Time: Mon Aug 11 10:17:58 1997 by primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id KAA21895; Mon, 11 Aug 1997 10:09:32 -0700 (MST) by usr08.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id KAA09281; Mon, 11 Aug 1997 10:08:17 -0700 (MST) Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 10:07:10 -0700 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] Subject: SLS: Anti-HIV mix found in Gulf veterans (fwd) <snip> > >Anti-HIV mix found in Gulf veterans > > By Paul M. Rodriguez >THE WASHINGTON TIMES > >A synthetic chemical compound used in >cutting-edge experimental inoculations against >HIV has been discovered in the blood of some ailing >Gulf war veterans, according to Insight magazine. >. . . . Pentagon and U.S. government medical >authorities say no such such inoculations were >administered during the Gulf war but offer no >explanation for the presence of the compound called >squalene in blood samples of hundreds of Gulf war >veterans who claim to suffer from so-called Gulf >war syndrome. >. . . . But these veterans, representing a >cross-section of the uniformed services, including >those who served overseas and those who never left >the United States, say >they were given unspecified or secret vaccinations. >. . . . Adding to the mystery is the inexplicable >disappearance of as many as 700,000 service-related >immunization records. >. . . . The new information about squalene, an >adjuvant compound used to boost the effects of >immunizations, comes from a four-month >investigation into the origins of Gulf war illnesses by >Insight, which is published by The Washington >Times Corp. >. . . . Antibodies for this synthetic squalene were >discovered in laboratory tests on hundreds of blood >samples taken from Gulf war soldiers, some who >became sick after the conflict and others who have >not. >. . . . These laboratory results, some of which have >been separately reconfirmed (tests are continuing), >show unusually high antibody levels for squalene, >which should not show up in such tests. >. . . . Squalene as an adjuvant is a synthetic polymer >that stimulates the body's immune responses when >mixed with vaccines to make medications more >effective. It is not approved for human use except in >the most experimental tests overseen by the >government in research on cures for illnesses, such >as HIV and herpes. >. . . . Government officials say emphatically that no >experimental HIV immunization tests were >conducted on the general military population. >However, they say such tests have been conducted >by military- and government-backed research >laboratories on human volunteers. The tests have >not been publicized but have been conducted over a >period of several years. >. . . . Spokesmen from the Veterans Affairs >Department, the National Institutes of Health and >the Department of Defense say they are unable to >explain when asked why squalene shows up in the >blood of sick soldiers who have been, or decline to >answer questions about the phenomenon. >. . . . Timothy Gerrity, a senior official at the VA >and the only top official investigating Gulf war >illnesses willing to talk on the record, told Insight >magazine he "would be surprised" to find out that >squalene is in the bloodstreams of ill soldiers. All >vaccinations administered to Gulf war soldiers are >publicly known, he says, and that no experimental >drugs involving HIV or other immuno-stimulants >were given to U.S. troops. >. . . . Mr. Gerrity says that if the trial tests showing >squalene are confirmed, the government will >investigate. >. . . . Congressional oversight panels, including the >Senate and House Veterans Affairs committees, also >plan to investigate the squalene revelations and >redouble efforts to find still-missing immunization >records for hundreds of thousands of veterans. >. . . . Except for work with a few cutting-edge >pharmaceuticals --and then only with approval from >federal authorities -- only government agencies are >involved in human experimental tests using >adjuvants. Agencies authorized to conduct human >experiments include the NIH Infectious Diseases and >Allergy Center and the Walter Reed Army Medical >Center. >. . . . The NIH and Walter Reed facilities have been >experimenting since at least the late 1980s with >immunizations that could be effective against the >HIV virus, which causes AIDS. Typically, the >experimental "immunizations" are mixed with >adjuvants -- like squalene or alum -- to provide a >boost to experimental vaccines. Alum is the only >U.S.