Strang.Deaths

Serious questions remain concerning Col. Westhusing's "suicide" in Iraq. Army's chief ethics expert was murdered, according to Carlyle Group insider.

According an informed source within The Carlyle Group business consortium, Col. Ted Westhusing, the Army's top military ethicist and professor at West Point, did not commit suicide in a Baghdad trailer in June 2005 as was widely reported in the mainstream media five months later. At the time of his death, Westhusing was investigating contract violations and human rights abuses by US Investigations Services (USIS), formerly a federal agency, the Office of Federal Investigations (OFI), which operated under the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

In 1996, OFI, which conducted background investigations for civil service personnel, was privatized. The 700 government employees of OFI became employee-owners as part of USIS. In January 2003, the New York investment firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson, and Stowe, described by a Carlyle insider as a virtual shadow operation for The Carlyle Group, bought USIS for $545 million. With 5000 current and former employees of USIS sharing $500 million, the deal made them wealthy with the stroke of a pen. However, upper management within USIS became much wealthier than the rank-and-file. Insiders report that the twelve top managers at USIS became multimillionaires as a result of their cashing in of their Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). Many of these instant millionaires already had a close relationship with The Carlyle Group.

Carlyle had been a shareholder in USIS since 1999 and with the buy-out deal via the Welsh, Carson, Anderson, and Stowe deal, Carlyle became the major shareholder.

USIS continues to have a virtual exclusivity deal to perform background security investigations for OPM. The company bills itself as "one of the largest Intelligence and Security Services companies in North America."

With the Iraq invasion, USIS obtained lucrative Pentagon private security contracts in Iraq. At a 2004 job fair in Falls Church, Virginia, USIS was advertising for "interrogators" and "protection specialists" for "overseas assignments." While he was in Iraq training Iraqi police and overseeing the USIS contract to train police as part of the Pentagon's Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, Westhusing received an anonymous letter that reported USIS's Private Services Division (PSD) was engaged in fraudulent activities in Iraq, including over-billing the government. In addition, the letter reported that USIS security personnel had murdered innocent Iraqis. After demanding answers from USIS, Westhusing reported the problems up the chain of command. After an "investigation," the Army found no evidence of wrongdoing by USIS.

That decision signed Col. Westhusing's death sentence. USIS and Carlyle have powerful allies in the administration, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Princeton roommate of Carlyle Chairman Emeritus and former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci. Former President George H. W. Bush, former Secretary of State James Baker, and former British Prime Minister John Major are Carlyle international advisers. George W. Bush was formerly employed by a Carlyle subsidiary and the Bin Laden business cartel was a one-time investor in the firm.

Westhusing, who, according to friends and colleagues, showed no signs of depression, left a suicide note the Army concluded was in his handwriting. However, Westhusing's family and friends have thrown cold water on the Army's investigation.

WMR can report that based on information obtained from Carlyle insiders, Col. Westhusing's death was not caused by suicide. The fact that Westhusing was investigating one of the most politically and financially powerful firms in the world resulted in higher-ups wanting him out of the way. According to the Los Angeles Times, all of the witnesses who claimed Westhusing shot himself were USIS employees. In addition, a USIS manager interfered with the crime scene, including handling Westhusing's service revolver. The USIS manager was not tested for gunpowder residue on his hands.

Westhusing's investigation threatened to unearth a network of fraudsters looting the US Treasury that included the Bush family and some of their closest financial partners. After Westhusing's murder, USIS management sent a vaguely-worded memo to employees about how to respond to derogatory information in the media or rumors about USIS. Management's attention, described as "psychotic" in nature, was on USIS's upcoming IPO (initial public offering), according to a well-placed source.

USIS also owns Total Information Services of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a commercial personal data mining operation.

Coming Up: How Carlyle began on the net operating loss (NOL) financial backs of Native Alaskan tribal corporations.

More details emerge on Col. Ted Westhusing's "suiciding" in Iraq. Days before his supposed suicide by a "self-inflicted" gunshot wound in a Camp Dublin, Iraq trailer, West Point Honor Board member and Iraqi police and security forces trainer Col. Ted Westhusing reported in e-mail to the United States that "terrible things were going on Iraq." He also said he hoped he would make it back to the United States alive. Westhusing had three weeks left on his tour of duty in Iraq when he allegedly shot himself in June 2005.

It is noteworthy that after Westhusing's death, two top Army generals, both responsible for training Iraqi forces, General Dave Petraeus, the Commander of the Multi National Security Transition Command Iraq (MNSTCI), and Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, the Commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, were quickly transferred without much fanfare to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and Fort Hood, Texas, respectively.

U.S. Army cover-up of Colonel Westhusing's death: Highlighted by fabricated evidence and quick transfers of senior officers

Informed sources report that Westhusing was prepared to blow the whistle on fraud involving US Investigations Services (USIS), a Carlyle Group company, when he died. [See Jan. 14 story below]. He had also discovered links between USIS principals and clandestine events involving the Iran-Contra scandal of the Reagan-Bush I administrations. Westhusing has also linked USIS to the illegal killing and torture of Iraqis. USIS personnel whom Westhusing was investigating had the keys to his trailer. In addition, Westhusing's personal bodyguard was given a leave of absence shortly before the colonel's death.

The U.S. Army's official report on Westhusing's death contained a number of falsehoods, according to those close to the case. Most importantly, the Army report stated that Westhusing had electronically communicated an interest in obtaining hollow point bullets. The bullet which killed Westhusing was a hollow point. However, the Army's statement was false, according to an informed source. In addition, the Army combed Westhusing's service record and interviewed a number of colleagues in order to concoct a story that would make suicide appear plausible.

California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer is reportedly trying to get the Senate to investigate Westhusing's death. However, with the Republicans in firm control, it appears that murder of senior U.S. military officers is also something the GOP is more than willing to cover up.

The blogger Xymphora makes several good points about the supposed mugging-murder of the New York Times' recently retired journalist, David Rosenbaum, most notably the fact the crime did not resemble a normal mugging. Thus we must consider the possibility that Rosenbaum was assassinated for reasons that are not clear and probably never will be. Xymphora speculates that Rosenbaum "might reveal some of the secrets behind the odd relationship of the Times to the Bush Administration (holding stories of extreme national importance back for a year, and engaging in discussion of what news is 'fit to print'), or behind the campaign of lies told by the Times to help the Bush Administration trick the American people into the attack on Iraq."

As well, it should be noted that Rosenbaum's final Times piece, published in late December, revealed that Samuel Alito Jr., Bush's Supreme Court nominee, had written a 1984 memorandum as a government lawyer in the Reagan administration "arguing that top officials should not be subject to lawsuits in any in circumstances, including when they knowingly violated the law." Alito's memo "offered recommendations concerning a lawsuit against a former attorney general, John N. Mitchell, over a wiretap he had authorized in 1970 without a court's permission," Rosenbaum wrote.

Rosenbaum's article, co-written with Adam Liptak, prompted the neocon White House to state "that the issues raised in Mr. Alito's 1984 memorandum were not the same as those posed by President Bush's orders to the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on international communications without court permission." Moreover, the Alito memo set off alarm bells in Congress and apparently endangers, at least minimally and superficially, his assured confirmation to the Supreme Court. "Within hours of the release of the 1984 memorandum, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, wrote to Judge Alito that he intended to question him about warrantless wiretapping during the judge's confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court next month. And another Democratic member of the committee, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, said, 'The questions surrounding the Alito nomination get more troublesome every day,'" Liptak and Rosenbaum wrote.

Is it possible Rosenbaum was assassinated in order to send a strong message to the corporate media to tow the line? Of course, the corporate media has more or less dutifully disseminated the neocon line-from the so-called "war on terrorism" (rife with lies and fakery) to selling the Straussian neocon invasion of Iraq (more lies and outright fabrication)-but even so, the New York Times' primary goal is to sell newspapers and enrich stockholders and no doubt the NSA snoop "scandal," splashed across headlines a year late, sold a few extra copies of the "Gray Lady" and also restored to a certain degree the newspaper's reputation in the wake of the fact it served (primarily through the neocon shill Judith Miller) as a propaganda organ for the Straussian total war agenda, beginning with the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

As we know, the neocon Pentagon has vigorously instituted the "Salvador Option" in Iraq-that is to say, the Pentagon has organized and unleashed, in part, paramilitary death squads, as an integral component of its counterinsurgency doctrine based on the model of Nazi suppression of partisan insurgents, as Michael McClintock documents (Instruments of Statecraft: U.S. Guerilla Warfare, Counterinsurgency, and Counterterrorism, 1940-1990; chapter 3, The Legacy of World War II). Obviously, as the NSA snoop revelations reveal, the neocons believe "counterinsurgency" is required in America and thus it is not a stretch to speculate that journalists in this country are possible targets, as are their counterparts in Iraq. For instance, consider the assassination of Steven Vincent, a writer and blogger who made the deadly mistake of reporting the news in Basra. I wrote last August:

As the Los Angeles Times reported, one of Vincent's abductors was "an Interior Ministry employee," and a witness was told it was the "duty" of the U.S.-installed puppet government to grab people off the street and murder them. "A few hours later, the journalist's body was found dumped by a road outside the city, with multiple bullet wounds to the head. He suffered bruises to his face and shoulder, had been blindfolded and his hands were tied in front with plastic wire." Smells like democracy to me.

