Science Guardian

Satirist Girodian tries to advance discussion with humor, but tends to overkill

Paradigm now so thoroughly deconstructed that laughter is best medicine in HIV∫AIDS, but it is difficult

Over at YBYL, Lee Evans adds milder plea

Marcel Girodian is a mysterious figure who some years ago took up writing little satirical news items which he emailed around to amuse Peter Duesberg and other stars of the galaxy of people who, with unending justifications produced by reviewing the mainstream scientific literature, deny the sense and the validity of the global HIV∫AIDS paradigm, as promulgated, promoted and pontificated by Anthony Fauci, Robert Gallo, John P.Moore and other suns of illumination in the science of AIDS, who thereby label them “denialist” as if they were Holocaust denialists instead of supporters of good science supported by the literature.

Time to laugh and move on

That’s another story, of course, so interminably elucidated in the posts here over the last two years, which are now so innumerable in favor of a Congressional committee investigation into this expensive and frankly murderous gallop down a cul de sac of science that we are now inclined to expand the coverage of this modest little corner of enlightenment in the vast Web universe on other topics, such as global warming, the origin of the universe and other more interesting and challenging topics, where there are more complicated pros and cons.

For the dispute about the validity of HIV as the cause of AIDS is now so one sided in terms of reason and accumulating evidence that not much more can be said, except to point out that John P. Moore is one of the great truthtellers and critics of the HIV∫AIDS paradigm, contrary to his public reputation as the chief scientific goon perpetrating social and intellectual violence on behalf of the conventional wisdom on which his macaque research depends. We will demonstrate this point – that Moore is in fact a heroic closet AIDS dissident - in one of our next posts.

With the HIV∫AIDS theory now as dead in the minds of readers who have paid attention as the parrot in the famous Monty Python sketch, it is time in fact to laugh at the Ministry of Silly Walks (NIAID) scientific rationalizations which are used as crumbling pillars of support for the aging paradigm platform which is creaking and swaying beneath the feet of Fauci et al as they try to maintain the flow of public and drug company funds into this unproductive and rather fetid scientific backwater. (Anyone interested in supporting this inflow should join the May 20 AIDS Walkathon in Central Park, New York City.)

Marcel strikes again

That’s where Marcel Girodian comes in. We need to turn from crying about this outrage to reason and independent thought to laughing at the human tragi-comedy of it all. We need in fact, a satirist, and Girodian is the man. We were reading one of the best of his earlier efforts the other day, “Gallo Discovers A New Virus” (click Show)

FAMED AIDS SCIENTIST DISCOVERS NEW VIRUS

By Gina Kolada
The New York Times

Washington D.C. (December 4)–Dr. Robert Gallo,
discoverer of the AIDS virus, stunned the scientific
community today with the discovery of a new virus that
is possibly even more deadly than HIV.

Speaking at an internationally televised press
conference in the Georgetown Hilton, Gallo announced
that he had discovered the virus responsible for the
biggest scourge of mankind–malnutrition.

“It’s simply not true that malnutrition is caused by
not having enough food to eat,” the famed virologist
said. “Our ground-breaking discovery proves that it is
caused by a sexually-transmitted virus.”

Gallo, who has often been described as a genius, gave
the assembled press corps a glimpse of his thinking:
“I knew that malnutrition couldn’t be caused by lack
of food,” he said. “Everybody knows that globalization
has raised living standards for all the world’s
people, with agencies like the World Bank and IMF
making sure that people in places like Indonesia and
Sri Lanka make very affluent livings making sneakers
and t-shirts for Wal-Mart and K-Mart.”

“So it had to be a virus. Sure enough, we found a new
retrovirus in the blood and semen of sexually active
malnourished people from third world countries. Our
experiments prove that in infected people, the virus
eats the food before the person can utilize it. Those
bloated stomachs children in Africa get are not due to
lack of food–it’s the virus getting fatter and fatter
while the person starves.”

He added, “This is one of the great breakthroughs in
the history of biology, comparable to Pasteur’s germ
theory and the theory of evolution.”

Asked how the millions of malnourished children in the
world could have contracted a sexually transmitted
malnutrition virus, Gallo said, “Simple. These childen
have been sexually abused. Their parents should all be
arrested.”

