[back]
A Career In Microbiology Can Be
Harmful To Your Health
(Revised - updated)
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/02_14_02_microbio.html
DEATH TOLL MOUNTING AS CONNECTIONS TO DYNCORP, HADRON, PROMIS SOFTWARE AND
DISEASE RESEARCH EMERGE
by
Michael Davidson, FTW staff writer
and Michael C. Ruppert
[© Copyright 2002, From The Wilderness
Publications,
www.copvcia.com, All rights reserved. May be recopied, distributed for
non-profit purposes only; May not be posted on an Internet web site without
express written authorization. Contact
service@copvcia.com for permission.]
[ED. NOTE: As FTW has begun to
investigate serious discussions by legitimate scientists and academics on the
possible necessity of reducing the world's population by more than four billion
people, no stranger set of circumstances since Sept. 11 adds credibility to this
possibility than the suspicious deaths of what may be as many as 14 world-class
microbiologists. Following on the heels of our two-part series on the coming
world oil crisis, this story by Michael Davidson, a graduate of the Syracuse
University School of Journalism, is one which takes on a unique significance.
In our original story we incorrectly reported the original date of disappearance
of Don Wiley and two other microbiologists. These errors have been corrected and
we have updated the story to include new deaths that have occurred since we
published an earlier version on Feb. 14. The newest connections to DynCorp,
Hadron and PROMIS software are leads an amateur would not miss. How else would
any microbiologists threatening an ultra secret government biological weapons
program be identified than by secretly scanning their databases to see what they
were working on? -- MCR]
----------------------
In the six weeks prior to Nov. 12, two additional foreign microbiologists were
reported dead. Some believe there were as many as five more microbiologists
killed during the period, bringing the total as high as 14. These two to seven
additional deaths, however, are not the focus of this story. This same period
also saw the deaths of three persons involved in medical research or public
health.
- On Nov. 12, Benito Que, 52, was found comatose in the street near the
laboratory where he worked at the University of Miami Medical School. He died on
Dec. 6.
- On Nov. 16, Don C. Wiley, 57, vanished, and his abandoned rental car was found
on the
- On Nov. 23, Vladimir Pasechnik, 64, was found dead in
- On Dec. 10, Robert Schwartz, 57, was found murdered in his rural home in
Loudoun County, Va.
- On Dec, 11, Set Van Nguyen, 44, was found dead in the airlock entrance to a
walk-in refrigerator in the laboratory where he worked in Victoria State,
Australia.
- On Feb. 8, Vladimir Korshunov, 56, was found dead on a
- And on Feb. 11, Ian Langford, 40, was found dead in his home in
OOPS!
Prior to these deaths, on Oct. 4, a commercial jetliner traveling from
According to several press reports, including a Dec. 5 article by Barry Chamish
and one on Jan. 13 by Jim Rarey (both available at
www.rense.com), the plane is believed by many in Israel to have had as many
as five passengers who were microbiologists. Both Israel and Novosibirsk are
homes for cutting-edge microbiological research. Novosibirsk is known as the
scientific capital of Siberia, and home to over 50 research facilities and 13
full universities for a population of only 2.5 million people.
At the time of the Black Sea crash, Israeli journalists had been sounding the
alarm that two Israeli microbiologists had been recently murdered, allegedly by
terrorists. On Nov. 24 a Swissair flight from Berlin to Zurich crashed on its
landing approach. Of the 33 persons on board, 24 were killed, including the head
of the hematology department at Israel's Ichilov Hospital, as well as directors
of the Tel Aviv Public Health Department and Hebrew University School of
Medicine. They were the only Israelis on the flight. The names of those killed,
as reported in a subsequent Israeli news story but not matched to their job
titles, were Avishai Berkman, Amiramp Eldor and Yaacov Matzner.
Besides all being microbiologists, six of the seven scientists who died within
weeks of each other died from "unnatural" causes. And four of the seven were
doing virtually identical research -- research that has global, political and
financial significance.
QUE PASA?
The public relations office at the University of Miami Medical School said only
that Benito Que was a cell biologist, involved in oncology research in the
hematology department. This research relies heavily on DNA sequencing studies.
The circumstances of his death raise more questions than they answer.
