Friday, May 31, 2013

The Sixty Million Dollar Decision – ‘I didn’t take blood money from a government that is murdering its people.’

‘I didn’t take blood money from a government that is murdering its people,’ says Jeffrey Van Middlebrook, Silicon Valley inventor

By Matthew Robertson | May 23, 2013

Entrepreneur Jeffrey Van Middlebrook in the Pioneer Park, Mountain View, Calif., May 14, 2013. Middlebrook turned down $60 million in R&D funding from China after finding out the Chinese regime harvests organs from prisoners of conscience. (Jasper Fakkert/The Epoch Times)
Jeffrey Van Middlebrook, a polymath inventor in Silicon Valley, in 2006 figured out a way to sequester gas from waste combustion that, if brought to an industrial scale, could be worth a fortune.
Middlebrook invented the system in his workshop, and called it the broad-spectrum fractional sequestration combustion gas liquefier. After making it work on a small scale, he went shopping for funding domestically. Neither the government nor private enterprise was willing to offer the kind of money needed to bring the invention from the workshop to an industrial scale.
Then in 2011, China came knocking. On two occasions Middlebrook met with Communist Party delegations: from Hubei Province in San Jose in 2011, and Jiangsu in San Francisco, February 2012. 
Affiliated with a university in China and backed by the Communist Party’s deep coffers, they offered him and a business partner $60 million in research and development funding. He would have had a laboratory at a university in China, with the scientists, engineers, and equipment needed to bring the invention to an industrial scale. It was early 2012, and negotiations began smoothly. 
By May 2012 Middlebrook’s Chinese partner, an MIT-educated scientist who led the negotiations with the Chinese delegations, was arranging for them to travel over in September.
The Chinese were deeply interested in Middlebrook’s invention because of its potential application in advancing clean coal technology. China is the world’s largest consumer of coal, and the pollution resulting from burning it to generate electricity is enormous. Around half a million people in China die prematurely each year from air pollution-related illnesses, and the burning of coal contributes significantly to the black smog that chokes China’s cities.
Then Middlebrook began reading news in The Epoch Times that Chinese military hospitals have harvested the organs from tens of thousands of prisoners of conscience, predominantly practitioners of Falun Gong, a peaceful spiritual discipline. He read about mindbending torture and unyielding state-led persecution. And he balked.
“When I started reading that I became extremely morally conflicted,” Middlebrook said. “On the one hand, here’s China potentially dangling $60 million over my head. That’s very seductive. It’s very difficult to get R&D funding for new technologies. It’s a difficult process no matter the tech.”
Middlebrook continued: “Here’s a foreign government holding money under our noses, and then I start reading about horrific things in China. I thought: ‘I can’t do this. I can’t take this money. I can’t go to China. No matter how much my technology means, no matter how much they are going to invest, I cannot take China’s money.’”
Friends asked him: Why can’t you take the money, develop the technology to the benefit of the world, and then turn around and use it to do something good? Middlebrook responded: “To take their money is taking blood money. If it’s true that they’re killing people for organs, and it goes to the highest levels of the government—and I don’t know how it couldn’t—I can’t sell my technology and benefit financially, no matter how worthy the technology is for the betterment of the environment.”
He added: “I can’t take that money knowing people are losing their lives so I can have that money. I can’t do it.”
Middlebrook, formally trained in geology and engineering, has invented a multitude of devices, some of which are currently being exploited commercially. 
His gas sequestration system uses a series of chambers, each of which pulls out some undesirable compound from waste gas, turning it into liquid. It can trap carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide, for example; once in liquid form they can then be neutralized and used for agricultural or industrial applications—rather than released into the atmosphere.
