Koch Organized Crime 02 Seitz-Cato-RJR-Tobacco.wmv
http://web.archive.org/web/20060424223636/http://www.vanityfair.com/features/general/articles/060417fege07
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2006/04/fred_seitz_the_45_million_man.php
http://www.desmogblog.com/frederick-seitz-deadFred Seitz, the $45 million man
Mark Hertsgaard has an excellent article in Vanity Fair exposing the war on climate science. For instance:
Call him the $45 million man. That's how much money Dr. Frederick Seitz, a former president of the National Academy of Sciences, helped R. J. Reynolds Industries, Inc., give away to fund medical research in the 1970s and 1980s. The research avoided the central health issue facing Reynolds -- "They didn't want us looking at the health effects of cigarette smoking," says Seitz, who is now 94 -- but it nevertheless served the tobacco industry's purposes. Throughout those years, the industry frequently ran ads in newspapers and magazines citing its multi-million-dollar research program as proof of its commitment to science -- and arguing that the evidence on the health effects of smoking was mixed.
In the 1990s, Seitz began arguing that the science behind global warming was likewise inconclusive and certainly didn't warrant imposing mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions. He made his case vocally, trashing the integrity of a 1995 I.P.C.C. report on the op-ed page of The Wall Street Journal, signing a letter to the Clinton administration accusing it of misrepresenting the science, and authoring a paper which said that global warming and ozone depletion were exaggerated threats devised by environmentalists and unscrupulous scientists pushing a political agenda. In that same paper, Seitz asserted that secondhand smoke posed no real health risks, an opinion he repeats in our interview. "I just can't believe it's that bad," he says.
Al Gore and others have said, but generally without offering evidence, that the people who deny the dangers of climate change are like the tobacco executives who denied the dangers of smoking. The example of Frederick Seitz, described here in full for the first time, shows that the two camps overlap in ways that are quite literal -- and lucrative. Seitz earned approximately $585,000 for his consulting work for R. J. Reynolds, according to company documents unearthed by researchers for the Greenpeace Web site ExxonSecrets.org and confirmed by Seitz. Meanwhile, during the years he consulted for Reynolds, Seitz continued to draw a salary as president emeritus at Rockefeller University, an institution founded in 1901 and subsidized with profits from Standard Oil, the predecessor corporation of ExxonMobil.
http://web.archive.org/web/20070703074504/http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Seitz_Tobacco_Crimes.html
http://www.desmogblog.com/monbiot-tassc-and-the-tobacco-climate-change-cover-up
10 October 06
Monbiot, TASSC and the tobacco, climate change cover-up
UK journalist and author George Monbiot has been doing a great job of getting the climate change message out with the release of his new book and subsequent media tour. In his book, Heat, Mobiot uncovers evidence that The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), a front group for the tobacco industry, made a concerted effort to include other issues in its materials in order to cover-up the fact that it was just an apologist for big tobacco. Here is a recent National Public Radio interview with Monbiot.
And here is one of the documents Monbiot is referring to in his book. It is a 1994 APCO Worldwide memo to a Manager at Philip Morris Europe, titled "Thoughts on TASSC Europe," in which APCO proposes:
"When considering the formation of a TASSC-like group in Europe, we think it is important to begin where we started in the United States by identifying some key objectives. Specifically we recommend TASSC be formulated to … link the tobacco issue with more 'politcally correct' products."
"As a starting point we can identify key issues requiring sound scientific research and scientists that may have an interest in them. Some issues our European collleagues suggest include: global warming, nuclear waste disposal … the diversity of these issues, and their tremendous impact on business and industry, provides an excellent 'tie-in' to the work TASSC is currently undertaking in the United States."
