The Controllers are the ones responsible for releasing the AIDS virus on the Human population. They've killed millions of people already. Do you think they give a damn about you or me?

Something that all people should be aware of, is that AIDS was created in 1974 at Fort Detrick, Maryland, which is now called NCI - The National Cancer Institute. Officially, it was called the Fort Detrick Biological Warfare Center, which was an integral part of the National Cancer Institute.

The AIDS virus was developed under the supervision of a CIA program called MK-NAOMI by the SOD - Special Operations Division -- of the Army.

Ok so now that you know where AIDS was originally created, now it's important to know why it was created.

There are a few reasons actually. You have to understand that back in the mid-to-late 60's, The Controllers realized that ever since the end of World War 2, the number of people on this Planet was skyrocketing. They called it the "Population Bomb". To find a way to equal out the increasing birth rates, these men came up with three ways to bolster the death rates.

The First was proposed in the infamous Report from Iron Mountain that essentially said that World peace is not a desirable thing. So, instead of beginning another catastrophic war that would undoubtedly end in nuclear annihilation, they proposed a series of small, ongoing, isolated wars. In fact, did you guys know that at times there have been over 39 different wars taking place in the World? And it wasn't just coincidence. And you have to ask yourself, who are the people fighting these wars? The answer - young, foreign men that are most likely to reproduce.


So the Controllers knew that if they killed people off in a "quiet" way with wars in remote regions of the World, that they would have successfully taken the first steps towards lowering birth rates.

The other two solutions that the Controllers came up with for lowering the population of the World were abortion and as I mentioned before the creation of the infectious disease called AIDS.

War, abortion, and disease. The Controllers methods for population control. Decrease the birth rate and increase the death rate. Thats what they were aiming for. All managed by the Controllers like a game of chess.

So the ironic part is that the AIDS virus was created by cancer researchers working in biological warfare research.

But first lets get back to the Controllers reasons for creating it. The Population problem. The first study of this problem actually took place in 1957 in Huntsville, Alabama. A group of scientists met there and came up with a rudimentary plan called "Alternative 3". Eleven years later, in 1968, there was a Club of Rome study on how to limit population growth. They called this plan "Global 2000", and one of the prominent people in attendance was Doctor Aurelio Peccei, who founded the Club of Rome. He said that a microbe should be developed that attacks the Human immune system. Not only that, but he also suggested that a cure should be developed to counteract the disease. Around the same time, the Bilderbergs commissioned the Haig-Kissinger Depopulation Policy, which again focused on methods of keeping population growth to a minimum.


It's very important to see how all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

If someone were to ever take a look at the Congressional House Bill 15090, they would find out that it relates to funding, or appropriations , for the Department of Defense in the fiscal year 1970.

You would also see words such as "91st Congress", "First Session", "June 19th, 1969," "Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee of Appropriations," "House of Representatives," and "Budget - $10 million." This Bill helped fund what would eventually become project MK-NAOMI , where the DOD asked for and received 10 million dollars.

You see, there was a man named Dr. Donald MacArthur who was the Deputy Director of DOD's Research and Technology Division. He's the one who provided the outline for this project that would be carried out by a small group of scientists. MacArthur testified before the House Committee in 1969 in hopes of producing a new virus or bacteria that would attack and destroy the body's immune system. They called this a "Refractory Virus."

Refractory is just another way of saying resistant. It means a germ that will resist the body's own natural defense system. If you think about it, what better way is there to "acquire" an immune deficiency than to have it deliberately put there? And the Controllers knew this.


Also, if someone were to ever read the Congressional House Bill 15090, they would find this statement written into it:

"Molecular Biology is a field that is advancing very rapidly, and eminent biologists believe that within a period of five to ten years it would be possible to produce a synthetic biological agent, an agent that does not naturally exist and for which no natural immunity could have been aquired."


Below that statement there is a section entitled, "Synthetic Biological Agents". In this section MacArthur reveals that:

"It is a highly controversial issue, and there are many who believe that such research should not be undertaken lest it lead yet to another method of massive killing of large populations."


The report continues with:

"Within the next five to ten years, it would probably be possible to make a new infective-micro-organism which would differ in certain important aspects from any known disease-causing organism. Most important of these is that it might be refractory to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious agents."


