The Moving Wall | Group sues mayors over gun ownership
issues
Sky Samples Analyzed
By William Thomas with Erminia Cassani
VICTORIA, British Columbia, Canada, April 22, 1999 (ENS) - As
unmarked tanker-type aircraft continue spraying sky-obscuring chemtrails
over regions of the U.S. and Canada, this writer and American journalist
Erminia Cassani have obtained laboratory tests of fully-documented samples
of aerial fallout. The samples were tested by a U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) licensed facility.
The two samples were taken from aluminum-sided structures in
separate states nearly a year apart after their respective owners went
outside in the wake of low-flying aircraft to find dwellings and outbuildings
splattered with a brown, gel-like substance.
Vapor trails January 1999 (Photo courtesy W. Thomas)
Trained in the health sciences, Cassani carefully took samples
from the second incident which occurred at 2:00 pm on November 17, 1998.
The samples were taken from property directly under the flight approach
path to Thomasville airport, an old airport once used for commercial flights
but now used only for small planes. However, the woman whose house and
property the sample substance fell upon, observed that military aircraft
have recently been using this airport for "test runs" circling the immediate
area and returning to the Thomasville airfield. This facility is located
a 45 minutes drive from the Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania.
Noting nearby military hangars filled with big helicopters,
Cassani videotaped a house splattered on all sides, as well as the driveway.
The reporter also interviewed a man living near the main runway who claimed
that a similar goo had hit his house the previous October.
Cassani became ill with flu-like symptoms and was sick for four
days after obtaining the sample. When a marine biologist at a nearby university
started working with the gel material, he too immediately developed upper
respiratory symptoms. The woman whose house had been struck also caught
the"flu." Two weeks before Christmas 1998 she suffered a heart attack.
Coliform tests by the state Department of Health were negative.
But when the university Ph.D. biologist turned his microscope to high power,
he found the glass slide teeming with a protozoan life form he said was
"very resilient to very cold temperatures."
The laboratory staff who eventually received our sample for
a complete analysis had never seen cell cultures bloom so fast. Cell cultures
normally take several days to grow; ours flowered into brilliant colors
within 48 hours of being placed in petri dishes.
Exclaiming that, "It was all over the plate," the biologist
who examined our first sample wanted to know where we had obtained this
"bio-hazard" material.
Vapor trail dispersed by wind, January 1999(Photo courtesy W.
Thomas)
No markers for jet fuel were evident. But the TNT and fuel-eating
Pseudomonas fluorescens found in our sky sample is listed in 163 Pentagon
patents for bioremediation.
Sometimes employed against oil spills, Pseudomonas fluorescens
can consume jet fuel as a primary food source. This bacteria can cause
upper respiratory illness and serious blood infections in humans.
Unlike P. flourescens, the streptomyces present in our sample
is rarely found in outdoor samples. Used to make several antibiotics, this
fungus can cause severe infections in humans.
Also isolated in our sample was a fluorescent-type of bacteria
found in distant coral reefs, which can be used as a "marker" in lab tests.
Another bacillus contained a "restriction enzyme" used in research
laboratories to "restrict" or cut DNA material for transfer to other organisms.
A computer search for this usually benign bacteria turned up Streptomyces
and P. flourescens on the same reference page - as well as the American
Type Tissue Culture Corporation. U.S. Senate documents show that this Maryland
company made at least 72 shipments of germ warfare cultures to Saddam Hussein's
scientists between October 1984 and October 1993.
Our second sample was obtained from the U.S. eastern seaboard
after Cassani tracked down a woman whose house, barn, cars, lawn and driveway
were covered by a similar brown gel on January 17, 1998. This homeowner
noticed planes making "tic-tac-toe clouds" and "weird designs" in the sky
before the goo fell - possibly from clogged spray nozzles.
She had been at church while neighbors watched a large aircraft
circling so low it rattled windows and almost hit a barn, before climbing
toward a disused commercial airfield recently renovated for military flights.
When the homeowner took a scraping into the local lab, she was told of
similar incidents in the vicinity.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) dismissed the substance
- which resisted power-washing and months of weathering - as "corn meal."
