9.1.2: Strecker's CIA Theory (AIDS)
Description
This article is from the Scientific Skepticism FAQ, by Paul Johnson Paul@treetop.demon.co.uk with numerous contributions by others.
9.1.2: Strecker's CIA Theory (AIDS)
Strecker's theory is that the CIA made HIV in the 1970's by combining
bovine leukemia virus (BLV) and sheep visna virus (OLV). The evidence for
this theory is that the government was looking at biological warfare around
then, and that there are some structural similarities between HIV and BLV
and visna. The evidence against this theory is:
a: We didn't have the biotechnology back then for the necessary gene
splicing. (But maybe the CIA has secret advanced technology?)
b: The genetic sequences for HIV, SIV, BLV, and OLV are freely
available (e.g. from genbank). You can look at them and compare
them yourself. The HIV sequence is totally different from BLV and
OLV, but is fairly similar to SIV, just as the scientists say.
There used to be a third point here: that the earliest documented
AIDS case dated back to 1959. See question 9.2.
One school of thought holds that the "AIDS was a U.S. biological
warfare experiment" myth was extensively spread as part of a
dezinformatsiya campaign by Department V of the Soviet KGB (their
`active measures' group). They may not have invented the premise
(Soviet disinformation doctrine favored legends originated by third
parties), but they added a number of signature details such as the
name of the supposed development site (usually Fort Meade in Maryland)
which still show up in most retellings.
According to a defector who was once the KGB chief rezident in Great
Britain, the KGB promulgated this legend through controlled sources in
Europe and the Third World. The Third World version (only) included
the claim that HIV was the result of an attempt to build a "race
bomb", a plague that would kill only non-whites.
Also see the question in section 0 about Conspiracy Theories.
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