Middlebrook’s other inventions include a chainsaw safety shield, a 360-degree toroidal camera, a remote control fit-all retrofit anti-carjack system, and a horizontal sewer release valve, which he invented in 1991 and is currently in contract negotiations over. 
He runs the company Invention Dynamics, LLC, and has been a face around northern California for decades. A Monterey County Weeklyarticle notes that in the late 1970s he did the “carpentry, plumbing and electrical work” for the Pacific Grove home office of Gary Kildall, one of the pioneers of personal computing. 
About six months after he informed his colleague that he was exiting the deal, Middlebrook wrote a letter to The Epoch Times to thank the newspaper for its “journalistic honesty, at least as honest as any human beings are capable of reporting anything.” The Epoch Times then contacted him and began to verify his story.
He said he wrote to the newspaper “to put it out there … not like patting myself on the back.” Middlebrook said that he hoped governments and large corporations, “not little guys like me,” would take human rights in China more seriously. “Big companies have to put up the stakes: it’s immoral, egregiously immoral, and we’re not doing business.”
Middlebrook provided a detailed description of his invention, and allowed an editor to review two related patent applications. He provided a photograph of part of the device, as well as a letter from Leon E. Panetta, the former secretary of defense, acknowledging Middlebrook’s CO2 sequester invention. Panetta wrote: “Your best resource is probably government funding of some sort, however. I must warn you that funds for these types of projects are scarce given the current state of the economy.” That was in December 2008.
Documentation of Middlebrook’s negotiations with the Chinese delegation resides with his former Chinese partner, who led the negotiations, and whose name Middlebrook required be kept confidential. “I don’t want anybody to get hurt,” he said, a reference to the fact that Chinese security forces, and the Communist Party, are known to severely punish people who speak out about the regime’s human rights abuses.
By being associated with Middlebrook, his former partner, who is ethnically Chinese, grew up in China, and continues to visit family and do business there, could become a target of punishment and have his business interests or safety threatened.
The partner holds a range of inventions that aim to recycle water from industrial waste using microorganisms, and which were originally planned to be developed commercially with Middlebrook’s sequestration chambers. The Epoch Times independently verified the partner’s identity.
The Epoch Times contacted another associate of Middlebrook’s,Reinaldo Garcia, a playwright, musician, and former journalist, for a character reference. Garcia just finished writing a movie script based on an idea that Middlebrook had. He recalled seeing a post on Middlebrook’s Facebook wall months ago, announcing the fact that he had turned down R&D funding from China after reading about the regime’s organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience.
“I thought maybe he was bragging. Maybe he lost the deal but he was justifying it by saying he’d taken a principled moral stance,” Garcia recalled thinking. “Is this real?” He says he spoke to Middlebrook about it and quickly became satisfied with the veracity of the account. “He was not shy about explaining things. He was very explanatory about what China was doing, and how he objected to it. He could have got their R&D money.”
It is impossible to know whether the technology that Middlebrook invented could have been successfully brought to an industrial scale. “When things get scaled up, complexities arise that you can’t foresee,” Middlebrook says. “But it looks like it could have scaled up, and brought great benefit.” 
He continued: “In one sense, there’s a higher principle there, but not at the expense of people who are being murdered for their organs. I can’t be part of that. It’s kind of analogous to those people who knew that Auschwitz was going on and turned a blind eye. This to me is what China is doing, murdering people for their organs. It’s China’s Auschwitz. I’m aware of it due to your newspaper, and if it means that even if my technology doesn’t come to fruition, I can look at myself in the mirror and say: ‘I didn’t take blood money from a government that is murdering its people.’”
Additional reporting by Jasper Fakkert

