Lawmakers and Involuntary Human Research Subjects, Part Two of Two

Former Missouri Representative Jim Guest

In 2002, Jim Guest began his first of four terms in the Missouri House of Representatives (4). Guest holds degrees in engineering and was employed at McDonnell Douglas Corporation, a federal sub-contractor that developed aerospace technology and worked on classified projects, prior to its merging with Boeing (5). He served on multiple committees while in office, including the House Committee on Real ID and Personal Privacy, delving into consumer issues related to electronic “nonlethal” weapons, radio frequency identification (RFID) chips and proposing related legislation. It was then that Guest became known as a “go-to guy” for resources related to involuntary human research subjects, electronic harassment and similar such subject matter.

In a letter to fellow legislators and dated October 10, 2007 (6) , Guest wrote:

This letter is to ask for your help for the many constituents in our country who are being affected unjustly by electronic weapons torture and covert harassment groups. Serious privacy rights violations and physical injuries have been caused by the activities of these groups and their use of so-called non-lethal weapons on men, women, and even children.

I am asking you to play a role in helping these victims and also stopping the massive movement in the use of Verichip and RFID technologies in tracking Americans.

Long before Verichip was known we were testing these devices on Americans, many without their knowledge or consent. With the new revelations of the cancer risk besides the privacy and human rights problems with the use of Verichip and RF signals, I am asking for your help in stopping these abuses and aiding those already affected. Your attendance is therefore requested at a conference call regarding these issues on Monday, October 29, at 11 am EST. After a period of brief presentations, we will have a discussion of these issues with the intent of creating a way forward toward solutions...

Sincerely,

Rep. Jim Guest

 

Guest's work went on to become presented as supporting documents in civil court cases and, in select cases, Guest himself assisted plaintiffs. In 2008, Guest personally helped James Walbert convince a Kansas court that he and his family were being electronically harassed via nonlethal weapons by a former business partner (7). Then-Representative Guest wrote on behalf of Walbert (8):

To Whom It May Concern:

I have worked for 3 years with Microwave and Electronic Harassment victims throughout the US and overseas. It is hard for others to understand the technology that is being used to destroy people's lives. I know James because he contacted me for help. James has worked to find proof of what has happened to him.

Many victims try hard to get help from professional doctors to help find devices such as Veri-Chip. I would request that you and those who can make a difference would help James and others to find answers.

Jim Guest

5^th District State Representative

Guest's legacy of championing contemporary human rights issues was solidified. His work continues to be cited among various advocacy groups.

Former Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich

Dennis Kucinich is an elected official serving the State of Ohio, as was the case with John Glenn. Kucinich is a career politician, elected to the Senate in 1994 and Congress in 1996. During a Presidential bid, news surfaced in 2007 of Kucinich's involvement in a UFO sighting (9).

During the early 1980's while staying at the Graham, Washington, home of Shirley MacLaine, Kucinich and two companions reported that they heard a high pitched sound throughout the day (10). Later the same day, the trio observed three triangle craft approach and hover in close proximity.

MacLaine went on to write in her book, Sage-ing While Age-ing, that Kucinich “heard directions in his mind” during the incident. The Washington Post reports that Kucinich denies that part. Kucinich does, however, generally agree that the event indeed took place and as researcher/author Alex Constantine quotes Kucinich's companions and MacLaine as describing (see previous source cited).

One way or the other, perhaps what is most interesting about the Dennis Kucinich saga is that he went on to propose the Space Preservation Act of 2001 (11). The bill sought to ban space-based weapons, very interestingly including the “use of land-based, sea-based, or space-based systems using radiation, electromagnetic, psychotronic, sonic, laser, or other energies directed at individual persons or targeted populations for the purpose of information war, mood management, or mind control of such persons or populations.” The bill additionally proposed banning “exotic weapons systems such as high altitude ultra low frequency weapons systems.”

The bill was not approved.

On a related note, a U.S. Navy document titled, Human Research Protection Program (12), established policy and assigned responsibility for research involving human subjects and conducted by or on behalf of the Navy. The document was issued by the Secretary of the Navy, dated November 6, 2006, and stated in part:

(1) The Secretary of the Navy is the research approval authority for all research protocols involving:

a) Waivers of the requirement for informed consent under reference (e).

(b) Exceptions from informed consent requirements for emergency research under 21 CFR 50.24 in reference (i) and in accordance with the requirements of reference (e).

(c) Requests for waiver of requirements of DON policy regarding human research protections.

(2) The Under Secretary of the Navy (UNSECNAV) is the Approval Authority for research involving:

(a) Severe or unusual intrusions, either physical or psychological, on human subjects (such as consciousness-altering drugs or mind-control techniques).

(b) Prisoners.

(c) Potentially or inherently controversial topics (such as those likely to attract significant media coverage or that might invite challenge by interest groups).

(3) The UNSECNAV forwards to the Director, Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) for final determination:

(a) All proposed research involving exposure of human subjects to the effects of nuclear, biological or chemical warfare agents or weapons, as required by reference (a).

(b) All human research protocols that would require action by an official of the Department of Health and Human Services under reference (f).

(4) UNSECNAV forwards to SECDEF, via DDR&E, for approval all classified human research.

