U.S. Officials Part of Cigarette Racketeering Plot
Watchdog | 19.08.2006 00:24 | Analysis | Health
Government officials are the Dr. Frankensteins who created the homicidal monster of the industry that makes and sells the most industrially-contaminated products in history.
Dr. Frankenstein pretends to prosecute and condemn its own creation. Mainsteam news plays along.
Dr. Frankenstein pretends to prosecute and condemn its own creation. Mainsteam news plays along.
U.S. Prosecutors Hope Public Believes that the Gov't Never Knew What Was Going On.
This is laughable, in a way. The hypocrisy is enormous. It's the prime racketeers calling their fellow racketeers, "racketeers".
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news
Cigarette Makers Lose in U.S. Racketeering Lawsuit
Aug. 17 (Bloomberg)
-- A federal judge ruled that Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA and other U.S. cigarette makers violated anti-racketeering laws by marketing low-tar cigarettes as healthier alternatives than full-flavored brands. .....
[in same article...]
.....Cigarette company shares rose $1.89, or 2.3
percent, to $82.64 in trading after the close of U.S. exchanges. The stock climbed as high as $83 after the ruling...... [later news had Altria/Philip Morris up FOUR percent. Some "loss' to Big Cig, eh? Can't go wrong investing in racketeering.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ouch!
Pretty funny, no? NPR news also reported this
judge's decision as a hit on the cigarette industry.
Why this was good for Big Cig's stocks was that the
judge didn't make the industry pay gazillions for
"smoking cessation" programs...programs that
incidentally would be to promote the products of the
competition, Big Pharma's various synthetic nicotine
delivery products.
An unreported part of this story...regarding Big
Cig's supposedly selling "lo tar" and "lite" cigs as
safer, is that it was the US gov't itself that, long
ago, ASKED cigarette makers to come up with a lower
tar, lower nicotine cigarette...and the industry
happily complied to the level of breeding tobacco
plants with lower nicotine and tar.
What we have is a version of US Ambassador April
Glaspie informing Saddam that the US has no problem
w/ Iraq's planned incursions into Kuwait to address
Kuwaiti thefts of Iraqi oil. When Saddam
moved...whammo...the bombs rained down.
Same thing here. US, which promoted low tar and
nicotine, now says How DARE big cig make lo tar and
lite cigs? Now the US prosecutors rain down their
legal bombs.
The lo-tar and lite cigs did, of course, suggest to
many that they were safer because it was gov't
agencies themselves that publicized the harms of tar
and nicotine.
But the reverse is true, as is usually the case
in this government system. Lite cigarettes, with the
lower nicotine, led people to smoke more, to get that
"satisfaction". Therefore, more cig sales and more
tax revenues. Lo-tar and Lite brands also needed lots
more additives to replace flavor lost by the lower
nicotine. Therefore people seeking a safer smoke got
viciously hit with not only more smoking and more
expenses but more dangerous and addiction-enhancing
additives. And this was/is all legal as pie.
This gets to the RICO angle...about racketeering
and conspiracy and all. It was officials and agencies
of the US gov't that, all along, aided and abetted
every damn thing Big Cig did.
The Corporate Corrupted Gov't...
