[Peace-discuss] guns, germs & swimming pools in Orange County, CA

[Margaret E. Kosal]

Perhaps the hunt for chemical & biological WMD should begin "at 
home"!  (read: dripping sarcasm)
In addition to his South African apartheid CBW connections, Ford was also 
allegedly linked to illegal tests on South African prostitutes (women) of 
some of his contraceptive products, in an attempt to circumvent US FDA 
protocols. He is, additionally, reported to be a "gun nut" 
(http://archive.salon.com/health/feature/2000/06/26/biofem/print.html). 
There are so many imaginable entanglements - with the conflicting pursuit 
of prevention of transmission of AIDS. Bizarre!

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/03/national/03DOCT.html

November 3, 2002
California Doctor's Suicide Leaves Many Troubling Mysteries Unsolved
By JO THOMAS

IRVINE, Calif. — On the morning of Feb. 28, 2000, a man in a black hood ran 
up to Patrick Riley in front of his office, shot him flush in the face and 
fled.
The bullet missed his brain, and Mr. Riley, a biotechnology entrepreneur, 
survived. But two days later, his business partner, a doctor named Larry C. 
Ford, killed himself with a shotgun after learning he was suspected of 
being the mastermind behind the shooting.
That is where the story probably would have ended — a lurid but ultimately 
local piece of intrigue played out in the sun-splashed Orange County sprawl 
— had it not been for the phone calls that within hours began coming in to 
the police. Dr. Ford, the callers said, had left something behind: a cache 
of weapons and anthrax.
The local elementary school was closed. Forty-two families were evacuated 
from their homes in Dr. Ford's affluent neighborhood. Then police and 
federal investigators began to unearth evidence that Larry Ford had another 
life — that he was not just a brilliant, if somewhat geeky, gynecologist 
who hoped to develop a device to protect women from AIDS.
Buried next to his swimming pool they found canisters containing machine 
guns and C-4 plastic explosives. In refrigerators at his home and office, 
next to the salad dressing and employee lunches, were 266 bottles and vials 
of pathogens — among them salmonella, cholera, botulism and typhoid. The 
deadly poison ricin was stored, with a blowgun and darts, in a plastic bag 
in the family room. A compartment under the floorboards held medical files 
on 83 women.
What the searchers did not find was anthrax, and the fear of what remained 
unfound, along with dozens of other questions, set off investigations that 
ranged from Beverly Hills to South Africa and back to the Nevada desert.
Since then, pieces of Dr. Ford's other life have begun to emerge. Taken 
together, they form a troubling and confusing picture — of a man with ties 
to racist, antigovernment groups in the United States who also developed a 
relationship with apartheid South Africa's secret biological and chemical 
weapons program, Project Coast.
For the most part, though, investigators say they are stymied, a long way 
from understanding what Dr. Ford was doing with his guns and his germs. In 
South Africa, documents from Project Coast were either destroyed or 
classified and put on CD-ROM's in a military vault. The fragments of Larry 
Ford's other life remain just that — frightening, tantalizing fragments.
Still, while no one is suggesting any link to the anthrax attacks of last 
fall, the questions Dr. Ford left behind nag deeper now, in the ambient 
anxiety of the post-Sept. 11 world.
Around Irvine, most people knew the 49-year-old Dr. Ford as a committed 
Mormon and a family man of harmless eccentricities, like wearing tennis 
shoes no matter what the occasion.
Trained as a gynecologist and microbiologist, he taught at the University 
of California at Los Angeles in the 1980's and later at the university's 
campus here. He wrote dozens of scholarly articles on infectious diseases 
and, with Mr. Riley, ran a biotechnology company, Biofem Inc.
After his suicide, officials began to wonder if Dr. Ford might have 
deliberately infected some patients. There were the hidden medical records, 
and a number of women had come forward to say they feared Dr. Ford was 
responsible for their mysterious illnesses. But in interviews, several 
former patients praised Dr. Ford and said they felt fine.
Epidemiologists examined the records and interviewed eight women, six of 
them ill. But they quickly closed the inquiry, saying they had found no 
public health threat and no pattern of symptoms suggesting deliberate 
infection.
One of the women, Shane Gregory, says she was a 27-year-old U.C.L.A. 
undergraduate when Dr. Ford became infatuated with her in 1981, buying her 
a car and renting her an apartment. She says she broke off the relationship 
in 1984 — and believes that was the same year Dr. Ford deliberately 
infected her, possibly in Los Angeles and possibly in London.
In October 1987, she says, she developed vertigo, and "that's when my life 
changed." Despite brain surgery and medicine, she says, "I never got better."
According to a law enforcement official, Dr. Ford told two friends that he 
had infected Ms. Gregory with an "alpha toxin." The official said the 
authorities had recently received information that appeared to corroborate 
this.
Then there were the suggestions that Dr. Ford was working for the C.I.A. 
Several people close to him — including Dr. Hunter Hammill, a Baylor 
University professor who collaborated on papers with him — say he sometimes 
told them so. Other people say they simply assumed it.
"We had heard that he had worked for the government, worked at Fort 
Detrick," said Dr. Daniel Knobel, a senior official in Project Coast. He 
