Europe is the new Nazi Empire!

No, no... calm down. These aren't my words, I'm quoting a guy called John Hammell. I'm all for freedom of speech but I'm not sure whether what John has to say about the European Union qualifies as such.

I'm not going to dignify the protagonists of this sorry saga with direct links, but feel free to cut and paste the URLs.

So what's all this about? Let me give you a little background.

As you may be aware (but probably aren't: it's hardly big time news), European legislation regarding the regulation of food supplements and nutrients was passed in June 2002 and is expected to come into effect on August 1, 2005. Not surprisingly, the legislation, known as the Food Supplements Directive (or FSD), has met stiff opposition from various quarters. Health supplement proponents see the legislation as draconian and many small operators in the industry fear for their livelihoods if they are unable to conform with the new rules.

But this post is not about whether I personally oppose or support the FSD.

In the UK, opposition to the FSD is led by the Alliance for Natural Health (or ANH, http://alliance-natural-health.org/). The ANH is in turn supported by various US based pressure groups that fear similar legislation will be implemented in their country. One of ANH's supporters is the International Advocates For Health Freedom (or IAHF, http://www.iahf.com), a US based pressure group founded by a John Hammell.

In an interview with John Hammell by Greg Ciola (editor of CRUSADOR ENTERPRISES, http://www.thehealthcrusader.com) Mr Hammell shows his true colours, by the use of language that is rather unequivocal, to put it mildly. The full text can be found here: http://www.thehealthcrusader.com/pgs/article-0104-ban.shtml.

I quote directly from the text:

“The European Union is a dictatorship controlled by multinational corporate interests.” That's a little opinionated but fair enough.

"The European Parliament is just a facade to appease the people to make them think that they have a democratic government, but it's really a joke. It's the most corrupt, treacherously dictatorial regime on the face of the earth - bar none." Things are hotting up a bit now! Bar none!!

“I hesitate to make the comparison because of the negative connotations but what's happening in Europe sounds to me like the revival of the Nazi Empire, only this time they are seeking to suck the whole world into this web, including the United States.” You… hesitate? Not too much though.

“There's no controversy about the fact that the European Union is a Nazi entity.” Ooops, all hesitation has now gone out of the window. Its official: over here, we’re all Nazis! It isn't even controversial!

“They started the first world war to try to get us into the League of Nations.” Of course, why else? 20 million people died on the battle fields, just to get you guys into the bad, bad league of nations, it does make sense, right?

"So the globalists set the stage for a second world war by not doing anything to re-build post war Germany in the aftermath. They set the stage for Hitler's rise to power in order to trigger a second world war because they needed a second world war to get us into this League of Nations,..." He is really quite insistent on this point: one WW wasn't enough...

“You have to understand what Big Brother's goal is here. Big Brother wants to cull our numbers. Big Brother doesn't want us living over the age of sixty-five.”

"An example of that is back in the 1950s when they stopped farmers from using manure for fertilizer and they got them all using chemical fertilizers and they broke the sulfur cycle. They did that on purpose knowing that it would trigger a huge rise in cancer and other degenerative diseases that would enable them to sell a lot more pharmaceutical drugs" And so on, and so forth. Quack, quack, quack, quack goes the chorus, John, it's official... you're a quack!

To the sound of mind, all this may seem somewhat risible, even trivial, if it wasn't for the fact that Mr Hammell states early on in the interview: "I do lobbying in Washington and all over the world, public speaking, and grass roots organizing - mostly via my website and email distribution list which anyone can sign onto at my website". Lobbying in Washington? With views like these? Can this pass for freedom of speech?

I have informed the ANH of their questionable supporter but have as yet not received any response.

And I'm no expert on food supplements, but if Greg Cialo's site (thehealthcrusader.com) is anything to go by, this FSD appears long overdue. These quacks are promoting products that clearly don't do anything (the disclaimers say it all) by means of exaggerated claims, misuse of pseudo-scientific language, anecdotal "evidence" and blatant lies, all in the name of "freedom". No wonder someone is calling for a little regulation...