...refused to require listing of non-tobacco
ingredients, even the ones most notorious for causing
fires, and the ones causing diseases colloquially
called "smoking related" diseases;
...created Federal Law to prohibit gov't officials
from revealing the secret ingredients of
cigarettes...again, no matter how untested or known
dangerous;
...refused to prohibit added burn accelerants in
cigarettes, despite the numbers of fires, injuries,
deaths, orphanings and property losses;
...refused to require specific warnings about burn
accelerants, pesticide residues, radiation from
phosphate tobacco fertilizers, or anything;
...permitted some of the most deadly pesticides on
earth (including DDT) to contaminate tobacco and
tobacco products;
...until the 70s, permitted asbestos filters on Kent
cigarettes;
...permitted dioxin in cigarette smoke via the still
legal use of chlorine pesticides and
chlorine-bleached cigarette paper - this, despite the
US declaring dioxin a known human carcinogen and the
US signing the Stockholm Treaty to phase deadly
dioxin off the earth;
...permitted cigarettes to be made and sold as if
they were tobacco but which may contain absolutely no
tobacco. The fraud of industrial waste cellulose
camouflaged to convince consumers it was tobacco is a
fraud participated in by this gov't;
...shut down Customs and Department of Agriculture
testing programs for DDT and other pesticides in
imported tobacco;
...ignored EPA and other information about chlorine
in tobacco products and therefore dioxin in the
smoke;
...removed previously available info about HIGH
levels of dioxin in (chlorine-contaminated) cigarette
smoke from Centers for Disease Control; (see that
info at:
www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Dioxins-Cigarette-Smoke.htm
)
...allowed (and still allows) all sorts of Kid
Attracting ingredients (sugars, artificial sweeteners,
flavorings, aromas, sootheners, etc) in cigarettes;
...refused to warn mothers about, or protect mothers
from, the chlorine cigarette adulterants that are so
harmful to pregnancies, fetuses, and children;
...has refused to demand any safety testing for ANY
non-tobacco cigarette ingredient;
...has refused to test for actual or expected effects
of smoking plain tobacco. Results would inevitably be
a devastating indictment of typical cigarettes and
the regulation thereof;
...has created law to forbid challenges to the
official "warnings" on grounds of insufficiency. That
is...if a mini-nuclear bomb is put into a Marlboro, a
victim can't sue because he/she was duly "warned"
that the products "may be dangerous to your health";
...has, almost across the board, accepted campaign
funding from various parts of the cigarette industry,
namely pesticides, chlorine, paper, pulp, ag
products, sugar, pharmaceutical products, adhesives,
etc., AND all of their insurers and investors. That
is...the very industries that most want to keep their
complicity out of the smoking discussion;
...allowed the cigarette industry to pass costs of
the "settlements" onto consumers via price hikes;
...has allowed members of the cigarette cartel to
actually collect windfall profits by participating in
programs funded by that "settlement". That is, an
insurer that owns major cig manufacturing holdings
can profit by being in a state's "tobacco settlement"
program for elderly insurance coverage. A Cig
advertiser can profit in "anti smoking" campaigns. A
tobacco pesticide maker can benefit via drug
programs. And so forth. (The minor gangsters, in the
Mafia etc, must look on with awe and envy.)
...and this government allows the cigarette industry
to evade the truly enormous liabilities that WOULD be
due if even a fraction of proper compensation was
paid to the victims. Big Cig saves trillions, no
exaggeration.
The cigarette makers did not work under the cover
of darkness, out of view of the now-"shocked" gov't
regulators. Every damn lie, omission, deception, and
other crime was "legal", authorized and known. This
corporate-corrupted gov't is the Dr. Frankenstein
that created this devastating health monster, that,
since the 30s and 40s, tolerated the contamination of
tobacco as no other product ever has been, and now it
is feigning concern about the consequences because,
of course, it's costing insurers too much money in
health care, and because it's diverting tax money to
people's health care instead of to wars or corporate
handouts and so forth.
The "tobacco" trials and hearings are all complete
charades, equivalent to Pro Wrestling matches. We got
Captain Clean Air America vs The Evil Baron of Dirty
Death...and we are encouraged to take sides, to
battle amongst ourselves regarding yes or no to
"smoking", neither side being legitimate. The idea of
yes or no to vicious, secret, mass homicidal product
contamination isn't permitted into the arena.
Big Cig can't/won't defend itself by saying that
it had gov't approval to put deadly substances in
cigs, in secret from consumers, in violation of basic
rights to know and rights to informed consent. That
would be a liability, and criminal, and PR, disaster
for Big Cig and all the ingredients/adulterants
suppliers (and, always, their insurers and
investors).
Gov't officials, for their part, can't admit that
they allowed and knew about everything. That would be
the end of the corporate-corrupted "regulatory"
system as we, unfortunately, know it. Government
officials, violating at every turn their sworn and
paid duties to serve the public, are integral parts
and parcels of the racket and the conspiracy.