was referring to the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases 
in Frederick, Md., where the government did biological weapons research.
Lt. Col. Kathleen W. Carr, the institute's deputy commander for operations, 
said there was no record of Dr. Ford's having worked there. In addition, a 
scientist who was a leading C.I.A. expert on biological warfare during this 
time said he had never heard of him.
Indeed, Dr. Ford's only known connection to Fort Detrick is an unclassified 
1988 newcomer's guide found among his belongings.
But the Irvine police have their suspicions. Detective Victor Ray said that 
before the search of the Ford property, he warned the F.B.I. agent in 
charge about reports that Dr. Ford had developed germs and toxins for the 
C.I.A.
Detective Ray said that after three calls to bureau headquarters, the 
agent, Doug Baker, responded that Dr. Ford had worked for the C.I.A. and 
might have buried just about anything. Mr. Baker, speaking through an 
F.B.I. spokesman, denied this.
One thing that is clear is that Dr. Ford was involved with the apartheid 
government of South Africa. Just what he was doing, though, is far less clear.
After his death, Detective Ray said, the authorities learned that Dr. Ford 
had been a consultant to Project Coast, which has been accused of creating 
weapons for use against enemies of apartheid. They also discovered that he 
had held extreme racist views and had once told a girlfriend that to 
understand him, she should read "The Turner Diaries," the anti-Semitic and 
white supremacist novel, popular among far-right groups, that was 
prosecutors say inspired the Oklahoma City bombing.
Over the years, Dr. Ford made a number of trips to South Africa. His 
laboratory assistant and constant companion, Valerie Kesler, says she 
traveled there with him at least six times.
Speaking through her lawyer, Ms. Kesler said that Dr. Ford had once carried 
a vial in his vest pocket and handed it to a South African official at the 
airport. Dr. Ford, she remembered, was extremely nervous throughout the 
flight. Years later, she said, she realized that the vial held lethal 
bacteria, endangering everyone on the plane.
Dr. Wouter Basson, the cardiologist who ran Project Coast, said Dr. Ford 
twice brought biological samples "in his pocket." They were not dangerous, 
he said, and "had no military significance."
After the fall of apartheid, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation 
Commission conducted an extensive investigation of Project Coast. In 1998, 
Project Coast scientists told the commission that they had produced, among 
other weapons, chocolates and cigarettes infected with anthrax, milk laced 
with botulism, and enough cholera to cause "massive outbreaks."
In a 30-month nonjury trial, the judge, an apartheid-era holdover, dropped 
six murder charges against Dr. Basson, on the ground that the killings had 
occurred outside the country. Last spring, Dr. Basson was acquitted of all 
other charges, including murder conspiracy and drug trafficking.
In a recent interview in South Africa, Dr. Basson said he had invited Dr. 
Ford to lecture Project Coast scientists in 1987 because the program's Dr. 
Knobel had described Dr. Ford as an expert on chemical and biological weapons.
"Nothing he could offer was what we could use," Dr. Basson said.
Asked why Dr. Ford was later paid through the project's Swiss bank account, 
Dr. Basson said Dr. Knobel had told him to arrange payments for Dr. Ford's 
AIDS research. Both officials said they had tried to help Dr. Ford find a 
South African laboratory for AIDS research.
Ultimately, he was given space in an aerospace medicine laboratory to work 
on several projects using amniotic fluid collected from thousands of women 
in South African military hospitals. Why these projects were sponsored by 
the military, and what became of them, is unclear.
However, a South African military document about AIDS research, found in 
Dr. Basson's possession by investigators, mentioned "the acquisition of any 
relevant C.B.W. literature from Dr. Ford." The abbreviation C.B.W. is 
commonly used to refer to chemical and biological weapons.
Perhaps the deepest fear in the entire affair was that Dr. Ford had been 
working with anthrax. That trail, too, has run cold.
After Dr. Ford's suicide, the police got tips that he had buried anthrax in 
a gold mine. They searched fruitlessly in California. Four months later, 
documents in a Nevada trash dump showed that Dr. Ford had been in touch 
with people involved in antitax and antigovernment groups. Some of them had 
tried to use bacteria to extract gold from dirt.
In December 2000, investigators searched a derelict gold milling site 
outside Henderson, Nev. They found a separator funnel, a white liquid and 
Dr. Ford's business card. A federal agent said they also found directions 
for making chemical and biological weapons, including anthrax. But that was 
all. The site's proprietor had recently died of unrelated causes.
As for the attempted murder case, the gunman remains unknown. The getaway 
driver, an accountant and friend of Dr. Ford's named Dino D'Saachs, was 
sentenced to 26 years to life after refusing to identify the shooter in 
return for leniency.
Mr. Riley, who has recovered but for a faint scar, says he never suspected 
Dr. Ford. He has rebuilt the company the two of them ran, and he has made a 
settlement with Dr. Ford's wife, Diane. She has refused requests for 
interviews.
Even the doctor's suicide notes, scratched out while he was conferring with 
his lawyer on the last day of his life, offered no clues.
Dr. Ford promised to meet his wife and three children in heaven. "I was set 
up by evil," he wrote. "Fear not. I will be with you forever."