Gallo said that his discovery means it is pointless
for governments and the UN to spend billions of
dollars on food aid for the poor. “All they’re doing
is feeding the virus,” he said. He called for all such
moneys to be diverted instead to the research
community, in order to develop treatments for the
virus. “With proper funding, we can develop a vaccine
for this virus within two years,” he said confidently.
“We must immediately make no less than 170 billion
dollars available to retrovirus specialists. Not to do
so would constitute an act of terrorism against all
people with malnutrition.”

The American Association of Scientific Researchers
hailed Gallo’s discovery. “It’s the disgrace of the
century that this great man has not been awarded a
Nobel Prize,” said Seth Gummowitz, the association’s
president.

The Business Roundtable, US Chamber of Commerce, World
Bank, and Association of Sweatshop Manufacturers all
lavished praise on Gallo. “This shows that the good
people who operate the international garment industry
are not to blame for people’s hunger,” said Selfishio
Grabowski, head of the Sweatshop group.

The Agribusiness Entrepreneurs Association, which has
endured years of criticism for paying sub-minimum
wages to migrant farm workers, also praised Gallo.
“Everybody has plenty of money for food,” said
Gadabout Pincharama, the association’s secretary.
“It’s too bad that some people have the Malnutrition
Virus, but that’s not our fault.”

US Labor Secretary Wolf Bumby seconded the opinion and
called for a cut in the minimum wage. “These so-called
lower income workers have been feeding off the
government long enough,” he said to reporters aboard
his government jet as he flew to the South of France
to attend a labor conference. “They can get by with
just one Cadillac instead of two. Gallo’s brilliant
discovery should be used to re-think all areas of
government policy.”

The Pharmaeutical Manufacturers’ Association
immediately announced that it would start work on
drugs and a vaccine to fight the malnutrition virus,
as soon as research funds were made available by the
taxpayers.

Apparently awed by Gallo’s discovery, Senator Hugh
Drango of Texas, chairman of the Senate Agriculture
Committee, proposed legislation that would empower the
National Parks Service to build a giant statue of Dr.
Gallo in a prominent place in the capital area. Drango
suggested that the statue should be Eiffel Tower-sized
and should bestride the Beltway at the exit that leads
to the congressional office buildings. “Everyone in
government should draw inspiration from the example of
Bob Gallo,” he said. “He is what this town is all
about.”

c 2001 by satirist Marcel Girodian

from 2001 and chuckling when another arrived in the email from the intrepid author, so here it is.

Senator Obama Accused of Terrorism

By Marcel Girodian (see Special Note below)
The Joliet (Illinois) Tribune

Kisumu, Kenya. May 2. He’s a rising star of the Democratic party, a front-runner for the 2008 presidential nomination. Could the distinguished Senator Obama Bin Led-on also be a terrorist?

That’s what Imamu Mbulu has been saying for months. Mbulu, the director of Aids Alternatives Kenya, says that Bin Led-on has been actively terrorizing the people of his country.

“On August 26, 2006, Obama Bin Led-on steered two jets loaded with HIV tests into a fateful encounter with the people of Kenya,” said Mbulu. “The twin towers of Kenya’s greatness — her people’s optimism and solidarity — were attacked in broad daylight.”

“The impact of that event was so great, today we refer to that day as ‘8/26.’

“Here’s how Bin Led-on did it. He and his wife came here and got tested for HIV in front of the TV cameras. ‘Get tested, get tested,’ he shouted to everybody. ‘If a US senator can get tested and his wife can get tested, then everybody in this crowd can get tested! Everybody in this city can get tested!’”

“People were so impressed with Bin Led-on’s stunt, they threw caution to the wind and got tested themselves.”

Twenty-four year old seamstress Bahati Odaba tells what happened next. “I wasn’t so fortunate as Bin Led-on,” she said. “My test came up positive. When I went to my husband to be consoled, he wouldn’t touch me. He got his things and moved out of the house that night.”

“Now none of my friends will come near me, and our children are pariahs at school.”

Chiumbo Zuraaba, too, was impressed by Bin Led-on’s charisma, and got tested. After the brawny construction worker tested positive, he took the medicine that the government gave him for free, thanks to the efforts of the Clinton and Bill Gates Foundations. Within days, he got very sick, within weeks, his muscles had wasted away, and within seven months he was dead from kidney failure. “They said he must have had a very powerful strain of the virus in him,” said his son Nthanda. “But I think it was the medicine that killed him.”

