another microbiologist is dead

This has become a disturbing trend.


Squad seeks tips in death of researcher


By MIKE WELLS of the Tribune’s staff
Published Sunday, January 9, 2005
A retired research assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia died of multiple stab wounds before firefighters found in his body in the trunk of a burning car Friday.




Im
Boone County Medical Examiner Valerie Rao said after an autopsy that Jeong H. Im, 72, of Columbia was stabbed several times, but she declined to elaborate.
MU police yesterday named Im as the victim. His body was found in the trunk of his burning white, 1995 Honda inside the Maryland Avenue parking garage, MU police Capt. Brian Weimer said.

The case was under investigation by the Mid-Missouri Major Case Squad. No arrests had been made by last night.

Weimer spoke to reporters at a news conference yesterday in Jesse Hall but declined to discuss details such as whether a murder weapon was recovered or the cause of the fire.

Rao also was cautious about discussing the investigation. Regarding questions on the estimated time of death, the number of wounds, the type of weapon or the fire, she said, "We don’t want to release any of that information because it’s so crucial to what the police are doing."

Police yesterday hadn’t ruled out robbery as a motive.

"All possibilities are being looked at right now," Weimer said.

Im was primarily a protein chemist. Mark McIntosh, chairman of the MU department of molecular microbiology and immunology, said he doubted the crime could have been the act of an angry student.

"He’s a 72-year-old and pretty much keeps to himself, and so I can’t imagine that it was anything more than some random act," he said.

Police were trying to find an unknown person who used a campus emergency phone to report the fire, Weimer said. Police want that person to contact them again.

Weimer also asked the public for help in identifying a man - 6 feet to 6 feet, 2 inches tall - who was seen in the garage area wearing some type of mask, possibly a drywall or painter’s mask.

That individual is a "person of interest," Weimer said, and not a suspect.

"There could be a valid reason for someone like this to be in the garage," he said.

At about 6 p.m. Friday, MU Police Chief Jack Watring activated the major case squad. It’s the first homicide investigation on the campus in nearly 16 years. The request drew in 28 squad members from various law enforcement agencies, including the Columbia Police Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Im’s wife, Tesuk Im, declined comment yesterday when contacted at her Columbia home.

The parking garage serves employees of MU and University of Missouri Health Care as well as employees of and visitors to the Mid-Missouri Mental Health Center.

Weimer said investigators were still trying to determine the timeframe for the crime. Anyone who was in or near the garage from early morning to afternoon Friday has been asked to call MU police at 882-7203 or CrimeStoppers at 875-8477.

"By all means, let us sort it out," he said. "Please, give us a call and let us know what you saw."

Tribune reporter Megan Means contributed to this report.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reach Mike Wells at (573) 815-1720 or mwells@tribmail.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2005/jan/20050109news003.asp

and can't be a coincidence.

but didn't realize there were that many all in the span of almost 3 years...something smells...



I noticed many of them were working with flus, and cures for flu...

but it's a real nasty trend.

Anthrax-connected? Some other BFEE biowarfare angle?

I the furture please limit your snips of articles
to 4 paragraghs as per the Democratic Underground
copyright rules

many microbiologists suffering violent or otherwise unnatural deaths? I'm not prepared to plunge into tinfoil hat mode until we at least roughly know about how many microbiologists there are currently, relative to the number that have perished.

The people on the list represent disciplines from all over biology and medicine, and additionally the listees are drawn from all over the world (most of the people on the list weren't "world class" by any reasonable standard, either...) Anyway, figure out how many medical degrees and degrees in all biological sciences have been issued all over the world in the last 50 years, and that's your baseline...

-SM, biologist

But to say that these scientists are not world class is a little strange to me. Most of these scientists were invovled in bio weapons or biophysics. This is a short list. A very short list. I think if you did a search on how many are missing or dead since 911 you would be very surprised. On top of that one had almost completed his work on cold fusion. He was murdered. Something is going on. And someone doesn't want us to know about it.

