Section 11
Why so much government disinformation on EMR bioeffects?
According to Moreno‘s "longtime friend and former neighbor of mine
in Washington” and former Naval intelligence officer, the East/West
Cold War EMR and mind control weapons debate was probably
disinformation.
Moreno explained on page 86-87:
During the 1960s and 1970s, various government agencies paid for
parapsychological studies, including DARPA, the National Institutes
of Health, the Navy, and the CIA. At the same time, the Soviets
invested in similar research, perhaps even more heavily, often under
the heading of "psychotronics." Parapsychologist might not posit an
explanatory theory, but the proponents of psychotronics contend that
minds can interact based on psychic energy and also that
electronic
devices can influence psychic energy.
There’s is an attempt to
subsume psychic phenomena under natural processes. The idea is that
lower-frequency beams such as microwave radiation, which are at the
other end of the energy spectrum from X-rays, can affect brain cells
and thereby alter psychological states.
The low-frequency
bombardment of the U.S. embassy in Moscow by the KGB in the late
1970s seemed evidence that the Soviets were serious at least about
exploring the possibilities of low-frequency weapons, trying perhaps
to cause psychological problems among diplomatic personnel. A
technical debate then ensued about whether it was possible for such
energies to cross the blood-brain barrier, a protective wall formed
by the vessels that carry blood to the brain.
Although this question has never been conclusively settled,
psychotronics still has its advocates, a minority of whom contend
that illicit experiments involving electromagnetic fields are being
conducted by intelligence agencies.
But the heyday of enthusiasm for
such possibilities in the intelligence community seems to have
passed over twenty years ago, when a retired Pentagon analyst and
Army officer named
Thomas E. Bearden attributed various event like
Legionnaires disease, UFOs, and mutilated cattle in the Midwest to
Soviet psychotronic experiments, according to journalist
Ronald
McRae. But the apocalyptic weapons the Soviet Union was said to be
prepared to release did not save the empire, and no such weapons of
mass destruction were found during or after the cold war.
On the face of it all, this activity around psyops looks like
evidence of serious interest on the part of both cold war
superpowers. But [John] Wilhelm "a longtime friend and former
neighbor of mine in Washington," former Naval intelligence officer
"through the Cuban Missile Crisis," Time Magazine science
correspondent and author of The Search for Superman] isn't so sure.
This is a very murky area," he told me. "Even after years of looking
at it, I can't be sure that all this wasn't for disinformation." In
other words, although true believers get excited about this
government activity-surely it means something if top security
officials are committing money to studies-it could all have been to
throw the other side off the trail and make them waste time and
resources.
It may be significant the CIA closed the remote viewing
program in 1995, with a report that concluded the results were
disappointing. Would the program have been shut down if the Soviet
Union were still in business? And what would an answer to that
question mean?
This is Moreno's weakest argument. In approximately five paragraph,
Moreno dismissed over fifty years of EMR weapons development. As
explained above, it is doubtful that this is all just disinformation
by the Russian and the U.S. governments. Moreno failed to mention
key information such as the following.
The 1984 BBC TV documentary,
Opening Pandora's Box:
The Soviets started bombarding the American Embassy in Moscow with a
directional microwave beam with a mix of frequencies ranging from
2.5-4.1 GHz (gigahertz) in 1953 and the US government funded Project
Pandora to find out why. Project Pandora was "a top secret
multimillion dollar program."
Top scientific experts were consulted
by the American Government "about the meaning of microwaving" of the
Moscow Embassy. "Five presidents kept it secret." President Johnson
complained to the Soviet Premier Kosygin who claimed that he was
unaware of the signal and would be sure that it was turned off.
Officially the Soviets did not admit that they were microwaving the
Embassy. But the bombardment of the Moscow Embassy continued. It
began in 1953 and in 1975 the signals changed with lower power
signals.
A May 22, 1988 AP article The Zapping of an Embassy: 35 Years Later,
The Mystery Lingers by Barton Reppert reported:
"In 1976 Secretary
of State Henry A. Kissinger tells a news conference that "this issue
is a matter of great delicacy which has many ramifications." He
declined to go into detail... . In 1988, microwave signals in the
5-11 GHz range continue to be detected at the Moscow embassy ...the State department reported."
Moreno mixed remote viewing, psychotronics, electromagnetic
radiation (EMR) bioeffects and brain signaling research,
parapsychology and the Russian bombardment of the US embassy with
microwaves from the 1950s through the 1980s, into one category. He
compares this category with a known conspiracy theorist, i.e.
retired Pentagon analyst and Army officer named Thomas E. Bearden
whose facts and information are known to be questionable. Then
Moreno concluded there doesn't seem to be a threat of mind control
weapons.
Moreno compared the above information with Thomas Bearden's
conspiracy theories, making Moreno's argument superficial,
incomplete and disingenuous. Moreno dismissed all of this
documentation with the very publicly discredited CIA remote viewing
program which was closed down in 1995. Moreno concluded it is
probably all disinformation. This is flawed and superficial
reasoning upon which to make the conclusion that Moreno
unequivocally makes: there are no current secret government mind
control programs to worry about.
Moreno argued that EMR weapons have never been used and the former
Soviet Union did not use any terrible weapons of mass destruction.
But it is common knowledge in the disarmament and arms control
community that deploying powerful new weapons creates all kinds of
new problems, such as proliferation, or the possibility of the same
weapon ending up in the hands of our enemies.
An article in the
Washington Post October 6, 2005 William M. Arkin on National and
Homeland Security, Microwaves, Lasers, Retired Generals For Sale
explained:
... Highly controversial directed energy weapons have been pushed
for almost two decades as the next silver bullet. It's been two
decades because along the way, they have run into complications,
some having to do with the technology itself -- aim and controllable
effects, compact power sources, military ruggedness -- but mostly
their problem has been moral principles. Military leaders have been
concerned about legality. Commanders have been hesitant or skeptical
about new technologies with uncertain effects.
... All during the 1990's, money flowed into continued development
of directed energy weapons, but frankly not much happened. Everyone
talked about an E-bomb being used in Iraq in 2003, but once again
for a variety of technical and ethical reasons, and because the real
world intervened, the silver bullets remained on laboratory benches
or in the world of "black" super-secret contracts, waiting for an
opportunity... .
... The introduction of a completely new weapon -- particularly
one that could cause excruciating pain, blindness, and hearing loss
-- requires the most deliberate process, and the unintended
consequences -- humanitarian, public relations, the possibility of
the same weapon ending up in the hands of our enemies -- needs to be
carefully weighed. The United States may indeed have within
technological reach the ability to disperse rioters with a beam and
not a bullet, and it might be able to cripple a modern society with
the push of a button, but then again, so too does the United States
possess the technology to turn Baghdad into a radiating ruin.
In his 2005 book, Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans,
Programs, and Operations in the 9/11 World, Arkin wrote of the
persisting evidence of national security’s authoritative
unrestricted position in the U.S. government today, a power that has
trumped all U.S. laws. Arkin also warned,
“ [There are]
...capabilities being developed to go beyond nuclear weapons in
cyber-warfare and directed-energy weaponry to nullify enemy weapons-
perfectly logical on the one hand, but potentially destabilizing if
Russia or some other nuclear power ever perceived that they were
part of a "first strike" program.”
This national security argument
will effectively keep EMR mind control weapons classified.
It can be argued that the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989 and would
not have used it's weapons against anyone, as Moreno suggested. EMR
mind control weapons have been compared to the atomic bomb and the
atomic bomb has not been used since the initial bombings in Japan.
This is in part because of a principle of war called
‘proportionality’; that only the weapons necessary to complete the
military task are used, i.e. no overkill.
Moreno wrote that Russian
mind control weapons were 'highly disputed' and technical
capabilities of the weapons were not known. The history of EMR
weapons development supports an alternative viewpoint that advanced
EMR mind control weapons may exist. The weapons are known to be
heavily classified throughout the Cold War and now into the post
Cold War. Moreno's omission is serious and the public is misled with
Moreno's false sense of security.
Back to Contents
Section 12
A global EMR arms race:
U.S. with Russia, China and India catching up
The post Cold War classified EMR arms race emerged with the
monumental break up of the Soviet Union and is spreading to China
and India while new U.S. military policy and doctrine includes EMR
weapons and warfare. Below is a brief summary of V.N. Lopatin's
dedicated ten years of Russian legislative work on banning EMR mind
control weapons.
Like Becker, the former Russian duma member,
Lopatin warned the public about new and powerful EMR weapons. For
over ten years, Lopatin has been prominent and influential in the
Russian government. He has taken this cause to the UN. Lopatin has a
law degree and is currently the director of a large private firm in
Moscow.
Lopatin’s 1999 book
Psychotronic Weapons and the Security of
Russia is available at the UC Berkeley library and included an outline of
the threat of psychotronic weapons and war and the importance of
public relations concerning this global threat. Psychotronic weapons
include EMR weapons which target the brain and nervous system.
Lopatin wrote of the proposed Russian federal law
'Informational-psychological safety' concerning the protection and
defense of rights and lawful interests of citizens and society.
There have been very few advocates such as Lopatin who advocate for
control of the new weapons. There are very few unclassified sources
of information on Russian EMR mind control weapons. The scarcity of
reliable information and heavy classification for over fifty years
are further indications that EMR mind control weapons are a
substantial national security issue.
