- The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has
issued a gag order on all federal employees having knowledge of the Texas
Mad Cow. Freedom to express oneself was once a right that was taken for
granted in America. Now, just the opposite applies to federal employees,
who should be accountable to their one true boss: the American people.
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- While 130,000 members of the United States Armed Forces
risk their lives in Iraq to preserve America's way of life, one wonders
where that good, old American integrity has gone. Lately, I have been witness
to event after event that has me wondering...have we become the bad guys?
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- The USDA gag order, sent on May 6 from USDA's Dallas
district office, was issued by Ijaz Qazi, supervisor for USDA's Texas Food
Safety and Inspection Service. In his letter, Mr. Qazi wrote:
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- "All BSE inquiries (BSE is Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis,
the medical term for Mad Cow Disease) must be directed to Congressional
Public Affairs Phone 202-720-9113 attention Rob Larew or Steve Cohen. This
is an urgent message. Any question contact me. Ijaz Qazi."
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- On Wednesday (May 12, 2004, 9:30 AM), I left a message
on Dr. Qazi's telephone after speaking to Annie in USDA's Texas district
office (800-288-6626).
-
- I spoke to Dr. Qazi. He is a fine man. We had a long
talk, and I believe every word that he said. His letter was a reflexion
of USDA's standard operating procedures, and he merely acted in his position
in that chain of command common to agencies that exist as quasi-military
organizations. Who ordered Dr. Qazi to send the letter? Up the chain, we
go to Dr. Marcy Endersby. I decided not to let go of this story until I
had reached the top rung of the ladder.
-
- I spoke again to Annie, and she connected me with Dr.
Endersby's voice mail. I left a message at 10:00 AM.
-
- So, after four hours passed and Dr. Endersby had not
returned my phone calls, I called over and over again until I reached her.
She said, "I am not going to talk to you. Call the Washington, DC
contact number."
-
- I asked, "In other words, the buck does not stop
on your desk, does it? I'm not going to get anything from you, am I?"
-
- Her one word response was rudely delivered. "No."
-
- So I called the Washington number. And called. And called.
And tried catching flies with maple syrup. I then tried catching flies
with vinegar. Neither strategy worked. They refused to call back.
-
- In exasperation, I tried one more time before shutting
down for the day. A young eager voice answered the phone. I was delighted.
"What's your name?"
-
- "Ben." "May I speak to Steve Cohen?"
"Who may I say is calling?" "Robert Cohen." (30-second
pause) "Steve Cohen is not here now." "Then why did you
ask who was calling and then put me on hold?" "Sorry, I am in
training." "Steve does not want to talk to me, does he?"
"I cannot comment on that." "How long have you been there,
Ben?" "Not long. I am in training." "Oh, you're a BIT."
(He bit) "Bit?" "Yes, bureaucrat in training." "I'll
leave a message that you called." "How about his boss, Rob Larew?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Larew cannot come to the phone right now." "Well,
Mr. Larew is way up on the totem pole, Ben, right?" "Yes, he's
the director." "Great. In that case, he's got a secretary, right?"
"Of course." "May I speak to his secretary?" "She's
on the phone right now." "In that case, may I have her name?"
"No." "No?" "I'm sorry, but she does not speak
to people." "Then who is she on the phone with, Ben, a mad cow?
Ben, how do I spell your last name?" "I'm not giving you that
information." "Ben, I cannot believe this conversation. May I
quote you on that?" "No, you may not." "That was a
rhetorical question, Ben. I am going to quote you. Spell your last name,
please." "Who?" "You Ben. Your last name." "No."
"Ben, you'll do ok there. You're not a bureaucrat in training. You're
an expert."
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- Two minutes later, the phone rang. It was Steve Cohen,
Ben's boss.
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- "Thanks for calling me back." "Mr. Cohen,
you've got a febrile mind." "Would you mind spelling that? I
don't know what a febrile mind is." "I wouldn't want to admit
that if I were you." "But I do admit it. What the heck is a febrile
mind?" "It's our standing policy to direct our employees not
to talk to anybody about USDA policy. That's directive #2401." "What's
directive #2401?" "That's irrelevant." "OK, well, I
have it on good authority from two sources that the Texas Mad Cow's brain
was tested." "It was not." "I spoke to the two reporters
from Reuters who cited a lobbyist from the American farm bureau. She confirmed
that the animal was tested. The commodities market confirms that word got
around and insiders traded on that information. There are paper trails."
"Mr. Cohen, if you talk to those reporters now, they will admit to
you that they were mistaken." "I spoke to them the day after
the story and they were adamant about that quote." "Our USDA
veterinarian informed us that the slaughtered animal went to the renderer
without testing." "What is the vet's name?" "That's
irrelevant." "Consider it fodder for my febrile mind." "You've
made many errors in the things you've written, too. I am familiar with
your work." "What errors?" "That's irrelevant."
-
- Just then, I heard muffled sounds on the other end of
the line. He put me on hold. The next thing I heard was a dial tone. I
admitted to myself, that's it. They win. I give up.
-
- Steve then called back. We had a nice talk about things,
particularly milk and cheese. Is Steve Cohen a bad guy? Nah. He's an ex-journalist
with two kids (age 11 and 8) and just about the same age as me. I respect
him, but have lost respect for the system that employs him. Steve has a
job and I am certain that he does it well. In the same position, I'd probably
do things a bit differently, and might last for as long as a week.
-
- Febrile: Relating to fever, feverish. Well, I guess that
applies to me, for at the moment that this is being written, I am quite
hot.
-
- The USDA gag order extends to private citizens, too.
USDA continues to intimidate its inspectors, one of whom released the unofficial/official
letter.
-
- The cow in question actually had Mad Cow Disease, but
the evidence was destroyed. The cow was suspected, by its behavior, and
immediately tested on April 27, 2004. The next day, two Reuters reporters
(Bob Burgdorfer and Richard Cowan) interviewed cattle industry insiders.
They wrote in their April 29, 2004 story:
-
- "An American Farm Bureau Federation lobbyist said
she was aware that some samples had been removed from a particular animal
for further testing but described it as a 'routine testing procedure'."
-
- USDA does not want you to learn the truth about America's
meat. Certainly not before the next presidential election. Should you learn
the truth, you might not re-elect a certain Texan to his second term. Should
USDA give you access to the actual test which was performed, that would
be a violation of their primary mission, which is to protect meat producers,
not meat consumers.
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- Ann Veneman, USDA's Secretary, commented:
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- "There is certainly a likelihood we will find more
(diseased) cows."
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- Standard operating procedure at USDA? (I)Find--(II)test--
(III) destroy the evidence--then, (IV) deny that the evidence ever existed.
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- We have become a nation of liars. Big Brother is protecting
the interests of some insiders, but cares little for the people. I love
America. We have a great system. That system needs just a little touch
of fine tuning. Please do everything in your power to help integrity return
to our once-great nation.
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- Most USDA bureaucrats are decent folk, but some are very
mean people. These meanies often bring enormous conflicts of interest
to their desks. Some would have fit right into the same system that created
the abuses of Hitler's Third Reich. I testified before USDA's Dietary Guidelines
Committee in 2000, and a transcript was made of that testimony. I take
no crap. I take no prisoners. When their lies compromise the health our
children, our response should be to not buy or consume those products they
promote. My testimony:
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- http://www.notmilk.com/usdatest.html
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- Robert Cohen http://www.notmilk.com 201-967-7001
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