future unsanctioned uses.67

 

Though records of who initiated and directed this covert activity were destroyed by the CIA, along with the famous Watergate tapes,68 Mr. Nathan Gordon, Former Chief of the CIA's Chemistry Branch, Technical Services Division confessed knowledge that some of the stored substances were to be used to,

"study immunization methods for diseases vis-a-vis—who knows, cancer."69

Furthermore, following Nixon's resignation, President Ford and Henry Kissinger were made aware that the CIA maintained a residual supply of biological weapons, but neither ordered their destruction according to testimony pro-vided by Former CIA Director Richard Helms.70 

In subsequent congressional hearings before the Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research, it was revealed that George W Merck, "of the prominent Merck pharmaceutical firm," directed America's bio-logical weapons manufacturing industry for decades following World War II.71 Merck & Company, Inc. was also listed among the DOD biological weapons contractors.72 Merck, Sharp and Dohme provided major financial support for the earliest hepatitis B vaccination studies conducted simultaneously in Central Africa and New York City during the early 1970s.

 

Several authorities have argued these vaccine trials might best explain the unique and varying epidemiological patterns of HIV/AIDS transmission between the U.S. and Africa.

"The vaccine was prepared in the laboratories of the Department of Virus and Cell Biology Research, Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research, West Point, Pennsylvania. The placebo, [was] also prepared in the Merck Laboratories."72

During the holocaust, Nazi scientists assayed non-Arian blood to deter-mine race specific disease susceptibilities. Blacks and homosexuals, along with Jews, were persecuted by the Nazis. Over 10,000 gay men were murdered.3 

Similarly, U.S. intelligence agencies have been targeting blacks and gays for assassinations, harassment, illegal wire taps, and counterintelligence campaigns from the McCarthy era in the 1950s through the Reagan era in the 1980s. American black and gay civil rights groups and their leaders were considered communist threats during the cold war years— particularly during the late 1960s and early 1970s when Nixon, Kissinger, and Hoover supportedCOINTELPRO funding for covert FBI and CIA activities aimed at neutralizing all such domestic and foreign black and homosexual threats.74-78 

The use of Third World people and American blacks and prisoners for unconscionable pharmaceutical experimentation and covert economic, social, and environmental exploitation by the U.S. and other western countries has been repeatedly alleged by reputable sources.79 
 


REFERENCES

  1. World Health Organization Report. Five years of research on virus diseases. WHO Chronicle 1969;23;12:564-572; Communicable diseases in 1970: Some aspects of the WHO program. WHO Chronicle 1971;25;6:249-255; see also: Mathews AG. Who's influence on the control of biologicals. WHO Chronicle 1968;23;1:3-15.

  2. World Health Organization Report. Recent work on virus diseases. WHO Chronicle 1974 28:410-413.

  3. Shilts R. And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic. New York: Penguin Books, 1987, pp. 450-453.

  4. Department of Defense Appropriations for 1970. Hearings Before a Subcommittee on the Committee on Appropriations House of Representatives, Ninety-First Congress, Part 5 Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation, Dept. of the Army. Tuesday, July 1, 1969, p. 79. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969, p. 79 of the public record and page 129 of the classified supplemental record obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

  5. Washington Correspondent. Gas and germ warfare renounced but lingers on. Nature 1970; 228;273:707-8.

  6. Herrera F, Adamson RH and Gallo RC. Uptake of transfer ribonucleic acid by normal and leukemic cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 1970;67;4:1943-1950.

  7. Gallo RC, Perry S and Breitman RT The enzymatic mechanisms for deoxythymidine synthesis in human leukocytes. Journal of Biological Chemistry 1967;242;21:5059-5068.

  8. Gallo RC and Perry S. Enzymatic abnormality in human leukemia. Nature 1968;218:465-466.

  9. Gallo RC and Breitman TR. The enzymatic mechanisms for deoxythymidine synthesis in human leukocytes: Inhibition of deoxy-thymidine phosphorylase by purines. Journal of Biological Chemistry 1968;243;19:4943-4951.

  10. Gallo RC, Yang SS and Ting RC. RNA dependent DNA Polymerase of human acute leukaemic cells. Nature 1970;227:1134-1136.

  11. Gallo RC and Longmore JL. Asparaginyl-tRNA and resistance of murine leukaemias to L-asparaginase. Nature 1970;227:1134-1136.

  12. Washington Correspondent. Biological warfare: Relief of Fort Detrick. Nature Nov. 28, 1970;228:803.

  13. Gallo RC, Sarin PS, Allen PT, Newton WA, Priori ES, Bowen JM and Dmochoowski L. Reverse transcriptase in type C virus particles of human origin. Nature New Biology 1971;232:140-142.

  14. Fujioka S and Gallo RC. Aminoacyl transfer RNA profiles in human myeloma cells. Blood 1971;38;2:246-252.

  15. Gallaher RE, Ting RC and Gallo RC. A common change aspartyl-tRNA in polyoma and SV transformed cells. Biochimica Et Biophysica Acta 1972;272:568-582.

  16. Smith RG and Gallo RC. DNA dependent DNA polymerases I and II from normal human-blood lymphocytes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 1972;69; 10:2879-2884.

  17. Bobrow SN, Smith RG, Reitz MS and Gallo RC. Stimulated normal human lymphocytes contain a ribonuclease-sensitive DNA polymerase distinct from viral RNA directed DNA polymerase. Proceedings National Academy of Sciences 1972;69; 11:3228-3232.

  18. Robert MS, Smith RG, Gallo RC, Sarin PS and Abrell JW. Viral and cellular DNA polymerase: Comparison of activities with synthetic and natural RNA templates. Science 1972;69; 12:3820-3824.

  19. Gallo RC, Abrell JW, Robert MS, Yang SS and Smith RG. Reverse transcriptase from Mason-Pfizer monkey tumor virus, avian myeloblastosis virus, and Rauscher leukemia virus and its response to rifamycin derivatives. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 1972;48;4:1185-1189.

  20. Wu AM, Ting RC, Paran M and Gallo RC. Cordycepin inhibits induction of murine leukovirus production by 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 1972;69;12: 3820-3824.

  21. Gillespie D, Gillespie S, Gallo RC, East J and Dmochowski L. Genetic origin of RD114 and other RNA tumor viruses assayed by molecular hybridization. Nature New Biology 1973;224:52-54.

  22. Wu AM, Ting RC, and Gallo RC. RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase and virus-induced leukemia in mice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 1973 ;70;5:1298-1302.

  23. NCI staff. The Special Virus Cancer Program: Progress Report #8 [and #9]. Office of the Associate Scientific Director for Viral Oncology (OASDVO). J.B. Moloney, Ed., Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971 [and 1972]. (The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Government Documents Department Depository, Reference # HE20.3152: v81.) pp. 15-19,20-26,187-188; 273-289; [and in 1972 Progress Report #9, pp. 195-196, 326].

  24. Fine DL and Arthur LO. Prevalence of natural immunity to Type-D and Type-C Retroviruses in primates. In: Viruses in Naturally Occurring Cancers: Book B. Myron Essex, George Todaro and Harold zun Hausen, eds., Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1980, Vol. 7, pp. 793-813; see also Gallo RC, Wong-Staal F, Marhkam PD, Ruscetti R, Kalyanamaraman VS, Ceccherini-Nelli L, Favera RD, Josephs S, Miller NR and Reitz, Jr. MS. Recent studies with infectious primate retroviruses: Hybridization to primate DNA and some biological effects on fresh human blood leukocytes by simian sarcoma virus and Gibbon ape leukemia virus. Ibid., 793-813.

  25. Simmons ML. Biohazards and Zoonotic Problems of Primate Procurement, Quarantine and Research: Proceedings of a Cancer Research Safety Symposium. March 19, 1975, Conducted at the Frederick Cancer Research Center, Frederick, Maryland. DHEW Publication No. (NIH) 76-890, pp. 27;50-52.

