Tyranny in the USA: The true history of FDA raids on healers, vitamin
shops and supplement companies
Thursday, April 12, 2007 by: Mike Adams

Here's a brief overview of some of the campaigns of terror the FDA has
initiated against natural healers, nutritional supplement companies
and other organizations. Many were conducted using armed agents
wielding assault rifles and automatic weapons, dressed in body armor.
All of them were intended to destroy natural medicine, thereby
protecting the profits of drug companies and conventional medicine
practitioners.

This is the true history of the FDA that the FDA doesn't wan't you to
know!

(This timeline is excerpted from my book Natural Health Solutions and
the Conspiracy to Keep You From Knowing About Them)

1987: The Life Extension Raids
The Life Extension Foundation (www.LEF.org) has long been targeted by
the FDA. It is a non-profit organization that publishes information
about the healing power of nutritional supplements and genuine
anti-aging breakthroughs from the world of natural health.

On February 26, 1987, approximately 25 armed FDA agents and U.S.
Marshals burst through the glass doors of the Ft. Lauderdale offices
of the Life Extension Foundation with guns drawn. A second group of
FDA agents simultaneously attacked the LEF warehouse, where they
detained LEF founder William Faloon at gunpoint.

Employees were lined up against the wall and searched. Agents rifled
through the personal belonging of the employees and confiscated many
items. Over the next 12 hours, they seized thousands of items,
including nutritional products, files, and documents, including 5,000
newsletters that were about to be mailed to subscribers. Computers and
telephones were reportedly, "…ripped from the wall," and agents seized
anything they could find regardless of whether such items were
actually named in the search warrant. Later analysis revealed that 80
percent of the seized items were never named in the warrant.

Not surprisingly, the entire legal basis for the raid was fraudulent
to begin with. The search warrant, issued by Magistrate Lurana S.
Snow, was based on perjured testimony by FDA agent Martin Katz. But
the intent to terrorize the Life Extension Foundation worked:
Employees suffered nightmares and many were afraid to come to work.

Rather than giving in to the tyranny of the FDA, Bill Faloon and the
Life Extension Foundation chose to fight for their First Amendment
rights. As explained by Saul Kent of the Life Extension Foundation at
www.LEF.org:

Everyone we consulted, including attorneys who were FDA "experts",
told us we had to submit to the FDA's authority to have any chance of
surviving. We ignored all this advice and instead decided to wage
all-out war against the FDA. We did this knowing that we would not
only risk our livelihood, but our personal freedom as well
.
We were told again and again that the FDA had the unlimited resources
of the federal government at its disposal, and that an organization
with fewer than 5,000 members had no chance of winning an all-out war
with them.

To further terrorize the Life Extension Foundation and its founders,
the FDA, with the help of various corrupt law enforcement bodies,
filed 56 criminal charges against Foundation officers Saul Kent and
William Faloon. After an 11-year reign of terror in which the FDA
spent millions of taxpayer dollars attempting to prosecute them, Kent
and Faloon prevailed. In November, 1995, Federal Judge Daniel Hurley
dismissed 55 of the 56 charges, and in February, 1996, the final
charge was dismissed.

And thus ended the FDA's campaign of terror against the Life Extension
Foundation. It was the first time in 88 years that the FDA had been
forced to give up its prosecution efforts and throw in the towel.

As Saul Kent says, "The FDA's dismissal of the charges against me (and
Bill Faloon) is an unprecedented victory against FDA tyranny that goes
far beyond winning in court. The FDA's historic defeat is a victory
for everyone who cherishes freedom in healthcare."

In 1994, the Life Extension Foundation established the FDA Holocaust
Museum to document the decades-long reign of terror the FDA has
perpetrated against the American people.

1990 - The El Cajon pet food store raid
In 1990, FDA agents raided the pet food store of Sissy
Harrington-McGill, a 57-year-old pet lover who was guilty of the
"crime" of claiming that vitamins would help keep pets healthy.
Without a search warrant, FDA agents ransacked her store, confiscating
products and literature.

She was later tried and convicted of violating the Health Claims Law,
a law that did not exist at the time of the raid and was never passed
by the U.S. Congress. Nonetheless, likely due to FDA pressure on the
presiding judge, she was sentenced to 179 days in prison and fined
$10,000 for daring to say that vitamins are good for puppy dogs!

