Douglas Caddy
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Mr Caddy, According to news articles in New Orleans papers, you were active with or knew Leander Perez, Kent Courtney, and Guy W. Banister in the late 1950’s anti- communist movement. Courtney was a political reporter; Banister was a former FBI man, and Perez a powerful political boss in La.. What was the organizational pecking order between these men, within the movement? How familiar were you with these individuals, and could you give us some insights about them, like how they related to each other, who was the major domo?
Thanks, Bill
I attended Alcee Fortier High School in New Orleans from 1954 to 1956, the latter year being when I was graduated from that educational institution.
While in high school I became active in politics. I first met Kent Courtney in 1954 when he and his wife, Phoebe, sponsored a public meeting in Audubon Park to mobilize support for Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was then threatened with being censured by the U.S. Senate. I erected a card table in front of St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter and collected signatures on petitions of persons who supported the cause of Senator McCarthy. These petitions were then forwarded to General Bonner Fellers, who headed the national pro-McCarthy movement.
It was about this time that Kent and Phoebe Courtney founded Free Men Speak, a monthly newspaper that reprinted editorials from conservative newspapers around the country (such as the Chicago Tribune and the Manchester (N.H.) Union-Leader.) I worked after school in a voluntary position in helping to publish the newspaper. Their publication later changed its name to The Independent American.
I was introduced to Guy Banister by Kent Courtney at a public meeting sponsored by the Kohn Crime Commission, a semi-public entity set up to combat organized crime in New Orleans. I seem to remember attending a meeting in Guy Banister’s office some time later but do not recollect the subject of the meeting. That was the extent of my relationship with Guy Bannister.
I never met or knew Leander Perez, who was the king-pin leader of Plaquemines Parish, which adjoins New Orleans.
If there were an organizational pecking order among these persons, it never came to my attention.
All these events occurred when I was between 16 and 18 years of age.
After being graduated from high school, I left New Orleans permanently, having enrolled in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. I had no further contact with the Courtneys or with Guy Banister.
While at Georgetown University, in 1959 I founded the National Student Committee for the Loyalty Oath, which evolved into Youth for Goldwater. A year later, in 1960, I help found Young Americans for Freedom, which was organized at the family estate of William F. Buckley.
The above is a capsule history of how the mass conservative movement began.
Mr. Caddy , Thanks for your reply, I didn't realize you were that young then. What year did you meet Mr. Banister ?
It would be impossible to state with certainty due to the lapse of time but I think that I first met Guy Banister in 1955.
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Mr Caddy, According to news articles in New Orleans papers, you were active with or knew Leander Perez, Kent Courtney, and Guy W. Banister in the late 1950’s anti- communist movement. Courtney was a political reporter; Banister was a former FBI man, and Perez a powerful political boss in La.. What was the organizational pecking order between these men, within the movement? How familiar were you with these individuals, and could you give us some insights about them, like how they related to each other, who was the major domo?
Thanks, Bill
I attended Alcee Fortier High School in New Orleans from 1954 to 1956, the latter year being when I was graduated from that educational institution.
While in high school I became active in politics. I first met Kent Courtney in 1954 when he and his wife, Phoebe, sponsored a public meeting in Audubon Park to mobilize support for Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was then threatened with being censured by the U.S. Senate. I erected a card table in front of St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter and collected signatures on petitions of persons who supported the cause of Senator McCarthy. These petitions were then forwarded to General Bonner Fellers, who headed the national pro-McCarthy movement.
It was about this time that Kent and Phoebe Courtney founded Free Men Speak, a monthly newspaper that reprinted editorials from conservative newspapers around the country (such as the Chicago Tribune and the Manchester (N.H.) Union-Leader.) I worked after school in a voluntary position in helping to publish the newspaper. Their publication later changed its name to The Independent American.
I was introduced to Guy Banister by Kent Courtney at a public meeting sponsored by the Kohn Crime Commission, a semi-public entity set up to combat organized crime in New Orleans. I seem to remember attending a meeting in Guy Banister’s office some time later but do not recollect the subject of the meeting. That was the extent of my relationship with Guy Bannister.
I never met or knew Leander Perez, who was the king-pin leader of Plaquemines Parish, which adjoins New Orleans.
If there were an organizational pecking order among these persons, it never came to my attention.
All these events occurred when I was between 16 and 18 years of age.
After being graduated from high school, I left New Orleans permanently, having enrolled in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. I had no further contact with the Courtneys or with Guy Banister.
While at Georgetown University, in 1959 I founded the National Student Committee for the Loyalty Oath, which evolved into Youth for Goldwater. A year later, in 1960, I help found Young Americans for Freedom, which was organized at the family estate of William F. Buckley.
The above is a capsule history of how the mass conservative movement began.
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Nuke official's comments stir security concerns
Feds seek answers after former chief at Palisades plant told magazine he was a hired assassin.
Paul Egan and Gordon Trowbridge / The Detroit News
May 18, 2007
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...METRO/705180372
Federal nuclear watchdogs and members of Congress are seeking answers after a former security director at a western Michigan nuclear plant gave a bizarre series of interviews to Esquire magazine in which he claimed to be a hired assassin.
William E. Clark, who until recently was security chief at the Palisades nuclear power plant near South Haven on Lake Michigan, told the magazine for an article in its June edition that he had worked as a government assassin, killing people in Vietnam, New Orleans and Iraq.
The article suggested most of Clark's claims were false and that he was emotionally unstable
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is responsible for safety and security at the nation's nuclear plants, has sent questions on the issue to Entergy Corp., the plant's current owner, according to Viktoria Mitlyng , a spokeswoman for the agency's regional office in Illinois. Consumers Energy Co. owned Palisades at the time Clark was hired; a third company, Nuclear Management Co., managed the plant for Consumers.
A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, said Entergy has promised to investigate and update him on its findings. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., has called on NRC officials to investigate; Clark was employed at a Massachusetts plant before moving to Palisades.
Lana Pollack, president of the Michigan Environmental Council, said the article raises serious concerns about how key personnel at U.S. nuclear and chemical facilities -- prime targets for potential terrorist attacks -- are screened.
"If it were a movie, it would be amusing; in real life, it's upsetting," Pollack said Thursday. "The idea that he had full access to the Palisades plant and a fully armed team of guards who answered to him would be a stunning security lapse."
Mark Savage, a spokesman for the Palisades plant, said Clark took a medical leave on April 17 and resigned for medical reasons on May 9.
Mitlyng would not say specifically what information the NRC was seeking, but said federal rules on security and background checks for sensitive workers had become stricter after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Arline Datu, a spokeswoman for Nuclear Management, said the firm took security very seriously, and that all employees, including Clark, undergo a strict background check. She said she could not comment on whether any procedures were missed in Clark's case.
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By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 17, 2007
In a collision of 21st-century science and decades-old conspiracy theories, a research team that includes a former top FBI scientist is challenging the bullet analysis used by the government to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald alone shot the two bullets that struck and killed President John F. Kennedy in 1963.The "evidence used to rule out a second assassin is fundamentally flawed," concludes a new article in the Annals of Applied Statistics written by former FBI lab metallurgist William A. Tobin and Texas A&M University researchers Cliff Spiegelman and William D. James.Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7051601967.html
To read the full research paper as published in the Annals of Applied Statistics, click on the link below and go to the second to the last article listed:
http://www.imstat.org/aoas/next_issue.html
By the way, the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams tonight devoted a segment to the research paper and interviewed one of its authors, who challenged the one-bullet theory and advocated that further research be conducted on the existing JFK bullet fragments that are in the possession of the National Archives.
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That's quite interesting; I hope further research goes into discovering the cause. I generally support GM agriculture, but we have to make sure that we have not unintentionally tampered with a delicate process.
I'd be grateful if you keep us up to date on this Doug, and I'll repost it at a science forum I belong to.
An interesting and impressive research effort:
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I hate to say it, Doug, but I'm shocked. The New York Times, at so late a point in the game, allows a writer whose written a book on the CIA, for which he almost certainly made contact with the agency, to write the review of Hunt's book? And they allow him to dismiss it out of hand as a deliberate lie? HOW INSULTING! For one, Weiner did not know Hunt and has no idea if he was lying or not! For two, Hunt does not say in his book that LBJ planned the assassination. Hunt says that he suspects a conspiracy,based on both Oswald's background and his inability to fire the shots, and that IF there'd been a conspiracy he thinks it likely LBJ was involved. It seems obvious to me that this Weiner is deliberately trashing Hunt's book as a way of cutting into the credibility of St John's "confession." The two are separate events, in my opinion.
Those hearing Mockingbirds in the night will have a field day with this review. How absolutely IDIOTIC!
Watergate WarriorBy TIM WEINER
May 13, 2007
The New York Times Sunday Book Review
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/books/re...fBook%20Reviews
AMERICAN SPY
My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate, and Beyond.
By E. Howard Hunt with Greg Aunapu. Foreword by William F. Buckley Jr.
Illustrated. 340 pp. John Wiley & Sons. $25.95.
Howard Hunt, who died in January at the age of 88, was among the last living members of the clandestine service created as part of the Central Intelligence Agency in the late 1940s. Hunt wanted to believe he fit the popular image of the C.I.A.’s founders — the American aristocrats, the tough young veterans of the last good war, the daring amateurs who set out to save the world.
Hunt, it turned out, was among the worst of them. He was a xxxx, a thief and a con man — all admirable qualities for C.I.A. officers who served overseas during the cold war, aspiring to the British definition of a diplomat: a gentleman who lies for his country abroad. Fine when Hunt was station chief in Uruguay. Dangerous when put to work in Washington.
Hunt burned out after two decades at the agency. One night in 1972, his old boss, Richard Helms, the director of central intelligence under Presidents Johnson and Nixon, picked up his bedside phone to hear that the recently retired Hunt was mixed up with a botched break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. This scene, the beginning of the end of Nixon’s presidency, opens Helms’s posthumously published autobiography. For suspense, it beats any of the countless thrillers Hunt wrote. And it has the benefit of being true, which brings us, unfortunately, to the book at hand.
Hunt channeled his creativity into fair-to-middling spy novels and, later, a self-pitying Watergate memoir. He was better when he made things up. “American Spy,” written with Greg Aunapu, is presented as a “secret history,” a double-barreled misrepresentation. There are no real secrets in this book. As history it is bunk.
The old hands at the C.I.A.’s publications review board, who maintain the agency’s memory hole, must have had a mordant chuckle over “American Spy,” and connoisseurs of literary crimes and misdemeanors will find much to savor here. Hunt describes a foreign president’s wife as “the true power behind the thrown.” He makes Dwight Eisenhower president in 1950, at the start of the Korean War, instead of 1953, at its end. He mangles the names of, among others, the leaders of Iran and Nicaragua. He also identifies Mark Felt, a k a Deep Throat, as Howard Felt — a howler calling for a psychiatrist as well as an editor. The publishers of this book seem to have received an impossible last draft, handed it to a book doctor and closed their eyes.
The low point — and there is strong competition — comes when the author examines the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Hunt was falsely linked to the killing by conspiracy buffs, and this chapter can be read only as a twisted form of bitter revenge. He exhumes worm-eaten theories linking C.I.A. officers and their Cuban agents to the case and pretends to take them seriously. Then, with a straight face, he purports to put Lyndon B. Johnson’s finger on the trigger.