Mr. Lopatin, is mentioned in two unclassified government documents
received under a freedom of information act request. A Moscow
Russian Public Television program on October 6, 1995 entitled Man
and Law, Scientists Discuss Mind Control Technology included an
interview of Lopatin:
State Duma expert Yuriy Lopatin calling for legislation banning
illegal development and sale of mind-control devices.
... A State Duma expert, Yuriy Lopatin says: "Psychotronic
Technology is spreading illegally. A law banning the illegal
development, production, retailing, and spreading of psychotronic
devices which influence the minds and behavior of citizens is badly
needed."
He goes on to say:
"The use of the mass media for
psychological experiments should be banned and all the state-ordered
research in human genetic experiments should be strictly
registered."
This was approved by Georgiy Georgiyevich Rogozin,
first Deputy Head of the Presidential Security Service.
The following Russian article excerpt discussed Lopatin's ten year
work to ban EMR mind control weapons. February 11, 2000, Segodnya,
The Riders of the "Psychotropic" Apocalypse by Andrei Soldatov:
... The Russian deputies intend to discuss the draft law on
information security in the country. This decision arose from the
fact that the US allegedly created alot of devices, which can
destroy information systems in Russia and influence the population.
According to Segodnya, currently the Duma is actively discussing the
draft law on the information-psychological security submitted by
Vladimir Lopatin. It is possible that the fruit of ten years of work
(the works on the draft law began in 1990) will be discussed in the
first reading in April.
... Such laws have never been discussed in any country. But this
fact does not embarrass the deputies because they discovered that
the enemy, which threatens Russia in this sphere, is dreadful and
powerful. Secret methods of information-psychological influence can
not only harm a person's health, but also lead to "the loss of
people's freedom on the unconscious level, the loss of capability of
political, cultural and other self-identification, manipulations
with social consciousness" and even "the destruction of a common
informational and spiritual integrity of the Russian Federation".
Finally, Lopatin’s legislation was signed into law. As reported in
January 29, 2005, Los Angeles Times, Giving Until It Hurts, by Kim
Murphy:
... In 2001, President Vladimir V. Putin signed into law a bill
making it illegal to employ "electromagnetic, infrasound ... radiators" and other weapons of "psychotronic influence" with intent
to cause harm. An official note attached to the bill said Russian
scientists were trying to create "effective methods of influence of
humans at a distance.
An excerpt from Military Review, September-October 1999, Human
Network Attacks by Mr. Timothy L. Thomas, is posted on the FMSO
website at
http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/. This is one of many
articles by Thomas in which he reported that major nations are
developing classified EMR weapons.
One article detailed the alleged
U.S. and Russian mind control victims. Mr. Timothy L. Thomas is a
military analyst at the US Army, Department of Defense, Foreign
Military Studies Office, (FMSO), Fort Leavenworth, Kansas:
China and Russia, in addition to studying hardware technology, data
processing equipment, computer networks and 'system of systems'
developments, have focused [on] 'new-concept weapons,' such as
infrasound weapons, lasers, microwave and particle-beam weapons and
incoherent light sources... The Chinese military apparently
believes these devices will be used in future war since its doctors
are investigating treatment for injuries caused by special types of
high-tech or new-concept weapons.
In the past half century the potential for working on the
consciousness, psyche or morale of a person, society or the
composition of an armed force has grown dramatically. One of the
main reasons is the considerable success achieved by many countries
in their systematic research in the areas of psychology,
psychotronics, parapsychology, other new psychophysical phenomenon,
bioenergy, biology and psy-choenergy in the fields of security and
defense.
... In fact, the information-psychological factor is so important
to the Russian military that it considers the
information-psychological operation as an independent form of
military activity.
Thomas no longer writes about mind control weapons or victims but
discussed Lopatin, his book and background in Russian information
warfare in the 2004 book, Information Operations: Warfare and the
Hard Reality of Soft Power: A textbook produced in conjunction with
the [US] Joint Forces Staff College and the National Security
Agency. Thomas and Lopatin continue to be quoted and are respected
experts on this issue.
The book was described by the publisher as:
“Conceived as a textbook by instructors at the Joint Command,
Control, and Information Warfare School of the U.S. Joint Forces
Staff College and involving IO experts from several countries, this
book fills an important gap in the literature by analyzing under one
cover the military, technological, and psychological aspects of
information operations.“
The book described Thomas:
Tim Thomas, Foreign Military Studies Office, Ft. Leavenworth, KS.
LTC Thomas, US Army (Ret.) is a regular guest speaker for the JFSC
JIWSOC and JIWOC sessions as well as a nationally recognized expert
on Russia and Chinese IW doctrine. He was the featured speaker at
the latest Information Warfare Convention 2000 in Washington, D.C.
and contributed mostly to the Russian IW section.
China's EMR weapons and information war plans
Mary C. FitzGerald is a research fellow at Hudson Institute and
author of a chapter in the book entitled, China‘s New Great Leap
Forward, High Technology and Military Power in the Next Half
Century, Hudson Institute, 2005.
In the chapter entitled China’s
Evolving Military Juggernaut, FitzGerald wrote about the prominence
of electromagnetism to future warfare:
Page 36-7
According to General Xiong Guangkai, deputy chief of the
PLA General Staff, The “revolution in military affairs” was first
translated into Chinese as the “military revolution.” With a
deepening understanding of the matter and specifically considering
China’s realities, however, “We thought that it would be more
precise to translate this term into Chinese as “military changes”
These “military changes” including the following:
... Battlespace
is multidimensional. With the widespread application of science and
technology in the military field, the battlespace is expanding from
the traditional three dimensions of land, sea and sky to the five
dimensions of land, sea, sky, space and electromagnetism.
Page 45
As cerebiology, biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics,
electromagnetism, and related integrated applied technologies
develop, the confrontation between two enemies may develop into a
direct confrontation that deeply penetrates the mental activities of
both sides.
In the November 7, 2005, Defense News, Facing China’s Quiet
Juggernaut, Mary C. FitzGerald described the U.S./China EMR arms
race:
Early this year, Chinese Defense Minister
Cao Gangchuan called on
the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to harness cutting-edge military
technologies, to enhance strategic and basic research, and to make
breakthroughs in key technologies in a bid to "leap forward in the
armaments development drive."
Comrade Cao also was announcing to the
world that China's economy had advanced sufficiently in
technological sophistication to ensure that it could focus on
21st-century weaponry. We are now on notice, as Russian military
officials have warned, that China's ultimate objective is to achieve
global military-economic dominance by 2050. This must be reflected
in the current U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review... .
Besides modernizing its conventional armed forces, today's China
focuses on three military priorities: Aerospace, Nuclear weapons,
"New-concept weapons" such as laser, electromagnetic, plasma,
climatic, genetic and biotechnological. The central principle
driving the modernization of national defense is reliance on science
and technology to strengthen the armed forces.
The ultimate
objective of this particular revolution in military affairs, say the
Chinese, is to build a capacity to win the future "information war"-
which can only be won by achieving space dominance. The core of
ongoing Chinese military reforms thus consists in developing those
specific symmetrical and asymmetrical systems designed to neutralize
today's U.S. technological superiority in the space-information
continuum.
India is developing EMR weapons
The Hyderabad edition of the daily newspaper Deccan Chronicle dated
January 7, 2006, page 5 reported details of Dr. M. S. Rao’s keynote
address at the Forensic Science Forum as part of the 93rd Indian
Science Congress. The article was entitled Tools to Trick Bomber’s
Minds. Dr. Rao is Chief Forensic Scientist, Directorate of Forensic
Science, Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs. He spoke of
government interest and funding of EMR mind control tools for
fighting terrorism.
Dr. Rao stated,
“This technique of using
electromagnetic radiation can control the mind of the suicide bomber
and make him to leave his target place silently without making any
effort to explode the bomb at the given area.”
Mr. Rao added, “We
don’t have this technique available right now. We have to adopt the
technology.”
India’s top forensic scientist also discussed,
“target
oriented low frequency portable electromagnetic radiation tools,
which could remotely be used by criminal on a person’s body parts
and create havoc in respect of brain damage, heartache, kidney
failure, liver damage.”
U.S. military policy and doctrine; control of the Earth's
electromagnetic spectrum and "Controlled Effects"
Here are two examples of current and near future U.S. pentagon
policy and funding on EMR and information warfare, (the categories
where mind control weapons are usually listed under).. This
illustrates the prominence that EMR weapons are predicted to have in
future U.S. and major nation’s weapons arsenals.
November 23, 2006 Sunday Herald,
America's War on the Web by Neil
Mackay:
... In 2006, we are just about to enter such a world. This is the
age of information warfare, and details of how this new military
doctrine will affect everyone on the planet are contained in a
report, entitled
The Information Operations Roadmap, commissioned
and
approved by US secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld and seen by
the Sunday Herald.
The Pentagon has already signed off $383 million to force through
the document's recommendations by 2009. Military and intelligence
sources in the US talk of "a revolution in the concept of warfare".
The report orders three new developments in America's approach to
warfare:
... Thirdly, the US wants to take control of the Earth's
electromagnetic spectrum, allowing US war planners to dominate
mobile phones, PDAs, the web, radio, TV and other forms of modern
communication.
