NEWS RELEASE      
                  
Release: No.01-HMD/1
Date Mailed: March 20, 2001
For Immediate Release
Contact: Contessa Morton 208/265-2575; 800/336-9266

Public Health Authority Urges Inquiry in Foot-and-Mouth Slaughter: Raises Spectre on Industrial Espionage

Sandpoint, ID  Could the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease effecting global beef markets be an act of industrial espionage rather than nature? Could Tyson Foods Corporation, the world's leading meat supplier be behind the deadly slaughter? These are serious questions being raised by a leading American public health authority, Dr. Leonard Horowitz, a Harvard graduate and the author of several books on infectious diseases.

Many Americans can recall the hoopla over Hillary Clinton having made more than $100,000 virtually overnight in the swine futures market in 1998. The tip came from James Blair, chief counselor at Tyson Foods. The Springdale, Arkansas-based company showered gifts for favors upon Clinton administration officials including former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. Don Tyson was one of Bill Clinton's "closest friends and biggest supporters," according to grand jury testimony concerning Tyson political misconduct. Don Tyson was Bill Clinton's top fundraiser during his gubernatorial and presidential elections.

The grave possibility that the international foot-and-mouth disease outbreak stems from a Tyson plot is documented in Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse (Tetrahedron, LLC Press, 1999; ISBN: 0-923550-01-1) in which Dr. Horowitz explored little known facts about "mad cow disease" outbreaks. Suggesting a new form of "bioterrorism" to facilitate what past CIA Director James Woolsy called "industrial espionage," Dr. Horowitz considered the fortuitous fear campaign that facilitated Tyson's takeover of the Hudson Beef Company in 1997 after the latter's stock dropped in value 35% due to an alleged E. coli contamination that was never confirmed. The doctor's suspicions were based on a review of a U.S. Congressional Record that showed E. coli had been one of the principle germs manipulated by the CIA, and James Woolsy's statement, "With the end of the Cold War, the CIA must enter the era of economic [or industrial] espionage." In the language of espionage, French columnist Paul Javanovic explained, this meant "the CIA will henceforth do many services for American enterprises which take the trouble to ask it for Ohelp' in both counterespionage and espionage itself."

Regarding the foot-and-mouth outbreak, a similar ruse was proposed involving Tyson only months following their Hudson Beef takeover. This time it was a chicken influenza "outbreak" in Asia. In December 1997, the Associated Press reported that a 60-year-old woman had died of "suspected bird flu." The U.S. Government immediately announced it would halt "all chicken imports from China in a move to curb the spread of the virus." Days later, pressured by the media and foreign governments, 1.2 million Asian chickens were slaughtered to allegedly prevent the flu from spreading to other countries and species.

"Few knew that prior to these events," Dr. Horowitz wrote, "Tyson was vying to bring the Asian poultry industry into its global monopolistic fold. The emergency primarily targeted Tyson's Asian competition farmers. What was most likely a CIA-directed "outbreak" conveniently required the annihilation of Tyson's competitors. That would have been a very effective, albeit immoral, industrial espionage operation."

On March 15, 2001, USA Today reported that Tyson Foods stands to gain most from the current foot-and-mouth disease problem. They had four times tried to purchase America's leading beef supplier IBP Corporation, most recently for $3.2 billion, or $30 per share of stock valued at only $24.11. The international slaughter of cattle, the article said, was sure to reduce IBP profits making Tyson's offer even more appealing.

Dr. Horowitz, in support of the British Farmers for Action, is calling for an immediate halt to the slaughter of uninfected herds, and an investigation by the British government officials into the possibility that the entire foot-and-mouth disease outbreak was premeditated.

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