It's no secret the Interior Ministry is under the control of the CIA, as reported by Knight Ridder on May 8, 2005. "Right after Saddam's ouster, the U.S.-led coalition took the top intelligence agents from each of the main opposition parties and trained them in how to turn raw intelligence into targets that could be used in operations, said an Iraqi intelligence expert who participated in the program," Hannah Allam and Warren P. Strobel wrote. An Iraqi official interviewed by the journalists admitted that

the CIA recruited agents from SCIRI, Dawa, the two main Kurdish factions, and two secular Arab parties: the Iraqi National Congress led by Ahmad Chalabi and the Iraqi National Accord led by Ayad Allawi, who later became the interim prime minister. This group, the prototype for an Iraqi intelligence group that represented Iraq's diversity, became CMAD: the Collection, Management and Analysis Directorate.

When the U.S.-led occupation authority ceded power to the semi-sovereign interim government last June, the official said, CMAD was split, with roughly half the agents going to the new interior ministry and the rest to work on military intelligence in the defense ministry. Both ministries' intelligence departments are led by Kurds, the most consistently U.S.-friendly group in Iraq, and report to the Iraqi prime minister.

But an elite corps of CMAD operatives was recruited into the third and most important Iraqi intelligence agency, the secret police force known by its Arabic name: the Mukhabarat. The Mukhabarat's money comes straight from the CIA.

As Wayne Madsen, a researcher and former communications security analyst with the NSA in the 1980s, noted in 2002, the CIA was at that time busy assassinating political enemies around the world at the behest of the Straussian neocons. According to Madsen, the CIA enjoys a "new unbridled authority to assassinate political nuisances to U.S. interests around the world. In Bush's 'New World Order' 'if you're not with us, you're against us,' [and] social activists and progressive political leaders everywhere are now within the crosshairs of the CIA and its local notorious surrogates and warlords. America's traditional concepts of human rights have been relegated to the dustbin of history in post-constitutional corporate statist America."

It would be dangerously naive to believe the CIA does not operate in America (as its charter supposedly mandates). In October, 2002, the Associated Press reported that the "CIA is increasing its presence at FBI field offices by assigning intelligence officers to domestic anti-terrorism teams," an excessively worrisome development considering the snoop and murder agency's track record over the last fifty or so years. Under Operation CHAOS and Project MERRIMAC, the CIA, according to former CIA undercover operative Verne Lyon, "infiltrated agents into domestic groups of all types and activities. It used its contacts with local police departments and their intelligence units to pick up its 'police skills' and began in earnest to pull off burglaries, illegal entries, use of explosives, criminal frame-ups, shared interrogations, and disinformation."

As the history of COINTELRPO reveals, the government not only disrupted and subverted the civil liberties of Americans, but killed more than a few of them as well. "Among the most remarkable of the COINTELPRO revelations are those relating to the FBI's attempts to incite gang warfare and murderous attacks on Black Panther leaders," writes Paul Wolf (COINTELPRO: The Untold American Story). According to Wolf's research and "thousands of pages of documentary evidence," the FBI "utilize[d] private right-wing operatives and terrorists" who conducted "fire-bombings, burglaries, and shootings" against official enemies. In the case of the "American Indian Movement in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, the FBI conducted a full-fledged counterinsurgency war, complete with death squads, disappearances and assassinations, recalling Guatemala in more recent years." It is not encouraging the grand daddy of political assassination, the CIA, is now soundly ensconced in FBI offices and local police departments as well.

In 1975, the lid hiding the activities of the CIA was briefly lifted, revealing all manner of impropriety. Gerald Ford's Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States (also known as the Rockefeller Commission) "looked into all aspects of CIA operations within the United States. Its report, submitted to the President in June 1975, lists the following significant areas of investigation: mail intercepts; Intelligence Community coordination; 'Operation CHAOS' (collecting information on dissidents); protection of the Agency against threats of violence; other investigations by the Office of Security; involvement of the CIA in improper activities for the White House (including Watergate); domestic activities of the Directorate of Operations; domestic activities of the Directorate of Science and Technology; CIA relationships with other federal, state, and local agencies; indices and files on American citizens; and allegations concerning the assassination of President Kennedy. The Commission also looked into the legal authority of the CIA and its internal and external controls." (See U.S. President's Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States: Files, [1947-1974] 1975, located at the Gerald R. Ford Library).

Of course, David Rosenbaum was not a Black Panther nor particularly radical and worked for a newspaper that was staunchly pro-Bush and gung ho in its effort to sell the illegal and immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq to a mostly somnolent American public. Even so, since the advent of COINTELPRO, the political climate in America, under the fascist Straussian neocons, has shifted radically to the reactionary end of the spectrum, parroting in many ways the behavior of previous fascist and authoritarian regimes.

As Operation CHAOS reveals, the CIA has never honored its domestic hands-off charter and it is not a stretch to conclude that it has for some time operated unfettered in America, using the same murderous tactics it has used and continues to use elsewhere in the world at the behest of various presidents and their handlers. In such a highly charged reactionary climate, it is a distinct possibility the neocons have unleashed death squads against American journalists, especially journalists who worked for a corporate media mouthpiece that has recently irked and possibly embarrassed the neocons by running the NSA snoop story, although it can be argued as well that the neocons in fact "leaked" the story as a psychological warfare tactic designed to chill both whistleblowers and investigative journalists who fear the roving eye of Big Brother, Straussian-Machiavellian style.

January 11, 2006 -- WMR has been asked by readers for further details on the tragic beating death on the evening of January 6 of recently-retired New York Times Washington editor David Rosenbaum. At this time, there are no further details other than what have been reported in the major media.

While this editor did not know Rosenbaum, others who did have told me he was a sharp investigator and an extremely nice person. Heartfelt sympathies go out to his family during this terrible time. Rosenbaum extensively covered the Watergate and Iran-contra scandals.

There are some uncomfortable aspects to this case. One is why it took 22 minutes for an ambulance to reach the crime scene in a quiet and crime-free part of northwest Washington. Emergency services gave their response a "Bravo" rating, meaning they considered Rosenbaum's injuries to be less than "Charlie" or "Delta," serious and life-threatening, respectively.

While this case on the surface, may, in fact, have been a case of a brutal robbery resulting in a fatality, it is worth mentioning that DC has, since 2000, been plagued with strange deaths of people involved in intelligence matters such as John Millis (suicide), John Kokal (suicide), Dr. Gus Weiss (suicide), as well as the very strange death of Marvin Bush's employee Bertha Champagne (freak accident). According to State Department and NSA sources respectively, there were no public reports on the suicide last year of a woman named Maureen who worked for the department's important Near East/Asia Press and Public Diplomacy branch and at least one suicide at NSA that prompted then-Director Michael Hayden to send a letter to all NSA employees regarding at least one suicide within the "NSA family."

Dec. 20, 2003 -- A former top official of the CIA, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the recent alleged suicide deaths of two high-ranking U.S. intelligence officials, both of whom died in the same manner – falls from Washington, DC buildings – appear to be “more than coincidental.”

On November 7, State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) Iraqi analyst John J. Kokal, 58, was found dead outside the State Department building. Washington police reported the case a suicide resulting from Kokal’s jumping from the roof of the headquarters building. Although the State Department reported that Kokal was not an analyst at INR, State Department insiders report that Kokal not only was a top Iraqi analyst but that he briefed Secretary of State Colin Powell on a regular basis. The Washington Post treated the story as a normal police incident.

