Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

16 renowned microbiologists died mysteriously in 4 months: 11/01-3/02

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion (Through 2005) Donate to DU
 
TruthIsAll Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 07:53 PM
Original message
16 renowned microbiologists died mysteriously in 4 months: 11/01-3/02
Edited on Sun Oct-26-03 07:57 PM by TruthIsAll
It started right after the Anthrax scare. The odds of this being a pure coincidence are infinitesmal.

Of course,the NYT has never acknowledged ANY conspiracy:
August 11, 2002 (E): The New York Times has an article on the mysterious deaths of numerous microbiologists, and strongly argues the entire thing is a coincidence. Says a professor of statistics, ''We can never say for a fact that something isn't a conspiracy. We can just point out the odds that it isn't.''
What else would you expect from the NYT?

www.whatreallyhappened.com/deadbiologists.html

1.November 12, 2001: The beginning of numerous mysterious deaths of renowned microbiologists. A good place to start learning about this is a Globe and Mail article, which calls these deaths a "tale only the best conspiracy theorist could dream up" yet hard to explain (The Memphis Flyer also provides a good overview, but is much more speculative: ). The first dead microbiologist is Dr. 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 November 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."

2.November 16, 2001: Dead microbiologist: Dr. Don Wiley, 57, disappears during a business trip to Memphis, Tennessee. He had just bought tickets to take his son to Graceland the following day. Police found his rental car on a bridge outside Memphis. His body was later found in the Mississippi River. Forensic experts said he may have had a dizzy spell and fallen off the bridge. Police will only say, "We began this investigation as a missing person investigation. From there it went to a more criminal bent." "Wiley is seen as one of the world's leading researchers of deadly viruses, including HIV and the Ebola virus." Wiley worked at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard University, and was an expert on the immune system's response to viral attacks. He was widely regarded as the nation's foremost expert in using special X-ray cameras and mathematical formulas to make high-resolution images of viruses. The FBI is monitoring the I

3.November 21, 2001 (B): Dead microbiologist: World-class microbiologist and high-profile Russian defector Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik, 64, dies of a stroke. Pasechnik, who defected to Britain in 1989, had played a huge role in the development of Russian biowarfare, heading a lab of 400 "with an unlimited budget" and "the best staff available." He says he succeeded in producing an aerosolized plague microbe that could survive outside the laboratory. He was connected to Britain's spy agency and recently had started his own company. "In the last few weeks of his life he had put his research on anthrax at the disposal of the Government, in the light of the threat from bioterrorism."

4,5,6.November 24, 2001: Three more dead microbiologists: A Swissair flight from Berlin to Zurich crashes during its landing approach; 22 are killed and nine survive. Among those killed are Dr. Yaakov Matzner, 54, dean of the Hebrew University school of medicine; Amiramp Eldor, 59, head of the haematology department at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv and a world-recognized expert in blood clotting; and Avishai Berkman, 50, director of the Tel Aviv public health department and businessman.

7.December 10, 2001: Dead microbiologist: "Dr. 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 three of her fellow pagans have been charged." All were part of what they called a coven, and interested in magic, fantasy and self-mutilation. The police have no motive as to why they would have wanted to kill Schwartz, who was a single parent and said to be very close to his children. Schwartz worked at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology on DNA sequencing and pathogenic microorganisms. He was "a brilliant scientist who had a gift for explaining complex scientific subjects in simple language."

8.December 14, 2001: Dead microbiologist: Nguyen Van Set, 44, dies in an airlock filled with nitrogen in his lab in Geelong, Australia. The lab had just been written up in the journal Nature for its work in genetic manipulation and DNA sequencing. Scientists there had created a virulent form of mousepox. "They realized that if similar genetic manipulation was carried out on smallpox, an unstoppable killer could be unleashed," according to Nature.

9,10.January 2002: Two dead microbiologists: Ivan Glebov and Alexi Brushlinski. Pravda reports that Glebov died as the result of a bandit attack and reports without explanation that Brushlinski was killed in Moscow. Both were "well known around the world" and members of the Russian Academy of Science.

11.February 9, 2002 (B): Dead microbiologist: Victor Korshunov, 56, is bashed over the head and killed at the entrance of his home in Moscow, Russia. He was the head of the microbiology sub-faculty at the Russian State Medical University and an expert in intestinal bacteria.