Look into Dr. Wiley.

... "Something is going on. And someone doesn't want us to know about it"

What's going on? And who doesn't want us to know about it?

working on bioweapons or bioweapon defense and the number who have met unnatural demises?

I have no doubt the powers that be are perfectly capable of wacking all who are capable of exposing some sort of misdeed, but to actually make sense, we need to know we're not wating precious time and energy on statistically normal trends.

...as can be demonstrated by a simple PUBMED search. Pasechnik was, one or two others on the list were tangentially associated with it (Steven Mostow was an infectious disease specialist at the University of Colorado who occasionally spoke publically to the media about infectious diseases, particularly after the anthrax deaths).

I think if you did a search on how many are missing or dead since 911 you would be very surprised. No, I wouldn't, given that the number of doctors and biological scientists has probably risen exponentially in the last 50 years.

-SM

Edited for puntuation

Edit #2: I would probably include David Kelly on that short list also, but for the others there is little or no link to any consipiracy-theory generating topics, as far as I am aware of. Certainly, all the deceased had very disparate research interests, and were from all levels of career attainment, from technicians to Harvard professors.

Is this the same one or a new one?

----------------------------------------------------------
Save our country one town, county, and state at a time!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm#why

is that the attributed conspirators or objectives tend to strongly reflect the worldview of the individual or group that is interpreting it.

For example, Stormfront, DU's scary white nationalist counterpart, seems to have concluded that the microbiologist massacre is an international Jewish conspiracy.

http://www.stormfront.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-89664

They are developing genetic bombs in a sense. They are designed to look for a certain genetic code or dna strand. They designed some to target arabs. They can pick anything, say blue eyes, type a blood, whatever they want to design it on. This is real, not a conspiracy. These things are going on and the rate of coincidence is very very low. In fact some people have suggested impossible.

Some scientists have gone into hiding and are passing their info on to others cause of fear of death. The thing is all of the scientists are the best in their fields. The news media is scared to touch this one. Just remember that smallpox movie on FX that everyone watched. I wouldn't be surprised to see some type of biological realease within the next ten years, perhaps sooner. And it will be ten times worse than smallpox.

... "Oh-oh, watch out. You'll be accused of being anti-semitic"

"Accused" my ass - the OP is anti-semitic to the extent she believes that horseshit she just posted in #13. Casually finding common ground with Stormfront??? It's a fact, not an "accusation."

The Manhattan Institute is "big" on this. So were the Nazis. Eugenics allows "selective breeding" for the "elite" and targets "genetically inferior or disabled persons" to be "euthanized".

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45c/180.html

http://www.keepamericafree.net/files/The_Brains_Behind_Bush.htm

genetic coding. It will kill you if you have that coding. Otherwise you will be fine. You could be exposed and nothing will happen to you but your neighbor, well, they could end up dead. They don't have to round you up. All they have to do is realease an agent of some form. Exposure would spread like a virus.

Because that fits everybody elses definition.

The one about the Manhattan Institute? Or the one about eugenics?

I don't have a subscription to the London Times and cannot access their archives but here is the story with a link.

http://www.peace.ca/geneticwarfare.htm

ALERT! GENETIC WARFARE NEARING REALITY

This article appeared in the London Times (November 1998).

Research into "ethnic bombs" is the creation of biohazard at the highest level. It amounts to the fulfillment of every worst fear that ever was raised by the research related to the Human Genome Diversity Project.

**************************************

Israel planning 'ethnic' bomb as Saddam caves in

by Uzi Mahnaimi and Marie Colvin

ISRAEL is working on a biological weapon that would harm Arabs but not Jews, according to Israeli military and western intelligence sources. The weapon, targeting victims by ethnic origin, is seen as Israel's response to Iraq's threat of chemical and biological attacks.

Yesterday Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader, backed away from the brink of war and agreed to resume co-operation with the inspection teams seeking his suspected chemical and biological weapons plants.