On November 25, former National Security Council official Dr. Gus W. Weiss, a known critic of the Bush administration’s war in Iraq, was found dead outside a service entrance to Washington’s Watergate East residential building where he lived. Police ruled that Weiss had committed suicide by jumping from the roof of the Watergate building. Weiss was a former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space policy under President Jimmy Carter and served on the Signals Intelligence Committee of President Carter’s Intelligence Board. Weiss also served as an adviser to the CIA and as a member of the Defense Science Board. Weiss was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1975. In a manner reminiscent of The Washington Post’s handling of the suspicious automobile crushing death of Marvin Bush’s babysitter on September 29, the paper waited until December 7 to report Weiss’s suspicious death. In the case of Marvin Bush’s babysitter, Bertha Champagne, the Post did not report the incident until October 5.

The fact that both Kokal and Weiss were critics of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy should have resulted in much more media attention unless there is a blackout` on coverage of these suspicious deaths. One seasoned Washington intelligence expert said the possibility of official or semi-official “death squads” carrying out assassinations of Bush administration critics cannot be ruled out. “Remember that the Watergate scandal began with the discovery of a single tape, and that brought down an entire administration,” said the expert.

June 12, 2000 -- On the evening of June 4, 2000, John Millis, the Staff Director for the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, was found dead in a Fairfax, Virginia motel room from what police termed an apparent suicide. The owners and staff of the motel where Millis’s body was discovered are under orders from the Fairfax City police not to discuss the matter with the media. Congressional colleagues of Millis claim the 47-year-old husband and father exhibited no signs of depression.

As far as any financial difficulties may be concerned, congressional records show that Millis’s annual salary was $132,100, an income considered well above average for the Washington, DC area. In addition, there are unconfirmed reports from people close to the intelligence community that Millis had multiple gunshot wounds to the back of his head.

Before assuming his duties as the chief aide to Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss in 1997, Millis spent a number of years in the CIA. He also served as the Executive Staff Assistant to the Director of the NSA and the CIA’s chief liaison officer to the signals intelligence agency. While with the CIA, Millis served as a case officer in Pakistan where he was involved in support activities for the Afghan mujaheddin. Before becoming Goss’s chief assistant, Millis served as staff director of the House International Relations Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the U.S. Role in Iranian Arms Transfers to Croatia and Bosnia. That panel discovered the Clinton administration approved of Iranian arms shipments to Bosnian Muslims at a time when the United States branded Iran as a terrorist state.

Millis was a vocal critic of former CIA director John Deutch. In a February 15, 2000 speech before a Smithsonian Institution gathering, Millis described Deutch as the worst director the CIA ever had. He also claimed Deutch did “major damage” to the CIA’s Operations Directorate.

As a former employee of two major intelligence agencies and the chief staff member of the House Intelligence Committee, Millis would have undergone rigorous high-level security clearance vetting procedures that would have identified any personal life style problems

Death by gunshot to the head. Death by probable poisoning. Death by probable strangulation. Deaths possibly by implantation of deadly viruses. No one lives former. Yet the recent suspicious deaths of UFO investigators Phil Schneider, Ron Johnson, Con Routine, Ann Livingston and Karla Turner, as well as the deaths of a host of researchers in the past, only seem to add emphasis to a reality with which many of the more aware UFOlogists are now quite familiar: not only is UFO research potentially dangerous, but the life span of the average serious investigator falls far short of the national average.

Mysterious and suspicious deaths among UFO investigators arc nothing new. In 1971, the well-known author and researcher Otto Binder wrote an article for Saga magazine's Special UFO Report titled "Liquidation of the UFO Investigators:' Binder had researched the deaths of "no less than 137 flying saucer researchers, writers, scientists, and witnesses' who had died in the previous 10 years, "many under the most mysterious circumstances."

The selected cases Binder offered were loaded with a plethora of alleged heart attacks, suspicious cancers and what appears to be outright examples of murder. We will have occasion to refer to many of these cases, but first let us take a look at more recent evidence of highly suspect deaths among present day researchers.

Phil Schneider

No one has shook up more those who have been following UFO fact and rumor the past low years than Phil Schneider. Schneider died Januarv 17, 1996, reportedly strangled by a catheter found wrapped around his neck. If the circumstances of his death seem highly controversial, thev are matched by the controversy over his public statements uttered recently before his death.

Phil Schneider was a self-taught geologist and explosive expert. Of the 129 deep underground facilities Schneider believed the U.S. government had constructed since World War II, he claimed to have worked on 13. Two of these bases were major, including the much rumored bioengineering facility at Dulce, N.M. At Dulce. Schneider maintained, "grey" - humanoid extraterrestrials worked side by side with American technicians. In 1979, a misunderstanding arose. In the ensuing shootout, 66 Secret Service, FBI and Black Berets were killed along with an unspecified number of "greys. It was here he received a beam-weapon blast to the chest which caused his later cancer.

(Note from Metatech.org editor Stephanie Relfe: I have seen the scar from this weapon on one of Phil's videos. Contact Al Bielek, PO Box 50045 Fort Myers FL 33994 if you wish to purchase Phil Schneider videos).

If Schneider is telling the truth, he obviously broke the code of imposed silence to which all major black-budget personnel are subjected. The penalty for that misstep is presumably termination. Schneider in fact maintained that numerous previous attempts had been made on his life, including the removal of lug nuts from one of the front wheels of his automobile. He had stated publicly he was a marked man and did not expect to live long.

Some of Schneider's more major accusations are worthy of attention:

(1) The American government concluded a treaty with "grey" aliens in 1954. This mutual cooperation pack is called the Grenada Treaty.

(2) The space shuttle has been shuttling in special metals. A vacuum atmosphere is needed for the rending of these special alloys, thus the push for a large space station.

(3) Much of our stealth aircraft technology was developed by back-engineering crashed ET craft.

(4) AIDS was a population control virus invented by the National Ordinance Laboratory, Chicago, Illinois.

(5) Unbeknownst to just about everyone, our government has an earthquake device: The Kobe quake had no pulse wave; the 1989 San Francisco quake had no pulse wave.

(6) The World Trade Center bomb blast and the Oklahoma City blast were achieved using small nuclear devices. The melting and pitting of the concrete and the extrusion of metal supporting rods indicated this. (Remember, Schneider's forte, he claimed, was explosives.)

Finally, Phil Schneider lamented that the democracy he loved no longer existed. We had become instead a technocracy ruled by a shadow government intent on imposing their own view of things on all of us, whether we like it or not. He believed I l of his best friends had been murdered in the last 22 years, eight of whom had been officially disposed of as suicides.

Whatever we think of Phil Schneider's claims, there is no denying that he was of peculiar interest to the FBI and CIA. According to his widow, intelligence agents thoroughly searched the premises shortly after his death and made off with at least a third of the family photographs.

Ron Rummel

Another recent disturbing case is the death of Ron Rummel, ex-air force intelligence agent and publisher of the Alien Digest, on August 6, 1993. Rummel allegedly shot himself in the mouth with a pistol. Friends say, however, that no blood was found on the pistol barrel and the handle of the weapon was free of fingerprints. Also, according to information now circulating, the suicide note left by the deceased was written by a left-handed person. Rummel was right-handed. Perspiration on the body smelled like sodium pentothal, or so it is alleged.

The Alien Digest ran to seven limited issues, all now almost impossible to acquire. One thing is certain. Ron Rummel's magazine was touching on sensitive issues such as the predator/prey aspect of the alien/human relationship and the use of humans as food and recyclable body parts. Did Rummel cross a forbidden line? It would seem so. But which line, and where? Interestingly enough, one of Rummel's friends was Phil Schneider, and the two had been collaborating.

Ron Johnson

An equally disturbing and more recent death is that of Ron (Jerrold) Johnson, at the time MUFON's Deputy Director of Investigations. Johnson was 43 years old and, it would seem, in excellent health. He had just passed a recent physical examination with the proverbial flying colors. However, on June 9, 1994, while attending a Society of Scientific Exploration meeting in Austin, Texas, Johnson died quickly and amid very strange circumstances. During a slide show, several people sitting close to him heard a gasp. When the lights were turned back on, Johnson was slumped over in his chair, his face purple, blood oozing from his nose. A soda can, from which he had been sipping, was sitting on the chair next to him.

Did Ron Johnson die of a stroke? Possibly. An allergic reaction? Another possibility.

Some of the more outstanding facts of Ron Johnson's life might easily lead a more skeptical-minded person to a tentative conclusion that his death was probably neither accidental nor natural. For instance, his most recent job was with the Institute of Advanced Studies, purportedly working on UFO propulsion systems. He had been formerly employed by Earth Tech, Inc., a private Austin, Texas, think tank headed by Harold Puthoff. It would appear he held high security clearances, traveled frequently between San Antonio and White Sands, and had attended 2 secret NATO meetings in the last year or so. One of those meetings, it is rumored dealt with ET communications. Although advanced in years, there are some who believe that Dr. Hynek's death was because of "strange circumstances," due to the high number of researchers who have died of brain tumors or cancer. If all or most of the facts offered above are accurate, one thing seems obvious: Johnson was walking both sides of the street. This in itself was highly dangerous, and he may have paid the ultimate price in an attempt to serve more than one master.