  26. Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate. Hearings before the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research, Biological Testing Involving Human Subjects by the Department of Defense, 1977: Examination of Serious Deficiencies in the Defense Departments Effort to Protect the Human Subjects of Drug Research. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, May 8 and May 23, 1977, pp. 80-100; for the Army's list of biological weapons con-tractors for 1959, see: Department of Defense Appropriations For 1970: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations House of Representatives, Ninety-first Congress, First Session, H.B. 15090, Part 5, Research, Development, Test and Evaluation of Biological Weapons, Dept. of the Army. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1969, p. 689.

  27. Personal conversation with administrator at Frederick Cancer Research Center/NCI who wished to remain anonymous. 301-846-1000.

  28. Litton Industries, Inc., 360 North Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills, CA. 90210, 25th Annual Report Fiscal 1978. pg. 2; see also: Staff reporter. Litton, Saudis Agree on a system valued above $1.5 billion. Wall Street Journal, Monday Oct. 9, 1978, p. 16.

  29. Staff reporter. Litton and Navy Settle dispute. Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, June 21, 1978, p. 4.

  30. Staff reporter. Suit against Litton Industries involving Navy job dismissed. Wall Street Journal, Thursday, May 26, 1977, p. 15.

  31. Staff reporter. Suit against Litton may be renewed says U.S. appeals court. Wall Street Journal, April 7, 1978, p. 12.

  32. Staff reporter. Court lets stand an indictment of Litton unit Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 1978, p. 4.

  33. Agee P and Wolf L. Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe. Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stuart, Inc. 1977.

  34. Kumar S. CIA and the Third World: A Study in Crypto-Diplomacy. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House PVT LTD., 1981.

  35. Agee P. Dirty Work-2: The CIA in Africa. Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stewart, Inc., 1979.

  36. Molteno R. Hidden sources of subversion. In: Dirty Work-2: The CIA in Africa. Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stewart, Inc., 1979. pp. 100-101.

  37. Woodward, B. VEIL: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987, pg. 268. According to Woodward, "CIA ties with [Zaire's president] Mobutu dated back to 1960, the year the CIA had planned the assassination of the Congolese nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba."

  38. Freemantle B. CIA. Briarcliff Manor, NY: Scarborough House/Stein and Day Publishers. 1983, pp. 184-185.

  39. Kumar S. Op cit., p. 72;74-76;91-92.

  40. Stockwell J. In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1978, pp. 43-44;248.

  41. Colby W. Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978, pp. 439-40.

  42. Daily News, Dar es Salaam. Zaire: Mobutu assails government functionaries. In: Africa Diary, January 22-28, 1975, pg. 7287.

  43. West Africa, London. Zaire: Mobutu and the Americans. In: Africa Diary, February 19-25, 1975, pg. 7322.

  44. Preston R. The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story. New York: Random House, 1994, pp. 10;25-26;71;78;79;84.

  45. Staff writer. Porton opened to the public. Nature 1968;220:426.

  46. Times, London; West Africa, London; Le Monde, Paris; New York Times; Daily News, Dar es Salaam, Times of India, New Delhi. Zaire: Shaba rebellion Virtually Crushed. In: Africa Diary, June 18-24, 1977, pp. 8536-8538.

  47. South African Digest, Pretoria. South Africa: Documents on NATO, S. African Co-operation. In: Africa Diary, June 25-July 1, 1975, pp.7488-7489.

  48. African Development, London. South Africa: W. Germany may become number one trading partner. In: Africa Diary, April 30-May 6, 1975, pp. 7418-7419.

  49. Zaire Radio. Zaire: W. German financial aid. In: Africa Diary, July 23-29, 1978, pp. 9103-7419.

  50. West Africa, London. Zaire: Accord on Bonn Aid. In: Africa Diary, July 9-15, 1974, pp. 7033-7034.

  51. British Broadcasting Company, London. Zaire: Secret agreement with German rocket firm. In: Africa Diary, October 8-10, 1977, p. 8700.

  52. West Africa, London. Zaire: New light on missile testing report. In: Africa Diary, June 4-10, 1978, p. 9033.

  53. West Africa, London. Zaire: W. German rocket project to be halted. In: Africa Diary, July 9-15, 1979, p. 9592.

  54. Staff writer. Germans go rocketing on the cheap. New Scientist 1977; 74:535.

  55. Hussain F. Volksraketen for the Third World. New Scientist 1978; 77:802-803.

  56. Informationsdienst Sudliches Africa. OTRAG: Missiles against liberation in Africa. In: Dirty Work-2: The CIA in Africa. Ray E, Schaap W, Van Meter K and Wolf L, eds. Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stewart, Inc., 1979, pp. 215-219; Additional references cited: Gesellschaft fur Unternehmendberatung, Hamburg, 1976, Diagnosebericht OTRAG, p. 12; Der Speigel, August 4, 1978; The Evening Standard, February 13, 1978; Deutcher Bundestag, 8th Session, 98th Sitting, June 15, 19778; Aviation Week and Space Technology, September 12, 1975.

  57. African Development, London. Africa General: U.S. sends more intelligence personnel to Africa. In: Africa Diary, February 5-11, 1977, p. 8335. Reference notes Mr. William H. Crosson, chief of two branches of counter-intelligence in Vietnam according to the Pentagon was appointed in 1977 to be the Director of US Peace Corps activity in Zaire.

  58. Covert NM. Cutting Edge: A history of Fort Detrick, Maryland, 1943-1993. Fort Detrick, MD: Headquarters, U.S. Army Garrison, 1993, p. 54.

  59. Moscow World Service in English. Belitskiy on How, Where AIDS Virus Originated. March 11, 1988. Published in International Affairs. Soviet FBIS-SOV-88-049, March 14, 1988, p. 24.

  60. Havana International Service in Spanish. German claims AIDS virus created by Pentagon. January 25, 1991. Published in International Affairs: Caribbean FBIS-LAT-91-017, March 14, 1988.

  61. Staff reporter. Litton Industries Unit Gets Job. Wall Street Journal. September 15, 1977, p. 4, Column 1.

  62. Staff reporter. Litton Systems Inc. awarded $19.8 million Army con-tract for missile fire-control equipment. Wall Street Journal, Decem-ber 19, 1977, p. 21, Column 1.

  63. Staff reporter. Litton Systems Inc. was given a $32.9 million Air Force contract for electronic reconnaissance sensor equipment. Wall Street Journal, Friday, December 30, 1977, p. 6, Column 1.

  64. Staff reporter. Litton Industries Gets Order. Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, February 14, 1978, p. 33, Column 2.

  65. Brumter C. The North Atlantic Assembly. Cordrecht/Boston/ Lancaster: Marinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1986, p. 183.

  66. Ibid., p. 139-140;195.

  67. United States Senate. Intelligence Activities, Senate Resolution 21: Hearings before the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities of the U.S. Senate, Ninety-Fourth Congress, First Session. Volume 1, Unauthorized Storage of Toxic gents, September 16, 17, and 18,1975. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975, pp. 2;5;6;20;35;40-41; 7_;81;119-120;254-255 (inventory list).

  68. Ibid., pp. 22-23.

  69. Ibid., p. 61

  70. Ibid., p. 82;98.

  71. Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate, Ob. cit., pp. 5;91.

  72. Szmuness W, Stevens CE, Harley EJ, Zang EA, 01eszk__ WR, William DC, Sadovsky R, Morrison JM and Kellnes___ . Hepatitis B vaccine: Demonstration of efficacy in a controlled clinical trial in a Suppressed Inventions and Other Discoveries high-risk population in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine 1980;303;15:833-841.

  73. Figure on display at The U.S. Holocaust Museum, Washington, D.C.

  74. Powers RG. Secrecy and Power: The Life of J. Edgar Hoover. New York: The Free Press, 1987.

  75. Goldstein RJ. Political Repression in Modern America. Cambridge, MA: Schenckmann/Two Continents, 1978.

  76. Von Hoffman N. Citizen Cohn: The Life and Times of _____ Cohn. New York: Doubleday, 1988.

  77. D'Emilio J. Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1983.

  78. West African Pilot, Lagos and West Africa, London. U.S. leader's death abruptly ends African-American relations meeting. In Africa Diary, April 16-22, 1971, pp. 5428-5429.

