Some Background on Karol Sikora

July 12 2010

Form the moment I heard about Megrahi's magical three-months prognosis, I was a bit suspicious. His appeal was dropped, apparently due to confusion that was allowed to linger, to speed the process that call allowed. As the prognosis gets more and more wrong by the month, that feeling grows. A Dr. Karol Sikora was generally cited as the source of that assessment. Recently, he came out as saying he has no idea - Megrahi could live for ten or twenty years. He's embarrassed to have been wrong, but did nothing wrong.

Below is some information on Dr. Sikora gathered by my compatriot at the JREF Forum, Rolfe, who knows more than I and I'm grateful to her for putting this together. Commentary follows. (original link)
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(I have memories of him as a well-respected expert, from many years ago. Either he has changed his approach as he became more senior, or I was mistaken in the first place.)

Look at his involvement in the case of Lisa Norris.

Miss Norris was given 58% too much radiation during her treatment at the Beatson and died at her family home on 18 October 2006.
An internal inquiry following her death found that she had died from her tumour and not from the overdose.
However, that was disputed by an independent report from one of the country's top cancer experts. [....]
Miss Norris's father, Ken, did not want to comment directly on the proceedings.
But his lawyer, Cameron Fyfe, said: "We had a report from Professor Sikora, an expert in oncology, who confirmed that Lisa would probably have survived had it not been for the overdose.
"After further inquiry the professor revised his report to say it was a possibility, not a probability.
"Proof in Scots law is based on the balance of probabilities and that is not enough for the fiscal to proceed with the fatal accident inquiry.
"I think the family are disappointed that Professor Sikora was unable to adhere to his initial view but they accept that it was not appropriate for the FAI to proceed in these circumstances."

That is absolutely classic "hired gun" behaviour. Oh, you think the radiation overdose killed your little girl? Yes, I can go along with that, here's an expert witness report saying so. Then they get to the point where the experts from both sides confer to try to reach an agreement, and he realises he's not on solid ground at all. He revises his report to be less certain than it was originally, and the case collapses.

It's not really, consciously dishonest. It's unprofessional. It's an outlook that aligns itself too closely with the side of the dispute you're talking to, and fails to take a properly professional, unbiassed, disinterested view. I've seen it scores of times in the witness box, often from senior academics.

As y'all know, I'm a big fan of David Colquhoun. What David has to say about Karol is quite distressing.

http://www.dcscience.net/?p=2073

CRC Public Relations is a conservative PR firm previously known as Creative Response Concepts. ‘Creative’ appears to mean ‘lying’, but I guess that is what PR is all about.

Disgracefully, Karol Sikora, a former oncologist at the Hammersmith Hospital, supported CPR on US television. See Karol Sikora makes a fool of himself at NHSblogdoctor.
“Karol Sikora had been duped by a slick American businessman into providing a “rent-a-quote” service for a notorious right-wing American organisation”
Sikora now works for the UK’s only private university and a private cancer treatment company. He is also famous for claiming, falsely, to be a professor at Imperial College (he has an honorary contract with the Imperial College Hospital Trust but nothing with the University). And for promoting a load of nonsense about alternative medicine (a lot more on that coming up shortly).

http://www.dcscience.net/?p=1466

Karol Sikora, formerly an oncologist at the Hammersmith Hospital, is now Dean of Medicine at the University of Buckingham (the UK’s only private university). He is also medical director at CancerPartners UK, a private cancer company.

He recently shot to fame when he appeared in a commercial in the USA sponsored by “Conservatives for Patients’ Rights”, to pour scorn on the NHS, and to act as an advocate for the USA’s present health system. A very curious performance. Very curious indeed.

His attitude to quackery is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. One was somewhat alarmed to see him sponsoring a course at what was, at first, called the British College of Integrated Medicine, and has now been renamed the Faculty of Integrated Medicine That grand title makes it sound like part of a university. It isn’t.

