A website by the name of "VitalSource" which promotes itself as a "starting point" for journalists to begin their research, had this to say about the AGWVA, "...mind you, they also insist that the that the motive behind operation "Desert Storm" was to retrieve alien artifacts buried in the Iraqi desert." This statement is obviously a complete fabrication. Neither Joyce Riley vonKleist or Dave vonKleist have ever made any statement that even remotely infers or suggests such a concept. When we contacted Howard Fienburg of STATS Inc. (the parent website) and questioned the source of this information, his assistant could not or would not provide it. They further stated, "According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the vonKleists are members of the Patriot militia." In this case, the source is provided but again, the statement is not true. Neither Joyce or Dave are part of a "patriot militia" nor have we ever been. The simple fact that these statements were published on a website that claims to be a source for newspersons indicates clearly that the agenda is to promote propaganda rather than honest journalism. (By the way, when we printed out the page from the vitalsource website, the "print" window said, "...contacting CNN.com".) To date, Vitalsource has refused to print a retraction or an apology. This one example brings into question the credibility of not just Vitalsource, but also the Southern Poverty Law Center as well as CNN.
See Vitalsource web page below
Republican Members: Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania, Chairman; Frank H. Murkowski, Alaska; Strom Thurmond, South Carolina; James M. Jeffords, Vermont; Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Colorado; Larry E. Craig, Idaho; Tim Hutchinson, Arkansas. Democratic Members: John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia; Bob Graham, Florida; Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii; Paul Wellstone, Minnesota; Patty Murray, Washington.
Members: JOHN C. BAILAR III, Committee Chair, Professor and Chair, Department of Health Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; CHRISTOPHER C. GREEN, Executive Director, Research and Development, General Motors Corporation, Warren, Michigan; RICHARD B. HORNICK, Vice-President of Medical Education, Orlando Regional Healthcare System, Medical Education Administration, Orlando, Florida; KARL T. KELSEY, Associate Professor of Occupational Medicine and Radiobiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; WAYNE M. LEDNAR, Corporate Medical Director, Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New York; THOMAS A. LOUIS, Professor and Head, Division of Biostatistics, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, Minnesota; GARY M. MARSH, Professor, Department of Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; DAVID P. RALL,* Institute of Medicine Foreign Secretary, Washington, D.C., Director, Emeritus, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland; PHILIP K. RUSSELL, Professor, Department of International Health, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; DAVID A. SAVITZ, Professor and Chairman, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; G. MARIE SWANSON, Director, Cancer Center, and Professor, Department of Family Practice and Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan; GUTHRIE L. TURNER, Jr., Chief Medical Consultant, Department of Social and Health Services, Division of Disability Determination Services Washington State, Olympia, Washington; MARK J. UTELL, Professor, Department of Medicine and Environmental Medicine and Director, Pulmonary/Critical Care and Occupational Medicine Divisions, University of Rochester School of Medicine Rochester, New York; JAMES H. WARE, Dean for Academic Affairs, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; DAVID H. WEGMAN, Professor and Chair, Department of Work Environment, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Massachusetts; LOUIS JOLYON WEST, Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine, Neuropsychiatric Institute, Los Angeles, California; ELIZABETH A. WILLIAMS, Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, James Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee; NANCY FUGATE WOODS, Director, Center for Women's Health Research and Professor, Family and Child Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
Members: Gerard Burrow, Chair, Dean, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Dan Blazer,* Dean of Medical Education and Professor of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina; Margit Bleecker, Director, Center for Occupational and Environmental Nuerology, Baltimore, Maryland; Ralph Horwitz, Chairman, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Howard Kipen, Associate Professor and Director, Occupational Health Division, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey; Adel Mahmoud, Chairman, Department of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio; Michael Osterholm, State Epidemiologist, Minnesota Department of Health, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Robert Pynoos, Professor of Psychiatry, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Anthony Scialli, Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C.; Rosemary Sokas, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C.; Guthrie Turner, Chief Medical Consultant, Division of Disability Determination Services, State of Washington, Tummwater, Washington; and Michael Weisman, Professor, Division of Rheumatology, University of California at San Diego Medical Center, San Diego, California.
Members of the task force included Dr. Joshua Lederberg (The Rockefeller University), Dr. George M. Whitesides (Harvard University), Dr. Paul Doty (Professor Emeritus, Harvard University), Dr. Abba I. Terr (Stanford University Medical Center), Dr. Joseph Bunnett (University of California, Santa Cruz), Dr. John D. Baldeschweiler (California Institute of Technology), Dr. Margaret Hamburg (NYC Commissioner of Public Health), and Major General Phil Russen (US Army (retired), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine). The following Government and special advisors assisted the Task Force: Dr. Ruth Etzel (Centers for Disease Control, Department of Health & Human Services); Dr. Susan Mather (Department of Veterans Affairs); Dr. Ann Norwood (Uniformed Services University of the Health Services, Department of Defense); Dr. Richard Miller (Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences); and Dr. Graham Pearson (Director General, Chemical & Biological Defense Establishment, United Kingdom).
In three studies published in JAMA (Jan. 15, 1997), Haley and his colleagues analyzed the complaints of 175 members of the 24th Reserve Naval Mobile Construction Battalion who reported having serious health problems since the end of the war. The results, however, were neither striking nor consistent enough to distinguish ill veterans from healthy ones. Among the studies' alleged faults was the small, self-selected population of veterans studied; the very nonspecific tests they were subjected to; and the unverified nature of the exposures they reported. Four of seven letters later published in JAMA criticized the research, with the authors of one commenting that Haley's team had "advanced from unmerited speculation to fantasy" in reaching their toxic-chemicals conclusion. The provocative nature of the findings -- and their appearance in a prestigious medical journal -- brought the research wide attention. Less than a month after publication, Haley was invited to the Pentagon to discuss his work with Stephen C. Joseph, who at the time was the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. He urged Haley to apply for a research grant in an upcoming round of competition. Haley's previous work had been paid for largely by the Perot Foundation, which is run by Ross Perot, the Texas billionaire and former presidential candidate. A subcommittee of the Persian Gulf Veterans Coordinating Board made the awards, but Haley did not receive anything.
When Haley learned in July that he would not be funded, he began lobbying Pentagon officials. Over the next few weeks, telephone calls by Perot helped gain him audiences with Defense Secretary William S. Cohen and the chiefs of the four military services. High Defense Department officials were already extremely interested in the research. So were many veterans. "The process that was used [to fund the Haley project] does not appear to be appropriate to me," said PAC member Joyce C. Lashof. "I think it is important we keep to a process in which everyone is assured that projects of the highest priority are the ones that receive the funding, which is limited...He [Haley] competed and wasn't funded. And now you have decided to fund what he competed for and wasn't funded [for]," Lashof sternly told Rostker at the committee's last meeting in September. "That is very unusual, and is not something that the scientific community, I think, will take lightly."
Nicolson's corporate past: He was affiliated with Dragonfly Enterprises, which sells bio-technologies from Robert C. Beck + Royal Rife. They sell experimental electronic anti-microbial devices which are supposed to disable all viruses/bacteria/fungi in blood and lymph. Beck and Rife contend that cancer is viral, and thus treatable with these devices; Nicolson did the same for GWS.
Nicolson's academic credentials before he went private to investigate GWS: David Bruton Jr. Chair in Cancer Research, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Tumor Biology at the The University of Texas' M. D. Anderson Cancer Center as well as Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Professor of Internal Medicine at the The University of Texas' Medical School at Houston.