Some additional information on VAN was written in a book by Haroun Tazieff. Haroun was a former Director of Research at CNRS (French National Scientific Research Center) but he was more focused on volcanology until VAN came along. The book he wrote is entitled:
"Earthquake Prediction"
published by McGraw-Hill, Inc.

The ISBN is: 0-07-062992-7.

In it he gave a list of 10 scientists who in 1984 signed a statement supporting the method. I had posted this list at one time on sci.geo.earthquakes. One of the people on the list later emailed me privately basically saying that his arm was twisted to get him to sign it (not in those words). This was Dr. Stuart Crampin of the BGS. I think either Roger Muson or Russ clued Stuart on my post. It was an interesting email.

At any rate, it talks a bit on the VAN method but doesn't get into how they interpret the SES (seismic electrical signals). Doesn't seem to be that hard to me though unless they've got some outrageous formulae. Basically, VAN is monitoring a signal first discovered by John Milne in 1898 that affects telluric currents. Many people tried to use the precursor signal which never panned out and it died a unnatural death (until the VAN team came along).

Anyway, you ought to pick up that book as Haroun describes perfectly everything that has gone against the VAN team. Based on my experiences so far, I'm been traveling down the same path as VAN.

The book also has sections on protecting ourselves from earthquakes in addition to governmental roles. Pretty good. -- Dennis