The alarm was as result of the alliance with Dr Rosy Daniel (who promotes an untested herbal conconction, Carctol, for ‘healing’ cancer) and Dr Mark Atkinson (a supplement salesman who has also promoted the Qlink pendant. The Qlink pendant is a simple and obvious fraud designed to exploit paranoia about WiFi killing you.

The first list of speakers on the proposed diploma in Integrated Medicine was an unholy alliance of outright quacks and commercial interests. It turned out that, although Karol Sikora is sponsoring the course, he knew nothing about the speakers. I did and when I pointed this out to Terence Kealey, vice-chancellor of Buckingham, he immediately removed Rosy Daniel from directing the Diploma. At the moment the course is being revamped entirely by Andrew Miles. There is hope that he’ll do a better job. It has not yet been validated by the University of Buckingham. Watch this space for developments.

Stop press It is reported in the Guardian that Professor Sikora has been describing his previous job at Imperial College with less than perfect accuracy. Oh dear. More developments in the follow-up.

I happened across this lot after I'd posted my out-dated opinion about Karol Sikora being a respected expert. He may have been at one time. Now he's something else.

Which is actually fairly peripheral to the Megrahi affair. In that situation, all parties involved in the decision were aligned in their wishes. Libya wanted their human sacrifice home, being as they didn't believe Lockerbie was a Libyan operation in the first place and had only agreed to pay compensation for political advantage. The Westminster government wanted him home to get rid of this perennial bump in the road that was complicating their oil deals. And the Holyrood government wanted him home so they could get that appeal stopped. Having Megrahi die in a Scottish jail was also politically unacceptable, as it would have done lasting damage to UK/Middle Eastern relations.

In that situation, just who was paying whom to come up with an agreeable opinion really isn't all that important.

Rolfe.
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My Home Base: The JREF Forum's Record on Lockerbie

"My JREF crew" and our Investigation so Far
June 24 2010
last update July 25

Some of my more dazzled readers might be wondering how I got so informed on the Lockerbie bombing, case, and controversies. I first learned about it in detail only late last year, at the discussion forum of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). I had joined the infamous community of skeptics in 2007 to get a better grip on some aspects of the 9/11 attacks and test my own half-informed hunches. I stopped arguing much about 9/11 after that, but as a “conspiracy theorist” at heart, I’ve decided to remain an outsider there, promoting a little more paranoia for the rationalists and a lot more rationalism for the paranoids.

Member Rolfe had been running a slow-moving discussion thread, for about as long as I was there, on questions over al Megrahi’s guilt for the crime. I had pretty much ignored it in my shifting but narrow focus, but after al Megrahi was released in August, the controversy spurred me to start reading Rolfe’s thread. I couldn’t even have named the “convicted Lockerbie bomber” at first, if not for it being in the title I’d seen bumped occasionally for two years. I did know there was doubt of that guy’s guilt, and there was a conspiracy theory about CIA drug operations in Germany that I was curious about – was it something to promote or terminate? What did happen with Flight 103 and the aftermath?

I was rather amazed at how shoddy the official case really was, and at the sheer number of questions presented. As usual, a closer look relegates some “clues’ to the disinfo/distraction pile but what remains after this, washed up and put back together, fairly shines with plausibility and reasons to keep it covered up. I’ve personally never seen such a rotten edifice of a big lie just waiting to be kicked over.

With Rolfe’s help, I got up to speed and shot on ahead with the details by year’s end. I can say it was as soon as there were two of us dedicated to the issue that critical mass was reached at that forum. Several other members got involved in earnest, new threads were started for specific issues. I scored a copy of the full trial transcripts and soon we were all analyzing that for clues (and some false starts), comparing with other sources – websites, books, videos…. Some members, (notably Buncrana) joined the JREF forum just to be in our growing discussions (and he’s helped immensely).

By now I think the three of us – Rolfe, Buncrana, and myself (as Caustic Logic) - are pretty much world class on the issue. Among the members who’ve benefitted by reading along, some of those who stand out for actually contributing in a meaningful way are: Glenn B, Ambrosia, Dan O., Architect, Snidely Whiplash, Jaggy Bunnet, Rat, Spitfire IX, Command Line Gamer, Professor Yaffle, and (in their own ways) Longtabber PE and McHrozni, plus many others I can't remember.

