"Dear Christian....Coming back to the Nuremberg precedent that you mention: Indeed, some of the Crimes againt Humanity which were the subject matter of these cases were of purely an economic nature. You may read about it in the book "Justic in Jerusalem" by Robert E Conot (Harper & Row, 1963). Nowadays, crimes of economic nature are widespread and constitute a world pandemic. This, along with the international nature of the tobacco business where few conglogmerates are dictating a unisersal policy on tobacco, justify the treatment of the disaster through the tool of Crimes Against Humanity. (...) Nevertheless, as i said, the task is at arms lenghth, and your book may well be in important trigger in that direction" Amos Hausner (The son of the former Justice Minister of Israel).
THE PROBLEM
"Hitler's death camps used cigarettes' major toxic chemicals, carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide (the Nazis called the latter Zyklon-B) to kill". (Robert J. Lifton's The Nazi Doctors (N.Y.: Harper-Collins Publishers, 1986), pp 32, 71-72, 143, 157-162, 170, 290, 405, 453-454, 462 and 493).
According to the World Health Organization, worldwide, out of 5.8 billion people, there are 1.1 billion smokers. Over half of all regular cigarette smokers die prematurely with great pain and handicap because of the deleterious effects of industrial tobacco, to which so many additives and chemicals are added. Smoking cigarette tobacco kills over 5 millions tobacco consumers in the world each year. The People have paid and continue to pay a high price for the "special interest" Big Tobacco represents. In the United States, from 1995 to 2000, the tobacco industry poured tens of millions of dollars into political donation campaign pockets while the U. S. Social Security Administration and the American People paid many billions of dollars for tobacco related health costs. In addition, during these five years, some 2. 5 million Americans died of tobacco-related diseases and some 6.5 million teenagers-young adults became addicted (based on statistics of the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention). A few of the toxic elements therein:
“…acetaldehyde, arsenic, benzoapyrene, cadmium, coumarin, crotonaldehyde, chromium, ethylcar bamate, formaldehyde, hydrazine, lead, nickel and radioactive polonium, acetaldehyde, acrolein, ammonia, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen sulfide, methyl chloride, nitrogen dioxide.” (This data is from the Surgeon General report, 1964, p 60 and 1989, pp 86-7.).
Which produce excruciating painful and debilitating diseases like lung and pancreatic cancer, asthma, emphesyma and copd, cardio-vasular and immune impairment and dozens of other serious illnesses.
Any U.S ambassador to France who does not address major public health issues and this industrial tobacco massive suffering among not just the French and the Americans, but also among all of Humanity would not be historically responsible to the People's interest, nor to our Public Finances, let alone to our founding father's intent, nor to our President, nor to the State Department's Mission, nor to our Constitution.
“ We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America ”. (Preamble of the Federal Constitution).
Because my father and many other victims died from tobacco, i willingly engaged in a "responsibility actio popularis" legal marathon, from Seattle Courts all the way to the U.S Supreme Court and the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. One one of my arguments (international law, crime against Humanity complicity), attorney Hausner, the son of the former Israel Minister of Justice gave me his full support.
"Dear Christian....Coming back to the Nuremberg precedent that you mention: Indeed, some of the Crimes againt Humanity which were the subject matter of these cases were of purely an economic nature. You may read about it in the book "Justic in Jerusalem" by Robert E Conot (Harper & Row, 1963). Nowadays, crimes of economic nature are widespread and constitute a world pandemic. This, along with the international nature of the tobacco business where few conglogmerates are dictating a unisersal policy on tobacco, justify the treatment of the disaster through the tool of Crimes Against Humanity. (...) Nevertheless, as i said, the task is at arms lenghth, and your book may well be in important trigger in that direction" Amos Hausner (The son of the former Justice Minister of Israel).
Given the circumstances and the trillions of dollars of hardship cost from Industrial tobacco, i need to copy-past an excerpt of the back-cover of my tobacco and the law book so as to argue a last public health point in Franco-American relations.
" The petitioner’s father died from a Pall Mall induced lung cancer. The petitioner, who has international duties under international humanitarian and human rights norms like all of us, phoned the prosecutor’s office, the FBI and ATF agencies to request the arrest of Brown Williamson Tobacco directors, invoking cigarette poisoning as the probable cause to the death. On the grounds that this product is legal, the officials refused. Shortly thereafter, petitioner called back and proposed the same arrest but extending the arrest to law makers, based on the international crime against humanity legal theory, a legal foundation that incorporates state and individual responsibility and which was used to prosecute criminals and law makers who massively gazed and poisoned civilians during the Second World War (Cf. Nuremberg Trial 6 FRD 69 (1946). Request Denied. Again. Unsatisfied with these denials on September 11, 2001, the petitioner from Paris France faxed Brown William Tobacco via the ABC process server an amended complaint alleging not only the classical products liability causes of action, but also, in the name of Humanity, the very same Crime against humanity which was invoked in Nuremberg, arguing that all American Courts can assert universal jurisdiction to prosecute this hideous crime against life and all the more so that Executive and Congressional complacency and duplicity contribute to the promotion of mass tobacco poisoning which extinguishes over five millions lives each year in the world. ....".
TENTATIVE PROPOSED ACTION PLAN
In this perspective, i would propose to the Obama foreign policy Team that we convince the Sarkozy Governement in general and Foreign Minister Dr Bernard Kouchner (M.D.) to fully collaborate with us to launch a massive "tobacco-cessation" education program in both the U.S and Europe (for starts), whose impact would be unprecedented. To this end, using both pedagogical skills and "complementary and alternative medicine" can be efficient. However, the most efficient approach to industrial tobacco would be to classify this product as both a drug and a poison, and thus prohibit its marketing and even industrial production. But allowing organic tobacco seeds to prosper for individual use only (this plant makes an excellent insecticide and companion plant that repells certain insects).
There can not be any substantial improvement in our economy as long as we do not toil in public health. Governor Grégoire and her Legislature have recently (Jan 25th) decided to grant additional licenses to alcohol stores in order to make up the loss of State revenue from the recession swing. Alas. There are other ways to increase cash-flow than to spur addition public health problems which in the long run destroy cash-flow (like with hard alcohol and industrial tobacco). And "heim" (life) in the process. As my legal actions and book show, with a U.S diplomatic "casquette", I am motivated to contribute in solving this challenge with France and Europe. My own tobacco lawsuit has equipped me with the necessary knowledge to accomplish this achievement. See the next link for more details. Freedom from industrial additive-rich tobacco.
More on this issue later.