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by Mike Adams
the Health Ranger
Editor of
Natural News
December 16, 2009
from
NaturalNews Website
The U.S.
Food and Drug Administration today
stands accused of taking part in the kidnapping and illegal
extradition of a permanent resident of Ecuador, in violation of both
international law and Ecuadorian law.
Greg Caton, owner and operator of Alpha Omega Labs (www.AltCancer.com),
an herbal products company that sells anti-cancer herbal remedies
made with Ecuadorian medicinal herbs, was arrested at gunpoint at a
road checkpoint in Ecuador, then transported to an Ecuadorian
holding facility to await a hearing on December 14, 2009.
Greg Caton
Caton was expected to be
set free by the Ecuadorian judge at that hearing based on the facts
of the case which indicated Caton's permanent residency in Ecuador
is legal and valid.
Three days before the hearing could take place, Caton was taken from
his holding facility and, with the help of U.S. State Department
employees, involuntarily placed on an American Airlines plane headed
for Miami.
An Ecuadorian judge
rushed to the airport in Guayaquil and demanded that Caton be
released from the plane, stating that the attempted deportation was
illegal, but American Airlines employees reportedly refused to allow
Caton to leave the plane, stating that the plane was "U.S.
territory" and that Ecuadorian law did not apply there (even though
the plane was still on the tarmac in Guayaquil and under the
direction of the air traffic control tower there).
The plane then departed Guayaquil and continued its flight to Miami
where Greg Caton was held in a federal detention facility to
await trial in the U.S.
His "crimes"? Selling herbal medicine and daring to tell
the truth about those medicines on
his website.
You can listen the exclusive interview with Cathryn Caton,
who details these events:
FDA vs. Greg
Caton
The U.S.
Food and Drug Administration has,
for many years, pursued Caton, accusing him of selling "unapproved
drugs" - herbal medicines that have never been, and will never be,
approved by the FDA to treat anything. He was convicted of these
crimes in 2003 and served 33 months in federal prison.
After serving his term, Caton was on probation for another three
years. As Greg Caton's wife explained to me in an exclusive
interview, eighteen months into that probation, Caton received word
that a "rogue FDA agent" named John Armand was intimidating
his ex-employees in an attempt to convince them to testify against
Caton in order to have him convicted of further charges that would
lead to more prison time.
After submitting a request to his presiding judge to ask that the
remainder of his probation be excused, Caton moved to Ecuador and
acquired permanent residency there, in part to escape persecution by
what he saw as a rogue FDA agent violating the law in an effort to
see Caton prosecuted yet again.
As you'll see below, this fear was not unfounded.
Selling
anti-cancer herbs is no crime in Ecuador
In Ecuador, by the way, selling herbs and accurately describing
their medicinal properties is not a crime. It's common sense.
Every pharmacy, health food store, shaman and medicine man openly
talks about the anti-cancer properties of various herbs. No one goes
to prison for selling medicinal herbs in Ecuador - the very idea
seems silly. Why would any nation want to lock up its healers?
So the "crimes" for which Caton was convicted in the USA aren't even
considered crimes in more medicinally enlightened countries
such as Ecuador. There, people like Caton are considered valuable
members of society.
Back in the U.S., the
only real crime Caton was now guilty of was failing to serve his
last 18 months of probation. But even that probation sentence was
based on the false crime of Caton selling medicinal herbs while
accurately describing their health-related properties.
In other
words, if not for the FDA's persecution of all herbalists who sell
anti-cancer herbs, Caton would never have had jail time nor
probation to begin with.
The FDA
invokes Interpol
When the FDA realized Caton had moved to Ecuador, they went to work
to try to have Caton arrested internationally. In order to
accomplish this, they needed to have Caton listed as a wanted
fugitive with Interpol, the international police database
headquartered in Lyon, France.
Interpol is normally reserved for listing serious criminals:
Murderers, rapists, terrorists, international money launderers, war
criminals and the like. NaturalNews contacted Interpol to inquire as
to how Gregory Caton, an herbal formulator violating nothing more
than probation, could have been listed with Interpol as a wanted
international fugitive with a so-called "Red Notice" - Interpol's
highest alert level. This is the kind of alert level someone like
Osama Bin Laden might normally merit with Interpol.
We were told by the U.S. Interpol office (under the DOJ), "those
individuals placed on a Most Wanted List are the ones who have
allegedly committed the most heinous of crimes for a very long
period of time."
