
              Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 7  Num. 42
             ======================================
                    ("Quid coniuratio est?")
 
 
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BEHIND THE "GULF WAR SYNDROME" AND OKC RESCUE TEAM ILLNESSES
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Interview with Sherman H. Skolnick, March 8, 1996
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[...continued...]
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK [continues]:
Now the others that have commented about the Oklahoma bombing, 
for example that top FBI official [Ted Gunderson] and that 
retired top Brigadier General [Partin], they, apparently, 
somewhere in their careers, signed national security oaths. I 
never did. I never was in such a position, therefore I'm not 
obligated to stay shut about this. Maybe they are. They've 
commented that the government's version of the bombing is not 
accurate.
 
That's much of the secret, that there is this radioactive illness 
now. It's just, it didn't get in front of the public.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
In your latest story, "The Oklahoma Bombings and the Radioactive 
Cover-Up", you mention people that are dragging themselves to 
work. And it sounds like it's really a sad story.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
It is; it's terrible. I promised myself I will risk my neck in 
every way to see what can be done for those people. *All* the 
details are not known. People that know about it talk in 
whispers. People are afraid to death, because this is really a... 
When you're talkin' about the radioactivity and stuff like that 
you can get right into the national security end of it. And 
there's not too many people that want to talk. They talk to you 
with the promise that you'll never mention their name -- and 
nobody's gonna get their name out of me. I don't care how much 
people heckle me. *I* know what the circumstances are and I am 
going to bring it before the public as best I can.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
When you were first developing this story and I talked with you, 
it was like you had just talked with some of these people...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
I was greatly misunderstood, because the problem is technical. 
The story about the radiation started out as a 5-minute recorded 
commentary [(312) 731-1100]. And in a 5-minute recorded 
commentary you cannot *always* make it so plain that you won't be 
misunderstood. Some people got the idea that I was talking about 
a nuclear bomb. But this was some radioactive material that in 
some way was "piggy-backed" onto conventional weapons the way 
some terrorists in recent times have tried to do in other 
countries. (They tried, but it was stopped by the French secret 
police. Terrorists tried to do it in Paris.)
 
But here, I'm not saying that terrorists did the thing in 
Oklahoma. In fact, I'm inclined to believe that there was 
government complicity. But I'd rather focus in on the fact that, 
howsoever the bombing occurred in Oklahoma -- *bombings*, in the 
plural -- that the people that were on a mission of mercy are 
suffering extreme health problems. And I believe, from the 
details, they're dying from radioactive poisoning, exposure.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
So far I haven't got much feedback. One Conspiracy Nation (CN) 
reader writes:
 
  How about if Skolnick provides a list of all these "deathly 
  ill" people dying of radiation poisoning? Seems to me there 
  would be no way to cover this up in this day and age.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well, I promised these people their names wouldn't come before 
the public, because some of them continue to drag themselves to 
work. And they may or may not be entirely plugged into -- what is 
the word? "Current reality" or something? In other words, they 
think they can beat it if they can just keep going.
 
The others, that are at home, sick, figure that if they "run 
their mouth" they won't get *any* medical treatment at all. 
They're being called "malingerers" now. And if they "ran their 
mouth"...
 
In other words, it's the same problem with the ex-GIs that came 
back from the Gulf War.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Same with Agent Orange, too.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Right. They ran substantial risk. If there was an honest press, 
across the board, in the United States -- yes, we'd give out the 
whole list and demand that these people get proper treatment. But 
they run substantial risk. Some of them are still working. They 
hope to continue working although they have to drag themselves in 
to work.
 
I promised not to use their names. So if somebody comes along and 
says, "Well, Skolnick, if you don't supply the names then we're 
gonna call you a liar," *I* *don't* *care*. I'm prepared to take 
all the heat. I know what this is about. I don't care how I am 
heckled, I am gonna be in the forefront of trying to get some 
remedy for these people -- irrespective of whether I am 
disbelieved in the beginning.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
It's kind of like Agent Orange, too. If you remember, during the 
Viet Nam War and thereafter, for *years* they were saying, "No, 
no. No 'Agent Orange.'"
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Right. For having miscarriages, of their wives, or whatever the 
poisoning was, by some method spread to newborn children, it 
spread to other children in the house. It's like the whole 
household was down sick and the Veterans Administration says, "Go 
back to work. You're just a 'goldbrick'. You're a 'malingerer.'"
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Another CN reader writes, "What a great smorgasbord: Skolnick, 
AIDS, and now Spotlight! Tasty!! (and mentally nutritious, too) 
That Media Bypass stuff has blown us away!"
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well I've gotten comments from militia and other people. (I'm not 
a member of any militia nor necessarily a supporter. I try to 
stay within my role as a commentator and journalist.)
 
But I intend to lead a campaign to help these people that tried 
to rescue other people in Oklahoma and are now, apparently, dying 
from radiation exposure. And the government is prepared to deny 
it for some years to come. And as the time passes, these people 
(I hate to predict, but), these people, by the time the 
government gets around to telling the truth, will be dead.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Have I missed anything? Is there anything else that you wanted to 
add?
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
No, but I think the Gulf War thing and now this tends to show 
that the government lies.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
[laughs] Yeah. That's the understatement of the day. They're 
always lyin'. The amazing thing is that people still will believe 
what they say.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
If some of the victims want, themselves, to go public with the 
thing, that's their choice. But I promised silence, as far as 
their names. I won't give out their names.
 
 +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +
 
Mr. Skolnick is founder/chairman, since 1963, of the public 
interest reform group, Citizens' Committee to Clean Up the 
Courts, investigating and researching judicial bribery and 
political murders. Since 1971, he has been editor of a 5-minute 
recorded phone commentary, HOTLINE NEWS, (312) 731-1100, a 
regular phone call, on 24 hours per day, changed several times 
per week. Since 1991, he has been a regular panelist, now the 
moderator, of a weekly public access one-hour Cable TV Show, 
"Broadsides", available to some 400,000 households. His comments 
appear on several news groups on Internet and on the World Wide 
Web. Office, 8 a.m. to midnight, 7 days/week: (312) 375-5741. 
Call before sending fax. 9800 S. Oglesby Ave., Chicago, IL  
60617-4870.
 
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