As for exactly what killed Ron Johnson, a number of possibilities beyond natural ones present themselves. It is quite easy in this day and age to induce strokes through chemicals or pulsed radiation. It is just as easy, and has been for some time, to induce heart attacks and other physical debilitations, such as fast-acting cancers. The best bet is that Ron Johnson was eliminated by a quick-acting toxin, perhaps a nerve agent. As for exactly why he was killed, we will probably never know. The autopsy, somewhat ludicrously, has been officially classified as inconclusive.

Ann Livingston

As a side note, a nurse returning home from Austin shortly after Johnson's death reported a similar death-situation aboard her plane. When she tried to move rearward to offer her assistance, she was forcefully restrained from doing so. Could it be, one wonders, that some agent, through an accident, was the victim of his own machinations? The idea strikes a nice note of poetic justice, if in fact that were the scenario.

Another death involving elements of high strangeness is that of Ann Livingston, who died in early 1994 of a fast-form of ovarian cancer. Livingston made her living as an accountant, but she was also a MUFON investigator and had in fact, published an article entitled "Electronic Harassment and Alien Abductions" in the November 1993 MUFON Journal. The article was highly critical of Julianne McKinney, director of the Electronic Surveillance Project of the Association of National Security Alumni. McKinney discounts U FO phenomena, believing that what passes for such is most often one kind of governmental ploy or another, whether in the form of experimental machinery or experimental psychology.

Some facts which seem relevant to the case stand out. At 7:15 AM, December 29th 1992, Livingston's apartment close to O'Hare airport, in Chicago, Illinois, was lit up brightly by a silverwhite flash. She was accosted later in the day while in her apartment parking lot by 5 MIBs (Men in Black) which she described as being almost faceless and carrying long, flashlight-like black objects. She was rendered unconscious. What, we must ask, assuming her story is true, was done to her at this time, and wh'? And did it have anything to do with her later rapidly-advancing ovarian cancer?

It is not a well-known fact that Ann Livingston had been previously abducted. Her friend, Fran Heiser, has stated that Ann Livingston had met two handsome people, a man and woman, on an earlier trip to Mexico. To Livingston's surprise, the man told her that the attractive young lady she was meeting was in fact her daughter.

Karla Turner

Could genital intrusions from past UFO abductions have poisoned in some way Ann Livingston's system? That is exactly the suspicion Karla Turner (author of Maquerade of Angels, Taken, and Into the Fringe) had about the breast cancer that preceded her death during the summer of 1996. Both publicly and privately, Karla Turner held up the specter of alien retaliation for statements she made in print, especially in Masquerade of Angels. How much her suspicions were founded in reality we will probably never know. (A good site on Karla Turner is http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/9923/karla.html

Who or what is killing UFO investigators now and in the past? Probably some of the deaths presented here-that look at first glance so suspicious---are in fact natural or accidental or self-inflicted because of stress or mental imbalances. But, as Otto Binder noted more than 25 years ago, there are so many. Pure common sense, and good logic, should lead us to believe that the high incidence of premature death in a field which has a limited number of investigators is very disproportionate compared to the population at large.

Spider Web of Causes

What we may have IS a concatenation, a spider web, of interweaving threads which are causal and often, in fact, deadly. One thread is the activities of the US (and other) intelligence agencies. Another thread is possible ET involvement. A third thread is the involvement of certain PSI-tech think tanks and private PSI/PK practitioners, including negative occultists. A possible fourth thread is highly reactionary religious cults which feel they are carrying out the will of God. It is more than likely that one or more or all of the above agencies are responsible in whole or in part for many of the deaths from the recent past, which have already been mentioned and many of those remaining cases from the present to the more distant past, some of which we will now explore.

Danny Casolaro

Danny Casolaro, an investigative reporter looking into the theft of Project Promise software, a program capable of tracking down anyone anywhere in the world, died in 1991, a reported suicide.

Casolaro was also investigating several UFO "NO-Nos" Pine Gap, Area 51 and governmental bioengineering.

Mae Bussell

Not long ago, Mae Bussell, a gutsy, no-holds-barred, investigative radio host died of a fast-acting cancer just like Ann Livingston and Karla Turner. Bussell was acutely interested in UFOlogy.

The directors of APRO, Coral and Jim Lorenzen, a Tucson-based UFO group, both died of Cancer. Deck Slayton

Deke Slayton,

the astronaut, was purportedly ready to talk about his UFO experiences, but cancer also intervened.

Brian Lynch

Brian Lynch, young psychic and contactee, died in 1985, purportedly of a drug overdose. According to Lynch's sister, Geraldine, Brian was approached approximately a year before his death by an intelligence operative working for an Austin, Texas, PSI-tech company. Geraldine said they told Brian they were experimenting on psychic warfare techniques. After his death, a note in his personal effects was found with the words "Five million from Pentagon for Project Scanate."

Capt. Don Elkin

In the '80s Eastern Airlines pilot Capt. Don Elkin committed suicide. He had been investigating the UFO coverup for over 10 years and, at the time, was deep into the study of the Ra material with ('aria Rucker. There are reports of negative psychological interferences having developed during this latter investigation.

Bizarre Death of Scientists

Certainly nothing is stranger, and breeds speculation more quickly, than the 30-some-odd deaths associated with SDI (Star Wars) research at Marconi Ltd. in England between approximately 1985-1988. Here in capsulated form is a list of a few of the more bizarre deaths:

Roger Hill, a designer at Marconi Defense Systems, allegedly commits suicide with a shotgun, March 1985.

Jonathan Walsh, a digital communications expert employed by GEC, Marconi's parent firm, falls from his hotel room, November 1985, after expressing fear for his life.

Ashad Sharif, another Marconi scientist, reportedly tied a rope around his neck, and then to a tree, in October 1986, got behind the wheel of his car and stepped on the gas with predictable results.

In March of 1988, Trevor Knight, also associated with Marconi, died of carbon monoxide poisoning in his car.

Peter Ferry, marketing director of the firm, was found shocked to death with electrical leads in his mouth (August 1988).

Also during the same month of the same year, Alistair Beckham was found shocked to death with electric leads attached to his body and his mouth stuffed with a handkerchief. He was an engineer with the allied firm of Plessey Defense Systems.

And, finally, but by no means the sole remaining death in this unique cluster, Andrew Hall was found dead in September of 1988 of carbon monoxide poisoning.

What, you may be asking, does SDI research have to do with the deaths of UFO investigators? Theoretically, quite a lot. If, as many investigators have hypothesized, Star Wars research was initiated with the dual purpose of protecting "us" against Soviet aggression and/or the presence of UFO craft in our atmosphere, then several possibilities arise. Most compelling is the idea that the soviet KGB, realizing that the Western powers were on the verge of perfecting a high-powered beam-weapon that could be used from outer space or atmospheric space against them, marshaled a last-gasp, all-out espionage offensive to slow or destroy the project. If this scenario is true, and the weapon was indeed successfully developed, we have an explanation for the collapse of the Soviet Union ("Surrender or you might be incinerated").

Other explanations have been offered. For example, scientists working on the project discovered the true nature of the research they were involved with and the overwhelming stress led them to suicide. Or they discovered that their real collaborators were "greys," or Western politicians working with/for grey aliens. One thing seems obvious. Something went terribly wrong at Marconi. Scientists usually don't commit the kinds of bizarre, "unscientific" suicides we find here.

One other possibility is that a contingent of unfriendly ETs got wind of what GEC and Marconi and its affiliates were up to and, to protect themselves, created enough psychic trauma within the minds of many of the scientists to drive them to suicide. But if this is so, why have the deaths stopped? Has the project been shelved? Highly unlikely. The best bet is that the project was completed, roughly about 1988, and whatever it is, beam-weapon or otherwise, it is now operational.

Certainly neither the public at large, and not even UFOlogists generally, seem thoroughly aware of the real risks UFO investigators run. In fact those UFOlogists who are aware of the suspicious deaths of some of their colleagues in the 50s and 60s, seem to believe that whatever forces and agencies that were then responsible have softened their tactics in the `80s and `90s. The evidence, as we have indicated, does not seem to support such a conclusion. There is no doubt, however, that the `50s and `60s produced some strange goings-on.

