-
- Dear Robert: I have been investigating Plum Island and
its possible connection wiith the outbreak of the ('West Nile-like') mystery
illness here in New York.
-
- I have put some of the story on Levymultimedia.com, and,
it was picked up by Sightings.com, which is Jeff Rense's site.
-
- I am not a professional investigative reporter and had
written to Lynn Samuels for help in researching Plum Island.
-
- I had first learned of Plum Island in June when I had
a chance meeting with an acquaintance who had worked there in the capacity
of a painting subcontractor. At that time we discussed the safety issues
in regard to hiring subcontractors without background checks.
-
- Lynn told me that you have a lot of information on the
NY mosquitos and also on Plum.
-
- Please, if you can share some info with me I would be
very apprecative.
-
- My theory is that there was an accident at Plum and the
virus was released. As to vector, I suspect a release of infected birds.
Whatever the vector, the migratory birds and fowl that inhabit the island
probably picked up the virus and subsequently mosquitos were also infected.
-
- I suspect that as birds began to migrate southward and
south westward to winter habiitats, they spread the virus during their
travels.
-
- At this point, it is all supposition. Even if the virus
did not escape the facility, I am not comfortable with the proposed upgrade
to biolevel 4 facility.
-
- I have been informed that there is also submarine activity
at Plum Island. I found that fact very disturbing, even though it is across
the Long Island Sound from Groton, Ct.
-
- Please let me know if you have any information that I
can use in my investiagtion.
-
- Thank you, for your time
-
- Sincerely Patricia Doyle ______________
-
- 10-2-99
-
- Dear Patricia,
-
- Here are all of my writings on Plum Island to date.
-
- Robert
-
-
- 9-27-99 Public Opposition to Toxic Spraying Grows
-
- Today the New York City Council Committee on Public Health
canceled a much anticipated hearing on the spraying of Malathion, Resmethrin
and Sumethrin, claiming that they want more information on the West Nile
Virus before proceeding. This is the same compromised, intimidated and
ineffective City Council that has said and done nothing about the spraying
for weeks.
-
- Now that the City has revised it,s diagnosis, claiming
that it wasn,t actually St. Louis Encephalitis [SLE] but a much milder
disease, West Nile Virus, the justification for repeatedly spraying the
entire population of New York City with toxic chemical gasses is even more
in doubt. The mystery of why in 1999 SLE would only crop up in NYC out
of the entire United States is now even more puzzling, as public health
officials admit that what they now claim to be West Nile Virus has never
before been reported in North America.
-
- During the past two weeks of this crisis five major news
articles and editorials appeared in the NY Times, the Daily News and Newsday
concerning the Plum Island Biological Warfare/Animal Disease lab off the
Long Island coast. These articles all followed within a few days of two
essays that I sent to the media suggesting a theory that Plum Island might
be a possible source for the so far unexplained appearance of the virus.
-
- Among the possible connections I,d suggested is that
birds routinely fly to and from Plum Island and that birds, which are the
alleged source of both viruses, are a significant part of the research
and testing done at the high security government lab. None of the articles
attempted to make any connection between the lab and the virus outbreak,
however.
-
- If the virus was in fact accidentally or deliberately
released from the lab, it,s certain that the Federal agencies in charge
would do whatever they could to suppress that fact in order to avoid public
panic, lawsuits, political fallout for elected officials and obvious questions
about why the government would choose to locate a biological warfare and
infectious disease lab right next to the most populated City in the U.S.
None of the recent articles on the lab raised any of these issues.
-
- Could the media,s reluctance to publish the scientifically
established facts about the toxicity of the chemicals being used in the
spraying, to question the locating of this dangerous facility off the NY
coast or to report on the immediate and widespread health effects of the
spraying be part of a government cover-up? Could the media, the City,s
hospitals and elected officials have been told that this was a high priority
national security issue and that they were not to reveal certain facts
or even question what was going on? Can the public now be confident that
the Mayor, his OEM {Office of Emergency Management) and the Center for
Disease Control (CDC) are telling us the truth about any of this?