Kofi Annan, the United Nation secretary-general, said he believed Iraq had met UN requirements. As Britain and America stood by to bomb Saddam, however, Tony Blair's office said compliance must be unconditional.

The White House, which is threatening Iraq with the biggest onslaught since the Gulf war, said President Bill Clinton's advisers were assessing whether Iraq's offer was adequate. The Pentagon is ready to bomb within days.

Last week Downing Street warned Labour MPs that Saddam could be only weeks away from completing the construction of offensive biological weapons mounted on Scud missiles. Israel was hit by Scuds during the Gulf war and fears it would be the prime target.

In developing their "ethno-bomb", Israeli scientists are trying to exploit medical advances by identifying distinctive genes carried by some Arabs, then create a genetically modified bacterium or virus.

The intention is to use the ability of viruses and certain bacteria to alter the DNA inside their host's living cells. The scientists are
trying to engineer deadly micro-organisms that attack only those bearing the distinctive genes.

The programme is based at the biological institute in Nes Tziyona, the main research facility for Israel's clandestine arsenal of chemical and biological weapons.

A scientist there said the task was hugely complicated because both Arabs and Jews are of semitic origin. But he added: "They have, however, succeeded in pinpointing a particular characteristic in the genetic profile of certain Arab communities, particularly the Iraqi people." The disease could be spread by spraying the organisms into the air or putting them in water supplies.

The research mirrors biological studies conducted by South African scientists during the apartheid era and revealed in testimony before the truth and reconciliation commission.

The idea of a Jewish state conducting such research has already provoked outrage in some quarters because of parallels with the genetic experiments of Dr Josef Mengele, the Nazi scientist at Auschwitz.

Dedi Zucker, a member of knesset, the Israeli parliament, denounced the research yesterday. "Morally, based on our history, and our tradition and our experience, such a weapon is monstrous and should be denied," he said.

Some experts said that although the concept of an ethnically targeted weapon was feasible, the practical aspects of creating one were enormous.

Dr Daan Goosen, head of a South African chemical and biological warfare plant, said his team was ordered in the 1980s to develop a "pigmentation weapon" to target only black people. He said the team discussed spreading a disease in beer, maize or even vaccinations but never managed to develop one.

However, a confidential Pentagon report warned last year that biological agents could be genetically engineered to produce new lethal weapons. William Cohen, the American defence secretary, revealed that he had received reports of countries working to create "certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic-specific". A senior western intelligence source confirmed last week that Israel was one of the countries Cohen had in mind.

The "ethno-bomb" claims have been given further credence in Foreign Report, a Jane's publication that closely monitors security and defence matters. It reports unnamed South African sources as saying Israeli scientists have used some of the South African research in trying to develop an "ethnic bullet" against Arabs.

It also says Israelis discovered aspects of the Arab genetic make-up by researching on "Jews of Arab origin, especially Iraqis".

The British Medical Association has become so concerned about the lethal potential of genetically based biological weapons that it has opened an investigation, which is due to report in January.

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, who organised the research, said: "With an ethnically targeted weapon, you could even hit groups within a population. The history of warfare, in which many conflicts have an ethnic factor, shows us how dangerous this could be."

Porton Down, Britain's biological defence establishment, said last week that such weapons were theoretically possible. "We have reached a point now where there is an obvious need for an international convention to control biological weapons," said a spokesman.

Additional reporting: Matthew Campbell in Washington, Hugh McManners


another link to same story.
http://www.muslimedia.com/archives/oaw98/isr-weapon.htm

a different story but worth the read, also provides sources.
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/030403_genetic_p1.html


you can run a search on Isreal genetic weapons. It will pull up a host of different reports.

But it's completely bogus. It might as well be an article about Israel trying to build a giant space station the size of a moon with a big laser for blowing up Alderaans, because that's how ridiculous the notion is.