Que had left his job at a research laboratory at the University of Miami Medical
School, apparently heading for his Ford Explorer parked on NW 10th Avenue. The
Miami Herald, referring to the death as an "incident," reported he had no wallet
on him, and quoted Miami police as saying his death may have been the result of
a mugging. Police made this statement while at the same time saying there was a
lack of visible trauma to Que's body. There is firm belief among Que's friends
and family that the PhD was attacked by four men, at least one of whom had a
baseball bat. Que's death has now been officially ruled "natural," caused by
cardiac arrest. Both the Dade County medical examiner and the Miami Police would
not comment on the case, saying only that it is closed.
A MEMPHIS MYSTERY
Don C. Wiley of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard University, was
one of the most prominent microbiologists in the world. He had won many of the
field's most prestigious awards, including the 1995 Albert Lasker Basic Medical
Research Award for work that could make anti-viral vaccines a reality. He was
heavily involved in research on DNA sequencing. Wiley was last seen around
midnight on Nov. 15, leaving the St. Jude's Children's Research Advisory dinner
held at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tenn. Associates attending the dinner said
he showed no signs of intoxication, and no one has admitted to drinking with
him.
His rented Mitsubishi Galant was found about four hours later, abandoned on a
bridge across the Mississippi River, headed towards Arkansas. Keys were in the
ignition, the gas tank full, and the hazard flashers had not been turned on.
Wiley's body was found on Dec. 20, snagged on a tree along the Mississippi River
in Vidalia, La., 300 miles south of Memphis. Until his body was found, Dr.
Wiley's death was handled as a missing person case, and police did no forensic
examinations.
Early reports about Wiley's disappearance made no mention of paint marks on his
car or a missing hubcap, which turned up in subsequent reports. The type of
accident needed to knock off the hubcaps (actually a complete wheel cover) used
on recent model Galants would have caused noticeable damage to the sheet metal
on either side of the wheel, and probably the wheel itself. No damage to the car
s body or wheel has been reported.
Wiley's car was found about a five-minute drive from the hotel where he was last
seen. There is a four-hour period in his evening that cannot be accounted for.
There is also no explanation as to why he would have been headed into Arkansas
late at night. Wiley was staying at his father's home in Memphis.
The Hernando de Soto Bridge carries Interstate 40 out of Memphis, across the
Mississippi River into Arkansas. The traffic on the bridge was reduced to a
single lane in each direction. This would have caused westbound traffic out of
Memphis to slow down and travel in one lane. Anything in the other two closed
lanes would have been plainly obvious to every passing person. There are no
known witnesses to Wiley stopping his car on the bridge.
On Jan. 14, almost two months after his disappearance, Shelby County Medical
Examiner O.C. Smith announced that his department had ruled Wiley s death to be
"accidental;" the result of massive injuries suffered in a fall from the
Hernando de Soto Bridge. Smith said there were paint marks on Wiley's rental car
similar to the paint used on construction signs on the bridge, and that the
car's right front hubcap was missing. There has been no report as to which
construction signs Wiley hit. There is also no explanation as to why this
evidence did not move the Memphis police to consider possibilities other than a
"missing person."
Smith theorizes that Wiley pulled over to the outermost lane of the bridge (that
lane being closed at the time) to inspect the damage to his car. Smith's
subsequent explanation for the fall requires several other things to have
occurred simultaneously:
- Wiley had to have had one of the two or three seizures he has per year due to
a rare disorder known only to family and close friends, that seizure being
brought on by use of alcohol earlier that evening;
- A passing truck creating a huge blast of wind and/or roadway bounce due to
heavy traffic; and,
- Wiley had to be standing on the curb next to the guardrail which, because of
Wiley's 6-foot-3-inch height, would have come only to his mid-thigh.
These conditions would have put Wiley's center of gravity above the rail, and
the seizure would have caused him to lose his balance as the truck created the
bounce and blast of wind, thus causing him to fall off the bridge.
SCIENCE IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD?
Robert M. Schwartz was a founding member of the Virginia Biotechnology
Association, and the Executive Director of Research and Development at
Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology. He was extremely well respected in
biophysics, and regarded as an authority on DNA sequencing.
Co-workers became concerned when he didn't show up at his office on Dec. 10. He
was later found dead at his home. Loudoun County Sheriff's officials said
Schwartz was stabbed on Dec. 8 with a sword, and had an "X" cut into the back of
his neck.