-
- On November 9, 1997 the City held a military style exercise
for the OEM to practice responding to a massive chemical attack on NYC
[See: http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/oem/html/icebrief.html]. A so far unconfirmed
report I received states that in April of 1999 Jerome Hauer, the head of
Mayor Giuliani,s OEM, placed an order for more than 160,000 body bags.
If that report is true, was the Mayor,s OEM saving money by getting a bulk
price on body bags or were they anticipating the sudden death of tens of
thousands of New Yorkers?
-
- At many of his recent press conferences Mayor Giuliani
has criticized activists like myself who are publishing and distributing
information on the toxicity of the chemicals being used and questioning
the necessity of the spraying. He claims we are trying to spread hysteria
and panic and are doing so primarily because we like to see ourselves on
TV. "The mayor dismissed complaints from environmental advocates about
the spraying, referring to them as hysterical "environmental terrorists"
who "like to get you angry because it gets them on television."
The spraying is harmless, he insisted. -Daily News 9/18/99
-
- As the Mayor continued to make these now routine allegations
he launched a very public campaign of personal attacks, censorship and
threats to fire the entire board of directors of the Brooklyn Museum. The
entire NY media has described the Mayor,s statements as a political effort
designed to knock the spraying and Parks permit controversies out of the
headlines. Giuliani, who may be the nation,s top practitioner of disinformation
and propaganda, has succeeded admirably in diverting attention from his
very questionable spraying initiative and his efforts to eliminate freedom
of assembly back to the now familiar waters of his attacks on artists,
rights and freedom of speech.
-
- On 9/25/99 the syndicated PBS show, Tony Brown,s Journal,
had as its guest a former FBI agent who described the Federal government,s
plans for Y2K. These contingency plans include rounding up political activists
to prevent public panic, the imposition of martial law and the likelihood
of numerous civilian deaths at the hands of the military and the police.
Is the so called mosquito epidemic merely a warm up for what,s to come
in three months?
-
- Legitimate questions remain to be answered about what
exactly is going on in NYC. Are we being used for a gigantic biological
experiment? Are we being subject to an attempt at population control? Is
the spraying being done to kill mosquitoes or to infect the public with
viruses or chronic illness? Why, other than its usefulness as a test site,
would the government locate a biological warfare lab next to NYC? And why
is the media still tiptoeing around these issues rather than doing its
job of aggressively asking these questions and getting the public it represents
some answers?
-
- _________________
-
- Lab Focus Was On 4 Animal Diseases
-
- When the military officially closed Ft. Terry in 1954,
Army officers turned over to Plum Island scientists 134 strains of 13 viruses
collected from four continents, most obtained for development as biological
warfare weapons, Army Chemical Corps rec... Author: John McDonald; Size:
8K; 11-21-1993; Page Number: 60; Section: Newspapers & Newswires
-
- "Freedom is not a concept in which people can do
anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority.
Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to
lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do." Mayor
Giuliani, New York Times, March 17, 1994
-
- "I ask you not to create any undue or unnecessary
alarm or panic," Giuliani said at a City Hall news conference on Thursday
morning. "There's no point in not spraying, because there's no harm
in spraying. So even if we're overdoing it, there's no risk to anyone in
overdoing it...The more dead mosquitoes," he added, "the better.
I don't think the media should try to push this out of proportion. NY Times
9/10/99
-
- "City health officials estimate, based on experience
elsewhere, that even in areas where the disease has been found, only 1
in every 1,000 mosquitoes carries the virus, and even if a person is bitten
by an infected mosquito, the odds of becoming ill are only 1 in 300. 9/11/99
NY Times Editorial, "When Mosquitoes Bear Disease
-
- "Malathion is a nerve gas...in the same family as
nerve gasses developed during WWII -NY Times 9/14/99
-
- Dr. Erika Schwartz of SUNY Downstate Brooklyn [referring
to West Nile Virus] says "It's much milder than St. Louis Encephalitis,
and the St. Louis is already mild. So you get flu-like symptoms, you get
headaches, muscle aches, you don't feel well. It's self-limited so it goes
away by itself, so in 24 to 48 hours it goes away and you don't even get
diagnosed." 9/25/99 NY1 NEWS
-
- [The following resolution [here in an abridged form]
was passed by the Full Board of Community Board #2, Manhattan, on September
23, 1999.]
