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ParaNet BBS/sdi22
| File Name: | sdi22.txt |
|---|---|
| Author: | Unknown |
| Date: | Unknown |
| Posting BBS: | Unknown |
| BBS Main Page: | ParaNet Main Page |
| Key Words: | ParaNet, UFO, Ufology |
Prepared by ParaNet Information Service
Reprinted without permission.
WHO'S KILLING ALL THE STAR WARS SCIENTISTS?
Did 22 SDI researchers really all commit suicide?
Expose' by Larry Wichman
("Who's Killing the Star Wars Scientists?" Hustler, June 1989.
Volume 15, number 12. pp.67-92)
Fifty-year-old Alistair Beckham was a successful British
aerospace-projects engineer. His specialty was designing
computer software for sophisticated naval defense systems. Like
hundreds of other British scientists, he was working on a pilot
program for America's Strategic Defense Initiative--better known
as Star Wars. And like at least 21 of his colleagues, he died a
bizarre, violent death.
It was a lazy, sunny Sunday afternoon in August 1988. after
driving his wife to work, Beckham walked through his garden to a
musty backyard toolshed and sat down on a box next to the door.
He wrapped bare wires around his chest, attached them to an
electrical outlet and stuffed a handkerchief in his mouth. Then
he pulled the switch.
With his death, Beckham's name was added to a growing list
of British scientists who've died or disappeared under mysterious
circumstances since 1982. Each was a skilled expert in
computers, and each was working on a highly classified project
for the American Star Wars program. None had any apparent motive
for killing himself.
The British government contends that the deaths are all a
matter of coincidence. The british press blames stress. Others
allude to an ongoing fraud investigation involving the nation's
leading defense contractor. Relatives left behind don't know
what to think.
"There weren't any women involved. There weren't any men
involved. We had a very good relationship," says Mary Beckham,
Alistair's widow. "We don't know why he did it...if he did it.
And I don't believe that he did do it. He wouldn't go out to
the shed. there had to be something..."
* * *
The string of unexplained deaths can be traced back to March
1982, when Essex University computer scientist Dr. Keith Bowden
died in a car wreck on his way home from a London social
function. Authorities claim Bowden was drunk. His wife and
friends say otherwise.
Bowden, 45, was a whiz with supercomputers and computer-
controlled aircraft. He was cofounder of the Department of
Computer Sciences at Essex and had worked for one of the major
Star Wars contractors in England.
One night Bowden's immaculately maintained Rover careened
across a four-lane highway and plunged off a bridge, down an
embankment, into an abandoned rail yard. Bowden was found dead
at the scene.
During the inquest, police testified that Bowden's blood
alcohol level had exceeded the legal limit and that he had been
driving too fast. His death was ruled accidental.
Wife Hillary Bowden and her lawyer suspected a cover-up.
Friends he'd supposedly spent the evening with denied that Bowden
had been drinking. Then there was the condition of Bowden's car.
"My solicitor instructed an accident specialist to examine
the automobile," Mrs. Bowden explains. "Somebody had taken the
wheels off and put others on that were old and worn. At the
inquest this was not allowed to be brought up. Someone asked if
the car was in sound condition and the answer was yes."
Hillary, in a state of shock, never protested the published
verdict. Yet, she remains convinced that someone tampered with
her husband's car. "it certainly looked like foul play," Hillary
maintains.
Four years later the British press finally added Bowden's
case to its growing dossier. First, there appeared to be tow
interconnected deaths, then six, then 12--suddenly there were 22.
Take 37-year-old David Sands, a senior scientist at Easams
working on a highly sensitive computer-controlled satellite-radar
system. In March 1987 Sands made a U-turn on his way to work and
rammed his car into the brick wall of a vacant restaurant. His
trunk was loaded with full gasoline cans. The car exploded on
impact.
Given the incongruities of the accident, and the lack of a
suicide motive, the coroner refused to rule out the possibility
of foul play. Meanwhile, information leaked to the press
suggested that Sands had been under a tremendous emotional
strain.
Margaret Worth, Sands's mother-in-law, claims these stories
are totally inaccurate. "When David died, it was a great mystery
to us," she admits. "He was very successful. He was very
confident. He had just pulled off a great coup for his company,
and he was about to be greatly rewarded he had a very bright
future ahead of him. He was perfectly happy the week before this
happened."
