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(Editor's Note: Claire W. Gilbert, Ph.D., Publisher of Blazing Tattles newsletter, con- ducted this interview with Alan S. Levin, M.D:, a brave medico and self-declared "quack". Dr Levin provides a rare insider's view and courageously speaks ‘on the record’. This interview is a unique document, clarifying some of the past few decades’ little-known.and little-understood bouts of military and medical madness. Part 1 of an interview with Dr Alan Levin, which reveals intriguing links between medicine and the military- industrial complex. This interview with Alan S. Levin, MD, is reprinted with kind permission from Blazing Tattles (vol, 2, no. 12, August 1993) PO Box 610037 Redwood City, CA 94061, USA Phone: (415) 306 9569 Levin (L): You have my permission to use anything I say as long as you don't take what I say out of context. I won't deny anything I say. I don't have any problem backing up everything I say. We were discussing corruption in medicine. Gilbert (G): The question I asked you is why do you refer to yourself as a "quack"? L: Ifyou look behind me you can see the coffee cup that the marines gave me. G: Oh, so you've been called "quack". L: [used to be called "Killer Quack". I used to work for Bechtel and Hughes people in covert operations. I was in the Marine Corps covert operations in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. G: Can you discuss anything about the covert operations or were you sworn to secre- cy? L: No, I'm not sworn to anything because it was a chaotic situation where they just kind of forced conscripts into working for them. No, I've written about it. Say, are we talking about medicine now, or do you want to talk about covert operations? G: I was interested in the Gulf War. That was my original reason for coming. I want- ed to ask you about the vets. You were written up in the newspaper for treating the vets, but when you mention Bechtel I have my own ideas about their influence in the Gulf War. L: Right. G: And the lighting of the oil well fires. In one or two of my issues there are articles suggesting that our side might have ignited the fires. L: Oh, I don't know that that's true or not. G: Well, Bechtel got the contracts [for rebuilding Kuwait], so when you said "Bechtel"—-whoosh! L: Well, to put it sort of succinctly, Bechtel has been influencing this country since 1963—and influencing prior to that, I would imagine. But it became a major, if not the major influence in this country in 1963, after President Kennedy was assassinated. At that time, there is very good, solid evidence that the CIA was involved [in the assassination] and the Chief of the CIA at that time was John McCone, who was one of the founders of Bechtel. Shortly thereafter, Bechtel got a contract to build Cam Ranh Bay, which was like US$12 billion (US$12,000,000,000). It would have been very disadvantageous economi- cally for Bechtel if the Viemam War sort of went away. So, it was very ‘good’ business judgment to do what Bechtel did. So, the same is true for the Gulf War. It was good for business. Let me go through this. The primary purpose of the American military is to consume the products of the con- tractors. Combat efficacy is a secondary consideration and, in fact, in most cases it is bad for business. And the Gulf War was different only because the United States had a vested interest in winning. Additionally, technically, they were very, very much helped, if not JUNE - JULY 1994 28¢NEXUS FOR THE RECORD...