Collectively (not to put words in anyone's mouth), we pretty much agree on the following basics:
1) Megrahi didn't do it, and was actively framed (not just a mix-up). He wasn't a "patsy," and no Libyans were involved.
2) The true perps are, essentially, the Syrian-based PFLP-GC on behalf of Iran. The motive was of course the criminal destruction of Iran Air Flight 655. That's a good grievance and a good motive.
3) The bomb was of the altimeter style attributed to Marwan Khreesat. We aren't agreed if it was one of his or a copy made by Abu Elias (I lean to the latter)
4) The bomb was introduced at Heathrow airport in London, NOT, as universally claimed by CTists in the past, at Frankfurt. Juval Aviv style claims (the "drug swap theory") of an intro there via a CIA-protected heroin smuggling op, have been nothing short of a huge distraction. 9/11 is far from unique that way, I've found.
5) For a variety of reasons we still debate, the US and UK were embarrassed enough of the truths above (plus other points, like supposed allied agents being involved) that they concocted the entire Libyan guilt storyline and at least some of the evidence that supports it.
6) The timer fragment PT/35(b) is highly suspect of being planted.
7) The radio manual cover PK/689 is even more suspect.
8) The pivotal Frankfurt/Erac printout is dubious in a way that's been under-reported so far.
9) Etc!

Most of those who entered the discussion to “debunk” us failed and walked away after one post, never admitting defeat. Most members have stayed out of the discussion entirely, but there has been surprising amount of sporadic support from other members. At one point I declared, and no one challenged it, that the JREF forum take on Lockerbie, collectively, is that the official story is false, and Megrahi did not do it. Officially of course “the forum” holds no opinion, but the actual discussion points that way every time.

The following are liks to most of the relevant threads, mostly in the "Conspiracy Theories" sub-forum. There are some started by Rolfe in other sub-forums, and threads started by other that wound up with worthwhile comments, usually by Rolfe. I'll see about gathering those links as well. In fact, here's all threads tagged Megrahi and Lockerbie Bombing and Pan Am 103. The best and a couple others, in roughly chronologival order.


- General Thread, (started 2007).
- MST-13 timer fragment thread
- Unaccompanied bag from Malta - evidence?
- Tony Gauci and the Mystery shopper
- Dialog on Lockerbie Theories
- Motive Behind the Lockerbie Bombing
- Identification of the Toshiba radio from PA103
- Lockerbie: London Origin Theory
- Where in the World is Abu Elias?
- Lockerbie Bomber Alive after 9 Months
(this one is huge, current, very informative (later on) and outside the CT forum, which is itself important)
- Lockerbie Appeal Documents to Remain Secret
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Having achieved so much there, I felt the need to spread out elsewhere. For one, I joined the “US Politics” forum, where I won a bet that ”you cannot discuss Megrahi’s actual innocence in US Politics.” You can do a monologue, but it’s not the same. Trying to comment on a MSNBC article led me to start a “column” at Newsvine that I’m starting to like. I’m not sure how many views it’s getting, but it looks pretty slick.

And most recently by a fluke I was invited to a phone chat with Jeff Hill, semi-famous “9/11 Truth” phone activist, to discuss the Pentagon flyover theory and its proponents (a previous investigative obsession of mine). Along the way, I wound up taking “Lockerbie Truth” to Hill’s Pumpitout forum. It garnered me about a dozen new American viewers, and nearly as many Canadians, for a nice little boost nearer to home.

But along with some extra work and other obligations recently, the blog is slowing down for content, and my end of the ongoing JREF discussions has suffered. I think they’ll need to continue suffering, relatively. It’s been a workshop and mental gym and home base for me. But I need to get some other stuff done, including filling in some of the blanks at the Lockerbie Divide, working offline in 3D space to get this information before people of influence. Or something. I don’t have that part figured out just yet. Maybe the JREF crew can help me hash that out...