Vapor trails over northwest Arkansas (Video still frame by James
E. Gribble III)
But despite being stored for a year at room temperature, our
EPA registered lab found this second batch of dried-out gel teeming with
the same bacilli present in our more recent sample. Streptomyces was again
found, as well as a bacteria capable of causing a painful ear infection.
Three other molds in this second sample included a "black yeast"
stockpiled by the U.S. Army as a "bioremediation organism" that thrives
on TNT and petroleum spills. This black yeast can also cause a nasty upper
respiratory infection - as Cassani discovered when her left lung became
painfully infected with black mold that could have come from the sample
she handled.
We decided to withhold the name of our testing facility after
an environmental lab in Ohio was besieged by calls from a militia organization
claiming that a jet fuel additive identified by Aqua Tech Environmental
Inc. was part of a conspiracy to cull the population.
Larry Harris brought the controversial sample to Aqua Tech for
analysis. A registered microbiologist who once worked on top U.S. biowarfare
projects, Harris says that a lab technician immediately identified his
sample as JP-8 aviation fuel similar to dozens of samples being brought
in by sick pilots and ground crew.
But after the harassing phone calls began, another chemtrails
investigator who was with Harris when he submitted the fuel sample to Aqua
Tech told ENS that the "lab went cold" and would no longer confer with
them.
A copy of Aqua Tech's report on Harris' sample has been obtained
by this reporter. Submitted on September 17, 1997 and labeled "Jet Fuel,"
lab report number MEL 97-1140 identifies more than 15 toxic petroleum products
- including toulene and styrene, as well as traces of the banned pesticide
ethylene dibromide (EDB). Currently used as a JP-8 jet fuel additive, EDB
was banned by the EPA in the late 1970s as a known carcinogen capable of
causing severe upper respiratory reactions at repeated low-level exposures.
Harris charges that Aqua Tech altered its test results to "almost
undetectable amounts" of EDB in order to fend off crackpots, protect government
contracts and discredit his investigation.
Aqua Tech insists its report is accurate.
Despite efforts to protect her identity, our own friendly biologist
turned edgy and cold after finding few references to our toxic samples
in medical books or Internet databanks. When Cassani suggested that this
lack of information seemed strange, the microbiologist laughed uneasily
and said, "Well, the whole thing is strange, the samples, where they came
from. So I'm not surprised."
Similar encounters with a gel clinging tenaciously to porches,
pick-up trucks and patrol cars have been reported across the USA - from
Arizona's remote Mogollon rim to Aptos and Fresno, California and North
Seattle, Washington.
Vapor trails March 3, 1999, location unknown
The most publicized incident occurred in August, 1994, when
gelatinous globs began raining on Oakville, Washington about 80 miles southeast
of Seattle.
After local residents became sick with vertigo, lethargy and
severe shortness of breath, a lab technician found human white blood cells
in the sky goo. At the Washington State Department of Health, registered
microbiologist Mike McDowell also discovered the sample swarming with Pseudomona
flourescens and Enterobacter cloacae.
Serratia marcescens was found in yet another gel sample obtained
in Idaho in late March, 1999. Often causing upper respiratory infections
resulting in pneumonia, Serratia marcescens was sprayed into the New York
subway system in 1953, and over Dorset, England from early 1966 to 1971
by the military in both countries. Serratia marcescens was supposedly withdrawn
as a biological warfare stimulant in the 1970s when this infectious agent
was deemed too hazardous for use on friendly "test populations."
E. coli, Serratia marcescens, and Bacillus glogigii were sprayed
over UK population centers to stimulate biowarfare attacks in the 1960s
and 1970s, the London Telegraph reported in May of 1998. All three agents
can cause disease in humans including pneumonia and chest infections. According
to recent admissions by the British Defense Ministry, a Canberra jet bomber
was modified with spray tanks to "act as a spray aircraft for research
into defence against biological warfare."
Microscopic examination of spider web-like fallout obtained
in Sallisaw, Oklahoma in October, 1997 also turned up enterobacteria, which
can cause gastrointestinal illness.