12.February 11, 2002: Dead microbiologist: Dr. Ian Langford, 40, is found dead, partially naked and wedged under a chair in his home in Norwich, England. When found, his house was described as "blood-spattered and apparently ransacked." He was an expert in environmental risks and disease and a senior Fellow at the University of East Anglia's Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment. One of his colleagues states: "Ian was without doubt one of Europe's leading experts on environmental risk, specializing in links between human health and environmental risk... He was one of the most brilliant colleagues I have ever had."

13,14.February 28, 2002 (B): Two dead microbiologists in San Francisco: While taking delivery of a pizza, Tanya Holzmayer, 46, is shot and killed by a colleague, Guyang Huang, 38, who then apparently shot himself. Holzmayer moved to the US from Russia in 1989. Her research focused on the part of the human molecular structure that could be affected best by medicine. Holzmayer was focusing on helping create new drugs that interfere with replication of the virus that causes AIDS. One year earlier, Holzmayer obeyed senior management orders to fire Huang.

15.March 24, 2002 (C): Dead microbiologist: David Wynn-Williams, 55, is hit by a car while jogging near his home in Cambridge, England. He was an astrobiologist with the Antarctic Astrobiology Project and the NASA Ames Research Center. He was studying the capability of microbes to adapt to environmental extremes, including the bombardment of ultraviolet rays and global warming.

16.March 25, 2002: Dead microbiologist: Steven Mostow, 63, dies when the airplane he was piloting crashes near Denver, Colorado. He worked at the Colorado Health Sciences Centre and was known as "Dr. Flu" for his expertise in treating influenza, and expertise on bioterrorism. Mostow was "one of the country's leading infectious disease experts" and was associate dean at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Three others died in the crash. Mostow's death bring the total number of leading microbiologists killed in a six-month period to at least 15.




Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
Padraig18 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 07:55 PM
Response to Original message
1. Yeah? So?
Your point is what?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
TruthIsAll Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 08:02 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. My point is....
1)This happened right after the anthrax attacks.
2)The odds of 15 mysterious deaths occuring in a limited universe of world-class biologists all occurring in a tight 4 month period is at the vanishing point.

Draw your own conclusions. I suggest you read up on your probability theory. Do the math. Use the Poisson distribution for rare events. I did. You, too, will be astounded.

That's the point.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Padraig18 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 08:03 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. Most of them don't seem very mysterious, frankly... n/t
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ElsewheresDaughter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 08:23 PM
Response to Reply #5
10. and i hit the mega lottery alone twice this year!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
TruthIsAll Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 10:11 PM
Response to Reply #4
16. A Link From the Wilderness...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
La_Serpiente Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 07:58 PM
Response to Original message
2. This is pretty sketchy
just like I said on the last thread.

I wouldn't say it is a full blown conspiracy, but it does make me raise my eyebrows. Perhaps there is a relation between Anthrax and their deaths. Maybe terrorists are involved.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Padraig18 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 08:01 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Many of the deaths seem well-explained and fairly mundane...
Murder-suicide, killed by a daughter, a plane crash, a pedestrian-car accident, etc...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Clete Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 08:04 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. Okay, now my flags are raised.
Doesn't the number of accidental deaths in a small demographic group of people seem odd?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Padraig18 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 08:13 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. No
Edited on Sun Oct-26-03 08:18 PM by Padraig18
And they're not all accidental.

On edit: The manner of death varied widely, and few are unexplained at all. In one case, 3 died at once in a plane crash, and in another case it was a murder-suicide. Hoof beats do not mean zebras. :shrug:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Clete Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 10:24 PM
Response to Reply #8
17. Hoof beats mean hoof beats.
If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, there is a good possibility, it's a duck! Probability makes this very suspicious!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Octafish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 08:11 PM
Response to Original message
7. Anthrax killer used U of IOWA Ames Strain.
That's the type the US Army used for its experiments. Someone may've used it for overseas sales, apparently. What's also not funny is the same University destroyed all its anthrax culture lines days after the killings began ... oh, October 2001.

http://www.rense.com/general16/keyuniversitybiolab.htm



Small world. And very, very bad.