发明家拒中共6千万投资 活摘事件再引关注

一位硅谷的发明家在得知中共活摘法轮功学员器官的罪行后,毅然放弃中共提供的六千万研发经费,选择了良知与正义。与此同时,中共活摘罪行也因此再次引起关注。

(http://youtu.be/gLpONHoP7rM)


【新唐人2013年05月26日讯】新闻周刊(372)一位硅谷的发明家在得知中共活摘法轮功学员器官的罪行后,毅然放弃中共提供的六千万研发经费,选择了良知与正义。与此同时,中共活摘罪行也因此再次引起关注。
硅谷发明家杰佛瑞.范.密朵博克(Jeffrey Van Middlebrook)发明了一种气体分离技术,可以将燃烧后的废气成分转变成工业原料,减少废气排放和空气污染。一旦这项技术工业化的实际应用成功,其经济效益和对于环保的贡献不可估量。
2011年,中国政府通过密朵博克的华裔生意伙伴与他接触并洽谈。2012年初,中国提出了提供6千万研发经费和大学实验室及研究团队,将他们的发明应用到工业的合作提议,关于提议的谈判进行顺利。密朵博克和生意伙伴决定9月去中国。
就在准备出发的前夕,密朵博克从大纪元报纸上看到了在中国发生的活体摘取器官的报导,中共从数以万计的良心犯、尤其是法轮功学员身上非法获取器官牟利这一消息,让密朵博克毅然决定不再与中共合作。
密朵博克表示:从某种意义上讲,应该有更高的原则,不能以活摘人体器官为代价;我不能成为这些人所做的一部分,这类似于对奥斯威辛集中营视而不见的人。对我来说,中共正在杀害人民以获取他们的器官,那是中国的奥斯威辛集中营。
中共对法轮功的打压已经持续了14年,中国的法轮功学员在拘留所、劳教所、监狱等地遭受了各种折磨与迫害。其中,最令人震惊的就是被活摘人体器官来贩卖谋利。
中国多家器官移植机构都在其网页和宣传材料上宣称,在一到两个星期内病人就可以获得匹配器官。其中成立于2003年,关闭于2007年的中国国际移植网络支援中心网站,设立于辽宁省沈阳市中国医科大学第一附属医院移植研究所内,这家机构宣称,〝寻找匹配的肾脏捐献人可能只需要一周,最长不过一个月〞。不仅如此:〝如果捐献人的器官有什么问题,那么在一周内患者可以得到另一器官,并重做手术〞。在其网页的常见问答中明确说明〝在中国开展的是活体肾移植〞。
如此快速和大量的活体器官从何而来?
2000年12月22日,海外明慧网登出一条来自于中国的消息。消息说“一些邪恶警察正在与贪财黑医院密谋出售大法弟子的人体器官,据悉,仅石家庄某中医院已分得六个指标”。因为这条消息没有提供更进一步的细节,当时并没有引起许多人的关注。
2006年3月,来自不同渠道的消息披露,在中国辽宁省沈阳市苏家屯区雪松路49号省血栓中西结合医院内秘密关押了大量法轮功学员。他们被当做器官供体在尚存知觉的状态下被摘取器官,用于移植。
安妮:〝我的前夫曾经参与过摘除法轮功学员器官的手术。他是一名脑外科医生,参与摘除法轮功学员眼角膜手术,包括部分在法轮功学员活体上摘除眼角膜……我的家人告诉我说,他说:你不知道我有多么痛苦,因为这些法轮功学员是活的,若说从死人身体上摘除器官,这还好说,可这些人都真的还是活的……这些事情都是秘密进行的。我们医院参与的医生很多是从其他医院调过来的实习医生……这些人的器官被摘除以后,有的人就直接被丢进焚尸炉中火化,没有留下任何痕迹。〞
在对活体摘除器官的调查中,调查人员发现法轮功学员一方面遭受毫无人性的酷刑折磨,另一方面是奇怪的经常性的体检和抽血,医生并不救治真正受伤的人,而只对健康的人感兴趣。
法轮功学员张亦洁和甘娜都曾在北京市女子劳教所接受过让她们感到奇怪的体检。
法轮功学员张亦洁:〝像这种常规的肝功化验,一般的都是那种通常的小玻璃管,量都是一样的。在劳教所抽血时候,我觉得量比平时要大的多,我们就说怎么抽这么多。〞
加拿大法轮功学员甘娜:〝当时我感觉很奇怪,劳教所的那些警察根本就不把我们当人看,给我们做这种全面的体检,我就感觉很奇怪。〞
一些曾经被关押的非法轮功学员也证实了法轮功学员被活体摘除器官的事实。曾被关押在江苏省某监狱的Lanny不是法轮功学员,他曾被换了17个监号。
证人Lanny:〝因为在看守所里面每年都要进行至少两次的体检,关了很多年的老犯人就偷偷的告诉我:这是要摘取这些人的器官。你看那些身强力壮的小伙子,就是要摘他们的器官,就是死刑犯和法轮功的学员。那检查这些人的身体的时候特别的仔细,而检查别人的身体就是一带而过了。主要是对这些死刑犯和法轮功的人员的身体检查是主要的。〞
证人Lanny表示,如果某个学员的血型和组织型和一个需要移植器官的病人相配,这个学员往往会成为被毒打的对像。
他是看准了,这个人是病人所需要的人,他就打这个人?
证人Lanny:〝哎,就对他严格,就对他特别严格,动手打啊,就是迫使你和警察闹翻的。先是小闹翻,然后就打你,打了你不服气,就再闹,再闹就再打嘛,打了几次就打伤了,打了把你肋骨打断了,腿打断了。〞
为了取得更直接的证据,海外的调查员以需要换器官的海外病人或其家属的身份,打电话直接询问中国的移植医生有关供体的来源。
问:(东方器官移植中心)是宋主任吗?
答:啊,您说吧。
问:他那个医生跟他讲这个肾源挺好的,就是炼法轮功身体都比较好嘛。