“Having Kennedy liquidated,” Hunt writes, “could have been a very tempting and logical move on Johnson’s part,” for “if he wanted to get rid of the president, he had the ability to do so by corrupting different people in the C.I.A. ... L.B.J. had the money and the connections to manipulate the scenario in Dallas.” Had enough?
Hunt closes by arguing that “the C.I.A. needs to clandestinely produce television programs, movies and electronic games” to recruit talented young Americans, citing Fox’s “24” as a model. Great idea — get me Rupert Murdoch! He wants “the PlayStation generation” to revive “the principals and ideals” — sigh — of the C.I.A.’s founding fathers, to go “back to the heart and souls of the ‘daring amateurs.’ ”
This comes from the man who helped bungle both the Bay of Pigs and the Watergate break-in. It is not sound counsel.
Far more mythology than history has been written about the Central Intelligence Agency. Many of those myths have been produced by C.I.A. officers — starting with Allen Dulles, director of central intelligence under Eisenhower and Kennedy — who constructed fables of derring-do and sold them to publishers and presidents alike. The legends, thanks in part to novels and movies, never die. They hold that a golden age of American intelligence was followed by a long assault on the agency by bleeding hearts, that a revitalized C.I.A. won the cold war under Ronald Reagan and that a new generation of spies now stands tall as America’s first line of defense. This is self-deception. It lands the agency — and the nation — in deep trouble every decade or so.
E. Howard Hunt’s work is in a long tradition of arrant nonsense. In short, this is a book to shun. It is a small blessing that its author has been spared the burden of answering for its publication.
Tim Weiner, a reporter for The Times, is the author of “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the C.I.A.,” to be published in August.
Pat: I agree with you. Weiner overplayed his hand as a book critic by allowing his bias to be self-evident, and thus undercutting any credibility that his review might have.
-- Doug
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Watergate Warrior
By TIM WEINER
May 13, 2007
The New York Times Sunday Book Review
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/books/re...fBook%20Reviews
AMERICAN SPY
My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate, and Beyond.
By E. Howard Hunt with Greg Aunapu. Foreword by William F. Buckley Jr.
Illustrated. 340 pp. John Wiley & Sons. $25.95.
Howard Hunt, who died in January at the age of 88, was among the last living members of the clandestine service created as part of the Central Intelligence Agency in the late 1940s. Hunt wanted to believe he fit the popular image of the C.I.A.’s founders — the American aristocrats, the tough young veterans of the last good war, the daring amateurs who set out to save the world.
Hunt, it turned out, was among the worst of them. He was a xxxx, a thief and a con man — all admirable qualities for C.I.A. officers who served overseas during the cold war, aspiring to the British definition of a diplomat: a gentleman who lies for his country abroad. Fine when Hunt was station chief in Uruguay. Dangerous when put to work in Washington.
Hunt burned out after two decades at the agency. One night in 1972, his old boss, Richard Helms, the director of central intelligence under Presidents Johnson and Nixon, picked up his bedside phone to hear that the recently retired Hunt was mixed up with a botched break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. This scene, the beginning of the end of Nixon’s presidency, opens Helms’s posthumously published autobiography. For suspense, it beats any of the countless thrillers Hunt wrote. And it has the benefit of being true, which brings us, unfortunately, to the book at hand.
Hunt channeled his creativity into fair-to-middling spy novels and, later, a self-pitying Watergate memoir. He was better when he made things up. “American Spy,” written with Greg Aunapu, is presented as a “secret history,” a double-barreled misrepresentation. There are no real secrets in this book. As history it is bunk.
The old hands at the C.I.A.’s publications review board, who maintain the agency’s memory hole, must have had a mordant chuckle over “American Spy,” and connoisseurs of literary crimes and misdemeanors will find much to savor here. Hunt describes a foreign president’s wife as “the true power behind the thrown.” He makes Dwight Eisenhower president in 1950, at the start of the Korean War, instead of 1953, at its end. He mangles the names of, among others, the leaders of Iran and Nicaragua. He also identifies Mark Felt, a k a Deep Throat, as Howard Felt — a howler calling for a psychiatrist as well as an editor. The publishers of this book seem to have received an impossible last draft, handed it to a book doctor and closed their eyes.
The low point — and there is strong competition — comes when the author examines the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Hunt was falsely linked to the killing by conspiracy buffs, and this chapter can be read only as a twisted form of bitter revenge. He exhumes worm-eaten theories linking C.I.A. officers and their Cuban agents to the case and pretends to take them seriously. Then, with a straight face, he purports to put Lyndon B. Johnson’s finger on the trigger.
“Having Kennedy liquidated,” Hunt writes, “could have been a very tempting and logical move on Johnson’s part,” for “if he wanted to get rid of the president, he had the ability to do so by corrupting different people in the C.I.A. ... L.B.J. had the money and the connections to manipulate the scenario in Dallas.” Had enough?
Hunt closes by arguing that “the C.I.A. needs to clandestinely produce television programs, movies and electronic games” to recruit talented young Americans, citing Fox’s “24” as a model. Great idea — get me Rupert Murdoch! He wants “the PlayStation generation” to revive “the principals and ideals” — sigh — of the C.I.A.’s founding fathers, to go “back to the heart and souls of the ‘daring amateurs.’ ”
This comes from the man who helped bungle both the Bay of Pigs and the Watergate break-in. It is not sound counsel.
Far more mythology than history has been written about the Central Intelligence Agency. Many of those myths have been produced by C.I.A. officers — starting with Allen Dulles, director of central intelligence under Eisenhower and Kennedy — who constructed fables of derring-do and sold them to publishers and presidents alike. The legends, thanks in part to novels and movies, never die. They hold that a golden age of American intelligence was followed by a long assault on the agency by bleeding hearts, that a revitalized C.I.A. won the cold war under Ronald Reagan and that a new generation of spies now stands tall as America’s first line of defense. This is self-deception. It lands the agency — and the nation — in deep trouble every decade or so.
E. Howard Hunt’s work is in a long tradition of arrant nonsense. In short, this is a book to shun. It is a small blessing that its author has been spared the burden of answering for its publication.
Tim Weiner, a reporter for The Times, is the author of “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the C.I.A.,” to be published in August.
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Editing correction to subtitle to topic -- should read: Chosen by Kennedys to examine autopsy evidence.
John K. Lattimer, Urologist of Varied Expertise, Dies at 92
By DENNIS HEVESI
The New York Times
May 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin
John K. Lattimer, a prominent urologist, ballistics expert and collector of historical relics who treated top-ranking Nazis during the Nuremberg war crimes trials and was the first nongovernmental medical specialist allowed to examine the evidence in President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, died Thursday at a hospice near his home in Englewood, N.J. He was 92.
His death was announced by his daughter Evan Lattimer.
For 25 years, Dr. Lattimer was a professor and chairman of the urology department at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University.
Dr. Lattimer was credited with helping to establish pediatric urology as a discipline, developing a cure for renal tuberculosis, writing 375 scientific papers and representing the United States at the World Health Organization.
His interests, however, spanned an array of fields. His 30-room, 1895 Federal-style home in Englewood was a virtual military museum until his collection went into storage last year. Its third floor was lined with medieval armor, Revolutionary and Civil War rifles and swords, a pile of cannonballs, World War II machine guns and German Lugers, and drawings by Adolf Hitler.
Dr. Lattimer had been fascinated by weapons since his childhood visits to his grandparents’ farm in Hubbardston, Mich., where he spent summer days hunting. That interest took a more serious turn during World War II, when he treated hundreds of casualties as an Army doctor during the Normandy invasion.
He became a ballistics expert and, after the killing of President Kennedy, a student of assassinations. In his collection was a blood-stained collar that President Lincoln wore to Ford’s Theater the night he was shot.
Dr. Lattimer wrote several articles in medical journals describing experiments he had conducted with rifles, scopes and ammunition similar to those used by President Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. Then, in 1972, the Kennedy family chose Dr. Lattimer to be the first nongovernmental expert to examine 65 X-rays, color photos and black-and-white negatives taken during the autopsy.
A front-page New York Times article, with a photograph of Dr. Lattimer, quoted him saying that the images “eliminate any doubt completely” about the validity of the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Oswald fired all the shots that struck the president.
Dr. Lattimer’s wartime experiences also prompted him to write a somewhat controversial book based, in large part, on his assignment to the medical team at the Nuremberg trials. The book, “Hitler’s Fatal Sickness and Other Secrets of the Nazi Leaders” (Hippocrene Books, 1999), records his professional impressions of the men and their conditions.
It includes a long chapter concluding that Hitler suffered from advanced Parkinson’s disease — probably the “faster moving post-encephalitic” type, Dr. Lattimer wrote — based on reports of Hitler’s tremors, first in the left hand, then spreading to other limbs, and his well-documented attacks of rage.
Dr. Lattimer theorized that the disease prompted him to make bizarre judgments that eventually cost Germany the war. Among the more macabre relics that Dr. Lattimer collected, in this case from his service at Nuremberg, is a glass ampoule that contained the dose of cyanide taken by Hermann Göring, the Luftwaffe commander, to commit suicide rather than go to the gallows.
And although there is some dispute about its authenticity, Dr. Lattimer also had in his collection what is said to be Napoleon’s penis, which a long tradition holds was removed by the priest who administered the last rites. Dr. Lattimer bought it at an auction in 1969. Asked about its authenticity, his daughter said: “Of course, the French don’t want it here. But there’s ironclad provenance.”
John Kingsley Lattimer was born in Mount Clemens, Mich., on Oct. 14, 1914, the only child of Irvie and Gladys Lenfesty Lattimer. His family moved to New York when he was 2.
Besides his daughter, of Kansas City, Mo., Dr. Lattimer is survived by his wife of 59 years, the former Jamie Hill; two sons, Jon, of Kona, Hawaii, and D. Gary Lattimer, of Honolulu; and one grandson.
A lanky 6-foot-4, Dr. Lattimer was a track star at Columbia University, from which he graduated in 1935. He won eight metropolitan area Amateur Athletic Union hurdling championships. He graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia in 1938.
Among Dr. Lattimer’s most prized possessions was a sword that belonged to Ethan Allen, who in the predawn hours of May 10, 1775, led a band of Green Mountain Boys in capturing strategic Fort Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain in upstate New York — a turning point in the Revolution. Two hundred years later to the hour, Dr. Lattimer — Ethan Allen’s sword in hand — led a re-enactment of that battle.
For several years in the 1980s, Dr. Lattimer was chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Medieval Festival, held outside the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan. At the 1983 festival, clad in armor and bearing a shield, he told a reporter about his fascination with medieval armaments.
“In my front hall, I have a suit of armor from a Knight of Malta, with the Maltese Cross,” he said. “I also have a beheading ax.”
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Mr. Caddy (et al.),
You mentioned that you were in recent e-mail contact with Saint John Hunt. Question:
Do you know why the full tape (of E. Howard Hunt's death bed confession) has not been posted at http://www.saintjohnhunt.com/ ? Early last week & before Saint John promised several times on several radio talk shows that the full tape would be posted at his website by last week at the latest.
It's possible that a publisher would not want this information made public prior to the publication of Saint John's book Bond of Secrecy.
Or, is there something more sinister at work here?