  79. Falk R, Kim SS and Mendlovitz SH. The perversion of science and technology: An Indictment. In: Studies on a Just World Order, Volume 1, Toward a just world order. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, pp. 359-363.

Death Aid - French Imperialism and the Pre-Ebola Depopulation of Rwanda


President Kagame Accuses France Over Rwanda Genocide
from Spike EP on Vimeo.

"France has no friends - only interests." - French President Charles DeGaulle

"Frenchmen trained and armed the soldiers and militia that would commit the genocide. They knew there would be genocide. The French saved those murderers later on and did not protect the victims. They were courageous enough to remain here without any apologies as well." - Rwandan President Paul Kagame

Death Aid - The Depopulation of Rwanda and the French from Spike EP on Vimeo.
"The primary means of killing at speed in this genocide was the mobilization of Rwanda’s unemployed youth into a militia called the Interahamwe, an estimated 30,000 young men taken from the streets and trained to kill at speed with agricultural tools and indoctrinated with a racist anti-Tutsi ideology. Now, these former Interahamwe leaders say that they were in part trained by French military officers. "

AMY GOODMAN: Can you name names? Can you talk about the French leaders, past and present, who they have pointed the finger at, who they are saying are responsible?

"Well, this pointing the finger at individual political figures in France is problematic. The French policy towards Rwanda had been largely decided by Francois Mitterrand, the French president, in his second term. And it is worth remembering that the France’s own inquiry into this in 1998 determined that Francois Mitterrand had been in overall control of the policy and that it had been completely unaccountable — and I think that this is one of the most important points of all — that this policy had been completely unaccountable to either Parliament or the French press and that French politicians had not been adequately informed. And the Senate recommended better control by Parliament over military operations.

And I think that this is the aspect which makes it so difficult to know who made the decisions in — you know, whether it’s the Ministry of Cooperation, whether it’s the Ministry of Defense or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It does seem that overall control rested with Francois Mitterrand and through a network that was traditional in France, when it came to French Africa policy, through a network of military officers, politicians, diplomats, senior intelligence operatives, and I must say French mercenaries were involved, as well. "


"France has no friends - only interests."

- French President Charles DeGaulle

"Frenchmen trained and armed the soldiers and militia that would commit the genocide. They knew there would be genocide. The French saved those murderers later on and did not protect the victims. They were courageous enough to remain here without any apologies as well."
- Rwandan President Paul Kagame

IT IS a principle of diplomacy, universally recognised, that just as there are no friends, only interests, so there are no humanitarian motives - only longer-term interests. Thus, everyone asks, what is the reason for France sending 2,500 troops to Rwanda? Particularly when the winning side in the dispute has vigorously opposed the intervention.

The answer lies in the relationship France maintains with its former colonies in Africa, a unique and complicated one that it is hard, maybe impossible, for British people to understand. In country after country in the late Fifties and early Sixties, the Union Jack was hauled down from flagpoles as Britain's colonies became independent. Plumed-helmeted governors moved out of each capital's Government House, it was renamed State House and the new presidents moved in. The new British high commissions had to make do with less salubrious buildings - in Khartoum, offices over the Shell garage. It truly was the end of empire.

The French did things differently. Although the flags changed in 1960 when most of French Africa became 'independent', French officialdom did not leave. Until recently almost all former French colonies had a senior French official behind the door in every key office of the new governments. It was called co-operation, but it meant that Paris retained influence, if not control, in 16 African countries. In some cases, a single French official became an eminence gris to the president, controlling everything from the budget to his personal security.

While the new leaders of former British colonies defined their existence by their anti-colonialist, anti- British stance, presidents such as Leopold Senghor of Senegal or Felix Houphouet-Boigny of Ivory Coast were as proud to be French as they were to be African. Even now, Africans from francophone countries talk of Paris as their second home. As a result you can buy fresh baguettes and today's Le Monde on the streets of Abidjan and Dakar, and Africans there speak accentless French.

Afraid of accusations of neo-imperialism, Britain has been nervous about deploying military force to further its ends in post-colonial Africa. Its emergency contingency plans for Africa consist of sending in the Paras to get Britons out of trouble spots.

France maintains full-scale military bases in the Central African Republic and Djibouti, and smaller deployments of French troops elsewhere. It is not afraid to use them to further its local interests or to protect a friendly government. In 1990, for example, Paris sent paratroopers to Rwanda, ostensibly to protect foreigners, but in fact to bolster the Hutu government of Rwanda at a key moment, and to turn back the Rwandese Patriotic Front, made up of exiled Tutsis.

But what is in it today for France? [Uranium] From London, where Africa is often seen as little more than an expensive basket case, it is a puzzling question. Much of it has to do with language and culture. English is the main language of communication in the world - a phenomenon most British people barely notice, let alone care about.

But the French care deeply about their language, and their government spends much of its 'aid' to developing countries on spreading French and French culture. The equivalent of the Commonwealth is the Francophonie, a yearly meeting of all French-speaking heads of state in the world, presided over by the French president. How much has French intervention in Rwanda been prompted, perhaps subconsciously, by the fact that the advancing rebels, most of whom grew up in exile in Uganda, speak English rather than French?

While the British empire in Africa was a mixture of colony and protectorate, ruled piecemeal and pragmatically through traditional local systems, the French empire in Africa was based on the grandiose concept of France overseas, ruled directly according to universal precepts of French law. The broad British imperial plan was to make its subjects literate, Christian, perhaps soldiers or cricketers - but not Englishmen. Under French guidance and education, the inhabitants of French African colonies would, in the fullness of time, become full French citizens.

Today these countries stay close to France, voting for it at the United Nations in exchange for aid and military support - and often personal support for the president and his family. France is loyal to its allies in Africa, even though leaders such as Sese Seko Mobutu of Zaire, Martin Bongo of Gabon and Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo are not known for good records on human rights, democracy or good government. African leaders visiting France are given full ceremonial treatment, and can always meet the president.

Africa has always been a French president's personal preserve and therefore a battleground for the foreign ministry. Many French presidents have dealt with Africa directly, picking up the telephone to talk to an African head of state on first-name terms. President Francois Mitterrand appointed his son, Christophe, to run his African policy. He was known in Africa as 'Papa m'a dit'. In return for this lavish attention, African presidents fund French politicians and French political parties, and give special concessions to French companies, which operate in Africa as little more than an arm of French foreign policy.

Until recently, the cost of these cosy friendships in Africa was borne by the French treasury, which underwrote the the Communaute Financiere Africaine (CFA), the currency of 14 African countries. It had maintained parity with the French franc since the early Sixties, but in January [1994] the franc- CFA rate was halved at the insistence of the International Monetary Fund.

At the same time, French foreign ministry officials began to talk more of a pragmatic approach to Africa, emphasising that the relationship would be 'less personal'. To the distress of Mr Mitterrand, his personal stage was being reduced and France's claim to be a world power much diminished. He needed a grand gesture to show his friends in Africa that France could still act an imperial part.

Mr Mitterrand chose Rwanda. But as the Americans found in Somalia, the grand gesture sometimes sinks into a inexplicable - and inextricable - quagmire.