Another source for people to take a look at to prove that AIDS was deliberately created by the Controllers would be to check out the World Health Bulletin Volume 47:257-63, dated 1972, which states that:

"An attempt should be made to see if viruses can in fact exert selective effects on immune functions. The possibility should be looked into that the immune response to the virus itself may be impaired of the infecting virus damages, more or less selectively on the cell responding to the virus."


Also included in this bulletin is a statement relating to the fact that there were members of the W.H.O. (World Health Organization), who wanted to make a virus that would selectively destroy the T cell system. The statement reads:

"An attempt should be made to ascertain whether viruses can in fact exert selective effects on immune function, e.g., by.....affecting T cell function as opposed to B cell function. The possibility should also be looked into that the immune response to the virus itself may be impaired if the infecting virus damages more or less selectively the cells responding to the viral antigens."


So basicly, this is PROOF that the World Health Organization was looking into the possibility of creating a virus that selectively, thats the key word....selectively destroys the T cell system of Human Beings.


The AIDS virus wasn't an accident. It was deliberately created, and the World Health Organization was one of the agencies that asked for the production of the virus. And this happened in 1972, which was the same year that the DOD made another request of Congress by coming right out and asking for the funds to produce....in their own words, "a virus that selectively destroys the cells responsible for processing the virus." Did you notice the use of the word "select" again?


The use of the word "select" is an important thing to remember because in 1972, the World Health Organization chose a few geographical sites that they wanted to target with a smallpox vaccine.

The sites that the WHO chose are Uganda and Central Africa, plus Haiti and Brazil. All of these places had huge outbreaks of AIDS, didn't they? And Africa was practicly decimated by AIDS. But before I post about that, lets continue with the timeline.

Since the Controllers wanted both the death rate to increase and the birth rate to decrease, guess what happened in 1973? Abortion was legalized in the United States. You see, the big Club of Rome meeting that I mentioned earlier took place in 1968 where an overall plan was set in motion to achieve their objectives. Two years later, in 1970, Gloria Steinem co-founded the Women's Action Alliance, which was the beginning of the modern-day Women's Liberation Movement. Then, lo and behold, in 1973, the green light was given to abortion. It all fits into place quite nicley, don't you think?

It's crazy to realize how easily the Women of our World have been duped by the Controllers. Not that guys haven't too, but damn. Killing your own babies for them? Kinda makes you think....


So in 1974, an alarming warning was given by the National Academy of Sciences. They recommended that, "scientists throughout the World join members of their committee in voluntarily deferring experiments linking animal viruses."

Just keep that little tidbit of information in mind for a little while. It's important.

In the meantime, the actual AIDS virus was created in 1974 at Fort Detrick, and by 1977, the World Health Organization staged the first catastrophic act of disseminating the virus into the Population.

How did they do it? The W.H.O. went into Africa and spread the virus through a series of smallpox vaccinations.


Thats right folks! Smallpox vaccinations.

Let me guess...some of you might be asking yourselves, "Whatever happened to the Green Monkey theory?" You know, the one about the monkey that bit an African man on his ass, and that's how the disease was started. Hmmm, I wonder who started that rumor. Could it have been.....the Controllers?

Anyways, you guys don't seriously believe that theory do you? I hope not because it's one of the biggest hoaxes and the biggest LIES of all-time. Yeah, according to their story, a green monkey bit an African man on the ass; then this man had intercourse with someone and passed on the disease. Then that person had intercourse with someone else and spread the disease. But simultaneous to this "event", AIDS is also breaking out in Brazil, Haiti, other parts of Africa, and the United States. What were those green monkeys doing, flying around the Globe with jet packs on their backs?

How many people even know what a green monkey is? If this monkey DID bite a man on the ass, it's still statistically impossible for the disease to spread so exponentially and to reach such epidemic proportions in so many places around the Globe...all from a simple monkey bite. If people would ever look at the numbers, they would see that it was disseminated around the World, proving that the disease was deliberately spread rather than just happening "by accident" as the result of a monkey bite.