Any chance of you inquiring of Saint John?Thx
Miles:
No, I do not know why the full tape has not been posted. I wondered at the tme when it was played on coasttocoastam on two occasions why the full tape was not played then. However, I shall attempt to find out why from Saint John, although it is my understanding that he is overwhelmed with the response to his radio appearances and with related media projects stemming from his father entrusting the tape to him.
Doug
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That's quite interesting; I hope further research goes into discovering the cause. I generally support GM agriculture, but we have to make sure that we have not unintentionally tampered with a delicate process.
I'd be grateful if you keep us up to date on this Doug, and I'll repost it at a science forum I belong to.
Honeybee Die-Off Threatens U.S. Food Supply
By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP
http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/ho...990001?cid=2194
BELTSVILLE, Md. (May 3) - Unless someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out many of the nation's honeybees could have a devastating effect on America's dinner plate, perhaps even reducing us to a glorified bread-and-water diet.
About one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have. Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.
In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. So if the collapse worsens, we could end up being "stuck with grains and water," said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA's bee and pollination program.
"This is the biggest general threat to our food supply," Hackett said.
While not all scientists foresee a food crisis, noting that large-scale bee die-offs have happened before, this one seems particularly baffling and alarming.
U.S. beekeepers in the past few months have lost one-quarter of their colonies _ or about five times the normal winter losses _ because of what scientists have dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder. The problem started in November and seems to have spread to 27 states, with similar collapses reported in Brazil, Canada and parts of Europe.
Scientists are struggling to figure out what is killing the honeybees, and early results of a key study this week point to some kind of disease or parasite.
Even before this disorder struck, America's honeybees were in trouble. Their numbers were steadily shrinking, because their genes do not equip them to fight poisons and disease very well, and because their gregarious nature exposes them to ailments that afflict thousands of their close cousins.
"Quite frankly, the question is whether the bees can weather this perfect storm," Hackett said. "Do they have the resilience to bounce back? We'll know probably by the end of the summer."
Experts from Brazil and Europe have joined in the detective work at USDA's bee lab in suburban Washington. In recent weeks, Hackett briefed Vice President Cheney 's office on the problem. Congress has held hearings on the matter.
"This crisis threatens to wipe out production of crops dependent on bees for pollination," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in a statement.
A congressional study said honeybees add about $15 billion a year in value to our food supply.
Of the 17,000 species of bees that scientists know about, "honeybees are, for many reasons, the pollinator of choice for most North American crops," a National Academy of Sciences study said last year. They pollinate many types of plants, repeatedly visit the same plant, and recruit other honeybees to visit, too.
Pulitzer Prize-winning insect biologist E.O. Wilson of Harvard said the honeybee is nature's "workhorse _ and we took it for granted."
"We've hung our own future on a thread," Wilson, author of the book "The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth," told The Associated Press on Monday.
Beginning this past fall, beekeepers would open up their hives and find no workers, just newborn bees and the queen. Unlike past bee die-offs, where dead bees would be found near the hive, this time they just disappeared. The die-off takes just one to three weeks.
USDA's top bee scientist, Jeff Pettis, who is coordinating the detective work on this die-off, has more suspected causes than time, people and money to look into them.
The top suspects are a parasite, an unknown virus, some kind of bacteria, pesticides, or a one-two combination of the top four, with one weakening the honeybee and the second killing it.
A quick experiment with some of the devastated hives makes pesticides seem less likely. In the recent experiment, Pettis and colleagues irradiated some hard-hit hives and reintroduced new bee colonies. More bees thrived in the irradiated hives than in the non-irradiated ones, pointing toward some kind of disease or parasite that was killed by radiation.
The parasite hypothesis has history and some new findings to give it a boost: A mite practically wiped out the wild honeybee in the U.S. in the 1990s. And another new one-celled parasitic fungus was found last week in a tiny sample of dead bees by University of California San Francisco molecular biologist Joe DeRisi, who isolated the human SARS virus.
However, Pettis and others said while the parasite nosema ceranae may be a factor, it cannot be the sole cause. The fungus has been seen before, sometimes in colonies that were healthy.
Recently, scientists have begun to wonder if mankind is too dependent on honeybees. The scientific warning signs came in two reports last October.
First, the National Academy of Sciences said pollinators, especially America's honeybee, were under threat of collapse because of a variety of factors. Captive colonies in the United States shrank from 5.9 million in 1947 to 2.4 million in 2005.
Then, scientists finished mapping the honeybee genome and found that the insect did not have the normal complement of genes that take poisons out of their systems or many immune-disease-fighting genes. A fruitfly or a mosquito has twice the number of genes to fight toxins, University of Illinois entomologist May Berenbaum.
What the genome mapping revealed was "that honeybees may be peculiarly vulnerable to disease and toxins," Berenbaum said.
University of Montana bee expert Jerry Bromenshenk has surveyed more than 500 beekeepers and found that 38 percent of them had losses of 75 percent or more. A few weeks back, Bromenshenk was visiting California beekeepers and saw a hive that was thriving. Two days later, it had completely collapsed.
Yet Bromenshenk said, "I'm not ready to panic yet." He said he doesn't think a food crisis is looming.
Even though experts this year gave what's happening a new name and think this is a new type of die-off, it may have happened before.
Bromenshenk said cited die-offs in the 1960s and 1970s that sound somewhat the same. There were reports of something like this in the United States in spots in 2004, Pettis said. And Germany had something similar in 2004, said Peter Neumann, co-chairman of a 17-country European research group studying the problem.
"The problem is that everyone wants a simple answer," Pettis said. "And it may not be a simple answer."
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Some random thoughts:
Perhaps one reason Howard Hunt was confident that Nixon would come up with the Watergate “hush” money after the arrests was because he knew that Nixon was aware of Hunt’s involvement in another Presidential historical event: the assassination of JFK. Nixon in his Oval Office tapes spoke of the danger of lifting the “scab” that covered Hunt’s past activities.
As Saint John Hunt, his son, revealed in his coasttocoastam interview Monday night, Hunt continued to file reports with the top officials at the CIA even after he ostensibly left its employment and began working for the Mullen Company and subsequently at the White House in the “plumber’s unit.”
So what was the best way to send a signal to Hunt that he should under all circumstances – even when facing a criminal trial and imprisonment – remain silent on what he knew about the Kennedy assassination?
The best way was to kill his wife, Dorothy, who had also been a CIA agent and who undoubtedly knew of the truth about JFK’s murder. Dorothy was killed in a plane crash in Chicago in December 1972, on the eve of the first Watergate trial. Hunt subsequently pleaded guilty at that trial, rather than be forced to answer questions if he chose to testify in his own behalf. One never knows what twists a criminal case might take.
What was Dorothy carrying besides the $10,000 recovered? (Saint John Hunt says it was more than that amount.) Could she have been carrying documentation as to the Kennedy assassination to be entrusted to a relative or close friend as a form of protection to be utilized depending how the Watergate scandal played out? Was this documentation seized by a designated member of the horde of 50-plus FBI and DIA agents that arrived upon the scene within minutes after the plane crash?
Dorothy, probably knowing that she and her husband were in imminent danger, had the foresight to purchase a $250,000 life insurance policy at the air port just prior to departure.
Did Hunt get the intended message that was sent by the mysterious death of his wife? My guess is that he did. He was then weighed down with the worry of raising four children who would be captives of fortune if he were also killed.
So he kept his mouth shut about the Kennedy assassination and went to prison and later even testified falsely before congressional committees about it and went so far as to file a notarized sworn affidavit with the Rockefeller Commission, which was filled with falsehoods. This served to appease those who might be tempted to silence him forever.
And like the intelligence agent that he was, he bided his time and made arrangements for the truth to come out after he died. Hence, his sending a tell-all tape recording to Saint John, which millions of radio listeners have heard in recent days.
A fuse has been lit post-mortem by Hunt. Brace yourself. Before it is all over we may yet have the full story of the assassination and also what might have been on the 18 ½ minutes erased from a key Nixon Oval Office tape.
This is because both Nixon and Hunt knew the full story of the Kennedy assassination.
As I wrote at the beginning, these are merely some random thoughts by me.
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So Hunt was a "bench-warmer"?
I think Old Tramp Hunt was a back-up patsy, just like Jack Lawrence,
and life-long back up patsy Tall Tramp Charles Harrelson.
Below is the posting today on the coasttocoastam website regarding Saint John Hunt’s interview on the May 1, 2007 radio show:
Hunt & the JFK Assassination
First hour guest, Saint John Hunt, the son of the late 'super-spy' E. Howard Hunt, discussed his father's connection to the JFK assassination. Via a tape he sent to his son (an excerpt can be heard here), E. Howard said that he was a "benchwarmer" to the "big event" (his code phrase for the JFK assassination).
LBJ had a "maniacal urge" to be President and was involved in the "coup" along with CIA operative Cord Meyer, Saint John said he learned from his father, adding that a second gunman in addition to Oswald was a Corsican sharpshooter. He also shared that in the photo of the "three tramps" at Dealy Plaza, the man in the hat greatly resembles his father. Streamlink members can hear a full show with Saint John Hunt hosted by Ian Punnett.
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What was said in the interview and tape?
I listened to Ian Punnett interview Saint John Hunt on coasttocoastam on Saturday night...
I find it ironic that if what Howard Hunt maintains is true, that I considered him a close friend n the early 1970's while never divining of his knowledge of LBJ’s role in the Kennedy assassination, and that some dozen years later, through my representation of Billie Sol Estes, I was provided additional information linking LBJ to the killing, which I have previously disclosed in this Forum.
Mr. Caddy,
Thank you for the alert to the Coasttocoast broadcast.
I visited Saint John Hunt's website ( http://www.saintjohnhunt.com/ ) several times & found that the link there to the full tape did not work. My guess is that he is still constructing his site. However, if there is an overlooked problem you might want to advise Saint of this, since you have e-mail commo with him.
"..., I was provided additional information linking LBJ to the killing, which I have previously disclosed in this Forum."
Could you please supply a URL or link to the Forum thread(s) or posts where you disclosed this information here in the Forum? Thanks!
Yes, my information on LBJ can be found in the Forum’s topic Douglas Caddy – Question and Answer, using the link below:
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5892
One of the mysteries of Nixon’s Oval Office tapes was his use of the coded phrase “Bay of Pigs,” which he closest aides assumed he meant the Kennedy assassination.
On one of his tapes, Nixon remarked about the danger of exposing Hunt to additional publicity because of the “scab” that covered certain activities of Hunt. In light of Saint John’s revelations, it may be that Nixon was worried about Hunt being linked directly to the Kennedy assassination.
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What was said in the interview and tape?
I listened to Ian Punnett interview Saint John Hunt on coasttocoastam on Saturday night. Saint John inherited his father’s excellent command of the English language and was precise in what he talked about.
Saint John said that he had received from his father in January 2004 by U.S. mail an unsolicited tape recording, four-and-one-half minutes of which were played on the radio show Saturday night, and which is scheduled to be played again tonight on coastocoastam.
In the tape recording Hunt named CIA officer Cord Meyer as the principal ringleader of the group that assassinated JFK. Mary Meyer, Cord Meyer’s ex-wife and mistress of JFK, was the victim of a mysterious killing one year after JFK was assassinated. Howard Hunt said that as a result of JFK’s adulterous affair with Cord Meyer’s then wife, Cord was ripe for the opportunity to assassinate JFK upon being approached by LBJ, whom Hunt in the tape identified as being at the top of the conspiracy pyramid.