"French Congo. Natives from Gabon": 
Colonial postcard c.1905





CDC - Atlanta Centre for Disease Control Weekly Digest
May 19, 1995 / 44(19);381-382

Outbreak of Ebola Viral Hemorrhagic Fever -- Zaire, 1995

On May 6, 1995, CDC was notified by health authorities and the U.S. Embassy in Zaire of an outbreak of viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF)-like illness in Kikwit, Zaire (1995 population: 400,000), a city located 240 miles east of Kinshasa. The World Health Organization and CDC were invited by the Government of Zaire to participate in an investigation of the outbreak. This report summarizes preliminary findings from this ongoing investigation.
On April 4, a hospital laboratory technician in Kikwit had onset of fever and bloody diarrhea. On April 10 and 11, he underwent surgery for a suspected perforated bowel. Beginning April 14, medical personnel employed in the hospital to which he had been admitted in Kikwit developed similar symptoms. One of the ill persons was transferred to a hospital in Mosango (75 miles west of Kikwit). On approximately April 20, persons in Mosango who had provided care for this patient had onset of similar symptoms.
On May 9, blood samples from 14 acutely ill persons arrived at CDC and were processed in the biosafety level 4 laboratory; analyses included testing for Ebola antigen and Ebola antibody by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for viral RNA. Samples from all 14 persons were positive by at least one of these tests; 11 were positive for Ebola antigen, two were positive for antibodies, and 12 were positive by RT-PCR. Further sequencing of the virus glycoprotein gene revealed that the virus is closely related to the Ebola virus isolated during an outbreak of VHF in Zaire in 1976 (1).
As of May 17, the investigation has identified 93 suspected cases of VHF in Zaire, of which 86 (92%) have been fatal. Public health investigators are now actively seeking cases and contacts in Kikwit and the surrounding area. In addition, active surveillance for possible cases of VHF has been implemented at 13 clinics in Kikwit and 15 remote sites within a 150-mile radius of Kikwit. Educational and quarantine measures have been implemented to prevent further spread of disease. Reported by: M Musong, MD, Minister of Health, Kinshasa, T Muyembe, MD, Univ of Kinshasa; Dr. Kibasa, MD, Kikwit General Hospital, Kikwit, Zaire. World Health Organization, Geneva. Div of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases, and Div of Quarantine, National Center for Infectious Diseases; International Health Program Office, CDC.

Editorial Note

Editorial Note: Ebola virus and Marburg virus are the two known members of the filovirus family. Ebola viruses were first isolated from humans during concurrent outbreaks of VHF in northern Zaire (1) and southern Sudan (2) in 1976. An earlier outbreak of VHF caused by Marburg virus occurred in Marburg, Germany, in 1967 when laboratory workers were exposed to infected tissue from monkeys imported from Uganda (3). Two subtypes of Ebola virus -- Ebola-Sudan and Ebola-Zaire -- previously have been associated with disease in humans (4). In 1994, a single case of infection from a newly described Ebola virus occurred in a person in Cote d'Ivoire. In 1989, an outbreak among monkeys imported into the United States from the Philippines was caused by another Ebola virus (5) but was not associated with human disease.
Initial clinical manifestations of Ebola hemorrhagic fever include fever, headache, chills, myalgia, and malaise; subsequent manifestations include severe abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. Maculopapular rash may occur in some patients within 5-7 days of onset. Hemorrhagic manifestations with presumptive disseminated intravascular coagulation usually occur in fatal cases. In reported outbreaks, 50%-90% of cases have been fatal (1-3,6).
The natural reservoirs for these viruses are not known. Although nonhuman primates were involved in the 1967 Marburg outbreak, the 1989 U.S. outbreak, and the 1994 Cote d'Ivoire case, their role as virus reservoirs is unknown. Transmission of the virus to secondary cases occurs through close personal contact with infectious blood or other body fluids or tissue. In previous outbreaks, secondary cases occurred among persons who provided medical care for patients; secondary cases also occurred among patients exposed to reused needles (2). Although aerosol spread has not been documented among humans, this mode of transmission has been demonstrated among nonhuman primates. Based on this information, the high fatality rate, and lack of specific treatment or a vaccine, work with this virus in the laboratory setting requires biosafety level 4 containment (3,7).
CDC has established a hotline for public inquiries about Ebola virus infection and prevention ({800} 900-0681). CDC and the State Department have issued travel advisories for persons considering travel to Zaire. Information about travel advisories to Zaire and for air passengers returning from Zaire can be obtained from the CDC International Travelers' Hotline, (404) 332-4559.

References

  1. World Health Organization. Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Zaire, 1976: report of an international commission. Bull WHO 1978;56:271-93.
  2. Baron RC, McCormick JB, Zubeir OA. Ebola virus disease in southern Sudan: hospital dissemination and intrafamilial spread. Bull World Health Organ 1981;61:997-1003.
  3. Peters CJ, Sanchez A, Rollin PE, Ksiazek TG, Murphy FA. Filoviridae: Marburg and Ebola viruses. In: Fields BN, Knipe DM, Howley PM, eds. Field's virology. 3rd ed. New York: Raven Press, Ltd, 1996 (in press).
  4. McCormick JB, Bauer SP, Elliott LH, Webb PA, Johnson KM. Biologic differences between strains of Ebola virus from Zaire and Sudan. J Infect Dis 1983;147:264-7.
  5. Jarling PB, Geisbert TW, Dalgard DW, et al. Preliminary report: isolation of Ebola virus from monkeys imported to USA. Lancet 1990;335:502-5.
  6. CDC. Management of patients with suspected viral hemorrhagic fever. MMWR 1988;37(no. S-3).
  7. Peters CJ, Sanchez A, Feldmann H, Rollin PE, Nichol S, Ksiazek TG. Filoviruses as emerging pathogens. Seminars in Virology 1994;5:147-54.


Ebola Zaire Outbreaks



  • 1972. Retrospective Serologic Identification

    In February 1977, serum from medical personnel who could have come in contact with Ebola were tested for Ebola antibodies. The serum from a Tandala Hospital physician tested positive. In May of 1972, this physician had lacerated his finger while performing an autopsy on a Zairois bible school student. The student died of a hemorrhagic illness that was clinically diagnosed as yellow fever. The physician became ill 12 days after lacerating his finger. In 1977, his hospital records were reviewed, and his symptoms were characteristic of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever.

      References:
    • Heymann, D.L. et al. "Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever: Tandala, Zaire, 1977-1978." Journal of Infectious Diseases. Vol. 142. No. 3. September 1980. 372-376.

  • 1976. Yambuku, Zaire. 

    EBO-Z surfaced shortly after the first Ebola outbreak in Sudan and killed 280 of the 318 people it infected. On September 1, 1976, four days after returning from a tour of northern Zaire, the index case, a 44 year-old male teacher at the Mission School, sought medical intervention for a febrile illness he thought to be malaria. He received a parenteral injection of chloroquine (an anti-malaria drug) from Yambuku Mission Hospital (YMH). YMH did not use disposable needles or sterilize the needles between uses. Parenteral injection was the primary mode of administering nearly all medicines, and Ebola-Zaire (EBO-Z) was quickly disseminated into the surrounding villages serviced by YMH. After 11 of its 17 staff members fell ill with EHF, YMH closed on September 30, 1976, 29 days after the index case received his injection of chloroquine. The WHO International Commission was formed on October 18th, and research teams were mobilized on October 30th. The last case of EBO-Z died on November 5, 1976. Transmission of Ebola during this outbreak occurred mainly through the use of contaminated needles to administer medicine.

      References:
    • International Commission. "Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Zaire, 1976." Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 56(2):271-293 (1978).
  • 1977. Tandala, Zaire.

    In June of 1977, a 9 year-old girl with a 3 day history of fever, abdominal pain, and hematemesis (the vomiting of blood) was admitted to Tandala Mission Hospital. Prior to her admission to the hospital, she lived with her family in a small village, Bonduni, 20 km from the mission was in good health and had not traveled outside of the Bonduni area. When she was admitted to the hospital, she had a 39.5°C body temperature (normal body temperature is 37°C) and after physical examination, she had a clinical diagnosis of hemorrhagic fever. 28 hours after admission to the Tandala Mission Hospital, she lost consciousness and died. None of her family members tested positive for Ebola antibodies.

      References:
    • Heymann, D.L. et al. "Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever: Tandala, Zaire, 1977-78." Journal of Infectious Diseases. Vol. 142. No. 3. September 1990. 372-376.

  • 1994. Minkebe and Makokou, Gabon. 

    This epidemic began in December 1994 and had two different waves of patients (December 1994 and January-February 1995).

