There is a chance that bugs hitched a ride to Mars on
 probes from Earth and could still be living on the planet,
 said Andrew Schuerger, from the University of Florida.

 Only the two Viking craft that landed on the Red Planet in
 1976 were adequately sterilised, he told a meeting of
 planetary scientists in Houston, Texas.

 The procedures used for all missions since then, including
 Nasa's twin rovers and Europe's ill-fated Beagle 2, would
 have left some microbes aboard.

 After studying the ability of organisms to survive on
 spacecraft, Mr Schuerger believes some bugs would have
 reached Mars and might even have made themselves at
 home, New Scientist magazine reports.

 Ananova: Mar 2004  

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_900931.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery

  ---------------------------------------------

  "Perceptions" note:

  In advance of the Mars Probes missions we had
  queried the (possibly rigged) lax procedures
  with the agencies concerned. We received only
  evasive answers claiming that "proper precautions"
  had been taken.

  Our own reading, of the meetings that decided those
  protocols, indicated that pressure had been applied
  to purposely allow contamination of Mars - we believe
  either to wipe out other life, or in an attempt to
  justify "decontamination" (i.e. xenocide) at a later
  date. See - 

  http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ssb/bcmarsch5.html

  and EDIT / FIND for 

  << no consequence >> or << essentially zero >>

  to check underlying (hidden) agenda.

  References
  
  http://www.perceptions.couk.com/mars1.html

  http://www.perceptions.couk.com/subindex.html#cia

  http://www.perceptions.couk.com/magic3.html

  ---------------------------------------------

              FURTHER REFERENCES

  GO - "search perceptions" - in SEARCH-ENGINE


file-ID www.perceptions.couk.com/marskill.txt