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Selwynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 08:16 PM
Response to Original message
9. How about a balanced answer? Like this:
Is it odd? Yes it is odd. It's ok to say that. Those of us that strongly resist the urge to get sucked irrationally into conspiracy theories have to be careful not to go to the opposite end of the spectrum, and deny events that are in fact odd and possibly suspicious.

That being said...

Is it likely we've uncovered a massive-scale plot to take over the planet, and possilbly a few other planets as well? No, it is not very likely, and all the circumstantial evidence of something larger than coincidence going on doesn't get us to the place where we can or should be forming conclusions. What it should do is cause us to raise questions, and keep a sensitive and critical eye out for new information.

The only reason I dislike conspiracy theories is because so many people get so obsessed with them that they through rationality and critical thinking right out the window. That being said, there have been a significant number of proven large scale conspiracies throughout history. They do happen. I'd just like to try to keep my wits about me while I think reflectively about the facts, rather than making them jump all the way to the most incredible conclusions with little or no correlating support.

That's my idea of balanced: yes, we admit its wierd. No, we do not claim to have enough info to form a conspiracy charge that is substantial and justified. But we'll keep investigating.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ElsewheresDaughter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 08:31 PM
Response to Original message
11. well i for one find it more than a coincidence and read about these
Edited on Sun Oct-26-03 08:40 PM by ElsewheresDaughter
deaths in febuary 2002...none of them were just your run of the mill low level staff microbiologists...they were ALL noted and top in their fields microbiologist ...narrows the stats down even more
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Padraig18 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 08:34 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. How many microbiologists are there worldwide?
Edited on Sun Oct-26-03 08:35 PM by Padraig18
6000? 60,000? 600,000? 6,000,000? Seems like that number would be fairly important in determing whether or not there was any index of suspicion, or not...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Selwynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 08:47 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. Padraig18, you need to read my post.
It IS suspcious. It's ok to say that. That doesn't mean it is a grand plot to take over the world. We don't have evidence for that. But yes, it is strange. It's also strange that two marines involved in Jessica Lynch's ordeal are now dead. It's ok to say its stange. What's wrong is to instantly jump to the most extreme conclusions possible with no credible facts.

..at the same time its just as silly to stubbornly argue its not at all strange. :)
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Padraig18 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 08:50 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. Oh, I'm not.
I'm just saying that important statistical evidence is needed to determine that, and it's missing. If there are 200 cars, then 20 fatal accidents is alarmingly high; if there are 2 *million*, that's another kettle of fish altogether. :hi:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
demgrrrll Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 09:57 PM
Response to Reply #14
15. Who benefits? That is the question that is supposed to answer
many other questions. I don't know. Does anyone else have any ideas?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
T Bone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 10:39 PM
Response to Reply #15
18. Cui bono who benefits
Lets brainstorm. Are there people who could benefit from the death of a group of microbiologists?

If WE know about this odd grouping of deaths within a particular profession, don't you imagine the members of that profession are also aware of it ? Would they have been aware of it even BEFORE we were?
So what kinds of conclusions were THEY suppposed to draw once they were aware of it?

What if there was someone who just wanted to SCARE all the microbiologists for some reason, any reason. So now they are scared and fear for their lives. What might those fears keep them from doing NOW. What would be a benefit of having all people in a particular profession afraid for their lives? Anything? What might be the benefits of having all microbiologists fearing for their lives?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
MrPrax Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 10:45 PM
Response to Original message
19. Link to Kelly and Wiley Death through Israel
"The 59-year-old British scientist was involved with ultra secret work at Israel’s Institute for Biological Re search. Israeli sources claim Kelly met institute scientists several times in London in the past two years."
<snip>
"Kelly’s links to the Institute of Biological Research in the Tel Aviv suburb of Nes Zions are also intriguing.

His connection to the secret biological plant began in October 2001, shortly after a commercial flight en route from Israel to Novosibirsk in Siberia was blown up over the Black Sea by a Ukrainian surface-to-air missile.

All on board the flight were killed, including five Russian microbiologists returning to their research institute in Novosibirsk—a city known as the scientific capital of Siberia. It has 50 facilities and 13 universities.

Many questions remain about the death of these five scientists. Why did Mossad send a team to Ukraine to investigate the crash? What became of their report after it was submitted to the Israeli government? Why do the Ukrainian authorities still insist they cannot reveal the name of the dead microbiologists? Did Pasechnik know them—or, more importantly, did Kelly?