Jessup and McDonald

Undoubtedly the most intriguing (and perhaps appalling) deaths in UFOlogy were those of Dorothy Kilgallen, M.K. Jessup and Dr. James McDonald - the former an alleged accident, the latter two purported suicides. The details of these deaths, despite official pronouncements to the contrary, are disturbing to say the least. Each of the three individuals seemed to have much to live for, all were successful, and everyone of them was deeply immersed in the relatively new UFO-phenomena problem.

Dorothy Kilgallen

Dorothy Kilgallen was the most famous syndicated woman journalist of her day. Stationed in England in 1954 - 55, and privy to the highest levels of English society and its secrets, she wired two unusual dispatches which may have contributed to her death. The first, sent in February 1954, mentioned a "special hush-hush meeting of the world's military heads" scheduled to take place the following summer. The 1955 dispatch, which barely preceded her death from an alleged overdose of sleeping pills and alcohol (a la Marilyn Monroe), quoted an unnamed British official of cabinet rank, `We believe, on the basis of our inquiry thus far, that saucers were staffed by small men-probably under four feet tall. It's frightening, but there is no denying the flying saucers come from another planet.'

Whatever the source (rumored to be the Earl of Mountbatten), this kind of leak in the atmosphere of the mid- 50s was an unacceptable leak. It is well to recall that the secret CIA-orchestrated Robertson Panel had met in 1953 and issued the Robertson Report. Briefly summarized, this document-and the attitudes reflected there - represented a new hard-line attitude to covering up all significant UFO phenomena. The year 1953 and the meeting of the Robertson Panel truly initiated the UFO coverup as we know it today, with a few extra dollops having been added.

Did Dorothy Kilgallen actually commit accidental suicide? There appears to be an excellent chance she had help.

Dr. James McDonald, senior physicist, Institute of Atmospheric Physics and also professor in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Arizona, died in 1971 purportedly of a gunshot wound to the head. There is no one who had worked harder in the 60s than McDonald to convince Congress to hold serious, substantial subcommittee meetings to explore the UFO reality of which he was thoroughly convinced. He was definitely a thorn in the side of those who maintained the official coverup and, needless to say, his passing to them would be a blessing.

McDonald, allegedly depressed, shot himself in the head. But, alas, he didn't die. He was wheelchair-ridden but somehow, several months after his first attempt, he allegedly got in an automobile, drove to a pawnshop, purchased another pistol from his wheelchair, drove to the desert and did himself in. How convenient, one might say, for his adversaries. And McDonald, there can be no doubt, had made enemies. The question is: How much did these enemies aid and abet the demise of this most worthy and influential campaigner?

Astronomer MIL Jessup

When astronomer and archaeologist M. K. Jessup allegedly committed suicide in Dade County Park, FL., in 1959 certain alarm bells should have gone off. There is no doubt the well-known author of such influential works as The Case for the UFO and The Expanding Case for the UFO had been depressed. Things had not been going well for him, and he had, it must be admitted, indicated his gloom to close friends, Ivan Sanderson, the biologist, and Long John Nebel, the well-known New York City radio host. Sanderson reported him disturbed by "a series of strange events" which put him "into a completely insane world of unreality."

Was the reality Jessup was faced with at the time "completely insane" or were there, perhaps, forces driving Jessup to the edge, forces with a plan? Anna Genzlinger thoroughly investigated his death. Her conclusion: "He was under some sort of control." Remember, these were the days of secret governmental mind-control experiments which have only recently been uncovered.

Certain facts about the case raise red flags. For example, no autopsy was performed, contrary to the state law. Sergeant Obenclain, who was on the scene shortly after Jessup's body was discovered, has said for the record, "Everything seemed too professional." The hose from the car exhaust was wired on; and it was, strangely, washing machine hose. Jessup died at rush hour, with more than the usual amount of traffic passing by. He had been visited by Carlos Allende three days before his death and according to his wife, had been receiving strange phone calls. We know the navy was very much interested in what he was doing; and we all know, or should know, it is the ONI (Office of Naval Investigations) that has been in the forefront, from the very beginning, of the UFO coverup.

And what of particular interest was Jessup investigating at the time? Something that was top secret and would remain so for some time: the Philadelphia Experiment. Dr. James McDonald tried to convince Congress to look into the UFO situation. He died after shooting himself a short while later.The late astronomer Dr. M.K. Jessup was the first to reveal details of the Philadelphia Experiment-he died a few months later. Frank Edwards

Frank Edwards, the noted news commentator, died of an alleged heart attack on June 24, 1967, on the 20th anniversary of the Kenneth Arnold sighting. Was that coincidence?

Probably not. Several other prominent UFOlogists died the same day, Arthur Bryant, the contactee, Richard Church, chairman of CIGIUFO and the space writer, Willie Ley. The circumstances surrounding the death of Edwards, who like James McDonald was pushing for meaningful Congressional subcommittee meetings, raise huge questions. It so happens that a "World UFO Conference" was being held in New York City at the Commodore hotel on that very day in June, chaired by UFO publisher and author Gray Barker. Barker stated publicly that he had received two letters and a telephone call threatening that Frank Edwards, who was not in attendance, would not be alive by the conference's end.

It definitely looks like someone was sending a message. As an unhappy sequel to this account, Rep. Rouse, who had been supporting Edwards in his campaign for Congressional attention to the UFO issue, died of a similar heart attack shortly afterwards.

The annals of UFOlogy are frighteningly filled with the deaths of UFOlogists from unusual cancers, heart attacks, questionable suicides and all manner of strange happenings. Did former Secretary of Defense James Forrestal really commit suicide as purported by jumping out a hotel window at about the time saucers may have been crashing down in the southwestern desert? Was UFO writer Damon Runyon, Jr.'s suicidal plunge off a Washington D.C. bridge in 1988 really an act of will? What really happened to Dr. B. Noel Opan who, in 1959, after an alleged visit by MIBs, disappeared, as did Edgar Jarrold, the Australian UFOlogist, in 1960.

How do we explain the rash of heart attacks that took so many: Frank Edwards, Rep. Rouse, author H. T. Wilkins, Henry E Kock, publicity director of the Universal Research Society of America, author Frank Scully and contactee George Adamski? How do we correlate accurately the large number of purported suicides, including: Rev. Della Larson, contactee, author Gloria Lee (Byrd), Marie Ford, UFO enthusiast who discovered Larson's body, researcher Doug Hancock, and, more recently, researcher Feron Hicks? What do we do with the inordinately large number of cancer deaths which pepper the UFO field and burn doubtful holes in our credulity: Canadian researcher Wilbert B. Smith, Brazilian researcher Dr. Olavo Fontes, Jim and Coral Lorenzen and the deaths of biologist Ivan Sanderson and CUFOS founder James A. Hynek ?

Certainly not all of these individuals, as well as many other less prominent researchers that space limitations do not allow us to mention, were marked for termination. Many, perhaps most, died natural deaths. But so many of the cases leave doubt; some seem to be branded by the mark of Cain. We know now how easy it is to induce strokes and heart attacks through chemicals, pulsed beams and microbes. We have learned that the federal government was (and still is) involved in PSI-tech research. An individual's mind is rather easily manipulated, and minds can be subtly beaten like putty into despair and madness.

The late Ivan T. Sanderson passed away unexpectedly. He was head of a major UFO/paranormal group! UFOlogy is not the safe, hobbyistic pastime some would like it to be. There is danger, real danger in sticking your nose in places where the powers that be don't want you to be. Many of the deaths related above are highly suspicious. Some appear to be outright murder.

What is the cause, who the villain? Again, it must be emphasized that the "problem" is complex. Rogue intelligence agencies, negative ET groups, freelancing PSI-tech firms, and reactionary cultist groups all seem to play, or to have played, a part in the more nefarious UFO-related events described here including the possible homicides of UFO researchers in past decades as well as more recently. It seems highly likely that sometimes one or more of these agencies may be working together, either with or without the knowledge of the other's presence.

What can we do about such a state of affairs? Several things. We can inform ourselves like good democratic citizens. And we can inform others. We can and must raise a hue and cry when we suspect foul play. If we are to protect our very lives and the democratic hopes we say we cherish, then we must not go, silent and ignorant, into the night, pretending an innocence we have not earned.

Copyright © 1997: GCR Publishing Group Inc., 1700 Broadway, New York NY 10019. All rights reserved.

