http://www.naturalnews.com/z024567.html
by Mike Adams (see
all articles by this author)
(NaturalNews) NaturalNews has learned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
is running a criminal extortion racket designed to drain cash from health
supplement companies and shift it into the pockets of top FDA contractors.
This organized crime operation has been running for years, and it has
operated with impunity because each company targeted by the scam feels
isolated and alone, unable to face the astronomical legal bills of going to
court and battling the FDA. So one by one, they agree to "settle" with the
FDA for crimes they never committed. Part of the settlement, of course,
involves the payment of FDA employees or contractors who pocket the money
extorted from health companies.
NaturalNews has interviewed executives from three different companies who
have been targeted for extortion by U.S. Food and Drug Administration
employees. At their request, the names of those companies are being kept
confidential until legal action being taken against them is resolved.
Interviews have been recorded, with permission, with two of those companies
and will be released to the public at a later date. Documents proving this
FDA extortion racket are included here.
The FDA extortion
racket works like this: FDA employees use keyword-scanning software to scan
the web pages of natural health product and supplement companies, searching
for terms like cancer, cures, treatment, remedies and other "forbidden"
words. FDA employees then review the discovered pages to determine if they
contain any words that might inform consumers of the health benefits of the
nutritional products. FDA employees also look for links that might point web
users to scientific articles from peer-reviewed medical journals that
further explain the health benefits of specific foods, supplements or
nutrients.
When offending words or links are found by the FDA, their extortion team
goes into full swing. First, they contact the company and warn them to
remove all information and links from their websites. This is the most
important step from the FDA's standpoint, because by doing this, they can
keep the health-conscious public in a state of nutritional ignorance about
the scientifically-supported healing properties of natural supplements.
Cherry products, for example, cannot link to scientific articles explaining
the simple biological fact that cherries ease inflammation in human beings.
Such links are considered "drug claims" by the FDA.
NaturalNews has even learned that companies are now being targeted for
simply posting customer testimonials, even when those testimonials make
absolutely no health claims. FDA and FTC agents are now threatening the
owners of such companies with imprisonment if they do not immediately remove
all customer testimonials from their websites and marketing materials.
If the company being targeted for extortion refuses to fully comply with the
FDA's requests to remove all educational information from their website, the
FDA then escalates the extortion tactics by threatening the company
principals with arrest and seizure unless they agree to pay hundreds of
thousands of dollars to top FDA contractors and sign a "consent decree"
where the company "admits" to committing various crimes (see below). This
consent decree is a blatant violation of the Constitutional rights of U.S.
citizens, of course, and it violates numerous sections of the Bill of Rights
(Amendments #1 and #5, at the very least).
The FDA employees or contractors receiving the extorted money, it is
claimed, are being paid to "review web pages" to make sure they don't
contain anything that might inform consumers about the
scientifically-validated benefits of the health products being sold. FDA
extortion agreements specify that FDA employees should be paid the rate of
$100 per hour, with no limit on the number of hours they may bill the
company for. The extortion agreement also requires companies to pay for all
the following:
• $100 per hour for the travel time of FDA employees.
• Hotel rooms for FDA employees.
• Storage fees for all products seized by the FDA.
The same agreement also requires the company to comply with FDA demands by
never placing any links or "illegal" information on its website, where
"illegal" means anything that offers an accurate description of the health
benefits offered by natural health products.
Part of the FDA's
strategy for oppression and control is to force targeted companies to sign a
"consent decree" where they admit to crimes they never committed.
NaturalNews obtained a copy of a public court document the FruitFast company
was forced to sign due to FDA threats and extortion tactics.
You can view this document yourself at:
http://www.NaturalNews.com/investigatio...
This document requires the FruitFast company to admit to crimes it did not
commit; namely:
"Violating the Act, by introducing or delivering for introduction, or
causing to be introduced or delivered for introduction, into interstate
commerce articles of drug that are misbranded within the meaning of 21 U.S.C.
SS 352(f)(1)."
What "drugs" did the FruitFast company introduce that were "misbranded?"
Cherries, it turns out. Cherry juice concentrate was being sold with the
accurate statement that it helped eliminate gout (which it does). This,
according to the FDA, was enough to magically transform cherry juice into an
"unapproved drug" and cause it to be "misbranded."
It also requires targeted companies to contractually agree that they have:
"...removed all claims from Defendants' product labels, labeling,
promotional materials, websites owned or controlled by Defendants, and in
any other media that cause that product to be a drug and/or contain
unapproved or unauthorized health claims within the meaning of the Act; and
(ii) removed, from their product labels, labeling, promotional materials,
and websites owned or controlled by Defendants, references to or
endorsements of any other website that conveys information about
Defendants' products that cause those products to be a drug and/or contain
unapproved or unauthorized health claims within the meaning of the Act."