Bujune Obasanjo is now what they call an “AIDS orphan.” “My mom got tested after she listened to Obama Bin Led-on,” he said. “After she tested positive, she was cryin’ all the time. She couldn’t eat, she couldn’t sleep. The authorities wouldn’t let her breast feed Samanya, my baby sister, and Samanya just got weaker and weaker on that formula they forced her to drink. Mom left a message for our grandmother to take care of us. We found her in the outhouse that night. She cut her wrists with a rusty old lid from a tin can.”

Impact of the tests

Abubakar Malaho, a single man who works as a carpenter, was also persuaded by Obama Bin Led-on to take the test. After he tested positive, his girlfriend flew the coop. He tried dating others but, knowing that he was legally required to inform people of his HIV status before having sex with them, or be charged with attempted murder, he found that nobody would sleep with him, even with a condom. He’s lost all hope of ever finding a partner. “Obama didn’t tell me that would happen,” he grumbled.

Dayo Hatingo and her husband Simba both tested positive after listening to Bin Led-on. The next day, they walked to the river and drowned their children, then themselves. They didn’t want to face the hell that their lives would surely become, being HIV+ lepers.

There are hundreds of stories like these in Kisumu, where Bin Led-on gave his demonstration.

“Most of the stories are the same,” says Mbulu. “People listened to Bin Led-on, and got tested, and when they tested positive, they collapsed into a heap of rubble on the floor, their psyches pulversized into dust, overwhelmed with depression. Nobody can survive those tests, because they take away a person’s hope for the future. They cause staggering levels of depression and stress, which are proven in the medical journals to depress the immune system. They shatter people’s lives and turn people into untouchables who just want to die and end their ordeal. It’s the test that’s deadly, not the virus.”

“Bin Led-on is assisting in what I think is a controlled demolition of the African population masquerading as ‘humanitarianism’,” Mbulu said.

He continued, “The ones strong enough to survive the initial impact of the test result later committed suicide, or died from the deadly chemotherapy drugs that Bin Led-on says are ‘life-saving.’ Mostly the drugs destroyed their livers, others died when the drugs gave them heart attacks, nerve damage, uncontrollable diarrhea, or caused their skin to come off in sheets. Meanwhile, no controlled scientific study has ever been done that has shown these drugs to prolong life when compared to a group that didn’t take them. Obama been Led-on’ about that, too.”

Mbulu was visibly trying to control his anger. “Obama also failed to mention that none of these tests detect HIV, they only detect antibodies thought to be associated with HIV. But the scientific literature demonstrates that these antibodies can be produced by any of over 70 conditions, including the common cold, pregnancy or past pregnancy, TB, many common tropical infections, and even vaccinations. Any of these common conditions might result in a ‘false positive,’ and almost all Africans have one or more of these conditions. The fact is that every HIV test comes with a disclaimer in fine print that says that the test doesn’t detect HIV and should not be used to diagnose HIV. Yet Bin Led-on never disclosed any of this information to the poor folks he urged to get tested! Just like Jim Jones, he said ‘Listen to me, I’m your leader. Drink the Kool-Aid, drink the Kool-Aid’!”

In addition, Bin Led-on didn’t tell people that the testing protocols used to stigmatize people as HIV+ outcasts in the Third World are not approved to diagnose HIV in Bin Led-on’s native US, according to Mbulu. Because of this double standard, many people who test positive in Africa and Asia would not be considered positive in the US, or in Australia or France. “This is outrageous,” Mbulu said. “It’s obvious that HIV positivity is politically, not medically, defined. And Bin Led-on never would have taken that test for the TV cameras if he didn’t already know that he tests negative. No politician would take a chance like that. He knew, yet he acts like it was a big surprise, ‘Oh, I’m so happy now, I know my status!’ How dumb does he think we are?”

“This man comes here, posing as a brother, saying he’s gonna save us from the deadly virus, and in reality he’s just working for the global elitists who want to slowly kill us with chemo so the drug industry investors can profit and the elitists’ goal of population reduction can be achieved.”

