16-12-2009, 05:56 PM
FDA dupes Interpol to achieve illegal kidnapping and deportation of herbal formulator Greg Caton
![[Image: SouthAmerica-Man-Arrested.jpg]](http://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/articles/SouthAmerica-Man-Arrested.jpg)
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com
(NaturalNews) 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 (http://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. 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.
By the way, you can listen to my exclusive interview with Cathryn Caton, who details these events in a downloadable MP3 audio file. Find the file here: http://www.naturalnews.com/Index-Podcasts.html
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: http://www.interpol.int/public/data/want..._30611.asp
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 (http://www.naturalnews.com/Index-Podcasts.html), "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.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027750_Greg_Caton_FDA.html
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com
(NaturalNews) 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 (http://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. 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.
By the way, you can listen to my exclusive interview with Cathryn Caton, who details these events in a downloadable MP3 audio file. Find the file here: http://www.naturalnews.com/Index-Podcasts.html
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: http://www.interpol.int/public/data/want..._30611.asp
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 (http://www.naturalnews.com/Index-Podcasts.html), "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.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027750_Greg_Caton_FDA.html