Like many of the bereaved, Worth is still at a loss for
answers. "One week we think he must have been got at. The next
week we think it couldn't be anything like that," she says.
* * *
This wave of suspicious fatalities in the ultrasecret world
of sophisticated weaponry has not gone unnoticed by the United
States government. Late last fall, the American embassy in
London publicly requested a full investigation by the British
Ministry of Defense (MoD).
Members of British Parliament, such as Labour MP Doug Hoyle,
copresident of the Manufacturing, Science & Finance Union, had
been making similar requests for more than two years. The
Thatcher government had refused to launch any sort of inquiry.
"How many more deaths before we get the government to give
the answers?" Hoyle asks. "From a security point of view surely
both ourselves and the Americans ought to be looking into it."
The Pentagon refuses comment on the deaths. However,
according to Reagan Administration sources, "We cannot ignore it
anymore."
Actually, British and American intelligence agencies are on
the situation. When The Sunday Times in London published the
details of 12 mysterious deaths last September, sources at the
American embassy admitted being aware of at least ten additional
victims whose names had already been sent to Washington. The
sources added that the embassy had been monitoring reports of
"the mysterious deaths" for two years.
English intelligence has suffered several damaging spy
scandals in the 20th century. The CIA may suspect the deaths are
an indication of security leaks, that Star Wars secrets are being
sold to the Russians. Perhaps these scientists had been
blackmailed into supplying classified data to Moscow and could no
longer live with themselves. One or more may have stumbled onto
an espionage ring and been silenced.
As NBC News London correspondent Henry Champ puts it, "In
the world of espionage, there is a saying: Twice is coincidence,
but three times is enemy action."
Where SDI is concerned, a tremendous amount is at stake.
In return for the Thatcher government's early support of the
Star Wars program, the Reagan Administration promised a number of
extremely lucrative SDI contracts to the British defense
industry--hundreds of million of U.S. dollars the struggling
British economy can little afford to lose.
Britain traditionally has one of the finest defense
industries in the world. Their annual overseas weapons sales
amount to almost 250 billion [pounds]. The publicity from a Star
Wars spy scandal could seriously cut into the profits.
It would appear that only initial promises made to Prime
Minister Thatcher hold the U.S. from cutting its losses and
pulling out. A high-ranking American source was quoted in the
Sunday Times saying, "If this had happened in Greece, Brazil,
Spain or Argentina, we'd be all over them like a glove!"
The Thatcher government's biggest PR problem is that the
scandal centers around Marconi Company Ltd., Britain's largest
electronics-defense contractor. Seven Marconi scientists are
among the dead.
Marconi, which employs 50,000 workers worldwide, is a
subsidiary of Britain's General Electric Company (GEC). GEC
managing director Lord Weinstock recently launched his own
internal investigation.
Yet, the GEC and the Ministry of Defense still contend that
the 22 deaths are coincidental. A ministry of Defense spokesman
claims to have found "no evidence of any sinister links between
them."
However, an article in the British Publication The
Independent claims the incidence of suicide among Marconi
scientists is twice the national average of mentally healthy
individuals. Either marconi is hiring abnormally unstable
scientists or something is very wrong.
* * *
Two deaths brought the issue to light in the fall of 1986.
Within weeks of each other, tow London-based Marconi scientists
were found dead 100 miles away, in Bristol. Both were involved
in creating the software for a huge, computerized Star Wars
simulator, the hub of Marconi's SDI program. Both had been
working on the simulator just hours before their death. Like the
others, neither had any apparent reason to kill himself.
Vimal Dajibhai was a 24-year-old electronics graduate who
worked at Marconi Underwater Systems in Croxley Green. In August
1986 his crumpled body was found lying on the pavement 240 feet
below the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol.
An inquest was unable to determine whether Dajibhai had been
pushed off the bridge or whether he had jumped. There had been
no witnesses. The verdict was left open. Yet, authorities did
their best to pin his death on suicide.
Police testified that Dajibhai had been suffering from
depression, something his family and friends flatly denied.
Dajibhai had absolutely no history of personal or emotional
problems.
Police also claimed that the deceased had been drinking with
a friend, Heyat Shah, shortly before his death, and that a bottle
of wine and two used paper cups had been found in his car. Yet,
forensic tests were never done on the auto, and those who knew
Vimal, including Shah, say that he had never taken a drink of
alcohol in his life.