-
- REGARDING THE SPRAYING THE CITY WITH MALATHION TO KILL
S.L.E. MOSQUITOES
-
- WHEREAS, in response to an outbreak of St. Luis Encephalitis
(S.L.E.), a mosquito-borne, sometimes life-threatening disease, the City
has undertaken a program of repeatedly spraying by air and truck the five
boroughs of the City of New York with Malathion and other pesticides; but
WHEREAS, while government, scientific, medical and academic experts caution
that Malathion is a poison which must be used under strict safety guidelines
to prevent human and animal contact, the Mayor has nonetheless described
this neurotoxin as "harmless in public announcements; and
-
- WHEREAS, in addition, the City,s program has not undertaken
to educate people on precautions to prevent contact with Malathion, including
wash-downs of playground equipment after spraying, as is done in Los Angeles
County and other jurisdictions where spraying is taken more seriously;
and the Mayor,s community notification program has not been comprehensive,
timely or accurate, with the consequence that parents with children in
playgrounds, and others, have been sprayed directly with Malathion, because
they were misinformed by the published spraying schedule; and
-
- NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Community Board #2,
Manhattan urges the Mayor to immediately undertake a high priority, aggressive
and accurate program of public notification and education, including neighborhood
posting outdoors and in stores and community centers, both to prevent exposure
of people and animals to Malathion and other insecticides and to enlist
the public in eliminating sources of standing water where mosquitoes breed;
and in pest prevention and public education; and BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED
that Community Board #2, Manhattan urges our Mayor to stop referring to
Malathion as "harmless. (Submitted by Ann Arlen, Chair, Environment
& Public Health Committee) Septeber 23, 1999 ____________________
-
- Malathion information sites: http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/Biology/4S03/malathio.htm
-
- http://www.chem-tox.com/malathion/plane/default.htm
-
- http://www.chem-tox.com/malathion/
-
- http://www.chem-tox.com/malathion/research/index.htm
-
- http://www.ncchem.com/malathion.htm
-
- http://unix.adept.net/~mcsinfo/genetic.htm
-
- http://members.tripod.com/C_E_A_S_E/framesindex.htm
-
- _____________________
-
- The following letter is reprinted from Brooklyn Bridge
Magazine Sept/Oct issue pg 12 Letters to the editor:
-
- "Frances Genovese,s "Giuliani,s Brooklyn Boyhood
(Brooklyn Bridge Magazine, Summer 1999), despite being a puff piece, shows
the origins of the Mayor,s repressive upbringing, his violent, hot-tempered
father and excessively admiring mother. In other words it shows the origins
of the Mayor,s repressive policies towards minorities (they moved out of
Brooklyn when blacks moved into the hood), his overwhelming egoism, his
school uniform obsession, his violent temper and his belief that, like
him, we must all blindly obey authority. Unfortunately, these values are
not those of most New Yorkers. We believe in equality, free speech and
smashing phony politicians like Giuliani. Too bad he can,t be Mayor of
a small town in Serbia; he,d probably like it a lot better and be far more
appreciated by his constituents.
-
- ____________________
-
- 9/16/99 Did the St. Louis Encephalitis virus originate
in the U.S. Government,s Animal Disease/Biological Warfare Laboratory off
Long Island, NY?
-
- "Currently this is the only evidence of transmission
of St. Louis Encephalitis to humans that,s been reported around the country.
-Dr. Roger S. Nasci, an expert from the Federal Center for Disease Control
on the NYC Encephalitis crisis. 9/15/99 Channel 13 Newshour with Jim Lehrer
-
- Two miles off the coast of Long Island, Plum Island,
N.Y. is home to the U.S. Government,s Plum Island Animal Disease/Biological
Warfare Center. This high security Federal facility does research and development
on biological agents used for germ warfare and in viral animal diseases
and has a long history of safety problems.
-
- Could Mayor Giuliani,s insistence on repeatedly dousing
the City with a toxic chemical, Malathion, have a connection to something
being released either accidentally or deliberately from this facility?