Schwartz's daughter Clara, 19, and three others have been charged in the case.
The four are said to have a fascination with fantasy worlds, witchcraft, and the
occult. Kyle Hulbert, 18, who allegedly committed the murder, has a history of
mental illness, and is reported by the Washington Post to have killed Schwartz
to prevent the murder of Clara. At the request of Clara Schwartz's attorneys, on
Feb. 13 Judge Pamela Grizzle ordered all new evidence introduced about her role
in the case to be sealed. She also issued a temporary gag order covering the
entire case on police, prosecutors and defense attorneys.
BREATHE DEEPLY, AND CARRY A BIG STICK
Set Van Nguyen was found dead on Dec. 11 at the Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research Organization's animal diseases facility in Geelong,
Australia. He had worked there 15 years. According to an article on
www.rense.com by Ian Gurney, in Jan. 20001 the magazine Nature published
information that two scientists at this facility, using genetic manipulation and
DNA sequencing, had created an incredibly virulent form of mousepox, a cousin of
smallpox. The researchers were extremely concerned that if similar manipulation
could be done to smallpox, a terrifying weapon could be unleashed.
According to Victoria Police, Nguyen died after entering a refrigerated storage
facility. "He did not know the room was full of deadly gas which had leaked from
a liquid nitrogen cooling system. Unable to breathe, Mr. Nguyen collapsed and
died," is the official report.
Nitrogen is not a "deadly" gas, and is a part of air. An extreme over-abundance
of nitrogen in one's immediate atmosphere would cause shortness of breath,
lightheadedness, and fatigue -- conditions a biologist would certainly
recognize. Additionally, a leak sufficient to fill the room with nitrogen would
set off alerts, and would be so massive as to cause a complete loss of cooling,
causing the temperature to rise, which would also set off alerts these systems
are routinely equipped with.
A RUSSIAN, BRITISH INTELLIGENCE AND OLD CORPSES
In 1989, Vladimir Pasechnik defected from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) to Great
Britain while on a trip to Paris. He had been the top scientist in the FSU's
bioweapons program, which is heavily dependent upon DNA sequencing. Pasechnik's
death was reported in the New York Times as having occurred on Nov. 23.
The Times obituary indicated that the announcement of Pasechnik's death was made
in the United States by Dr. Christopher Davis of Virginia, who stated that the
cause of death was a stroke. Davis was the member of British intelligence who
de-briefed Dr. Pasechnik at the time of his defection. Davis says he left the
intelligence service in 1996, but when asked why a former member of British
intelligence would be the person announcing the death of Pasechnik to the US
media, he replied that it had come about during a conversation with a reporter
he had had a long relationship with. The reporter Davis named is not the author
of the Times' obituary, and Davis declined to say which branch of British
intelligence he served in. No reports of Pasechnik's death appeared in Britain
for more than a month, until Dec. 29, when his obituary appeared in the London
Telegraph, which did not include a date of death.
Pasechnik spent the 10 years after his defection working at the Centre for
Applied Microbiology and Research at the UK Department of Health, Salisbury. On
Feb. 20, 2000, it was announced that, along with partner Caisey Harlingten,
Pasechnik had formed a company called Regma Biotechnologies Ltd. Regma describes
itself as "a new drug company working to provide powerful alternatives to
antibiotics." Like three other microbiologists detailed in this article,
Pasechnik was heavily involved in DNA sequencing research. During the anthrax
panic of this past fall, Pasechnik offered his services to the British
government to help in any way possible. Despite Regma having a public relations
department that has released many items to the press over the past two years,
the company has not announced the death of one of its two founders.
FEBRUARY, BLOODY FEBRUARY
On Feb. 9 the news publication Pravda.ru reported that Victor Korshunov had been
killed. At the time, Korshunov was head of the microbiology sub-facility at the
Russian State Medical University. He was found dead in the entrance to his home
with a cranial injury. Pravda reports that Korshunov had probably invented
either a vaccine to protect against biological weapons, or a weapon itself.
On Feb. 12 a newspaper in Norwich, England reported the previous day's death of
Ian Langford, a senior researcher at the University of East Anglia. The story
went on to say that police "were not treating the death as suspicious." The next
day, Britain's The Times reported that Langford was found wedged under a chair
"at his blood-spattered and apparently ransacked home."