Another interesting note is that if someone was to ever take a look at the gene structure of a green monkey, they would discover that it is genetically impossible to transfer AIDS from a monkey to a man by natural means.


Did you guys know that in Africa as opposed to this country, AIDS is largely a heterosexual disease?

What does that mean?

It means that the virus can be pinpointed....or at least its dissemination....to very SELECT audiences. In fact, in the early days of the AIDS catastrophe, certain groups of people were targeted to be the recipients of this virus. And at least in Africa, the whole thing was run by the World Health Organization.

However, in the United States there was something called "Operation Firm Hand" that was administered by the National Institute of Health and the Centers for Disease Control.

And for those of you wondering what "Operation Firm Hand" was all about....please allow me to spill the beans again.

You see, before 1978, there was no such thing as Aids in the United States. Then, in November of 1978, an experimental Hepatitis B vaccine was introduced to New York City. The word was put out that this free vaccine was available at a local blood bank headed by Dr. W. Szmuness.

Dr. W. Szmuness was a Polish doctor that immigrated to this country in 1969, and he later became the head of the New York City blood bank where the vaccine was administered. But what does a blood bank have to do with AIDS you might be asking? Well you see thats where the Hepatitis B vaccine was administered, but of course it wasn't given to just anyone. The participants had to fill out a detailed-questionnaire. But I'll get into that here in a second.


Ok so in regards to the "questionnaires" that I was talking about, they were created for one group and one group only, and can you guys guess who it was? Gay, non-monogamous men between the ages of 20 and 40. Ring a bell? Another big rumor that was started was that Gay men created the Aids virus through their intercourse. Well I'm here to tell every single one of you...thats another MAJOR LIE. Gay people have been around for millennia, perhaps not in the public eye, but I guarantee you that AIDS was not around when the first two Gay people had intercourse with eachother.

So anyways...the blood bank wanted Gay men. And in all, they wanted between 1,040 and 1,083 gay men to be inoculated with this "vaccine". I feel very sorry for the men that signed up for this treatment, because they had no clue what they were getting themselves into.

You also have to remember what the times were back then. It was the late 1970's, and the concept of lethal sex disease hadn't even really been heard of. I mean for crying out loud, you had clubs like Studio 54, cocaine, and even gay bathhouses.

The fact is, people screwed like crazy back in those days. And then, in 1979 and 1980, these same "vaccination" programs were repeated in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Denver. Now, if you take only the New York City men who participated in this program - approximately 1,000 of them - and figure they had 50 different sex partners over the next few years - what do you come up with? 50,000. Thats right. And say these 50,000 men had 50 different sex partners. What do you come up with? A quarter of a million. Now multiply 250,000 by all the other cities that I just mentioned, plus throw in all the junky intravenous drug users, and what do you get?

AN AIDS EPIDEMIC!


Also, did you guys know that by 1984, the CDC did a report on the New York City men that received this inoculation, and they found that 64% of them had either contracted AIDS or had already died from it? Well it's true, and it's truly sickening.

After that, all of the sudden any further statistics mysteriously became "unavailable". I'll bet if they were found though, the number could be 100% just a few years later.

So think about this. If you drove up to the Centre Community Hospital and asked them, "If you had a vaccination program, say for the flu, and six years after it was administered 64% of the people that received it were infected with a lethal, incurable disease, what would you think?" They'd flip out.

Now I want you all to take this information and compare it to the Green Monkey theory or any other monkey theory for that matter. Which one seems more plausible when viewed in terms of an exponential explosion?

It's a downright crime!


There is a researcher named Waves Fores who wrote an article called "Designer Diseases: AIDS as Biological and Psychological Warfare". At one point in this column he said, "Another indication that AIDS has multiple origin points is that the 14-month doubling time of the disease cannot nearly account for the current number of cases if we assume only a small number of initial infections starting in the late 1970's."

So people..isn't it clear here? This whole cover story about AIDS starting at one specific point is nonsense.

Thats right. Because a very organized effort was behind it. And by 1981, AIDS had become part of the popular consciousness. When it was never there before! At first, due to the nature of who it infected in this country, the disease was originally called "Gay Cancer". From 1979 to 1981, the scientific community labeled it GRID - Gay Related Immune Deficiency. That was actually the first official name for AIDS.