That could see entire countries denied access to
telecommunications at the flick of a switch by America. Freedom of
speech advocates are horrified at this new doctrine, but military
planners and members of the intelligence community embrace the idea
as a necessary development in modern combat.
... Next, the Pentagon focuses on electronic warfare, saying it
must be elevated to the heart of US military war planning. It will
"provide maximum control of the electromagnetic spectrum, denying,
degrading, disrupting or destroying the full spectrum of
communications equipment it is increasingly important that our
forces dominate the electromagnetic spectrum with attack
capabilities". Put simply, this means US forces having the power to
knock out any or all forms of telecommunications on the planet.
... After electronic warfare, the US war planners turn their
attention to psychological operations:
"Military forces must be
better prepared to use psyops in support of military operations."
The State Department, which carries out US diplomatic functions, is
known to be worried that the rise of such operations could undermine
American diplomacy if uncovered by foreign states.
The second example is a 2004 U.S. Air Force doctrine entitled
Controlled Effects, Scientists Explore the Future of Controlled
Effects. Notable is the description of remote targeting of
“Controlled Personnel Effects” using EMR technologies anywhere in
the world via satellite in the near future. The full document is
cited in section 5.
Back to Contents
Section 13
Cold War/post Cold War weaponeers culture:
how the government cover story is so successfully carried out
Moreno saw no reason to discuss the significant role of the Cold War
scientific culture in allowing and perpetuating past illegal
national security experiments. His book is meant to be an
introduction and brief overview and this probably accounts for
Moreno's failure to explore the science culture surrounding brain
research and national defense.
At least the problem should be mentioned in light of past serious
misconduct. Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Eileen Welsome testified
before a 1994 congressional hearing, Radiation Testing on Humans
about the difficulties she encountered with the Atomic Energy
Commission (AEC) in uncovering her story on eighteen Americans
injected with plutonium between 1945 and 1947 in radiation
experiments.
Her news accounts led to the public exposure of
radiation experiments in the early 1990s. In her 1999 book,
Plutonium Files, America’s Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold
War, Welsome described that the 1995 Advisory Committee on Human
Radiation Experiments, (ACHRE) “conclusions were weak and fail to
come to terms with many of the controversial studies.” Welsome
explained that the Cold War culture surrounding radiation
experiments is largely overlooked or ignored.
Also, unknown to the public, systematic tactics were used to
successfully carry out the government cover story of only heating
effects and no proven bioeffects from EMR. The very same utilitarian
culture described by Welsome is present in the Cold War and post
Cold War EMR scientific culture and is documented in detail in the
next section.
The methodical and systematic tactics are hard to
believe but well documented and were very successful in promoting
the atomic bomb, preventing costly lawsuits from radiation exposure
and questionably, protecting national security. Welsome’s
description provided a key explanation for how the U.S. government’s
national security science policy is actually carried out.
Welsome wrote:
Many scientists couldn’t accept the idea that they or their peers
had committed any wrongs. They maintained their belief that the ends
they had pursued justified the means they used, expressed little or
no remorse for the experimental subjects, and continued to bash ... the media for blowing the controversy out of proportion...
. A few of the experiments increased scientific understanding
and led to new diagnostic tools, while others were of
questionable scientific value ...
[There was a] pervasive deception that the doctors,
scientists, and military officials routinely engaged in even before
the first bomb had been detonated. General Leslie Groves [head of
the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb] lied
egregiously when he testified to Congress in 1945 about radiation
effects of the bomb.
“A pleasant way to die,” he said-fully aware of
... [what happened
to the Japanese victims and in a fatal laboratory accident.]
Stafford Warren [director of the Manhattan Project’s Medical
Section] downplayed the fatalities and lingering deaths in Japan... . During the war, the bomb makers believed that lawsuits would
jeopardize the secrecy of the project.
After the war they worried that lawsuits would jeopardize the
continued development of nuclear weapons ... The weaponeers
recognized that they would have to allay the public’s fear of atomic
weapons in order to keep the [US plutonium] production plants
operating ... This meant an aggressive propaganda campaign about the
“friendly atom” and the suppression of all potentially negative
stories about health hazard related to atomic energy ...
AEC officials routinely suppressed information about environmental
contamination caused by weapons plants ... The fact is, the
Manhattan Project veterans and their protégés controlled virtually
all the information. They sat on the boards that set radiation
standards, consulted at meetings where further human experimentation
was discussed, investigated nuclear accidents, and served as expert
witnesses in radiation injury cases.
There are indications that the Cold War scientific culture is
continuing in the new weapons programs which are described as a
similar secretive and powerful scientific culture. In a September,
21, 2005 Washington Post article Commandos in the Streets?,
William Arkin described extreme secrecy surrounding secret weapons and
possible illegal acts:
Further, Granite Shadow posits domestic military operations,
including intelligence collection and surveillance, unique rules of
engagement regarding the use of lethal force, the use of
experimental non-lethal weapons, and federal and military control of
incident locations that are highly controversial and might border on
the illegal.
Both plans seem to live behind a veil of extraordinary
secrecy because military forces operating under them have already
been given a series of ''special authorities'' by the President and
the secretary of defense. These special authorities include,
presumably, military roles in civilian law enforcement and
abrogation of State's powers in a declared or perceived emergency.
A September 29, 2005, New York Times article by Douglas Jehl,
Republicans See Signs That Pentagon Is Evading Oversight, reported a
lack of legislative and executive oversight and accountability for
secret weapons programs:
Republican members of Congress say there are signs that the Defense
Department may be carrying out new intelligence activities through
programs intended to escape oversight from Congress and the new
director of national intelligence... . The lawmakers said they
believed that some intelligence activities, involving possible
propaganda efforts and highly technological initiatives, might be
masked as so-called special access programs, the details of which
are highly classified.
The report said the committee believed that
"individual services may have intelligence or intelligence-related
programs such as science and technology projects or information
operations programs related to defense intelligence that are
embedded in other service budget line items, precluding sufficient
visibility for program oversight." "Information operations" is a
military term used to describe activities including electronic
warfare, psychological operations and counterpropaganda initiatives.
The October 6, 2005, Washington Post article, National and Homeland
Security Microwaves, Lasers, Retired Generals For Sale by William Arkin described the top defense corporations, the highest military
leaders, Pentagon officials and advisors, all of whom work closely
to oversee new weapons developments. They set the policies, make the
major decisions and control all of the information.
The pattern of an old boys network, power, the influence of money
and conflict of interest are apparent:
Friend's tell me that this week's Association of the United States
Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting & Exposition at the Washington Convention
Center was all that an orgy of self-congratulation can be.
Contractors galore, beltway bandits, luncheons, awards, howitzers,
all topped off with a speech by Dick Cheney.
... This week, for example, one of my favorite directed energy
patrons -- retired General Ron Fogleman -- received appointments at
two corporations, as a "senior advisor" to the Galen Capital Group,
LLC; and as a member of the board of advisors of Novastar Resources.
The former chief of staff of the Air Force is a military-industrial
legend, head of his own consulting company Durango Aerospace Inc.
with a client list that includes Boeing, FMC, Northrop Grumman,
Raytheon, and RSL Electronics.
A quick check on the web shows that
Fogleman also serves on the
boards of no fewer than 14 corporations: AAR Corp, Alliant
Techsystems, IDC, Mesa Air Group, MITRE Corporation, Rolls-Royce
North America, Thales-Raytheon Systems, First National Bank of
Durango, International Airline Service Group, ICN Pharmaceuticals,
DERCO Aerospace, EAST Inc., World Airway, and North American
Airlines.
He is also Senior Vice President of something called
Projects International, a DC consultancy and is or was a partner in
Laird and Company, LLC. And he is a member of Donald Rumsfeld's
Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, on the NASA Advisory
Council, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Advisory Board, chairs the
Falcon Foundation and the Airlift/Tanker Association. This guy is
busy!
Fogleman gave up the job as the most powerful man in the Air Force
on principle when he could no longer serve Secretary of Defense
William Cohen. Since leaving, however, he has dispensed so much
wisdom one wonders how much principle could be left.
One of Fogleman's first jobs upon leaving the Air Force was to chair
the 1998 Directed Energy Applications for Tactical Airborne Combat
study (known as "DE ATAC") which identified 65 concepts,
particularly microwave weapons, selecting 20 for further analysis.
The laboratory then awarded short-term concept development contracts
for the five most promising to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Coherent
Technologies, and Sanders.
All during the 1990's, money flowed into
continued development of directed energy weapons, but frankly not
much happened. Everyone talked about an E-bomb being used in Iraq in
2003, but once again for a variety of technical and ethical reasons,
and because the real world intervened, the silver bullets remained
on laboratory benches or in the world of "black" super-secret
contracts, waiting for an opportunity.
And with the quagmire in Iraq, that opportunity came. So it just a
coincidence that Fogleman's company Alliant Techsystems was awarded
a contract earlier this year to develop the Scorpion II high powered
microwave weapon "capable of defeating improvised explosive devices
(IEDs) currently threatening U.S. and allied troops in Iraq."
Maybe Fogleman had nothing to do with the directed energy work already
flowing to Boeing and Raytheon... .
Back to Contents
Section 14
Scientific con game II:
EMR bioeffects scientific evidence but no
theory and no mention that the theory could be classified
The public rarely has access to a balanced argument on the EMR
bioeffects controversy. EMR bioeffects scientific uncertainty still
exists after fifty years of the remarkable development of EMR
technologies and industries, beginning with military radar in the
1940s and continuing with the cell phone and power line EMR industry
today.