---------------------------------

By Stephanie Relfe:

Since the above article was written there have been other notable deaths in the field, including:

William Cooper Author of the classic book: "Behold a Pale Horse"

www.HalTurnerShow.com 8 - 9 PM EST Monday Nights on WBCQ 7.415 MHz & 9-11 PM Tue. - Fri. on the Net SHOT DEAD! WBCQ SHORT-WAVE RADIO TALK SHOW HOST WILLIAM "BILL" COOPER Eager, AZ -- Short-wave radio talk show host William "Bill" Cooper was shot dead last night during a gun battle with Sheriff's Deputies. According to Detective Frank Valenzuela of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the shooting took place at 11:40 PM outside of Cooper's home at 96 North Clearview Circle, Eager, AZ.

Det. Valenzuela stated that Deputies from the Apache County Sheriff's Department were attempting to serve an arrest warrant upon Mr. Cooper. The Warrant, issued by the Round Valley Judicial Precinct in Springerville, AZ charged Cooper with one Count of Aggravated Assault With A Deadly Weapon, and two Counts of "Endangerment." The Warrant was issued on August 29, 2001 for an incident which allegedly took place on July 11, 2001. The Court Case Number on the Warrant is CR-01-0310. Neither Valenzuela, nor the Apache County Attorney's Office would reveal the name of the alleged victim(s). They did say the complaint was signed by Detective Paul Kirkum of the Eager, AZ Sheriff's Dept.

According to Valenzuela, Police had intelligence that Cooper had a large quantity of weapons in his home, and possibly explosives. Valenzuela also said the police knew that during his radio show on WBCQ, Cooper repeatedly stated that he "would kill any law enforcement officers that tried to take him." As such, the Sheriff's Department wanted to arrest Cooper away from his home, so as to minimize the possibility of armed conflict.

According to Police, Cooper lived on a hilltop over looking several undeveloped areas and other homes below. Despite not owning the land below his home, Cooper was known to chase teenagers or young lovers off the land and Police decided to use this to lure Cooper away from his home. Det. Valenzuela stated that two undercover Sheriff's Deputies were sent in a pick-up truck to the area below Cooper's home. There were also two uniformed Deputies in the bed of the pick-up. As expected, Cooper drove down to that area from his home and told the two undercover Deputies to leave.

But Cooper left and drove away toward his home before the undercover deputies could do anything. While on his way back up the hill, a fully marked Sheriff's patrol vehicle blocked the road(1) in front of Cooper. Uniformed members of the Sheriff's Department SWAT Team (2) exited that marked vehicle and told Cooper to stop, keep his hands where they could see them and exit the vehicle. They say Cooper placed one hand outside his window, then accelerated around the police car, trying to run over a Sheriff Sergeant. Police gave brief chase to Cooper's home.

Police say Cooper exited his vehicle, drew a handgun and began firing at Deputies as he ran toward his house. One Deputy Sheriff was struck at least once and possibly twice in the head.(3) Another Deputy returned fire, hitting Cooper several times.

The wounded Deputy was evacuated by Helicopter to a hospital in Phoenix. Cooper was pronounced dead at the scene by Paramedics who were at the scene standing-by (4).

The following questions arise from this incident:

(1) Cooper would have had to pass the marked Police patrol Vehicle while going down the hill. Why would he do so without seeing it and fleeing? Further, how could he drive around it once it came onto the road while Cooper was enroute back to his home?

(2) If Police intended a peaceful, non-violent arrest, why send a SWAT Team?

(3) If Cooper drew a gun and fired "while running back toward his home" as police say, how could he hit a Deputy once and possibly twice in the head? A head-shot is a difficult thing to accomplish with a hand gun, never mind two head shots while the shooter is running!

(4) Why were Paramedics "on the scene standing-by" if Sheriffs intended this to be a peaceful arrest?

These questions make The Hal Turner Show wonder if Bill Cooper was set-up (Editor's note: & mind controlled?) to be gunned down, or just a victim of his own big mouth and prudent police planning? We pray for the soul of Mr. Cooper, and for the life of the Deputy shot in the head.

Stanley Kubrick

While not a UFO researcher, I feel that Stanley Kubrick deserves a mention here. I believe that Stanley Kubrick, who died shortly after the release of his movie "Eyes wide shut" was killed by advanced technology. I believe that his earlier movie "2001 a space odyssey" indicated that he was in alignment with the secret powers that be. For example, it showed "The Black Block" which is worshipped by masonry and is in the headquarters of the United Nations in New York.

However, people change. He didn't produce a movie for twenty years before he produced "Eyes wide shut". This movie was kept in super secrecy until it came out. Even reviewers did not see it until the day it was released. Most people did not know what to make of it. They didn't recognize it for what I believe it was, namely a documentary, of the kind of religious rituals that the powers that be are involved in. In the movie Tom Cruise is told towards the end something like "If you knew who those people were, you wouldn't sleep at night". I believe that Kubrick towards the end turned towards the good side, and wanted to get information out to the people. I believe that Kubrick was killed by advanced technology by people who he was once aligned with.

OR, was Kubrick's death more closely related to 9-11 and the World Trade Center. This far-out idea is supported by an article at http://geocities.com/markamooky/2001_and_911.html

While on the subject of "Eyes Wide Shut" I have wondered if Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were also punished for acting in this movie, by breaking up their marriage. After all, the movie would have been nowhere near as famous if they hadn't acted in it. The secret government has technology they can beam at people to help break up marriages. I am not alone in this thought. I have read elsewhere on the net: I'm sure most readers will also be aware that it was the film which many considered one catalyst for Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's marriage break-up.

For more about "Eyes wide shut" see http://www.ellisctaylor.com/eyeswideshut.html

Dean Stonier

Dean was the organizer and promoter of the Global Sciences Congress, that over the years hosted many top researchers including Phil Schneider and Al Bielek, the sole survivor of the Philadelphia Experiment. Dean died of a heart attack in August 2001, just a few months after a Denver Global Sciences Congress.

Jim Keith

Jim Keith died in 1999. Author of many books including Mind Control, World Control. Jim died in hospital during surgery to repair a broken leg he achieved while attending the infamous Burning Man Festival in Nevada. It seems a blood clot was released during the surgery and travelled to the heart causing a pulmonary edema.

Ron Bonds

Ron Bonds sold conspiracies. The Atlantan published books on unsolved mysteries and unexplained phenomena, from the Kennedy assassination to the ominous black helicopters of the New World Order. In the subculture of the paranormal, his reputation was such that writers for "The X-Files" used to call him for ideas.

In April 2001, fifteen hours after eating a meal with warm beef from a Mexican restaurant in Atlanta, after an agonizing evening of vomiting and diarrhea, Bonds was taken by ambulance from their home to Grady Memorial Hospital. During an autopsy, the medical examiner found copious amounts of blood in the bowels, so he sent a stool sample to the Georgia Public Health Laboratory in Decatur. The lab discovered high levels of Clostridium perfringens Type A, a bacterium often seen in small quantities in beef and poultry. When it occurs in larger quantities -- anything above 100,000 organisms per gram is considered unsafe -- it can release toxins that cause diarrhea, vomiting and, rarely, hemorrhaging. The bacterium figures in 250,000 cases of food poisoning a year, the CDC estimates, only seven of which result in death.

Four days after Bonds ate there, epidemiologists visited El Azteca to collect samples of ground beef from the steam table. When C. perfringens becomes dangerous, it usually has to do with cooked meat being held at too low a temperature. The lab found 6 million organisms per gram -- 60 times the safety threshold.

One obvious question is: Why didn't other people get sick too? More info here.

---------------------------------

Philip K. Dick (this came to me from a reader): Science fiction author of Bladerunner and Minority Report. Had continuing contact for several years, then died of a stroke under somewhat mysterious circumstances on March 2 1982. He was writing a non-fiction book about his experiences with alien contact. It was never published, and the manuscript has disappeared.

Final Word from editor Stephanie Relfe: Since the field of UFO & secret government research seems to have a lot of danger attached to it, it is highly recommended that people involved in this do so only when they feel guided to do so by God and their intuition and higher self, NOT because it is exciting or profitable, or because "the world needs it". If you do what God wants you to do, I believe you will be given protection. Joan of Arc was given protection and success in the early stages when God was speaking to her. But later she continued on under her own steam, not noticing that God did not tell her to do more than he originally asked her to do, and she paid the price.

Gus W. Weiss, 72, adviser to four presidents on top secret policy matters, died violently in Washington, DC, on November 25, 2003, but his death was not reported by The Washington Post until December 7, 2003, in the obitiuary section at the bottom of page C12. His home town newspaper, The Nashville Tennessean, was only a week late in reporting his death, but at that late date all they could say was, "The circumstances surrounding his death could not be confirmed last night."