The February 12 story, from the Eastern Daily Press, reports that clerks at a
store near Langford's home claim he came in on a daily basis to buy "a big
bottle of vodka." Two of the store's staff also claim Langford had come into the
store a few days earlier wearing "just a jumper and a pair of shoes." None of
the store's staff would give their name.
It is hard to understand how a man can reach the highest levels of achievement
in a scientific field while drinking "a big bottle of vodka" on a daily basis,
and strolling around his hometown nearly nude. A Feb. 14 follow-up story from
the Eastern Daily Press says police believe Langford died after suffering "one
or more falls." They say this would account for his head injuries and large
amount of blood found at the death scene.
THE HOWARD HUGHES MEDICAL INSTITUTE -- ANOTHER LINK?
There is another intriguing connection between three of the five American
scientists that have died. Wiley, Schwartz, and Benito Que worked for medical
research facilities that received grants from Howard Hughes Medical Institute
(HHMI). HHMI funds a tremendous number of research programs at schools,
hospitals and research facilities, and has long been alleged to be conducting
"black ops" biomedical research for intelligence organizations, including the
CIA.
Long-time biowarfare investigator Patricia Dole, Ph.D. reports that there is a
history of people connected to HHMI being murdered. In 1994, Jose Trias met with
a friend in Houston, Texas and was planning to go public with his personal
knowledge of HHMI "front door" grants being diverted to "back door" black ops
bioresearch. The next day, Trias and his wife were found dead in their Chevy
Chase, Md. home. Chevy Chase is where HHMI is headquartered. Police described
the killings as a professional hit. Tsunao Saitoh, who formerly worked at an
HHMI-funded lab at Columbia University, was shot to death on May 7, 1996 while
sitting in his car outside his home in La Jolla, Calif. Police also described
this as a professional hit.
BEYOND THE BIZARRE
Early-October saw reports that British scientists were planning to exhume the
bodies of 10 London victims of the 1918 type-A flu epidemic known as the Spanish
Flu. An October 7 report In The Independent, UK said that victims of the Spanish
Flu had been victims of "the world's most deadly virus." British scientists,
according to the story, hope to uncover the genetic makeup of the virus, making
it easier to combat.
Professor John Oxford of London's Queen Mary's School of Medicine, the British
government's flu adviser, acknowledges that the exhumations and subsequent
studies will have to be done with extreme caution so the virus is not unleashed
to cause another epidemic. The uncovering of a pathogen's genetic structure is
the exact work Pasechnik was doing at Regma. Pasechnik died six weeks after the
planned exhumations were announced. The need to exhume the bodies assumes no
Type-A flu virus sample exists in any lab anywhere in the world.
A piece on MSNBC that aired September 6 makes the British exhumation plans seem
odd. The story refers to an article that was to be published the following day
in the weekly magazine Science, reporting the 1918 flu virus had recently been
RNA sequenced. Researchers had traced down and obtained virus samples from
archived lung tissue of WWI soldiers, and from an Inuit woman who had been
buried in the Alaskan permafrost.
HELP WANTED, SPIES, AND A LINK TO PROMIS
Almost immediately at the outset of the anthrax scare, the Bush administration
contracted with Bayer Pharmaceuticals for millions of doses of Cipro, an
antibiotic to treat anthrax. This was done despite many in the medical community
stating that there were several cheaper, better alternatives to Cipro, which has
never been shown to be effective against inhaled anthrax. The Center for Disease
Control's (CDC) own website states a preference for the antibiotic doxycycline
over Cipro for inhalation anthrax. CDC expresses concerns that widespread Cipro
use could cause other bacteria to become immune to antibiotics.
It was announced Jan. 21 that the director of the CDC, Jeffrey Koplan, is
resigning effective March 31. Six days earlier it was announced that Surgeon
General David Satcher is also resigning. And there is currently no director for
the National Institutes of Health -- NIH is being run by an acting director. The
recent resignations leave the three most significant medical positions in the
federal government simultaneously vacant.