Despite these findings, microbiologists caution that the Oakville,
Idaho and Sallisaw samples could have been contaminated by "background"
bacteria present in the soil.
Experimental lab material found in our samples remains unexplained.
As outbreaks of staph, recurrent pneumonia and meningitis continue to be
reported in hospitals by newspapers across the USA, Cassani and I note
that staph-related organisms turning up in test samples of airborne spray
can cause pneumonia and meningitis.
Hundreds of Russians killed in latest battles:
Grozny
GROZNY, Russia, Dec 1 (AFP) -
Hundreds of Russian soldiers have been killed in battles between
federal troops and Chechen fighters, military officials in the rebel capital
said on Wednesday.
Invading federal troops lost 70 armoured vehicles in intense
clashes around the town of Argun, eight kilometres (five miles) east of
Grozny and Alkhan-Yurt, the same distance southwest of the capital, said
Chechen General Aslambek Arsayev.
Chechen casualties were light, the general said. It was not
possible to independently verify the report although Russian officials
confirm fighting is currently raging in the Argun area.
Chechen guerrillas are in the fifth day of a counter-attack
focused on districts east of Grozny, a thrust Russian troops have struggled
to counter.
According to Chechen military sources, the towns of Noibyora
and Novogroznensky seized in recent days remain in rebel hands, despite
Russian claims to have retaken the latter.
Meanwhile, Chechen special forces have surrounded former Grozny
mayor Bislan Gantamirov, who returned to his homeland to lead a pro-Moscow
force of Chechens against the separatist authorities.
Gantamirov, tapped to become the head of a pro-Moscow Chechen
administration, is currently encircled in the village of Gekhi, around
20 kilometres (12 miles) southwest of Grozny, said Aslambek Ismailov, a
military aide to Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov.
Red flags raised about genetically engineered
corn
(December 2, 1999 10:24 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com)
- In the journal Nature, researchers are raising warnings about genetically
engineered corn that makes its own pesticide, giving new perspective to
concerns about a development meant to reduce the need for chemical pesticides.
The corn's toxin is supposed to kill only the pests it's aimed
at. But lab tests have shown that the roots exude the poison into the soil
where it can remain indefinitely.
Other recent studies have found that the pollen of such genetically
altered corn can kill monarch butterfly larvae, and that lacewings - natural
predators of insect pests - die when fed corn borer worms raised on the
plants. Critics discounted such findings as unnatural laboratory conditions
unlikely to prevail on the farm.
The new warning published Thursday in Nature also springs from
the test tube. But this time, the findings identify a phenomenon that can
directly affect farmers' fields. It is "very definitely" a concern, says
microbiologist Guenther Stotzky of New York University, who reported the
discovery along with his colleague Deepak Saxena and Saul Flores of the
Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Investigations.
The corn produces the active part of an insecticide made by
the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. The toxin appears in the leaves,
stock, pollen, and roots. When it's ingested, caterpillars stop eating
and die.
Soil bacteria destroy the toxin if they can get at it. Stotzky
and his colleagues found that the poison binds to clay particles and humic
acids found naturally in most soils. Instead of disappearing in about 25
days, it is active for at least 234 days.
The scientists note that pollen falling on the ground and corn
stocks plowed back into the soil add to the toxin that roots exude. They
don't know if build-up would continue or level off.
Bt corn toxin is different from Bt sprays widely used as an
alternative to chemical insecticides, Stotzky explains. The latter are
crystals that only become active in the target insects' digestive systems.
That's why they don't harm other creatures.
The corn carries a gene that produces the active form of the
poison, which puts pressure on soil organisms. No one knows the consequences,
Stotzky says, but "we should stop at this point and consider these things."
He may get his wish. The United States and other countries use
Bt corn widely, but it is falling out of favor due to growing consumer
resistance to foods derived from crops genetically modified to carry alien
genes. Some major food companies insist that suppliers segregate these
crops, and non-genetically modified corn now fetches premium prices.