Investigating journalists found discrepancies in other
evidence. "A police report noted a puncture mark on Dajibhai's
left buttock after his fall from the bridge," explains Tony
Collins, who covered the story for Britain's Computer News
magazine. "Apparently, this was the reason his funeral was
halted seconds before the cremation was to take place."
Members of the family were told that the body was to be
taken away for a second post-mortem, to be done by a top home-
office pathologist. That's not normal. Then, a few months
later, police held a press conference and announced that it
hadn't been a puncture mark after all, that it was a wound caused
by a bone fragment.
"I find it very difficult to reconcile the initial coroner's
report with what the police were saying a few months later,"
Collins contends.
Officials didn't fare any better with the second Bristol
fatality. Police virtually tripped over themselves to come up
with a motive for the apparent--and unusually violent--suicide of
Ashaad Sharif.
Sharif was a 26-year-old computer analyst who worked at the
Marconi Defense Systems headquarters in Stanmore, Middlesex. On
October 28, 1986, he allegedly drove to a public park not far
from where Dajibhai had died. He tied one end of a nylon cord
around a tree and tied the other end around his neck. Then he got
back into his Audi 80 automatic, stepped on the gas and sped off,
decapitating himself.
Marconi initially claimed Sharif was only a junior employee,
and that he'd had nothing to do with Star Wars. Co-workers
stated otherwise. At the time of his death, Sharif was
apparently about to be promoted. Also, Ashaad Reportedly worked
for a time in Vimal Dajibhai's section.
The inquest determined that Sharif's death was a suicide.
Investigating officers maintained that the man had killed himself
because he'd been jilted by an alleged lover. Ashaad hadn't seen
the woman in three years.
"Sharif was said to have been depressed over a broken
romance," Tony Collins explains. "But the woman police
unofficially say was his lover contends that she was only his
landlady when he was working for British Aerospace in Bristol.
She's married, has three children, and she's deeply religious.
The possibility of the two having an affair seems highly
unlikely--especially since Sharif had a fiancee in Pakistan. His
family told me that he was genuinely in love with her."
Police suddenly switched stories. They began to say that
Sharif had been deeply in love with the woman he was engaged to,
and that he'd decapitated himself because another woman was
pressuring him to call off the marriage.
Authorities claimed to have found a taped message in
Sharif's car "tantamount" to a suicide note. On it, officers
said, he'd admitted to having had an affair, thus bringing shame
on his family. Family members who've heard the tape say that it
actually gave no indication of why Sharif might want to kill
himself.
Sharif's family was told by the coroner that it was "not in
their best interest" to attend the inquest.
"It's been almost impossible to get to information about the
deaths that should be in the public domain," Tony Collins
laments. "I've been given false names or incorrect spellings, or
I've not been told where inquests have taken place. It's made it
very difficult for me to try to track down the details in these
cases."
In the Sharif case, two facts stand out: Ashaad had no
history of depression, and there was absolutely no reason for him
to be in Bristol.
* * *
A widely held theory among the establishment press is that
the mysterious deaths are stress-related accidents or suicides.
Such theories may not be far off the mark.
According to a high-ranking British government official, for
the past year and a half the Ministry of Defense has been
secretly investigating Marconi on allegation of defense-contract
fraud--overcharging the government, bribing officials. The
extensive probe has required most of the MoD's investigative
resources, conceivably reaching as far as Marconi's
subcontractors and into MoD research facilities such as the Royal
Military College of Science and the Royal Air Force Research
Center.
Almost all of the dead scientist were associated with one or
more of these establishments.
If Marconi employees were being forced by management to
perform or to cover up illegal activities, it may be that the
stress did indeed get to them.
"In America, there are considerable incentives for people to
blow the whistle if they're being asked to perform illegal acts
like ripping off the government," a confidential source in
Parliament explains. "However, in this country there have been
perhaps 20 people who've blown the whistle, and none of them have
ever worked again. They didn't receive any compensation. Here,
you don't get any recognition. You get threatened with
prosecution under the Official Secrets Act. They can fire you.
Then they can take away your home and get you blacklisted.
"It's an impossible position to be placed in," the source
adds. "It's quite conceivable that these people could have
killed themselves because they felt terribly ashamed of what
they'd done. For that matter, some of the accidents or suicides
could have been men who'd taken bribes but who couldn't face the
embarrassment of public disclosure."