This means, of course, that these companies can no longer even LINK to other
websites, including websites of scientific journals that discuss the proven
health benefits of such natural products (foods, herbs, etc.)
Once a company
removes all educational information and links from their website, they are
then required to submit to draconian measures of "censorship enforcement" by
the FDA. This is fully explained in this section of the FDA's Consent
Decree: (bolding added for emphasis)
Within ten (10) calendar days of FDA's request for any labels, labeling,
promotional materials, and/or downloaded copies (on CD-Rom) of any internet
websites owned or controlled by Defendants or websites referenced by,
endorsed, or adopted directly or indirectly by Defendants, Defendants
shall submit a copy of the requested materials to FDA at the address
specified in paragraph 19.
Within twenty (20) calendar days of entry of this Decree, Defendants shall
submit to FDA a certification of compliance, signed by each of the
individually-named Defendants in this matter, each Defendant stating
that he: (a) has personally reviewed all of Defendants' product labels,
labeling, promotional materials, and the internet websites referred to in
paragraph 8 above; and (b) personally certifies that the product labels,
labeling, promotional materials, and internet websites strictly comply
with the requirements of the Act and its regulations and do not include
unapproved or unauthorized claims that the products cure, mitigate, treat,
prevent and/or reduce the risk of disease. Thereafter, Defendants shall
submit certifications of compliance every three (3) months for a period of
two (2) years.
Furthermore, the FDA then requires that the company being targeted by the
extortion racket hire a person (called the "expert") to enforce all this
censorship the company has agreed to.
As you'll note in the language below, this "expert" must be paid $100 an
hour, for an unlimited number of hours, to conduct surprise inspections of
the company's administrative offices, warehouses and fulfillment centers:
Within fourteen (14) calendar days of entry of this Decree, Defendants
shall retain an independent person or persons (the "expert")... who
by reason of background, experience, education, and training is qualified to
assess Defendants' compliance with the Act, to review the claims Defendants
make for all of their products on their product labels, labeling,
promotional material, any internet websites owned or controlled by
Defendants, including, but not limited to, the websites referred to in
paragraph 8 above. At the conclusion of the expert's review, the expert
shall prepare a written report analyzing whether Defendants are operating in
compliance with the Act and in particular, certify whether Defendants
have omitted all claims from their product labels, labeling, promotional
materials, websites owned or controlled by Defendants, and in any other
media, that make any of their products drugs and/or constitute unapproved or
unauthorized health claims within the meaning of the Act. The expert shall
also review Defendants' product labels, labeling, promotional materials, and
websites owned or controlled by Defendants to determine whether these
include any references to or endorsements of any other websites that convey
information about Defendants' products that cause those products to be a
drug and/or contain unapproved or unauthorized health claims within the
meaning of the Act, and certify in the written report whether Defendants
have omitted any such references or endorsements. The expert shall submit
this report to FDA and Defendants within thirty-five (35) calendar days of
the entry of this Decree. If the expert reports any violations of the Act,
Defendants shall, within seven (7) calendar days of receipt of the report,
correct those deviations, unless FDA notifies Defendants that a shorter time
period is necessary.
In other words, this section requires the company being targeted to pay the
"Expert" huge fees to make sure it doesn't "illegally" link to other
websites that might tell the truth about the health products in question.
So what happens if
the company slips up and does something illegal like, let's say, posting a
clickable link to a science journal that discusses research citing the
health benefits of cherries? As you'll see below, there are no limits to
the action the FDA can take in retribution, including the seizure of all
company assets and the arrest of its principals.
Specifically, the Consent Decree forces company owners to agree to the
following:
If, at any time after this Decree has been entered,
FDA determines, based on the results of an inspection, the analyses of
Defendants' product labels, labeling, promotional materials, websites owned
or controlled by Defendants, or websites referenced by, endorsed, or adopted
directly or indirectly by Defendants that convey information about
Defendants' products, a report prepared by Defendants' expert, or any other
information, that additional corrective actions are necessary to achieve
compliance with the Act, applicable regulations, or this Decree, FDA may, as
and when it deems necessary, direct Defendants, in writing, to take one or
more of the actions:
A. Cease manufacturing, processing, packing, labeling, holding,
and/or distributing any article(s);
B. Submit additional reports or information to FDA;
C. Recall any article(s) at Defendants' expense; or
D. Take any other reasonable corrective action(s) as FDA, in its
discretion, deems necessary to bring Defendants and their products into
compliance with the Act, applicable regulations, and this Decree.