“Bin Led-on also didn’t tell us that there are thousands of scientists thousands of scientists who say that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS and that the reason we are told otherwise is because medical science and the media are corrupt and in bed with politicians and the drug industry. They need to constantly have a new ‘crisis’ so they can justify giving away the taxpayers’ money to politically connected drug companies and researchers who say they can ‘fight’ the crisis. And the newspapers always need a lurid new story so they can sell their toilet paper sheets, even have drug industry tycoons on their boards of directors like the New York Times does, so they treat every dubious claim of a new crisis as if it were real, report self-serving scientific theories from corrupt researchers as if they were proven facts, and fan the flames of hysteria to boost their circulation and keep their drug industry advertisers and directors happy.”

“This man Bin Led-on says he’s one of us, but his actions indicate otherwise. On November 22, 2005, he gave a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, the Global Elitist group run by the Rockefellers, a family that is not only intimately connected to the drug industry, but practically invented allopathic, so-called ’scientific’ medicine in the early years of the 20th century by bribing medical schools so they would abandon all research into non-toxic remedies found in nature and focus instead on developing petrochemical-based toxic pills that could be patented for huge profits. Bin Led-on even remarked that he was ‘privileged’ to address the notorious Council.

“It’s too bad that people are conned by these opportunist black people whose color cloaks the reality that they secretly serve the white corporate elite,” said Mbulu. “Bin Led-on, Rice, Winfrey, Powell, Jackson, Thomas, are all just front men for the globalist power brokers. They serve as the “humane, caring” black faces for the public to see on TV, obscuring the callous rich white men behind the curtain. People think that because these sycophants are black, or women, or black women, that the policies they advocate must be ‘liberal’ and ‘compassionate.’ That’s just what their Machiavellian elitist puppetmasters want you to think!”

“If Bin Led-on cares about black folks so much, why was his first act as a US Senator, to refuse to support the Congressional Black Caucus in their challenge to Ohio’s nullification of hundreds of thousands of black voters’ ballots, an outrageous theft that helped Bush steal the election? Then Bin Led-on voted for Bush’s far right wing Supreme Court nominee, voted for a bill that makes it essentially impossible for the little people to sue huge corporations that have harmed or defrauded them, and voted to renew the Patriot Act that takes away Americans’ constitutional rights and turns the country into a virtual police state, gives the government almost unlimited powers to spy on Americans, gives the president imperial powers to arrest Americans without any evidence and hold them without trial, even strip them of their citizenship, all on the president’s say-so, with no proof and no constitutional process. Do black people really want to swallow Bin Led-on’s Kool-Aid?”

Kenyan investigators are trying to locate Obama Bin Led-on in order to hold him accountable for the many deaths caused by the events of 8/26. He is thought to be hiding in “the Cave,” a luxuriously appointed underground biosphere near Washington DC that the US government has built as a retreat for the power elite in the event of nuclear war that kills all the common people.

But tapes have surfaced that purport to show Obama Bin Led-on addressing his followers in various cities across the US. Investigators are not sure whether this is the same Bin Led-on, or a double.

Wherever Obama Bin Led-on may be, his Al-Misleadya terrorist organization still functions. One of its New York cells, run by the noted Aids terrorist Dr. John Peemore, is reportedly planning more hijac�ings of common sense and the scientific method, and consequently more deaths and misery from Hiv/Aids terrorism. Informers in the Al-Misleadya organization report that more planeloads full of HIV tests and Aids drugs are being readied for the next attacks which will be targeted at more than 10 South and Central African nations heretofore largely spared by the Aids establishment.

Informed of Mbulu’s accusations against Obama Bin Led-on, an Al-Misleadya spokesmen told the Tribune that Mbulu was just a denialist crank, and that even the liberal New York Times had refused to publish an essay Mbulu wrote that criticized Bin Led-on. “Mbulu probably also doubts that the Holocaust happened,” the spokesman said. “He’s just a web-surfing loser, and bitter about it. He doesn’t even own a car. He lives in some shack in some mosquito-infested shithole village in Africa. The Senator owns a historic $1.6 million mansion in South Chicago. He’s already raised over $30 million for his campaign. Obama Bin Led-on is a winner, he demonstrates that every black person can rise to the top of the heap.”