The mosquitoes supposedly infected with encephalitis and all of the original
cases of infection were in one area of Queens. Was that because of its
proximity to Long Island and the Biological warfare lab? There is no history
of St. Louis Encephalitis in NYC. Why is the disease currently present
here but nowhere else in the U.S.? Is the Mayor hiding something from the
people of New York City that we have a right to know? -Robert Lederman
-
- A partial list of Newsday articles on the Plum Island
Laboratory.
-
- Lab Focus Was On 4 Animal Diseases When the military
officially closed Ft. Terry in 1954, Army officers turned over to Plum
Island scientists 134 strains of 13 viruses collected from four continents,
most obtained for development as biological warfare weapons, Army Chemical
Corps rec... Author: John McDonald; Size: 8K; 11-21-1993; Page Number:
60; Section: Newspapers & Newswires
-
- Plum Island Safety Check Feds order audit, citing neglect
at animal disease lab By John McDonald. STAFF WRITER Neglect of systems
designed to keep highly contagious foreign livestock viruses from escaping
and other safety problems discovered... Author: John McDonald; Size: 5K;
04-07-1994; Page Number: A07; Section: Newspapers & Newswires
-
- Spores Over Easy Plum Island team attacks killer viruses
with frying pans By John McDonald. STAFF WRITER In preparation for opening
the windows in a wing of a Plum Island laboratory for the first time in
four decades, Agriculture Department officials ye... Author: John McDonald;
Size: 4K; 05-22-1993; Page Number: 07; Section: Newspapers & Newswires
-
- Security on Plum Island Must Be Taken Seriously The French
no longer transport social menaces to Devil's Island in the Atlantic off
the coast of South America, but the strategy of island isolation is far
from obsolete. Plum Island in the Atlantic just off the tine of Long Island's
North Fork is h... Author: Amos Perlmutter; Size: 2K; 01-04-1993;
-
- Vacco Suit: Plum Isle Polluting The top-secret animal
disease center on Plum Island is illegally discharging too much waste into
Long Island Sound and potentially harming aquatic life, state Attorney
General Dennis Vacco charges in a lawsuit against the federal government.
Filed... Author: Jerry MarkonSamson Mulugeta contributed to this story;
Size: 4K; 05-03-1998; Page Number: A36; Section: News
-
- Plum Island Cited By EPA Research center to study cleanup
By John McDonald. STAFF WRITER The Plum Island Animal Disease Center has
been cited for violating federal environmental laws, and lab officials
have agreed to spend up to $150,000 for a two-y... Author: John McDonald;
Size: 4K; 03-12-1993; Page Number: 22; Section: Newspapers & Newswires
-
- Plum Island Lab Cleanup Missed Pipes Elaborate decontamination
efforts undertaken to prepare a laboratory wing at the Plum Island Animal
Disease Center for construction work failed to stop potentially contaminated
debris from being trucked to a staging site for shipment off the island,...
Author: John McDonald; Size: 3K; 08-04-1993; Page Number: 22; Section:
Newspapers & Newswire
-
- Plum Island Bird Kill Probed The discovery of the remains
of at least 10 dead birds in a courtyard of Plum Island's research laboratory
for exotic animal diseases is being investigated by Agriculture Department
scientists. Workers renovating a wing of the laboratory that last ... Author:
John McDonald; Size: 3K; 07-02-1993; Page Number: 22; Section: Newspapers
& Newswires
-
- Lab to Try New Recipe Decontamination fails; another
attempt readied By John McDonald. STAFF WRITER The frying pan method for
decontaminating a laboratory on Plum Island failed to kill test spores,
so another attempt will be made this weekend after ... Author: John McDonald;
Size: 4K; 05-27-1993; Page Number: 06; Section: Newspapers & Newswires
-
- War on Spores at Plum I. Lab Workers with oxygen tanks
and protective clothing were slowly removing some 600 spore strips yesterday
from a wing in a Plum Island Laboratory for testing that will determine
whether decontamination has taken place. Claude G. Crawford, director of
... Author: Don Smith; Size: 2K; 05-25-1993; Page Number: 21; Section:
-
- Plum Is The Word In Russian For more than an hour, Russian
germ-warfare experts poked, probed and prodded officials of the Plum Island
Animal Disease Center yesterday to try to determine if it complies with
the international ban on biological weapons development, but the chief...