The Institute for Biological Research is one of the most secret places in Israel. Only Dimona, the country’s nuclear facility in the Negev desert, is surrounded by more secrecy. Most of the institute’s 12 acres of facilities are underground. Laboratories are only reached through airlocks.

There have been persistent reports that the institute is also engaged in DNA sequencing research. One former member of the Knesset, Dedi Zucker, caused a storm in the Israeli Parliament when he claimed that the institute was “trying to create an ethnic specific weapon” in which Arabs could be targeted by Israeli weapons. "

http://www.americanfreepress.net/08_09_03/Microbiologists_With/microbiologists_with.html

More on Ethnic Based Weapons
"Like other bioweapons, those that target specific population groups do not need to be deadly in order to be effective. They might cause incapacitation, illness, sterility, permanent fatigue, or any other non-fatal condition is desirable from an aggressor’s perspective. They may be used in an all out war - on the battlefield or against civilian populations - or they may be used in covert operations for immediate or long-term effects, in order to destabilise, economically damage or otherwise weaken an enemy society."
http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/others/snpbw.html
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
bicentennial_baby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 10:49 PM
Response to Reply #19
21. And don't forget
Ken Alibek- Russian defector, Bioweapons specialist, US Gov't employee, board member of Hadron (specializing in bioterrorism cleanup), linked to:

Paschenik
Kelly
Hatfill
Porton Down
Biopreparat

etc.

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Media_Lies_Daily Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 10:49 PM
Response to Original message
20. I'm surprised they didn't mention Dr. David Kelly...
"DR DAVID KELLY - PROFILE
<http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/07/week_3/19_kelly.html#1>

"Accused of being a mole and a fall guy he was in fact one of the country's top experts on biological weapons, working for the MOD and the Foreign Office, and formerly as a weapons inspector in Iraq."


I've started to wonder whether or not thse people were part of Valerie Plame's global covert surveillance network on WMDs. Hmmm.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Sufi Marmot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 11:09 PM
Response to Original message
22. Once more, with feeling...
Oy, it seems like I post on this at least once a month...

1) Not all those people are microbiologists. Wiley wasn't. I'm not sure Schwartz was either. Nor Mostow, nor Holzmayer/Huang for that matter...Wiley was an X-ray crystallographer, who published all of 2 papers on the CRYSTAL STRUCTURE of an Ebola protein, and less than 10 on the CRYSTAL STRUCTURE of specific HIV proteins. He was widely regarded as the nation's foremost expert in using special X-ray cameras and mathematical formulas to make high-resolution images of viruses Well at least they got the first part right this time - he did X-ray crystallography on specific viral PROTEINS (not entire viruses), focusing mainly on influenza virus proteins and their interactions with human cells.

Regarding Schwartz: I'm not sure what this Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology is, it seems like some strange funding intermediary between the State of Virginia and private technology companies. Upon further reading, it seems like a vehicle to fund research at Virginia Universities and then promote its commercial development by private VA companies. Whatever... I doubt there is any biological research actually carried out there. I suspect whatever biological research he did in DNA sequencing was earlier in his career.


2) Not all those people were "experts" in their fields, although Wiley certainly was.

Nguyen Van Set, 44, dies in an airlock filled with nitrogen in his lab in Geelong, Australia. The lab had just been written up in the journal Nature for its work in genetic manipulation and DNA sequencing. If memory serves this guy was simply a lab techician, and the lab in which he worked was not the same one as the one that made the mousepox virus dicovery.

The first dead microbiologist is Dr. Benito Que, 52, was "an expert in infectious diseases and cellular biology at the Miami Medical School. Per searching PubMed I don't see any evidence that Que was an expert in "infectious diseases". Or a microbiologist, for that matter.



Here's a tip: Not everyone who does biological research, or whose career deals with genetics, DNA sequencing, bioterrorism or ecology is a microbiologist. The people in the above list all had careers relating to some aspect of biology. The same way that Michael Jordan, John Madden, Pele, Nancy Kerrigan, Bobby Fisher, Picabo Street, Don Zimmer, and Ben Crenshaw all made their living through sports.


-SM
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Thu May 02nd 2024, 11:58 PM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion (Through 2005) Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC