Operation Cure All - or  Your loss of rights regarding supplements

Ruth James  has a serious medical condition for which she cannot afford to lose her access
to dietary supplements. She has taken the time to thoroughly examine the Federal Trade Commission's so called
"Operation Cure All" in a broad context. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1999/9906/opcureall.htm

Although she recommends pushing for a GENUINE oversight hearing on the
Codex vitamin issue, I am of the opinion that corruption on Capital Hill is far too entrenched for that to ever happen unless our backs are eventually put to the wall. Unless that happens, most consumers will remain with their heads in the sand due to the deliberate slowness with which the Codex issue is proceeding. "Operation Cure All" should serve as a wake up call to people, but its effects have been largely unfelt by consumers, so it is being ignored- but it should not be.


The Sinister Truth Behind Operation Cure.All
by Ruth James

What's really behind Operation Cure.All? Is it just the FDA and
FTC taking their power too far? Or is there a deeper, more
sinister purpose to this campaign?

How could a country that prides itself in its freedom of speech,
freedom of choice, and freedom of information be facing such
severe restrictions in health freedom and dietary supplements?
Haven't the people made their will known? Didn't our government
pass the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act of 1994 to
insure our right to health supplements?

Indeed, our government did. But the FDA and FTC have found ways
to get around that. The laws put in place to protect us are
being ignored. And what's worse, is that those laws are about
to be superceded, if the powers that be have their way.

Operation Cure.All Is Just One Means to an End
You see, Operation Cure.All is just a tactic, a vehicle, in a
much bigger overall plan. It is a result of "Codex
Alimentarius" (meaning food code) -- a set of regulations that
aim to outlaw any health information in connection with vitamins
and limit free access to natural therapies on a worldwide scale.

What's Behind Codex?

Behind the Codex Alimentarius Commission is the United Nations
and the World Health Organization working in conjuction with the
multinational pharmaceutical cartel and international banks.
Its initial efforts in the US with the FDA were defeated, so it
found another ally in the FTC. Now Codex, with the FTC and the
pharmaceutical cartel behind it, it threatens to become a trade
issue, using the campaign of Operation Cure.All to advance its
goals.

Codex began simply enough when the U.N. authorized the World
Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization to
develop a universal food code. Their purpose was to 'harmonize'
regulations for dietary supplements worldwide and set
international safety standards for the purposes of increased
trade. Standardize labeling and regulatory requirements between
countries to facilitate increased international trade.

Pharmaceutical interests stepped in and began exerting their
influence. Instead of focusing on food safety, Codex is using
its power to promote worldwide restrictions on vitamins and food
supplements, severely limiting their availability and dosages.
Real Goals of Codex

This is to bring about international 'harmonization.' While
global harmony sounds benign, is that the real purpose of this
plan? While the stated goal of Codex is to establish unilateral
regulations for dietary supplements in every country, the actual
goal is to outlaw health products and information on vitamins
and dietary supplements, except those under their direct
control. These regulations would supercede United States
domestic laws without the American people's voice or vote in the
matter.

How Can it be Possible?

Americans gasp at the thought. It goes against everything
America stands for. Many believe this can't be possible. The
truth is, it's not only possible, it's required by the Codex
agreement.

In fact, under the terms of the Uruguay Round of GATT, which
created the World Trade Organization, the United States agreed
to harmonize its domestic laws to the international standards.
This includes standards for dietary supplements being developed
by the United Nation's Codex Alimentarius Commission's Committee
on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Use.

The Uruguay Round Agreements carry explicit language clearly
indicating that the U.S. must harmonize to international
standards:
"Members are fully responsible under this Agreement for the
observance of all provisions.... members shall formulate and
implement positive measures and mechanisms in support of the
observance of the provisions.... by other than central
government bodies." [WTO TBT Agreement at Article 3.5]"
In other words, the federal government must NOT ONLY CHANGE
FEDERAL LAW, but must ALSO require state and local governments
to change their laws as well to be in accordance with
international law.

Not only that, but Codex is now enforceable through the World
Trade Organization (WTO). If a country disagrees with or
refuses to follow Codex standards, the WTO applies pressure by
withdrawing trade privileges and imposing crippling trade
sanctions. Congress has already bowed to this pressure several
times and so have the governments of many countries.

While the exemption clause (USC 3512(a)(1) and (a)(2) was
created to supposedly protect our laws from harmonization to
international standards, it has proven to be totally
ineffective. The United States has already lost seven trade
disputes despite the exemption clause. Due to the enormous
pressures put on them by lobbyists from multinational
corporations (who contribute millions to congressional
campaigns), Congress bowed to pressure and changed U.S. laws.

It appears our government is being manipulated one way or
another to serve the goals of the UN, the World Health
Organization and the World Trade Organization. Food control
equals people control -- and population control. Is this
beginning to sound like world government and one-world order?
Could this be the real goal behind Codex?

The United States, Canada, the Europeans, Japan, most of Asia,
and South America have already signed agreements pledging total
harmonization of their laws including food and drug laws to
these international standards in the future.

What Codex Will Bring

What can we expect under Codex? To give you an idea, here are
some important points:

- Dietary supplements could not be sold for preventive
(prophylactic) or therapeutic use.

- Potencies would be limited to extremely low dosages. Only the
drug companies and the big phytopharmaceutical companies would
have the right to produce and sell the higher potency products
(at inflated prices).

- Prescriptions would be required for anything above the
extremely low doses allowed (such as 35 mg. on niacin).

- Common foods such as garlic and peppermint would be classified
as drugs or a third category (neither food nor drugs) that only
big pharmaceutical companies could regulate and sell. Any food
with any therapeutic effect can be considered a drug, even
benign everyday substances like water.

- Codex regulations for dietary supplements would become binding
(escape clauses would be eliminated).

- All new dietary supplements would be banned unless they go
through Codex testing and approval.

- Genetically altered food would be sold worldwide without
labeling.

According to John Hammell, a legislative advocate and the
founder of International Advocates for Health Freedom (IAHF),
here is what we have to look forward to:

"If Codex Alimentarius has its way, then herbs, vitamins,
minerals, homeopathic remedies, amino acids and other natural
remedies you have taken for granted most of your life will be
gone. The name of the game for Codex is to shift all remedies
into the prescription category so they can be controlled
exclusively by the medical monopoly and its bosses, the major
pharmaceutical firms. Predictably, this scenario has been
denied by both the Canadian Health Food Association and the
Health Protection Branch of Canada (HPB).

The Codex proposals already exist as law in Norway and Germany
where the entire health food industry has literally been taken
over by the drug companies. In these countries, vitamin C above
200 mg is illegal as is vitamin E above 45 IU, vitamin B1 over
2.4 mg and so on. Shering-Plough, the Norway pharmaceutical
giant, now controls an echinacea tincture, which is being sold
there as an over the counter drug at grossly inflated prices.

The same is true of ginkgo and many other herbs, and only one
government controlled pharmacy has the right to import
supplements as medicines which they can sell to health food
stores, convenience stores or pharmacies."

It is now a criminal offence in parts of Europe to sell herbs as
foods. An agreement called EEC6565 equates selling herbs as
foods to selling other illegal drugs. Action is being taken to
accelerate other European countries into 'harmonization' as
well.

Paul Hellyer in his book, "The Evil Empire," states:
"Codex is supported by international banks and multinational
corporations including some in Canada, and is in reality a bill
of rights for these banks and the corporations they control. It
will hand over our sovereign rights concerning who may or may
not invest in our countries to an unelected world organization
run by big business.

The treaty would make it impossible for
Canadian legislators either federal or provincial to alter or
improve environmental standards for fear of being sued by
multinational corporations whether operating in Canada or not.
This will create a world without borders ruled by a virtual
dictatorship of the world's most powerful central banks and
multinational companies. This world is an absolute certainty if
we all sit on our hands and do nothing."

This is the future the FDA and FTC are striving to bring us via
Codex harmonization. Is this a future we are going to willingly
accept or prevent?

Why Target the Internet?

It is no accident that the FDA and FTC are targeting internet
health sites through Operation Cure.All. We are standing in the
doorway of an unprecedented revolution -- the information
revolution brought about by the Internet.

Now all people everywhere have the ability to learn about
anything that interests them with just a few clicks. History
has shown that informed, educated people change civilizations --
they change the flow of thought and they change the flow of
money. They can even change the direction of a country. When
similar transitions have happened in the past, the powers that
existed did not give up willingly. The Catholic Church fiercely
protected its practice of selling 'indulgences' as a forgiveness
of sin. When the practice was abolished, the Catholic Church
lost a great deal of power and money.

When the printing press was invented, books were banned and
printers were imprisoned by the authorities, who feared an
educated public could not be governed. In the same way, the
medical monopoly (and the UN) now fears that a public educated
in health and privy to the shortcomings of modern medicine could
not be controlled. Loss of control means loss of revenue and
loss of power. And they are doing everything they can to stop
progress so they can contain their losses and strengthen their
power.

The printing press changed the world. Can you imagine what life
would be like today if the book banners had their way? But
because the printing press won out, society progressed and
freedom was embraced. The internet is changing the world in an
equally significant way. While the entire internet can hardly
be suppressed, the pharma-cartels and their backers are looking
to protect their interests by restricting as much information as
they can on the internet.

Will we, the people, win out again -- or will the UN and the
World Health Organization agenda and the pharmaceutical cartel
change the course of history and take us back to the "dark ages"
of medicine?

What Can We Do?

Step number one is learn as much as possible about this issue.
Here are some websites where you will find a great deal of
information:

John Hammell's International Advocates for Health Freedom
website: http://www.iahf.com/index2.html

'Codex Alimentarius Commission: A threat to mankind'- article
from Dr. Rath's website:
http://www.drrath.com/mr-publishing-internet/uk/codex/codex.htm

'The Nature of the Pharmaceutical Industry' - article on Dr.
Rath's website:
http://www.drrath.com/mr-publishing-internet/politics/pc/uk/index.htm

'U.S. and European Leaders Agree on Principles to Harmonize
Dietary Supplement Regulations:'
http://www.crnusa.org/shellnr112000.html

Federal Register where the FDA states its intention to harmonize
with Codex standards: http://iahf.com/codx-fda.txt

Read, "WHOSE TRADE ORGANIZATION? Corporate Globalization and the
Erosion of Democracy" by By Lori Wallach and Michelle Sforza,
Public Citizens Global Trade Watch:
http://www.tradewatch.org/publications/wtobook.htm

Sign the petition - Click on 'Sign Health Freedom Petition:'
http://www.iahf.com/index2.html

Also sign the European Anti-Codex petition at: www.laleva.cc
Signing petitions is fine, but not nearly as effective as
writing to your congressmen and congresswomen. Write to them
insisting we hold a PROPER Oversight Hearing on Codex. An
oversite hearing was held in March, but the truth was not
allowed to come out. Witnesses who could have exposed what was
going on, and who wanted to testify, were denied the opportunity
to testify. Congress is strongly resisting another Codex
hearing, telling their constituents it is not necessary. This
could not be further from the truth.

Also urge congress to pass the American Sovereignty Restoration
Act HR1146, as introduced by Congressman Ron Paul. This will
pull us out of the UN completely and out of Codex. As radical
as this seems, it may be the only way out of Codex and back to
health freedom, and the freedom to make our own choices.
Contact information for representatives: http://www.house.gov
Contact information for senators: http://www.senate.gov

Copyright 2001 Ruth James
rjames@therealessentials.com
www.therealessentials.com