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By Dr. Alan
Cantwell
Another AIDS-like disease is
spreading among GIs who served in the Persian Gulf War, which ended in 1991. The
military is not releasing the actual number of soldiers who have contracted the
disease, and the number of veterans who have died from the disease is
unknown.
Reports of a mystery illness occurring in Gulf vets first surfaced
in the spring of 1992. About sixty Army reservists from the Indianapolis,
Indiana area, who had been perfectly well while fighting in the Gulf, became ill
after returning home. Their symptoms were puzzling. All complained of chronic
fatigue. Many reported muscle aches, swollen and painful joints, headaches and
memory loss, fevers and night sweat, aching teeth and gums, and various other
symptoms.
By the summer of 1992 new cases of the mystery disease were
popping up in other reservists, as well as enlisted personnel, living in various
parts of the country.
The sick soldiers were convinced that something had happened to
them in the Gulf that was causing their disease. There was speculation that
toxic fumes from the Kuwait oil fires, or diesel fluid in the shower water might
be the cause. Other soldiers blamed biological warfare agents released by Saddam
Hussein.
As early as 1992 there were rumors that spouses of Persian Gulf
vets were also coming down with symptoms. Wives were experiencing an alarming
number of miscarriages and birth defects in their babies.
Army physicians investigating the initial breakout among Indian
reservists concluded that the vets were suffering from "stress," perhaps caused
by readjustment back into civilian life. Interviewed by reporter Lyn Sherr of
20/20, one sick reservist complained that "when people were coming back from
Vietnam, wringing Agent Orange out of their clothes, they were told they were
under stress. The Army took almost 20 years to settle that one, so I don't think
they have a real good record of letting the troops know what might be going
on."
By 1993, it was estimated that 8000 vets were fighting the
illness. People magazine (30/8/93) interviewed Indiana Congressman Steve
Buyer, age 34, who developed respiratory symptoms and repeated episodes of the
flu after coming home from the Gulf in May 1991. Buyer also suffers from kidney
problems, a prostrate infection, a spastic colon, and multiple allergies. His
wife claims he was formerly as strong as a horse, but now he is "sick every time
I turn around." Congressman Buyer urges all Gulf War vets to have a physical
examination, so they can understand what is happening to their bodies.
A Los Angeles Times report (22/11/93) noted that soldiers
were also coming down with cancer. The Times claimed that 600 vets with
symptoms had already been examined at the Birmingham VA Medical Center, and 110
additional patients were awaiting appointments. When questioned, Pentagon
officials estimated the total number of cases was "in the low thousands."
One Alabama veteran said that up to two-thirds of all reserve
units have members who have come home sick. Reservist William Kay believes his
illness is due to an Iraqi Scud missile "loaded with chemical agents, nerve gas,
and a man-made virus." He thinks there is a cover-up, and he is angry that he
has to fight another war with the federal government.
Suspicion that chemical warfare agents might be involved was
strengthened by Defense Secretary Les Aspin, who admitted that low levels of
these agents were detected during the war. However, Aspin insists that these
agents are not causing the mystery illness. Pentagon officials say that U.S.
forces were hundreds of miles away from an area in northern Iraq where low level
amounts of chemical biowarfare agents were recorded by a Czechoslovakian
chemical detection team. The Pentagon did admit that vets might have been
exposed to other industrial chemical pollutants used in the war.
A special Capitol Hill hearing on the matter convened on November
9, 1993. About fifty ill vets, some in wheelchairs, attended. One vet testified
his wife was now ill, and their daughter was born with deformed feet. Another
woman swore that her young son was healthy and strong when he went off to fight
Desert Storm. When he returned home from the Gulf, he sickened and died.
By 1994, military officials admitted that as many as 20,000 (about
3%) or more of the 700,000 troops who served in the Persian Gulf were exhibiting
symptoms of the syndrome.