There has been rumour and debate over claims that Al Gore recently stated that cigarette smoking contributes to global warming. Whether that is true or not we'll leave to the scientists, but Monbiot and this APCO memo definitely point out that cigarettes via their industry front groups, have definitely played a role in confusing the public on the realities and the urgency of climate change.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Advancement_of_Sound_Science_Coalition
The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC) is a now-defunct, industry-funded PR front group run by the APCO Worldwide public relations firm. It worked to hang the label of "junk science" on environmentalists. Created in 1993, TASSC began as a front for Philip Morris, which was attempting to discredit ETS (Environmental Tobacco Smoke) research as a long-term cause of increased cancer and heart problem rates in the community -- especially among office workers and children living with smoking parents.[1] It advanced industry-friendly positions on a wide range of topics, including global warming, smoking, phthalates, and pesticides. Later still, they extended the role of TASSC to Europe using Dr. George Carlo. [2]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/28/ipcc-climate-science-attacks-tobacco
http://tobaccodocuments.org/all/documents.php?pattern=TASSCIPCC vice-chair: Attacks on climate science echo tobacco industry tactics
Jean-Pascal van Ypersele says rows over 'climategate' emails and Himalayan glaciers were organised to undermine Copenhagen summit
http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/documents.php?pattern=TASSC
Designer front group - TASSC
Anne Landman's Collection
Designer front group - TASSC
Abstract
To circumvent its lack of credibility with the public, policy makers and the media, Philip Morris (PM) uses the strategy of creating front groups. Forming an artificial third party and then assigning it an "umbrella cause" (one which happens to mesh perfectly with the tobacco industry's) gives PM and the industry the opportunity to create a wholly separate, and far more credible, mouthpiece advance its policies and political desires. In PM's front group "Associates for Research in Substance Enjoyment," (ARISE) "scientists" lumped tobacco use together with innocuous substances like tea and chocolate, put out worldwide press releases saying substance use was good for you and declared public health advocates to be puritanical, neo-prohibitionist party poopers. After the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared secondhand smoke as a Class A Human Carcinogen, PM needed a powerful group to rise up help discredit EPA's findings. Thus PM formed "The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition," or TASSC. Recognizing that the chemical, paper, metal, petroleum and other environmentally-dubious industries would also be thrilled to have a group of "committed experts" who would publicly say that scientific warnings against their activities were not credible, PM invited these industries to join TASSC. Eith the needs clear and a host of willing help-mates waiting in the wings, PM created TASSC through a public relations firm called APCO Associates, which helped PM distance itself from the group. After a 2-month, $50,000 feasibility study done hand in hand with PM's law firm of Covington and Burling, APCO began forming TASSC. APCO did an admirable job of recruiting members for TASSC, too. The "supporters list" (found in another document) includes businesses from the "Family Loompya Seafood Market" and "Pinckneyville Lighting" to sawmills, mining and chemical companies, including W.R. Grace, Co., Amoco, and Dow Chemical. Today's document reveals the goals of TASSC, and also APCO's enthusiasm for creating a similar group in Europe based on its success in America and elsewhere. Title: Thoughts on TASSC Europe Type of Document: Memo From: Tom Hockaday of APCO Associates To: Matt Winokur, Director, Worldwide Regulatory Affairs for Philip Morris Date: 19940324 Site: Philip Morris Tobacco Company http://www.pmdocs.com/ Bates No. 2025492898/2905 Page Count: 8 URL: http://www.pmdocs.com/getallimg.asp'DOCID=2025492898/2905
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/rtl80c00/pdf?search=%22tassc%20seitz%22
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/any77d00/pdf?search=%22tassc%20seitz%22
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/iah48d00/pdf?search=%22tassc%20seitz%22
TASSC CATO
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/action/search/basic?fd=0&q=TASSC+CATO&df=er&c=at&c=ba&c=bw&c=ca&c=ct&c=da&c=ll&c=lm&c=mg&c=mm&c=pm&c=py&c=re&c=rj&c=ti&c=ub&c=us
| 2. JUST A NOTE TO ADD MY THANKS TO THOSE OF BOB BORENS FOR THE GENEROUS $50,000 CONTRIBUTION FOR RJ REY... | |
 | |
| Author | CRANE EH; CATO INSTITUTE |
| Date | 19950117 (January 17, 1995) |
| Type | LETTER |
| Bates |  512012069  |
| Collection | RJ Reynolds |
| Pages | 1 |
| Added Ind. | 20020404 (April 4, 2002) |
| <ocr>January 11, 1995 EDWARD H. CRANE President Mr. Thomas C. Griscom Executive VP - External Relations RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company 401 North Main Street Winston-Salem, NC 27102 Dear Mr. Griscom: - Just a note to add my thanks to those of Bob Borens for the generous $50,000 contribution from RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company in support of the Cato Institute's Regulatory Rollback and Reform project. We are delighted to have RJ Reynolds as a significant corporate supporter of the Institute and look forward | |
