A recent spate of dead microbiologists who worked for research firms with links to U.S. weapons development is raising some eyebrows.

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By Christopher Bollyn

A string of microbiologists appears to have died under strange circumstances since the anthrax scare surfaced last fall. From Nov. 12 through Feb. 11, seven world-class microbiologists in different parts of the world were reported to have died of 'unnatural' causes, while the cause of the seventh's death is questionable, according to Michael Davidson of From The Wilderness, an Internet news journal.

The seven microbiologists that Davidson reports to have died under strange circumstances are: Benito Que, Don C. Wiley, Vladimir Pasechnik, Robert Schwartz, Set Van, dean of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical Faculty.

Benito Que was a cell biologist at the University of Miami Medical School, involved in oncology research in the hematology department, which relies heavily on DNA sequencing studies.

Que worked for medical research facilities that received grants from Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), which is headquartered in Chevy Chase, Md. Que was found comatose in the street near the laboratory where he worked on Nov. 12 and died on Dec. 6.

HHMI funds a tremendous number of research programs at schools, hospitals and research facilities, and allegedly conducts 'black ops' biomedical research for intelligence organizations, including the CIA, according to Davidson.

Three of the five American scientists who have died, Wiley, Schwartz, and Que, worked for medical research facilities that received grants from HHMI.

Don C. Wiley worked with HHMI at Harvard University and was one of the most prominent microbiologists in the world. He had won many of the field?s most prestigious awards, including the 1995 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for work on anti-viral vaccines. Wiley was also heavily involved in research on DNA sequencing.

Wiley, 57, vanished, and his abandoned rental car was found on the Hernando de Soto Bridge outside Memphis, Tenn. Wiley's body was found on Dec. 20, snagged on a tree along the Mississippi River in Vidalia, La., 300 miles south of Memphis. Until his body was found, Wiley's death was handled as a missing person case, and police did no forensic examinations.

Vladimir Pasechnik, the top scientist from the Soviet Union's bio-weapons program who had defected to Britain in 1989 was found dead in Wiltshire, England, not far from his home, on Nov. 23. No reports of Pasechnik's death appeared in Britain for more than a month, until Dec. 29, when his obituary, which did not include a date of death, appeared in The London Telegraph.

Pasechnik's death was announced in the United States by Dr. Christopher Davis of Virginia, who stated that the cause of death was a stroke. Davis was the member of British intelligence who de-briefed Dr. Pasechnik at the time of his defection. Davis reportedly declined to say which branch of British intelligence he served in.

Robert M. Schwartz was a founding member of the Virginia Biotechnology Association, and the executive director of Research and Development at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology. He was an expert in biophysics and DNA sequencing.

Schwartz, 57, was found murdered in his rural home in Loudoun County, Va. on Dec. 10. Loudoun County sheriff?s officials said Schwartz was stabbed on Dec. 8 with a sword, and had an 'X' cut into the back of his neck. His daughter and her friends, who were accused of devil worship, have been charged with the murder.

Set Van Nguyen, 44, was found dead in the airlock entrance to a walk-in refrigerator in the laboratory where he worked at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization's animal diseases facility in Geelong, Australia.

Two scientists at this Australian facility, using genetic manipulation and DNA sequencing, had created an incredibly virulent form of mousepox, a cousin of smallpox, according to an article in the Jan. 2001 issue of Nature magazine. The researchers were reportedly extremely concerned that if similar manipulation were done to smallpox, a terrifying bio-weapon could be unleashed.

On Feb. 8, Vladimir Korshunov, 56, was found dead on a Moscow street. Korshunov was head of the microbiology sub-facility at the Russian State Medical University. He was found dead in the entrance to his home with a head injury. On Feb. 9 the Russian newspaper Pravda reported that Korshunov had probably invented either a vaccine to protect against biological weapons, or a weapon itself.

Ian Langford, 40, a senior researcher at the University of East Anglia was found dead in his home in Norwich, England on Feb. 11.

The London Times reported that Langford was found wedged under a chair 'at his blood-spattered and apparently ransacked home.' A local newspaper in Norwich reported that police 'were not treating the death as suspicious.'

On Oct. 4, a commercial jetliner traveling from Israel to Novosibirsk, Siberia, was shot down over the Black Sea by an 'errant' Ukrainian surface-to-air missile, killing all on board. The missile was over 100 miles off-course. The plane is reported to have had as many as five passengers who were microbiologists. Israeli journalists had reported that two Israeli microbiologists had been murdered prior to the plane being shot down, according to Davidson.

On Nov. 24 a Crossair (Swiss) airplane coming from Berlin crashed on its approach to Zurich. Of the 33 persons on board, 24 were killed, including Dr. Amiram Eldor, the head of the hematology department at Israel's Ichilov Hospital, as well as the director of the Tel Aviv Public Health Department and hematologist Dr. Ya?acov Matzner, dean of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical Faculty.