It has come to my attention that several people started talking about the possibility that this new swine flu was a man made virus. Then they go on linking that with two main things: a) US new war strategy and B) Mexican internal political situation.
A) US new war strategy, where biological weapons are used. That possibility is fueled by a document by the US air force 'air force 2025'. In that document it is predicted that by 2009 there was going to be an outbreak of influenza that would eventually kill some 30 million persons.
the link to such document is here
air force 2025
Especially the report tittled 'Alternate Futures for 2025: Security Planning to Avoid Surprise' in page 68 offers the schedule for the next 16 years of so,.. the whole planning process started back in 1996.
In page 67 it says that 'Technology could not solve some old problems, as in 2009, when an influenza pandemic struck in southern China, then rapidly spread worldwide.17 Three hundred-thirty million people were affected and over thirty million died.18 No one ever determined if the virus was a natural mutation or bioengineered.19
Many feared the latter.'
Then in the following page it presents a diagram where is clear that 2009 is the year influenza strikes. It also predicts that by 2010 UN would dissolve 'due to its inability ot resolve these issues and regional conflicts'
And here is a video with an enterview with Alfredo Jalife who is an expert in geopolitics,..
In addition, there are other voices claiming that the virus was produced in a laboratory somewhere in England, then transported to US and then planted in Mexico. Furthermore, they link pharmaceutical companies with the production of such a virus. Their aim is purely monetary. Mmaking their business grow and their profits does not seem to be a credible explanation to me. However, if the mixture of business and political power is present, then things change.
For example, in the blog of Dr. Horowitz, he urges to investigate 'Dr. James S. Robertson, Englands leading bioengineer of flu viruses for the vaccine industry, and avid promoter of U.S. Government funding for lucrative biodefense contracts, along with collaborators at the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC).'
Further, a video of a call from somebody in NY uploaded onto youtube on April 12th, argues that flu viruses were transported to US.
**
Also, I found out that the company that produces 'tamiflu' happens to be owned by almost all of Bush men. Secretary Runsfield is perhaps the most notorious of them all. Here I'll reproduce a report from 2005.
**
Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu
Defense Secretary, ex-chairman of flu treatment rights holder, sees portfolio value growing.
October 31, 2005: 10:55 AM EST
By Nelson D. Schwartz, Fortune senior writer
NEW YORK (Fortune) - The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world.
Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)'s chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.
The forms don't reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47. That's made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer.
Rumsfeld isn't the only political heavyweight benefiting from demand for Tamiflu, which is manufactured and marketed by Swiss pharma giant Roche. (Gilead receives a royalty from Roche equaling about 10% of sales.) Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005.
Another board member is the wife of former California Gov. Pete Wilson.
"I don't know of any biotech company that's so politically well-connected," says analyst Andrew McDonald of Think Equity Partners in San Francisco.
What's more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world's biggest customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. Roche expects 2005 sales for Tamiflu to be about $1 billion, compared with $258 million in 2004.
Rumsfeld recused himself from any decisions involving Gilead when he left Gilead and became Secretary of Defense in early 2001. And late last month, notes a senior Pentagon official, Rumsfeld went even further and had the Pentagon's general counsel issue additional instructions outlining what he could and could not be involved in if there were an avian flu pandemic and the Pentagon had to respond.
As the flu issue heated up early this year, according to the Pentagon official, Rumsfeld considered unloading his entire Gilead stake and sought the advice of the Department of Justice, the SEC and the federal Office of Government Ethics.
Those agencies didn't offer an opinion so Rumsfeld consulted a private securities lawyer, who advised him that it was safer to hold on to the stock and be quite public about his recusal rather than sell and run the risk of being accused of trading on insider information, something Rumsfeld doesn't believe he possesses. So he's keeping his shares for the time being.
**
So, Ok,... there are few elements that allow me to be suspicious of this swine flu thing. However, all those elements are external to Mexican political reality. The question is what could possible happen for a president of a country (any country not only Mexico) to put international before national interests. I am sure that everybody loves their country and would do the best they can to protect their people and that it doesn't matter whether we are talking Mexico or China or Peru or any other country. Or at least that is what I would think.
But let's have a look at Mexican political arena for the last couple of years. and That, by the way is option B) the internal political situation and swine flu. And the question am addressing here is how B relates to A, or how the Mexican political situation relates to a breakout of a new virus and its realtion to the US new war strategy.
It does not seem a simple thing to understand. So we need to elaborate a bit for that the best way is to present a sort of events that have shaped Felipe Calderon's relationship with Mexicans.
1) Felipe Calderon and his party ran a presidential political campaign base on generating fear. They discualified Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) the leading candidate of being a 'Threat to Mexico', or in fact a more appropiate translation would be danger instead of thread. Most of what Calderon's campaign said about AMLO was based on imprecise information or plain lies.
here is one example,..