A Los Angeles Times editorial (May 10, 1994) drew attention
to experimental and unapproved vaccines and drugs that were given to all
personnel who fought in the Gulf War. These vaccines and drugs were prescribed
to protect soldiers against anthrax and a nerve disease called myothenia gravis,
as well as for protection against other biological warfare agents that might be
used by enemy forces. "In an effort to protect the health and lives of uniformed
personnel, the U.S. military may have inadvertently done some of them serious
injury," the Times concluded.
In a letter to the Times, VA doctor Basil Clyman admitted
that "many Gulf War personnel were exposed inadvertently or otherwise to a
variety of potentially toxic agents, some of which were administered in hopes of
protecting them from still worse toxicities, namely those posed by biological or
chemical warfare." He claims that individual VA facilities "through
participation in the Persian Gulf Veterans Registry Project are keenly aware of
these medical problems and are endeavoring to evaluate them and provide therapy
when appropriate."
On May 25, 1994, an official Pentagon letter sent to all Persian
Gulf Veterans declared: "There is no information, classified and unclassified,
that indicated chemical or biological weapons were used in the Persian Gulf."
However, the Pentagon did admit that experimental vaccines may have led to some
veterans' symptoms.
Coinciding with the Pentagon letter was the release of a 160-page
congressional report based on testimony of 30 ill vets. The report reaffirmed
that vets were exposed to chemical agents, mostly from Iraqi rocket attacks, on
more than a dozen occasions in the Gulf.
A month later, a Pentagon panel concluded that "the syndrome may
be a group of diseases caused by wartime stress, inhaling fine Kuwaiti sand or
alcohol deprivation, among other causes." (Los Angeles Times,
24/6/94).
Finally, in July 1994, Congress authorized a bill to compensate
sick Persian Gulf War vets. Disability payments would be paid for three years
with automatic extensions, if, at the end of that period, the cause of the
syndrome is still not determined.
In November 1994, news reports stressed the growing fear and
concern that the syndrome was trans-missable. However, Pentagon spokesman Dennis
Boxx urged caution. "We do not have any indication at this point that these
things are transmittable to children or spouses, but we have not ruled out this
possibility. We simply cannot, because if we cannot diagnose it and describe
what it is, we then cannot tell you that it is not transmittable."
Adding to the controversy were wives who complained about
miscarriages and "burning semen" after sex with their husbands. Dr. Ellen
Silbergeld, a toxicologist at the University of Maryland, agreed that it is
possible for men exposed to toxic chemicals to pass the poison directly to their
children through their semen. And genetic alterations due to toxic substances
can also cause alterations in sperm cells involved in conception.
Vets claim a third of Gulf War babies have abnormalities, ten
times the normal rate. Dr. Francis Waickman, an environmental pediatrician, says
the syndrome can be passed on, creating an infant whose immune system does not
function normally.
In the search for a cause of the syndrome, epidemiologists have
been searching for a common factor that could have exposed everyone stationed in
the Gulf.
Some sick vets were in the war zone for months, while other ill
vets served in the Gulf for as little as nine days! And the disease has affected
troops who were stationed in widely scattered geographic areas in the Gulf.
One factor common to all the troops is that they were given
experimental drugs and vaccines as part of the requirement to serve in the
Gulf.
As early as December 1990, there were warnings about experimenting
with US troops. There was great concern about the decision of the FDA to allow
the Pentagon to use unapproved experimental drugs and vaccines on soldiers
without their consent. Furthermore, the Pentagon refused to identify the types
or the number of drugs and injections that they intended to prescribe.
An angry soldier stationed in Saudi Arabia sued the government in
January 1991 over the issue. Ever since the Nuremberg trials, which convicted
many top-ranking Nazis for crimes against human nature, it has been considered
unethical and unlawful to use people as guinea pigs in medical experiments
without their informed consent. This ethical requirement was waived when the
soldier's lawsuit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Stanley S. Harris. The
judge cited the necessity of the military to protect the health of its troops;
the fact that the vaccines and drugs were untested and unapproved by the FDA was
deemed irrelevant.