But to keep the timeline going....

In 1983, a New York Congressman named Theodore Weiss said:

"As far-fetched as it may seem, given the attitudes toward homosexuals and homosexuality by some segments of society, the possible utilization of biological weapons must be seriously considered."

Now that's a United States Congressman saying this! In 1984, then, the AIDS virus was officially "discovered" by Dr. Robert Gallo.

And people should know that there was even a newspaper article printed in the London Times on May 11, 1987 titled - "Smallpox Vaccine Triggered AIDS." Of course, not surprisingly, this information never filtered into the American mainstream media.


The creation of AIDs was a Bilderberg-inspired project that utilized the Department of Defense in conjunction with the CIA's "Project MK-NAOMI" under the auspices of the World Health Organization. What these folks did was come up with a list of "undesirables" that needed to be eliminated. Can you guys guess who these "undesirables" were at that time? Blacks, Junkies, and Homosexuals. Oh and throw in a few Hispanics and Orientals, and you have a pretty good idea of who they found to be "undesirable".

Many of you might be thinking....wasn't there any other way?

Do you think these people care? Come on. The beauty of AIDS for them was that it accomplished their goal of population reduction by targeting specific racial and ethnic groups through bio-weaponry. Before AIDS, bio-weaponry was indiscriminate, killing at random. But once they came up with a more intelligent "Agent", it became much easier to target specific groups for elimination.

They could infect whoever they wanted to.


Many people don't really understand still how exactly AIDS was created. They know that it WAS created. But they don't understand how.

Well, to start:

AIDS is a form of viral cancer that resulted from the combination of two retroviruses - a bovine lukemia virus and a sheep visna virus. If these two viruses are combined, and then injected into a Human culture, what you get is the first retrovirus known to Mankind.

There were two doctors. Robert Strecker, famous for his "Strecker Memorandum", and Alan Cantwell - who were curious about this virus, and so they punched the following words into their computer - bovine visna - and guess what it came up with? The computer spit out reams of information that described a virus which was IDENTICLE to the AIDS virus!

For example:

If you take the bovine visna virus and compare it with the AIDS virus, you will see that it has exactly the same morphology (shape), the exact same molecular weight, the same magnesium dependency; it has the ability to kill cells; it has the same T cell tropism (it attacks T cells); and it has the same exact characteristics in cattle that AIDS does in Humans. It also produces a disease in Cows, characterized by initial lymphomamply within a few weeks of initial infection, followed by the production of antibodies against that virus, and subsequently, 5-7 years later, the cow dies of a wasting disease - an immune deficiency.

AIDS is a horrible disease. Besides being Man-Made it also has the ability to spread extremely quickly. To transfer the disease, all you need is a highly concentrated exchange of bodily fluids between two people. One who is infected and one who isn't. And Bam....somebody's got AIDS. And yes, even just injecting a dirty needle into your arm gives you a much higher chance of contracting AIDS.


Think of all the millions of people who have contracted AIDS over the years, and also how many died from it. Then, think of all the famous people who have lost their lives due to AIDS. They come from every walk of life. There are sports figures who have contracted it, people like Magic Johnson - there have been musicians like Freddy Mercury, Liberace, there have been movie stars like Rock Hudson, there have been artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, plus there have been dancers, theatre stars, and countless others.

AIDS has hit every group imaginable. Except for one of course. And guess which group that is? High ranking politicians and World leaders.

Now think about that for a second. Try and name one top-level politician who has ever died from AIDS. You can't do it, can you? And why do you think that is? Is it because they're so much more virtuous, monogamous, and faithful than everyone else in the World?

Think about all that for awhile. And then when you are done.....ask yourself this simple question. What are these Monsters doing to us?


Here are a few links:


Project MK: NAOMI

http://www.thc-ministry.org/wwwboard/messages/148.html


Dr. Donald MacArthur

http://www.konformist.com/1999/aids/manmade.txt

http://www.whale.to/m/scott7.html


H.B.15090

http://killtown.911review.org/aids.html


and World Health Bulletin Volume 47:257-63

http://www.israelect.com/reference/WillieMartin/AIDS.htm


enjoy!