2) Vicente Fox used all the tricks in the book in order to support Calderon's campaign,.. although that is illegal under Mexican law,.. but it has been a common practice under PRI for 70 years or so,.. That explain how the institutions in charge of the elections didn't do anything to stop Calderon's propaganda.
here is a video of Fox, saying that 'it was important to stop AMLO
3) Calderon's brother in law Hildebrando was in charge of designing the software to be used to count the votes in the presidential election. Waste to say that votes had an extrange behaviour,.. where AMLO and Calderon's votes trends were an exact mirror. In otehr words, one vote less for AMLO was automatically one vote more for Calderon. In the end, there was not clarity who won,... the only option was to open the boxes with the votes and count by hand one by one,... of course Calderon and his supporters cried out that that was illegal,.. despite Mexican law allows that situation.
4) Calderon's big day,... was but a battle where he had to enter by the backdoor and be sorrounded by the secret police in order to swear in as president, despite HUGE demosntrations against him.
And just a few meters outside, there were huge demonstrations against Calderon,.. actually after the electoral fraud, a Mexican movement of Civil Resistance was formed and AMLO was elected as the legitimate president of Mexico. Even more worring for Calderon and his friends, AMLO supporters get toghether every now and then and organise protests,... criticise Calderon's acts of corruption and in short had become a real pain on the neck for the government.
A) US new war strategy, where biological weapons are used. That possibility is fueled by a document by the US air force 'air force 2025'. In that document it is predicted that by 2009 there was going to be an outbreak of influenza that would eventually kill some 30 million persons.
the link to such document is here
air force 2025
Especially the report tittled 'Alternate Futures for 2025: Security Planning to Avoid Surprise' in page 68 offers the schedule for the next 16 years of so,.. the whole planning process started back in 1996.
In page 67 it says that 'Technology could not solve some old problems, as in 2009, when an influenza pandemic struck in southern China, then rapidly spread worldwide.17 Three hundred-thirty million people were affected and over thirty million died.18 No one ever determined if the virus was a natural mutation or bioengineered.19
Many feared the latter.'
Then in the following page it presents a diagram where is clear that 2009 is the year influenza strikes. It also predicts that by 2010 UN would dissolve 'due to its inability ot resolve these issues and regional conflicts'
And here is a video with an enterview with Alfredo Jalife who is an expert in geopolitics,..
In addition, there are other voices claiming that the virus was produced in a laboratory somewhere in England, then transported to US and then planted in Mexico. Furthermore, they link pharmaceutical companies with the production of such a virus. Their aim is purely monetary. Mmaking their business grow and their profits does not seem to be a credible explanation to me. However, if the mixture of business and political power is present, then things change.
For example, in the blog of Dr. Horowitz, he urges to investigate 'Dr. James S. Robertson, Englands leading bioengineer of flu viruses for the vaccine industry, and avid promoter of U.S. Government funding for lucrative biodefense contracts, along with collaborators at the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC).'
Further, a video of a call from somebody in NY uploaded onto youtube on April 12th, argues that flu viruses were transported to US.
**
Also, I found out that the company that produces 'tamiflu' happens to be owned by almost all of Bush men. Secretary Runsfield is perhaps the most notorious of them all. Here I'll reproduce a report from 2005.
**
Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu
Defense Secretary, ex-chairman of flu treatment rights holder, sees portfolio value growing.
October 31, 2005: 10:55 AM EST
By Nelson D. Schwartz, Fortune senior writer
NEW YORK (Fortune) - The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world.
Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)'s chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.
The forms don't reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47. That's made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer.
Rumsfeld isn't the only political heavyweight benefiting from demand for Tamiflu, which is manufactured and marketed by Swiss pharma giant Roche. (Gilead receives a royalty from Roche equaling about 10% of sales.) Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005.
Another board member is the wife of former California Gov. Pete Wilson.
"I don't know of any biotech company that's so politically well-connected," says analyst Andrew McDonald of Think Equity Partners in San Francisco.
What's more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world's biggest customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. Roche expects 2005 sales for Tamiflu to be about $1 billion, compared with $258 million in 2004.
Rumsfeld recused himself from any decisions involving Gilead when he left Gilead and became Secretary of Defense in early 2001. And late last month, notes a senior Pentagon official, Rumsfeld went even further and had the Pentagon's general counsel issue additional instructions outlining what he could and could not be involved in if there were an avian flu pandemic and the Pentagon had to respond.
As the flu issue heated up early this year, according to the Pentagon official, Rumsfeld considered unloading his entire Gilead stake and sought the advice of the Department of Justice, the SEC and the federal Office of Government Ethics.
Those agencies didn't offer an opinion so Rumsfeld consulted a private securities lawyer, who advised him that it was safer to hold on to the stock and be quite public about his recusal rather than sell and run the risk of being accused of trading on insider information, something Rumsfeld doesn't believe he possesses. So he's keeping his shares for the time being.