-approved adjuvant for general human use in a >variety of vaccines and immunizations. >. . . . "I want to know how squalene, an adjuvant >that's not supposed to be in these vets, got into these >vets," says a leading medical specialist who studied >lab results on blood samples taken from Gulf war >personnel. >. . . . These tests, conducted at two prestigious >laboratories that prefer not to be identified until >further standardized double-blind testing is >completed, surveyed fresh blood samples of 200 >soldiers and another 200 blood samples drawn two >to three years ago by the Defense Department from >sick Gulf war veterans. The older blood samples >were taken for unrelated tests. >. . . . In nearly three-quarters of the blood from both >testing pools, tests showed positive for squalene >antibodies. >. . . . The test results were similar to those from >experimental test subjects in experimental HIV and >sexually transmitted disease studies at the NIH. In >these cases, the medications they received contained >squalene. >. . . . How then, the reasearchers want to know, did >the tested Gulf war soldiers get antibodies for an >adjuvant whose only known use is experimental? >. . . . "We have found soldiers who are not sick that >do not have the antibodies," says one of the >independent laboratory scientists hired by Insight. >"We found soldiers who never left the United States >but who got shots who are sick, and they have >squalene in their systems. We found people who >served overseas in various parts of the desert that >are sick who have squalene. And we found people >who served in the desert but were civilians who >never got these shots [administered by the federal >government] who are not sick and do not have >squalene." >. . . . In short, says a senior government official >familiar with the new blood tests, "I can't tell you >why it's there, but there it is. And I can tell you this, >too: the sicker an individual, the higher the level of >antibodies for this [squalene] stuff." >. . . . Says a high-level Defense Department official >also familiar with the tests: "I'm not telling you that >squalene is making these people sick, but I am telling >you that the sick ones have it in them. It's probably >whatever was used [mixed] with the squalene that's >doing it, or in combination with the squalene. You >find that, and you may be on to something." >. . . . Theories about adjuvants were first advanced >about two years ago by Pamela Asa, a Tennessee >immunologist who specializes in auto-immune >diseases and symptomatology. Military and civilian >government authorities dismissed her charges at the >time. >. . . . Air Force Col. Ed Koenigsberg, director of the >Pentagon's Persian Gulf war Veterans' Illness >Investigation Team, testified before the President's >Advisory Committee on Persian Gulf Veterans >Disease in October 1995 that theories such as Dr. >Asa's were not plausible because no adjuvant other >than aluminum adjuvants (alum) had been used on >U.S. soldiers, and no secret immunizations were >administered. >. . . . However, the military did commission a study >of so-called "adjuvants disease" and possible >unknown immunizations that may have been given >Gulf war soldiers. >. . . . The study, prepared by the U.S. Army >Medical Research and Materiel Command and >released in March 1996, concluded that the only >vaccines and immunizations administered to soldiers >were publicly known and were alum-based and that >nothing but alum was used as an adjuvant. >. . . . But as the General Accounting Office noted in >a recently concluded study: "Six years after the war, >little is conclusively known about the causes of Gulf >war veterans' illnesses. ... >. . . . "None of the comments we received provide >evidence to challenge our principal findings and >conclusions that (1) DoD and VA have no means to >systematically determine whether symptomatic Gulf >war veterans are better or worse today than when >they were first examined and (2) ongoing >epidemiological research will not provide precise, >accurate, and conclusive answers regarding the >causes of the Gulf war veterans' illnesses." >. . . . The only way, according to the GAO, for the >government to begin finding out what's wrong with >Gulf war veterans is to begin a comprehensive study >of the patients, including high-tech laboratory work >to explain, among other things, the presence of >antibodies for squalene. > <snip> ======================================================================== Paul Andrew Mitchell : Counselor at Law, federal witness B.A., Political Science, UCLA; M.S., Public Administration, U.C. Irvine tel: (520) 320-1514: machine; fax: (520) 320-1256: 24-hour/day-night email: [address in tool bar] : using Eudora Pro 3.0.3 on 586 CPU website: http://www.supremelaw.com : visit the Supreme Law Library now ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone Postal Zone 85719/tdc : USPS delays first class w/o this As agents of the Most High, we came here to establish justice. We shall not leave, until our mission is accomplished and justice reigns eternal. ======================================================================== [This text formatted on-screen in Courier 11, non-proportional spacing.]
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