    First Wave, December 1994
    All of the cases in were from 3 gold-panning encampments (Andock, Mékouka, and Minkébé) located in small forest clearings (2000-3000m²) bordering the rain forest. This region of Gabon is sparsely populated; a total of 350 people live in these three villages (20 in Andock, 30 in Mékouka, and 300 in Minkébé). 32 people from the 3 forest encampments contracted EHF (4 from Andock, 23 from Mékouka, and 5 from Minkébé) and traveled 100 km south via boat to Mekouka General Hospital for medical treatment.

    Second Wave, End of December 1994 to February 1995
    The patients that comprised the "second wave" were secondary or tertiary cases from the first wave and did not originate from the encampments. The first case in the second wave, end of December 1994, was from a small village near Makokou that was far from the encampments, Mayela. This person lived near a traditional healer, "nganga," and probably was infected from contact with a hospitalized patient who sought the medical help of a nganga. In mid January, 16 additional cases occurred near the road that runs south towards Fanceville (one case at Makokou General Hospital, 12 cases from Mayela, one case from Ekatiabe, and two cases from Ekobakoba). None of these 16 patients had been in the area affected by the first wave of the EBO epidemic in Gabon (Mékouka, Andock, and Minkébé) during the previous three months. All 16 patients had been either in direct contact with ill relatives (patients hospitalized at Makokou General Hospital or sleeping in the nganga's home) or with people caring for patients. The last reported case occurred at Ekobakoba on February 9, 1995 and was infected with Ebola while caring for an ill relative at Makokou General Hospital. The Gabonese health officials declared the epidemic officially over on 17 February 1995. The Gabonese authorities declared the epidemic over only eight days after the last case, leaving time for additional infections to occur. In previous Ebola outbreaks, an outbreak was not declared over until a period of 42 days (twice the longest incubation period) has lapsed since the last known infection.

    Overall, 49 people were admitted to Makokou General Hospital with suspected HF between December 1994 and February 1995 during these two waves. 29 of the 49 patients had fatal cases of EHF (case fatality rate of 59%). 26 of the EHF patients were male and 23 were female. The mean age of the patients was 37. Whether the number of infected people reflects the true number of EHF cases during this epidemic is not known. Some of the patients who were admitted with suspected EHF could have had a different type of HF or a different disease all together. Some cases who did have EHF could have sought the care of a nganga without seeking hospital care or could have died in their village or in the bush without the EHF investigative team being informed.

    The exact origin of the virus during this epidemic is unknown. During this outbreak, there was more than one point of contact with Ebola. This led to a longer duration of the epidemic than if there was only one point of contact with Ebola (as in the Spring 1996 outbreak; see below).

    References:
    • Georges, Alain-Jean, et al. "Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever Outbreaks in Gabon, 1994-1997: Epidemiologic and Health Control Issues." Journal of Infectious Diseases. 1999; 179 (Suppl 1):S65-75

  • 1995. Kikwit, Zaire.



    Image from Outbreak


    On January 6, 1995 the first EHF case-patient, "GM", had the onset of illness and was admitted to Kikwit General Hospital. He was a 42-year-old male charcoal worker, a Seventh-Day Adventist and had not eaten monkey meat or been in detectable contact with another EHF case-patient prior to becoming ill with EHF (1, 10). His charcoal plot was on the edge of a dense forest and under a dense forest canopy. During his woodcutting forays and charcoal burning pit diggings, he was exposed to a wide array of possible vectors and, presumably, the natural reservoir (1). He directly, fatally infected at least three members of his family and an additional 10 members of his extended family over a period of 9 weeks and an area encompassing Kikwit and three surrounding villages. Some of the ill people from this family and secondary and tertiary cases in other families who provided nursing care or who had participated in the ritual burials of GM's family went to Kikwit II Maternity Hospital (10).

    On April 9, a 36 year-old male laboratory technician who worked at Kikwit II Maternity Hospital went to the Kikwit General Hospital, Zaire because of fever and bloody diarrhea. Suspecting a perforated bowel from typhoid, he underwent surgery on April 10 and 11 (10). He died four days after the onset of symptoms. On April 14, the medical personnel who cared for the laboratory worker in the operating theater or hospital wards became ill with fever, headache, back, joint, and muscle aches, extreme asthenia (clinical definition for physical weakness), and, in some cases, hemorrhagic manifestations. Over 70% of the first generation cases were hospital personnel. One of the ill people who had provided care for the laboratory technician was transferred to a hospital in Mosango (75 miles west of Kikwit). Some of the people who had provided care for this individual developed similar symptoms on approximately April 20 . 10 days after the first-generation cases, a second generation of cases occurred among family and friends of the first-generation cases. Transmission during this outbreak was mainly person-to-person through contact with bodily fluids and ritual cleansing of bodies before burial (usually performed by women). To limit the spread of EHF, the Zairian government closed all schools in Kikwit. The Kinshasa airport remained open during most of the outbreak (5, 7, 8).

    The unusual nature of the laboratory technician's death and the medical personnel who cared for him prompted a local ad hoc committee to meet to discuss the nature of these deaths. J.J. Muyembe-Tamfun, Ministry of Health, Zaire, who had participated in the follow-up of the 1976 outbreak of Ebola-Zaire in Zaire (for information about that outbreak, please see 1976 Zaire above) suggested that these illnesses may be caused by a viral hemorrhagic fever. On his prompting, specimens were obtained for analysis and were sent to the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium on May 4th. On May 9th the CDC received portions of these samples for confirmational diagnostic analysis. The CDC confirmed EBO as the etiologic agent responsible for the disease in all 14 patients (the index patient and the medical personnel who subsequently contracted it nosocomially from him) (10).

    Based on the preliminary findings of the Institute for Tropical Medicine, on May 6, 1995, the Zairian government sought the assistance of the CDC with an outbreak of a viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF)-like illness that was occurring in Kikwit, Zaire. The population of Zaire in 1995 was approximately 400,000. Kikwit is located approximately 240 miles east of Kinshasa. The CDC's and the WHO's investigation of this outbreak was primarily retrospective (6).

    Four separate hospitals were implicated in the outbreak. The first hospital and the center of the outbreak was Kikwit General Hospital (the hospital that treated the laboratory technician). The second was Kikwit II Hospital. The third was the hospital in Mosango, where one of the medical personnel who cared for the laboratory technician was transferred. The fourth hospital was in Yassa Bonga, approximately 250 km. from Kikwit (8).

    Image from Khan et al. (10)

    The last identified case of EHF during this outbreak was a 27-year-old housewife from Nzinda, Kikwit. She was admitted to Kikwit II Maternity Hospital on 24 June 1995 for the management of a septic abortion. She was discharged on July 14 and died at home on July 16 (10). On August 24, 1995, the 1995 outbreak was declared over, twice the maximum known incubation period (42 days, 21x2) lapsed without any new cases of EHF(1).

    More than 1400 samples of different fauna were collected for reservoir testing (4).

    Overall, there were 315 cases, 244 of which were fatal (77% case fatality rate). 166 cases were female and 149 were male. 123 female cases were fatal (74% fatal) and 121 male cases were fatal (81% fatal). The cases of EHF ranged from three days to 71 years, with a mean age of 35 years. 26 of the EHF cases were less than 17 years old and 13 were over 60. Median age of the survivors was 29 years; median age of the fatal cases was 35 years. Of the 286 cases where the professional occupations were known, 90 (32%) were health care workers and 61 (21%) were housewives (usually nursed sick or performed the ritual cleansing and burial preparation practices for dead family members). Approximately 73% of the first 70 patients in the epidemic were medical personnel, and the case fatality rate among them was high (1, 6, 9).

    266 of the EHF cases were reported to have lived in Kikwit North and South Zones de Sante, the remaining in the Zones de Santeof Bulungu (13 cases), Feshi (1), Gungu (4), Idiofa (1), Mosango (23), Mokala (1), and Vanga (6). All of the cases of EHF were in the Kikwit and Kwilu administrative Sub-Regions, except for 1 case in the Kwango Sub-Region, Bandundu Region. None of the cases were acquired outside of the Bandundu Region (1).

