Cult News

Apparently Raelian “expert” Michael Guillen attempted to act as a go-between for potential cloning clients and cloning companies. That is, if he could obtain exclusive rights to the story, according to an article in the NY Times (“For Clonaid, a Trail of Unproven Claims” January 1, 2003 By GINA KOLATA and KENNETH CHANG).

Guillen comes across as someone with a vested interest in the story and not an objective observer. He continues to remain unavailable for comment.

More revelations about Boisselier and Clonaid make it increasingly clear that their claims of producing a human clone are probably bogus. And as a “science reporter” with an “Ivy League” education it seems that Guillen should have known this.

Cloinaid’s “lab” was nothing more than a rented room in an abandoned high school. FDA experts who reviewed their “research records” said, “They were inadequate.”

Boisselier was working with cow embryos, but nothing in her notes indicated an advanced stage of research and/or any scientific breakthrough.

In September of 2001 Guillen reported that Boisselier was being “investigated for fraud.” But just seven months later announced on the TV program 20/20, “I met with Dr. Boisselier…she told me that in two weeks they’re expecting to conceive the first human clone…Ready or not, the technology is on its way.”

It seems that despite his doctorate, Guillen was focused upon sensational headlines, not science. Repeatedly his name comes up, but not as an investigative journalist. He appears to be more of a collaborator. Is this why the Raelians like him so much?

Clonaid Vice President Thomas Kaenzig now admits the whole cloning business was initiated as “a project to create controversy.” He also has confessed that for three years the company was nothing more than a mail drop and “no research was going on.”

The real story about Boisselier, Clonaid and the Raelians is how they seem to have conned both cloning clients and the media for profit and promotion without actually producing anything.

This may be the only “cow” Clonaid successfully conceived in its laboratories, a “cash cow” milked for free publicity.

Henry Ford, founder of the automotive giant, would likely disapprove of his great-grandson’s ideas. Alfred B. Ford, an heir to the auto manufacturing fortune, hopes to establish a “Vatican” for the Hare Krishna “cult” in India, reports Associated Press.

Ford has given the group $10 million dollars to help build the massive complex, which has a projected total cost of $100 million dollars.

Alfred Ford has been a Krishna devotee for more than 25 years.

The Krishna organization is now being sued through a class action lawsuit for more than $400 million in the United States. The former children of Krishna devotees who were horribly abused within its school compounds years ago filed the suit.

And though Krishna leaders have acknowledged the claims as largely valid and based upon fact, they have threatened bankruptcy rather than offer a meaningful settlement to date.

Perhaps the Ford heir should have created a fund for taking care of Krishna’s victims before building them a “Vatican”?

Both the historic Vatican and the one Ford hopes to create have a rocky road ahead regarding child abuse claims.

The expert Raelians hand picked to oversee the validation of their clone claims may just be a “ringer.”

Michael Guillen, who once worked for ABC news as a science reporter, has a history of supporting pseudo-science, reports the Washington Post.

James Randi a noted debunker of fakes and quackery said, “This man has a reputation. He has supported every bit of pseudoscience that’s come along. Scientology was just fine with him. Human cloning by a religious cult is right up his alley, and to put him in charge of this kind of thing is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.”

The fraud-buster awarded Guillen the “Pigasus” in 1997, which symbolizes the adage “When Pigs Fly.” Randi said the award is “the gold standard of impossibility for…indiscriminate promotion of pseudoscience and quackery.”

Michael Guillen was unavailable for comment and seems to have virtually disappeared in recent days.

What is very clear is that any DNA testing must be rigorously supervised regarding the clone allegedly produced by the Raelians.

This means, from drawing the blood to transporting it for testing, the entire process must be observed second by second in minute detail. And the experts involved must be credible scientists who are impartial, not a friend of the Raelians like Guillen.

It is very doubtful that the Raelians or Clonaid will allow such a meaningful process for conclusive verification to take place. Instead they are far more likely to prove their claims through their own dubious process and questionable standards.

Perhaps it’s time for Randi to get another “Pigasus” ready for Clonaid CEO and Raelian Bishop Brigitte Boisselier. It certainly looks like she has earned one.