Saint John named one Cuban-American who was a member of the conspiracy and who is still alive, indicating that he had talked with this individual about the JFK assassination
In the tape Hunt referred to himself as a “benchwarmer” in the assassination conspiracy. Because Hunt was precise in his use of the English language, Ian Punnett in the radio interview focused on the word and asked Saint John if this meant that Hunt was privy to the plot but kept in reserve in case his unique abilities were needed. Saint John agreed that this was a proper description of what a “benchwarmer” is and that might well describe his father’s role in the affair.
However, the information provided by Hunt in his tape recording contradicts in its entirety the sworn affidavit that he provided to the Rockefeller Commission in 1974 as printed verbatim on pages 128-129 of his recently published book, “American Spy.” Still, he might have been confident that no one with direct knowledge would dare dispute him in 1974, making him feel safe in filing a sworn affidavit at that time.
I have established email communication with Saint John, offering to provide him with the information that I have tying LBJ to the murder. He has responded that he remembers my name well, as his father, my Watergate legal client, talked about me on many occasions.
I find it ironic that if what Howard Hunt maintains is true, that I considered him a close friend n the early 1970's while never divining of his knowledge of LBJ’s role in the Kennedy assassination, and that some dozen years later, through my representation of Billie Sol Estes, I was provided additional information linking LBJ to the killing, which I have previously disclosed in this Forum.
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Ian Punnett will interview Saint John Hunt, son of Howard Hunt, on the international radio show coastocoastam Saturday night, April 28, from 6 to 10 p.m. Pacific Time.
During the interview a tape recording will be played in which the late Howard Hunt talks about the role of LBJ in the assassination of JFK.
The same tape recording will again be played next Tuesday, May 1, on George Noory’s coastocoastam show.
With the recent demise of LBJ aide Jack Valenti, who used his immense power to spike any discussion of LBJ’s role in the assassination, there may well be new and vital information forthcoming in the near future.
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Ah well, at least as the Human race slides towards extinction caused in the main by technology, I will be able to do so in a smug, self satisfied manner. I dont own a car, I dont own a mobile(cell) phone, and the last time I flew was 1976. Anyone fancy a carbon trade?
Researchers link fungus to bee losses in U.S.
By Jia-Rui Chong and Thomas H. Maugh II
Los Angeles Times
5:06 PM PDT, April 25, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci...-home-headlines
A fungus that caused widespread loss of bee colonies in Europe and Asia may be playing a crucial role in the mysterious phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder that is now wiping out bees across the U.S., University of California, San Francisco researchers said Wednesday.
Researchers have been struggling for months without success to explain the disorder, and the new findings represent the first solid evidence pointing to a potential cause.
But the results are "highly preliminary" and are from only a few hives from Le Grand in California's Merced County, UCSF biochemist Joe DeRisi said. "We don't want to give anybody the impression that this thing has been solved."
Other researchers said Wednesday that they too had found the fungus, a single-celled parasite called Nosema ceranae, in affected hives from around the country -- as well as in some hives that have continued to survive and live. Those researchers also have found two other fungi and a half-dozen viruses in the dead bees.
"N. ceranae" is "one of many pathogens" in the bees, said entomologist Diana Cox-Foster of Pennsylvania State University. "By itself, it is probably not the culprit . . . but it may be one of the key players."
Cox-Foster was one of the organizers of a meeting in Washington, D.C., on Monday and Tuesday where about 60 bee researchers gathered to discuss Colony Collapse Disorder.
"We still haven't ruled out other factors, such as pesticides or inadequate food resources following a drought," she said. "There are lots of stresses that these bees are experiencing," and it may be a combination of factors that is responsible.
Historically, bee losses are not unusual. Weather, pesticide exposures and infestations by pests, such as the Varroa mite, have wiped out significant numbers of colonies in the past, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s.
But the current loss is unprecedented. Beekeepers in 28 states, Canada and England have reported large losses. About a quarter of the estimated 2.4 million colonies across the United States have been lost since last fall, said Jerry Hayes of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in Gainesville.
"These are remarkable and dramatic losses," said Hayes, who is also president of the Apiary Inspectors of America.
Besides a loss in honey production, commercial beehives are used to pollinate one-third of the country's agricultural crops, including apples, peaches, pears, nectarines, cherries, strawberries and pumpkins. Ninety percent of California's almond crop is dependent on bees, and a loss of commercial hives could be devastating.
"For the most part, they just disappeared," said Florida beekeeper Dave Hackenberg, who was among the first to note the losses. "The boxes were full of honey. That was the mysterious thing. Usually other bees will rob those hives out. But nothing had happened."
Researchers now believe that the foraging bees are too weak to return to their hives.
DeRisi and UCSF's Don Ganem, who normally look for the causes of human diseases, were brought into the bee search by virologist Evan W. Skowronski of the U.S. Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center in Aberdeen, Md.
Dr. Charles Wick of the center had used a new system of genetic analysis to identify pathogens in ground-up bee samples from California. He found several viruses, including members of a recently identified family called iflaviruses.
It is not known if these small, RNA-containing viruses, which infect the Varroa mite, are pathogenic to bees.
Skowronski forwarded the samples to DeRisi, who also found evidence of the viruses, along with genetic material from Nosema.
"There was a lot of stuff from Nosema, about 25 percent of the total," Skowronski said. "That meant there was more than there was bee RNA. That leads me to believe that the bee died from that particular pathogen."
If Nosema does play a role in Colony Collapse Disorder, there may be some hope for beekeepers.
A closely related parasite called Nosema apis, which also affects bees, can be controlled by the antibiotic fumagillin, and there is some evidence that it will work on N. ceranae as well.
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Another interesting theory on the vexing issue of what is causing CCD
April 24, 2007
Bees Vanish, and Scientists Race for Reasons
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/science/...amp;oref=slogin
BELTSVILLE, Md., April 23 — What is happening to the bees?
More than a quarter of the country’s 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost — tens of billions of bees, according to an estimate from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping. So far, no one can say what is causing the bees to become disoriented and fail to return to their hives.
As with any great mystery, a number of theories have been posed, and many seem to researchers to be more science fiction than science. People have blamed genetically modified crops, cellular phone towers and high-voltage transmission lines for the disappearances. Or was it a secret plot by Russia or Osama bin Laden to bring down American agriculture? Or, as some blogs have asserted, the rapture of the bees, in which God recalled them to heaven? Researchers have heard it all.
The volume of theories “is totally mind-boggling,” said Diana Cox-Foster, an entomologist at Pennsylvania State University. With Jeffrey S. Pettis, an entomologist from the United States Department of Agriculture, Dr. Cox-Foster is leading a team of researchers who are trying to find answers to explain “colony collapse disorder,” the name given for the disappearing bee syndrome.
“Clearly there is an urgency to solve this,” Dr. Cox-Foster said. “We are trying to move as quickly as we can.”
Dr. Cox-Foster and fellow scientists who are here at a two-day meeting to discuss early findings and future plans with government officials have been focusing on the most likely suspects: a virus, a fungus or a pesticide.
About 60 researchers from North America sifted the possibilities at the meeting today. Some expressed concern about the speed at which adult bees are disappearing from their hives; some colonies have collapsed in as little as two days. Others noted that countries in Europe, as well as Guatemala and parts of Brazil, are also struggling for answers.
“There are losses around the world that may or not be linked,” Dr. Pettis said.
The investigation is now entering a critical phase. The researchers have collected samples in several states and have begun doing bee autopsies and genetic analysis.
So far, known enemies of the bee world, like the varroa mite, on their own at least, do not appear to be responsible for the unusually high losses.
Genetic testing at Columbia University has revealed the presence of multiple micro-organisms in bees from hives or colonies that are in decline, suggesting that something is weakening their immune system. The researchers have found some fungi in the affected bees that are found in humans whose immune systems have been suppressed by the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or cancer.
“That is extremely unusual,” Dr. Cox-Foster said.
Meanwhile, samples were sent to an Agriculture Department laboratory in North Carolina this month to screen for 117 chemicals. Particular suspicion falls on a pesticide that France banned out of concern that it may have been decimating bee colonies. Concern has also mounted among public officials.
“There are so many of our crops that require pollinators,” said Representative Dennis Cardoza, a California Democrat whose district includes that state’s central agricultural valley, and who presided last month at a Congressional hearing on the bee issue. “We need an urgent call to arms to try to ascertain what is really going on here with the bees, and bring as much science as we possibly can to bear on the problem.”
So far, colony collapse disorder has been found in 27 states, according to Bee Alert Technology Inc., a company monitoring the problem. A recent survey of 13 states by the Apiary Inspectors of America showed that 26 percent of beekeepers had lost half of their bee colonies between September and March.
Honeybees are arguably the insects that are most important to the human food chain. They are the principal pollinators of hundreds of fruits, vegetables, flowers and nuts. The number of bee colonies has been declining since the 1940s, even as the crops that rely on them, such as California almonds, have grown. In October, at about the time that beekeepers were experiencing huge bee losses, a study by the National Academy of Sciences questioned whether American agriculture was relying too heavily on one type of pollinator, the honeybee.
Bee colonies have been under stress in recent years as more beekeepers have resorted to crisscrossing the country with 18-wheel trucks full of bees in search of pollination work. These bees may suffer from a diet that includes artificial supplements, concoctions akin to energy drinks and power bars. In several states, suburban sprawl has limited the bees’ natural forage areas.
So far, the researchers have discounted the possibility that poor diet alone could be responsible for the widespread losses. They have also set aside for now the possibility that the cause could be bees feeding from a commonly used genetically modified crop, Bt corn, because the symptoms typically associated with toxins, such as blood poisoning, are not showing up in the affected bees. But researchers emphasized today that feeding supplements produced from genetically modified crops, such as high-fructose corn syrup, need to be studied.
The scientists say that definitive answers for the colony collapses could be months away. But recent advances in biology and genetic sequencing are speeding the search.
Computers can decipher information from DNA and match pieces of genetic code with particular organisms. Luckily, a project to sequence some 11,000 genes of the honeybee was completed late last year at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, giving scientists a huge head start on identifying any unknown pathogens in the bee tissue.
“Otherwise, we would be looking for the needle in the haystack,” Dr. Cox-Foster said.
Large bee losses are not unheard of. They have been reported at several points in the past century. But researchers think they are dealing with something new — or at least with something previously unidentified.
“There could be a number of factors that are weakening the bees or speeding up things that shorten their lives,” said Dr. W. Steve Sheppard, a professor of entomology at Washington State University. “The answer may already be with us.”
Scientists first learned of the bee disappearances in November, when David Hackenberg, a Pennsylvania beekeeper, told Dr. Cox-Foster that more than 50 percent of his bee colonies had collapsed in Florida, where he had taken them for the winter.
Dr. Cox-Foster, a 20-year veteran of studying bees, soon teamed with Dennis vanEngelsdorp, the Pennsylvania apiary inspector, to look into the losses.
In December, she approached W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory at Columbia University, about doing genetic sequencing of tissue from bees in the colonies that experienced losses. The laboratory uses a recently developed technique for reading and amplifying short sequences of DNA that has revolutionized the science. Dr. Lipkin, who typically works on human diseases, agreed to do the analysis, despite not knowing who would ultimately pay for it. His laboratory is known for its work in finding the West Nile disease in the United States.