    References:
    1. WHO Ebola Update August 24, 1995 
    2. Sanchez, A. et al. Reemergence of Ebola Virus in Africa. Emerging Infectious Diseases 1995:1(3)
    3. Clancy, Jim. Fear among us: Deadly Ebola virus lurks in the shadows. CNN October 18, 1995.
    4. Rybicki, Ed. "Ebola:comments by C.J. Peters. Source: Report on VTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON THE IMPACT OF VIRAL DISEASES ON THE DEVELOPING WORLD, South Africa." PROMED. 21 August 1995.
    5. Musong, M. et al. "Outbreak of Ebola Viral Hemorrhagic Fever--Zaire, 1995." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Vol. 44, No. 19. 19 May 1995. 381-382.
    6. Musong, M. et al. "Update: Outbreak of Ebola Viral Hemorrhagic Fever--Zaire, 1995." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Vol. 44, No. 25. 30 June 1995. 468-69, 479.
    7. Muyembe, T. et al. "Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Kikwit, Zaire." The Lancet. Vol. 345. 3 June 1995. 1448.
    8. WHO. "WHO Press Release: WHO Team in Zaire Sends First Report on Ebola Virus Outbreak." WHO Press Release WHA/11. 11 May 1995.
    9. WHO. "WHO Team in Zaire Reports Further Rise in Ebola Cases." Press Release WHO/33. 17 May 1995.
    10. Khan, Ali et al. "The Reemergence of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1995." Journal of Infectious Diseases. 1999; 179 (Suppl 1):S65-75 

  • 1996. Booué, Gabon and Johannesburg, South Africa (transported).

    Outbreak in Booué
    First case occurred on 23 July 1996 in Booué. The index case was a 39-year-old hunter who lived in a forest camp in the Booué area. He died on August 7. The second case was a close friend of the index case and died in August. The third and the fourth cases of EHF (also fatal) occurred in late September and were in a traditional healer and his assistant who treated the healer. During the beginning of the outbreak, a dead chimpanzee was found in the forest and tested positive for Ebola. On October 18, three of four new cases were in children who had been in close contact with previous EHF cases. Some patients were transported to Libreville for treatment. The outbreak was brought under control by the international team by 13 November 1996. Last patient died on 18 January 1997. A total of 60 EHF cases, of which 45 were fatal (75% mortality rate). Booué area: 44 cases, including 33 deaths. Libreville: 14 cases, including 10 deaths. No documented secondary transmission. Lambarene: one fatal case. WHO officially declared this outbreak over on 2 March 1997.

    Transport from Libreville to Johannesburg
    On October 27, a 40 year-old Gabonese doctor infected with Ebola in Libreville from a patient who was linked to the Booué outbreak flew to Johannesburg, South Africa for treatment. The patient who transmitted EBO to the male physician died on 5 November 1996. The physician was accompanied on a commercial plane to South Africa by a nurse. He arrived to the Morningside Medi Clinic with a diagnosis of rhabdomyolysis (a clinical and biochemical syndrome resulting from an injury which damages the integrity of the sarcolemma of skeletal muscle, leading to the release of potentially toxic muscle cell components into the circulation). He had swinging temperatures of 42°C (normal body temperature is 37°C, was very ill, and had signs of hepatitis. During the course of his treatment, a muscle biopsy was performed (presumably to test for rhabdomyolysis). At the 300 bed hospital in Libreville, he worked as a "resuscitator." On October 19, he developed a febrile illness, which he treated with antimalarial drugs. Two to three days later, he developed a high fever and diarrhea. He was not aware that any of the patients he treated had Ebola. He recovered from EHF and returned home to Gabon on November 20. Mrs. Marilyn Lahana, a 46-year-old theater/anesthesia nursing sister, treated the Gabonese physician at Morningside Clinic, Johannesburg and became infected nosocomially with Ebola from the Gabonese physician. She was exposed to his blood while performing a procedure for placing a central line on him. She was exposed to a great deal of blood when she cleaned up after the procedure. She became ill (slight fever) on November 2. She developed a severe headache on November 6 and was admitted to Sandton Medi Clinic with suspected encephalitis. On admission to the hospital, she had a moderately low platelet count (105x10E9/L). Suspecting a bacterial infection, she was placed on antibiotics. Over the next few days after being admitted to the hospital, she developed a fine confluent macular rash and diarrhea, which was attributed to a possible reaction to the antibiotics. By November 9, her platelet count fell from 105 to 37, had marked leukopenia, and had elevated AST and ALT levels (her liver transaminase levels were initially normal). On November 9, suspecting viral hemorrhagic fever (low platelets, rash, and fever), her blood was submitted for analysis. On November 14, her blood tested positive for Ebola. Mrs. Lahana had developed hematemesis (bloody vomit), high AST and ALT levels (general liver function test), and slightly elevated leukocyte counts by November 14. November 16, she was moved to Johannesburg Hospital where strict barrier-nursing care was implemented. She died on November 24 from a brain hemorrhage. 
References:

August 18, 1996
IDEAS & TRENDS
Was the Plague of Athens Really Ebola?

By ANTHONY RAMIREZ
MORE than 2,400 years ago this summer, a mysterious plague swept through ancient Athens. In five years flat, it killed perhaps a quarter of the population of the city-state, then under siege by Sparta. Thousands of Athenians died a dreadful death -- first suffering a maddening fever, then bloodshot eyes, inexplicable vomiting and bleeding, followed by skin lesions and diarrhea.

Sudden, lethal and tenacious, the strange plague hastened the end of Greece's golden age, setting back civilization for centuries. Pericles, the statesman who symbolized that age, was one of many who succumbed to the epidemic. History has never seen such a scourge before, or since. Or has it?

Over the years, a small number of scholars have proposed dozens of modern diseases as the one that felled Athens -- cholera, malaria, smallpox, bubonic plague, even herpes simplex and toxic shock syndrome.

Now three medical researchers and a classics professor are suggesting that the Plague of Athens (circa 430-425 B.C.) was, in fact, an attack of Ebola, the modern world's most vicious virus (up to 90 percent of those stricken with Ebola die) and, for a while, the world's most celebrated. Ebola has inspired front-page headlines, best-selling books and a big-budget Hollywood movie, ''Outbreak.''

Dr. Patrick Olson, an epidemiologist at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, and his colleagues wrote about their Ebola theory in the most recent issue of the journal ''Emerging Infectious Diseases.'' They argued that Ebola's symptoms in modern-day Zaire mirror those of the Greek plague reported by Thucydides in his ''History of the Peloponnesian War,'' the most complete account that has survived.

The researchers noted that most victims in ancient Greece, like those in modern Africa, died in seven to nine days, and the Athenian caretakers, much like African doctors, fell ill, while the Spartans laying siege a few hundred yards away survived. That indicates that the ancient disease was, like Ebola, spread by blood, saliva or feces, rather than by airborne microbes.

Thucydides also asserted that the disease was African, from somewhere south of Ethiopia. Ebola also has African origins. And there is even evidence that suggests the way the virus might have traveled from Africa to Greece in ancient times. On Santorini, a port island near Athens, a Minoan fresco depicts African green monkeys, which are known to be modern carriers of Ebola. Even more intriguing is the report of hiccuping among 15 percent of the victims in Kikwit, Zaire, Dr. Olson noted. Thucydides mentions hiccups.

Not everyone is ready to declare the plague of Athens an attack of Ebola, though. David Morens, an epidemiologist and leading researcher on the Athenian plague at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said in an interview that reading modern diseases into Thucydides was a mistake.

Thucydides, an Athenian general who survived the plague, lacked even the rudimentary medical vocabulary of his contemporary Hippocrates, Dr. Morens said. So his descriptions of symptoms are, at best, vague. Thucydides's word ''phlyktainai,'' for example, can be variously translated as blisters, which have fluid, or as calluses, which do not. Blisters might suggest smallpox, which is one of the candidates favored by many plague scholars, but they would rule out bubonic plague, another favorite candidate.