In other words, the Interpol "Red Notice" designation - which was
applied to Greg Caton's listing - is never applied to people who
merely skip probation. The Greg Caton listing with Interpol,
NaturalNews learned, was off protocol.
Someone, it seemed, had
managed to exploit the DOJ/Interpol system to get Caton listed as an
international fugitive when he was merely guilty of skipping out on
the last 18 months of his probation.
Exaggerating
the information with Interpol
To make the Interpol listing sound more serious, paperwork was
submitted to Interpol decision makers that listed Caton's offenses
as "drugs related crimes, fraud."
This implies that Caton was engaged in some sort of serious drug
operation: Drug smuggling, perhaps, or drug dealing. In reality, his
only crime was selling medicinal herbs that the FDA mislabels
"drugs" in its own bizarre regulatory language - the same language
that calls cherries "drugs" if they are sold alongside any words
describing their benefits for relieving arthritis pain and
inflammation.
To the FDA, even a bottle of water can be considered a "drug" if
it's sold with the claim that it prevents dehydration, a medical
condition.
The obvious question in all this, then, is: Who could have managed
to exploit the Interpol system and get Greg Caton listed as an
international fugitive?
Clues lead
back to the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigation
The clue comes right from the Interpol listing itself, where it
describes the origin of the "arrest warrant" as Lafayette,
Louisiana. You can see the Interpol listing
here.
Lafayette, Louisiana is the former operating base of FDA criminal
investigations officer John Armand, the agent who went after
Caton in 1999 and who managed to get him convicted of a felony crime
(selling medicinal herbs) in 2003.
NaturalNews attempted to contact John Armand to get his comments for
this story. I called the FDA office in Lafayette, Louisiana,
identified myself as a reporter for NaturalNews, and asked to speak
with agent John Armand.
I was told he had been
relocated to Florida and could now be reached out of the
Jacksonville office.
I called the FDA's Jacksonville office, identified myself and
asked to speak with agent John Armand for his comments on this
story. I was told that I must first speak to a "press officer" of
the FDA, as only a press officer could offer public comment.
The next day, I was able
to reach FDA press officer Mike Kelly whose reply mirrors FDA
official policy:
"No comment."
The FDA, he explained,
never comments on any "ongoing investigation." In all, I placed five
phone calls to various offices of the FDA, each time asking to speak
with John Armand to get his side of this story.
In every case, I was
stonewalled and either told to talk to someone else or given the "no
comment" reply.
Recap
Just to make sure you're following the twisted details of this
story, here's a quick recap:
Greg Caton, a U.S. citizen and legal Ecuadorian permanent resident
operating a legal Ecuadorian business selling medicinal herbs to
customers around the world, was arrested at a road checkpoint in
Ecuador. A few days later, against the demands of an Ecuadorian
judge, he was involuntarily placed onto an American Airlines
commercial jet where he was flown to Miami and put in a federal
holding facility.
As Cathryn Caton told me in a recent interview,
"I blame American
Airlines as much as I do the U.S. To me, they are part of this
illegal kidnapping... to me it's a terrorist act. They helped
and cooperated with illegally kidnapping my husband and flying
him to the U.S.
They were told repeatedly by this Ecuadorian
federal judge that he is not to leave the country, and they
cooperated with these U.S. officials to illegally remove Greg
from the country, against Ecuadorian court order."
His arrest in Ecuador
was made possible by the "Red Notice" listing with Interpol.
That listing was
submitted through the United States National Central Bureau (USNCB),
under the DOJ (Department of Justice), and it was submitted to the
USNCB by the FDA. Within the FDA, the source for the listing was the
Lafayette office, where agent John Armand operated.
The "Red Notice" listing, however, was off-protocol because Greg
Caton was only guilty of skipping out on probation, not engaging in
the kind of "heinous crimes" normally required to achieve a Red
Notice listing with Interpol, which is normally reserved for
terrorists, mass murderers and war criminals.
The Interpol listing was the key to getting Greg Caton arrested and
illegally deported from Ecuador, without the U.S. engaging in any
sort of formal extradition process as required by international law.
In essence, the United States of America kidnapped Greg Caton,
denied him his civil liberties under Ecuadorian law (and even
perhaps under U.S. law), and illegally transported him out of
Ecuador against the demands of an Ecuadorian judge.