Just to keep the
targeted company in a state of constant fear (which is why I have labeled
the FDA a terrorist organization), the FDA forces it to agree to surprise
inspections where it must pay FDA "compliance officers" to rummage through
their product shelves and paperwork, looking for evidence of non-compliance:
Duly authorized representatives of FDA shall be permitted, without prior
notice and as and when FDA deems necessary, to make [surprise] inspections
of Defendants' facilities and, without prior notice, take any
other measures necessary to monitor and ensure continuing compliance with
the terms of this Decree. During such inspections, FDA representatives shall
be permitted prompt access to buildings, equipment, in-process and finished
materials, containers, labeling and other materials therein; to take
photographs and make video recordings; to take samples of Defendants'
finished and unfinished materials and products, containers, labels,
labeling, and other promotional materials; and to examine and copy all
records relating to the receipt, manufacture, processing, packing, labeling,
promoting, holding, and distribution of any and all Defendants' products in
order to ensure continuing compliance with the terms of this Decree. The
inspections shall be permitted upon presentation of a copy of this Decree
and appropriate credentials. The inspection authority granted by this Decree
is separate from, and in addition to, the authority to conduct inspections
under the Act, 21 U.S.C. §374.
And just to make sure the company is further driven into bankruptcy, the FDA
requires them to PAY for all these surprise "compliance" investigations! As
stated in the Consent Decree:
Defendants shall reimburse FDA for the costs of all FDA inspections,
investigations, supervision, reviews, examinations, and analyses specified
in this Decree or that FDA deems necessary to evaluate Defendants'
compliance with this Decree. The costs of such inspections shall be borne by
Defendants at the prevailing rates in effect at the time the costs are
incurred. As of the date that this Decree is signed by the parties, these
rates are: $78.09 per hour and fraction thereof per representative
for inspection work; $93.61 per hour or fraction thereof per
representative for analytical or review work; $0.485 per mile for
travel expenses by automobile; government rate or the equivalent for travel
by air or other means; and the published government per diem rate or the
equivalent for the areas in which the inspections are performed per-day,
per-representative for subsistence expenses, where necessary. In the event
that the standard rates applicable to FDA supervision of court-ordered
compliance are modified, these rates shall be increased or decreased
without further order of the Court."
Are you getting the picture here? The FDA can simply show up on a "surprise"
inspection, bring ten FDA agents, bill the company for thousands of hours,
and bankrupt the company while padding its own pockets.
Doesn't this sound a lot like the King's Consent Decree against the American
colonies? The FDA's agreement reads amazingly like a document a King might
force his subjects to sign as he's taking over their land and gold,
imprisoning them in his kingdom.
But it gets better: The FDA also requires the Defendants to reveal all sorts
of details about their business operations:
"Within ten (10) calendar days of entry of this Decree, Defendants shall
provide FDA a list of all domain names and IP addresses they use to
market or describe any product, regardless of whether such sites mention
specific products Defendants sell.
Defendants shall notify the District Director, FDA Detroit District Office,
in writing at least fifteen (15) calendar days before any change in
ownership, character, or name of its business.
If Defendants fail to comply with any of the provisions of this Decree,
including any time frame imposed by this Decree, then, on motion of the
United States in this proceeding, Defendants Brownwood Acres and/or Cherry
Capital shall pay to the United States of America the sum of one thousand
dollars ($1,000) in liquidated damages per violation per day so long as such
violation continues.
Should the United States bring, and prevail in, a contempt action to enforce
the terms of this Decree, Defendants shall, in addition to other remedies,
reimburse the United States for its attorneys* fees, investigational
expenses, expert witness fees, travel expenses incurred by attorneys and
witnesses, and administrative court costs relating to such contempt
proceedings.
And finally, just to make sure everybody knows who's in charge, here's what
the agreement says about final judgment:
All decisions specified in this Decree shall be vested in the discretion
of FDA and shall be final.
In other words, the FDA is the King. It is above the law. It answers to no
one but itself.
Welcome to the United States of Tyranny, FDA style.
The full text of the FDA's agreement, including the names of the top FDA
criminals who signed it, is included at the end of this article.
While the FDA
gives drug companies a free pass of easy approval for dangerous drugs, this
Consent Decree is the kind of treatment it slams down upon health product
companies. As you can see from the text in the decree, above, this is a
document of outright tyranny and oppression.
Any company signing this document gives the FDA all the tools it needs to
drive that company completely out of business. Sadly, dozens of companies
have signed this in just the last year. The FDA's reign of terror is
working. It's putting health companies out of business and forcing them to
censor themselves. It even forces them to remove all web links to
information sources like NaturalNews.com or peer-reviewed science journals.
