Fwd: [Fwd: [OBRL-Quarterly] Call for Letters to Editor, on HIV Controversy]

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---------- Forwarded message ----------

Patrick Crumhorn <patrik

Mar 19, 2006 4:21 PM

[Fwd: [OBRL-Quarterly] Call for Letters to Editor, on HIV Controversy]

Alobar <alobar

 

 

 

This is from a Reichian list I'm d to - thought you'd find it

of interest.

 

 

 

 

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[OBRL-Quarterly] Call for Letters to Editor, on HIV Controversy

Sun, 19 Mar 2006 13:08:15 -0800

James DeMeo <demeo

OBRL-Quarterly-owner

*OBRL-Quarterly <OBRL-Quarterly >

 

Dear OBRL-News/Quarterly Subscribers:

 

Following many years of deliberated censorship of open discussion and

debate on the " infectious HIV " theory, a firestorm has broken out

among journalists in the Northeast USA. This has followed the

publication of Celia Farber's article critical of the " infectious

HIV " theory in Harper's Magazine (March 2006), with positive

references to the work of Peter Duesberg (Professor of Cell Biology

at UC Berkeley). I've already posted a downloadable pdf copy of the

Farber article to the OBRL-News " files " section.* Below is a

subsequent article in the NY Times on the matter, followed by two

letters to the editor by Tom DiFerdinando, who also issues an open

call for others to write their own letters of support for a

re-opening of public discussion on the HIV and AIDS issue. I will

post out my own letter-to-the-editor separately, but only to

OBRL-News.

 

Aside from Farber's article in Harpers, there has been a general

black-out of open discussion on the matter, in both the popular and

scientific press. This is so, irrespective of the high death-tolls

and ignorant posturing (and demands to censor out dissent) by so many

of the leaders in the " AIDS research " and " AIDS treatment "

communities.

 

Thanks to Tom DiFerdinando for bringing this matter to our attention.

He has been indefatigable in public education efforts, and ending

censorship on the AIDS issue. Together with his small group of

associates in HEAL NY, they have been rescuing many who otherwise

were in the grips of slow iatrogenic death, and have done a hero's

job in opposing the black-out of open discussion which is today

self-imposed by science and journalism.

 

Best wishes,

 

James DeMeo

 

 

* Celia Farber is also author of the forthcoming book " Serious

Adverse Events: An Uncensored History of AIDS " due out in May. We

will try to get a few copies of it available from the OBRL on-line

bookstore, but in the meantime, we still have copies of Peter

Duesberg's books and related items. See the " AIDS " section on the

left-hand side at this website:

http://www.naturalenergyworks.net

 

 

++++++++

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/13/business/media/13harpers.html?_r=1 & oref=slogin

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/13/business/media/13harpers.html?ex=1142917200 & en\

=50f3b3118aad5556 & ei=5070 & emc=eta1

 

An Article in Harper's Ignites a Controversy Over H.I.V.

 

By LIA MILLER

Published: March 13, 2006

 

In his last issue as the editor of Harper's Magazine, Lewis Lapham

has left a parting gift for his successor: a firestorm in the media

and among AIDS researchers.

 

The source is a 15-page article in the March issue, titled " Out of

Control: AIDS and the Corruption of Medical Science, " by Celia

Farber. Ms. Farber, a longtime magazine journalist, has been a

polarizing figure because she has frequently written about the

position of " AIDS dissidents, " who argue that H.I.V. does not cause

AIDS.

 

The Harper's article centers on a clinical trial in Uganda for the

drug Nevirapine that was later criticized for poor methodology and

treatment of some test subjects. But the final third of the article

focuses on the tangentially related topic of Dr. Peter Duesberg, a

professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of

California, Berkeley, and a leading AIDS dissident, and his strained

relationship with the National Institutes of Health.

 

Soon after the article's publication, rebuttals to Dr. Duesberg's

theories and to other aspects of Ms. Farber's article were posted on

Web sites like The Nation (www.thenation.com) and www.poz.com. A

37-page document, written by eight prominent AIDS researchers, was

posted on the Treatment Action Campaign Web site (www.tac.org.za), a

group that campaigns for greater access to H.I.V. treatment in South

Africa. Harper's received a surge of letters and phone calls.

