James DeMeo's OBRL-News Blog

Of course, HIV fundamentalists won't acknowledge that HIV is merely a
"theory" about how AIDS develops, which has never been proven
correct. Thanks to Christine Maggiorie and "Alive and Well" for the
following info. J.D.

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Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:13:50 -0500
Subject: News from Around the World (Part One)
To: christine@aliveandwell.org
From: Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives<christine@aliveandwell.org>

HIV on Trial in Australia:
Court Weighs Evidence for Claims of Isolation, Transmission and Testing

A motion for appeal in a criminal hearing in Adelaide, Australia has
become the focus of international attention as fundamental claims by
orthodox AIDS researchers -- including the infamous Dr Robert Gallo
-- come under vigorous cross-examination by an attorney demanding
scientific evidence that the virus exists. Top AIDS industry
spokespersons from around the world have appeared in person or by
satellite in Adelaide to defend the HIV hypothesis against charges by
a local team of scientific and medical experts known as "The Perth
Group" (http://www.ThePerthGroup.com <http://www.ThePerthGroup.com> )
who asserts that two decades of AIDS research have failed to produce
a purified isolate of HIV, validation of the accuracy so-called HIV
tests, or proof that HIV is transmitted through bodily fluids.

Below are two news articles about the legal proceedings. Other
information about the trial and actual transcripts of testimony can
be found at http://aras.ab.ca <http://aras.ab.ca> /index.php

For this week's testimony by alleged HIV discoverer Dr Robert Gallo,
go directly to http://aras.ab.ca/articles/legal/Gallo-Transcript.pdf

Michael Geiger, a close observer of the events in Adelaide, reports
being "stunned and amazed" by Gallo's statements to the court. Geiger
says, "It's difficult to tell if Gallo was defending HIV or if his
testimony is a public admission of guilt."

Geiger urges transcript readers to note:

- Page 1294 where Gallo agrees that he found evidence of HIV in only
40% of the AIDS patients in his original study, and that 40% is not
enough to prove HIV is the cause of AIDS:

Attorney to Gallo: "You had 48 out of 119, or 40%?
Gallo: "I agree"
Attorney: "Do you agree that the isolation of HIV from only 40% of
patients is not proof that HIV causes AIDS?"
Gallo: "I would say of course, in and of itself, 40% isolation of a
new virus, I would not say is the cause."

- Page 1"00 where Gallo admits to finding low percentages of HIV
positivity in people with AIDS symptoms:

Attorney: "For adults with KS, 30%; for adultswith AIDS opportunistic
infections 47%. Do you accept your figures?"
Gallo: "I accept the figures."

- Page 1317 where Gallo acknowledges finding no HIV in KS lesions or
in T cells, and testimony on page 1318 in which Gallo admits that
"viral load" tests cannot be used to prove infection with a virus.

The language in news articles covering the Adelaide trial speaks
loudly and clearly of media prejudice in AIDS reporting. In the first
of the two pieces that follow, medical and scientific experts
challenging the notion that HIV has been isolated according to
proper, scientific standards are branded "an organized group of HIV
deniers" and lack official titles such as MD, while those being
called by the court to produce evidence are referred to as "experts"
with repeated references to their professional credentials.

The obvious bent of Australian coverage is at least one step up from
the US media response: Not a single story on the uproar from down
under has appeared in American news.

==

Adelaide Independent Weekly
February 2, 2007

Does AIDS exist? Is HIV actually a virus? Incredibly, not everyone
says yes. But never before has a scientific theory on HIV been
tested like this in a court of law. In this landmark South Australia
case, the verdict will decide if a man convicted of infecting his
girlfriend with the virus can walk free.

Expert Attacks HIV Skeptics
By Hendrik Gout

One of the world's top HIV researchers has branded as "wrong,
mischievous and harmful" claims by an organized group of HIV deniers
that the virus does not lead to AIDS. David Cooper, director of the
National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research at the
University of NSW, said the evidence tendered to the Supreme Court of
South Australia by the so-called Perth Group lacked "any scientific
validity" and endangered lives in Australia and the developing world.

"Saying that HIV is not sexually transmissible is a tragedy for us in
Australia who are trying to prevent people from getting sick," said
Professor Cooper, who is cited within the top 10 experts on HIV in
the world. "It is a tragedy for the people in the developing world
who might think they will not get sick after they read about these
claims."