This entire charade was masterminded by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, which managed to trick Interpol into flagging
Caton with a "Red Notice" status even though his only outstanding
crime was skipping out on probation to go seek a life of peace
in a nation that welcomed his medicines instead of criminalizing
them.
Does Cansema
work?
Greg Caton's top-selling anti-cancer formulation is called Cansema,
and it is sold by Alpha Omega Labs as an effective herbal treatment
for topical cancers.
If you have skin cancer
of any kind, I encourage you to learn about Cansema and how it has
eliminated cancers in many people. Even though Greg is now
imprisoned in the U.S., Alpha Omega Labs is still open for business,
and you can purchase Cansema online right now at
www.AltCancer.com (note:
NaturalNews has no financial relationship whatsoever with Alpha
Omega Labs or Greg Caton).
Behind all the accusations, prosecutions and legal entanglements,
the real question in all this seems to have been entirely avoided by
U.S. health authorities. That question is, of course, does Cansema
work? Does it really eliminate topical cancers?
If it works, then why all the criminal accusations against Greg
Caton in the first place? Why the absurd labeling of his herbal
products as "unapproved drugs" when even Caton himself doesn't call
them drugs? He simply (and accurately) describes them as medicinal
herbs, which is what they are.
I find it fascinating that if I place
a bottle of Cansema in my pocket when I board a plane in Ecuador,
it's just "herbs," but when I exit the plane in Miami, suddenly
those herbs have been transformed into "unapproved drugs" by the
regulatory language police who operate in the U.S. much like the
Ministry of Truth from George Orwell's novel 1984.
Regardless of what the product is called, the FDA isn't at all
interested in whether Cansema actually works. The mere fact that the
herbs were sold as a natural cancer treatment without FDA approval
is enough to have Caton condemned as an international criminal. But
in taking this stance, the FDA misses out on the thousands of
satisfied customers who have successfully used Cansema to cure their
own cancers.
Case in point: Dr. Brian O'Leary, a former NASA astronaut who has
published over 100 scientific papers
in peer-reviewed science literature. Dr. O'Leary is a customer of
Greg Caton's.
When he heard about
Caton's illegal arrest and deportation from Ecuador, he issued this
passionate statement:
Statement from
Dr. Brian O'Leary
Greg Caton is a
friend of mine and an extraordinary healer.
I was shocked to
hear about his kidnapping and illegal deportation to the U.S.,
regardless of perceptions of his legal status within the U.S.,
something I understand to be a mild violation at most. He is a
legal resident of Ecuador and conducts a legal alternative
health product [company] here. I thoroughly support his work in
healing untold thousands of people of cancer and other serious
diseases.
My own healing happened when Greg arrived at our home two years
ago with his product Cansema.
I had just been
diagnosed with basal cell skin cancer after a biopsy had been
taken from a very large and deep lesion on my back. I was
scheduled for surgery the following week. I cancelled the
surgery and applied the Cansema (a black salve consisting of a
mixture of herbs and a bit of zinc chloride), and, in 3-4 weeks,
a black scab formed that subsequently fell off.
After three
applications of the salve over 2-3 months, the cancer
disappeared, leaving only a slight discoloration where the
cancer had been.
An examination by a dermatologist at the St. Agustin clinic in
Loja, Ecuador, showed that the cancer was completely gone. No
new lesions have formed anywhere on my body, and diagnostic
blood tests for any systemic cancers recently showed negatives,
i.e., no cancer in my body.
On the larger issue of the suppression of alternative
possibilities in the health, environmental and technology
fields, we see a pattern emerging that the true geniuses of
innovation are all too often violently suppressed by authorities
who illegally, unethically and immorally punish these true
pioneers of our time - solely because of powerful vested
interests that are far less effective in solving the problems
presented.
This is an outrage, and I ask that, if justice has any meaning
left, that Greg be released immediately from his current
detention and flown back to his residence in Ecuador. This plea
represents one of many coming from those of us who strongly feel
that justice can only be served by supporting rather than
condemning those of us willing and able to move humanity into a
new paradigm of healing and sustainability.
If Mr. Caton is not immediately returned, and those who
illegally bribed, kidnapped, deported and detained him are not
held accountable, then many of us will need to take this issue
to its next level for public airing.
Brian O'Leary, Ph.D.
former U.S.
astronaut
Why healing is a
crime in America
As these events clearly demonstrate, selling products that actually
help people heal is a crime in America.
There's a wonderful book on
the topic, in fact, by author Kenny Ausubel, entitled,
When Healing Becomes A Crime.
