"Here's How It all Came About" attempts to place my own personal situation into historical context. I am a non-violent human rights defender who participated in a demonstration against American military aid to El Salvador sponsored by CISPES (the Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) and has been "targeted" ever since. I am a whistleblower who informed the New York State Special Prosecutor in 1985 about corrupt connections between my employer (the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities) and brutal police who had used electric stun-guns to torture marijuana suspects. My 1986 complaint against the State of New York before the Office for Human Rights of the US Department of Health and Human Services, though subject to flagrant corruption that precluded any effective remedy, nevertheless prompted a quarter-century of illegal retaliation.

My former employers and their associates have subjected me to a campaign of slander, attack with radiation, terrorism, mental torture, and more. My human rights charges against the United States, for which no remedy is available under state, federal, or international law, are set forth in my letter to Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck (no response ever received).

For three decades, I have been a "non-person," deliberately anathematized by government authorities, denied the equal protection of the laws, ignored or rejected by all whom I have approached for help (see "A Nation In Denial"). When there is any response at all, patronizing amusement or suspicion and hostility greet my efforts.

I have attempted three times to obtain political asylum in Europe, only to be returned three times against my will to the land that I tried to flee. "Hard Realities" presents an account of my European ordeal.

I am "hobbled" (like a recaptured slave) -- confined to a very limited range of activity. I maintain that officials of the United States and the State of New York have systematically attacked me with radiation, poisoned me with "non-lethal" chemical and biological weapons, and corrupted or intimidated my physicians to prevent accurate diagnosis and effective treatment (see "Marks of Torture"). My physical condition generally confines me to my community.

In October, 2003, an ultrasound scan and an MRI with contrast are said to have revealed a mass in my right kidney described as "highly suspicious" for cancer. This may or may not be the case. Physicians have lied to me in the past, claiming that 8% lymphocytes, relative to total white blood cells, is a normal test result. Removal of my better kidney would have doomed me to a lifetime of dialysis, preventing any further attempt to escape from the USA. I would not consent to surgery, fearing that I might not survive. Considering other health issues -- particularly the chronic infections for which my doctors will not (or dare not) provide curative treatment -- an open biopsy would involve the same degree of danger. Whatever the "mass" is, I am treating it myself with medicinal mushrooms (Reishi, Shiitake, Agaricus, and Cordyceps). Ten years later, I'm still here.

I remain unable to obtain effective advocacy or the equal protection of the laws at municipal, state, federal and international levels. My complaints against Denmark and the Netherlands before the UN Human Rights Committee and the Committee Against Torture are consistently stonewalled. Despite many attempts (see my chronology of communications), I have not been able to obtain any information whatever concerning the reception, admissibility, or processing of my own communications. I have given up trying. The word "coverup" is disgracefully appropriate.

In general, these "committees of last resort" have compiled a shameful record of nonfeasance, probable misfeasance, and possible malfeasance regarding individual complaints. My page titled "Neglected UN Human Rights Agendas", in addition to other information, used to include links to the UN's own statistical tables for the HRC and the CAT, showing that almost all complaints were found inadmissible. These tables no longer appear to be available.

My last hard-copy letter to the Human Rights Committee prompted no response.

My most recent letter to the Committee Against Torture likewise went unanswered.

E-mails in 2003 to the UNHCHR Petitions Team and the UNHCHR Secretariat came back to me: "not listed in public Name & Address Book." I don't know whether others got the same result.

I have stopped updating this page. I'm over 70 years old now, with severe, crippling arthritis. Escape is out of the question. The truth of my experience, however, demands recognition, exposure of corruption, and urgently needed reforms.

• To demand that the Human Rights Committee conduct a special session to deal with individual complaints.

• To demand an impartial review of all complaints found inadmissible.

• To demand that James Henry Graf's complaints against Denmark (filed in 1991) and the Netherlands (filed in 1996) be acknowledged, admitted, and processed immediately.

• To demand that the Committee, in consideration of the complainant's continued suffering and danger, CALL A HALT immediately, as its rules permit, in the case of James Henry Graf.

• To demand a special session of the Committee Against Torture for the purpose of expeditiously processing all pending individual complaints.

• To demand an impartial review of all torture complaints found inadmissible.

• To demand that James Henry Graf's complaint against Denmark and the Netherlands before the Committee Against Torture (mailed from Denmark in 1991) receive immediate attention.

• To demand that the Committee invoke Rule 108.9, instructing Denmark and the Netherlands to "take steps to avoid a possible irreparable damage to the person or persons who claim to be victims(s) of the alleged violation."