医:我们也会有,这个我们可能大概有今年到目前为止可能这样的有十几个这样的肾脏。
问:请问是广州军区武汉总医院吗?
答:是
问:你们这边有没有可能有几个法轮功这样的肾源?
答:法轮功该用就用呗,管他法轮功不法轮功!是不是!
中山医院肝脏移植中心
问:你姓沈啊?(你们)可以做移植手术啊?
答:可以做的。
问:那要等多久啊?
答:你来了以后一个礼拜左右就可以做了。
问:那提供的这个要健康,要新鲜的。
答:那当然是好的啦!给你提供的都是青壮年。
问:有没有这种炼法轮功的这种提供的。
医:这个我们都是这种。
总部设于美国的〝追查迫害法轮功国际组织〞证实了同样的结论。其中一例,是2007年6月至7月间,该组织的一个调查员电话联系到了解放军三零七医院肾源中介经纪人,前后交往时间达数周,累计谈话时间达几十分钟。
追查:你就给我打听一下……
中介:以前呢我跟你说过吧,以前就是说我们这边跟你说实话,是做过两例,知道嘛,搞过这两例。
追查:是两个法轮功学员的?
中介:对,搞过这两例,监狱里面呢就是说像法轮功搞过,我也跟以前那个大姐说过,是搞过,现在呢,比以前来说难度比较大一点。
追查:你原来搞的那个是在哪个地方搞的?
中介:嗯,是在那个西城。
追查:对。还有,你怎么确定他是法轮功学员,这一点你了解过吗?
中介:怎么确定法轮功学员,到时候,到时候我们这边,头儿上边有人给你会给你出现资料,知道嘛,他会出资料给你,这您放心。
追查:噢,那好。
广西民族医院的卢国平医生是被调查的医生之一。
调查员:那你的同学有没有跟你说过,他们做的都是这种法轮功的,是不是啊?
卢医生:有些是法轮功的,有些是家属捐献的。
调查员:喔。那现在就是说,我想找这种,给我的孩子找这种法轮功的,你估计他能帮我找到吗?
卢医生:那肯定能够找得到的。
调查员:你们以前用的,是从哪找的?是从看守所,还是到监狱哪?
卢医生:从监狱里面找的。
调查员:监狱里啊。他那种都是那种健康的法轮功,是吧?
卢医生:对对对。肯定是选好的,才能够做吧。因为这种东西做了要保证质量。
加拿大人权律师大卫.麦塔斯在他的报告中详细呈述了大量中共摘除法轮功学员器官的证据。
中共前党魁江泽民对法轮功实施〝名誉上搞臭,经济上截断,肉体上消灭〞的政策,因此,中共各地方公检法勾结对法轮功学员可以肆意虐杀却无人追究,江泽民还曾下令对法轮功:〝打死算自杀,不查来源,直接火化〞。
正因为这样,在发明家密朵博克眼里,中共双手沾满鲜血。在与中共中断了项目6个月后,密朵博克写信给大纪元旧金山分社,感谢大纪元提供诚信新闻。
密朵博克说:用他们(中共)的钱就是拿沾血的钱。如果他们在活摘人体器官,这个政府的最高层都是有份的,因为我无法相信他们会没有干系。我不能以这样的方式出卖我的技术而得利,就算这些技术可以对改善环境有益。 
随着中共活摘法轮功学员器官的事件被曝光,引起了国际社会的高度重视。各国政要和民众对中共的暴行纷纷予以谴责,并要求中共立即停止对法轮功的迫害。
澳洲参议院于3月21日一致通过了一项支持联合国和欧理会提出的反对人体器官买卖和制止在中国发生的活摘人体器官的动议,从而使政府在通过法律制止本国公民出国接受非法的器官移植方面迈出了第一步。
澳洲参议员麦迪根:〝这是第一步。很高兴看到这么多的人支持议案。很感谢他们这样做。我真诚地希望议会将制定法律,强烈制止这种行为,使它在澳洲非法。〞
美国匹兹堡被视为是全球器官移植之都,在培训移植医生方面与中共有密切合作。近期,中共活摘法轮功学员器官的罪恶在这里被全面曝光,当地医学界感到震惊。很多移植界权威和医学伦理专家纷纷表示,要将中共令人发指的罪行,向器官移植研究医学院的同事们通报,并重新检讨对中共的器官移植培训的政策。
台湾国际器官移植关怀协会,从去年十月发起全台湾医师反中共活摘的征签行动,至今已达三千位医师正义支持。
台湾国际器官移植关怀协会副理事长黄士维医师:〝它不只是违反了很多医学伦理、医学准则,它也违反人权,它是一个非常没有人性的事情,我们希望唤醒很多医师关切这个议题、这些征签,事实上也会成为未来国际组织或国际社会,要对这个议题做更多调查的一个动力。〞
在澳大利亚纽省议员大卫.尚布瑞吉推出动议案,要求立法阻止澳洲公民接受不明来源的器官移植之后,引起社会的强烈关注,从民间到专家都表示支持。 5月9日悉尼法轮功团体向纽省议会递交十万民间的声援签名,呼吁纽省政府早日通过立法,阻止澳洲公民参与不道德的器官交易。
澳大利亚器官移植权威杰瑞米.柴门(JEREMY CHAPMAN):〝身为专业人士,我们无法容忍由这类移植造成对医疗上的负担,仅仅因为个人的需求而在全球范围内来收寻(器官)。我们对这个是没有办法忍受的。我们会站起来反对这个,一直下去直到永远。
密朵博克先生的正义之举受到社会各界一致称赞。密朵博克先生对此回应说,我真心希望大家把焦点从我身上转移到中共对法轮功的迫害上,大家都听过一个小女孩在海滩上救海星的故事,我所做的就像那个小女孩救海星一样,能救一个生命就是一个生命。希望所有看到我的故事的人都能参与进来,一起发声,制止迫害,挽救更多生命。
记者/姜禹;编辑/陈晓天;后制/吴慧真;旁白/美音