If you take a chance to read this book, you will discover that the
kind of lawless tyranny, oppression and intimidation that has just
been demonstrated against Greg Caton is nothing new for U.S. health
authorities. Similarly unscrupulous activities were being undertaken
by the AMA in the first half of the 20th century in a desperate
attempt to destroy the credibility (and livelihood) of Harry Hoxsey,
a man who also manufactured and sold topical anti-cancer salves.
To this day, intimidation campaigns continue against companies
selling anti-cancer remedies. It happens so often that one day when
I was walking along the sidewalk in Boca Raton, I met a couple who,
when they realized who I was, told me they had been forced to flee
the United States to pursue their anti-cancer stem cell work in
another country.
Mexico, the Bahamas, Central and South America are all full of expat
scientists, alternative medicine doctors, herbalists and naturopaths
who have been forced to flee the USA or face imprisonment for their
"crimes" of treating cancer with things other than FDA-sanctioned
chemotherapy, radiation or surgery.
This is why Americans
have virtually no access to cancer clinics that offer real hope for
healing. Instead, the American population is relegated to suffering
the toxic side effects of chemotherapy and radiation under the
"guidance" of nutritionally-ignorant oncologists who are poor
doctors, but excellent followers of the FDA regime.
What Greg Caton's illegal arrest and deportation really represent is
the ongoing war of tyranny against healers that's still pursued by
the FDA and its "secret police" Office of Criminal Investigations
(OCI).
This OCI, it turns out, operates with no oversight and no respect
for the law of any land. Its employees and contractors openly engage
in the intimidation of individuals engaged in the selling of natural
products, routinely threatening them with imprisonment, armed raids,
the seizure of their products and criminal prosecutions.
Even Dr.
Andrew Weil was recently threatened in this
manner by the FDA.
But NaturalNews asks the question: Who does the OCI answer to?
The answer is no one. There is no Congressional oversight, no
judicial oversight and no civil rights protections for individuals
targeted by the FDA's OCI. The U.S. Constitution and its Bill of
Rights - which are supposed to guarantee freedom of speech for
herbalists as well as everyone else - are thrown out the window by
the OCI. Once you are targeted by the OCI, you have no rights to
free speech. You are considered an enemy of the state and can find
yourself listed on Interpol alongside terrorists and war criminals
even though your only crime might be selling herbal creams to
natural health consumers.
The FDA claims its OCI office helps protect the American people from
unscrupulous quacks and charlatans.
Certainly, there is a
role for that function in any society, as many companies will
inevitably try to cheat the public by selling health-related
products that don't work (Tamiflu
comes to mind, incidentally).
His product really
works, and if the FDA was interested in what works, you would think
they might be interested in embracing herbalists instead of
criminalizing them.
Anti-cancer
herbs are common knowledge in Ecuador
That all this is going on in the USA is considered quite bizarre to
locals in Ecuador, by the way.
They are astonished at the idea that
the United States of America would take a tax-paying,
economy-boosting business person selling medicinal herbs and throw
them in prison as criminals where the state must now foot the bill
with taxpayer dollars. It
Keep in mind that Greg Caton was operating a perfectly legal
business in Ecuador, with all necessary licensing, taxes and
regulatory requirements. He was purchasing herbs from farmers,
Shamans and land owners, then reformulating those herbs into
long-proven anti-cancer remedies that were then sold to customers
all over the world.
He was breaking no laws
in Ecuador, and in fact, he was contributing to the Ecuadorian
economy by boosting exports and buying bulk herbs from all over
Ecuador. Caton was a huge economic asset to the nation of Ecuador.
But he was a huge liability to the U.S. cancer industry
which continues to base its business model on the intimidation
and criminalization of anyone who offers cancer solutions
outside the realm of pharmaceuticals, radiation and surgery. The
cancer industry's enforcement arm is the Food and Drug
Administration, a dubious agency that follows no law (literally,
there are no laws limiting the actions of the FDA) and operates with
virtually no oversight whatsoever.
Essentially, the FDA
operates like the mob, respecting no law while using tactics of
intimidation to assert its power and authority over others.
The failure of
Interpol
Interpol, for its part, is already shrouded in corruption
controversy.
It's top chief now
stands accused of maintaining links to organized crime, accepting
bribes, and maintaining a relationship with a convicted smuggler of
real drugs (not herbal medicines) - a man named
Glen Agliotti.