The New York Times concurred in an editorial entitled "The
Ethics of Troop Vaccination" (16/1/91), noting that "the military is acting more
like Florence Nightingale than (the Nazi doctor) Josef Mengele."
Soldiers who refused injections were given them forcibly. One
reservist told a CovertAction reporter she was held down against her will
and given the first vaccination. When the second inoculation was given a few
weeks later, she claims someone sneaked up behind her and injected her before
she realized what had happened.
Sgt. Frank Landy of Nashua, NH testified before a House Veterans
Affairs Committee on September 21, 1992. He blames two vaccine injections for
his respiratory problems, chronic diarrhea, extreme fatigue, fevers and weight
loss. "The type of substandard medical care provided by the military and the
lack of adherence to regulations is sinful. My future and that of my family is
undetermined due to the effect of the medications and the vaccinations," Landy
told the committee.
Physicians who refused to cooperate with the military's forced
vaccine program were treated harshly. Dr. Yolanda Huet-Vaughn, an army
reservist, protested that it was her duty under the Nuremberg Code of Justice
not to vaccinate personnel with experimental vaccines without her consent. At
Huet-Vaughn's court-martial trial, a military judge ignored these considerations
of international law and medical ethics, and sentenced the mother of three
children to 30 months in prison. Under pressure from activist groups, the
physician was released from prison after serving eight months.
Allegations that experimental drugs and vaccines are the cause of
the vets' illness have been downplayed for obvious reasons. The Pentagon hardly
wants to publicize the idea that the Persian Gulf Syndrome is a manmade disease
caused by unethical medical experimentation.
The military has a long history of conducting covert medical
experiments on its own personnel, as well as civilians. Dozens of secret,
planned bioattacks were perpetrated on American cities during the 1950s and
1960s, the most notorious being a six-day bioattack on San Francisco in which
the military sprayed massive clouds of potentially harmful bacteria over the
entire city.
The health of countless numbers of military personnel and
civilians was damaged by years of nuclear bomb detonations at test sites in
Nevada and elsewhere in the southwest. In addition, the shocking disclosures of
additional post-war nuclear experiments undertaken from the 1950s to the 1980s
on unsuspecting civilians has recently come to light with the release of secret
documents by the Department of Defense.
When mind-altering drugs were developed in the 1950s, the military
secretly administered them to enlisted personnel, resulting in deaths in some
cases.
Physicians play a crucial role in covert and unethical
experimentation, as chronicled by Gordon Thomas, author of Journey Into
Madness: The True Story of Secret CIA Mind Control and Medical Abuse (1989).
Thomas is horrified by the inescapable truth that doctors have tortured and
still do.
Vaccines can be hazardous. In World War II, more than 50,000 cases
of hepatitis were caused when troops were injected with yellow fever vaccine
unknowingly contaminated with human blood serum containing infectious hepatitis
B virus. Even the mandated "DPT" shot routinely given to babies has known risks.
For example, one official DPT brochure recommends that a second DPT injection
not be given if "serious problems of the brain have previously occurred within
seven days after getting DPT." The brochure also warns parents, "Rarely, brain
damage that lasts for the child's life has been reported after getting DPT."
Polio vaccines can actually cause polio in rare instances. If serious
consequences of compulsory "routine" and "approved" vaccines are freely
admitted, what are the health consequences of unapproved, untested, and
experimental vaccines?
Experimental and non-experimental vaccine inoculation programs can
be a surreptitious way of "introducing" harmful infectious agents into
unsuspecting people. Some investigators believe that the polio vaccine programs
undertaken in the 1950s by the World Health Organization in Africa may have
introduced the AIDS virus (HIV) into the black population. The African green
monkey is theorized as the source of the AIDS virus, and the polio vaccine was
manufactured using kidney cells of the African green monkey.
Others think the World Health Organization's smallpox vaccine
program is connected to the AIDS outbreak in Africa. A front-page London
Times report (11/5/87) suggested that "dormant" HIV infection was awakened
in the African population by the inoculation of millions of doses of smallpox
vaccine by the WHO during the 1970s. This shocking story linking African AIDS to
the WHO's smallpox vaccine program was suppressed in the U.S. and never appeared
in any major publication.