 

Roger Hodge, who will succeed Mr. Lapham at Harper's next month, said

that Mr. Lapham initially assigned Ms. Farber an article about Dr.

Duesberg's cancer research, but the assignment was changed when news

of the drug trial broke. Mr. Hodge edited the article.

 

" We knew, of course, that everyone would be upset, " he said, adding

that the article was thoroughly fact-checked. " This is a very

contentious subject. We have gotten some very, very thoughtful

responses. But other pieces have generated a lot more mail. "

 

John P. Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the

Weill Medical College of Cornell University and one of the authors of

the Treatment Action Campaign's rebuttal, said he was shocked when he

first saw the article. He said it seemed apparent that Mr. Hodge

wanted to " teach the controversy " of Dr. Duesberg's ideas, a

controversy that he said AIDS researchers had resolved long ago. He

added that Harper's reputation had " taken an irreparable hit. " Dr.

Duesberg didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

 

Benjamin Ryan, an editor at large at HIV Plus magazine who writes a

monthly health column on Gay.com, said he had lost faith in Harper's.

He said, as did many scientists, that the article was poorly

fact-checked and had glaring errors.

 

Ms. Farber says that neither she nor Harper's endorse Dr. Duesberg's

position, but that she is simply reporting on an unpopular view.

" People can't distinguish, it seems, between describing dissent and

being dissent, " she said.

 

" I'm very familiar, since 20 years, with the hysteria end of the

spectrum, the rage that breaks out when one touches certain tenets of

dogma, " she wrote in an e-mail message. " Anger has been the dominant

emotion in AIDS for a long time, almost the only emotion that seems

to really function. Anger is connected to fear. I understand it. I'm

used to it. I hope we can transcend it. "

 

Mr. Hodge said the magazine stood behind the article and Ms. Farber.

 

" The fact that she's been covering this story does not make her a

crackpot - it makes her a journalist. She's a courageous journalist,

I believe, because she has covered the story at great personal cost. "

 

++++++++

 

Tom DiFerdinando

 

Dear Friends,

 

With the publication this month of Celia Farber's Harper's Magazine

article " Out of Control: AIDS and the Corruption of Medical Science "

(www.harpers.org ), and a follow-up acknowledgement in the New York

Times Monday March 13th " An Article in Harper's Ignites a Controversy

Over HIV " , a real opportunity to engage the AIDS Establishment has

opened up:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/13/business/media/13harpers.html

 

This letter is meant as a time-dependent rallying call, reminding all

those who care about the HIV/AIDS issue - and who may be unaware of

what is presently happening - that in over twenty years, these

opportunities have been few and far between. Indeed, it's already

been over five years since President Mbeki began his summer 2000

attempt to slow the AIDS industry's juggernaut in South Africa.

 

So enter Harper's magazine. Harper's has done a great service to

everyone concerned with the HIV debate: whether you're coming from

the humanitarian angle, the activist angle or the scientific angle,

it has provided us an opportunity to engage the central defenders of

the AIDS industry from inside their own ranks. The proof that they

have been rattled is in their rapid and vociferous responses to the

Harper's article, particularly in the guise of their official

rebuttal " Errors in Celia Farber's March 2006 Article in Harper's

Magazine " , written by figureheads as varied as Robert Gallo, Nathan

Geffen and Gregg Gonsalves: http://www.tac.org.za/ (click " rebuttal " )

 

Although most of our books, rebuttals, letters and articles with

their impeccable challenges to the AIDS Establishment have, over the

years, gotten swallowed up unnoticed into the HIV hysteria like a

drop of water in a tidal wave, one may well ask what it is that

justifies a renewed effort at this time. The answer is simple:

although challenges to the HIV myth at the media fringe can be well

tolerated by the AIDS Establishment, dissenting discussion from

WITHIN the machinery confuses, disorients and agitates it. Not only

were the HIV/ARV advocates clearly unsettled by the Harper's article,

right now they are sitting a little happier, having temporarily

quelled their cognitive dissonance with their rebuttal and it's " 56

errors " .

