AIDS Denier Clark Baker invades the US Military Justice System

I posted earlier that AIDS Denialist and LA Private Investigator Clark Baker is focusing his attention on the US Military justice system. Baker’s storefront business, the Office of Medical and Scientific Justice (OMSJ) is paid by US taxpayers to bring AIDS denialists to the court.

How are AIDS Denialists used as experts in legal cases?

According to the defense attorneys involved in these cases, denialist testimony concentrates on HIV testing, diagnosis and treatment. Court petitions show that their expertise is needed to explain sample processing, the use of testing equipment, interpretation of test results, and dozens of other factors that are necessary to establish whether someone is or is not infected with HIV.

AIDS Denialists testify under oath that people living with HIV infection who are accused of having unprotected sex without disclosing their HIV status cannot possibly be guilty of endangering anyone because HIV does not cause AIDS. And even if HIV does cause AIDS, HIV tests are invalid and cannot be used to diagnose HIV infection.

The defense attorneys themselves are not buying into the OMSJ story. But as one of them told me, if it can get their guy off they will use it. 

OMSJ is not about the truth. Clark Baker is paid to deliver doubt.

Defense attorneys contract Baker because they have been convinced that AIDS deniers can raise doubt, even if based on lies, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories. Anyone who has listened to AIDS Denialists knows all too well that they can raise doubt. 

And it gets worse when prosecutors call true experts, allowing the AIDS Denialists to create the illusion of a scientific debate.

Is AIDS denialism a competent defense?

There is not a single case where AIDS Denialists actually accounted for an acquittal or dismissal. Despite their trying, AIDS denialists in courts have failed in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia.

The military case that Clark Baker boasts winning was actually thrown out of court. People close to the case have told me that the judge’s ruling had nothing to do with OMSJ testimony delivered by Nancy Turner Banks and Rodney Richards. In fact there were technical factors regarding the alleged assault that resulted in the dismissal.

In another military case, the accused was found guilty after OMSJ experts testified. Not surprisingly, Baker does not have much to say about this case.

US Taxpayers are funding OMSJ in Military Courts

In the Military Justice System, the US government is responsible for both prosecuting the accused and providing a sound defense. That means the prosecution has to ensure that the case is properly tried. Because the Military is responsible for both prosecuting and defending the accused, they are required to clear defense experts and approve their cost to taxpayers.

That is why the Army has required the defense to use Army experts in cases involving OMSJ. (see post below for Baker’s whining about it) And by the way, those Army experts are actually true experts who are very helpful in making the AIDS Deniers of OMSJ look like idiots. The true experts will not lie under oath. Of course, when experts on the same side do not agree it can cause even more confusion and potentially more doubt.

As a matter of military due process, service members are entitled to expert assistance and the military defense has the resources of the government at its disposal to pay for this assistance. The basis for the requests comes from cases such as US v. Garries. It is understandable that the defense has a right to government-funded expert assistance. And at the same time the government has the responsibility not to waste its funds on cranks, quacks and frauds. Hence, the OMSJ experts are most often not accepted as experts and not allowed to testify. 

What's in it for OM$J? 

Baker and OMSJ act as the agents in this theatre of the absurd. The $3500 that is charged for pre-trial consultation goes to Baker. If the AIDS denialist expert testifies, Baker gets another $400+ per hour + travel + fees.

In my previous blog post on OMSJ (see below), I discussed David Rasnick and Rodney Richards. I only mentioned Nancy Turner Banks briefly without much detail. She seems to be on the witness / consultants list for all of these OMSJ Military cases. My previous post raised questions about her perceptions of reality. Here is a more complete accounting.

Nancy Turner Banks received an MD from Harvard in 1978 and a Masters of Business Administration in the area of Finance in 1996. Her most recent professional appointment was as a consultant physician in private practice of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Nyack, New York. She has never held an academic appointment and she has only published one work -- Her self-published book entitled  AIDS, Opium, Diamonds and Empire, the Deadly Virus of International Greed, published by Universal in 2010.  According to Dr. Banks, she “tells the dramatic story of a financial ideology that is damaging to everything that it means to be human. It is the story of a long running global conspiracy and business model that can be traced back to the British East India Company that places profits over people. In the end, it is the story of hope and how we can regain our sanity and our health in a world gone mad.”

In reality, her ideas are firmly rooted on AIDS denialism. This is not surprising given that she is a long-term member of the Rethinking AIDS Society. Nancy Turner Banks believes that AIDS is a conspiracy between secret government agencies, the CDC, and pharmaceutical companies. But what is unique about Nancy Turner Banks is that she includes the DeBeers Mining Company in her conspiracy. These forces are believed to conspire to kill blacks and profit from HIV. To build her case, she cites Andrew Carrington Hitchock’s 2006 book ‘The Synagogue of Satan’ and Eustace Mullins’ ‘The New History of the Jews’.

If you are not familiar with Andrew Carrington Hitchcock, here is a sample of his views.

“Hitler had been doing phenomenally well in turning his country around economically by breaking with the Jewish international bankers and trading by barter

Hitler simply issued what money was needed on the authority of the German Government, which was backed by the productivity of the German labour force, and not the empty promises of Jewish international bankers

The citizens of Germany were able to make Germany the most powerful and prosperous state in Europe in only a seven year period

The Jews could not let this continue as they knew that it would spell the death of their debt driven money system and so World War 2 starts

This is not a war between Germany and the Allies, it is a war between Germany and the Jewish money power”

Nancy Turner Banks herself is a regular on the anti-Semitic radio program ‘The French Connection’. Banks therefore is a rare find – a blend of genocidal conspiracy theories, AIDS denialism and a clear link to Holocaust Denial.

Nancy Turner Banks is at the center of the OMSJ defense team.

I think that says it all.