This post has been edited by BabyBlueCandle: 27-April-2008 05:30

Here's the speech from Dr. Robert Strecker on the AIDS virus:

http://www.righto.com/theories/strecker.html

Since the 1970s, AIDS has killed more than 21.8 million people. Today, about 34-36 million people are living with HIV or AIDS, a total that is expected to reach 47 million in 2010. By 2025, the number of people infected with AIDS is estimated to reach upwards of 80 Million people.

The entire population of the country of Ireland is around 4,109,086. Compare that to the 21,000,000 that have already died from AIDS, and I think you can see how much damage it has truly done to the World. In other words, the AIDS virus has already wiped out over 5 IRELANDS worth of people.


Tell you what.

Since some people would rather watch a video on the subject instead of read about it (For all those visual people out there), I'll just let Dr. Strecker explain the entire situation himself in great detail:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5...mp;q=&hl=en

source: http://www.radioliberty.com/stones.htm


Plan To Spray Toxic Biological Chemicals Over San Francisco Announced
http://www.naturalnews.com/z022816.html

Codex Alimentarius Commission
http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/index_en.jsp

Codex Alimentarius
POPULATION REDUCTION ☠ MUST WATCH
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7awAo6CA5i4

Article: NUTRICIDE: THE KILLING CAMPS OF CODEX ALIMENTARIUS
http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=322

The World according Monsanto
Very important document movie, witch have tons of hard evidence from high scale corruption, and amazing ignorance of peoples health and continuing spreading of poisons among US citizens by corporations (In this case Monsanto) and government of USA. MUST SEE!
http://tinyurl.com/3rcuy7 (Youtube Video)

Esoteric Agenda - The Most Important Film you will ever see
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1131942400352901009

The United States Civil Disturbance Plan 55-2
http://tinyurl.com/48vef8


Henry Kissinger's 1974 Plan for
Food Control Genocide

source; http://www.schillerinstitute.org/food_for_...sm_jb_1995.html

You see? Aids is but a very small part of a sinister plan. It pays everyone to be aware of this agenda.....







[left]

You are right Freeman, it is a very sick plan indeed.

It is entirely possible that Robert Gallo also played a significant role in the creation of the AIDS virus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDxZ7PX8YGI...feature=related

More on the House Bill can be obtained here:

http://community-2.webtv.net/LikingLArry/IsTheAIDSVirusMan/

This post has been edited by BabyBlueCandle: 04-May-2008 02:00

sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS

http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm

http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/topic.jsp?i=3



SOMEBODY'S BEEN TRYING TO PLAY GOD

This post has been edited by BabyBlueCandle: 09-May-2008 04:58

Did The Georgia Guide Stones help lay out the plan and the so called "need" for viruses like AIDS?

The Georgia Guidestones are a huge granite artifact located on a hilltop in Elbert County, Georgia, USA. It is sometimes referred to as the "American Stonehenge", a title which has been applied at times to a number of other structures. A message comprising ten guides is inscribed on the structure in eight modern languages, and a shorter message is inscribed at the top of the structure in four ancient scripts: Babylonian, Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Egyptian Hieroglyphs.

The artifact is almost twenty feet tall, and made from six granite slabs weighing more than 100 tons in all. One slab stands in the center, with four arranged around it. A capstone lies on top of the five slabs, which are astronomically aligned. An additional stone tablet, which is set in the ground a short distance to the west of the structure, provides some clarifying notes on the history and purpose of the Guidestones.

The Georgia Guidestones were unveiled before a crowd of 400 people on March 22, 1980.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

A message consisting of a set of ten guidelines or principles is engraved on the Georgia Guidestones in eight different languages, one language on each face of the four large upright stones. Moving clockwise around the structure from due north, these languages are: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Ancient Chinese, and Russian.

There are some things written on the stones that may appear to many to be "Good" things but there is one thing in particular that I find to be extremely disturbing:

Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature

In order to achieve a population of 500,000,000, 90% of all people would have to die. The world is currently over a population of 6.6 billion.

http://www.thegeorgiaguidestones.com/AIDS_...epopulation.htm

The Georgia Guidestones are located in Elbert County, Georgia, approximately 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of Atlanta, 45 miles from Athens (precise distance is 44.3322 miles), GA and 9 miles (15 kilometers) north of the center of Elberton.