 

I am appealing here to ALL - AND I TRULY MEAN ALL - who are concerned

with the AIDS debacle and its far-reaching consequences. Whether you

are new to these " dissenting " arguments or have been instrumental in

constructing them; whether credentialed, un-credentialed, activist,

scientist, parent or simply a truly concerned citizen: we need to

make migraines out of the headaches these Establishment leaders are

presently suffering and we need to make sure their smug rebuttal

comes back to haunt them.

 

In practical terms, please consider writing two immediate letters if

you haven't already done so:

 

Firstly, send a brief (150 words or less) letter to Harper's, in

support of publication and hopeful follow-up of Celia's article " Out

of Control " : letters

 

Secondly, send one to the New York Times, applauding them for their

fair-minded reporting on this controversial subject and then

encouraging them to CONTINUE to cover it: letters (Please

consider to cc your letter to the publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.:

publisher the reporter Lia Miller: Lia the

Times Readers' Representative Byron Calame: public and

the " corrections and clarifications " editor Mark Getzfred:

getzfred )

 

I am well aware that people are busy. But I'm writing solely to

EMPHASIZE that opportunities like this one really are few and far

between. Please put in a little extra effort right now to help

intensify the charge and keep the HIV/AIDS Establishment on the run.

 

If you would like, please send or bcc me copies of your letters and

whether or not they got published, so that I can catalogue them for a

separate web page. You are welcome - and encouraged - to circulate

this call to any appropriate email groups or lists.

 

Thank you,

Tom DiFerdinando

Executive Director

HEAL, New York City

tdhealnyc

 

++++++++

 

Tom DiFerdinando

 

letters

Thank you for the Celia Farber AIDS article

Sat, 04 Mar 2006

 

Dear Harper's,

 

Thank you for the publication of Celia Farber's piece on AIDS fraud

and misrepresentation " Out of Control " . It is rare when journals,

magazines, mainstream TV or radio - even alternative news sources -

have the integrity to research, and the courage to report, the

devastating facts highlighted by Ms. Farber; they just press upon too

many sensitive political, economic and emotional issues for too many

political, economic and emotional people.

 

I have worked the front lines of this controversy myself for fifteen

years, having counseled many thousands of " HIV+ " and " AIDS-diagnosed "

individuals around the world, attending, producing and speaking at

many " alternative " AIDS conferences, especially here in New York

City; what Farber describes in print is borne out by my direct

experience 100%. It is fear and medicine in the West, and fear and

poverty (and nevirapine) in Africa and elsewhere that are killing

people, not " HIV " .

 

Harper's can also expect to become the target of a childish,

hysterical backlash from AIDS activists who would face a major loss

of identity, and harsh criticisms from the medical doctors and public

health officials who would face a major loss of prestige and income -

not to mention possible criminal charges - if the public begins to

investigate the facts for themselves. Nonetheless, we cannot continue

to ignore or rationalize away the horrific effects of these drugs on

babies and pregnant woman.

 

Thank you again,

Tom DiFerdinando

New York City

Executive Director

HEAL (Health-Education-AIDS Liaison)

tdhealnyc

 

++++++++

 

Tom DiFerdinando

 

letters

Cc recipients Cc: publisher, Lia,

public, getzfred

thanks for report on harper's hiv article controversy

Sat, 18 Mar 2006

 

Dear Editor,

 

Thank you for Lia Miller's fair and balanced reporting on the

Harper's Magazine firestorm " An Article in Harper's Ignites a

Controversy Over HIV " (March 13, 2006). The question of AIDS

causation and treatment in general and Dr. Peter Duesberg's

involvement in particular has indeed been contentious.

 

But please note that the source of the present controversy lay not

with journalists like Harper's Celia Farber and their outstanding and

indefatigable reportage of disturbing facts and fraud; it has been

with those who, for twenty five years now, insist on inventing,

omitting and re-positioning the facts to conform to very powerful,

socially pre-existent political, economic and sexual-emotional

agendas.

 

This truly is an explosive issue, and I strongly encourage the Times

and reporter Lia Miller to continue this investigation into a

situation that has in itself - far more than any " mysterious virus " -

caused the unnecessary death and suffering of so many.

 

Tom DiFerdinando

New York City

Executive Director, HEAL

(Health Education AIDS Liaison)

tdhealnyc