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QUACKGRASS ROOTS

Reason, Egoism, Capitalismspreading underground 
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Special report: DDP 95

(This was written in 1995. I've edited it mildly for web
publication--Michael Miller.)

I just got back from the 13th annual meeting of Doctors for Disaster
Preparedness, (DDP) which was held Aug. 4-6 in Grant's Pass, Oregon. I
learned of the meeting from Jane Orient MD, publisher of Civil Defense
Perspectives, author of Your Doctor Is Not In, Executive Director of
the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, new President of
DDP--and subscriber to the paper version of Quackgrass Press.

DDP was founded largely to promote civil defense in case of Soviet
attack. The threat of war has eased with the collapse of the Soviet
Union, but there is no shortage of potential disasters.

Potential disasters? Such as?

Such as a neutron bomb the size of a baseball, with an explosive yield
of 1 ton of TNT, lethal within a radius of one-third mile, and within
the ability of bandit countries to make. Such as the ability of a
Japanese cult to manufacture nerve gas, and release it in a subway.
(This was reported in the establishment press, but its implications
were glossed over.) Such as the extreme cheapness ($10,000 -$20,000)
with which terrorists using germ warfare techniques could wipe out
almost everybody within a square mile. Such as new viruses of almost
unbelievable virulence. Such as an epidemic which may be raging
unchecked because the establishment ignores what may be its true
causes. Such as the risk of meteorite impacts on the Earth. It is
greater than you think.

Says who? DDP is no collection of nut cases. At the meeting, we were
hip-deep in world-famous weaponeers and experts in various fields. A
few examples. Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb. Sam Cohen,
inventor of the neutron bomb. Martin Kamen, discoverer of carbon-14.
Bruce Merrifield, inventor of solid- state synthesis of proteins.
Lowell Wood, developer of the Brilliant Pebbles strategic defense
strategy.

With all this talent in the room, the only visible scientific
controversy was between Edward Teller and Sam Cohen, and that was over
a narrow technical issue: the existence of "red mercury."

Ballotechnics, Pure Fusion and Nuclear Terrorism

According to Sam Cohen, a new type of non-nuclear explosive is potent
enough to light off a nuclear fusion reaction between deuterium and
tritium. In the usual H-bomb, a fission bomb is needed as a match to
light off the fusion. With the new type of explosive, the fission bomb
is unnecessary. As nuclear bombs go, the pure fusion bombs have an
extremely low blast, equivalent to 1 ton of TNT: a "pop, not a bang."
But they release a flood of neutrons, lethal within 1/3 mile, causing
death "from immediately, till shortly after."

They could be made by several countries known to sponsor terrorism,
and could be carried in a sandwich bag.

The new type of non-nuclear explosives are called ballotechnic
materials. Cohen says that unlike other explosives, they produce no
bang, no cloud, keep the same shape while they detonate, "but Boy!, do
they get hot!" Ballotechnics may have already led to very small
fission bombs as well as pure fusion.

Cohen identifies the mysterious "red mercury" (of TV documentary fame)
as a ballotechnic material. He offers this "recipe:" take
mercury-antimony oxide, compress it, and bombard with neutrons. He
says it is slightly radioactive, with a half-life of a couple of
days.

Cohen says the Russians have built and tested mini-nukes, and that
Americans and Russians are cooperating on pure fusion. He says that a
Russian bomb was brought to Los Alamos ("by Federal Express" from a
Russian plane in Washington) and successfully tested.

Dr. Teller agreed with most of this--including the successful test at
Los Alamos--but rejected red mercury as "nonsense," possibly "a pure
hoax." Cohen was more impressed with the agreement than the
disagreement. As he was leaving the building, I heard him say that
from now on, he would "quote Teller word for word," and had ordered
tapes of the meeting for that purpose.

The terrorist potential of mini neutron bombs is horrifying. One
possibility mentioned by Cohen involved a US State Of The Union
address. Mere mention of it provoked the founder of DDP, Howard
Maccabee to demand that Cohen stop his presentation!

Ballotechnics' potential for good is also great: it could be a route
to practical fusion power.

Nerve Gas Terrorism

In the nerve gas attack on the Japanese subway, only a few were
killed, but 4700 were sickened. If nerve gas is so lethal, how come
such a low death rate?

It was real nerve gas, either Tabun or Sarin. (I heard both
mentioned.) One reason for the low death rate was the Japanese police,
in which every officer is a paramedic. Another is that Japanese
hospitals had large quantities of the antidote (atropine) on hand.
(Why did they have so much atropine lying around? This question was
stressed repeatedly.)

Another reason for the low death rate is the good sense of passengers:
when they began to feel an urgent desire for fresh air, they got off
the train. This probably saved many lives.

But the biggest reason for the low death rate is the incompetence or
modest aims of the terrorists. The poison was found lying in puddles
on the floors of subway cars. Despite the name nerve gas, these things
kill when tiny droplets land on your skin. Mere vapor gives a small
dose. It could easily have been much worse, and the means to make it
much worse are well known and available to all. We cannot count on the
good will of terrorists.

Do our hospitals have large stocks of atropine? Are our paramedics
(never mind police) trained to recognize and treat nerve gas
poisoning? Is there any plan for calling in the military (the real
experts) in case of such an attack? Just asking.

