Former Army paratrooper Michael Fumento (Fumento@pobox.com) has been embedded twice in the western Iraqi region of Al Anbar. He is a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute and author of The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS. His collected articles can be found at www.fumento.com

Manufactured Mass Hysteria: The latest example – “World Trade Center Illness” [09/29/06 ] Starting in early 2002, firefighters who responded to the World Trade Center on that awful day the previous September began reporting what became labeled "World Trade Center Cough." Since then, numerous other first responders, later responders, and people who simply lived in the general WTC area have also reported a variety of respiratory and other ills.

“Embryo-Safe” experiment just another stem cell fraud: Recent letter in Nature boosts company stock price – but was simply dishonest [09/14/06 ] The fierce public debate over killing human embryos to create lines of embryonic stem cells is over; tout fini; THE END. It was buried with a stake thrust through its heart by a study published in the world’s most prestigious science magazine, Nature. Trust the media:

AIDS Industry pushes politics over health: While real killer diseases that could be prevented or cured get scant attention [08/25/06 ] Calls for prevention highlighted the opening day of the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto. Unfortunately, it’s too late. On the same day, the Washington Post carried a photo on its front page depicting a man wearing a T-shirt that read: “We all have AIDS.” Toss out those condoms; forget abstinence, and don’t bother getting tested. Or what part of “all” don’t you understand?

Science’s stem cell scam: [08/12/06 ] Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) receive tremendous media attention, with oft-repeated claims that they have the potential to cure virtually every disease known. Yet there are spoilsports, myself included, who point out that they have yet to even make it into a human clinical trial. This is even as alternatives – adult stem cells (ASCs) from numerous places in the body, as well as umbilical cord blood and placenta – are curing diseases here and now, and have been doing so for decades. And that makes ESC advocates very, very angry.