References:

(4) Missouri House of Representatives: Representative Jim Guest

http://house.mo.gov/member.aspx?year=2009&district=005

(5) Boeing: McDonnell Douglas Archive

http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/mdc/archiveall.html

(6) Freedom from Covert Harassment and Surveillance: Representative Jim Guest Letter PDF

http://www.freedomfchs.com/repjimguestltr.pdf

(7) Raven1: Court Recognizes Electronic Harassment: Protection Order for James Walbert

http://www.raven1.net/walbert.htm

(8) Raven1: Walbert Letter

http://www.raven1.net/walbert10.jpg

(9) The Washington Post: The Love Song of Dennis J. Kucinich

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/04/AR2007120402333_5.html

(10) Alex Constantine's Blacklist: Murdoch's WSJ Outs Kucinich UFO Sighting

http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2008/01/mind-control-dennis-kucinichs-ufo.html

(11) Federation of American Scientists: Space Preservation Act of 2001

http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2001/hr2977.html

(12) Federation of American Scientists: SECNAVINST INSTRUCTION 3900.39D PDF

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/navy/secnavinst/3900_39d.pdf

Lawmakers and Involuntary Human Research Subjects, Part One of Two

According to the Alliance for Human Research Protection (1), a network of lay people and professionals dedicated to advancing responsible and ethical medical research practices, 15 million Americans per year are recruited into clinical trials. The Alliance seeks to protect populations at high risk of falling victim to exploitation in such trials. High risk populations traditionally include but are not limited to disadvantaged children, disadvantaged elderly, disabled mentally and physically ill, immigrants, residents of underdeveloped nations, prisoners and members of the armed forces.

The subject matter largely eludes the attention of the American public for reasons including the topic typically invokes uncomfortable emotions and is a national embarrassment, resulting in minimal and sugar coated media attention. The vast majority of the American public therefore simply remains unaware of its nation's history of exploiting vulnerable, uninformed human research subjects.

While some readers may indeed be at least somewhat familiar with circumstances related to Project MKULTRA, radiation experiments and similar such atrocities, a reasonable argument can be made that members of the UFO community, as compared to the population at large, should particularly educate themselves about the exploitation of human research subjects, as it carries substantial implications to ufology. Numerous verified covert and exploitative state-sponsored research projects consisted of methodology, objectives and resulting testimonies from research subjects that are easily correlated with prevalent themes and witness testimonies commonly found throughout ufology.

Many relevant questions arise. To what extent does the exploitation of involuntary human research subjects continue and in what ways? Where do we find accurate information, when the UFO community and Internet is so littered with sensationalized exaggerations, hoaxes and disturbingly paranoid conspiracy theories? How do we responsibly delve into such subject matter without instigating more inaccurate rumors and the often accompanying poorly conceived lines of premature assertions and faulty logic?

One strategy to find answers is to take a look at what lawmakers are doing and current policies on state-sponsored research involving the use of human subjects. If we limit our research sources to verified documents and relevant quotes, in compliance with best practices in research and reporting, we can at the least separate what has actually taken place and truly been stated from that which has not. The implications of facts can be debated, but facts themselves are easy to establish and not open to debate.

Former Astronaut John Glenn

While serving 25 years as an Ohio Senator (2), former astronaut John Glenn proposed the Human Research Subject Protection Act (3) in 1997. The bill called for measures such as further accountability among researchers and funding agencies as well as penalties for non-adherence. While arguing on behalf of the bill, then-Senator Glenn stated:

I have been in public life and have served this country for many years. Frankly, I do not think too many things that I see surprise me anymore about our laws and about government. Three years ago, though, I began to learn about a gap in our legal system that does truly concern me. In 1993 the Governmental Affairs Committee began to investigate the cold war radiation experiments. These experiments are one of the unfortunate legacies of the cold war, when our government sponsored experiments involving radiation on our own citizens without their consent. They did not even know the experiments were being run on them. It was without their consent.

One of the most infamous of these experiments took place in my own State of Ohio, when scores of patients at the University of Cincinnati were subjected to large doses of radiation during experimental treatments, without their consent, without their informed consent. During the course of this investigation, I began to ask the question, what protections are in place to prevent such abuses from happening again? What law prohibits experimenting on people without their informed consent?

What I found, when I looked into it, is there is no law on the books requiring that informed consent be obtained...

Everyone listening today probably has heard of the Nuremberg Code. That is the list of 10 ethical research principles which were produced as part of the judgment against Nazi physicians who engaged in truly heinous medical experiments during World War II.

The first principle of the Nuremberg Code states that the voluntary consent of the human subject of research is absolutely essential. Unfortunately, as we look back through our history since the late 1940's, it appears that researchers in America may not have taken all that Nuremberg lesson completely to heart...

But to do research on people when they don't even know what the research or the medicines or the radiation is that is being tried on them, I think is unconscionable.

What it comes down to is there are no criminal fines or penalties for violating the spirit or the letter of that Nuremberg Code that should be the basis of all of our informed consent in this country.

In spite of the efforts of Glenn, there are still no such laws or penalties in place. His bill did not pass. Neither individual researchers nor their funding agencies are held criminally liable for violating the rights of human research subjects when done for purposes that can be defined as matters of national security.

It should be noted that millions of dollars have been paid by the federal government in civil judgments to abused research subjects or their surviving loved ones. However, no criminal cases have ever been tried because, simply put and as John Glenn observed and warned, it is not against the law and it never has been. Perhaps it is additionally worthy of consideration that although members of the UFO community frequently describe medical procedures conducted by alleged aliens as unforgivably intrusive violations of fundamental universal rights, a perspective commonly hoped to be held among all well intentioned higher functioning beings, the U.S. federal government does not share the perspective. A closer review obviously informs us that the United States federal government has a long, detailed and confirmed history of conducting such procedures while defining them as matters of national security, or at least this is the case when said procedures are conducted by federally-funded human beings.

References:

(1) Alliance for Human Research Protection: About the Alliance for Human Research Protection
http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/18/87/ 

(2) National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Astronaut Bio: John Glenn, Jr. 

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/glenn-j.html 

(3) Alliance for Human Research Protection: John Glenn on Informed Consent

http://www.ahrp.org/InformedConsent/glennConsent.php