Dr. Cox-Foster ultimately sent samples of bee tissue to researchers at Columbia, to the Agriculture Department laboratory in Maryland, and to Gene Robinson, an entomologist at the University of Illinois. Fortuitously, she had frozen bee samples from healthy colonies dating to 2004 to use for comparison.
After receiving the first bee samples from Dr. Cox-Foster on March 6, Dr. Lipkin’s team amplified the genetic material and started sequencing to separate virus, fungus and parasite DNA from bee DNA.
“This is like C.S.I. for agriculture,” Dr. Lipkin said. “It is painstaking, gumshoe detective work.”
Dr. Lipkin sent his first set of results to Dr. Cox-Foster, showing that several unknown micro-organisms were present in the bees from collapsing colonies. Meanwhile, Mr. vanEngelsdorp and researchers at the Agriculture Department lab here began an autopsy of bees from collapsing colonies in California, Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania to search for any known bee pathogens.
At the University of Illinois, using knowledge gained from the sequencing of the bee genome, Dr. Robinson’s team will try to find which genes in the collapsing colonies are particularly active, perhaps indicating stress from exposure to a toxin or pathogen.
The national research team also quietly began a parallel study in January, financed in part by the National Honey Board, to further determine if something pathogenic could be causing colonies to collapse.
Mr. Hackenberg, the beekeeper, agreed to take his empty bee boxes and other equipment to Food Technology Service, a company in Mulberry, Fla., that uses gamma rays to kill bacteria on medical equipment and some fruits. In early results, the irradiated bee boxes seem to have shown a return to health for colonies repopulated with Australian bees.
“This supports the idea that there is a pathogen there,” Dr. Cox-Foster said. “It would be hard to explain the irradiation getting rid of a chemical.”
Still, some environmental substances remain suspicious.
Chris Mullin, a Pennsylvania State University professor and insect toxicologist, recently sent a set of samples to a federal laboratory in Raleigh, N.C., that will screen for 117 chemicals. Of greatest interest are the “systemic” chemicals that are able to pass through a plant’s circulatory system and move to the new leaves or the flowers, where they would come in contact with bees.
One such group of compounds is called neonicotinoids, commonly used pesticides that are used to treat corn and other seeds against pests. One of the neonicotinoids, imidacloprid, is commonly used in Europe and the United States to treat seeds, to protect residential foundations against termites and to help keep golf courses and home lawns green.
In the late 1990s, French beekeepers reported large losses of their bees and complained about the use of imidacloprid, sold under the brand name Gaucho. The chemical, while not killing the bees outright, was causing them to be disoriented and stay away from their hives, leading them to die of exposure to the cold, French researchers later found. The beekeepers labeled the syndrome “mad bee disease.”
The French government banned the pesticide in 1999 for use on sunflowers, and later for corn, despite protests by the German chemical giant Bayer, which has said its internal research showed the pesticide was not toxic to bees. Subsequent studies by independent French researchers have disagreed with Bayer. Alison Chalmers, an eco-toxicologist for Bayer CropScience, said at the meeting today that bee colonies had not recovered in France as beekeepers had expected. “These chemicals are not being used anymore,” she said of imidacloprid, “so they certainly were not the only cause.”
Among the pesticides being tested in the American bee investigation, the neonicotinoids group “is the number-one suspect,” Dr. Mullin said. He hoped results of the toxicology screening will be ready within a month.
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April 17, 2007
Parsing the Nixon and Kissinger Pas de Deux
By SCOTT SHANE
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/books/17....html?ref=books
WASHINGTON, April 16 — Robert Dallek sat in the National Archives day after day, mining the 20,000 pages of Henry Kissinger’s telephone transcripts for historical gold. And every so often, amid the blur of bureaucratic tedium, a little nugget would glitter. One was the Nixon-Kissinger phone call reacting to news of the 1973 coup in Chile that overthrew Salvador Allende, whose Socialist government they had worked covertly to undermine through the C.I.A.
Mr. Kissinger grumbled to the president that American newspapers, “instead of celebrating,” were “bleeding because a pro-Communist government has been overthrown.”
“Isn’t that something?” Nixon remarked.
“In the Eisenhower period, we would be heroes,” Mr. Kissinger said.
“Well, we didn’t — as you know — our hand doesn’t show on this one,” the president said.
This brilliant, devious duo is glimpsed in a moment of gloating camaraderie, even as Watergate was bringing the presidency down around them. History, Mr. Dallek said, resides in such details.
Nixon is the fifth president to come under the scrutiny of Mr. Dallek, author of generally acclaimed books on Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. This time he has chosen to pair the president with the adviser he describes as a “kind of co-president,” surmising that each would be a foil for the other. The 700-page result, “Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power,” to be published next week by HarperCollins, shows that their extraordinary relationship was as much rivalry as partnership, as two driven men sparred over which of them would get the limelight both craved.
Even as they struggled together to find a way out of Vietnam, to pursue detente with the Soviet Union and to plan the opening to China, each complained incessantly in private about the other’s neuroses and instability. Nixon appears at times to have taken a sadistic pleasure in flaunting his casual anti-Semitism before his Jewish national security adviser. Mr. Kissinger was reliably flattering to the president’s face while cultivating the press to ensure a generous share of credit for the administration’s initiatives.
“Harsh life experiences had made both men cynical about people’s motives and encouraged convictions that outdoing opponents required a relaxed view of scruples,” Mr. Dallek writes. “Ironically, their cynicism would also make them rivals who could not satisfy their aspirations without each other.”
As Mr. Dallek pored over the new raw material that had attracted him to his subjects — the Kissinger transcripts, hundreds of newly released Nixon tapes and the voluminous diaries of H. R. Haldeman, Nixon’s chief of staff — he realized that this most secretive of presidencies had gradually become the most transparent. The tapes and transcripts both Nixon and Mr. Kissinger had preserved for their own use, out of a shared anxiety about how they would be remembered, have created an incomparably detailed record of their years in power.
“It’s the greatest asset a historian of an American president could ever have,” Mr. Dallek said in an interview in the top-floor study of his Northwest Washington town house, which looks out on leafy Rock Creek Park. He added, ruefully, “We’ll never have anything like it again.”
Mr. Dallek said he chose research projects partly based on what new material was becoming available from the excruciatingly slow declassification and review process at the overworked National Archives. He interviewed Mr. Kissinger, Alexander M. Haig, Brent Scowcroft and other still-living figures from the Nixon era, he said, but the book, with more than 1,300 endnotes, is built almost entirely from the contemporary record as preserved on paper and tape.
For a denizen of the archives, Mr. Dallek is an engaging man. He spent four decades teaching at Columbia, the University of California at Los Angeles, Boston University and Dartmouth, and he has an infectious enthusiasm for his material that makes him seem considerably younger than his 72 years. He and his wife, Geri, have two grown children, Rebecca and Matthew, who in 2004 published a book of his own on Reagan’s early political career.
It is easy to see what sparked the son’s interest. Robert Dallek cackles with delight as he shows off a 1964 Johnson-Humphrey campaign button from his collection, on which Hubert Humphrey’s mug is a bit bigger than the president’s. “Johnson was furious!” he exclaims, in the accent of his Brooklyn upbringing. “Just furious!”
Later, reading aloud rich snippets from the Nixon records, he cries: “Can you believe this? Amazing!” He is equal parts enthralled and appalled to find Nixon blaming the press coverage of the massacre at My Lai in Vietnam on “those dirty rotten Jews from New York,” and to find Mr. Kissinger describing his boss to aides and reporters as “that madman,” “our drunken friend” and “the meatball mind.”
In the 1980s Mr. Dallek spent four years studying psychoanalysis at a California research institute. He said he believes applying too much psychology to biography can be “reductionist,” but his book makes a compelling case for the underlying similarity of his two subjects as men whose insecurities were as striking as their talents.
Mr. Dallek, who describes himself as “an old-fashioned Franklin Roosevelt Democrat,” gives both men credit for their accomplishments: Nixon for China, Mr. Kissinger for shuttle diplomacy in the Mideast. “These guys function at a very high level, despite their pathologies,” he said.
From his immersion in the painful episodes of Nixon’s drinking, middle-of-the-night phone calls and relentless self-doubt, Mr. Dallek said, he “came away having greater sympathy and compassion for Nixon.”
He added, “He was a man who suffered a great deal emotionally.”
For Mr. Kissinger he seems to have developed no comparable feeling. “What should I call him?” Mr. Dallek said. “A brilliant scoundrel.” (Mr. Kissinger did not respond to a request for comment on the book, excerpts of which were published this month in Vanity Fair.)
Reading about the bitter internecine clashes and following the telephone soundtrack of the Nixon administration, it is impossible not to wonder how a similarly documented account of the current Bush White House might read. The writing of “Nixon and Kissinger” coincided almost exactly with the Iraq war, and Mr. Dallek said he was haunted by the parallels long before last year’s revelation that Mr. Kissinger, 83, has occasionally advised President Bush.
One pattern in particular seems relevant, he said: the reassurances that Nixon and Mr. Kissinger continually offered each other between 1969 and 1973 about the likely success of each of their moves in Vietnam, from the incursion into Cambodia to the prospects for “Vietnamization,” the gradual shift of the burden of combat from American to South Vietnamese troops.
With them, as with other presidents he has studied, “there’s a degree of autointoxication,” Mr. Dallek said.
“They convince themselves of what they want to believe,” he continued. He said he sensed the same phenomenon in the Bush administration and what he called the plan for “Iraqization” to reduce American involvement in the current war.
But even as he waxed sarcastic about the current White House, the historian in Mr. Dallek interrupted the pundit. “Well,” he declared, “we’ll have to wait 30 or 40 years to make real judgments.”
Presumably those judgments will have to arrive without tapes and transcripts, but Mr. Dallek has high hopes for a new kind of minute evidence that postdates the Nixon era. “I think the e-mails,” he said, “will give us an incredible record of how things happened.”
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While I share your interest in the book, the history of the Nosensko affair, with the CIA ostensibly split over the issue of his bona fides; Nosensko, came out of the situation alive, which is more than some CIA officials of the 1970's. Say......Arthur Paisley for example. I would think the sex parties alone would have made him expendable, and I certainly don't think the KGB did it. One wonders if he would have testified before the HSCA, Oh well, guess we'll never know.
But back to the book....While you have no expressed an observation regarding the Nosensko affair.......
Reading Bagley's book, I could not help thinking: What mind games are the Russians playing with us today?
After Pres. Clinton was elected and then Pres. Yeltsin turned over their JFK Assassination records, there were allegations that the really interesting material was not made available to the research community at large.....Whether that is true or not I do not profess to know. But I would argue that our government has for 44 years shown one consistent pattern of "making it look like they are resolving the remaining unanswered questions re the circumstances surrounding Pres. Kennedy's assassination," there is a consistent body of opinion that the collective efforts constitute one big dog and pony show.
Example The very intrinsically connected to the events in Dealey Plaza Ruth & Michael Paine were not available to the ARRB, even though some researchers offered to pay their air fare to appear!
But the media mouthpieces marginalize this segment of the population by laughing to scorn anyone who isn't a devotee of Gerald Posner. So much for truth and honesty
But I would offer my own reflection to the Nosensko affair and Oswald's stay in the USSR, instead of re-investigating the Nosensko affair, how about re-investigating Oswald's circle of contacts while in the USSR?