Terrorist Germ Attacks and New Viruses

The same well-known and cheap techniques which could have turned the
Japanese subway into a mass grave could be used to spread various
infectious diseases. It could be done with such old standbys as
anthrax and botulinus, but certain new viruses offer even more hideous
possibilities: Marburg, Lassa, Ebola. They are called filoviruses, and
the diseases they cause are called hemorrhagic fevers.

For vivid descriptions of these diseases, buy The Hot Zone, by Richard
Preston. Even if you don't buy it through my link, you won't have any
trouble finding it: it's a best-seller. For a fine online source of
Ebola lore, see the oddly named, but very well done, Ebola Zaire Fan
Club. I also recommend buying Laurie Garrett's The Coming Plague; even
though she tends to put an environmentalist slant on her reporting,
her reporting is very informative.

In a nutshell, filoviruses attack almost every cell in the body,
virtually liquefying the victim.

The natural forms of these bugs seem not to spread through the air
like flu, but the DDP meeting was warned that one renegade
microbiologist might be enough to change that. The mildest of these
bugs, Marburg, has about a 25% death rate, even after modern medicine
has done its best. The worst, Ebola Zaire, has a 90% death rate. There
are no wonder drugs to treat viral diseases.

An airborne Ebola Zaire, an Ebola that you could catch on the bus, has
been indelicately described as a "slate-wiper."

Who would wish to release an airborne Ebola on mankind?

Well, Prince Philip, for one. He is on record saying, "If I were
reincarnated, I would wish to be returned to Earth as a killer virus
to lower human population levels." Yes, that Prince Philip--our
Queen's consort. Prince Philip is leader of the World Wildlife Fund.

Jacques Cousteau, mild-mannered marine biologist, for another. "In
order to stabilize world population, we need to eliminate 350,000
people per day." If Hitler had managed that death rate, he would have
completed his holocaust in under a month!

Perhaps Philip and Cousteau wouldn't really do such a thing, but when
they openly talk about it, you can be sure that some in the murkier
depths of the enviro movement are considering action.

One renegade microbiologist ... .

The exercise for the student is this: If such a plague broke out, what
would you do to protect yourself and your family? What supplies would
you need? What preparations would you have to make in advance of need?
How would you eat when everyone, including you, would be terrified of
casual human contact. Just asking.

HIV and AIDS

We have been told repeatedly by establishment sources that AIDS is
caused by a bug: the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV. From time to
time we hear hints that scientific opinion is divided on this, but the
case for the other side isn't reported. Some years ago, the Calgary
Herald ran a piece admitting that the controversy had raged for years,
but the Southam papers had decided not to report it! (And journalists
wonder why people don't trust them!)

Peter Duesberg, a virologist at the University of California at
Berkeley is a leading advocate of the non-HIV camp. He spoke at the
DDP meeting.

Dr. Duesberg says that the cause of AIDS is drug use, and that HIV is
merely a harmless "passenger virus." The various recreational drugs
are known to suppress the immune system. Duesberg argues that AIDS
doesn't match any of the criteria for infectious disease, that it
hasn't grown the way an infectious disease should have, that it hasn't
exploded into the general population as it was predicted to do, that
its incidence doesn't correlate with HIV infection but does correlate
with drug use, and that the idea of a 10-year incubation period for a
virus is absurd. He describes the idea of "slow viruses" (those with
incubation periods of years rather than weeks) as the "original sin"
which has led to many errors in epidemiology.

In the bar that night, I asked what kills hemophiliacs infected with
HIV by blood products, and Duesberg told me that hemophilia kills
them. Hemophilia inflicts ravages despite current treatments, much as
diabetics suffer long-term harm despite insulin treatment. Further, he
said, 75% of hemophiliacs were infected with HIV 10 years ago--and in
those 10 years the life expectancy of hemophiliacs has doubled!

I asked what kills the straight-arrow types who don't use drugs but
die of AIDS after some accidental HIV infection. He replied that AZT,
the drug used to treat them, kills them. He describes AZT as "AIDS by
prescription:" for every infected immune cell killed by AZT, 999
normal ones are destroyed.

I asked what HIV-infected Africans are dying of, and was told that
they're dying of the same things they've always died of. Malnutrition
and poor sanitation raise hell with the immune system.

I'm not convinced of Duesberg's case, but unlike the Herald, I'm
reporting it. If you'd like to check further, Peter Duesberg has a
website at http://www.duesberg.com/.

Meteorite Impacts

Edward Teller spoke on the risk of meteorites hitting the Earth. The
risk of a planet-wrecker like the one 65 million years ago, thought to
have done in the dinosaurs, is quite small. But there is a 10% chance
of a meteorite hitting the Earth like a 10 megaton bomb in your
lifetime. The Tunguska, Siberia blast in 1908 was probably caused by
such a meteorite: it flattened 1,000 square miles of forest.

As science budgets go, it wouldn't cost much to have some astronomers
watching for stray rocks. It is feasible to nudge them away from Earth
with nuclear explosives, but the planning has to be done in advance of
need. And planet-wreckers are possible.
_______

(It's easy to scoop the establishment press! The only report of the
meeting I could find was in a Medford, Ore. paper. It merely reported
Dr. Teller's thoughts on Hiroshima.)
_______

TAPES!

If there are any left, you can order a complete set of audiotapes of
DDP95 from:

DDP
2509 N. Campbell, Box 272
Tucson, AZ 85719
(502)325-2680

US$99 for the complete set!
_______

DDP is online! Click for info!
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©1995 by Michael Miller