Both "sides" conspire to allow the blame to fall on a) the
public domain natural tobacco plant, and b) the
uninformed, deceived, unprotected, experimented upon,
poisoned, demonized, sickened and often killed victims, the
smokers.
This is laughable, in a way. The hypocrisy is enormous. It's the prime racketeers calling their fellow racketeers, "racketeers".
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news Cigarette Makers Lose in U.S. Racketeering Lawsuit
Aug. 17 (Bloomberg)
-- A federal judge ruled that Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA and other U.S. cigarette makers violated anti-racketeering laws by marketing low-tar cigarettes as healthier alternatives than full-flavored brands. .....
[in same article...]
.....Cigarette company shares rose $1.89, or 2.3
percent, to $82.64 in trading after the close of U.S. exchanges. The stock climbed as high as $83 after the ruling...... [later news had Altria/Philip Morris up FOUR percent. Some "loss' to Big Cig, eh? Can't go wrong investing in racketeering.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ouch!
Pretty funny, no? NPR news also reported this
judge's decision as a hit on the cigarette industry.
Why this was good for Big Cig's stocks was that the
judge didn't make the industry pay gazillions for
"smoking cessation" programs...programs that
incidentally would be to promote the products of the
competition, Big Pharma's various synthetic nicotine
delivery products.
An unreported part of this story...regarding Big
Cig's supposedly selling "lo tar" and "lite" cigs as
safer, is that it was the US gov't itself that, long
ago, ASKED cigarette makers to come up with a lower
tar, lower nicotine cigarette...and the industry
happily complied to the level of breeding tobacco
plants with lower nicotine and tar.
What we have is a version of US Ambassador April
Glaspie informing Saddam that the US has no problem
w/ Iraq's planned incursions into Kuwait to address
Kuwaiti thefts of Iraqi oil. When Saddam
moved...whammo...the bombs rained down.
Same thing here. US, which promoted low tar and
nicotine, now says How DARE big cig make lo tar and
lite cigs? Now the US prosecutors rain down their
legal bombs.
The lo-tar and lite cigs did, of course, suggest to
many that they were safer because it was gov't
agencies themselves that publicized the harms of tar
and nicotine.
But the reverse is true, as is usually the case
in this government system. Lite cigarettes, with the
lower nicotine, led people to smoke more, to get that
"satisfaction". Therefore, more cig sales and more
tax revenues. Lo-tar and Lite brands also needed lots
more additives to replace flavor lost by the lower
nicotine. Therefore people seeking a safer smoke got
viciously hit with not only more smoking and more
expenses but more dangerous and addiction-enhancing
additives. And this was/is all legal as pie.
This gets to the RICO angle...about racketeering
and conspiracy and all. It was officials and agencies
of the US gov't that, all along, aided and abetted
every damn thing Big Cig did.
The Corporate Corrupted Gov't...