Even though Alexander Ziger passed on years ago, his family had some interesting tales to tell when they were interviewed by Ignacio Zuleta in 1995. Another person of interest would be Robert Webster and the RAND Corporation, and his contacts, which it is said, include Marina Prusakova
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Thanks, Mr. Caddy--
Interesting stuff!
--Thomas
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I appreciate your comment, Thomas.
Here is a follow-up article:
April 15, 2007
KGB ghost stirs JFK mystery
Tony Allen-Mills in New York
The Sunday Times (UK)
A GHOST from the cold war has returned to haunt the CIA. A book to be published this month by a veteran American spy is raising startling new questions about Yuri Nosenko, the Russian defector who played a key part in the inquiry into the assassination of President John F Kennedy.
Conspiracy theorists have long been obsessed with Nosenko’s supposed role as the KGB officer who handled the Moscow file of Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK’s assassin, who had lived for three years in the Soviet Union.
After Nosenko’s defection in 1964 — a few months after Kennedy was shot in Dallas — he assured the CIA that the KGB had never tried to recruit Oswald, who was regarded as “too unstable” to be of use.
It was a crucial moment in the cold war, an apparent intelligence breakthrough that may have prevented a nuclear conflict had America concluded that Moscow was behind the assassination. But what if Nosenko was a fraud?
That tantalising possibility is examined in Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games, by Tennent H Bagley, the former CIA case officer who was initially in charge of Nosenko’s defection.
James Angleton, chief of the CIA’s counter-intelligence unit, went to his grave in 1987 suspecting that Nosenko was a double agent whose main task was to distract the agency from a KGB mole. “The book goes a long way toward rehabilitating [the idea] that Angleton was right in calling him a KGB plant,” said Ron Rosenbaum, a New York journalist who spoke to Bagley earlier this year.
Bagley, who now lives in Brussels, argues that the KGB’s aim was to steer the CIA away from realising that the Russians had recruited an American agent in Moscow in 1949 and perhaps two others later. The book raises the possibility that a KGB mole may have worked at the CIA during the cold war.
Nosenko is believed to be now living under an assumed name somewhere in America. He never gave evidence to the Warren Commission investigating the JFK assassination, but largely as a result of his assurances Washington never took seriously the idea that the KGB plotted to murder Kennedy.
If Nosenko was never who he claimed to be, it is not only Angleton’s reputation that may have to be revised. Bagley’s book seems certain to inflame America’s most formidable group of conspiracy theorists: those who are convinced that Oswald did not act alone.
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That's quite interesting; I hope further research goes into discovering the cause. I generally support GM agriculture, but we have to make sure that we have not unintentionally tampered with a delicate process.
I'd be grateful if you keep us up to date on this Doug, and I'll repost it at a science forum I belong to.
Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees
By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
Published: 15 April 2007
The Independent (U.K.)
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/...icle2449968.ece
It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.
The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.
The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.
CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.
Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."
The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".
No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.
German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines.
Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.
Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real."
The case against handsets
Evidence of dangers to people from mobile phones is increasing. But proof is still lacking, largely because many of the biggest perils, such as cancer, take decades to show up.
Most research on cancer has so far proved inconclusive. But an official Finnish study found that people who used the phones for more than 10 years were 40 per cent more likely to get a brain tumour on the same side as they held the handset.
Equally alarming, blue-chip Swedish research revealed that radiation from mobile phones killed off brain cells, suggesting that today's teenagers could go senile in the prime of their lives.
Studies in India and the US have raised the possibility that men who use mobile phones heavily have reduced sperm counts. And, more prosaically, doctors have identified the condition of "text thumb", a form of RSI from constant texting.
Professor Sir William Stewart, who has headed two
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I hadn't heard of this before Douglas. Thanks for posting it.
It has the potential to be the most alarming topic ever raised in this forum, IMO.
Let's hope it isn't.
I'm flabbergasted that this is the first report I've seen on the topic. Is the mass media, in general, really so incompentent it can't appreciate the significance of this story?
A Google News search on "bee population CCD" urned up a mere 20 references (compared with 769 for Kylie Minogue, or 15,431 for Saddam Hussein).
When species suffer population crashes as swift as some of these reports suggest, it is very alarming indeed. While we can survive in a world without Passenger Pigeons (however impoversished by their loss), the end of bees would certainly put the mockers on this round of civilization - if not humanity itself, as Einstein so succinctly ponted out.
Mysterious disappearance of US bees creating a buzz
by Jean-Louis Santini
Fri Apr 6, 10:54 PM ET
Agence France Presse (AFP)
US beekeepers have been stung in recent months by the mysterious disappearance of millions of bees threatening honey supplies as well as crops which depend on the insects for pollination.
Bee numbers on parts of the east coast and in Texas have fallen by more than 70 percent, while California has seen colonies drop by 30 to 60 percent.
According to estimates from the US Department of Agriculture, bees are vanishing across a total of 22 states, and for the time being no one really knows why.
"Approximately 40 percent of my 2,000 colonies are currently dead and this is the greatest winter colony mortality I have ever experienced in my 30 years of beekeeping," apiarist Gene Brandi, from the California State Beekeepers Association, told Congress recently.
It is normal for hives to see populations fall by some 20 percent during the winter, but the sharp loss of bees is causing concern, especially as domestic US bee colonies have been steadily decreasing since 1980.
There are some 2.4 million professional hives in the country, according to the Agriculture Department, 25 percent fewer than at the start of the 1980s.
And the number of beekeepers has halved.
The situation is so bad, that beekeepers are now calling for some kind of government intervention, warning the flight of the bees could be catastrophic for crop growers.
Domestic bees are essential for pollinating some 90 varieties of vegetables and fruits, such as apples, avocados, and blueberries and cherries.
"The pollination work of honey bees increases the yield and quality of United States crops by approximately 15 billion dollars annually including six billion in California," Brandi said.
California's almond industry alone contributes two billion dollars to the local economy, and depends on 1.4 million bees which are brought from around the US every year to help pollinate the trees, he added.
The phenomenon now being witnessed across the United States has been dubbed "colony collapse disorder," or CCD, by scientists as they seek to explain what is causing the bees to literally disappear in droves.
The usual suspects to which bees are known to be vulnerable such as the varroa mite, an external parasite which attacks honey bees and which can wipe out a hive, appear not to be the main cause.
"CCD is associated with unique symptoms, not seen in normal collapses associated with varroa mites and honey bee viruses or in colony deaths due to winter kill," entomologist Diana Cox-Foster told the Congress committee.
In cases of colony collapse disorder, flourishing hives are suddenly depopulated leaving few, if any, surviving bees behind.
The queen bee, which is the only one in the hive allowed to reproduce, is found with just a handful of young worker bees and a reserve of food.
Curiously though no dead bees are found either inside or outside the hive.
The fact that other bees or parasites seem to shun the emptied hives raises suspicions that some kind of toxin or chemical is keeping the insects away, Cox-Foster said.
Those bees found in such devastated colonies also all seem to be infected with multiple micro-organisms, many of which are known to be behind stress-related illness in bees.
Scientists working to unravel the mysteries behind CCD believe a new pathogen may be the cause, or a new kind of chemical product which could be weakening the insects' immune systems.
The finger of suspicion is being pointed at agriculture pesticides such as the widely-used neonicotinoides, which are already known to be poisonous to bees.
France saw a huge fall in its bee population in the 1990s, blamed on the insecticide Gaucho which has now been banned in the country.
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Ghost of the Cold War
By David Ignatius
Wednesday, April 11, 20075
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...id=opinionsbox1
Roll back the tape to January 1964: America is still reeling from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and investigators don't know what to make of the fact that the apparent assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, lived for three years in the Soviet Union. Did the Russians have any role in JFK's death?
Then a KGB defector named Yuri Nosenko surfaces in Geneva and tells his CIA handlers that he knows the Soviets had nothing to do with Oswald. How is Nosenko so sure? Because he handled Oswald's KGB file, and he knows the spy service had never considered dealing with him.
For many spy buffs, the Nosenko story has always seemed too good to be true. How convenient that he defected at the very moment the KGB's chiefs were eager to reassure the Warren Commission about Oswald's sojourn in Russia. What's more, Nosenko brought other goodies that on close examination were also suspicious -- information that seemed intended to divert the CIA's attention from the possibility that its codes had been broken and its inner sanctum penetrated.
The Nosenko case is one of the gnarly puzzles of Cold War history. It vexed the CIA's fabled counterintelligence chief, James Jesus Angleton, to the end of his days. And it has titillated a generation of novelists and screenwriters -- most recently providing the background for Robert De Niro's sinuous spy film "The Good Shepherd."
Now the CIA case officer who initially handled Nosenko, Tennent H. Bagley, has written his own account. And it is a stunner. It's impossible to read this book without developing doubts about Nosenko's bona fides. Many readers will conclude that Angleton was right all along -- that Nosenko was a phony, sent by the KGB to deceive a gullible CIA.
That's not the official CIA judgment, of course. The agency gave Nosenko its stamp of approval in 1968 and again in 1976. Indeed, as often happens, the agency itself became the villain, with critics denouncing Angleton, Bagley and other skeptics for their harsh interrogation of Nosenko. In its eagerness to tidy up the mess, the agency even invited Nosenko to lecture to its young officers about counterintelligence.
It happens that I met Angleton in the late 1970s, in the twilight of his life in the shadows. I was a reporter in my late 20s, and it occurred to me to invite the fabled counterintelligence chief to lunch. (Back then, even retired super-spooks listed their numbers in the phone book. I can still hear in my mind his creepily precise voice on the answering machine: "We are not in, at present. . . .") Angleton arrived at his favorite haunt, the Army and Navy Club on Farragut Square, cadaverously thin and dressed in black.
He might have been playing himself in a movie. He displayed all the weird traits that were part of the Angleton legend, clasping his Virginia Slims cigarette daintily between thumb and forefinger and sipping his potent cocktail through a long, thin straw.
And he was still obsessed with the Nosenko case. He urged me, in a series of interviews, to pursue another Russian defector code-named "Sasha," who he was convinced was part of the skein of KGB lies. The man ran a little picture-framing shop in Alexandria and seemed an unlikely master spy. I gradually concluded that Angleton had lost it, and after I wrote that he himself had once been accused of being the secret mole, he stopped returning my calls.
Bagley's book, "Spy Wars," should reopen the Nosenko case. He has gathered strong evidence that the Russian defector could not have been who he initially said he was; that he could not have reviewed the Oswald file; that his claims about how the KGB discovered the identities of two CIA moles in Moscow could not have been right. According to Bagley, even Nosenko eventually admitted that some of what he had told the CIA was false.
What larger purpose did the deception serve? Bagley argues that the KGB's real game was to steer the CIA away from realizing that the Russians had recruited one American code clerk in Moscow in 1949 and perhaps two others later on. The KGB may also have hoped to protect an early (and to this day undiscovered) mole inside the CIA.
Take a stroll with Bagley down paranoia lane and you are reminded just how good the Russians are at the three-dimensional chess game of intelligence. For a century, their spies have created entire networks of illusion -- phony dissident movements, fake spy services -- to condition the desired response.
Reading Bagley's book, I could not help thinking: What mind games are the Russians playing with us today?