**
So, Ok,... there are few elements that allow me to be suspicious of this swine flu thing. However, all those elements are external to Mexican political reality. The question is what could possible happen for a president of a country (any country not only Mexico) to put international before national interests. I am sure that everybody loves their country and would do the best they can to protect their people and that it doesn't matter whether we are talking Mexico or China or Peru or any other country. Or at least that is what I would think.
But let's have a look at Mexican political arena for the last couple of years. and That, by the way is option B) the internal political situation and swine flu. And the question am addressing here is how B relates to A, or how the Mexican political situation relates to a breakout of a new virus and its realtion to the US new war strategy.
It does not seem a simple thing to understand. So we need to elaborate a bit for that the best way is to present a sort of events that have shaped Felipe Calderon's relationship with Mexicans.
1) Felipe Calderon and his party ran a presidential political campaign base on generating fear. They discualified Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) the leading candidate of being a 'Threat to Mexico', or in fact a more appropiate translation would be danger instead of thread. Most of what Calderon's campaign said about AMLO was based on imprecise information or plain lies.
here is one example,..
2) Vicente Fox used all the tricks in the book in order to support Calderon's campaign,.. although that is illegal under Mexican law,.. but it has been a common practice under PRI for 70 years or so,.. That explain how the institutions in charge of the elections didn't do anything to stop Calderon's propaganda.
here is a video of Fox, saying that 'it was important to stop AMLO
3) Calderon's brother in law Hildebrando was in charge of designing the software to be used to count the votes in the presidential election. Waste to say that votes had an extrange behaviour,.. where AMLO and Calderon's votes trends were an exact mirror. In otehr words, one vote less for AMLO was automatically one vote more for Calderon. In the end, there was not clarity who won,... the only option was to open the boxes with the votes and count by hand one by one,... of course Calderon and his supporters cried out that that was illegal,.. despite Mexican law allows that situation.
4) Calderon's big day,... was but a battle where he had to enter by the backdoor and be sorrounded by the secret police in order to swear in as president, despite HUGE demosntrations against him.
And just a few meters outside, there were huge demonstrations against Calderon,.. actually after the electoral fraud, a Mexican movement of Civil Resistance was formed and AMLO was elected as the legitimate president of Mexico. Even more worring for Calderon and his friends, AMLO supporters get toghether every now and then and organise protests,... criticise Calderon's acts of corruption and in short had become a real pain on the neck for the government.
5) since Calderon arrival there have been some social movements. At some point it would appear that protesting-repressing has become a Mexican national sport,... and that any political manifestation has to go that way. Things are that deteriorated that the ruling party, Calderon's party keeps proposing to criminalise anyone who dares taking the streets to protest, even thogh it is a constitutional right. We have painful examples of that sort: Oaxaca, that we have briefly docuemnted in this blog, Atenco, Michoacan, Cananea, and a long long long etc.
6) Calderon's sent the army out on the streets to function as antinarcotics police force. But in reality it is functioning as a repressive force that with the excuse of fighting harcotics litmits citicenship. It is interesting how the country divides into two big drug cartels, on the one side 'el chapo Guzman' leading the federation [that's the name of what used to be the Sinaloa Cartel due to the fact that under Fox portection Guzman broke free from prison and organised the traffiking to the USA] and on the other hand is everthing else from 'los Zs' to 'la familia' and other small cartels. It is interesting to notice that the supposedly antinarcotics war focuses on fighting the small cartels but none of the figures of the federation are ever touched.
All those reasons, and others that I don't have in mind now, had made Calderon the most umpopular political figure in recent history. He doesn't even dares to go on the street without having to set a huge 'security' operative.
The magic formulae
Well but how this two things connect each other? how the US military strategy connects with Calderon's umpopularity?
My hupothesis is that they have every reason to be linked. I will describe what I think from the side of Calderon.
With these new virus, he has been able to STOP all their critics at once. Suddenly there are no more protertors on the street, the opposition in both chambers seem to be collaborative in the name of such terrible threat, they are supporting this new biological dictatorship,... or as Munoz Ledo said 'dictadura sanitaria'.
The prospect of the political campaigns are suddenly stopped, with IFE the electoral authority sharing TV time not with the political parties as it used to but with Calderon's health minister,...
World Insitutions are giving him money to face the emergency,.. World Bank and IMF have borrowed money to Mexican government,.. of course is to by 'tamiflu' only favouring only a a couple of companies that produce it, as I pointed out above.
So,.. for Calderon is a perfet world,... now they are saying that this emergency could last until the winter,.. due to, they say, the severity of the 'rebound effect'. All in all, it doesn't seem to me that the virus is a problem, but its political utilisation that seems to be favouring a few people at interantional level and Calderon and his political party at Mexican level.