1990 - The Highland Laboratories raid
In 1990, Ken Scott ran a vitamin business in Mt. Angel, Oregon, a
small rural town. He was selling nutritional supplements containing
coenzyme Q10, a vital nutrient for cellular energy that has received
tremendous praise from the scientific community for boosting
cardiovascular health, preventing congestive heart failure, improving
blood pressure and cholesterol profiles, as well as many other
benefits. To help educate customers about the healing power of CoQ10,
he offered to send reprints of magazine and newspaper articles
describing some of the scientific findings about the nutrient.

This public education effort, of course, would not be tolerated by the
FDA Gestapo. So the FDA organized an armed raid comprised of nine FDA
agents, 11 U.S. Marshals and eight Oregon state police. With guns
drawn, they kicked in the doors to Ken Scott's business and conducted
one of the most terror-driven "vitamin" raids in U.S. history.

For the next 11 hours, agents confiscated nearly everything they could
find at Highland Laboratories. Ken Scott and his employees were
threatened with violence if they tried to set foot in the office, and
his daughter, who was located miles away, was illegally detained and
held in "house arrest" for 12 hours.

The FDA, you see, would not tolerate Ken Scott mailing scientific
literature or articles to his customers. So in order to comply with
the FDA, Scott later hired an outside mailing service owned by his
daughter to run the article mailing operations.

The FDA's response to that? They illegally raided the mailing service
company and threatened to confiscate the checkbook and cash of its
owner. Out of fear (terrorism works, you see?), that owner
subsequently closed her business and refused to file charges against
the FDA.

Ken Scott was ultimately forced to cut a deal with prosecutors, and
eventually served five years on probation for his "crime" of telling
the truth about CoQ10.

The message from the FDA to other vitamin companies couldn't be more
clear: Don't you dare tell your customers the truth about vitamins, or
we'll shut you down and prosecute you!

1990: The Century Clinic "chelation" raids
In Reno, Nev., 1990, the Century Clinic was raided by the FDA and
Postal Service inspectors. Agents seized large quantities of items
from the clinic, virtually wiping it out of computers and equipment,
as well as patient records and files. No charges were filed.

After Century Clinic rebuilt and sued the FDA for the return of its
property, the FDA raided it again and conducted a search of the
persons and homes of the owners and employees. Patients at the clinic
were reportedly interrogated and not allowed to leave without turning
over their names and addresses. No charges were ever filed against the
clinic or its owners.

1991: The Tijuana cancer clinic kidnapping
Jimmy Keller cured his own cancer through the use of natural medicine
therapies. Encouraged by success with his own cancer, he pursued a
career in natural medicine and later moved to Mexico and opened a
clinic that could legally treat U.S. patients with the disease
(treating cancer naturally is illegal in the United States, so the
best practitioners are forced to open clinics in Mexico or other
countries). The success of this clinic caught the eye of health
authorities in the United States, and they decided to put a stop to
it.

In March 1991, armed Mexican police officers, with no warrants or
charges whatsoever, kidnapped Keller from the St. Jude Hospital and
delivered him to U.S. Justice Department bounty hunters who, against
his will, drove him across the border to the USA. There, the FBI
arrested him and charged him with wire fraud (Keller had used the
telephone to hold conversations with prospective patients). Keller was
later convicted of wire fraud and sent to a North Dakota prison for
two years. His kidnapping and arrest are blatantly illegal under
international law.

1992 - Raid on Nature's Way
In 1992 in Utah; the FDA seized bulk primrose oil from Nature's Way, a
manufacturer that offers some of the highest-quality supplements in
the business. Nature's Way filed a lawsuit to get their product
returned, but was forced to remove the natural Vitamin E from the
formulation, as the FDA insisted that Vitamin E had not been approved
as an additive for primrose oil.

1992 - The Tahoma Clinic FDA Raid
On May 6, 1992, FDA agents joined armed King County police officers in
an armed raid against the clinic of Dr. Jonathan Wright, an M.D. and
natural health practitioner. His crime? He was treating patients with
injectable high-dose B vitamins -- a safe, natural treatment -- and in
doing so was actually helping patients heal.

The armed agents smashed down the door, rushed into the clinic like a
SWAT team with guns drawn, terrorizing the patients and shouting at
them to put their hands in the air. Over the next fourteen hours,
agents rifled through Dr. Wright's clinic, seizing patient records,
computers, vitamin supplies, and various natural therapy products. The
FDA illegally held on to confiscated items, including the computers
needed to run his clinic, for three years.

But was Dr. Wright really so dangerous as to justify an armed raid?
He's a graduate of Harvard and the University of Michigan Medical
School. He's a book author, a prolific public speaker, and served as
the nutrition editor of Prevention magazine for more than ten years.
The purpose of the FDA raid was clearly not to arrest Dr. Wright, who
was never charged. Rather, the purpose appears to be conducting a
campaign of terror: sending a message to the alternative medicine
community that anyone engaged in nutritional treatments could be
raided and shut down, with no legal justification.

It was all part of the FDA's campaign against natural health
treatments, a campaign that continues to this day.

1992: The Texas vitamin store raids
In 1992, the FDA prompted the Texas Department of Health (TDH) and the
Texas Department of Food and Drug to conduct raids on more than 12
health food stores. Agents seized flaxseed oil, aloe vera, zinc
supplements, vitamin C, and even Sleepytime Tea. One health food store
owner was reportedly threatened by TDH with, "Don't talk to the press,
or we'll come down on you twice as hard!"

None of the confiscated products were ever returned to the store
owners, no charges were filed, and no reason for the raids was ever
given. The raids were simply a campaign of terror designed to destroy
the inventory and disrupt business operations of stores selling
natural health products.

1993: The health food store raids
In 1993, the war against health freedom reached its peak in Texas,
where combined forces of the FDA, DEA, IRS, U.S. Customs, and U.S.
Postal Services conducted commando-style raids on nearly 40 different
health food stores, vitamin companies, and natural health clinics from
May through September. The homes of company owners and employees were
also raided, and some raids were conducted with SWAT teams brandishing
assault weapons and flak jackets.

In one home, a mother who was breast feeding her infant was reportedly
"roughed up and handcuffed for 11 hours while FDA agents ransacked her
home." Items seized in the raids included vitamins, minerals, herbs,
and nutritional supplements. IRS officials also seized computers,
automobiles, and bank accounts. The U.S. Postal Service illegally
blocked the mail of some of the targeted companies, denying them the
ability to conduct business or even organize a legal defense.

Targeted products included Dr. Kurt Donsbach's nutritional products
and Dr. Hans Neiper's German-made health products.

The 1963 Church of Scientology raid
In the early 1960s, the FDA got word of something it didn't like: The
Church of Scientology was helping its members overcome mental problems
with the use of a simple biofeedback device called the E-meter. With
the market for psychotropic drugs so consistently profitable, and with
Scientology gaining momentum in helping millions of people overcome
severe emotional and mental problems, this E-meter had to be taken out
of play… and fast!

To do so, the FDA filed a "libel of information" with a U.S. District
Court, after which Judge William B. Jones ordered a warrant
authorizing the arrest of the E-meters. Yes, the meters themselves
were to be arrested. The warrant also authorized the arrest of "an
undetermined number of items of written, printed or graphic matter."

With the warrant issued, armed U.S. Marshals and FDA agents launched a
military-style raid on the church. According to sworn affidavits of
eyewitnesses, the agents "…burst into the church offices… and loudly
demanded and threatened all in sight; observed absolutely no
courtesies except for not actually shooting the guns they carried, and
denied to the Church administrators any opportunity to arrange that
students and Church members not be disturbed, upset or terrorized.

"Showing no legal warrant, the agents and … deputies pounded their way
up stairways, bursting into confessional and pastoral counseling
sessions, causing disruption and violently preventing the quiet
pursuit of the normal practice of religious philosophy.

"They seized all the publications and all the confessional aids called
E-meters they could find in desks, in ladies' handbags, in students'
briefcases and in the session rooms.

"… the agents removed from the church to the waiting vans some tens of
thousands of copies of over twenty Church books, texts, recorded
sermons; even the Church archives were sacked. The confiscated
material was handled roughly, and when ministers of the Church asked
that their property be handled more carefully, the 'deputies' from
Baltimore gave only sneering illiteracies for answer."

In all, three tons of materials were seized. In clear violation of
both the First and Fourth Amendments, the FDA had illegally used its
powers to spread yet more fear and terror through the world -- this
time, to raid a church.

All religions have healing toolsOf course, Scientology is not as
mainstream as Christianity, Buddhism, or Catholicism, but since when
did religions have to be popular to enjoy equal protection under the
U.S. Constitution? Besides, various churches have always attributed
special healing powers to their particular tools. Roman Catholic
churches have Holy Water and other healing elements (Easter wafers,
Saint Glaize Candles, Scapulars, and so on). Other religions use
prayer clothes, prayer oils, and various pieces of string for which
healing benefits are commonly prescribed. Nearly all churches
recognize prayer as an effective form of healing. Yet the FDA chose to
single out Scientology's E-meter machine, likely because it perceived
the device as presenting a genuine threat to psychiatry's monopoly
over mental health treatment.

The FDA, you see, believes it not only regulates foods, drugs, and
cosmetics, but also religions. Only "mainstream" religious practices
will be allowed, and any such religions that use alternative symbols,
rituals, or scriptures will be prosecuted, regardless of what the
Constitution says. The rule of law never interferes with the FDA's
campaigns of terror.

The history of the U.S. government's persecution of the Church of
Scientology is long and complex, and it is a sad demonstration of true
religious intolerance right here in the United States. The First
Amendment, which protects both Free Speech and Religion, offers no
real protection against the criminals at the FDA, who have for decades
attempted to suppress alternative philosophies that actually help
people heal.

After nine years of protracted legal battles, and the expenditure of
countless millions in taxpayer dollars that funded the prosecution
efforts, the Church of Scientology achieved a victory in the courts,
and the FDA was forced to return the E-meters. Yet, just to inflict a
little more pain and punishment upon the Church, the court ordered the
Church of Scientology to pay for all the warehousing costs of the
confiscated items held over the previous nine years, plus all the
legal fees of the government's prosecution efforts. The courts also
ruled that all Scientology literature describing the E-meter must
carry a warning message written by the FDA, and that the church must
pay the salaries and travel expenses of FDA agents who would, from
time to time, visit the church to ensure compliance with the courts.
(Source: The Hidden Story of Scientology, Omar V. Garrison, page 143.)

In other words, the Church of Scientology was to be severely punished
for daring to oppose the tyranny of the FDA. Just as a factory-working
Jewish prisoner who talked back to his Nazi captors in 1942 would be
beaten and shot, the FDA made sure that the Church of Scientology
would pay a dear price for daring to question the authority of this
all-powerful federal agency, an agency that could summon the aid of
firearms-brandishing law enforcement officials at any time, for
apparently any reason, regardless of its legality.

Other FDA raids

   * 1991, San Leandro, Calif.: A nutritional supplement company,
NutriCology, is raided by 12 FDA agents. All FDA injunctions were
eventually thrown out of court.

   * 1991, Texas: The anti-cancer clinic of Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski,
a brilliant researcher from Poland, is raided by the FDA and the Texas
Department of Health. Just before the raids, the National Cancer
Institute had announced they would evaluate the pioneering work of Dr.
Burzynski, which involved cancer treatment using antineoplastons. With
the help of health freedom champions like Dr. Julian Whitaker, Dr.
Burzynski fought FDA oppression and went on to save the lives of
countless cancer patients, some of which are profiled on his clinic
website today: www.CancerMed.com

   * 1992, San Diego, Calif.: The heads of three European vitamin
companies, along with their U.S. marketing professional David Halpern,
are arrested and charged with 198 counts of conspiracy, smuggling, and
violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act for importing simple
nutritional supplements that are freely available in Britain, Germany,
and other European countries. The indictments reportedly carried
combined prison terms of 990 years.

And this report, by the way, doesn't even cover the FDA's terror-style
tactics against a company called Lane Labs, which developed and
marketed anti-cancer supplements that really worked.

As you can see from this report, it is quite clear that the FDA has
the intention of destroying natural medicine using any means
necessary, including terrorism tactics.

And who supports the FDA? Pharmaceutical companies, medical
associations, doctors, medical journals, hospitals and numerous
corrupt Congresspeople and Senators. By supporting the FDA, they
condone the use of terrorism tactics against the American people and,
ultimately, support the continued use of police state tactics against
innocents.

You can learn more about the true history of the FDA and Big Pharma in
my tell-all book, Natural Health Solutions and the Conspiracy to Keep
You From Knowing About Them.

###

About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health author and technology
pioneer with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health
He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews,
consumers guies, and books on topics like health and the environment,
impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are
experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles.
Adams is a trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or
promotional fees whatsoever to write about other companies' products.
In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a manufacturer of mercury-free,
energy-efficient LED lighting products that save electricity and help
prevent global warming. He also founded an environmentally-friendly
online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to
help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also a noted technology
pioneer and founded a software company in 1993 that developed the HTML
email newsletter software currently powering the NewsTarget
subscriptions. Adams is currently the executive director of the
Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and enjoys outdoor
activities, nature photography, Pilates and adult gymnastics. He's
also author of numerous health books published by Truth Publishing and
is the creator of several consumer-oriented grassroots campaigns,
including the Spam. Don't Buy It! campaign, and the free downloadable
Honest Food Guide. He also created the free reference sites
HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free
speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the ending of
corporate control over medicines, genes and seeds. Known on the 'net
as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements
and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org