(SPECIAL NOTE: As comments below this article indicate, this text may not be up for long, since we changed the names Marcel used – Obama Bin Lying and Al Killya – for Osama Bin Led-on and Al Misleadya because we felt that Obama is merely misled, not actually aiming to kill people knowing that HIV is wrong, as some others do. He is, moreover, a worthy candidate for the presidency and we would hope that he can be influenced to research the HIV∫AIDS situation more deeply.

The author, however, awoke in a far time zone to find this desecration of his text inappropriate and fought to get his original names back and, when faced with resistance, to withdraw his masterwork entirely. At the time of writing we still hope he will change his mind once he has slept through another Thai night, but if not we will have to erase it from our portion of the ether. – Ed.)

More truth than jest

If anyone detects a slightly bitter tone to this comic turn, it no doubt arises from the fact that the consequences of newcomer Barack Obama’s gullibility are so deadly for the lives and happiness of so many people, especially black people in Africa, and the description is more real than invention..

Interestingly, in a breathtaking coincidence, “You Bet Your Life” has put up a little cartoon today on the same theme, Obama with Bin Laden’s face, concocted expertly by Harvey Bialy, the editor, but with a tactful appeal to Obama from Lee Evans, the Olympic athlete and black who, like us, is kindly disposed towards Barack Obama and hopes he will learn that he has made a mistake in supporting HIV∫AIDS conventional wisdom.

If there is anyone intellectually sharp enough to detect that an unprecedented giant game of Foolya for Funds is going on in HIV∫AIDS, it will be Barack Obama, who clearly has one of the most active minds in politics. We hope that Girodian’s satire and Evan’s remarks get to him somehow.

David Crowe posts on the Parenzee case

David Crowe, whose Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society site is one of the most active and helpful HIV∫AIDS truthseeking sites, has sent this commentary on the Adelaide trial to us, and we post it here (we added the bold font in places), although as readers know we cannot agree with his staunch defense of the Perth group’s doubts on HIV existence or identification. But he adds valuable detail, his listing of the points in favor of their argument on this issue is useful, and the basic complaint that Judge Sulan achieved his resolution of the conflict by dismissing the credentials of the Perth pair is clearly correct.

David has a good inside track on developments in Australia, since he is in touch with Kevin Borick, the counsel for Parenzee, who he reports is still going to appeal after sentencing, though on what grounds is not yet clear:

Thoughts on Parenzee

Judge Sulan’s ruling in the appeal of the conviction of Andre Parenzee for endangering the life of three women by having sex with them without revealing his HIV status is a triumph of authority over intelligence, of dogma over science.

His method was very simple. Deny the Perth Group members Eleni Papadopulos and Valendar Turner standing as expert witnesses, grant this to the prosecution witnesses, and then the opinions of the prosecution stand unchallenged as most legal systems only allow expert witnesses to give opinions in court.

Clearly the Perth Group upset the Judge’s delicate sensibilities. He included the most petty remarks about them in his 89 page judgement. He essentially accused Eleni of padding her resume by saying (correctly) that she was “Professor of Medical Physics at Royal Perth Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Western Australia”. He quotes the university chancellor as agreeing that this was technically correct but might lead to the impression that she was a professor at the University of Western Australia.

He also accused Eleni of exaggerating the size of the Perth Group because he found that their website listed only her and Val as contributors. A simple pubmed search would show that their papers have an extensive list of authors, some of whom, such as John Papadimitriou, David Causer, Hermann Alfonso and Barry Page, have been co-authors of enough papers that it is fair to call them members of the “Perth Group”.

The judge was also upset that Eleni presented her views in the form of a powerpoint presentation rather than a written report. His more substantial problems were that Eleni did not have an advanced degree, and that her degree was in nuclear physics and he couldn’t see the relevance to HIV or AIDS. He had a bit more of a problem with Val Turner who is an MD but he eventually settled on the fact that Val and Eleni had only studied HIV and AIDS through reading scientific papers, not knowledge through clinical trials or treating AIDS patients. Clearly science is a process of adding data to the pile and not sifting through it looking for nuggets of truth (or falsehood).

The judge gave short shrift to the argument that the views of AIDS dissidents are routinely censored, stating “Reputable journals will only publish material which has been peer reviewed and from which it can be demonstrated that recognised scientific techniques have been followed. Opinions which question scientific conclusions, if adequately researched and peer reviewed, will be accepted for publication.” This shows an incredible level of naivete on the part of the judge who is clearly not familiar with the extensive literature detailing the flaws of peer review.