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Here is part of an article addressing some of the questions and answers concerning Apollo , from conpiracy researcher Bart Sibrel ... ( the guy who ex astronaut Buzz Aldren knocked to the ground ).... When Mr. Sibrel asked questions which Mr. Aldren refused to answer , and then made statements which Mr. Aldren did not aprove of, Aldren's response was to punch him out , insteading of answering his questions , or standing up to his accusations .
Here are some questions which have been asked of Mr. Sibrel , and his answers ...
Q: How could such a secret be kept from the world with so many people involved? (Didn't NASA have tens of thousands of people working on the Apollo project?)
A: This is the same logical question I asked before I did any research. Yet after having done eight years of investigation, I discovered that, in fact, very few people were involved in the actual faking. NASA, indeed, did have tens of thousands of people working constructing the nuts and bolts of the project. One team worked on the spacecraft hatch, another on the astronaut's boot, yet none of them saw an overview of the entire project, only those at the very top of the bureaucratic pyramid. All of those NASA guys at the computer consoles that you saw prior to the launch were receiving the exact same information as their colleagues sitting beside them, which was fed to all of them by a simulation computer program. If you look at the footage ten seconds prior to launch, they are all kicked back watching television, just like the rest of us. Apollo astronauts from later or previous missions were the ones at the real consoles. We know from the newly discovered behind-the-scenes footage that each crew was on the rocket during the launch. They went up in front of witnesses, splashed down in front of witnesses, yet the evidence recently uncovered proves that they never left Earth orbit. Apollo 11 was supposed to be the greatest event in human history, yet there were only three (government employee) witnesses and, for the first time ever, no independent press coverage of such an historical event.
With Cold War tensions running high, those who knew the truth went along with the deception to fool the Soviets that we had technological superiority.
In 1957 Time Magazine had on its cover "The Smartest Man in America" (the latest winner of the most popular TV trivia game show at that time.) It was later uncovered that the contestant received the answers in advance from the show's producers because he was widely loved by the viewers. In fact, one hundred twenty contestants and staff initially swore on the Bible during a grand jury investigation that the television show was not rigged. Most later recanted, and it is now known they all lied. If all these people were willing to lie for a little money, how much more for alleged national security? The fact is, Time Magazine was wrong. The best way to fool the world was to fool the media.
Q: What about all of the people refuting your accusations point-by-point?
A: Given the pride associated with this alleged accomplishment, it is natural that many people seek to refute our claims. It is not difficult to make up a plausible-sounding argument to refute almost any claim. However, we have yet to see any such argument that does not fail under critical examination.
"The likelihood of one individual being right increases in direct proportion to the intensity to which others are trying to prove him wrong."
- - Harry Segall
Q: What about the moon rocks?
A: NASA chief scientist James Garvin recently appeared on C-SPAN (4-17-2005.) A viewer called in for the live, audience response, program. He stated that his father worked for the Defense Department and told him that we never went to the moon, that the technology didn't exist back then, and that Apollo was a Hollywood-type production. The caller asked NASA chief scientist Garvin what proof he had that the Apollo moon missions were real. Garvin said the proof is in the statements made by the astronauts, and also in the moon rocks.
While it is possible that the moon rocks were manufactured (NASA has the best ceramics labs on the planet), in reality these rocks are probably just meteorites that were retrieved on Earth. Von Braun, the director of the program, visited Antarctica a few months before the missions to retrieve these meteorites. (By the way, it is a federal crime for a civilian to be in possession of an Apollo moon rock, so how can there truly be independent verification?)
Q: Can't you see the artifacts left from the alleged moon missions through a powerful telescope?
A: No. This is folklore. No Earth-based telescope is powerful enough to see manmade materials on the lunar surface. The newly released photos of the moon taken by the Hubble telescope cannot discern any objects on the moon's surface that are smaller than a football field in length.
Japan, however, sent a probe to the moon several years ago that did have this capability. Unfortunately, as soon as it entered lunar orbit all five of its cameras simultaneously malfunctioned. Further disappointment is in the fact that the most recent European lunar probe cannot see the moon's surface in enough detail to answer this persistent question.
Q: Wouldn't the Russians find out and then tell the world?
A: This is another, very logical, yet superficial question. After thinking about it for some time, I believe that one of the major reasons for faking the moon missions was to fool the Soviets about US strategic and space capability during the height of the Cold War (like a bluff in poker.) In addition, the Soviets did not have the capability to track deep spacecraft until late in 1972, immediately after which, the last three Apollo missions were abruptly cancelled.
Even if the Russians did suspect the landings were not authentic, the act of calling us liars of this magnitude at the height of the Cold War could have instigated a war, and perhaps they thought it better not to chance that.
Q: Why hasn't someone come forward?
A: Who would listen, and who would believe them? This illusion is so pridefully ingrained in everyone’s mind that it isn’t even questioned. Furthermore, would you want to be the one to ruin the international reputation of America? (Plus the likely blackmail, bribes, and death threats . . . to family members as well.) In addition, one astronaut coming forward to clear his own conscious is an inadvertent condemnation of all of the other astronauts as well. It is one thing to ruin your own life and reputation, yet what about others who are not willing to do so? All of them have built fame and wealth on their celebrity of having supposedly walked on the moon.
Q: What about laser reflectors on the moon (allegedly left by Apollo) that scientists bounce light beams off of?
A: The Russians have successfully placed such reflectors on the surface of the moon, yet they have never claimed to have put a man on the moon. The reflectors were dropped there by unmanned probes. It should also be noted that the moon's surface will naturally reflect signals; communications were carried out as early as the 1950s by bouncing signals off of the moon.
Q: How could the scientists of the world be fooled?
A: When scientists fail to require independent duplication of such an outlandish claim after over 30 years have passed, science is degraded to the status of being just another religion. They claim to have gone 240,000 miles in 1969. However, since 1972 no one has gone more than 400 miles from the Earth. This is a case of the scientists of the world not doing their jobs and otherwise being caught asleep at the wheel.
The leading scientists today who say that the Van Allen Radiation Belt is not lethal (who were generally in preschool at the time of the first alleged moon landing) do so by the following deduction: "The Apollo astronauts went through the radiation belt on their way to the moon and survived, so it must not be lethal." They are, of course, assuming that the missions were authentic, when, in fact, they were not. The leading scientists are wrong. Has this ever historically happened?
Q: If the evidence you have is so compelling, what hasn't CNN picked it up?
A: In reality, news media organizations are in the entertainment business. They figure that confronting such an emotional issue is not likely to boost their ratings. Since only a small percentage of those in the U.S. believe the landings were not authentic, most news media organizations don't want to risk offending their viewers.
Q: What about Apollo 13?
A: The fact is, none of the Apollo missions ever left earth orbit. After interest petered out following Apollo 12 (the second trip), an element of "jeopardy" was introduced to draw attention back to the alleged drama of the missions.
This makes Apollo 13 the most deplorable of all the missions. The nation held midnight prayer vigils for the astronaut's safe return, all the while they casually coasted around the earth in a completely sound orbiting vehicle.
Q: If A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon is such Earth-shattering evidence, why are you selling it instead of offering it for free?
A: The film is Earth-shattering evidence, indeed. The fact is that investors put up five hundred thousand dollars to produce the film, and they would like to recoup a little of it. This is simply the concept of exchange; when someone does work to provide you with something of value, you compensate them when you receive benefit from that work.
Thirty bucks for a half a million dollar film is not bad, if you ask me. (The lie cost every citizen $800--the truth... $30.)
What hoax? U.S. museum aims to set record straight over moon landing
Published: Monday, April 9, 2007 | 2:41 AM ET
Canadian Press
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/070409/K040902AU.html
WAPAKONETA, Ohio (AP) - A museum honouring the first man to walk on the moon is not afraid to confront conspiracy theorists who argue his 1969 lunar landing was a hoax.
"If it takes a controversy to get them here, that's fine with us," said Andrea Waugh, an education specialist at the Armstrong Air & Space Museum, named after Apollo 11 astronaut and hometown hero Neil Armstrong.
The museum in western Ohio set up a display Saturday featuring some of the talking points that conspiracy theorists make in books and numerous websites to try to back up their claims that NASA staged all of its moon landings from 1969 to 1972 in a movie studio.
Claims that the lunar landings were fake can be easily debunked with facts and science, Waugh told visitors.
For example, a favourite conspiracy argument is that it is impossible for a U.S. flag photographed next to Armstrong and fellow Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin to be fluttering in a lunar environment that lacks wind or an atmosphere.
The flag had a horizontal bar attached to it at the top to keep the flag from hanging limply down the pole, Waugh said.
And distorted shadows that appear next to astronauts in some of NASA's photographs - another sticking point with nonbelievers - are the result of sunlight reflecting off the lunar landscape, she said.
The museum's explanations were enough to convince Janet Rosengarten, who drove from nearby Sidney to see the exhibit.
"I've never had any question about it," she told local newspaper The Lima News. "I saw Armstrong land on the moon when I was 7 and I have no doubt it happened. But it's still fun to see the things people say who doubt it all."
The museum, which includes one of Armstrong's Apollo-era space suits and other artifacts from his career and childhood, is about 80 kilometres north of Dayton.
Armstrong, 76, lives in suburban Cincinnati.
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That's quite interesting; I hope further research goes into discovering the cause. I generally support GM agriculture, but we have to make sure that we have not unintentionally tampered with a delicate process.
I'd be grateful if you keep us up to date on this Doug, and I'll repost it at a science forum I belong to.
Collapse of Honey Bees in U. S., Canada and 9 European Countrie
by Linda Moulton Howe
http://earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=123...ory=Environment
"We’re seeing that some beekeepers have lost fairly high levels
of bees over the winter – one beekeeper as high as 90% loss."
- Brent Halsall, Pres., Ontario Beekeepers Assoc., Canada
Honey bees working a hive. Albert Einstein said, ” If honey bees become extinct,
human society will follow in four years.” .
April 6, 2007 London, England - When hives in Toronto and Saskatchewan, Canada, were opened up in the last week of March, at least 40% had either disappeared – or in another twist of the mystery – in some Canadian hives, thousands of bee bodies were found dead.
In addition to the United States and Canada, in Europe at least nine countries are now reporting massive disappearances of honey bees – similar to the Colony Collapse Disorder that has affected American beekeepers since the fall of 2006. The European countries reporting bee disappearances are:
1) Spain
2) Poland
3) Greece
4) Croatia
5) Switzerland
6) Italy
7) Portugal
8) Germany
9) And England.
To everyone’s surprise, in the U. K. where genetically modified crops have been resisted and beekeeping is on a smaller scale with less pesticide use than in the United States, honey beekeepers in London who opened hives the end of March found at least half of their hives empty.
On April 4, 2007, I talked with the Chairman of the London Beekeeping Association, John Chapple, about the missing bee phenomenon.
Interview:
John Chapple, Chairman,
London Beekeepers Association, London, England.
John Chapple, Chairman, London Beekeeping Association, London, England: “In London, we normally expect to have 10% to 20% losses every winter in our bees. But this year, at the last meeting of London members, loads of people reported far more than the normal percentage. And in talking around, they all came up with the same thing that is happening: the bees just disappeared. There were no dead bees to look at, so we could not examine anything. And they all had plenty of stores (of honey) left. And a phenomenon that we can’t understand is that they don’t appear to be robbed out by other bees.
CAN YOU EXPLAIN THAT?