EMR scientific uncertainty can be shown to be a result of
industry and government inactions and policy. Simply put, the U.S.
military want to keep EMR weapons secret and the EMR industry want
to fight off lawsuits over any possible EMR health effects.
During the Cold War era, the government's cover story was there are
‘no scientifically proven EMR bioeffects so there are no EMR
weapons.' The public relations message of the cell phone and power
line industry, i.e. the EMR industry was that there are ‘no proven
EMR bioeffects effects so there is no EMR public health risk.’ Both
have been exceptionally successful.
Largely unknown to the public,
methodical and systematic tactics were used to carry out these
public relations campaigns. The same methodical and systemic tactics
were employed by the tobacco companies and also as Welsome
described, by the atomic bomb weaponeers.
By examining the tobacco company documents today, the misleading
scientific tactics of the tobacco company executives and the atomic
bomb scientists can be clearly seen. Utilitarian decisions were made
in order to continue to sell cigarettes and make profits in spite of
known health effects from smoking. Government documents on atomic
radiation health effects today unequivocally illustrated that top
scientists and government officials intentionally made decisions
based on questionable national security goals in spite of known
health consequences from exposure to radiation.
The question becomes whether as a democracy, we want to allow this
pattern continue in the name of national security. The evidence is
clear that the systematic and misleading government scientific
tactics are continuing today. The denials from some experts that
there are no health risks from EMR and there are no EMR weapons to
worry about, have completely overpowered any counterargument.
There
is also a new post Cold War, patronizing and paternalistic campaign
by some top scientists to stop ‘bad’ or fringe science and to save
government money on needless EMR bioeffects research based on the
claim that health effects have not been conclusively demonstrated.
This campaign is extremely disingenuous, dishonest and
unconscionable, given the known EMR bioeffects history which these
scientists fail to mention.
The counterargument and evidence today
is undeniable but top scientists still deny vigorously and some use
personal attacks rather than arguing on the scientific merits. This
is science at its worst.
It will be up to the public to recognize these misleading scientific
tactics and the overwhelmingly powerful scientific culture. Top
scientists such as the atomic weaponeers lied egregiously about
radiation exposure health effects. Any trust in public and
government officials has been lost and ought to be continuously
questioned.
In the case of EMR weaponeers, exposure of any ongoing
unethical behaviors and the weak rationalization that this behavior
is necessary for national security does not hold up in a democracy.
Certainly, cigarette company executives and scientists who conducted
the nonconsensual radiation experiments have not been judged harshly
enough for the large numbers whose health was affected.
There seems to be an unintended outcome of the new public campaign
to close down the EMR bioeffects research effort based on the
premise that EMR bioeffects or health effects have not been
conclusively demonstrated. The research will for the most part be
conducted as classified research, as it has since the 1960s. As a
result, the public will continue to be unaware of the very
classified EMR mind control weapons and the possible EMR health
effects from the cell phone and power line exposure.
There is so much at stake for the cell phone industry, the power
line industry and for the public. Because the EMR bioeffects weapons
research has been heavily classified since the 1960s and there is no
detailed publicly known EMR mind control weapons theory and probably
never will be, the EMR bioeffects controversy for cell phones and
power lines is important to understand.
Note that EMR weapons
research is almost completely ignored in the EMR public health
debate, even though the weapons research has greatly increased the
scientific uncertainty surrounding EMR bioeffects research. The U.S.
government and the EMR industry’s suppression and control of EMR
research can be documented, understood and challenged.
Scientific evidence of EMR bioeffects but no scientific theory
The 2004 book, Bioelectromagnetic Medicine edited by
Dr. Paul J. Rosch and Dr. Marko S. Markov illustrated that the growing evidence
and interest in nonthermal bioeffects of EMR is continuing.
Dr. Rosch wrote the following excerpt on the few trailblazers in the
field of bioelectromagnetic medicine, including Dr. Ross Adey and
Dr. Robert O. Becker.
In the decade to come, it is safe to predict, bioelectromagnetics
will assume a therapeutic importance equal to, or greater than, that
of pharmacology and surgery today. With proper interdisciplinary
effort, significant inroads can be made in controlling the ravages
of cancer, some forms of heart disease, arthritis, hormonal
disorders, and neurological scrounges such as Alzheimer's disease,
spinal cord injury, and multiple sclerosis. This prediction is not
pie-in-the-sky. Pilot studies and biological mechanisms already
described in primordial terms, form a rational basis for such a
statement- J. Andrew L. Bassett, 1992
Andy Bassett was one of the early advocates of the use of
electromagnetic fields for uniting fractures that refused to heal.
Unfortunately, he died before he could see that his prophecy would
come true well ahead of schedule. In many respects this book is a
tribute to him and other pioneers such as Bob Becker, Abe Liboff,
Bjorn Nordenstrom, and Ross Adey who recognized the vast potential
of bioelectromagnetic medicine and have helped to put it on a solid
scientific footing.
The International Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, Third Edition; B.
Smith and G. Adelman, editors, Elsevier, New York featured a 2003
paper by W. Ross Adey entitled Electromagnetic fields, the
Modulation of Brain Tissue Function-a Possible Paradigm Shift in
Biology.
The article described one of the very few general theories
for EMR bioeffects:
Although far from a consensus on mechanisms mediating these
low-level EMF sensitivities, appropriate models are based in
nonequilibrium thermodynamics, with nonlinear electrodynamics as an
integral feature. Heating models, based in equilibrium
thermodynamics, fail to explain a wide spectrum of observed
nonthermal EMF bioeffects in central nervous tissue.
The finding
suggest a biological organization based in physical processes at the
atomic level, beyond the realm of chemical reactions between biomolecules. Much of this signaling within and between cells may be
mediated by free radicals of the oxygen and nitrogen species.
Emergent concepts of tissue thresholds to EMF sensitivities address
ensemble or domain functions of populations of cells, cooperatively
“whispering together” in intercellular communication, and organized
hierarchically at atomic and molecular levels.
The 1987 book, Electromagnetic Fields by
B. Blake Levitt,
who wrote for the New York Times stated on page 387:
The nonionizing band of the
electromagnetic spectrum will probably turn out to be far more
significant than anyone heretofore imagined. There is a distinct
possibility, for instance, that entrainment phenomenon,
resonance relationships, and other reactions to nonionizing
electromagnetic fields will prove to be a critical but hidden,
variable in all scientific research ...
Louis Slesin is the editor of the trade publication,
Microwave News,
one of the few sources for EMR bioeffects research. His website,
www.microwavenews.com described his
work:
For more than 25 years, Microwave News has been reporting on the
potential health and environmental impacts of electromagnetic fields
and radiation. We are widely recognized as a fair and objective
source of information on this controversial subject... .
Microwave News is independent and is not aligned with any industry
or government agency. Our income used to come from subscriptions and
sales of our publications and from advertising. Today, in addition
to ads on our Web site, we depend on contributions from our readers.
Microwave News covers the entire nonionizing electromagnetic
spectrum, with special emphasis on mobile phones and power lines, as
well as radar and broadcast towers... .
Microwave News is...
“Meticulously researched and thoroughly documented.” -Time Magazine
“Influential and Pioneering.” -The New Yorker
“The most authoritative journal on ELF fields and health.” -Fortune
“Widely read and influential.” -ABC News 20/20
“The world's most authoritative source on EMF health risks.” -Washington Journalism Review
“Influential.” -The Hartford Courant
“Your best source on this topic.” -The Village Voice
“Research is moving so fast in this field that newsletters are the
only way to keep up. Microwave News and VDT News, both edited by
Louis Slesin, are widely acclaimed by all sides as the best sources
of reliable and current information.” -Whole Earth Catalog
In Slesin's article entitled, The Science and Politics of the EMF
Puzzle; The Missing Pieces in the Frontline Story, he made this
important point.
“In the absence of detailed studies on breast
cancer, Alzheimer's disease and depression, among other common
health problems, no one knows how great the EMF health risk really
is.“
He argued:
“The significance of the epidemiological studies is
not that they point to a cancer epidemic. But they raise the
question: If EMFs can cause even a small change in cancer rates,
what other biological effects could they have?”
A February 1985 Omni magazine article Mind Fields by
Kathleen
McAuliffe included an interview of science historian Nicholas Steneck who summarized the scientific uncertainty surrounding EMR
bioeffects research:
Science historian Nicholas Steneck published the [1984] book,
The
Microwave Debate. Steneck acknowledges that two thirds of all
support for research on biological effects of microwaves and radio
waves comes from the military, “which cannot be viewed as a
disinterested party when it comes to making decisions about
development versus health. Groups with a vested interest in the use
of electromagnetic technologies are proving to be a formidable force
in shaping public health policies... . basic research in this area
has barely crept forward, with investigators under constant fire for
challenging accepted ideas.
According to psychobiologist Rochell
Medici, who stood at the vanguard of brain EMF studies in the early
seventies,
“It is as though scientists had retreated from doing
challenging, frontier studies because such research engendered too
much controversy or elicited too much criticism.”
The upshot of all
this: We now lack a scientific framework needed to make sense of the
diverse range of EMF health effects being reported in
ever-increasing numbers.”