Without going into too many details here are some remarks collected by the US National Institutes of Health when they were considering reform of peer review in 1999: ‘I have been on study sections and have seen members who clearly lacked expertise review proposals and grade proposals in a biased, or self-serving, or bad scientific manner‘; ‘Under the present ‘culture’, which focuses on fault finding and amplification of minor errors and discouraging innovative research, nearly all NIH funding has gone into confirming, reconfirming, and reinventing what is already known, by individuals of very little insight or talent’; ‘Unscientific grant review rhetoric never receives objective scrutiny’; ‘The AIDS and Related Research Study Section was composed of individuals with widely different areas of expertise…For the most part, we couldn’t understand the reviews written by other members of the panel’.

The judge also established another new scientific rule: that the authors of a scientific paper own the interpretation of their data. Nancy Padian might have found zero seroconversions in a 10 year study, but only Padian has the right to explain that this actually means that HIV is sexually transmitted. He also applied this rule to the recent publication of Rodriguez that found virtually no correlation between CD4 cell counts and viral load. Rodriguez has the right to twist his research into support of the HIV=AIDS theory, but the Perth Group don’t have the right to describe his findings. Same for the May et al study in Lancet (August 5, 2006) that showed no reduction in the rate of AIDS or death in people taking HAART (but an ‘improvement’ in levels of viral load). Reporting this data is wrong. Let the authors spin it to show that everyone should be on AIDS drugs (even if they don’t want to).

Eleni was excoriated for not including in her discussion of Padian’s work a recent posting on the establishmentarian website aidstruth.org. The transcript that shows that Eleni is clearly not prepared for dirty tricks like this. She did not shoot this down with a remark such as “Aidstruth.org? Is that a peer reviewed journal? I don’t believe so. If Padian wanted to recant her 1997 work surely she would publish a new paper in a peer reviewed journal. And at that point I would certainly update my review of her work.” She did not effectively deal with this tactic and bolstered the view of the judge that she was being evasive.

The judge also accused Val and Eleni of knowing too much. They claim to have studied all of HIV and AIDS, whereas the prosecution witnesses were forced on many occasions to say that they simply didn’t know. One would think that people in such senior positions would have a good overall grasp of AIDS science but, to the judge, their ignorance made them blissfully more expert.

Once the judge got rid of the Perth Group only the prosecution witnesses were allowed to give opinions (legally expert witnesses are allowed to give opinions, not other witnesses). And there was nothing to counterbalance them.

This meant that the judge didn’t need to think about the actual science which surely must have been a relief. His shaky grasp was illustrated humorously by two typos. He described Nancy Padian as “the Professor of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Canada”. She’s a professor in the department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Reproductive Sciences, but not a professor in all those subjects, let alone ‘the’ professor in those subjects. But more importantly there is no University of Canada (Padian is at UCSF).

A more serious error was his mention of the “reverse transcriptase PCA polymelias chain reaction” instead of “Reverse Transcriptase (RT) Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)”. This is almost as humorous as the Washington Post once trying to make fun of President Mbeki by reporting “phosphoral relations” instead of “triphosphorylation”. Some spelling mistakes are irrelevant and probably accidents (such as “Tenin” instead of “Temin”), but others indicate that this judge simply does not have a clue about the science and probably doesn’t want to. He just wants it off his bench.

Nancy Padian accused rethinkers of misunderstanding probability “…they think that if the chance of misfortune is one in six that they can take five chances without the likelihood of injury.” This lesson in basic probability given in the first class of any university statistics course was parroted by the judge “The very misuse of mathematical probabilities which she criticises is the methodology used by Ms Papadopulos-Eleopulos.” But what if the risk is zero, as documented by Nancy Padian? What if the risk was 1 out of 1000 (as estimated by Padian in her 1997 paper) for male to female transmission? What is the probability of transmission in a case like that of Andre Parenzee?

So what was it that the judge so fawningly accepted from the prosecution witnesses? Well, whatever they said, and even what he quoted was quite revealing.

