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."

++++++++

From: 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@...

++++++++

From: Tom DiFerdinando

To: letters@...
Subject: Thank you for the Celia Farber AIDS article
Date: 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@...

++++++++

From: Tom DiFerdinando

To: letters@...
Cc recipients Cc: publisher@..., Lia@...,
public@..., getzfred@...
Subject: thanks for report on harper's hiv article controversy
Date: 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@...