THE admonition caveat emptor should be magnified when shopping on the Internet -- let the buyer beware. Greater skepticism needs to be applied to the cyberspace sales of health and medical products, and even then the government should protect the more vulnerable members of society by pursuing peddlers of fraudulent miracle cures. That pursuit has resulted in refunds by four companies and their agreement to stop pitching their dubious goods. Continued vigilance is required both by government and consumers. Beware of cure-alls
sold on InternetThe issue: Government agencies
have settled with companies accused
of fraudulent claims for products
sold over the Internet.The Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration announced that "Operation Cure.All" resulted in settlements with four companies that agreed to stop false advertising and to offer refunds to consumers, but not to admit to wrongdoing. A fifth company agreed to pay an additional fine of $150,000 for selling a product it claimed reversed the aging process. A sixth targeted company plans to contest the FTC's accusations in court.
The companies offered relief from cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's and AIDS with herbs, dietary supplements and even electrical devices that were supposed to stun viruses fatally. Some of the items not only failed to cure the diseases but could have made matters worse by interfering with patients' prescription drugs. Regulators said that St. John's Wort, promoted by several companies as a cure for AIDS, may inhibit the effectiveness of protease inhibitors, which many patients use for treatment.
"It's bad enough when someone, with little or no evidence, touts unproven remedies," said Walter H. Carr of the National AIDS Health Fraud Task Force Network. "It's even more frightening when they do so despite, and without so much as a mention of, emerging risks that those remedies pose."
The settlements amount to minimal success for Operation Cure. All since it was launched in 1997. When the FDA sent warnings to 48 Internet companies promoting a consumable form of silver as a cure for a range of ailments, only 13 of the companies agreed to remove the unsubstantiated health claims. The FTC found nearly 1,200 Internet companies selling what they claimed were curative products that must be approved by regulators, but only one-fourth of them agreed to remove the unauthorized claims.
Both federal agencies say they are stepping up their enforcement actions against Internet companies making fraudulent health claims. Such a crackdown is needed but, if their past levels of success are any indication, consumers must continue to be on guard.
Back in 1947, the armed forces of the United States were supposed to have been unified in the new Department of Defense in the Pentagon. During the ensuing years, countless studies, commissions, reform movements and informal agreements were intended to bring about unity. Unifying armed forces
requires radical changeThe issue: Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld seeks better
joint military operations.After a half-century, that objective remains as elusive as ever. The chairman of a panel set up by Secretary Rumsfeld to rethink the nation's military needs, retired Air Force General James McCarthy, said at a press briefing last week: "The services are very, very capable but they still have not learned and they have not trained and have not exercised sufficiently for us to claim that we have a true joint force."
The problem is not with the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines in the field who often sweat, fight and die shoulder to shoulder. The issue is among the generals and admirals, and their civilian overseers. The closer they get to the flagpole in Washington, the worse it becomes in a dreary conflict over roles, missions and, ultimately, money.
The consequence: Endless bureaucratic squabbling over who gets what funds and who does what operation. Moreover, the failure to operate well jointly can put into jeopardy the missions and the lives of those who carry the fight.
Most of the attempts to bring about joint operations have foundered because they have been little more than tinkering at the margin. To bring about real unity and truly joint operations, the Pentagon and the Congress that decides these things should undertake at least three bold changes:
>> Abolish the anachronistic, feudal domains known as the Departments of the Army, Navy (which includes the Marine Corps), and Air Force in favor of a consolidated Defense Department. Make the Secretary of Defense a genuine master of the Pentagon rather than a referee among warring factions.These proposals are probably a waste of ink and newsprint because the fiefdoms within the Pentagon have become so encrusted that change comes with the speed of an armadillo. Maybe a few sticks of dynamite are needed to jar things loose.>> Abolish the Joint Chiefs of Staff and replace it with a single Chief of Military Staff who would command the armed forces. The great captains of history, from Alexander the Great to Napoleon, must be rollicking in their graves as they have watched the United States try, ineffectively, to run a military service by committee.
>> Give combatant commanders, such as the leader of the Pacific Command here, undisputed authority over the components under their command. Today, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force leaders within the Pacific Command serve two superiors, the Commander-in-Chief here and the service chiefs in Washington.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, President
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