The judge implied that HIV killed CD4 cell counts but quoted Rodriguez as saying that “Expanded efforts to identify the other elements that drive CD4 cell losses in chronic HIV infection are needed”.

The judge implied that HIV was the only cause of AIDS but cited French saying “It would therefore be more correct to state that “AIDS is caused by factors in addition to HIV”".

The judge accused the Perth Group of relying on outdated papers but allowed the prosecution to admit that these fundamental underlying papers by Gallo and Montagnier had not proved that HIV caused AIDS or that HIV had been isolated while claiming (without evidence) that later studies had closed these gaping loopholes without identifying where this important data was published.

The judge cited Gallo’s claim that while he might not have purified HIV in his original experiments that “when his team succeeded in mass producing the virus in a continuous culture, they had a great quantity of the virus with little cellular debris”. And which peer reviewed journal published the proof of this?

While the judge accused the Perth Group of being evasive and “non-responsive” to questions he let prosecution witness get away with “HIV was isolated in a 1983 paper by Montagnier’s group. It is not the way we do it now but it was done then and we now isolate HIV by other somewhat quicker techniques and so on and we do it in our lab many times a year. It is a routine procedure.” Ah, so now we know it’s true as Dr. Dwyer says its so!

The fundamental critique of the Perth Group that purification of HIV is necessary was rejected by the judge who merely said “It is the case for the applicant that, in order for the virus to be isolated, it needs to be separated from all other cellular debris. That suggestion has been refuted by Professors Cooper, Gordon and Gallo, and Dr Dwyer.” Talk of a gold standard (purification)? Piffle! “Associate Professor Dax said that the gold standard in respect of HIV could be described as the genome sequence. She expressed the view that the gold standard referred to by Dr Turner was, in her view, rather meaningless.” And the lack of photographs of purified virus? “Associate Professor Dax said that there are many photographs of the virus. She produced four slides which show different magnifications. Professor Cooper said that there are many pictures of the virus in the scientific literature.” This misses the point that photographs of impure material are not enough. But that’s okay because they got support from McDonald: “Professor McDonald said that in 1983 a gold standard had not been established, but it was very quickly established because the gene was sequenced, that it is HIV.”

This is what it boils down to. The judge accepted the statements of the prosecution experts (well, those were the only experts once the Perth Group were de-expertified) at face value despite them proffering no evidence beyond statements like “we don’t need to do that any more”, “we do it all the time”, “that was then, now is now”.

One clear error by the judge was the statement “I reject the submission that the photographs [electron micrographs] in Gallo’s earliest papers” are of contaminated virus.” This despite Gallo being forced to publish a correction over this photograph because it turned out to have been taken from a sample from Montagnier’s lab, meaning that Gallo’s 1984 Science papers did not have a single electron micrograph that was even claimed to be of HTLV-III.

Questions over the meaning of PCR in the absence of purification of the virus’s RNA were dismissed by saying “I am satisfied that the genetic testing which has been developed is specific and accurate for the identification of HIV. Professor Gordon gave clear, unequivocal evidence that the genome of the virus has been sequenced.” So the genome has been sequenced without purification because Professor Gordon said so.

Professor Cooper said “The P24 antigen of HIV is [a] unique protein”. Which I’m sure explains the science that shows that about half of all HIV antibody-positive people don’t have detectable p24 and many uninfected people do. Because Dr. Cooper said so.

Criticisms of different testing standards around the world were dismissed by “The fact that different countries may have different requirements before a person is diagnosed as HIV positive does no more than evidence [show] that different countries have different requirements before the diagnosis will be confirmed. It does not follow that people who are HIV positive in Africa are not also HIV positive when in Australia.”

He went on “As Professor Cooper pointed out, one ELISA test is sufficient because of its accuracy.” Which explains why most western countries insist on 3 ELISA tests and a Western Blot before accepting an HIV positive diagnosis. And this explains the work of Burke et al that showed that only about half of initial ELISA tests were confirmed by a second ELISA test coming up positive.

It is clear from the judge’s decision that he was made very uncomfortable by such a major challenge to the establishment and was looking for reasons to get rid of it. The fact that he wrote an 89 page judgement is an indication that it also made him nervous. Perhaps deep down he knows that he is doing the wrong thing.