What you've posted, whether intentionally or not, is the moral and intellectual equivalent of "them greedy jews is out to take over the world."

While I would never say never to the possibility that sometime in the distant future we could develop sufficient biotechnology and knowledege of human genetic polymorphisisms to make this vaguely plausible, we are nowhere near that at the present time. (For those of you who don't believe me, feel free to provide some technical details about how exactly such weapons might work, given technology currently available...)

-SM

Edited to add the following link: Salon: Debunking the "ethno-bomb"

We could have Death Stars too. Who knows.

But I'm not gonna start blaming the jews for building one.

...the previous poster mentions Stormfront, an infamously racist, anti-semitic, misogynist shit-hole chock full of assorted scummy cranks and loons, as an example of the kind of filth that often times peddles these conspiracy theories (especially when the accused "conspirators" in question happen to be Jewish), and your reply is "well, I can see where Israel ties into all of this"???

:wtf:

Wow...what little credibility you had with me in your OP just went to a big fat ZERO. Unbelievable.

and you can think what you want. There are facts here and one of them is that Israel was working on a genetic virus. That's just plain fact. If you want to get your panties in a wod, go ahead.

Accussing everyone of being anti-semitic is just plain stupid on your part. Who the fuck is Jewish that you are talking about? Do yourself a favor and learn how to read some fucking facts first before you try to attack me with your hate filled reasoning. If I would have said America was developing these weapons you wouldn't have had a problem would you.

It easy for people to go off on Israel when they are creating weapons like this. If you can't understand why then you are seriously fucked up.

ie any strange or unusual story that can be initially, and very loosely, labeled a 'conspiracy theory', will be, as if the label itself proves the story groundless. It doesn't. It's like when old Republican friends try to belittle our beliefs by using the 'L' word, as if the label itself invalidates our arguments.

And those that love to use the CT label at the drop of a hat, especially those MSM/NYT editorial writers, and a not few here on DU of late, almost always do so to defend 'CW' of MSM, in so far as that concurs with the present Administrations version of events.

Again, this poem by E.D. seems appropriate:

Much madness is divinest sense-
to a discerning eye-
much sense the starkest madness-
'Tis the majority in this, as all, prevails.
Assent and you are sane-
Demur, and you are straightaway dangerous-
and handled with a chain.

I'd say you have an agenda.

This doesn't have the profile of a simple robbery.





http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13
Buttons for brainy people - educate your local freepers today!

...was published in 1998. Abstract here

A few others:

Abstract #2

Abstract #3

Abstract #4

Abstract #5

9 more I haven't listed, from 1982-1988. Based on the abstracts, I wouldn't call him a microbiologist - more like a protein biochemist. Seems to have worked primarily on blood cell development and insulin.

-SM

on when he was murdered and how many ties did he have with these other gentlemen? Regardless, this is disturbing that such men are being murdered to begin with. What is the motive and how come none are solved?

I will keep watching these stories. I have now found a grave interest in them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/12/national/nationalspecial3/12gene.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=

January 12, 2005
A DNA Success Raises Bioterror Concern
By NICHOLAS WADE

esearchers have made an unexpectedly sudden advance in synthesizing long molecules of DNA, bringing them closer to the goal of redesigning genes and programming cells to make pharmaceuticals.

But the success also puts within reach the manufacture of small genomes, such as those of viruses and perhaps certain bacteria. Some biologists fear that the technique might be used to make the genome of the smallpox virus, one of the few pathogens that cannot easily be collected from the wild.

The advance, described in the Jan. 6 issue of the journal Nature by Dr. George M. Church of the Harvard Medical School and Dr. Xiaolian Gao of the University of Houston, involves the use of a new technique to synthesize a DNA molecule 14,500 chemical units in length. The molecule contained a string of 21 genes used by a harmless laboratory bacterium.

