July 1996 Vol. XIII, No. 4

DDP meeting attendees will have a unique opportunity to see the Army Dugway Proving Grounds' biological laboratories and test grid on Friday, August 2. Areas of historic interest include a German test village constructed during World War II to study the dissemination of various chemical-biological warfare agents.

Environmental activists have been trying to rid the state of this site, although they cannot possibly rid the world of the threat of rapidly proliferating chemical and biological weapons.

The site is a high-security area. One person who was innocently taking some photographs was arrested at gunpoint, and his camera was confiscated, although he was in full Navy uniform. The Army will probably run a security check on prospective visitors. Those who wish to take the tour must provide us, immediately, with their full name, social security number, driver's license number, affiliation (employer), and citizenship. Some foreign nationals may be excluded. Citizens of the United Kingdom, Australia, or Canada are welcome; others should check ahead of time. (Telephone DDP with the information, 520-325-2680, or FAX it to 520-325-4230, and check to be sure we have received it. Deadline is July 10.)

Transportation will be by bus from the Airport Hilton, leaving promptly at 10 a.m. The site is a two-hour trip from the airport. A box lunch will be provided. The cost of lunch and transportation is $25. Only a limited number can be accommodated, so make your reservations early! (Sorry, no children.)

The bus is to return by about 4:00, leaving time for perhaps one shelter tour. Those who do not attend the Dugway tour will have the chance to tour several shelters, starting at 1:45 p.m. The charge for the shelter tour only is $10.

We thank Dr. Harold Strunk for arranging this opportunity.

A registration form, which can also be used to order tapes, is enclosed.

The American Civil Defense Association has announced its 18th national preparedness seminar, to be held October 11-14 at the Holiday Inn Fair Oaks in Fairfax, Virginia. Speakers include Dr. Edward Teller; War Correspondent Charles Wiley of Accuracy in Media; Sam Cohen, developer of the neutron bomb; Gerald Looney, MD, past president of DDP; Sovietologist Leon Goure; High Frontier Chairman Henry F. Cooper; Dr. Reed Blake, expert in European and Middle Eastern civil defense; Brian Bex, news analyst and author; and others. A tour of a ``neighborhood shelter'' will be available. The hotel has free transportation to a Metro station for those wishing to visit the nation's capital.

``In the 1930s, we ignored the warnings of General Billy Mitchell that an airplance could sink a battleship and that Pearl Harbor would be attacked,'' stated TACDA Executive Director Walter Murphey. ``The neglect of preparedness in the years before December 7, 1941, invited Pearl Harbor.''

``We are today dreaming of peace in a deadly explosive world and refusing to take well-known precautionary measures (missile defense and civil defense) that are available and would protect us so effectively that no enemy would risk attack. We are in fact inviting attack,'' he continued.

The cost of the TACDA meeting is $220 ($198 before August 1). Participants should plan to fly into Dulles Airport. For further information, call TACDA at (904)964-5397, or write PO Box 910, Starke, FL 32091.

On June 17, 1996, the New York Times ran an article headlined: ``U.N. Climate Report Was Improperly Altered, Underplaying Uncertainties, Critics Said.''

At issue is the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), The Science of Climate Change 1995, which may be used by governmental authorities to justify the imposition of carbon taxes and other destructive restraints on economic growth. The report was accepted by representatives of 96 nations meeting in Madrid. But critics say that an unauthorized revision removed the following paragraphs:

Ø ``None of the studies cited above has shown clear evidence that we can attribute the observed [climate] change to the specific cause of increases in greenhouse gases.''

Ø ``No study to date has positively attributed all or part [of the climate change observed to date] to anthropogenic causes.''

Ø ``Any claims of positive detection of significant climate change are likely to remain controversial until uncertainties in the natural variability of the climate system are reduced.''

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, June 12, 1996, former National Academy of Sciences President Frederick Seitz stated: ``I have never witnessed a more disturbing corruption of the peer-review process than the events that led to this IPCC report.'' Key changes in the report, which removed hints of scientific skepticism, were such a serious violation of the IPPC's own rules that Seitz suggested abandoning the IPPC process and looking for more reliable sources of scientific advice to governments on this key issue. [Dr. Seitz spoke at the 1994 DDP meeting on ``Global Climate Change: What Does the Science Tell Us?''─tapes available.]

Panic, ``shock,'' and ``outrage'' ensued. If the appearance of unanimity about climatic Apocalypse should be breached, the agenda of global economic controls is endangered. The first such article to appear in the mainstream press triggered accusations of a ``well-orchestrated campaign by the Global Climate Coalition to discredit the IPPC and confuse policymakers and the public'' [with the facts]. The ``Sound Science'' Initiative (SSI) of the Union of Concerned Scientists (see May issue) has been sending out FAX alerts urging activists to write letters, with the UCS message ``in your own words.'' This is part of a [non-well-orchestrated?] campaign to discredit the Global Climate Coalition as an industry-sponsored group.

The message: Dr. Seitz's editorial was ``politically motivated.'' There was ``no politically-motivated doctoring of the IPPC report, and the panel's own procedural rules have not been violated.''

Dr. Seitz, after all, agrees with ``fossil-fuel'' industry spokesmen, even though he takes no money from them. He also agrees with Fred Singer, who is said by the SSI to have ``clearly documented financial ties to the fossil-fuel industry.'' Furthermore, he is affiliated with the Marshall Institute, which was a proponent of ``President Reagan's Star Wars program.'' They say that Seitz can't attack the science, which is presumably unassailable, so he must attack the scientists. [See projection, ``the unconscious act of ascribing to others one's own ideas or impulses,'' ad hominem, ``attacking one's opponent rather than dealing with the subject under discussion,'' and McCarthyism, which employed guilt by association.]

Are scientists such as Seitz and Singer ``skeptics'' only in quotation marks, where the UCS places them? A look at the science will be presented at the DDP meeting by S. Fred Singer and Sallie Baliunas, and attendees can form their own judgment. Additional information may be requested from the George C. Marshall Institute, 1730 M Street NW #502, Washington, D.C. 20036, tel. (202)296-9655.