Perhaps the most telling paragraph was the penultimate one: “The applicant [Andre Parenzee] presented with AIDS symptoms. His CD4 count was extremely low and his viral load count was very high. After he was prescribed antiviral medications, his CD4 count increased and his viral load decreased. He exhibited the symptoms that might be seen in a person who has contracted HIV/AIDS. He responded to antiretroviral medication in a manner that is expected and is predictable, according to mainstream experts.” This is a bald-faced lie. The truth is that Andre Parenzee went on drugs for a short time and went off very quickly due to the side effects and his increasing understanding of the AIDS myth. And if Andre was so sick with a terminal illness how could the judge consider giving him a sentence of 15 to 45 years?

From a rethinker’s perspective the judgement is a wonderful expose of how the legal system works. It should be required reading for everyone interested in legal approaches to ending the HIV=AIDS=Death dogma, everyone from lawyers, defendants to expert witnesses. The establishment will use dirty tricks, but they can be defended against if you are prepared. The judge will often be biased so he needs to be put in a position where the expert witnesses cannot be denied and where the prosecution witnesses are forced to provide real evidence, not just bald statements.

My understanding is that Kevin Borick will be finding other avenues to appeal this case after sentencing of Andre Parenzee which is expected soon. The only thing the establishment could do to avoid this would be to hand Parenzee a very light sentence, perhaps time served, at which point further appeals would be dangerous as they would risk getting a longer sentence.

Judge Sulan, are you listening? I know you surf the net at nights…

We agree completely that this experience shows that any court case will reduce to an authority fight where credentials are paramount, and defense lawyers must make sure not only that they are prepared to challenge prosecution witnesses on whether their claims are justified by the scientific literature, and demolish their credibility by showing clearly they are not, but also to preserve the credentials of their own witnesses by avoiding making claims which seem too outlandish to the judge.

For additional points on the discussion of whether Perth goes too far is denying the very existence of HIV, see the Comments on “Legally Blind”, the last post. The issue is not even whether or on what basis they are right (clearly they are not, given the work done on HIV since 1984), but the simple fact that the claim that HIV does not exist will discredit any scientific witness in any court immediately.

Perth as Achilles heel

The case for the defense was lost from the beginning by giving the judge this easy out. He was given a basis for rejecting the credentials of the Perth pair, and did so. Dispensing with all their testimony saved him the effort of comparing the prosecution testimony with the defense claims, and all the trouble of gauging whether the questions they raised on other grounds made any sense.

Despite the sterling work of the Perth group on many aspects of the HIV∫AIDS paradigm and its gaping flaws, it would have been far better as a practical matter to bring in witnesses with hands on experience and expertise in virus research to point out the simple flaws in the paradigm which rule out any real culpability on the part of the unfortunate Parenzee.

Chief among these is the plain fact that Nancy Padian, leading paradigm researcher, has demonstrated that heterosexual transmission is virtually ruled out in HIV∫AIDS, which would be expected given the extraordinarily low, in fact negligible level of actual virus (as low as one in 10 ml) seen in even “high viral load” HIV positives.

This remarkable absence, with its low likelihood of passing HIV along through conventional sex, and the parallel plain fact that HIV antibodies are overwhelmingly effective in combating HIV, together render the entire paradigm of infectious pandemic null and void, as has been made all too apparent by the Gisselquist papers we have dealt with earlier, where the somewhat independent minded HIV∫AIDS researcher desperately looks for some other way in which the pandemic in Africa might be transmitted, given the lack of heterosexual transmission.

Barbaric discrimination

But the nub of the matter is discrimination. The idea of penalizing people with barbaric sanctions for sleeping with women without informing them of a positive AIDS test is a distortion of public policy. After all, counseling is the only penalty for doing the same with syphilis and other STDs of proven danger to health.

Even without the overwhelming evidence that HIV does not cause AIDS, this is just one more way in which the unfortunate people who score HIV positive have their lives ruined for no good purpose and without justification.

Such laws have no basis in science or in statistics, and are not morally justified. To fail to make this clear was the failure of the defence in Perth, which lost the case by trying to defend the indefensible, when it was the indefensible they should have attacked.

But according to reports this was the penalty of using the two witnesses from Perth, who apparently insisted on being the only scientific witnesses for the defense, a proviso with which the family agreed.

This guaranteed the loss of the case.