Readers of The Tennessean http://www.tennessean.com/obits/archives/03/11/43368774shtml?Element_ID=43368774

might have had their suspicions aroused not only by the delay in the reporting of this important man's death, but also by the very next sentence in the article: "Friends of Mr. Weiss expressed shock at his death."

But the article is not at all clear as to why that might have been the case. The man was already two years past our allotted three score years and ten, after all. Subsequent passages in the article only heighten the mystery:

"Driven by an insatiable intellectual curiosity and a desire to solve foreign policy problems, Mr. Weiss devoted his life to his career, friends recalled. He served as assistant to the secretary of defense for space policy and on the Pentagon Defense Science Board and the U.S. Intelligence Board under President Carter. Mr. Weiss was a foreign affairs officer and member of the National Security Council under Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan."

"Mr. Weiss...was involved in numerous intelligence projects, and friends said there were many aspects of his career he could never discuss with them."

'''He was wired into the intelligence community, and there were a lot of mystical secrets we weren't privy to,' said Harris Gilbert, a Nashville attorney who had been friends with Mr. Weiss since childhood. 'He was very interested in diplomatic strategy and was VERY, VERY OPPOSED TO THE IRAQ WAR. It was the first military action he ever opposed, but he believed we shouldn't go to war in the Middle East without knowing what we were getting into.''' (emphasis added)

Might it not appear that if one is sufficiently connected to power, strong opposition to our ongoing naked aggression in the fertile crescent could well be fatal?

Let's see if The Post's belated obituary
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42132-2003Dec6.html
clears matters up, or muddies the waters further:

Gus W. Weiss, 72, a former White House policy adviser on technology, intelligence, and economic affairs, died Nov. 25 of a fall from the Watergate East residential building in the District. The D.C. medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.

A spokesman for the D.C. police said that officers found his body at a service entrance to the apartment cooperative. Dr. Weiss lived in the building.

Dr. Weiss was a graduate of Vanderbilt University in his native Nashville. He received a master's degree in business from Harvard University and a doctorate in economics from New York University, where he also taught.

He served on the staff of the National Security Council under Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. In the Ford administration, he was also executive director of the White House Council on International Economic Policy.

Much of his government work centered on national security, intelligence organizations and concerns over technology transfers to communist countries. As an adviser to the Central Intelligence Agency, he served on the Pentagon's Defense Science Board and the Signals Intelligence Committee of the U.S. Intelligence Board.

During the Carter administration, Dr. Weiss was assistant for space policy to the secretary of defense.

His honors included the CIA's Medal for Merit and the National Security Agency's Cipher Medal. He was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1975 for helping resolve national security concerns over a joint venture between General Electric's aircraft engine division and a French jet engine company.

Since 1992, Dr. Weiss had been a guest lecturer at George Washington University, where he spoke about his experiences in the government. He was also adviser to the dean of arts and sciences and established a cash prize awarded to a top physics student.

His interests included piano and history.

There are no immediate survivors. (end obituary)

In other words, if we may paraphrase The Post: "Would you believe it was a suicide?"

On what basis did the medical examiner rule that it was a suicide? On what basis could any mere medical examiner so rule, particularly when someone has died from a fall, presumably from a high altitude? All a medical doctor is qualified to do is to determine the cause of death. That, we are told, was "a fall from the Watergate East residential building." How does the medical examiner know what caused the fall?

Even in the case of the May 1949 death of former Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, the official investigation of his death concluded only that Forrestal died from wounds inflicted by a fall from the 16th floor of the Bethesda Naval Hospital, but it remained agnostic on the cause of the fall. In this instance we are not told even approximately how far the victim fell or precisely where he fell from, but the medical examiner, for some unstated reason, is certain it was a suicide.

Interestingly, The Post doesn't even name the medical examiner. It doesn't even name the police spokesman who did no more than tell us approximately where the body was found.

I'm sorry, but all this sounds more than a bit suspicious to me.

DC Dave

Author, "Who Killed James Forrestal?"
"America's Dreyfus Affair, The Case of the Death of Vincent Foster"
"Upton Sinclair and Timothy McVeigh" "Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression"
< http://www.thebird.org/host/dcdave > http://www.thebird.org/host/dcdave
News group: alt.thebird

By Alanna Mitchell, Simon Cooper, and Carolyn Abraham Compiled by Alanna Mitchell

It's a tale only the best conspiracy theorist could dream up. Eleven microbiologists mysteriously dead over the span of just five months. Some of them world leaders in developing weapons-grade biological plagues. Others the best in figuring out how to stop millions from dying because of biological weapons. Still others, experts in the theory of bioterrorism.

Throw in a few Russian defectors, a few nervy U.S. biotech companies, a deranged assassin or two, a bit of Elvis, a couple of Satanists, a subtle hint of espionage, a big whack of imagination, and the plot is complete, if a bit reminiscent of James Bond.

The first three died in the space of just over a week in November. Benito Que, 52, was an expert in infectious diseases and cellular biology at the Miami Medical School. Police originally suspected that he had been beaten on Nov. 12 in a carjacking in the medical school's parking lot. Strangely enough, though, his body showed no signs of a beating. Doctors then began to suspect a stroke.

Just four days after Dr. Que fell unconscious came the mysterious disappearance of Don Wiley, 57, one of the foremost microbiologists in the United States. Dr. Wiley, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard University, was an expert on how the immune system responds to viral attacks such as the classic doomsday plagues of HIV, ebola and influenza. He had just bought tickets to take his son to Graceland the following day.

Police found his rental car on a bridge outside Memphis, Tenn. His body was later found in the Mississippi River. Forensic experts said he may have had a dizzy spell and have fallen off the bridge.

Just five days after that, the world-class microbiologist and high-profile Russian defector Valdimir Pasechnik, 64, fell dead. The pathologist who did the autopsy, and who also happened to be associated with Britain's spy agency, concluded he died of a stroke.

Dr. Pasechnik, who defected to the United Kingdom in 1989, played a huge role in Russian biowarfare and helped to figure out how to modify cruise missiles to deliver the agents of mass biological destruction.

The next two deaths came four days apart in December. Robert Schwartz, 57, was stabbed and slashed with what police believe was a sword in his farmhouse in Leesberg, Va. His daughter, who identifies herself as a pagan high priestess, and several of her fellow pagans have been charged. Dr. Schwartz was an expert in DNA sequencing and pathogenic micro-organisms, who worked at the Center for Innovative Technology in Herndon, Va. Four days later, Nguyen Van Set, 44, died at work in Geelong, Australia, in a laboratory accident. He entered an airlocked storage lab and died from exposure to nitrogen.

Other scientists at the animal diseases facility of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization had just come to fame for discovering a virulent strain of mousepox, which could be modified to affect smallpox.

Then in February, the Russian microbiologist Victor Korshunov, 56, an expert in intestinal bacteria of children around the world, was bashed over the head near his home in Moscow.

Five days later the British microbiologist Ian Langford, 40, was found dead in his home near Norwich, England, naked from the waist down and wedged under a chair. He was an expert in environmental risks and disease.

Two weeks later, two prominent microbiologists died in San Francisco. Tanya Holzmayer, 46, a Russian who moved to the U.S. in 1989, focused on the part of the human molecular structure that could be affected best by medicine. She was killed by fellow microbiologist Guyang (Matthew) Huang, 38, who shot her seven times when she opened the door to a pizza delivery. Then he shot himself.

The final two deaths came one day after the other in March. David Wynn-Williams, 55, a respected astrobiologist with the British Antarctic Survey, who studied the habits of microbes that might survive in outer space, died in a freak road accident near his home in Cambridge, England. He was hit by a car while he was jogging. The following day, Steven Mostow, 63, known as Dr. Flu for his expertise in treating influenza, and a noted expert in bioterrorism, died when the airplane he was piloting crashed near Denver.

"Statistically, what are the chances?" wondered a prominent North American microbiologist reached last night at an international meeting of infectious-disease specialists in Chicago. Janet Shoemaker, director of public and scientific affairs of the American Society for Microbiology in Washington, D.C., pointed out yesterday that there are about 20,000 academic researchers in microbiology in the U.S. Still, not all of these are of the elevated calibre of those recently deceased.

When microbiologists die in a lab, there's a way of taking note of the deaths and adding them up. When they die in freakish accidents outside the lab, nobody keeps track. Suspicious deaths The sudden and suspicious deaths of 11 of the world's leading microbiologists. Who they were:

1. Nov. 12, 2001 Benito Que was said to have been beaten in a Miami parking lot and died later. 2. Nov. 16, 2001 Don C. Wiley went missing. Was found Dec. 20. Investigators said he got dizzy on a Memphis bridge and fell to his death in a river.

