Peter -- Peter van Heusden <pvh at egenetics.com> NOTE: I do not speak for my employer, Electric Genetics "Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the chain and pluck the living flower." - Karl Marx, 1844
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2000 10:17:10 +0200 From: richard pithouse <pithouse at pixie.udw.ac.za> To: debate at sunsite.wits.ac.za Subject: DEBATE: Minster circulates bizarre AIDS theory
Minister spread bizarre AIDS theory -- Sunday Times - September 3 2000
Carol Paton
The Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has circulated a bizarre theory on AIDS to all provincial premiers and health ministers. It claims that the virus was introduced into Africa by a world-wide conspiracy.
The theory claims that the Illuminati -- an international conspiracy to take over the world -- introduced AIDS to Africa through the smallpox vaccine in 1978 to reduce the African population. It states that although the cure is known it is being kept secret until enough people have died.
The theory is contained in a book titled Behold, A Pale Horse written by William Cooper.
Tshabalala-Msimang circulated a chapter from the book which deals with AIDS, to provincial health ministers at their last meeting held two weeks ago.
The Western Cape Health Minister, Nick Koornhof, confirmed that ministers had received the document.
It was also distributed to all provincial premiers by Tshabalala-Msimang's parliamentary officer, Johannes Kgatla. He said he had distributed the extract "on the instructions of the minister".
Tshabalala-Msimang, who is in Burkina Faso attending a meeting, could not be reached for comment.
Nono Simelela, head of the HIV/AIDS directorate, said she had heard of the book "as something that lands on one's desk" but had not read it.
Koornhof said that there was no explanation attached or reason given by Tshabalala-Msimang for circulating it. He said he had written to the minister expressing hope that she would distance herself from the theories expressed in the book.
The circulated extract was attached to an anonymous covering letter addressed to "all African health ministers". The letter warns that the AIDS virus could be in any vaccine bought by or donated to any African country.
In his book, Cooper provides a detailed account of how the Illuminati came up with the idea to "increase the death rate" after the baby boom following World War Two.
The plan was to "develop a microbe that would attack the immune system and thus render the development of a vaccine impossible".
Cooper, a former US naval officer, has also written about UFOs and alien conspiracies.
ENDS