If Marconi was systematically defrauding the government for
million off pounds each year, perhaps an employee stumbled upon
incriminating evidence and had to be done away with. It would be
easy enough to make it look like an accident.
Consider the peculiar death of Peter Peapell, found dead
beneath his car in the garage of his Oxfordshire home. Peapell,
46, worked for the Royal Military College of Science, a world
authority on communications technology, electronics surveillance
and target detection. Peapell was an expert at using computer to
process signals emitted by metals. His work reportedly included
testing titanium for its resistance to explosives.
On the night of February 22, 1987, Peapell spent an
enjoyable evening out with his wife, Maureen, and their friends.
When they returned home, Maureen went straight to bed, leaving
Peter to put the car away.
When Maureen woke up the next morning, she discovered that
Peter had not come to bed. She went looking for him. When she
reached the garage, she noticed that the door was closed. Yet
she could hear the car's engine running.
She found her husband lying on his back beneath the car his
mouth directly below the tail pipe. She pulled him into the open
air, but he was already dead.
Initially, Maureen thought her husband's death an accident.
She presumed he'd gotten under the car to investigate a knocking
he'd heard driving home the night before, and that he'd gotten
stuck. But the light fixture in the garage was broken, and Peter
hadn't been carrying a flashlight.
Police had their own suspicions. A constable the same
height and weight as Peter Peapell found it impossible to crawl
under the car when the garage door was closed. He also found it
impossible to close the door once he was under the car.
Carbon deposits from the inside of the garage door showed
that the engine had been running only a short time. Yet, Mrs.
Peapell had found the body almost seven hours after she'd gone
the bed.
The coroner's inquest could not determine whether the death
was a homicide, a suicide or an accident. According to Maureen
Peapell, Peter had no reason to kill himself. They had no
martial or financial problems. Peter loved his job. He'd just
received a sizable raise, and according to colleagues, he'd
exhibited "absolutely no signs of stress."
* * *
We may never know what is killing these scientists.
Everyone has a theory.
The National Forum Foundation, a conservative Washington,
D.C., think tank, believes the deaths are the work of European-
based, left-wing terrorists, such as those who took credit for
gunning down a West German bureaucrat who'd negotiated Star Wars
contracts. The group also claims the July 1986 bombing death of
a research director from the Siemens Company--a high-tech, West
German electronics firm. They have yet to take credit for any of
the scientists.
A more outrageous theory suggests that the Russians have
developed an electromagnetic "death ray," with which they're
driving the British scientists to suicide. A supermarket tabloid
contends the ultrathin waves emitted by the device interfere with
a person's brain waves, causing violent mood shifts, including
suicidal depression.
The genius of such a weapon is that the victim does all the
dirty work and takes all the blame. Yet, if the Soviets have
actually developed such a weapon, why waste it on 22 British
defense workers?
Are the scientists victims of a corrupt defense industry?
Have they been espionage pawns? Are the deaths nothing more
than an extraordinary coincidence?
Guess.
DOSSIER OF DEATH
AUTO ACCIDENT--Professor Keith Bowden, 45, computer scientist,
Essex University. In March 1982 Bowden's car plunged off a
bridge, into an abandoned rail yard. His death was listed as an
accident.
MISSING PERSON--Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Godley, 49, defense
expert, head of work-study unit at the Royal Military College of
Science. Godley disappeared in April 1983. His father
bequeathed him more than 60,000 [pounds], with the proviso that
he claim it by 1987. He never showed up and is presumed dead.
SHOTGUN BLAST--Roger Hill, 49, radar designer and draftsman,
Marconi. In March 1985 Hill allegedly killed himself with a
shotgun at the family home.
DEATH LEAP--Jonathan Walsh, 29, digital-communications expert
assigned to British Telecom's secret Martlesham Heath research
facility (and to GEC, Marconi's parent firm). In November 1985
Wash allegedly fell from his hotel room while working on a
British Telecom project in Abidjan, Ivory Coast (Africa). He had
expressed a fear for his life. Verdict: Still in question.
DEATH LEAP--Vimal Dajibhai, 24, computer-software engineer
(worked on guidance system for Tigerfish torpedo), Marconi
Underwater Systems. In August 1986 Dajibhai's crumpled remains
were found 240 feet below the Clifton suspension bridge in
Bristol. The death has not been listed as a suicide.