Author: John McDonald; Size: 3K; 03-03-1994; Page Number: 24; Section:
Newspapers & Newswires
-
- _________________
-
- Giuliani Intimidating NY Media Into Silence on Malathion
-
- [A press conference to announce a class action lawsuit
to immediately stop further spraying of Malathion on NYC is confirmed for
Thursday, 9/16/99 at 1 pm at the office of Joel Kupferman 315 Broadway,
suite 200 Buzzer #1 Environmental Law & Justice Project, 2 blocks North
of Chambers St.]
-
- Reporters needn,t look very far for detailed scientific
information about the toxicity of Malathion. Below are links to websites
which contain thousands of pages of information on this toxic chemical.
But even a careful reading of the press releases issued by Mayor Giuliani
and the NYC Dept. of Health [http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/doh/home.html]
about the SLE epidemic will make an objective observer call into question
the wisdom and legitimacy of the Mayor,s mass spraying policy. From the
Mayor,s own statements and those of his aides and from the Dept. of Health
press releases it,s clear that:
-
- 1. Only 3 people have died from SLE (St. Lois Encephalitis)
during this crisis. 2. The CDC can,t find any mosquitos with SLE. 3. Of
the hundred or so reported cases of SLE so far all but 11 are admitted
to have been falsely diagnosed. 4. There is therefore, no epidemic. 5.
If there was an SLE epidemic, most people who were infected would recover
within a few days or would not even know they were sick. 6. Malathion,
despite the Mayor,s insisting otherwise, is not "completely safe
or "harmless. The Federal government has warned Malathion manufacturers
that they may not claim it to be "safe or "harmless.
-
- "Peter Lehner, the top environmental lawyer in the
office of Eliot L. Spitzer, the New York State Attorney General, said...it
was important not to gloss over the fact that malathion is a chemical that
was designed to kill things, that it had sickened people in the past and
that the Federal Environmental Protection Agency prohibits those who sell
any pesticide from describing it as harmless. "The E.P.A. clearly
says don't call these things harmless, because they are not," Lehner
said yesterday. He said his office yesterday called the City Law Department
to encourage city officials to change the way they describe malathion.
-NY Times 9/14/99
-
- What the Mayor and his team of experts means by "safe
in this instance and what the average person thinks safe means are very
different. The so-called safety of Malathion depends on its concentration.
Sufficiently diluted it,s unlikely to cause immediate death even if a person
were directly sprayed. However, even diluted and in small doses the spray
causes allergic reactions, temporary blindness, neurological disorders,
rashes, chromosomal abnormalities and asthmatic attacks. Exposure to asbestos
or low level nuclear radiation won,t kill you immediately either but they
are hardly safe or harmless substances you,d want yourself or your children
to be exposed to.
-
- For years Malathion has been known to cause genetic defects
and illnesses such as cancer and infertility and a weakening of the immune
system. Malathion exposure is particularly harmful to those with an already
weakened immune system because their bodies are much less able to eliminate
the neurotoxin. Malathion exposure is therefore especially dangerous for
people with AIDs, the elderly, very young children and those with athsma,
a significant percentage of New York City,s population.
-
- Malathion sensitization is cumulative. Repeated exposures
make a person more susceptible to the harmful effects. According to the
Mayor,s own press releases the SLE virus is only fatal in people with weakened
immune systems. Repeatedly spraying Malathion on 8 million New Yorkers,
which the Mayor has promised us he will do, and the likely damage to our
immune systems it will cause, may actually make the likelihood of an SLE
or other viral epidemic much greater here in the future. Perhaps, that,s
what this is all intended to accomplish in the first place.
-
- It would seem there,s far more to this "epidemic
than the Mayor or apparently, the media, are willing to let the public
know. -Robert Lederman
-
-
- From: NEWSDAY http://www.lihistory.com/specdisc/displum.htm
Danger Is Their Business At Plum Island, government scientists research
three of the deadliest biological threats to livestock
-
- <PictureUSDA Photo, 1971 High-security equipment includes
hoods with an inward flow of air to keep viruses from escaping.