Dr. Morens and his colleague at the University of Hawaii, Robert J. Littman, a classics professor, focus not on symptoms (which they consider unreliable evidence) but on place and time. For example, they note that the length of the Athenian plague, five years, would rule out a virus like influenza, which lasts only months. And the origin of the Athenian plague, Africa, would rule out a virulent disease like Ebola. In the ancient world, they point out, there was no means of transportation that could convey a virus-carrying monkey from Africa to Athens in less than a week. That is, by the time the boat made it to Greece, both the monkeys and their keepers would likely have died.

There is another big question raised by the thesis that Ebola caused the plague of Athens. The Ebola virus was discovered only 20 years ago, and re-emerged in Zaire only last year. If the Athenian plague was Ebola, where has it been all these years?

Frank Ryan, a British physician who writes about plagues, suggests that humans and microbes are much like soil and seed. Most of the time, they live together without incident. But change the conditions of the human population, or soil, then viruses, the seeds, will change, too, making for a sometimes deadly collision.

''Plagues are still with us,'' said Dr. Ryan, ''because refugees, the lack of hygiene from overcrowding, political chaos -- all the things seen in Athens -- are still with us.'' So we ignore historical plagues at our own peril.

The biggest obstacle to knowing whether Ebola caused the Athenian plague is that modern doctors know so little about Ebola itself. On a scale of 1 to 10, ''we know 3 about Ebola, maybe less,'' said Karl Johnson, the retired chief of the Special Pathogens Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who saw Ebola at its first outbreak in Zaire, near the Ebola River, in 1976.

Viruses like Ebola are mysterious and frightening for the same reason: they evolve at a furiously accelerated pace. It took eight million years or more for simian primates to change 2 percent of the genetic structure to become human beings. By contrast, the polio virus can change 2 percent of its genetic structure in five days -- the time it takes to pass from the human mouth to gut. Imagine what a virus could do with 2,400 years.

Photo: ''The Death of Pericles,'' an engraving depicting the statesman succumbing to the Plague of Athens in 429 B.C., may turn out to be a picture of death by Ebola. (Culver Pictures)




FRANCE AND RWANDA; FASHODA COMPLEX

There is a significant page on the near history book of France who is
holding countless European and World championships in human rights
and democracy. "Rwanda" is the title on that page. A genocide in real
sense was experienced in our world at the end of the 20th century.
The genocide in Rwanda also was memorised as a picture of double
standards, immorality and the European diseases of our times.


Rwanda's Head of State Paul Kagame said on the genocide took place in
his country on April 7th, 1994 as follows:


"Frenchmen trained and armed the soldiers and militia that would
commit the genocide. They knew there would be genocide. French saved
those murderers later on and did not protect the victims. They were
courageous enough to remain here without any apologies as well."

- Rwandan President Paul Kagame

What the Rwandan Head of State Paul Kagame mentioned is the
"Turquoise Operation" that France was running in Rwanda in June 1994. Paris, after a short time following that statement condemned Rwanda for the
"untrue allegations". French Defence Minister Michelle Alliot-Marie
claimed that the "Turquoise Operation" of France was a chance for
Rwanda and it blocked a genocide.


According to the data given by researcher Bernhard Schmid, 10.000
people were massacred everyday for three months in Rwanda. 937 000
bodies were identified. It is a known fact that the total number of
victims was more than one million. Rwanda's population was over seven
million before the genocide and only one fifth of it was Tutsis who
were targeted by the genocide.


Rwanda paid very heavily for the division of its people into two as
Hutus and Tutsis in a very long colonialism era. Belgium which was
under intensive French influence divided Rwanda into various
artificial ethnic identities by force while it was also declaring the
self-invented Hutus and Tutsis as enemies. The words "Tutsi" and
"Hutu" were even put on the ID cards as ethnic origins and the
genocide which damaged Rwanda greatly was carried out very easily.
Murderers set up check points on streets and found their victims
through "ID check".


Following the genocide, Paris hosted frequent demonstrations of
Rwandans and French people who were embarrassed of the genocide.
Paris
government showed halls for commemoration ceremonies and locations
for
demonstrations. At the end of the day there was a democracy in France
and people could voice their reactions in France to the genocide took
place in their country. France, after all, was the human rights and
democracy champion of Europe and the world of all times. The genocide
took place in Rwanda - according to the official statements of Paris
-
was made up by Rwanda.


BBC of Britain prepared a documentary called "Three Bloody Colours" -
being inspired from the French flag - on France's sins in Rwanda. As
understood from the name of the documentary, it was evidencing the
role in the genocide that a nation had to take on, of the capital of
love and romance, Paris. BBC included interviews held with many
leading French politicians as well in the documentary. Jean-
Christophe
Mitterrand, the shameless son of former French President Françoise
Mitterrand was on of the interviewees. His father had put Jean-
Christophe Mitterand in charge with the "African affairs" in 1982.
Jean-Christophe Mitterand, thanks to this post, gained fame in Paris
and in the world as "Papamadit" (My father told me that...).


BBC asked Jean-Christophe Mitterand during the interview whether the
genocide nights in Rwanda interrupted his sleep. Jean-Christophe
Mitterand smiled and replied to this question: "No". Of course what
was going on in Rwanda was tragic but he did not feel responsible.
Even his close friendship with Rwanda's genocide planner Head of
State
Habyarimana's son was irrelevant to the issue.


BBC asked Paul Baril, a gendarmerie officer and the presidency
consultant, about what Rwandan Head of State Kagame said. Barril's
reply was as follows:


"He can not even speak French. Not even a word. He only understands
English". It might sound surprising for readers but it was
astonishingly important for France that Kagame and his followers
could
not speak French because a person in Africa should only speak the
language of the country he would obey.


In French influenced Rwanda, French friendly Hutus could speak
French.
But Tutsis who sought refuge in Uganda due to pressures were speaking
English. That is why France believe that Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF)
under the leadership of Kagame, since they spoke English, would
separate Rwanda from France and bring it closer to the Britain


French Foreign Minister visited Kagame in Quai d'Orsay in 1992 and
told him that if he returned to Rwanda, he would not be able to find
any surviving members of his family there. The family the French
minister mentioned was Tutsis. While the French minister was saying
these, France was giving an intensive military training to Hutu
militias and soldiers.


French parliament had to establish a research commission in 1998 as a
result of continuous publication of documents and information by the
French journalist Patrick de Saint-Exupery. But the commission report
failed to come to a conclusion about "who was responsible" but only
contributed the sweeping the French role under the rag.


Patrick de Saint-Exupery left no suspicion in his articles and
publications about who the responsible was. Patrick de Saint-Exupery
was in Rwanda in June 1994 and witnessed the "Turquoise Operation"
with his own eyes.


He saw the arrival of French Special Forces, air deployment troops
and
anti-terror unit GIGN to Bicecero hill, the stronghold of those who
tried to resist the genocide, on June 27th, 1994. French soldiers
told
those who were still alive that they came to help but they did not.
The journalist never saw that the French soldiers helping the
surviving people but witnessed that French soldiers fighting against
the genocide-resisting RFP.


Obviously, as Françoise Mitterand said -off the record- during an
interview that "genocide does not mean much in those countries" and
"people's perception of death in those countries was different than
ours" as claimed by Charles Pasqua, the conservative-nationalist
Interior Minister responsible of France's policy implementation in
Africa.


Both French statesmen, in fact, try to tell as follows: "We French
are
different than them. It is natural for them to die, to kill and to be
killed. If the deaths are excessive, that might be called genocide.
But for Africans, death and genocide are natural. It should not be
exaggerated."


When these words are looked at, it is understood that genocide is
actually natural for France. There was nothing that French could not
do to reach its targets as France has always been under the shadow of
London in sharing and colonialist moves in Africa and never been the
first power in the continent. This French complex against Britain is
named Fashoda Complex. If there was not a Fashoda Complex, maybe more
than one million Tutsi would not see the genocide. But it is too late
to discuss all these.