...refused to require listing of non-tobacco
ingredients, even the ones most notorious for causing
fires, and the ones causing diseases colloquially
called "smoking related" diseases;
...created Federal Law to prohibit gov't officials
from revealing the secret ingredients of
cigarettes...again, no matter how untested or known
dangerous;
...refused to prohibit added burn accelerants in
cigarettes, despite the numbers of fires, injuries,
deaths, orphanings and property losses;
...refused to require specific warnings about burn
accelerants, pesticide residues, radiation from
phosphate tobacco fertilizers, or anything;
...permitted some of the most deadly pesticides on
earth (including DDT) to contaminate tobacco and
tobacco products;
...until the 70s, permitted asbestos filters on Kent
cigarettes;
...permitted dioxin in cigarette smoke via the still
legal use of chlorine pesticides and
chlorine-bleached cigarette paper - this, despite the
US declaring dioxin a known human carcinogen and the
US signing the Stockholm Treaty to phase deadly
dioxin off the earth;
...permitted cigarettes to be made and sold as if
they were tobacco but which may contain absolutely no
tobacco. The fraud of industrial waste cellulose
camouflaged to convince consumers it was tobacco is a
fraud participated in by this gov't;
...shut down Customs and Department of Agriculture
testing programs for DDT and other pesticides in
imported tobacco;
...ignored EPA and other information about chlorine
in tobacco products and therefore dioxin in the
smoke;
...removed previously available info about HIGH
levels of dioxin in (chlorine-contaminated) cigarette
smoke from Centers for Disease Control; (see that
info at:
www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Dioxins-Cigarette-Smoke.htm
)
...allowed (and still allows) all sorts of Kid
Attracting ingredients (sugars, artificial sweeteners,
flavorings, aromas, sootheners, etc) in cigarettes;
...refused to warn mothers about, or protect mothers
from, the chlorine cigarette adulterants that are so
harmful to pregnancies, fetuses, and children;
...has refused to demand any safety testing for ANY
non-tobacco cigarette ingredient;
...has refused to test for actual or expected effects
of smoking plain tobacco. Results would inevitably be
a devastating indictment of typical cigarettes and
the regulation thereof;
...has created law to forbid challenges to the
official "warnings" on grounds of insufficiency. That
is...if a mini-nuclear bomb is put into a Marlboro, a
victim can't sue because he/she was duly "warned"
that the products "may be dangerous to your health";
...has, almost across the board, accepted campaign
funding from various parts of the cigarette industry,
namely pesticides, chlorine, paper, pulp, ag
products, sugar, pharmaceutical products, adhesives,
etc., AND all of their insurers and investors. That
is...the very industries that most want to keep their
complicity out of the smoking discussion;
...allowed the cigarette industry to pass costs of
the "settlements" onto consumers via price hikes;
...has allowed members of the cigarette cartel to
actually collect windfall profits by participating in
programs funded by that "settlement". That is, an
insurer that owns major cig manufacturing holdings
can profit by being in a state's "tobacco settlement"
program for elderly insurance coverage. A Cig
advertiser can profit in "anti smoking" campaigns. A
tobacco pesticide maker can benefit via drug
programs. And so forth. (The minor gangsters, in the
Mafia etc, must look on with awe and envy.)
...and this government allows the cigarette industry
to evade the truly enormous liabilities that WOULD be
due if even a fraction of proper compensation was
paid to the victims. Big Cig saves trillions, no
exaggeration.
The cigarette makers did not work under the cover
of darkness, out of view of the now-"shocked" gov't
regulators. Every damn lie, omission, deception, and
other crime was "legal", authorized and known. This
corporate-corrupted gov't is the Dr. Frankenstein
that created this devastating health monster, that,
since the 30s and 40s, tolerated the contamination of
tobacco as no other product ever has been, and now it
is feigning concern about the consequences because,
of course, it's costing insurers too much money in
health care, and because it's diverting tax money to
people's health care instead of to wars or corporate
handouts and so forth.
The "tobacco" trials and hearings are all complete
charades, equivalent to Pro Wrestling matches. We got
Captain Clean Air America vs The Evil Baron of Dirty
Death...and we are encouraged to take sides, to
battle amongst ourselves regarding yes or no to
"smoking", neither side being legitimate. The idea of
yes or no to vicious, secret, mass homicidal product
contamination isn't permitted into the arena.
Big Cig can't/won't defend itself by saying that
it had gov't approval to put deadly substances in
cigs, in secret from consumers, in violation of basic
rights to know and rights to informed consent. That
would be a liability, and criminal, and PR, disaster
for Big Cig and all the ingredients/adulterants
suppliers (and, always, their insurers and
investors).
Gov't officials, for their part, can't admit that
they allowed and knew about everything. That would be
the end of the corporate-corrupted "regulatory"
system as we, unfortunately, know it. Government
officials, violating at every turn their sworn and
paid duties to serve the public, are integral parts
and parcels of the racket and the conspiracy.
Both "sides" conspire to allow the blame to fall on a) the
public domain natural tobacco plant, and b) the
uninformed, deceived, unprotected, experimented upon,
poisoned, demonized, sickened and often killed victims, the
smokers.
Watchdog