-
- <PictureNewsday Photo, 1993/Kathy Kmonicek The island
is an isolated spot where winds blow out to sea. By Robert Cooke Staff
Writer AT PLUM ISLAND, they make an art of isolation.
-
- For the sake of biological safety, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture's Plum Island Animal Disease Center sits on a small island
located almost two miles offshore, across the choppy waters of Plum Gut
from the tip of Long Island's North Fork. There, day in and day out, the
staff works on the inner intricacies of three animal viruses -- foot and
mouth disease, African swine fever and vesicular stomatitis. All three
represent threats to America's livestock industry, so they must be rigidly
isolated during research.
-
- In 1948, after foot and mouth disease was eliminated
from the United States, Congress ordered construction of an animal disease
research laboratory in an isolated place. One reason Plum Island was chosen,
historians have said, is that the winds around it generally blow toward
the ocean, so if any microbes escape, they are unlikely to reach land.
-
- The laboratory opened its doors in 1954, and research
began. Documents suggest that some of the early animal disease research
was done with biological warfare in mind. The "intended" targets
of the bioweapons being studied were the livestock on which the former
Soviet Union was very dependent, the Army wrote in 1951.
-
- All offensive biowarfare research in the United States
was halted in 1969 by President Richard Nixon, however. The major center
for America's biowarfare research was at Ft. Detrick, Md.
-
- At present, the Plum Island laboratory is internationally
known for its highly secure research on animal diseases. So much effort
goes into biological security, in fact, said former staff member Tilahun
Yilma, that Plum Island has "the cleanest federal employees you can
find on Earth." Yilma now does research at the University of California,
Davis.
-
- He said cleanliness and security are so strongly enforced
at Plum Island that workers must strip naked, and then don clean "government
clothes" on their way into the laboratory every morning. And on their
way out, he said, employees are scrubbed clean, right down to their fingernails,
before they get their own clothes back. (The three animal diseases under
study now rarely affect humans.)
-
- Also, Yilma said, everything that isn't human gets sterilized
thoroughly, twice in an autoclave, before leaving the facility.
-
- The laboratories are designed so they have "negative
pressure," meaning that if there is an air leak, the air flows into
the laboratory rather than out. That precaution, meant to keep dangerous
microbes from getting out, is standard in highly secure laboratories.
-
- "The center of the laboratory is used for housing
the animals" that are used in virus studies, Yilma said, and that
area "is under the most negative pressure. As you go toward the periphery,
it becomes less and less" depressurized.
-
- Inside the laboratories is standard high-security equipment,
such as fume hoods and "special hoods where you work with viruses."
And two kinds of decontaminants are used to clean equipment. "There
are acids for agents such as foot and mouth disease, and others like lye
for severely acid-resistant agents like swine vesicular disease."
-
- Decontamination with the acids involves the use of glove
boxes made for working directly with virus samples.
-
- While he was at Plum Island, Yilma was working on a genetically
engineered virus -- vaccinia -- that has since been developed into a potent
vaccine against a major cattle disease, rinderpest. Yilma said he hopes
the vaccine will begin to be used on a wide basis in eastern Africa.
-
- Animal physiologist George Seidel, at Colorado State
University, said having an animal disease research center such as Plum
Island "is obviously a very important thing. They concentrate on exotic
diseases not normally found in this country. The diseases aren't here,
but if they should get in, we'll have a backlog of research and expertise
to deal with them."
-
- So in a sense, Seidel said, Plum Island "is best
thought of as a superimportant insurance policy for the livestock industry."
-
- Torres said the laboratory also trains veterinarians
and other animal health specialists, develops novel vaccines and identifies
improved testing methods. The laboratory also maintains the North American
foot and mouth disease vaccine bank.
-
- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed
a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research
and educational purposes only.