Professor Cooper gave evidence yesterday for the Director of Public
Prosecutions in an appeal launched by Andre Chad Parenzee, 35, who
has been convicted for knowingly exposing three women to HIV by
having unprotected sex with them.

For more than two weeks, representatives of the Perth Group have
testified under oath that HIV does not lead to AIDS. Perth Group
members Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos and Val Turner also claim HIV is
not sexually transmitted and has never been properly isolated and
identified in the lab. Professor Cooper, the first of up to eight
prosecution witnesses, took the stand yesterday as part of a DPP move
to debunk the claims. Up to six other HIV experts, including famous
immunologist and former Australian of the Year Gustav Nossal, are
expected to provide evidence.

Professor Cooper's facility leads clinical trials of new therapies
and vaccines for HIV and he is head of the Immunology-HIV-Infectious
Diseases Clinical Service Unit at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney. He
has treated more than 2500 HIV-AIDS patients. He is author of more
than 400 published scientific papers, mostly on HIV and AIDS, and is
a past president of the International AIDS Society. Professor Cooper
is also chair of the AIDS vaccine advisory committee of the World
Health Organization and UNAIDS. He said he had read some transcripts
of the evidence of the Perth Group in the appeal and was also
familiar with their work as a HIV skeptic group dating from the late
1980s.

"We believe that their statements are wrong, mischievous and
harmful," he said. Professor Cooper was asked to respond to the Perth
Group's central claim that HIV has never been properly identified, or
"does not exist".

"To say that it doesn't exist is just scientific mis-truth," he said.

He said HIV had been identified by three methods since its discovery
in the 1980s and the most effective modern method was using molecular
biology to identify its genetic sequence.

The case continues.

==

The Australian (National Newspaper)
HIV Skeptic Backs Unprotected Sex
By Jeremy Roberts and Elizabeth Gosch

January 31, 2007

A medical physicist at Royal Perth Hospital has declared that she
would have unprotected sex with an HIV-positive man, believing she
would not be at risk of infection. Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos was
giving testimony at the Supreme Court of South Australia during an
appeal by a man convicted of exposing three women to HIV. She was
asked by prosecutor Sandi McDonald whether "you would have
unprotected vaginal sex with a HIV-positive man."

"Any time," replied Ms Papadopulos-Eleopulos.

The admission came on the last day of Ms Papadopulos-Eleopulos's
cross-examination. She is the lead expert witness for Andre Chad
Parenzee, 35, who was convicted in February last year on three counts
of endangering life. A jury found Parenzee had unprotected sex with
three women despite knowing he was HIV-positive. He infected one of
them.

He remains in custody awaiting sentencing. His mother, Jeanette
Thumlert, has spent $250,000 on her son's defense. Some of that money
has gone to flying two expert witnesses from Perth on three occasions
since October last year. The witnesses, Ms Papadopulos-Eleopulos and
emergency doctor Val Turner, represent the Perth Group.

The group's key claim is that HIV has never been isolated and
identified as a retrovirus. HIV is the result of the
misinterpretation of laboratory phenomena and experiments, the group
says.

Ms Papadopulos-Eleopulos says AIDS is a disease that results from the
oxidizing of the inside of the body from repeated exposure to semen
resulting from passive anal intercourse. It is not a "virus" and
cannot be "transmitted" from one person to another during sex.

Ms Papadopulos-Eleopulos's views are largely ignored by mainstream
scientific journals. She has a bachelor of science and is a medical
physicist at Royal Perth Hospital, with Perth Group member David
Causer, the head of clinical physics.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said neither worked with AIDS
patients, or in HIV research. "Their views are not consistent with
the hospital's views on HIV-AIDS," she said.

Despite the Perth Group's marginal position, its evidence in the
Parenzee appeal has spurred up to seven eminent HIV-AIDS scientists
to give rebuttal testimony. The prosecution has told the court that
Ms Papadopulos-Eleopulos has misrepresented scientific papers and
will call some of the papers'
authors to set the record straight.

Renowned immunologist and World Health Organisation public health
expert Gustav Nossal is preparing to give written evidence or appear
in person debunking the testimony. He has called the HIV skeptics "a
very considerable embarrassment to Australian science".

Yesterday, Ms Papadopulos-Eleopulos continued her strident defense of
her claims. She was asked to consider the good record of
anti-retroviral drugs in extending the lives of HIV-AIDS patients.

Judge John Sulan asked: "Is it your evidence that it is a waste of
resources to give anti-retrovirals to pregnant women?"