(c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society
Gun rights group sues mayors over gun ownership
issues
WASHINGTON (AP) - A gun rights group said it has filed a federal
lawsuit against the mayors of 23 cities, accusing them of conspiring to
erode the right of Americans to own firearms and defend themselves.
The Second Amendment Foundation said it sued to stop a string
of lawsuits various cities and counties have filed against gun manufacturers,
accusing them of selling defective products or marketing them in ways that
increase the likelihood that they will fall into the hands of criminals.
The Second Amendment Foundation said it suspected the suits
actually have been filed to financially injure gun manufacturers and owners.
``Now, they are being sued while their meritless and frivolous
lawsuits are being dealt serious blows in the courts,'' Alan Gottlieb,
founder of the Bellevue, Wash., based group, said in a written statement.
The defendants include the mayors of Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Berkeley, Calif.; Compton, Calif.; Miami; Atlanta; New Orleans, Cleveland
and Boston.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors also is named as a defendant in
the suit, which was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington,
said the Second Amendment Foundation.
The suit said that: ``The mayors have conspired together and
with the USCM and its members to bring civil actions by the mayors' cities
against federally licensed firearms manufacturers, distributors, retailers,
and their trade associations for the purpose of bankrupting and otherwise
harming such manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and their trade associations
as a result of the litigation costs of defending such civil actions.''
It said the cities' suits impose an undue burden on interstate
commerce and violate the Constitution's first, second and ninth amendments.
``The mayors' legal challenges have already forced several gun
makers to declare bankruptcy, severely downsize their product lines, and-or
raise firearm prices, thus hurting consumers - including taxpayer-funded
federal, state and local law enforcement agencies - all across the country,''
the foundation's statement said.
Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
GROZNY, Russia (AP) - Russian and Chechen
forces battled today for control of a town just east of Grozny, and the
Russian military acknowledged that the militants were well-entrenched in
the Chechen capital.
The two sides have been clashing daily
in Argun, three miles east of the capital, and the Russians unleashed airstrikes
and artillery fire today at rebel positions in a wooded area adjacent to
the town, the military said.
As with earlier operations, the Russians
have been bombarding the militants from afar in the expectation that the
rebels will retreat without a full-scale infantry battle.
The strategy has worked well, and the
Russians are on the outskirts of Grozny on the north, east and west. But
the rebel fighters have resisted much more fiercely in recent days as the
fighting has approached the capital.
In Argun and Urus-Martan, southwest of
the capital, the militants have appeared much more willing to remain and
fight.
Also, the Russian military, which has
consistently dismissed the militants as an ineffective force, acknowledged
that they have set up strong defensive positions in Grozny and nearby areas.
The militants number 5,000 in Grozny,
and have mined all the approaches to the city, as well as some of the buildings,
the Interfax news agency reported, citing Russian military sources in Mozdok,
the main Russian base in the region, just outside Chechnya's western border.
The Chechen fighters have a small number
of tanks and armored vehicles, but have larger numbers of anti-aircraft
systems, mortars, grenade launchers and other small arms, Interfax said.
The Russian military does not expect the
rebels to leave Argun without a fight. There are 2,500 militants entrenched
in Urus-Martan, the report added.
The militants also set 10 oil wells on
fire when they retreated from previous positions, and the Russians have
had to call firefighting specialists into the region.
The heavier fighting in recent days suggested
that the relatively easy advances by the Russian forces may be over, and
further gains will come at a higher price.
The Chechens, meanwhile, badly need to
keep open a supply line that runs south from the capital. Otherwise, they
risk being encircled by the Russian forces.
Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev
predicted Wednesday that the military operation would not last longer than
three more months. However, Russian commanders had been saying previously
that the campaign could be wrapped up by the end of this year.
The Russian forces entered Chechnya in
September following incursions by the militants into neighboring Dagestan
and apartment bombings in Russian cities that left 300 people dead. Russia
has blamed the militants for the bombings.
The Kremlin has shrugged off international
pressure to stop the offensive, which is largely popular among Russians
weary of widespread crime they blame on Chechens and other Caucasus Mountains
minorities.
Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed.