3. Nov. 21, 2001 Vladimir Pasechnik, former high-level Russian microbiologist who defected in 1989 to the U.K. apparently died from a stroke.

4. Dec. 10, 2001 Robert M. Schwartz was stabbed to death in Leesberg, Va. Three Satanists have been arrested.

5. Dec. 14, 2001 Nguyen Van Set died in an airlock filled with nitrogen in his lab in Geelong, Australia.

6. Feb. 9, 2002 Victor Korshunov had his head bashed in near his home in Moscow.

7. Feb. 14, 2002 Ian Langford was found partially naked and wedged under a chair in Norwich, England.

8. & 9.Feb. 28, 2002 San Francisco resident Tanya Holzmayer was killed by a microbiologist colleague, Guyang Huang, who shot her as she took delivery of a pizza and then apparently shot himself.

10. March 24, 2002 David Wynn-Williams died in a road accident near his home in Cambridge, England.

11. March 25, 2002 Steven Mostow of the Colorado Health Sciences Centre, killed in a plane he was flying near Denver. ___

This case appears to be very suspicious. The perpetrators shot Michael Zebuhr after being given the demanded purse in the robbery despite the fact Zebuhr was only one of several witnesses. The suspicion is heightened by the fact that Zebuhr was both a student member of the Scholars for 9/11 Truth and a microbiology graduate student at Clemson University. Microbiologists have long been the victims of suspicious deaths, most of which are ruled to be suicides, as in the cases of prominent British microbiologist Dr. David Kelly (died 2003; ruled a suicide), 72-year old retired microbiologist Jeong Im (died 2005; stabbed repeatedly and put in a trunk). These are only two more recent cases from a long list of microbiologists found dead (about 80 now) under suspicious circumstances dating back to the early 1980s. This case could very well be another case in the on-going plot to contain members of the microbiology community or a warning to the Scholars for 9/11 Truth committee.

"Bioengineers keep getting bumped off left and right and it just seemed like another Hunter S. Thompson to me. Not only was [Zubuhr] shot twice--which seems excessive, but this guy put up no resistance in a robbery that took place at night where he was only one person in a group of four. I might be wrong, and I hope I am, but it struck me as a warning."

College student remains in critical condition after Minneapolis shooting

A fun night with family ended in tragedy on the streets of Uptown on Saturday night.

A 25-year-old college student was shot in the head after he, his mother, his sister and a friend left an Uptown restaurant. Michael Zebuhr, a Clemson PhD student, was critically wounded Saturday just seconds after two men approached his 55-year-old mother, Susanne Strong, and demanded her purse. The visitor from the state of Virginia complied with the robbers demands and handed them her purse. But then, apparently without provocation, one of the men turned his gun on Strong's son and shot him in the head. He died on Monday.

Zebuhr was a 2005 graduate of Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia. School officials say he received BS degrees in chemistry and math.

They said he was a student leader as well as a member of the school's ski team and an avid mountain biker. This year he was enrolled in a PhD program at Clemson University in South Carolina.

Zebuhr, his mother, sister and a friend were returning to their car when the robbery and shooting occurred. They had been dining out in the Calhoun Square shopping complex just across the street. Zebuhr's sister lives just a mile and a half from the popular uptown complex of restaurants and stores.

Monday, while people were shopping and dining, it was clear the weekend violence was weighing on their minds. "I'm angry," said Shauna Pineiro who frequents the area. "There's a lot of people out on the street accosting people asking people for money making all kinds of threats and stuff and it's got to stop," said Pineiro.

Her husband was a recent robbery victim, "That was the worst things I ever had in my life," said Daniel Pineiro recalling how he was mugged one night as he was walking. "All of a sudden a gun was pulled out and the only thing I could do is say 'help.""

Dana Bohn is an employee at one of the area stores who said, "It's definitely unsettling and we always walk out in pairs when we walk to our cars." While that's advice police offer as a safety tip, the fact is Saturday night's shooting victim was accompanied by three other people. The two assailants ran off and no arrests have been made.

The Uptown area is part of the south Minneapolis fifth precinct which has seen 100 armed robberies since the first of the year. That's nearly double the number of holdups a year ago at this time. Police are asking anyone with information about Saturdays shooting to call them at 612-692-TIPS.

Extremely Sad News The death of Michael Zebuhr: Michael Zebuhr, a scholar and researcher for 9/11 Truth, didn’t intervene when two men stole his mother’s purse, but one of the men shot him anyway. The 25-year-old Buckhannon resident and recent Davis & Elkins College died a day later. Extremely Sad News The death of Michael Zebuhr: Michael Zebuhr, a scholar and researcher for 9/11 Truth, didn’t intervene when two men stole his mother’s purse, but one of the men shot him anyway. The 25-year-old Buckhannon resident and recent Davis & Elkins College died a day later.

According to reports, Zebuhr and his mother, Dr. Suzanne Strong of Virginia, were in Minneapolis visiting Zebuhr’s sister, a student at the University of Minnesota, when the shooting took place at about 9:55 p.m. Saturday.

Inspector Kris Arneson of the Minneapolis Police Department’s Fifth Precinct said the family trio and a friend were approached by two male subjects as they were returning to their vehicle following dinner at a restaurant in the Uptown area.

Reports indicate that the suspects demanded Strong’s pursue which she was turned over without resistance. One of the suspects then shot Zebuhr in the head for no apparent reason, officials said.

Zebuhr died at 11:30 p.m. Sunday in the Hennepin County Medical Center as a result of a gun shot wound to the head, according to the county medical examiner.

Zebuhr is a 1998 graduate of Buckhannon-Upshur High School and 2005 graduate of Davis & Elkins College with a bachelor of science degree in mathematics and chemistry. He was currently enrolled at Clemson University in South Carolina working on his doctorate degree in bioengineering.

“Mike Zebuhr was a young man of rare personal and intellectual qualities,” said D&E President Tom Mann. “His premature death, especially under such tragic circumstances, cannot help but haunt the Davis & Elkins College community. Our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. I hope there can be comfort for them in knowing that the deep loss they are feeling is echoed in the sense of loss felt by his many D&E friends, his faculty members and all of us who knew him. I trust there will be comfort for all of us in knowing that we are richer for the years he shared with us.”

While a D&E student, Zebuhr was listed frequently on the dean’s list and was included in Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges in 2005. He received the Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics Department Award in 2004, the Chemistry Department Award in 2005 and the faculty’s Senior Award in 2005. This award is granted to a senior student, with at least a 3.8 grade point average, who has achieved excellence in a wide range of academic areas and in the quality of personal and intellectual leadership provided. During his junior year, Zebuhr was named a Distinguished Scholar by the Appalachian College Association and received an Appalachian College Association Scholarship.

He also earned The American Chemical Society’s Polymer Education Award in Organic Chemistry in 2004 and an undergraduate research internship at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida funded by the National Science Foundation in 2003. He was also a four-year member of the college’s ski team and was active in the Computer Club, Student Assembly, the Mountain Bike Club and Alpha Psi Omega, a theatre honorary. According to officials, a memorial service will be conducted on the D&E campus at a later date, pending arrangements with Zebuhr’s family.

“Mike was a hard working, dedicated, self motivated student,” said Dr. Lisa Benson, Zebuhr’s advisor at Clemson. “He appreciated every opportunity and took nothing for granted. That kind of student is a joy to work with.”

Benson, the education director at the Center for Advanced Engineering Fibers and Films and the research director professor at the Department of Bioengineering, said Zebuhr was highly respected by faculty, staff and students and was an extremely generous and compassionate person.

According to Benson, Zebuhr was interested in space flight and had spoken of becoming a university professor.

“Mike was in the process of developing hands-on projects for middle and high school students with intentions of sparking an interest in science and engineering,” Benson said. “He would have been a great mentor for kids.”

According to Benson, donations in Zebuhr’s memory may be made online at the Clemson University Foundation Web site at www.clemson.edu. Checks may be made payable to Clemson University Foundation with a notation at the bottom stating “in memory of Michael Zebuhr” and mailed to: Clemson University Foundation, P.O. Box 1889, Clemson, S.C., 29633-1889; or by calling the Clemson University Foundation Gift Receiving at (864) 656-5666.

The university will create a holding account for the donations, and a decision will be made with Zebuhr’s family regarding a memorial service, she said.

“Mike was simply an outstanding students and a compassionate person,” Benson said. “We are all feeling this loss very deeply.”

He was also a member of 9/11 Scholars for Truth: Michael Zebuhr (SM) Bioengineering, Clemson University

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