"Yes," she said.

The case continues.

====

HIV Positive Boxer Now HIV Negative:
Tommy Morrison Returns to the Ring After 10 Years of Fighting Doctors
about AIDS Drugs

For some reason this news has failed to make any headlines:
professional boxer and outspoken AIDS skeptic Tommy Morrison
inexplicably tests HIV negative 10 years after testing HIV positive
and being forced out of the ring at the height of his career. In
fact, reports by Fox News on Morrison's return gave more attention to
his injured hand than to his change of HIV status.

Here's the story from http://www.NotAIDS.com a cool new web site
offering the sort of news about AIDS that ought to make the news:

Tommy Morrison, Boxing Champ, "Rocky V" Co-star, Tests HIV Negative

Boxing star Tommy Morrison, two-time world champion, actor, known to
many as The Duke - a reference to his being the great-grand nephew of
Marion Morrison, aka John Wayne - has just tested negative for HIV.

Ordinarily, a negative test result wouldn't be a major newsmaker, but
for Mr Morrison and his fans, this is big news.

It was a little over 10 years ago in a room at a smoky Las Vegas
hotel before a tournament of boxing matches that would have netted
him millions that Tommy Morrison, rising boxing star, was taking a
Nevada state-mandated HIV test before the match, and his life changed
forever. The test was positive for the erstwhile "human
immunodeficiency virus."

For these past 10 years, Tommy Morrison has claimed that the test was
bogus, suggested that HIV does not cause AIDS, refused
antiretrovirals, was fired as a patient by famed AIDS expert, Dr.
David Ho, and has proposed that a government-funded debacle
perpetuates the great lie of HIV.

Mr Morrison estimates he lost about $100 million in cancelled fights
because of what he and many others consider to be a flawed test for
an imagined killer virus.

Flawed or not, the HIV test that came back positive one fateful day
in Las Vegas ended an illustrious but short career of 46 wins out of
50, a movie, and two world titles: the WBO belt in 1993, and the IBC
title in 1995. Many may remember his co-starring role Rocky V (1990)
as the fighter Tommy Gunn, who dukes it out with Sylvester Stallone's
legendary, imaginary Rocky Balboa.

Not only did Tommy Morrison lose a lot of money from the fights
cancelled because of the positive HIV test 10 years ago, but he lost
a lot "friends" - many turned their backs on the boxing star because
of the positive HIV test result.

Through the years, many newspaper reporters described Morrison's
doubt of the validity of the HIV test and of the HIV/AIDS killer
theory itself, as quackery. Calling Morrison's opinion bizarre, some
internet pundidts went so far as to moralize, saying he messed up his
life and is paying the consequences. The press often wrote that he
had fell under the spell of Internet fiction and conspiracy
fantasyland, and ridiculed as "denial" his belief that no such killer
virus as HIV afflicted him.

When Mr. Morrison received the positive HIV diagnosis, he was first
seen by Dr. David Ho, promoter of the AIDS drug "cocktail" regimen
that many scientists now question but eschewed the AZT and other
pills prescribed for him in favor of good nutrition, exercise, and
rest. Not music to Dr. Ho's ears, and unwilling to wander off the
track of convention even for a minute, Ho dropped Morrison as a
patient. Morrison was fine with being fired as a patient.

"All Dr. Ho did was my blood work," Morrison said in a 1997 interview
with POZ Magazine "And then he tried to give me the damn medication.
The top guy in the field doesn't even understand..."

Morrison's wife read all the same literature as he has, and is
familiar arguments on both sides. The couple had frequent unprotected
sex, she remains negative, and they both remain healthy.

Morrison feels the decision to avoid ARVs saved his life. He knows of
many people who were healthy and started getting sick on the ARVs.
He's become a personal advocate for those who opt out of the drug
regimens.

Now, 10 years after he was first diagnosed with HIV, Morrison,
AIDS-drug free, healthy, energetic, and willful in his accidental
role as anti-AIDS establishment celebrity endorser, is causing a
commotion again. He has tested negative for HIV and awaits a decision
by the Arizona Boxing Commission to license him. He was hoping to get
into the ring for a boxing tournament held in Phoeinix.

Peter McKinn, a boxing promoter out of Phoenix said that the latest
test is not a fluke: it's the third negative test Mr. Morrison has
taken recently.

===

Part two with more news from around the world coming soon