This is all part of the FDA's campaign of health illiteracy -- a war of
disinformation being waged against the American people. It is a secret
war being fought out of the view of the mainstream media (which refuses to
report this story) and far from the scrutiny of the U.S. Dept. of Justice
(which doesn't care about the real tyrants running loose in this country).
As I have often stated here on NaturalNews.com, the FDA is an
out-of-control, rogue agency engaged in acts of terrorism against the
American people. By itself, it is negligent in the deaths of tens of
millions of Americans, and it has taken it upon itself to increase the body
count by making sure consumers have zero access to honest, truthful,
scientifically-validated information about the healing properties of health
supplements.
The FDA, by any account, is a much greater threat to the security and safety
of the American people than any terrorist group, and if the U.S. really
wanted to fight terror and tyranny, it would start by arresting top FDA
officials at gunpoint. Those targeted for arrest and prosecution should also
include the lawyers and paper pushers involved in this very agreement (see
their names on the legal documents at the end of this article).
In my view, these people are the real criminals at work here. They are the
masterminds of this campaign of extortion and terror being leveled against
health companies by the rogue U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Much like
Hitler's top generals, they play an important role in the mass
disinformation that's resulting in the needless death of millions of people.
By any account, they are all guilty of crimes against humanity and should be
arrested and prosecuted as such. We should all be so fortunate to live to
the day where we can see these white-collar criminals behind bars, perhaps
sharing their jail cells with other war criminals from the Bush
Administration.
What you haven't
yet seen in all this is the barrage of threats leveled against companies if
they don't sign this Consent Decree! Company executives receive both written
and verbal threats from top FDA "enforcement officers" who claim they will
"throw you in prison" if you don't sign the agreement.
Every major health trade show hosts an FDA compliance officer (much
like a Nazi Gestapo officer) whose job it is to walk the show floor and
threaten companies into compliance. This includes shows like Expo West and
Expo East, where show organizers also serve as de facto FDA agents
themselves, barring the participation of exhibitors who dare to tell the
truth about their natural products. This smacks of KGB secret police
operations in the former Soviet Union. But secret FDA police are now a
reality in the United States of America.
NaturalNews has learned of numerous verbal threats from FDA compliance
officers directed at health supplement companies during trade shows,
including threats to "put you out of business," "throw you in prison" or
"take every last dollar you've ever earned."
FDA compliance officers are the foot soldiers of the agency's war against
the truth. They seek out any health claim that might inform consumers about
the properties of nutritional supplements, then they work to squash such
statements before they become too well known. In essence, they are
censorship officers who enforce nutritional illiteracy and prevent knowledge
from being shared.
As such, they are acting not merely as secret police on a mission to destroy
small American businesses; they are actually agents of disinformation, bent
on destroying knowledge and enforcing a system of mandatory ignorance. This
is entirely consistent with the FDA's history of ordering the destruction of
recipe books that promoted the use of the natural herb stevia, among many
other examples of information suppression.
It is the FDA's
position that there is no such thing as any food, beverage, supplement or
herb that has any health benefit whatsoever. Merely making such a claim
instantly qualifies your product as a "new and unapproved drug," according
to the FDA.
Officially, the FDA claims all health products are inert and have no
properties other than their macronutrients (fiber, carbohydrates, protein,
etc.).
There is only one class of substances that have any biological effect on the
human body, the FDA claims: Pharmaceuticals. Only those patented, synthetic
chemicals are allowed to be described as having benefits to human health.
This convenient position is entirely consistent with the protection of the
profits of drug companies. It's no coincidence that the drug companies fund
the FDA through "user fees," and most FDA employees are dependent on drug
company money... except, of course, those FDA people earning their living by
extorting millions of dollars from health product companies.
The upshot of the FDA's campaign against health supplements is that most of
the American people remain nutritionally illiterate, oblivious to the
scientifically-validated health benefits offered by tens of thousands of
different nutrients, plants, supplements and products. To say that zinc
speeds healing, or that vitamin D prevents cancer, or that resveratrol
lowers high cholesterol is common sense in the scientific community, but
it's a crime in the eyes of the FDA.
It is time to end
the FDA's extortion racket, restore Free Speech rights to health
supplements, and bring the organized crime kingpins at the FDA to justice.
NaturalNews is organizing a list of companies who wish to help fund legal
action against the FDA. We intend to take part in a lawsuit against the FDA
that would reign in the FDA's control over nutritional supplements and
defend health freedoms for American consumers.
To do this, we need to gather information from those companies who are
willing to help fund this legal action, which may cost several hundred
thousand dollars. If you represent a company willing to take part in this
legal action against the FDA, contact us now at
StopTheFDA@naturalnews.com
Simply email us your name and contact phone number. We'll contact you to
continue the conversation. Any information sent to us is kept strictly
confidential. We will refuse to turn over such information even