The Georgia Guidestones have been part of the landscape in Elberton, Georgia for a quarter of a century.

The Georgia Guidestones were ordered, constructed and paid for in total anonymity.

The origination of the Georgia Guidestones is steeped in bizarre mysticism. They were said to be paid for by an anonymous man with the unlikely name of R.C. Christian back in 1979. Indeed, the name of the donor has remained a secret ever since. As folk legend would have it, a certain Mr. Christian came to town out of nowhere and just as quickly returned to nowhere.



There are over nine million children who have lost one parent or both to the African AIDS epidemic. The harsh reality of ruined lives is painful to witness.

Fathers and mothers burying their children. Grandmothers and grandfathers raising their children's children.

According to the most recent UNAIDS report, half of all 15-year-old boys in Zimbabwe can expect to die before the age of 50. A third of the work force was thought to be lost in the year 2005. Life expectancy for women is now only 39 years. No family escapes the scourge of this disease.

So great is the depth of this epidemic that it borders on the unimaginable. Yet when you are there it is almost as if this disease does not exist. The stigma attached to AIDS promotes an air of desperate denial. Admitting to having AIDS is a sure way of being ostracized. In the words of one AIDS sufferer: "You become a monster." Those who have the illness call it something else: fatigue, tuberculosis, malaria, anything but AIDS. But the cemeteries, overfilled with newly dug graves, tell the truth. The tomb markers read born in 1964, 1970, 1955 ... died in 1999, in 2000. In this country they bury a thousand victims of AIDS a week.



Statistics from a World Bank Report: The Impact of AIDS on Capacity Building written in 1997/98:

In Africa, AIDS has yet to peak in the number of people it will affect.

AIDS has become the number one cause of mortality among adults 15-49 years of age. Mortality rates, usually caused by other important diseases such as malaria, have doubled and tripled because of AIDS. Tuberculosis has also increased tremendously.

HIV is a disease of both the affluent and poor. High social groups have not been spared its ravages.

HIV rates exceed 30 per cent of prime-aged adults in urban and semi-urban areas. Botswana, Malawi and Zimbabwe were predicted to have lost 25 to 50 per cent of their 1996 urban work force by 2005.

Life expectancy of a person living in Zimbabwe was 21 years lower in 2000-2004 than it would have been without AIDS.

More than nine million children under the age of 10 in Africa have lost a parent to AIDS. In Zimbabwe, officials estimate that there are 600,000 orphans. Unofficial estimates say it could be as high as one million.

In Africa's fight against AIDS, human and financial resources are too few or not well utilized. Skills are weak and effective leadership and role models from political levels are absent.

Most of the AIDS control programs in Africa are funded by external-donor-sources rather than by national and local governments. Not one country in Africa is meeting the financial needs created by this epidemic.



From a report released by UNAIDS:

Number of people living with HIV/AIDS is 34.3 million including 1.3 million children under the age of 15 years.

In most sub-Saharan African countries adults and children are acquiring HIV at a higher rate than ever before: the number of new infections in the regions during 1999 was four million. Botswana has an infection rate of 35.8 per cent, Zimbabwe 25.8 per cent, South Africa 19.9 per cent

In Zimbabwe, by 1997, 15-year-old boys could expect to die before the age of 50.

Many companies in Africa report that illness and death is now the main reason for people leaving the company.

In sub-Saharan Africa there is still an enormous stigma attached to this disease and those who are sick are often ostracized. "Fear, stigma and denial: a vicious circle....This wall of silence hinders prevention and care.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/aids/aids-africa.html



Between twelve and fifteen million Americans have already been infected. One in 60 babies born in New York City is infected; one in 300 college students in America is infected; one in 20 aliens applying for amnesty is infected, including men, women and children. These are just some of the facts you are not likely to hear about from the media.

The number of AIDS infected people is doubling approximately every 14 months, and in some areas even sooner. With over twelve to fifteen million Americans carrying the virus, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see how long we have in places like the U.S.