In the February 1985 Omni magazine article, Becker explained the
scientific uncertainty of EMR bioeffects research at the
international scientific level:
Dr. Becker, an outspoken critic of the government’s position on EMF
health risks, takes another view.
“... the truth of the matter is
that this country simply chose to overlook hazards in this area.
Take a glance at the Russian literature, and you’ll find literally
thousands of reports of harmful effects at exposure levels the
United States government assures us are safe.”
Becker is referring
to one of the most bizarre contrasts in the history of modern
science. The Russians and the Americans have radically different
standards regarding acceptable levels of EMF emissions. The Russian
safety standard is 1,000 times below the U.S. standard. Given the
lack of data in the West about the effects of low-intensity
radiation, you would think these grave assertions might at least
trigger some worries. Yet once again the reports were greeted as the
extravagant claims of a careless school of science... .
“Sure, it’s easy to pick flaws in individual studies. Because
there’s been practically no funding for epidemiological
investigations, the researcher that did them have invariably been
operating on a shoestring. Still if you look across the world
literature, I think any rational individual would have to conclude
that we’ve got one hell of a problem.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) sponsored an international
conference, Electromagnetic Fields and Human Health - Fundamental
and Applied Research. Russian scientists offered steps towards
reaching a global agreement on EMF standards including,
“To
recognize officially the presence of a non-thermal mechanism of
biological action of EMF RF at low intensities of less than 1
millW/cm2.”
A February 2003 report by Vladimir N. Binhi, theoretical
physicist and head of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow,
entitled Electromagnetic Fields and Human Health, explained the lack
of a scientific theory for EMR bioeffects:
... non-thermal effects are real... . there is no recognized
physical theory for those effects that could help to establish right
electromagnetic safety standards... . The U.S. standards and those
proposed by WHO are 100 times more lenient, depending on frequency
range, than Russian standards, which are based on the observed
biological effects of chronic EM exposures.
The February 1985 Omni magazine article quoted
Slesin on the lack of
EMR funding:
“Every study that has been done to date has been blunted by lack of
sufficient funds to do it properly or by the inability to get all
the data on a specific population.” he says. “I think it is
extraordinary that the government has never funded a major
epidemiological study. This is a major, serious omission.”
A 1990 Time magazine article quoted Slesin on the continued lack of
scientific studies of EMR bioeffects research:
In his opinion, the studies linking higher incidences of cancer to
low-frequency electromagnetic fields raise questions about the whole
electromagnetic spectrum, including radiation from such ubiquitous
sources as broadcast antennas walkie-talkies and cellular
telephones. But despite all the warning signs, there has been almost
no research on the effects of long-term, low level exposure. “the
U.S. has gone to extraordinary lengths not to study this problem,”
says Slesin. “It’s as if we’re terrified of what we might find out.”
Slesin concluded that the EMF scientific uncertainty is a result of
industry and government inactions and policy. Slesin explained, in
the Microwave News article, The Science and Politics of the EMF
Puzzle; The Missing Pieces in the Frontline Story.
This article
analyzed Jon Palfreman’s television program Frontline, Currents of
Fear.
Slesin wrote,
“As Julie Larm,
one of the mothers on the show, wrote to Palfreman on behalf of
Omaha Parents for the Prevention of Cancer after the June 13 [1995]
PBS broadcast, "May God help you if you're wrong."
The reason the EMF problem has attracted so much attention is not
because of pressure from the scientific community. It is the public
that has propelled EMFs into the limelight. The Omaha housewives
whose children have cancer want answers, as was shown on Frontline.
Palfreman portrayed them as naÔfs [misspelled in original] who have
been brainwashed by Paul Brodeur
[Brodeur wrote the 1977 book
Zapping of America: Microwaves, Their Deadly Risk and Cover-Up about
the dangers of microwave radiation from radar, television,
telephone, satellite communications and other sources of EMR.
Brodeur was a New Yorker staff writer.]
This is unfair because they
have legitimate concerns and because they are victims of the
scientific uncertainty that is a result, in large measure, of years
of industry and government foot-dragging.
A bully pulpit and a top scientist
Robert Park was the first spokesman for the office of public affairs
of the American Physical Society (APS) in Washington DC. He has
written opinion columns for the New York Times and is a chairman of
the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland. Park wrote
the 2000 book Voodoo Science which included two chapters on the EMR
bioeffects controversy.
Park was asked by Washington Post to review
the 1989 book Currents of Death, a book about the dangers of EMR
from power lines, computer monitors, radar stations and other
sources of EMR by New Yorker staff writer, Paul Brodeur. As Slesin
explains in his October 27, 2006 News and notes, Park's motives are
not clear but it is clear that Park has presented a distorted
scientific argument on EMR bioeffects for years:
October 27
. . .The American press may be ignoring the cell
phone-sperm story, but not so physicist Robert Park. That slayer of
voodoo science wants it dead and buried.
[Disclosure: We have had
vehement disagreements with Park over the years, especially when
back in 2001, he called Microwave News a "fear merchant" based on
little more than his own self-deceptions.]
In the latest edition of
his weekly e-mail, What's New, Park tries to apply the coup de grâce
to what's left of the story:
"There is not a chance that the
reported sperm counts among heavy cell phone users... has anything
to do with cell phone radiation," he declares.
Park leaves no room
for any uncertainty - it's simply an impossible finding. Once again,
we are struck by the ease with which Park dismisses data that do not
fit his mental constructs. For Park, theory, at least his theory,
always trumps experience. We were taught that scientists had an open
mind and would be moved by data. Clearly, that's not always the
case.
On page 148 of his book, Park discredited past EMR bioeffects
research with an ad hominum attack. Park discounted the empirical
scientific method of research even though this is a well accepted
method of scientific research and is often used to scientifically
investigate the cause of a cancer cluster or reported health
effects. Park made the erroneous statement that the microwaving of
the U.S. embassy was for the purpose of activating electronic
eavesdropping devices.
In a 1988 AP article entitled The Zapping of
an Embassy: 35 Years Later, The Mystery Lingers Barton Reppert
stated:
“Thirty-five years after security officers first noticed
that the Soviets were bombarding the U.S. embassy in Moscow with
microwave radiation, the U.S. government still has not determined
conclusively - or is unwilling to reveal - the purpose behind the
beams.“
The AP article extensively detailed the complex history and
controversy surrounding the issue and one can conclude it is very
doubtful that Park’s conclusion is the whole story. A subsequent
Westlaw database search turned up similar conclusions. When asked in
an email for a citation for his statement, Park did not reply.
Meanwhile, the New Yorker published "Microwaves-II’ in which Brodeur
focused on the strange situation at the American embassy on
Tchiakovsky Street in Moscow. For reasons that were a mystery at the
time, the Soviets had been beaming microwave radiation at the
embassy for more than a decade. It is now known that the microwaves
supplied the tiny amount of power needed to operate electronic
eavesdropping devices that had been concealed in the building during
its construction.
Brodeur, however, suspected that the microwaves
were meant to addle the brains of embassy workers or induce
depression. What shocked him was that the government had not warned
employees of the health hazard. He noted that Ambassador Walter
Stoessel had developed some ... serious blood ailment, and two
former ambassadors had died of cancer. To Brodeur it seem the
microwaves must be to blame. People were exposed to microwaves and
they got sick- it was belief engine at work.
A May 29, 2000, Dallas Morning News article provided an example of
the misleading scientific tactic of basing a conclusion on a
certainty that does not exist. Entitled, Debunkers Shouldn't Toss
Out Real Science With the Voodoo, by Tom Siegfried, the article was
a review of Park's book, Voodoo Science.
Park also employed the
scientific tactic of omission of contrary evidence. Siegfried
explained how the noted physicist Robert Park used both tactics to
promote the position that “nonthermal bioeffects of EMR have not
been proven, only heating effects have been scientifically proven.”
Siegfried cited Nature magazine research for clear proof of EMR
bioeffects not caused by heating.
... In recent decades, defenders of science have coined various
labels for "research" that transgresses science's standards. There's
junk science, pseudoscience, pathological science and fraudulent
science - all of them packaging nonsense in scientific-sounding
rhetoric (sometimes sincerely, sometimes deliberately misleading).
Physicist Robert Park lumps all these categories together in a new
book titled Voodoo Science (published by Oxford University Press).
Dr. Park, the American Physical Society's Washington watchdog,
laments the antiscientific sentiment in society today... .
Still, sometimes there's a thin line between defending science and
suppressing it. When Dr. Park dismisses concerns over health effects
from electric power lines, he is probably right - the evidence shows
that the risk from power lines (and magnetic fields from appliances)
has almost certainly been greatly exaggerated. Exhaustive expert
analyses of a lot of research studies have found no basis for
supposing that power lines cause cancer.
In debunking the alarmists, Dr. Park phrases his concerns carefully.
Nevertheless some readers might conclude that the research was
unnecessary, since physicists could calculate at the outset that
electric and magnetic fields were too weak to cause harm.
Now, it is one thing to reject claims of perpetual motion. The
second law of thermodynamics is established beyond reasonable doubt.
If a loophole arises, it won't be in somebody's garage. But it's
something else to infer that physics knows all the ways that
magnetism can affect life.