-
- The following is a review of a novel that deals with
Plum Island,s Biological Warfare Facility From: http://www.mysteryguide.com/bkDemilleIsland.html
-
- REVIEW Rating: 4 (Very good)
-
- Recuperating from near-fatal gunshot wounds at his uncle's
house on Long Island, New York homicide detective John Corey is hired as
a consultant to investigate the double murder of Tom and Judy Gordon, brilliant
biologists employed at the nearby secured government research facility
on Plum Island. The Gordons' access to deadly germs and their overextended
finances suggest the killings may be linked to an attempt to sell biological
weapons -- germs now in the hands of their killer. To prevent panic, government
authorities release an official cover story that the Gordons must have
smuggled a newly-developed vaccine from the laboratory to sell to private
industry for profit. Wisecracking Corey, a friend of the deceased couple,
doesn't buy the official explanation. Although technically dismissed from
the case, he continues working independently to clear the Gordons' reputations
and find their killer, using his own irreverent and often eccentric methods
to dodge the authorities. He recruits the reluctant help of Suffolk County
homicide detective Beth Penrose, a by-the-book, no-nonsense cop. Corey
decides he's in love with Penrose, but his quirky attitudes and behavior
leave everyone wondering when he's serious. While recently divorced Beth
is trying to figure him out, a major complication foils their would-be
romance.
-
- Expert storyteller Nelson DeMille comes through with
one of the best versions to date of his blend of adventure, intrigue, humor,
and romance. The history and lore of rural Long Island provide a stark
contrast to the high-tech secret government research facility; while the
threat of a killer on the loose with plague-causing bacteria keeps the
stakes high and fuels the suspense. Although the main characters' visit
to the Plum Island facility (complete with detailed descriptions of biocontainment
procedures) lasts just a little too long, the pace picks up later with
some dramatic action scenes. DeMille slowly reveals the grim truth of how
the Gordons, a couple who seemed to have everything going for them, were
lured into the dark conspiracy that led to their deaths.
-
- _________________
-
-
- Long Island's Nearby Plum Island Eyed for Deadly Testing
By Leo Standora Daily News Staff Writer 9-21-99
-
- Government scientists want to turn Plum Island off eastern
Long Island into a testing ground for some of the most deadly microbes
in the world, it was reported today.
-
- In a scenario that sounds like a cheap fright-movie script,
the 840-acre, pork-chop-shaped stretch of land in the Atlantic would become
an animal testing ground just a stone's throw from the Hamptons, the summer
playground of the rich and famous.
-
- The Agriculture Department has asked for money to build
a heavily protected lab on the island and the Clinton administration is
considering it, The New York Times reported.
-
- Administration officials say the lab would be part of
a new effort to combat terrorists who might use germ warfare on American
crops or livestock.
-
- The island already is what scientists call "a bio-safety
level three" center.
-
- That means its containment areas, which hold germs dangerous
mostly to animals but sometimes to humans, have filtered air, sealed doors
and negative air pressure that forces any leaked germs back into the labs.
-
- It's possible that if scientists used protective decontamination
suits, like those in the movie "Outbreak," and breathe only filtered
air, they could work with even more dangerous pathogens that can affect
humans.
-
- Among those are the Hendra virus that afflicts horses
and the Nipah virus, which has already killed more than 100 people.
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- ________________
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- Did the St. Louis Encephalitis virus originate in the
U.S. Government,s Animal Disease/Biological Warfare Laboratory off Long
Island, NY?
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- By Robert Lederman 9-16-99
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- "Currently this is the only evidence of transmission
of St. Louis Encephalitis to humans that,s been reported around the country.
-Dr. Roger S. Nasci, an expert from the Federal Center for Disease Control
on the NYC Encephalitis crisis. 9/15/99 Channel 13 Newshour with Jim Lehrer
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- Two miles off the coast of Long Island, Plum Island,
N.Y. is home to the U.S. Government,s Plum Island Animal Disease/Biological
Warfare Center. This high security Federal facility does research and development
on biological agents used for germ warfare and in viral animal diseases
and has a long history of safety problems.
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- Could Mayor Giuliani,s insistence on repeatedly dousing
the City with a toxic chemical, Malathion, have a connection to something
being released either accidentally or deliberately from this facility?
The mosquitoes supposedly infected with encephalitis and all of the original
cases of infection were in one area of Queens. Was that because of its
relative proximity to Long Island and the Biological warfare lab compared
to Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx? There is no history of St. Louis
Encephalitis in NYC. Why is the disease currently present here but nowhere
else in the U.S.? Is the Mayor hiding something from the people of New
York City that we have a right to know?
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