Normally, when a hive is deserted, robber bees from other colonies come and take the stored honey away. They would much rather get it from there than go looking in flowers. But for some reason this year, it hasn’t happened.
SO, THE NORMAL OPPORTUNISTS ARE EVEN STAYING AWAY FROM THE EMPTY HIVES?
Yes. And we don’t know why.
THAT’S VERY CONSISTENT WITH REPORTS FROM AT LEAST 22 TO 24 STATES IN THE UNITED STATES AND APPARENTLY IN SOME LOCATIONS JUST DISCOVERED IN THE PAST WEEK OR TWO IN SASKATCHEWAN AND ONTARIO, CANADA.
THE TELEGRAPH ONLINE REPORTED: “IN LONDON, ABOUT 4,000 HIVES – TWO-THIRDS OF THE BEE COLONIES IN THE CAPITAL - ARE ESTIMATED TO HAVE DIED THIS WINTER.”
[ Editor’s Note: John Chapple estimates there are 8,000 to 10,000 hives in London, of which at least half mysteriously disappeared in the winter of 2006 to 2007.]
Half of my stock are gone and I cannot explain why they disappeared.
SO, YOU’VE HAD AT LEAST A 50% LOSS?
Yes. I’ve lost 23 hives this year (out of 40), which I can’t explain why they died.
AND THE BEES DISAPPEARED IN THOSE 23 HIVES?
They disappeared, yes. That’s the bit I can’t explain.
DO YOU FIND IT FRIGHTENING?
Yes, I find anything I can’t explain frightening, you know?
ONE OF THE QUOTES FOR YOU IN THE TELEGRAPH WAS: ‘THE MORTALITY RATE IS THE HIGHEST IN LIVING MEMORY AND NO ONE SEEMS TO KNOW WHAT IS BEHIND IT.’
Yes, that’s true. I can’t find anyone. I chatted with one of our senior beekeepers who has been keeping bees for 60 years and he’s known nothing like it. He lost his bees as well.
SO IN HIS 60 YEARS OF BEEKEEPING, HE HAS NEVER SEEN…
Anything like this, no. And he can’t explain it.
"Pesticide Cocktails" Too Much for Bees?
WHEN YOU ALL TALK WITH EACH OTHER ABOUT WHAT THIS BODES FOR 2007 AND BEYOND, HOW SERIOUS DO YOU THINK THIS IS RIGHT NOW?
Well, talking with other beekeepers, we all think it is some how varroa mite-related. All the chemicals over the years that we have been pouring into the hives might have messed up the bees’ senses. But we don’t know the answer. We are only guessing. We’ve been tipping our hives with loads of chemicals for years, thinking we could control this varroa mite. Obviously, we can’t.
IN THE UNITED STATES, I KNOW IN TALKING WITH DAVID HACKENBERG OF THE HACKENBERG APIARY OF PENNSYLVANIA, HE IS CONVINCED THAT IT IS PESTICIDES OF SOME SORT AND THERE IS A BIG QUESTION MARK ABOUT THE NEW NICOTINE-BASED PESTICIDES CALLED NEONICOTINOIDS. THESE ARE THE PESTICIDES THAT FRANCE AND ITALY, AS I UNDERSTAND HAVE BANNED IN THE LAST FOUR YEARS?
Yes, they are banned there, but the thing in London is we don’t have large rural areas. It’s an urban environment, so the amount of pesticides you get is very small. So we don’t think it’s that. We think it might be something with the chemicals we’ve been using to control the varroa mite over the years.
SO, YOU’VE BEEN TRYING TO CONTROL A MITE AND THOSE ‘PESTICIDE COCKTAILS,’ AS SOME PEOPLE CALL THEM, MIGHT NOW BE HAVING AN ACCUMULATIVE EFFECT OF SOME SORT?
Yes. Something has happened that we cannot explain. DEFRA, which is our (Dept. of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) agricultural body, has taken samples from some of my live hives and let’s hope they can find something.
HAVE YOU RECEIVED BACK ANY DATA FROM ANY LABORATORY OR INVESTIGATOR?
No.
WHEN WOULD YOU SAY IT BECAME REALLY CLEAR THAT LONDON BEEKEEPERS WERE LOSING 40% TO 50% OF THEIR HIVES?
It became clear to me in January 2007 and that’s when I started asking questions. Then we had our February 2007 meeting at the beginning of the month and that’s when people came in reporting losses of bees.
Bee Research Has Been Low
On Government Priority and Budget Lists
ANOTHER QUOTE IN THE TELEGRAPH ARTICLE SAID: ‘BEEKEEPERS FEAR THAT CUTS IN DEFRA’S FUNDING FOR BEE RESEARCH FROM 250,000 POUNDS IN 2004 TO 180,000 POUNDS FOR 2007 TO 2008, HAVE LEFT THEM VULNERABLE.”
Yes, we have no source for excellent research left in the country now.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED?
Well, you know what government bodies are like. They like to save money and beekeeping is an easy thing to save money on.
BUT THE POLLINATION OF CROPS IS VITAL.
It is vital, but when you’re explaining to a politician the importance of bees, they can’t understand what you’re talking about. They can only see rows of figures on charts. And it’s easy to say, we just cut staff by cutting bee research out. And that saves money.
DO YOU FIND CONCERN IN THE U. K. ABOUT THE GENERAL DECLINE OF POLLINATORS?
Among educated people, yes. But amongst the general public, I don’t think they understand what bees do. Most people think that bees just produce honey. They don’t realize that their main function in life, the most important thing to us, is pollination. People don’t realize that without pollinating insects, we won’t have berries on trees and so won’t have birds. If we don’t have birds, it just works up the food chain.
RIGHT, IT’S LIKE DOMINOES FALLING.
Yes, it is. Some how or other, the ecosystem has been messed around with and my good bet is that mankind has messed around with it somehow or other."
House Subcommittee Hears
About Colony Collapse Disorder
Finally Congress is beginning to pay attention to the Colony Collapse Disorder.
On March 29th, the House Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture held a meeting in Washington, D. C., with several of the scientists, beekeepers and other agencies involved in researching the phenomenon. Diana Cox-Foster, Ph.D. and Prof. of Entomology at Penn State in College Park, Pennsylvania, told me that Ontario and Saskatchewan, Canada, had been added to the list of locations reporting massive disappearances of bees.
[ Editor's Note: For more details and coming transcripts of the House Subcommittee meeting, see: "News from the House Agriculture Committee." ]
But complicating the picture, are some beekeepers in Ontario who have opened hives recently to find thousands of dead bees – some dry and desiccated as if dead for weeks – and others fresh, as if dead only days.
Brent Halsall, President of the Ontario Beekeepers Association in Greely, Ontario, said he and his beekeeping colleagues in Canada were shocked when their hives were opened the end of March.
Interview:
Brent Halsall, President, Ontario
Beekeeper's Assoc., Greely, Ontario, Canada.
Brent Halsall, President, Ontario Beekeepers Association, Greely, Ontario, Canada: "We were quite surprised this spring when we started opening up our hives. And I should mention that we’ve only just opening our hives, so we don’t have a real good handle on it yet. But we’re starting to see a bit of a pattern. We’re seeing that some beekeepers have lost fairly high levels of bees over the winter – one beekeeper as high as 90% loss.
On March 29, 2007, Brent Halsall opened his hives
and found about 40% of all his bees dead - some dried up;
others fresh as if not long dead.
IN THAT ONE CASE OF 90% LOSS, WERE THERE ANY BEES LEFT IN THE HIVE?
Yes, there are. Our colonies are not completely empty by any means. I know the colonies I have looked through on my own are full of bees. The bottom boards are covered with bees and there are bees all over the place. I don’t normally find dead colonies with bees all over the place in them.
SO IN A WAY, IT’S SORT OF THE POLAR OPPOSITE WHERE IN THE UNITED STATES IT’S BEEN ZERO BODIES, IN ONTARIO, YOU’RE FINDING ENTIRE COLONIES OF DRY, DESSICATED BODIES.
Yes, but they are not always dry and desiccated. Usually I would assume dry, desiccated bees had been dead for quite a while. In some cases, they are nice, plump juicy ones, so they haven’t been dead that long.
IS IT FAIR TO SAY THAT AS MYSTERIOUS AS THE COMPLETE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BEES FROM HIVES IN THE UNITED STATES HAS BEEN, THAT IT IS EQUALLY MYSTERIOUS THAT WHOLE COLONIES WOULD BE FOUND DEAD IN OPENING UP IN MARCH 2007?
Well, at this point it certainly is. In Ontario, we have a Tech Transfer team, it’s a research team of three researchers who work for us. I think they are as surprised as anyone at what they are finding right now. But again, they have just started looking and who knows where it’s going to go?
THE BOTTOM LINE – WHETHER IT’S CANADA OR THE UNITED STATES – MASSIVE NUMBERS OF BEES ARE GONE.
That’s right. We’re all wondering what’s going on here? I think one of the big concerns with the bee hives is that anything the bees are bringing back into the hives, the wax in there is like a fat and it will absorb various chemicals. So, whatever the bees are exposed to can end up being in the colony on a long-term basis.
SO FAR, NO ONE HAS AN ANSWER ABOUT WHY BEES IN THE MILLIONS ARE COMPLETELY DISAPPEARING.
That’s right. It’s a big mystery and we have a large distribution network here with articles coming around, but no answers."
Microarray Analysis:
Compare Dead Bee Genome with Healthy Bee Genome
On October 25, 2006, a research consortium supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), announced the publication of a high-quality draft genome sequence of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), finding that its genome is more similar to humans than any insect sequenced thus far. There are approximately 260 million DNA base pairs in the honey bee genome.
Although only 9 percent the size of the 3 billion base pairs in the human genome, the honey bee contains nearly half as many genes as the human genome, more than 10,000 in the bee compared to around 20,000 genes in the human.
When compared to other insects, the honey bee genome contains fewer genes involved in innate immunity, detoxification enzymes, and gustatory (taste) receptors. But the honey bee genome contains more genes for olfactory receptors and novel genes for nectar and pollen utilization. Interestingly, the honey bee genome shows greater similarities to vertebrates than insects for genes involved in circadian rhythm, as well as biological processes involved in turning genes on or off.
New "whole genome" Oligo Array for gene expression studies,
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The newly decoded honey bee genome will now be applied in the challenge to find out what is causing the Colony Collapse Disorder. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana
Any chance of you inquiring of Saint John?
New witness found on Oswald's activities in New Orleans
in JFK Assassination Debate
Posted
From an email announcement received May 23, 2007:
Dreamland: Jim Marrs Guest Hosts a Free Blockbuster Conspiracy Show
Ed Haslam was a dynamite Dreamland guest on on May 7, 2005 (interview available to our paid subscribers)and now he's back with phenomenal new material about how the unsolved murder of a doctor, a secret laboratory in New Orleans and cancer-causing viruses are linked to Lee Harvey Oswald, the JFK assassination and the horrific epidemics of cancer and bizarre diseases that now haunt our world.
The last time we talked to Ed, his only missing piece was a key witness. HE HAS FOUND THAT WITNESS.
And who better to conduct this interview that one of the world's greatest authorities on JFK, our own guest host Jim Marrs, upholding Dreamland's exclusive tradition of having EXPERTS interview EXPERTS.
It doesn't get better than this, so DON'T MISS DREAMLAND this weekend. The show can be accessed free of charge beginning on Saturday, May 26.
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