Journalist Patrick de Saint-Exupery does not think that what happened
in Rwanda was not only linked to the Fashoda Complex. According to
him, France had developed a "counter-revolution technique" against
the
insurgents in Vietnam and Algeria after it was inspired from Mao's
"revolutionary war theory". Civilians and people should be under
control in this technique. A semi-military militia organisation
should
be established and people in risky regions should be evacuated
obligatorily. This method was used by the USA in Argentina later on.
The operators of this technique were tutored by French officers at a
US Military School, Fort Bragg.


Patrick de Saint-Exupery thinks that France was testing the technique
it developed while training Hutus in militia groups and sending them
over Tutsis. For this reason, French officers before and during the
genocide did not only give consultancy but also took part in the
centre of the operation.


According to the French press, what happened in Rwanda was Rwanda's
responsibility and Rwandans should not look for the criminal in
France
but in their own soil. Most probably, French readers believed the
newspapers, Mitterand and the reports composed by their parliament.


But one of the exceptional journalists, Colette Braeckman penned an
important article on Le Monde Diplomatique's March 2004 release. The
article titled "The Clumsiness of International Society" underlined
some milestones in the Rwandan history.


Arusha Peace treaty was signed between Rwanda and RFP in Tanzania in
August 1993. According to the treaty, an UN peace force would be
deployed in Rwanda. The peace force would auspice the Rwanda's
interim
government and the RFP's accession to the political life.


Meanwhile Rwanda would receive foreign aid as well. The UN deployed 2
548 soldiers instead of 4 500. The UN peace force was given the duty
of "protecting peace" but not "establishing peace". It meant that the
UN soldiers could not use weapon even when it was necessary.


A great crisis broke out in Rwanda in 1994. While the world was
turning a blind eye, France and Belgium were unsurprisingly ready for
peace and calmness in Rwanda. Arusha Peace Treaty was not in
application and Hutus started propagating hatred through the TV
channel they established. It was understood that even in the middle
of
February militia forces were being trained in Hutu military camps.


In the following months, the French Bank Credit Lyonnais gave a
massive loan to Rwanda for the purchase of weapon and ammunition from
Egypt. Political murders came one after another in October 1993. The
UN Peace Force was amazed when it learnt in January 1994 that Hutus
were searching Tutsis one by one and making a record of them. The
inquiries found out the existence of a Hutu militia organisation
called "Interahamwe". The name of the organisation meant "Joint
Killers of Them". The organisation had a massive weaponry depot.


In following days, an arm storage in the central offices of the Hutu
Head of State Habyarimana's party was discovered. The UN peace force
asked permission from the centre to confiscate the arm storages on
January 15th 1994. This permission request was never replied. Head of
State Habyarimana, however, moved the weapon storage to another place
for a short time.


The only reaction that the international society gave to those
developments was the Belgium's Foreign Minister Willy Claes's partial
criticism of Rwanda with a carefully worded statement in February
1994. Meanwhile political murders continued without any breaks and in
following days, the UN decided that there was no need for an
extension
duty period for the UN Peace Force in Rwanda.


In fact, on the same days, the UN Security Council in a statement
said
that "the situation in Rwanda was worrying". Koffi Annan was the
responsible person of the UN peace forces and peace operations in
that
period. Kofi Annan received the greatest support from Chirac when he
was forced to resign during his general secretariat because of his
son
Kojo's great corruption allegations.


The genocide, as being inevitable under all those conditions, started
on April 6th, 1994. The Hade of State Habyarimana was killed in a
plane crash. With this strange assassination, Hutus attacked Tutsis
and Tutsis attacked Hutus with great hatred. The hatred and hostility
stored for years in society came to the surface. Streets were flooded
by corpses in one day.


France and Belgium, of course, could not remain silent. They sent
their troops to Rwanda immediately. If Paris and Brussels had sent
those soldiers as contribution to the UN Peace Force, there would not
be a genocide. They preferred to deploy their troops in Rwanda after
the genocide started. French and Belgian soldiers were interested in
the evacuation of foreigners in Rwanda instead of stopping the
clashes. They preserved their "neutrality". The neutrality was
between
the murdering Hutus and murdered Tutsis.


On April 12th, Belgium decided to withdraw all its troops from Rwanda
after it saddened with the loss of 10 soldiers and called on all
other
countries to do the same. Meanwhile France accelerated its weapon
flow
into Rwanda.


France stated on June 22nd that it would intervene with the situation
in line with the UN charter. The genocide was continuing meanwhile.
The French intervention did not come for the favour of the genocide
target Tutsis. France declared 1secured zones" but could not prevent
massacres in those secured zones. Not a single person was arrested.
Radio Mille Collines that run the hatred campaign against Tutsis was
not shut down.


Thousands of French soldiers were helpless with their aeroplanes,
assault helicopters and nearly 100 tanks. RFP forces found a
demolished and deserted city when they entered capital Kigali on July
4th. While more than 300 000 orphaned children were walking around
without knowing what to do, the French Foreign Minister's words he
said in Uganda to the leader of RFP in Uganda were confirmed right:


"If you return to Rwanda, you would not be able to find any surviving
members of your family there."


Most of the Hutus involved in the genocide sought refuge from Zaire,
settled down in a camp and went under the protection of the
international aid organisations. Kagame tried to tell the UN
officials
that those camps were threats for his soil and people. Finally RFP
moved against those camps. The international society was quite yet
once more.


The Zaire's Head of State Mobutu, despite the Frech support up until
the last minute, was ousted seven months later. The war that lasted
until 1998 spread the genocide to Zaire (Congo). Some sources claim
that three million people were killed in joint operations of Rwandan
and Zairian armies during the war.


The UN Secretary General Koffi Annan made a speech at a UN general
session ten years after the genocide. Annan in his speech said that
the international society was insufficient and unwilling. He even
said
that the same tragedy should not be repeated. He did not criticise
France, of course. A report of thousands of pages was released by a
research commission of the Belgian parliament in 1997. Vorwaerts of
Switzerland and Le Figaro of France released parts of the report in
1998. According to the news and quotations, the French contribution
to
those who committed the genocide is undeniably true.

Thermite, Treason and Plot - 500 Years of Anglo-American False Flag Terrorism

from Spike EP on Vimeo.


Nocturnal scene with God's hand appearing among clouds at right to point toward Guy Fawkes, who approaches cellar full of barrels holding lantern. c.1623? Etching

Tarpley : "It’s worthwhile to note that the Vatican had been informed by some of these English Jesuits that a plot was in the works, and it was essentially Garnet that was writing to Rome to say look, I’m trying to stop these guys, but I don’t know what to do. So he gets a message back from Claudio Acquaviva, of the Jesuit Order, the Jesuit General in Rome, who says, The pope, and I join with it, I command you to stop any violent activity, because this will get us nowhere. In other words these people were not fools, they could see what would happen. Even if the plot had succeeded there is very little way that the plotters ever could have taken over England, it would have been other…"

S. In the last couple decades a story came out supposedly supporting the British view that Guy Fawkes indeed was part of a plot, they alleged that they belatedly almost 400 years later found something. Do you know anything about that?

Tarpley : "I’ll tell you what was found. Here’s what was found. The big question was, for many years, what happened to this gunpowder, where did the gunpowder go, thirty hogsheads, thirty big barrels. So what you find now is in the London Daily Telegraph, May 4th 1978, they found in the public record office, a receipt of the war office dated November 7th, 1605, two days after the discovery of the so-called plot, they found first of all that it was not gunpowder, but corn-powder, corn-powder was an inferior version of gun-powder, it had bigger grains, it didn’t give you that much bang for the buck. It’s a little bit like these home made fertilizer bombs, something more like that.

And the receipt says, corn-powder, decayed, meaning inert, it wouldn’t go off. So Cecil had the brains, if he was going to have this stage managed plot, he made sure that the props were not live gunpowder but decayed corn-powder, in other words these patsies and dupes were rolling barrels of inert gunpowder, corn-powder, that wouldn’t go off into the basement, because Cecil didn’t really want to blow up [Parliament] "