Both drafts of the Victory Act obtained by TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS list Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) as the author. When ABC News asked Hatch's office about the VICTORY Act, "Hatch spokeswoman Margarita Tapia declined to comment directly on the draft."
Why don't any Utahns reading this call their Senator's office and ask them about the VICTORY Act? And for that matter, why don't folks call the offices of these Senators listed as cosponsors?
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama)
Sen. Graham (R- South Carolina)
Sen. Cornyn (R-Texas)
Sen. Kyl (R-Arizona)
Ask if they intend on sponsoring this legislation. Ask why their names are on it. Ask if they're waiting for another act of terror to introduce it. Ask if they're working with the Justice Department on it. Ask about the consitutionality of this or that provision.
This time it is to keep the public safe from those infamous killers - vitamin pills. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) has introduced legislation that effectively would give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to remove from the market any dietary supplement it chooses, including vitamins E and C. Opponents of the bill say the senator may be deficient in his understanding of natural supplements . . .
Durbin's Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003 (S 722), cosponsored by Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) . . . [would] require exotic proof of safety from any dietary-supplement maker if the agency has received so much as a single report of an adverse reaction (AR). If the manufacturers fail during hideously expensive tests to prove that the product is safe, the commissioner of the FDA can remove it from the market.
. . . the Durbin claims about dangers seem nothing if not wildly exaggerated.
. . . the senator wants to impose on manufacturers of natural dietary supplements the same exorbitant costs as have been imposed on drug manufacturers to make prescription medicines prohibitively expensive for so many Americans. [...] Advocates of natural medicines say the antidepressant Prozac, made by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, is another interesting case Durbin may want to review before putting all his "public-safety" eggs in the FDA basket. As of September 1993 there had been nearly 30,000 AR reports associated with Prozac filed with the drug agency, including side effects such as delirium, hallucinations, convulsions, violent hostility and psychosis, plus 1,885 suicide attempts and 1,734 deaths - 1,089 by suicide. And according to Thomas G. Whittle and Richard Wieland, critics who obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act, "both Eli Lilly and officials of the FDA were aware that at least 27 deaths had been linked to the use of Prozac prior to the drug being released on the market." [...] Given the enormous number of AR reports filed about Ritalin and Prozac, to name just two pharmaceuticals, critics wonder aloud why, given the senator's concern about public safety, he has submitted no legislation to ban the use of those products. . .
David Seckman, executive director of the National Nutritional Foods Association. . . says "Our concern is that we're talking about products that have been used safely and effectively for thousands of years that now can be pulled from the market because of just one report. People will be able to call in with an adverse reaction to multivitamins and the commissioner will have the authority to make the manufacturer prove that multivitamins are safe. Under the 1994 DSHEA, supplements were classified as foods and under a totally different category than drugs. Drugs require premarket approval and are granted a patent. You're not going to be able to do that with vitamin C and other such natural products". . .
Len Horowitz, an internationally known public-health authority . . . continues . . . "This argument has to be understood within the context of the fear mentality generated by the media on behalf of the pharmaceuticals who don't want to tell you that the third leading cause of death in the U.S. is drug-induced, physician-prescribed, hospital-prescribed medications. You don't see the intensity over that, but you do see it over and over again when someone overdoses on ephedra."
TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS:Note the highlighted quote from the treade association guy. This is reminisent of the incident that led to the FDA moving against the use of Stevia as a food. Stevia leaf has been used as a natural sweetener for millenia. It is used to make candy in South America and Japan. In the 1980s, representatives of an "anonymous firm" lodged a "trade complaint" with the FDA over stevia use in Celestial Seasonings herbal teas, which eventually resulted it the leaf being banned as a food. Think of the competition stevia would provide for the sugar lobby, the ADM corn lobby, or Rumsfeld/Searle(now Monsanto)'s toxic aspartame. You can now buy powdered stevia as a "supplement" -- unless this scheme passes.
Similar measures are working through the UN Codex Alimentarius committee and the EU, where thesubjects of the UK are set to lose government-free vitamins as soon as 2005.
I'll close with one last peek at War on Health here on the homefront. From San Jose Mercury News:
The raid of the Burlingame firm, also known as Balco, owned by nutritionist Victor Conte, was conducted by agents of the Internal Revenue Service and the San Mateo County narcotics unit. Neither agency would discuss the raid.
No arrests were made, but agents were seen leaving with several boxes.
"We are not even acknowledging it was a search," IRS spokesman Mark Lessler said. "We are only calling it a law enforcement action." [...] Conte is well known for helping athletes, from 49ers and Raiders players . . . to Olympic stars and bodybuilders.