The "Introduction" of HIV into the homosexual community population
in America occurred the same year the hepatitis B vaccine experiment began in
1978 in New York City. In the experiment over a thousand young promiscuous
homosexual and bisexual men were used as guinea pigs and injected with the
vaccine. A few months after the homosexual experiment began in Manhattan, the
first cases of AIDS appeared in a young gay man in Manhattan in 1979. In 1980,
thousands of additional gays were injected in subsequent hepatitis B vaccine
experiments in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other US cities.
After the gay experiments ended in 1981, the AIDS epidemic became
official. The mystery disease was first called "Gay-related immune deficiency
disease" because it was diagnosed exclusively in young white homosexuals - the
same minority group that volunteered for the vaccine experiments.
Is the Persian Gulf Syndrome another AIDS Holocaust in the making?
Like AIDS, the disease traces back to human experiments with untested and
unapproved vaccines. Like AIDS, the Gulf syndrome appears to be transmissible
through sexual activity, and can be passed on to children. Like AIDS, the vets'
disease affects the immune system. Like AIDS, there is no cure.
Unlike AIDS, health officials are silent about the number of
people suffering and dying with the new Gulf syndrome. Nor have officials
commented on ways to prevent the sexual spread of the disease.
Is the Persian Gulf Syndrome caused by a new infectious agent
"introduced" into the military population through forced experimental
vaccines?
There is currently no effective treatment or cure for the Gulf
Syndrome. If the disease is caused by bad vaccines, it would mean that
irresponsible scientists have once again created a man-made disease they are
powerless to eradicate.
References:
"Gulf Reservists Suffer Strange Illnesses," Los Angeles
Times, March 26, 1992.
"The unforeseen results of fighting in the Gulf," by Walter
Goodman. New York Times, August 14, 1992.
"Gulf vets fear US 'cop-out' on baffling ills," by Bethany Kandel,
USA Today, September 16, 1992
"Gulf veterans' mystery illness probed by US," by Richard A
Serrano, Los Angeles Times, November 22, 1993.
"Chemical arms, ailing Gulf GIs not linked, Aspin says," Richard A
Serrano, Los Angeles Times, November 11, 1993.
"Study of Gulf veterans' illnesses urged," by Marlene Cimons,
Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1994.
"Heed maladies of Gulf War vets" (Editorial), Los Angeles
Times, May 10, 1994.
"Pentagon ignored signs of toxic attacks, report says," by Jeff
Leeds, Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1994.
"Birth defects In Gulf vets' babies stir fear, debate," by Richard
S. Serrano, Los Angeles Times, November 14, 1994.
"Guinea pigs & disposable GIs," by Tod Ensign,
CovertAction, Winter 1992-93.
"Medication rules altered for Gulf troops," San Francisco
Chronicle, December 22, 1990.
"Troops may get unlicensed drug," by Gina Kolata, New York
Times, January 4, 1991.
"US sued on drugs given in Gulf," by Philip J. Hilts, New York
Times, January 12, 1991.
"The ethics of troop vaccination" (Editorial), New York
Times, January 16, 1991.
"Our guinea pigs in the Gulf," by George J. Anna and Michael A.
Grodin, New York Times, January 18, 1991.
"Troops may be forced to take test drugs," San Gabriel Valley
Times, February 1, 1991.
"Origins of HIV," in Queer Blood, by Alan Cantwell, Jr. MD,
Aries Rising Press, Los Angeles, 1993, pp. 51-60.
"Smallpox vaccine triggered AIDS virus," by Pearce Wright,
London Times, May 11, 1987.
"The origin of AIDS: A startling new theory attempts to answer the
questions 'Was it an act of God or an act of man'?" by Tom Curtis, Rolling
Stone, March 19, 1982.
"Gulf War Syndrome may be contagious," by Marlene Cimons, Los
Angeles Times, October 21, 1994. | 
