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The Body Electric
committee, wrote Marino a flattering letter asking for his consultation
when the members got down to work. Marino then called Hastings to
tell him of the large body of data we'd assembled for the power line
hearings, and to make sure the NAS body would be willing to consider
it thoroughly. Hastings told him, "Heck, you guys will be on the com-
mittee."
Soon the sixteen members were announced, and we were nowhere in
sight. Hastings later publicly called us quacks, but to us he said the
Navy had specified who was to be on the panel, despite his threats to
quit if Andy and I weren't admitted. We were well acquainted with
three of the men who were on it: Schwan, Michaelson, and Miller. Ob-
viously they weren't about to find hazards in Seafarer after testifying that
a much stronger power line was perfectly safe. They remained on the
committee even though all three neglected to mention their New York
testimony on NAS conflict-of-interest forms. The rest of the committee
was also stacked with people who routinely discounted any evidence of
health effects from low-level EMFs.
The NAS committee took an inordinately long time to issue its re-
port, but we eventually saw a reason for the delay. During the PSC
hearings, all evidence was subject to cross-examination. Besides ques-
tioning the witnesses, each side could look at the other's papers, includ-
ing the actual workbooks of experiments. After the testimony, while the
commission, assisted by a panel of judges, was deliberating, other evi-
dence could be introduced, but it was no longer subject to review by the
opposing side. Oddly enough, the NAS report—which constituted a
defense of the then current dogma and tried to discredit most of the
disturbing evidence—appeared just after the gavel sounded to close the
PSC hearings. It was immediately introduced as evidence, and we
couldn't say a word about it.
Six years later a Navy spokesman explained to me what had "really"
happened. He said the Secretary of the Navy had gone to NAS and
arranged to pay for the work. Then, when the members of the commit-
tee were announced, the Secretary and other Navy brass agreed that the
show was rigged. The Secretary protested to NAS and said the Navy
wouldn't pay for the study. NAS said that since the authorizations had
already been signed, the Navy would have to pay for it. Moreover, the
Navy needed a report in four to six months. Of course, NAS had been
planning to wait till the end of the New York PSC hearings, which
dragged on and on. My informant told me that, in response to Navy
pressure, NAS laid in effect, "Go away.
We've got the money, and the
study
is out of your hands. We'll run it our way." By
the
time the