Date:   Tue Apr 26 1994  18:35:20
From:   David Bloomberg
To:     Sweet Sue
Subj:   Skepticism & AIDS
SKEPTIC                        -------------------------------

In a msg to Tyler A. Wunder on , Sweet Sue of 93:9706/4 writes:

 SS> To this end, there exists a video tape called "The Strecker Memorandum."
 SS> I don't know where you'd locate a copy or where the Strecker Foundation
 SS> originates from, but it provides much information -- scientific-type --
 SS> about the origin of AIDS as a government-produced and 'omigod--it's out
 SS> of hand' phenomenon.

 SS> If anybody knows where someone can find a copy of this video, please
 SS> post for those who would like to review all available information.

I don't know where to find it, but I have info on it.

From _Return of the Straight Dope_ by Cecil Adams (authority on everything),
pp. 371-2:

A reader asked about The Strecker Memorandum.  Portions of his reply follow:

    "Cecil is reluctant to spend too much time on this, because it seems so
obviously nuts, but I've gotten a few letters about it and hey, we live to
serve. ... The Strecker theory [on the origin of AIDS] ... is the work of
Robert Strecker, an L.A. gastroenterologist.  He claims that 'AIDS was a
disease that was requested, manufactured, and deployed and does exactly what it
was intended to do,' i.e., it's a weapon of germ warfare.
    "Strecker says scientists cooked up AIDS around 1972 from something called
'bovine visna virus.'  He guesses that smallpox vaccine made from the lesions
of BVV-infected cattle was injected into humans in Africa, where it transmuted
into AIDS. ..."
    "Strecker's work has been expanded on by others.  Among the claims (I rely
here mainly on a 1990 story in _Essence_): (1) AIDS was invented by the CIA or
(2) the Russians.  (3) It was manufactured at the U.S. Army biological research
center in Fort Detrick, Maryland.  (4) It has something to do with Agent
Orange. (5) It was intended to wipe out black people; gays were a pilot test.
Crack cocaine also was invented to kill blacks.
    "Mainstream AIDS scientists say Strecker's a kook.  From a micro-biological
standpoint, AIDS bears little resemblance to bovine visna virus; it bears a lot
of resemblance to simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), from which AIDS is
widely thought to have naturally evolved.  There may have been some proto-AIDS
cases substantially predating 1972.  And frankly, inventing a fatal disease
that singles out minorities, gays, and drug abusers would require the
CIA/Russians/U.S. Army to be a lot smarter a lot earlier in the day than there
is any evidence of them ever being."