Note:  The following is a reprint of the article, "The Cover-Up of an Atrocity," which appeared in the August '95 issue of "The Council on Domestic Relations" national newsletter.

Most everyone has heard of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, Houston -- largest cancer center in the world. Garth L. Nicolson, Ph.D., a department chairman there, has published over 400 scientific papers, edited 13 books and serves as the Editor or Associate Editor of 13 scientific and medical journals.

He is one of the most highly cited scientists in the biomedical literature and the author of some of the most important scientific papers published in the past 20 years (and most cited for 10 years in a row). Needless to say, Dr. Nicolson is a "qualified expert".

Nicolson has found that the soldiers and family members who have contracted the mysterious Gulf War Illness (GWI), which includes a variety of symptoms including those of chronic fatigue syndrome, are suffering from a highly unusual microorganism infection, Mycoplasma fermentans (incognitus strain).

In a letter written to a Chaplain in which Nicolson pleas for assistance for the victims, he said, "The mycoplasma that we have found in Desert Storm vets has very unusual retroviral DNA sequences; thus in all probability it was 'engineered' and did not evolve naturally."

In Dr. Nicolson's research with 73 soldiers with Desert Storm-Associated Fatigue Illness, 55 had good responses to a common antibiotic, doxycyline. A brief paper written by Nicolson about this treatment was published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Nicolson, G.L. and Nicolson, NL Doxycycline treatment and Desert Storm, JAMA 273: 618-619, 1995)

Despite the results of Dr. Nicolson's research and even though doxycyline is a very common drug, veterans' and military hospitals refuse to use it to treat the illness. Some victims have even been turned away or have been referred to psychiatric councillors.

Nicolson suspects that "tens of thousands of our Desert Storm Veterans and their immediate family members are being refused medical treatment to hide the possible origin and use of biological weapons during the Gulf War. He states, "that former President Bush and former Sec. of State James Baker as well as the President of M.D. Anderson have financial interests in the local biotechnology companies that we strongly suspect were selling illegal biological weapons to Iraq that were subsequently used against our soldiers in Desert Storm."

In his letter, Nicolson references evidence supporting his claim. Numerous attempts have been made to prevent Nicolson from continuing his research on the illness. He says his grant applications have been tampered with, his mail, phones and faxes have been intercepted, attempts have been made to block his papers and journal articles from publication, including the JAMA article.

Administrators at his institution (who are close personal friends of James Baker III) have attempted to discredit him as a scientist and prevent him administratively from working on GWI. They have even placed a gag-order on him with regard to media contact. And, the ultimate coercion: armed Defense Intelligence Agency agents came to his hospital and warned him not to continue his research.

Finally, Dr. Nicolson asserts that thousands of US soldiers died (not the 148 claimed) and that the actual number of Gulf War deaths has been hidden. Contrary to his assertion that the biological weapon was administered by the Iraqis, some theorize that our own military injected the microbe in the victims with the many shots they all received prior to going to the Middle East.

One thing's for certain, surely the men and women who patriotically serve in America's armed forces deserve better than this. We cannot turn our backs on them. Please contact your doctor(s), federal and state legislators and demand a full scale legitimate investigation. Time is running out for some of the victims of this atrocity and its cover-up.