After three months of conflicting reports it is now official that the anthrax
that has killed several Americans since October 5 is from US military sources
connected to CIA research. The FBI has stated that only 10 people could have had
access, yet at the same time they are reporting astounding security breaches at
the biowarfare facility at Fort Detrick, Md. -- breaches such as unauthorized
nighttime experiments and lab specimens gone missing.
The militarized anthrax used by the US was developed by William C. Patrick III,
who holds five classified patents on the process. He has worked at both Fort
Detrick, and the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah. Patrick is now a private
biowarfare consultant to the military and CIA. Patrick developed the process by
which anthrax spores could be concentrated at the level of one trillion spores
per gram. No other country has been able to get concentrations above 500 billion
per gram. The anthrax that was sent around the eastern US last fall was
concentrated at one trillion spores per gram, according to a Jan. 31 report by
Barbara Hatch Rosenberg of the Federation of American Scientists.
In recent years Patrick has worked with Kanatjan Alibekov. Now known by the
Americanized "Ken Alibek", he defected to the US in 1992. Before defecting,
Alibek was the no. 2 man in the FSU's biowarfare program. His boss was Vladimir
Pasechnik.
Currently, Ken Alibek is President of Hadron Advanced Biosystems, a subsidiary
of Alexandria, Va.-based Hadron, Inc. Hadron describes itself as a company
specializing in the development of technical solutions for the intelligence
community. As chief scientist at Hadron, Alibek gave extensive testimony to the
House Armed Services Committee about biological weapons on Oct. 20, 1999, and
again on May 23, 2000. Hadron announced on Dec. 20 that as of that date, the
company had received $12 million in funding for medical biodefense research from
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the US Army Medical Research and
Materiel Command, and the NIH. Hadron said it was working in the field of
non-specific immunity.
In the 1980s Hadron was founded and headed by Dr. Earl Brian, a medical doctor
and crony of Ronald Reagan and an associate of former Attorney General Edwin
Meese. Brian was convicted in the 1980s on fraud charges. Both Hadron and Brian
have been closely associated in court documents and numerous credible reports,
confirmed since Sept. 11, with the theft of enhanced PROMIS software from its
owner, the INSLAW Corporation. PROMIS is a highly sophisticated computer
program capable of integrating a wide variety of databases. The software has
reportedly been mated in recent years with artificial intelligence. PROMIS has
long been known to have been modified by intelligence agencies with a back door
that allows for surreptitious retrieval of stored data. [For more information on
what PROMIS can do and its history, please use the search engine at
www.copvcia.com.]
Given this unique capability, and Hadron s prior connections to PROMIS, it is a
possibility that the software, by tapping into databases used by each of the
victims, could have identified any lines of research that threatened to
compromise a larger, and as yet unidentified, more sinister covert operation.
A PATTERN?
The DNA sequencing work by several of the microbiologists discussed earlier is
aimed at developing drugs that will fight pathogens based on the pathogen's
genetic profile. The work is also aimed at eventually developing drugs that will
work in cooperation with a person's genetic makeup. Theoretically, a drug could
be developed for one specific person. That being the case, it's obvious that one
could go down the ladder, and a drug could be developed to effectively treat a
much broader class of people sharing a genetic marker. The entire process can
also be turned around to develop a pathogen that will affect a broad class of
people sharing a genetic marker. A broad class of people sharing a genetic
marker could be a group such as a race, or people with brown eyes.
SMALLPOX
An Oct. 17 story in USA Today reported that the US government wanted to order
300 million doses of smallpox vaccine. Apparently, that wish has been granted.
On Nov. 28 a British vaccine maker, Acambis, announced that it had received a
$428 million contract to provide 155 million doses of smallpox vaccine to the US
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This was Acambis' second
contract. The company is already in the process of producing 54 million doses.
The US government has 15.4 million doses stockpiled, and HHS plans to dilute
them five to one. The two contracts and the dilution program will bring the
total HHS stockpile to 286 million doses.
Smallpox was officially declared eradicated by the World Health Organization in
1977, after treating the last known case in Merca, Somalia.
MEHPA -- MEDICAL FASCISM
A meeting of the Center for Law and the Public Health (CLPH) was convened on
Oct. 5. This group is run jointly by Georgetown University Law School and Johns
Hopkins Medical School, and was founded under the auspices of the Center for
Disease Control (CDC). CLPH was formed one month prior to the 2000 Presidential
election. The purpose of the October meeting was to draft legislation to respond
to the then current bioterrorism threat.