True, a physicist might prove that a magnetic field is too weak to
rupture a DNA molecule. But a quiet whisper in your ear does not
produce enough energy to damage your DNA, either. Yet a whisper can
make your heart beat faster and stimulate hormone secretions that
can alter chemical reactions inside your cells. It's not possible to
say with rock-solid certainty that magnetic fields could not
influence cellular biochemistry in an adverse way. It takes real
research to find out whether such effects exist and whether they are
dangerous.
In any event, scientists need to remember that an unquestioned
assumption can undermine otherwise sound conclusions. For example,
most experts dismiss the danger of microwaves from cell phones.
Phone makers say that such microwave radiation is too weak to heat
up brain tissue, presumably the source of any harm."
Yet last week in the journal Nature, British scientists reported an
intriguing experiment with roundworms exposed to several hours of
similar microwaves. Sure enough, the temperature of the worms did
not rise. But the worms did produce higher levels of proteins that
respond to stress. In other words, something about the microwaves
triggered the worms' cellular defense system."
Another article questioned Park for not maintaining a scientifically
sound argument. The article is the April 2, 2002 Ripsaw News, Volume
4; Issue 14, Gonzo Science; Anatomy of an Electromagnetic Anomaly by
Anonymous.
This article provided a summary the fifty plus years of
the EMR bioeffects controversy and the rarely heard counterargument
to Park.
Robert Park's book Voodoo Science purports to debunk various brands
of "junk science." Park identifies journalist Paul Brodeur as a
champion of the "junk" or "voodoo" science idea that significant
health risks are associated with electromagnetic radiation. It's
curious that Park chooses to focus on Brodeur rather than two-time
Nobel laureate Dr. Robert Becker. Becker's career is an awesome feat
of pioneering research, and an uphill struggle against scientific
and governmental stonewalling and bureaucracy.
Unlike Brodeur,
Becker's scientific credentials are as big as a house. Park doesn't
even mention this giant in the debate, preferring to make his case
that Brodeur has a kind of crusading journalist's tendency to create
mountainous controversies out of factual molehills. Had Park engaged
Becker's work, he would have had to argue his case wholly on its
scientific merits, instead of playing what amounts to a shell game.
The idea that electromagnetic radiation can cause harm is anathema
to the status quo. The U.S. military has played the leading role in
keeping the lid on this modern heresy. Since the 1940s, the military
has generated reams and reams of research and documents that all
state unequivocally that electromagnetic radiation is by and large
harmless. And not just harmless, but actually having no biological
effects whatsoever.
The exception is a certain threshold at which one type of
electromagnetic radiation (microwaves) causes body tissues to heat
up faster than the body can dissipate this heat. But all other
electromagnetic radiation, which is below this thermal level, has
been officially regarded as harmless.
To thank we have the more than
50 years of military research that Park defers to. However, there is
also 50 years of science that shows electromagnetic radiation does
indeed have biological effects below the thermal level. This flew in
the face of theory in the 1940s, and according to Park it still
flies in the face of theory.
The first studies to show non-thermal biological effects of
microwaves were done in 1948 at the State University of Iowa, by
A.W. Richardson (no relation). Richardson and his colleagues showed
that high and low-power microwaves cause cataracts with no heating
of the eye. Since microwaves can create bio-effects without heating,
the door is wide open for other kinds of electromagnetic radiation
to affect the body... .
An international bully pulpit and a top scientist
Another top EMR science
advisor violated the rules of scientific impartiality and conflict
of interests. The November 13, 2006 Microwave News, News and
Comment, reported:
... Just months after leaving his post as the head of the EMF
project at the World Health Organization (WHO), Mike Repacholi is
now in business as an industry consultant.
The Connecticut Light and Power Co. (CL&P), a subsidiary of
Northeast Utilities, and the United Illuminating Co. (UI) have hired
Repacholi to help steer the Connecticut Siting Council away from a
strict EMF exposure standard. The two utilities commissioned
Repacholi to prepare detailed comments to support a 100 mG level
proposed by Peter Valberg of the Gradient Corp. and to rebut the
state Department of Public Health (DPH), which is seeking a much
tougher approach.
Repacholi's filing has been criticized for citing, and at times
misrepresenting, as-yet unreleased WHO reports for the benefit of
his corporate clients. Some see this as a continuation of his
activities at the WHO, where Repacholi was often accused of favoring
the mobile phone and electric utility industries at the expense of
public health.
Nonthermal bioeffects EMR research should be cut back
In the March 1, 2006 Policy Studies Organization Volume 23; Issue 2
The Rise and Fall of Power Line EMFs: the Anatomy of a Magnetic
Controversy.( Electromagnetic Fields) Jon Palfreman, reported on his
analysis of recent trends in global policy on EMR health effects.
Jon Palfreman, PhD, is a television science journalist who has
produced over 40 BBC and PBS one-hour documentaries. He is the
author of two books, and an adjunct professor at Tufts University,
Boston University, and Suffolk University. He is a 2006 Nieman
Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University. Palfreman wrote
favorably about the director of WHO's EMF project, Repacholi but
failed to mention his substantial financial gains from industry
connections.
Palfreman argued that nonthermal bioeffects EMR
research should be cut back.
... The controversy has grown to include not only epidemiologists,
biologists, journalists, EMF activists, the utilities, and personal
injury lawyers, but also electrical engineers and physicists--who
feel that their expertise in electromagnetism entitles them to
participate--and policymakers and social scientists who have debated
the applicability of the precautionary principle to this dispute.
There's a lot at stake.
Some 2 million miles of power lines cross
America, carrying electric power from power stations to substations
and from substations to people's homes. If there is a danger, it is
pervasive and expensive to mitigate. After all this science and
deliberation--culminating in numerous consensus reports--what has
been learned?
... In November 2002, Mike Repacholi, head of the World Health
Organization's EMF Project refused to recommend any action under
precautionary principle and warned local health officials from
seeking to lower the existing 100[micro]T limit. A WHO publication
(WHO, 2002, p. 57) Establishing a Dialogue on Risks From
Electromagnetic Fields, made the following revealing statement:
"If
the scientific community concludes that there is no risk from EMF
exposure ...then the appropriate response to public concern should
be a public education program."
If, on the other hand, it continues,
"regulatory authorities react to public pressure by introducing
precautionary limits in addition to the already existing
science-based limits, they should be aware that this undermines the
credibility of the science and the exposure limits."
So it would seem that there is a definite move to curtail nonthermal
bioeffects research and as a result, the research would be conducted
for the most part as classified research, as it has since the 1960s.
And the public would continue to be unaware of the issues.
Distorting and controlling the public debate
The Microwave News article,
The Science and Politics of the EMF
Puzzle; The Missing Pieces in the Frontline Story analyzed Jon Palfreman’s television program Frontline, Currents of Fear.
The irony is astonishing. On the very day that a committee of the
National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP)
completed its 800-page draft report asking regulatory agencies to
pay "serious attention" to EMFs, public television station WGBH
aired a one-hour show across the country comparing EMFs to cold
fusion. While the NCRP committee called for "a national commitment
to further research," the June 13 [1995] Frontline, “Currents of
Fear," asked whether it was time to close down the research effort.
The scientific inaccuracies in Palfreman’s program were serious.
Palfreman presented the American Physical Society’s (APS), official
position on EMR bioeffects, APS spokesman Park and his cited expert,
physicist professor Adair. Numerous EMR studies show bioeffects
other than heating and were not cited in Palfreman‘s program.
The
program did not show the many physicists who have pointed out the
fallacies in the APS statements. The Frontline program presented the
APS position that EMFs are not a health concern to the public. The
APS position was based on misleading inferences as Slesin
illustrated below.
No public criticism from the bioelectromagnetic scientific community
Slesin explained why there has been no outcry over the Frontline
program or the EMR bioeffects controversy by those in the
bioelectromagnetic scientific community:
EMF research is an underfunded backwater of the scientific
community. Before the congressionally mandated $65 million RAPID
program got under way last year, most of the available research
funds came from the electric utility industry through EPRI and from
the DOE, an agency not known for putting radiation safety ahead of
its other program objectives. EPRI and the DOE do not look kindly on
those who publicly highlight possible health risks.
This is the grubby side of science, where many researchers are as
interested in securing contracts and grants —even if it means making
compromises along the way— as they are in doing the actual
scientific work.
Controlling/slanting scientific results
In the article, the Frontline Story, Slesin described an example of
top scientists distorting scientific facts. A department of defense
JASON report was not clearly explained and a public APS conclusory
statement was misleading.
Slesin explained:
Biophysical Mechanisms of Interaction
... . Whether an experiment shows an EMF effect in humans, animals
or cells becomes moot if it is possible to show that such
interactions are theoretically impossible: Yale University
physicists Drs. Robert Adair and William Bennett believe this, and,
it appears, so does Palfreman. To use the metaphor conjured up by
Adair on Frontline, worrying about EMF health effects is akin to
being concerned that a cat will damage a tree by breathing on it
during a howling wind storm.
Given the recent statement by the American Physical Society (APS)
that EMFs are of no concern —also cited by Palfreman on the show—
one might conclude that all physicists agree with Adair and Bennett.
But that would be a mistake.
