Jim Turner Recalls Rumsfeld Meeting over Nutrasweet Toxicity

Rumsfeld was heard to say by many, “I don’t care how many people it [NutraSweet] kills, I want it on the market”. Consumer advocate attorney Jim Turner, who was instrumental in the 1969 banning of cyclamate in the US for its link to various forms of cancer, met with representatives of aspartame approval petitioner Searle in 1974. The main topic of discussion was neuroscientist Dr. John Olney’s 1971 study which showed that aspartic acid caused lesions in the brains of infant mice. According to Turner, arguably the world’s foremost authority on aspartame’s dubious legal history, Rumsfeld was apparently hired by Searle for one specific purpose: To obtain FDA approval for aspartame. Among the many ironies of our modern world is that Gerald Ford awarded the Presidential Medal of FreedomAmerica’s highest civilian honor to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on January 19, 1977. Just a few weeks later on March 8, Rumsfeld became the CEO of GD Searle to take point on a mission to force the Food and Drug Administration to approve for human consumption a known carcinogen and neurotoxic poison. Mission accomplished: Today some 9000 commonly consumed products are laced with this weapon of mass misery and millions of people live with chronic illnesses linked to the artificial sweetener aspartame. It is our belief at The Idaho Observer that if some guy named Parkinson can have a disease named after him, then Donald Rumsfeld ought to have his own disease, too. Hence the term Rumsfeld …