The full power of the technique is still being explored, but genomes like that of the smallpox virus - 186,000 chemical units long - seem well within reach. Dr. Church has completed the first part of a plan to synthesize the 777,000-unit genome of a small bacterium known as Mycoplasma mobile.

"This has the potential for a revolutionary impact in the ease of synthesis of large DNA molecules," said Dr. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University with an interest in bioterrorism.

"This will permit efficient and rapid synthesis of any select agent virus genome in very short order," he added, referring to the list of dangerous pathogens and toxins that possessors are required to register with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Ebright said any facility possessing the new DNA synthesis equipment should be assumed capable of making any virus on the select agent list.

The genetic sequences of smallpox and many other dangerous pathogens are easily obtained because they were deposited in public databases as an aid to medical researchers at a time when synthesizing large DNA molecules seemed prohibitively expensive or impossible.

Dr. Church is developing automated methods of DNA synthesis for a variety of research purposes including vaccines and pharmaceutical production. He has no interest in synthesizing dangerous pathogens but is aware of the technique's potential for misuse. Last year he proposed that the machines and ingredients for synthesizing DNA should be controlled, with manufacturers selling supplies only to facilities whose DNA machines had been registered. The manufacturers have expressed willingness to adopt the proposal, Dr. Church said in an e-mail message, "but it would be reassuring to get some official governmental support."

Some experts say bioterrorists would find it much easier to collect pathogens in the wild than to synthesize the organisms' genetic material. But this is less of an option for smallpox, now officially held by only two laboratories in the world, and for the increasingly rare polio virus.

In part to draw attention to the dangers of bioterrorism, Dr. Eckard Wimmer of the State University of New York at Stony Brook spent three years synthesizing DNA corresponding to the 7,500 units of polio virus, a feat he announced in July 2002. "It will be possible in 10 to 15 years to make smallpox," Dr. Wimmer told the Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News at the time.

Dr. Wimmer said last week that the method described by Dr. Church and Dr. Gao was in technical terms "a tremendous step forward." But the technology would be impossible to control, he said, since any restraints that might be agreed to in the United States would not necessarily be followed by other countries. The only protection against harmful agents, in his view, is for the government to step up development of efficient vaccines.

The genetic sequence of many pathogens has been determined and published by the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Md. Dr. Claire M. Fraser, the institute's president, said the new DNA synthesis method was a big advance in speed, cost and accuracy, but it was not yet clear if it would be possible to synthesize the genomes of large bacteria like anthrax.

"I think we are going to see some point in the future when there will be a need for additional oversight on research," Dr. Fraser said.

But scientists abroad, whose cooperation would be needed, seemed to her less concerned about the dangers. "We don't want to handicap science in the U.S." if others will not join in the effort, she said.

Once scientists have synthesized the genome of an organism, it must then be "booted," or made to operate in a cell. Dr. Wimmer was able to reboot his polio virus genome so as to generate infectious particles, and a method for rebooting the cowpox genome, which is similar to that of smallpox, has already been reported.

but was primarily a protein chemist. He worked in the microbiology department with a specialty of infectous diseases. He studied what effects the virus' and bacteria had on protein strands. Similar to studies on BSE and vCJD. My guess is he was working privately since he had been retired.

read the abstracts I posted.

-SM

are from the late nineties. It's 2005. He was working on other things. Just cause they aren't published doesn't mean shit.

"A retired research assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia died of multiple stab wounds before firefighters found in his body in the trunk of a burning car Friday." -emphasis mine...

Assuming he was still active after 1998 (for which there is no evidence at the moment) then we don't know what he was working on. His previous research at UM-Columbia doesn't suggest anything "interesting": no harmful microogranisms, viruses, diseases, bioterrorism-related topics, etc. Its not like he had a lengthy career in lethal viruses, anthrax, or bioterrorism.

-SM

work.


http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2958.1995.mmi_18020283.x/abs/

Floating in the Mississippi shortly after his disappearance; a victim of foul play? I think I read that a long time ago.