We have learned that Interpol is routinely abused by profit-seekers
in India, who use India's arcane "dowry laws" to label innocent
spouses as international fugitives in order to blackmail them for
payoff money.
Interpol has openly
participated in this blackmail scam for many years,
allowing its website to be used as
a point of leverage for "dowry scammers".
We also found complaints about the abuse of Interpol by corporations
in Dubai that are using the flimsy judicial system there to blame
foreigners for corporate embezzlement when, in reality,
people in Dubai are walking away
with the cash.
In fact, if you begin to dig into this story, you'll find that
Interpol is frequently used by scammers to red-flag innocent
victims, so it's not much of a surprise to learn that the FDA rigged
Interpol to list Greg Caton as a criminal mastermind in order to
have him arrested, kidnapped and illegally deported to the United
States.
Certainly, Interpol has some useful function in the world, as the
sharing of police intelligence about truly dangerous, violent
criminals seems a worthy goal. But when the system is used to
destroy the lives of innocent victims who are guilty of no such
heinous crimes, it becomes a tool of the destruction of human
rights.
Rather than protecting
the innocent, in this case Interpol was used by the FDA to
persecute the innocent. And that speaks strongly about the lack
of credibility at Interpol.
Its "Red Notice"
listings apparently carry no more credibility than a plastic police
badge found in a box of Cracker Jack.
About the term
"kidnapping"
Some may question my use of the term "kidnapping" to describe the
illegal arrest and deportation of Greg Caton from Ecuador.
But if you carefully
examine the definition of the word, you'll find it applies quite
precisely to this situation:
Kidnapping: To
abduct by force or fraud.
(Random
House Dictionary)
As in, to involuntarily
remove someone from their own home or property, with the threat of
force (firearms), without the due process of law.
The United States of America, under this definition, is guilty of
kidnapping an Ecuadorian resident. In no way did the USA engage in
any legal extradition processes, nor did the USA even acknowledge
any Ecuadorian law. Greg Caton was simply hauled away without a fair
hearing and without any opportunity to defend himself against the
charges being leveled against him.
This is not merely a violation of Greg Caton's civil rights, it is a
violation of International Laws.
Action items -
What you can do right now
You have the power to help rights these wrong and bring the FDA's
actions in this matter to light.
As the editor of NaturalNews, I urge you to forward this story to
your Senators and Congressional representatives. Someone please also
make sure this story gets into the hands of Sen. Charles Grassley.
Protest this action with your elected representatives. In your own
words, tell them why you think this kidnapping of Greg Caton is a
great injustice that needs to be corrected.
Ask them to investigate
the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations and determine how
it is that FDA agents are able to exploit Interpol listings to
achieve the illegal kidnapping and deportation of U.S. citizens
living abroad.
Call, fax or write your representatives today:
Why this truth must
be told
People will ask me, upon this publication of this story, why I'm
willing to speak out against the FDA, the DOJ and Interpol.
Actually, I have nothing against any of these organizations as long
as they serve the People rather than the interests of
domineering corporations. The FDA, DOJ and Interpol all have an
important place in a just society - but only if they stick to their
original charter and use their resources to serve the greater good.
What this story reveals is that each of these organizations has, in
one way or another, been hijacked by corporate interests in order to
suppress the actions of one individual whose products threaten the
profits of the pharmaceutical industry.
In essence, Interpol has
now been used to enforce the profit aims of
Big Pharma, and that's not what
Interpol is supposed to be used for. It's supposed to be about
protecting the innocent, not allowing itself to be subjugated by Big
Business (because, of course, the pharmaceutical industry
virtually runs the FDA these days).
When Big Business runs the regulatory offices, the criminal
investigation offices and the police organizations, the world is no
longer safe for anyone who threatens the status quo. When the police
intelligence community is used as law enforcement puppets by the
corporate puppet masters, anyone who acts in competition with the
established profit centers of corporate America (and cancer is a
huge profit center) is immediately targeted for criminalization,
prosecution and incarceration.
These are not the traits of a free society. They are not the actions
of a justice system. They aren't even what you would expect to find
in a western nation that claims to operate under a free market
enterprise system.
And yet this is exactly
what we are seeing in the United States of America today, where this
nation of regulatory tyrants is now openly engaged in the
international kidnapping of innocents who have, for understandable
reasons, chosen to reside in countries that do not consider
herbalists to be criminals.
Free Greg
Caton!!!
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