DECAPITATION--Ashaad Sharif, 26, computer analyst, Marconi
Defense Systems. In October 1986, in Bristol, Sharif allegedly
tied one end of a rope around a tree and the other end around
his neck, then drove off in his car at a high speed. Verdict:
Suicide.
SUFFOCATION--Richard Pugh, computer consultant for the Ministry
of Defense. In January 1987 Pugh was found dead, wrapped head-
to-toe in rope that was tied four times around his neck. The
coroner listed his death as an accident due to a sexual
experiment gone awry.
ASPHYXIATION--John Brittan, Ministry of Defense tank batteries
expert, Royal Military College of Science. In January 1987
Brittan was found dead in a parked car in his garage. The engine
was still running. Verdict: Accidental death.
DRUG OVERDOSE--Victor Moore, 46, design engineer, Marconi Space
Systems. In February 1987 Moore was found dead of a drug
overdose. His death is listed as a suicide.
ASPHYXIATION--Peter Peapell, 46, scientist, Royal Military
College of Science. In February 1987 Peapell was found dead
beneath his car, his face near the tail pipe, in the garage of
his Oxfordshire home. Death was due to carbon-monoxide
poisoning, although tests showed that the engine had been running
only a short time. Foul play has not been ruled out.
ASPHYXIATION--Edwin Skeels, 43, engineer, Marconi. In February
1987 Skeels was found dead in his car, a victim of carbon-
monoxide poisoning. A hose led from the exhaust pipe. His death
is listed as a suicide.
AUTO ACCIDENT--David Sands, satellite projects manager, Easams (a
Marconi sister company). Although up for a promotion, in March
1987 Sands drove a car filled with gasoline cans into the brick
wall of an abandoned cafe. He was killed instantly. Foul play
has not been ruled out.
AUTO ACCIDENT--Stuart Gooding, 23, postgraduate research student,
Royal Military College of Science. In April 1987 Gooding died in
a mysterious car wreck in Cyprus while the College was holding
military exercises on the island. Verdict: Accidental death.
AUTO ACCIDENT--George Kountis, experienced systems analyst at
British Polytechnic. In April 1987 Kountis drowned after his BMW
plunged into the Mersey River in Liverpool. his death is listed
as a misadventure.
SUFFOCATION--Mark Wisner, 24, software engineer at Ministry of
Defense experimental station for combat aircraft. In April 1987
Wisner was found dead in his home with a plastic bag over his
head. At the inquest, his death was ruled an accident due to a
sexual experiment gone awry.
AUTO ACCIDENT--Michael Baker, 22, digital-communications expert,
Plessey Defense Systems. In May 1987 Baker's BMW crashed
through a road barrier, killing the driver. Verdict:
Misadventure.
HEART ATTACK--Frank Jennings, 60, electronic-weapons engineer for
Plessey. In June 1987 Jennings allegedly dropped dead of a
heart attack. No inquest was held.
DEATH LEAP--Russel Smith, 23, lab technician at the Atomic Energy
Establishment. In January 1988 Smith's mangled body was found
halfway down a cliff in Cornwass. Verdict: Suicide.
ASPHYXIATION--Trevor Knight, 52, computer engineer, Marconi Space
and Defense Systems. In March 1988 Knight was found dead in his
car, asphyxiated by fumes from a hose attached to the tail pipe.
The death was ruled a suicide.
ELECTROCUTION--John Ferry, 60, assistant marketing director for
Marconi. In August 1988 Ferry was found dead in a company-owned
apartment, the stripped leads of an electrical cord in his mouth.
Foul play has not been ruled out.
ELECTROCUTION--Alistair Beckham, 50, software engineer, Plessey.
In August 1988 Beckham's lifeless body was found in the garden
shed behind his house. Bare wires, which ran to a live main,
were wrapped around his chest. No suicide note was found, and
police have not ruled out foul play.
ASPHYXIATION--Andrew Hall, 33, engineering manager, British
Aerospace. In September 1988 Hall was found dead in his car,
asphyxiated by fumes from a hose that was attached to the tail
pipe. Friends said he was well liked, had everything to live
for. Verdict: Suicide.
[End of Article]
from a hose that was attached to the tail
pipe. Friends said he was well liked, had everything to live for. Verdict: Suicide.
[End of Article]