There are many physicists working in the field of
bioelectromagnetics. As Dr. Bill Kaune, a consultant based in
Richland, WA, who has a doctorate in physics, put it: "We physicists
who do research on EMFs have long been aware of the signal-to-noise
problem, but, regardless of our concerns, experiments seem to show
that EMFs affect living tissues. I don't see how one can justify
flatly discounting the work of a large number of epidemiologists and
laboratory biologists solely on the basis of signal-to-noise
calculations on highly simplified models of living tissues."
A couple of years ago, Adair had the opportunity to make his case to
the JASONs, a high-level group of physicists, whose advice is
routinely sought by the Department of Defense. In his report on
behalf of the JASONs, Dr. Steven Koonin of Cal-tech concluded: "The
essential point to take away...is that a cellular-level coupling of
magnetic fields to biological systems is physically plausible and
does not violate any physical principles."
Koonin was a member of the APS council that approved the statement,
and may well believe that "no plausible biophysical mechanisms" have
been identified. But this does not mean, as Adair and Bennett (and
Palfreman) contend, that such interactions are impossible.
... So, the animal, cellular and human studies all point to real
risks. And physics does not put them out of the realm of
possibility. To be sure, these risks have not been conclusively
proven—but neither have they been convincingly dismissed.
As the NCRP committee concluded in its draft report: "[F]indings are
sufficiently consistent and form a sufficiently coherent picture to
suggest plausible connections between ELF EMF exposures and
disruption of normal biological processes, in ways meriting detailed
examination of potential implications in human health."
Industry/government control of EMR research funding
In Slesin's July 31, 2006 News and Comment posted on entitled
“Radiation Research” and the Cult of Negative Results” Slesin
provided documentation of industry and government control of EMR
research funding resulting in an overwhelming number of "no EMR
bioeffects health risk" results.
The article also described an
example of industry/government paid EMR experts who slanted
scientific studies. EMR experts testified in EMR health effects
court cases although contrary to most EMR court cases, in the case
below under appeal, the arbitrator ruled in favor of the sick
plaintiff:
... Many of the negative EMF studies that have been published in
Radiation Research were paid for by industry and the U.S. Air Force,
both of which seek to control EMF research (often by stopping it)
and to show that microwaves are essentially harmless except at high
exposure levels. Promoting no-effect studies has long been part of
their strategy to keep a lid on the microwave-health controversy.
Radiation Research is a scientific journal whose primary focus is on
ionizing radiation, with only a minority of papers devoted to the
non-ionizing side of the electromagnetic spectrum. Its June issue,
however, features five papers, all of which claim to show that EMFs
of one type or another have no biological effects... .
They are on a mission, they say, to allay "widespread concern" over
power lines and cell phones by giving a voice to those who, despite
great effort, could not substantiate previously reported findings of
"deleterious health effects."
The editorial tacitly concedes that Radiation Research only rarely
publishes papers showing any type of EMF effects by failing to cite
a single example from its own pages. At the same time, it fails to
mention that other journals, for instance Mutation Research and
Bioelectromagnetics, have had no trouble finding high-quality papers
with "positive" results —that is, those that do show biological
effects.
... Another important fact goes undisclosed in the editorial: One
of its authors, John Moulder, a professor at the Medical College of
Wisconsin in Milwaukee, has a lucrative consulting practice on EMFs
and health. Over the years, Moulder has earned hundreds of thousands
of dollars disputing the existence of adverse EMF health effects,
even those accepted by most other members of the EMF community.
To explore the potential biases at work, Microwave News investigated
a subset of health studies published in peer-reviewed scientific
journals. We selected papers on microwave-induced genotoxicity; that
is, microwave effects on DNA, the genetic blueprint inside every
living cell. With the generous help of Henry Lai of the University
of Washington, Seattle, we identified 85 radiofrequency
(RF)/microwave-genotox papers published since 1990. Of these, 43
found some type of biological effect and 42 did not. (You can
download a complete list of references and abstracts.)
Lai is an interested party to this controversy. Together with N.P.
Singh, Lai made RF/microwave genotoxicity a major concern when, in
the mid-1990's, they were the first to report that microwaves could
lead to DNA single- and double-strand breaks. As you can see in
Table 1, Lai is the lead author of four of the 43 "effect" or
positive studies... .
There is just about an even split between effect and no-effect
papers. But look what happens when we superimpose the funding source
for each study (where available): Those sponsored by industry are in
red and those sponsored by the U.S. Air Force are in purple in Table
2. (Papers with no declared funding source are in green.)
A clear —and disconcerting— pattern emerges: 32 of the 35 studies
that were paid for by the mobile phone industry and the U.S. Air
Force show no effect. They make up more than 75% of all the negative
studies. You don't need to be a statistician to infer that money,
more often than not, secures the desired scientific result....
John Moulder: Industry Consultant
We suspect that much of Radiation Research's bias against EMF
effects can be attributed to John Moulder, who came on as an editor
in 1991 and was promoted to senior editor in 2000. For this whole
time —during which the microwave–genotox controversy became more and
more contentious— Moulder has been a consultant to the power,
electronics and communications industries, as well as for anyone, it
seems, who disputes the existence of EMF-induced adverse health
effects. For years he posted his skeptical views on the health
impacts of cell phones, base stations and power lines on his Web
site, and these serve as lures for potential like-minded clients.
Last year, for example, Moulder testified against the family of
Richard Beissinger, a professor at the Illinois Institute of
Technology (IIT) in Chicago who died of a brain tumor in 2003. His
widow and five children were seeking worker's compensation for what
they believed was an EMF-induced cancer. Beissinger taught and
worked in rooms near electrical transformers. His magnetic field
exposures are uncertain, but very high, ranging from 10 mG (1 µT) to
820 mG, and at times probably more than 1 G.At a hearing held in
2005, Moulder stated under oath that, in his opinion,
"power-frequency magnetic fields do not cause any kind of brain
cancer under any exposure, intensity and duration" [our emphasis].
Moulder was no doubt aware that the California EMF program had
previously concluded that magnetic fields are a likely cause of
adult brain cancer. And that many years earlier, a team coordinated
by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) had reported that,
taken together, epidemiological studies of workers exposed to
magnetic fields pointed to a statistically significant elevated risk
of brain cancer.
While electric utility industry operatives may have conceded that
there may well be a link between long-term exposure to magnetic
fields and brain cancer, that did not deter Moulder. He made
$10,000-$12,000 trying to deprive the Beissinger family of a small
pension. On May 23, at about the same time that the "negative
effects" editorial appeared in Radiation Research, an arbitrator
rejected Moulder's argument and ruled in favor of Beissinger's
family. The decision is under appeal.
In the course of his testimony, Moulder acknowledged that he had
earned approximately $300,000 in litigation-related fees, on
power-frequency EMFs. This probably represents a fraction of
Moulder's earnings, since litigation services represents only one
part of his consulting practice. For instance, in 2001 Moulder
testified at a hearing on behalf of the Minnesota Power Co. and
Wisconsin Public Service Corp., which had applied to build a new
transmission line. In that testimony, Moulder revealed that he would
be paid about $35,000 for this case alone.
Nor is Moulder's consulting limited to power-frequency EMFs. In
1999, he prepared a report for the U.K. Federation of Electronic
Industry (now called Intellect), which was submitted to the
Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones, better known as the
Stewart panel. And the following year he wrote a report for the
Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association, which was
submitted to the Australian Senate. He has not disclosed how much
money he was paid for these opinions, but in March 2001, Moulder
told an Australian senate committee that, on average, 8-10% of his
income was from the telecommunications industry alone.
Those Reporting Positive Results Attacked
Back in 2001 after Moulder had moved up to senior editor, he
recruited Vijayalaxmi of the University of Texas in San Antonio to
join the Radiation Research editorial board. A couple of years
earlier they, together with some colleagues from Washington
University and the U.S. Air Force, had published a review paper that
dismissed any possible connection between cell phones and cancer.
This too was published in Radiation Research.
As shown in Table 2, Vijayalaxmi is the lead author on seven of the
microwave-genotox papers. All were funded by the U.S. Air Force,
Motorola or a combination of the two.
... Radiation Research has become a repository for negative papers
and thus an important part of the industry and military strategy to
neutralize those who dare to challenge the no-effects dogma. Their
work had been made much easier with John Moulder on the inside to
ease industry papers into print.
The official scientific argument for ‘no proven EMR bioeffects’
In the 2000 book Voodoo Science by
Robert Park, the American
Physical Society, (APS) public spokesman and physics professor, Park
defended his long held viewpoint that EMR only has effects from
heating and any claimed bioeffects have not be proven, therefore EMR
is not a health risk. It would seem difficult to refute a top
scientist such as Park. For the most part, mainstream press does not
challenge his position.
Park’s book presented his questionable scientific arguments against
any possible bioeffects of EMR except from heating. This is
important to understand because Park was also one of the top
experts, including six Nobel laureates who signed an amicus brief
around 1996 which said there was no EMF-cancer link. On page 168,
Park wrote,
"The Covalt decision (California Supreme Court ruled
against the Covalts) effectively ended EMF litigation in California
and dampened the enthusiasm for such cases nationwide."
It is no coincidence that Park is repeating the very entrenched
position on EMR bioeffects; that there are only proven heating
effects from EMR and any other bioeffects have not been proven. At
the least, this does not excuse the omission of new scientific
studies or the equally valid alternative position in Park's analysis
and conclusion.
