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Posted 1:00 AM Eastern
by
Jim Kouri
September 11, 2007
© 2007 NewsWithViews.com
For several years political leaders on both sides of the aisle promised the American people a microchip that would contain their medical histories and other important healthcare data.
The US Food and Drug Administration declared these new microchips safe and a boon to US healthcare. There is only one problem: these microchip implants have been linked to several cases of cancer in animals who had the chips inserted into their bodies.
Compounding the problem is the suspicion that the US government -- in this case, the FDA -- and the microchip manufacturers attempted to keep the reports of cancer-connected microchips secret, according to several sources.
"Once again we're seeing a breaking story about our government's total disregard for the well-being of American citizens," stated New Jersey-based political strategist Mike Baker.
"While the news media cover Hillary's latest hairstyle or John Edwards' $2,000 haircut, they are relatively silent on this important story of life-and-death," said Baker.
The VeriChip implant is a glass encapsulated RFID tag that is injected into the flesh to uniquely number and identify individuals. The tag can be read by radio waves from a few inches away. The highly controversial device is being marketed as a way to access secure areas, link to medical records, and serve as a payment instrument when associated with a credit card or pre-paid account.
In 2004 when the FDA approved implanting microchips in humans, the manufacturer said it would save lives, letting doctors scan the tiny transponders to access patients' medical records almost instantly. The FDA found "reasonable assurance" the device was safe, and a sub-agency even called it one of 2005's top "innovative technologies."
But neither the company nor the regulators publicly mentioned this: A series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating back to the mid-1990s, strongly suggested that chip implants had "induced" malignant tumors in some laboratory mice and rats.
The most recent study had its results released in 2006. The study -- conducted in France -- detected tumors in 4.1 percent of 1,260 microchipped mice. This was one of six studies in which the scientists did not set out to find microchip-induced cancer but noticed the growths incidentally. They were testing compounds on behalf of chemical and pharmaceutical companies; but they ruled out the compounds as the tumors' cause. Because researchers only noted the most obvious tumors, the French study stated, "These incidences may therefore slightly underestimate the true occurrence" of cancer.
A major whistleblower on this suspected case of medical malpractice on the part of the US government and corporate America, Dr. Katherine Albrecht, a privacy advocate and RFID expert, questioned VeriChip's approval what evidence the FDA had reviewed to make their decision to approve the use of the microchips.
When the federal government refused to provide Dr. Albrecht with the requested information, she filed a Freedom of Information Act order. It took more than a year before she received a response to her FOIA request: Dr. Albrecht received a letter stating there were no documents available matching her request.
"The public relies on the FDA to evaluate all the data and make sure the devices it approves are safe," she said, "but if they're not doing that, who's covering our backs?"
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Late last year, Albrecht -- who's a contributor to NewsWithViews -- unearthed at the Harvard medical library three studies noting cancerous tumors in some chipped mice and rats, plus a reference in another study to a chipped dog with a tumor. She forwarded these to a reporter at the Associated Press, which subsequently found three additional studies with similar findings, plus another report of a chipped dog with a tumor.
Several leading cancer experts reviewed the research and, while cautioning that animal test results do not necessarily apply to human beings, said their findings troubled them. Some said that personally they would not allow family members to receive implants, and all urged further research before the glass-encased transponders are widely implanted in Americans.
According to another NewsWithViews.com columnist, attorney Constance Cumbey, "There is no advantage to taking this implant, which could well be the prophesied mark of the beast, either in the here or in the hereafter. The prophecy was clear that those who took the mark broke out in horrible sores all over their body. It also stated that they longed for death, but death would not come."
Cumbey is also wary of the current experiments with microchips that are literally implanted credit/debit cards.
"Although I love using computers as much as anybody alive, maybe more than I should, I draw my line at this development. My opposition to the would be Verichipped society, complete for your convenience with delivery by the neighborhood 'Chip Mobile' is both bellicose and belligerent," said Cumbey.
To date, about 2,000 of the so-called radio frequency identification, or RFID, devices have been implanted in humans worldwide, according to VeriChip Corp. The company, which sees a target market of 45 million Americans for its medical monitoring chips, insists the devices are safe, as does its parent company, Applied Digital Solutions, of Delray Beach, Fla.
But what the company failed to reveal in its filing may be even more eye-opening, say CASPIAN privacy advocates Dr. Albrecht and her partner Liz McIntyre. The pair, authors of the "Spychips" book, have been vocal critics of VeriChip, dogging the company in recent years and facing down its senior executives on radio and national television.
"Potential investors should be told how a hacker can simply walk by a chipped person and clone his or her VeriChip signal, a threat demonstrated by security researcher Jonathan Westhues months ago," says McIntyre, who is a former federal bank examiner.
Political strategist Mike Baker believes the national ID cards will eventually lead to the micro chipped society, since the ID cards can be lost, forged or stolen. The National ID cards are being touted as a security measure against terrorism and organized crime. It will eventually become necessary to have the implant if one wishes to open a bank account, enter a federal building, buy an airline ticket or travel on Amtrack, just to name a few. Will Christians who refuse to take their RFID microchip be the new terrorist in this Brave New World?
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"What does tracking microchipped people have to do with fighting terrorism and finding Osama bin Laden anyway? Are they hiding behind the War on Terror to usher in the Big Brother society as George Orwell predicted in his book 1984? And, if they are so concerned about terrorism, why are they leaving the borders wide open?" asks Baker.
Additional Information on Microchips
1,
verichipcorp.com
2, antichips.com
3, fda.gov/cdrh/
4, SpyChips.com
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When the federal government refused to provide Dr. Albrecht with the requested
information, she filed a Freedom of Information Act order. It took more
than a year before she received a response...