A survey of contents and differences of this draft, dated July 30, as compared to the June 27 draft:
* TITLE I remains unchanged. This is the part that creates the new category of crime called "narco-terrorism," which contains such gems as such as enhanced sentences, up to life imprisonment, for all kinds of drug statute violations outside of simple possession for anyone "knowing or intending that such activity, directly or indirectly, aids or provides support, resources" to not only "foreign" terrorist organizations (i.e., the CIA's rivals in the hemispheric drug trade such as FARC) but any individual defined as a terrorist as per the PATRIOT Act.
*TITLE II: This grab-bag of asset forfeiture and other poilce state provisions has a number of differences. SUBTITLE A; SECTION 201 - same. "Anti-Hawala" provision; very vague - convictions can be obtained based on whether a monetary transaction "is part of a set of parallel or dependent transactions, any one of which involves the proceeds of specified unlawful activity." SEC. 202 - Same "traveling-with-cash" provision; basically provides for forfeiture and conviction if you're carrying too much cash. Virtually non-existent burden of proof on fedgov consists of "willful blindness" that defendant had towards source of money. Ties into "reverse money-laundering" as defined below. SEC. 203 - unchanged. Allows DoJ to freeze all accounts of anyone charged with money-laundering. SEC. 204 - new. Allows DoJ to freeze other property of anyone charged with money-laundering. SEC. 205 - was 204. Administrative subpoenas (like a search warrant, but no judge involved) in money-laundering investigations. SEC. 206 - was 205. Blank checks carried across borders considered to be worth full value of account. SEC. 207 - was 206. Any account through which "tainted" money passes permanently subject to forfeiture. SEC. 208 - was 207. Defines "reverse money-laundering" - i.e., carrying too much cash. SEC. 209 - same. "Commingled funds" provision. Creates trap for honest people who take "dirty" money in otherwise legal transaction. No intent required. SEC. 210 - same. "Course of conduct" provision for linking differnt money-laundering charges in same indictment. SEC. 211 - same. Any foreign offense can be money-laundering predicate. SEC. 212 - same. "Illegal money transmitting business." Extremely borad definiton, would encompass more than hawala. SEC. 213 - was 214. Expands money-laundering predicates to such things as violations of Clean Air Act and other environmental laws (!!). SUBTITLE B SEC. 221 - same. Expands forfeiture into "conspiracy" cases. SEC. 222 - same. Gives fedgov two years to commence civil forfeiture proceedings instead of one. SEC. 223, 225, 226. - same. Concerns restraint & forfeiture of "foreign crime" proceeds & extraterritorial jurisdiction. SEC. 224 - same. Forfeiture of "third party" assets. Charges interest! SEC. 227- same. Makes it harder to challenge forfeiture, requires foreign assets that "may be seized" to be transfered to US & fedfs before challenge can be made. SEC. 228 - was 229. If you don't tell the IRS about $10,000+ transaction, the money can be seized. SEC. 230 - was 231. More wiretap authority for feds re: "money-transmitting businesses." SEC. 231 - was 232. Ignorance no excuse. SEC. 232 - was 234. Sharing seized property with foreign governments. SEC. 233 - was 237. Expands definition of "financial institutions" to include bail bondsmen. SEC. 235 - was 241. More power for "magistrates' as opposed to full-fledged judges. SEC. 237 - was 245. Expanded power for collection of asset forfeiture -- threat of additional incarceration, significant interest and financial penalties, and additional criminal charges. SEC. 238 - was 248. Gives forfeiture powers to Homeland Secretary. SEC. 251, 252 - same. Forfeiture of "facilitating property" and "intrumentalities" in narco-terrorism, terrorism, and fraud cases. TITLE III - was TITLE V. SEC. 301 "Narco-Terrorism" as predicate crime for wiretaps and bugs. SEC. 302 Illegal wiretap evidence allowed when fegov claims it's "in good faith." SEC. 303, 304 - Administrative subpoenas in "terrorism" and "fugitive" investigations. Provisions for making such subpoenas secret, removal of liability for firms that turn over consumer data in breach of privacy policy. SEC. 305 - "Judge-shopping" for wiretaps, including magistrates.
And there you go. Removed from the earlier draft are Title II sections making it easier for prosecutors to seize tax records and attorney fees and other provisions regarding criminal and civil asset forfeiture, as well as the original Title III and Title IV regarding greater sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.
Independent filmmaker Patrick Dillon has two outstanding info-scoops coming from Iraq. The first is the filmed testimony of an Iraqi general who saw Saddam's entourage fly out of Baghdad airport just before the city fell on the morning of April 9.
The second eyewitness of interest is an Iraqi infantryman and engineer who saw a secret weapon mounted on an Abrams tank melt a bus full of people nigh-instantaneously to a melted blob the size of a VW bug, the people inside reduced to something akin to carred infants.
another draft of the planned police state legislation known as The VICTORY Act