Has A Synthetic Plaque Been Created?

By James Donahue

A series of disturbing reports by Michael Edward on the web site World Vision Portal, links chemicals and other compounds secretly used by British Petroleum in the oil dispersant called Corexit at the site of the company’s disastrous oil spill and a strange “Blue Flu” breaking out this year among people living along the Gulf Coast.

Edwards, who lives on the coast, apparently did his research. In his articles he draws from several valuable sources, including articles published in Scientific American and reports from the U. S. Patent Office, to show strong evidence that PB was working in conjunction with Synthetic Genomics Inc. to use a newly developed synthetic bacteria at the site.

This bacterium, designed to feed on crude oil, was made public in Scientific American’s May 25 edition. The story by David Biello was headlined: “Slick Solution: How Microbes Will Clean Up the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.”

In the story, Craig Venter, one of the founders of Synthetic Genomics Inc., announced the unveiling of “the world’s first synthetic cell and one of the first patents on a genetically engineered organism (which) was a hydrocarbon-eating microbe.”

The article stated that scientists have long known that such microbes existed in nature, but they did not work fast enough or multiply quickly enough to deal with large oil spills on either land or in the sea. Thus the rush was on to use genetic engineering to manufacture a bacterium that might do the job.

The use of such large quantities of the oil dispersant was apparently done as an experiment by British Petroleum and U.S. government agents to stop a disaster that was out of control. As explained by microbial ecologist Kenneth Lee, director of the Center for Offshore Oil, Gas and Energy Research with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, “if the oil is in very small droplets, microbial degradation is much quicker. The dispersants can also stimulate microbial growth. Bacteria will chew on the dispersants as well as the oil.”

At least that was how it was all supposed to work.

Other than the allegations by Edwards and the revelations by various scientific publications that such a synthetic bacterium was in existence and available for use in cleaning up the gulf oil spill, there has been no real evidence that British Petroleum actually used this agent at the scene. In fact, everything about the clean-up effort was kept so strictly under wraps that company-hired guards and even local police agencies were busy making sure reporters never got close to the Corexit at its storage facility, or anyone had a chance to analyze its content, Edwards wrote.

But he said there have been clues that strongly suggest that the bacterium was used, exactly as suggested in the Scientific American story. For example, strange natural mineral elements such as copper, iron, nickel, aluminum and manganese began turning up in rain water, where it did not belong. Edwards theorized that these “are natural elements and nutrients. Bacteria thrive in rich nutrient environments.”  These minerals were exposed because they evaporated with the water and fell back to earth as rain.

Edwards noted that prior to the May announcement by Synthetic Genome, a spin-off non-profit company known as the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), had already applied for “numerous patents regarding synthetic bio-remediation, such as bacteria synthetic genomes which provide unique DNA information required for replication of a free-living organism.”

Both Synthetic Genomics and JCVI are headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. According to Edwards, British Petroleum holds an undisclosed amount of stock ownership in Synthetic Genomics, and the latter company is financing research at JCVI. Thus all of this is directly linked to British Petroleum.

In the meantime, people hired by British Petroleum to help clean oil mixed with the chemical from beaches and the gulf waters began complaining of various forms of illness. The symptoms include headaches, confusion and drowsiness, plus a strange blue colorization of the lips and under the fingernails. This is why the natives have dubbed it “blue flu.”

Edwards notes that the symptoms are almost identical to that of arsenic poisoning. In fact, he said he has learned from certain unnamed medical sources that patients seeking medical treatment for these symptoms have been found to have elevated levels of arsenic in their blood.

There is yet another troublesome factor in this story. Edwards writes that in 2003 JCVI successfully synthesized a virus that infects bacteria. Apparently this viral addition to the genetically altered bacterium makes it resistant to antibiotics.

Edwards wrote: “This new life form has the ability to replicate itself and organically function in any cell into which it has been introduced. Its DNA is artificial and it’s this synthetic DNA that takes control of the cell and is credited with being the building block of life.”

He asks: “What happens if a human becomes infected with a life-threatening variant bacterial species? If you use Penicillin to fight the infection, it won’t do any good. Any use of antibiotics would be a waste of time.”

So has PB and its subsidiaries created a biological monster in the rush to clean up the gulf oil spill? And is that monster about to be unleashed on the world without any way to stop it?

Strangely, Synthetic Genomics Inc. was involved on October 7 in the formation of a fourth company, Synthetic Genomics Vaccines Inc. This is another privately held company that is working on a new generation of vaccines using the “genomic sequencing and synthetic genomic expertise” used in creating the microbial monsters already unleashed in the gulf. Edwards suggests that this was all a devious plan by British Petroleum to gain great wealth through patented immunizations for a disease created within its own laboratories.

We are wondering if company officials discovered, too late, what they had done and are not taking drastic steps to try to  find a vaccine to head off a potential world pandemic by an antibiotic resistant manufactured bacterium/viral combination that has no equal.

So has British Petroleum created the ultimate doomsday bug? The Abba Father says a pandemic may soon change the way everybody lives for months until it is over. But it will not be a doomsday episode.