For example, Dr. Adey was an outspoken advocate. At
a 1987 congressional hearing he testified about the lack of research
on nonthermal bioeffects. Dr. Adey put the blame on military and
corporate interests. As reported in Microwave News, May, 2004,
http://www.microwavenews.com/may_04.html#may20:
Ross Adey died on May 20th at the age of 82 after a long battle
against a series of bronchial infections. Adey, a medical doctor,
was a towering figure in the EMF community, who was equally at ease
talking about the most recent papers in the biological and medical
literature or dissecting the arcane engineering details of an
experimental setup. He is perhaps best known for discovering, with
Suzanne Baldwin, the first non-thermal effect of electromagnetic
radiation during the 1970s: They showed how ELF-modulated RF signals
can lead to the release of calcium ions from cells.
Many other top scientists publicly defend the EMR bioeffects
official position and this is a clear example of how powerful and
organized the government's bully scientific pulpit is and also the
national security weaponeers culture.
For example, David Jones,
producer of 1984 BBC documentary, Opening Pandora's Box, asked Dr.
Koslov, director of Project Pandora:
"In terms of science there
seems to be two possibilities, one is that behavior and health are
affected by EMR and the second is the creation of a new genre of
weapons and that its conceivable that it is a totally black area of
research. Dr. Koslov replied that back in 1965, there was alot of
conjecture and hypothesis about that. That's why it led to Project
Pandora. Since then, I don't think there is very much possibility,
that there is, at this point in time, there doesn't seem to be.
Dr. Sam Koslov, ... continued,
"[We] thought about it, don't get
me wrong, ... but nothing was found, it doesn't look like [there
is]...militarily at this time, there is no EMR weapons potential.
There is nothing to the biological effects claim. There is an amount
of power problem."
David Jones asked Dr. Koslov why he thought that
the Soviets were microwaving the Embassy. Dr. Koslov replied that,
"I
would rather not discuss it [because] it would get into security
areas."
Park and most top scientists fail to mention the fact that
there is a long history of very classified EMR bioeffects research.
First, Park argued the widely repeated official stance that the only
known scientific mechanism for how EMR works biologically is by
heating only. Park actually supplied the physics explanation for
heating effects of EMR in his book as if this was enough to dispel
the empirical evidence of EMR bioeffects.
Only heating effects of EMR have been proven, according to Park as he explained on page 144:
"The biological effects of microwaves had been studied for thirty
years and were the subject of hundreds of papers in the open
literature... . the same facts that had reassured Ellie Adair
[Yale University physics professor]", i.e. that microwaves are
harmless.
Secondly, Park explained that microwaves don't cause DNA breaks so
microwaves could not be a cause of cancer. On page 149, Park
explained that Bob Adair published his work in the Physical Review.
"He relied on well-established principles to show that there was no
known mechanism that could account for reports of health effects
from low levels of microwave radiation.”
Park is arguing that any
possible unknown mechanisms to account for health effects of EMF
just don’t count or are voodoo science.
But as reported in the 2006 Microwave News Radiation Research
article, Henry Lai of the University of Washington, Seattle,
scientific studies do show DNA breaks from exposure to EMR.
"Together with N.P. Singh, Lai made RF/microwave genotoxicity a
major concern when, in the mid-1990's, they were the first to report
that microwaves could lead to DNA single- and double-strand breaks."
Park ignored this evidence and explained his theory of why EMR
can't cause DNA breaks on page 147-8:
The effect of all known cancer-inducing agents-ionizing radiation
such as ultraviolet or X-rays, chemical carcinogens such as tobacco
smoke, and certain viruses- is to damage DNA. The damage consists of
broken or altered chemical bonds, creating a mutant strand of DNA.
Microwave photons can cause chemical bonds to stretch and bend but
cannot come even close to severing the bonds.
One of the great
triumphs of quantum mechanics was the discovery that electromagnetic
radiation interacts with matter only in discrete bundles of energy
called photons. The energy of a photon is expressed mathematically
as the product of a universal constant, called the Planck constant,
multiplied by the frequency. Photons that have enough energy to
break chemical bonds are called ionizing radiation.
Whether
electromagnetic is ionizing is independent of the intensity, or
number, of photons; it depends only on the energy of the individual
photons. ...The lowest energy photons capable of directly breaking
chemical bonds are in the near-ultraviolet region of the spectrum,
just beyond the region of visible light. These photons are about a
million times more energetic than the microwave photons . .
EMR weaponeers scientific culture
Welsome, who wrote Plutonium Files provided a description of the
systematic methods employed by the atomic bomb weaponeers. Her
description can be applied to the science culture surrounding EMR
research as follows. The EMR research and weaponeers scientific
culture is an old boys network of top scientists, experts and
advisors and military officials who control the EMR information,
propaganda and EMR research.
They believe the ends justify the means
in the case of protecting national security by developing powerful
new EMR weapons comparable to the atomic bomb. Park, the APS
spokesman and Garwin, the top JASON physicist continue to publicly
push the EMR heating effects only argument in spite of ample
scientific evidence to the contrary. This public bully pulpit has
been extremely effective in promoting the propaganda of no EMR
health effects, rather than a balanced debate.
Mike Repacholi, head
of the World Health Organization's EMF Project broke the standard
rules of conflict of interest and sat on power line industry boards
at the same time.
The government and military boards of advisors on EMR standards and
health effects have waged an aggressive propaganda campaign about
the “no EMR health effects” government policy and the suppression of
all potentially negative stories about health hazards related to
EMR. Slesin described numerous examples above.
Government officials routinely suppress information about possible
EMR health effects. The fact is, EMR experts have controlled
virtually all the information on EMR bioeffects in the name of
national security. Slesin explained how the USAF clearly supports
'no effects' (no EMR bioeffects are found) research over 'effects'
(EMR bioeffects results are reported) research.
They sat on the boards that set EMR health standards, consulted at
meetings, and served as expert witnesses in EMR cases. Park was also
one of the world class experts, including 6 Nobel laureates who
signed an amicus brief around 1996 which said there was no
EMF-cancer link. On page 168, Park wrote,
"The Covalt decision
(California Supreme Court ruled against the Covalts) effectively
ended EMF litigation in California and dampened the enthusiasm for
such cases nationwide. "
Park’s book presented the basic arguments
against any possible bioeffects of EMR except from heating and is
therefore important to understand. Possible health effects from EMR
have been denied and suppressed.
Lies and half truths by top EMR scientists are common place, in
order to avoid lawsuits and to perpetuate the hard line scientific
policy and government cover story of only heating effects from EMR.
John Moulder routinely testifies in court for huge consulting fees.
Slesin explained that "Moulder has been a consultant to the power,
electronics and communications industries, as well as for anyone, it
seems, who disputes the existence of EMF-induced adverse health
effects.
For years he posted his skeptical views on the health
impacts of cell phones, base stations and power lines on his Web
site, and these serve as lures for potential like-minded clients." Slesin's article, Cult of Negative Results described Moulder's
recent and very lucrative courtroom and industry consulting work.
Withholding and distorting facts and scientific evidence about EMR
in the name of national security is commonplace among top EMR
scientific officials. In his 1990 book, Crosscurrents, The Perils of
Electropollution, Dr. Robert Becker explained how and why the U.S.
government suppressed and controlled nonthermal bioeffects research
beginning with the development of radar in the 1940s:
The military organism was designed on the 10 mW standard and, once
in place, it had to be defended against the possibility of
nonthermal bioeffects. The recognition and validation of these
effects would mean the collapse of the total organism and the death
of C3I, (for command, control, communications, and intelligence)... evidence for nonthermal effects was viewed as a threat to national
security.
Control over the scientific establishment was maintained by
allocating research funds in such a way as to ensure that only
'approved' projects -- that is projects that would not challenge the
thermal-effect standard -- would be undertaken... . In some
instances, scientists were told that nonthermal effects did occur,
but that national security objectives required that they be
exceptionally well established before they became public knowledge.
All of these reports shared certain characteristics. Scientific data
indicating nonthermal bioeffects were either ignored or subjected to
extensive and destructive review... . while a statement such as
'There is no evidence for any effects of pulsed magnetic fields on
humans' would have been literally true, it would have ignored the
many reports of such effects on laboratory animals and the fact that
no actual tests had been conducted on humans.
Scientists who persisted in publicly raising the issue of harmful
effects from any portion of the electromagnetic spectrum were
discredited, and their research grants were taken away. Deployment
of powerful and exotic electromagnetic systems continues, with
little, if any, consideration given to the potential impact of these
systems on the health and safety of the public.
A more current but similar example of withholding and distorting
facts and scientific evidence about EMR in the name of national
security by top EMR scientific officials was described above in
Slesin's article the Frontline Story. The article recounted a
Department of Defense JASON report that was not clearly explained in
the misleading conclusion of the APS statement.
In conclusion, this is the more balanced but rarely heard argument
on the EMR bioeffects controversy. Thanks to Welsome’s description
of a Cold War science culture and the handful of distinguished
critics like Arkin, Becker, Brodeur, Adey, Steneck, Slesin and a few
others who spoke out, the mechanics of how the U.S. government
carried out the nonthermal bioeffects cover story, suppressed court
cases and influenced, even controlled public policy on health
effects of EMR for questionable national security goals can now be
clearly understood.
In particular, the scientific bias of the cell
phone and power line industry and the U.S. government can be
documented, understood and challenged.
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