After working only 18 days, on Nov. 23 CLPH released a 40-page document called
the Model Emergency Health Powers Act (MEHPA). This was a "model" law that HHS
is suggesting be enacted by the 50 states to handle future public health
emergencies such as bioterrorism. A revised version was released on Dec. 21
containing more specific definitions of "public health emergency" as it pertains
to bioterrorism and biologic agents, and includes language for those states that
want to use the act for chemical, nuclear or natural disasters.
According to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), after
declaring a "public health emergency", and without consulting with public health
authorities, law enforcement, the legislature or courts, a state governor using
MEHPA, or anyone he/she decides to empower, can among many things:
- Require any individual to be vaccinated. Refusal constitutes a crime and will
result in quarantine.
- Require any individual to undergo specific medical treatment. Refusal
constitutes a crime and will result in quarantine.
- Seize any property, including real estate, food, medicine, fuel or clothing,
an official thinks necessary to handle the emergency.
- Seize and destroy any property alleged to be hazardous. There will be no compensation or recourse.
- Draft you or your business into state service.
- Impose rationing, price controls, quotas and transportation controls.
- Suspend any state law, regulation or rule that is thought
to interfere with handling the declared emergency.
When the federal government wanted the states to enact the 55 mph speed limit,
they coerced the states using the threat of withholding federal monies. The same
tactic will likely be used with MEHPA. As of this writing the law has been
passed in Kentucky. According to AAPS, it has been introduced in the
legislatures of Arizona, California, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts,
Minnesota, Mississippi, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New
York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. It is expected to be introduced shortly in
Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, and Wisconsin. MEHPA is being evaluated by
the executive branches in North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas,
Virginia and Washington, DC.
The research the microbiologists were doing could have developed methods of
treating diseases like anthrax and smallpox without conventional antibiotics or
vaccines. Pharmaceutical contracts to deal with these diseases will total
hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars. If epidemics could be treated
in non-traditional ways, MEHPA might not be necessary. Considering the
government's actions nullifying many civil liberties since last September, MEHPA
seems to be a law looking for an excuse to be enacted. Maybe the microbiologists
were in the way of some peoples' or business' agendas.
We also know that DNA sequencing research can be used to develop pathogens that
target specific genetically related groups. One company, DynCorp, handles data
processing for many federal agencies, including the CDC, the Department of
Agriculture, several branches of the Department of Justice, the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) and the NIH. On Nov. 12 DynCorp announced that its
subsidiary, DynPort Vaccine, had been awarded a $322 million contract to
develop, produce, test, and store FDA licensed vaccines for use by the Defense
Department. It would be incredibly easy for DynCorp to hide information
pertaining to the exact make-up, safety, efficacy and purpose of the drugs and
vaccines the US government has contracted for.
Reasons to suspect DynCorp of criminal behavior are not hard to find.
Investigative reporter Kelly O Meara of Insight Magazine, in a story dated
February 4, disclosed a massive US military investigation of how DynCorp
employees in Bosnia had engaged in a widespread sex slave ring, trading children
as young as eight and videotaping forced sexual encounters. She reviewed
government documents and interviewed Army investigators looking into the
activities which had spread throughout DynCorp s contract operations to service
helicopters and warehouse supplies for the US military. Videos and other
evidence of the crimes are in the Army s possession. And in a February 23rd
story, veteran journalist Al Giordano of
www.narconews.com reported that a class action suit had been filed in
Washington, D.C. by more than 10,000 Ecuadorian farmers and a labor union
against DynCorp for its rampant spraying of herbicides which have destroyed food
crops, weakened the ecosystem and caused more than 1,100 documented cases of
illness.
DynCorp s current Chairman, Paul Lombardi responded to the suit by sending
intimidating letters in an unsuccessful attempt to force the plaintiffs to
withdraw.
DynCorp has also been directly linked to the development and use of PROMIS
software by its founder Bill Hamilton of Inslaw. DynCorp s former Chairman,
current board member and the lead investor in Capricorn Holdings, is Herbert Pug
Winokur. Winokur was, until recently, Chairman of the Enron Finance Committee.
He claimed ignorance as to the fraudulent financial activities of Enron s board
even though he was charged with their oversight.