WARNING: This site deals only with the corporate corruption of science, and makes no inference about the motives or activities of individuals involved.
    There are many reasons why individuals become embroiled in corporate corruption activities - from political zealotry to over-enthusiastic activism; from gullibility to greed.
    Please read the OVERVIEW carefully, and make up your own mind.

OPINION ONLY

Professor Walter Williams of George Mason University was an important economic lobbyist for the tobacco industry, mainly because he was a syndicated columnist — one of the payola princes of print — who appears to have never come across a well-paid corporate lobbying project that he couldn't support in his column.

However he was only briefly a member of the tobacco industry's cash-for-comments network in 1986 [He was one of three from George Mason University trying to provide propaganda to newspapers in Virginia — he reappeared briefly again in their 1986 listing]. He mainly worked through the Creators Syndicate — which sounds like a co-operative, but was in fact a part of the Unification Church/UPI empire run by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

The Moonies supported numerous right-wing think-tanks and Republican disinformation project, and they were enthusiastic supporters of such science-denial operations at S Fred Singer's Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP). Many columnists with the Creators Syndicate were comments-for-sale operators.

There can be no doubt that Williams was also an ideologue. He took many of his anti-activism/pro-tobacco positions because of his extreme Randian political ideology and his uber-libertarianism allowed him to rationalise his personal greed: his Randian zealotry was overwhelmed by his rapaciousness. Clearly it didn't bother his conscience that the global industry he supported caused the premature deaths of 4 million of so people each year — with even higher rates among the black community than the white.

The idea of using Robert Tollison and Richard Wagner (two economists, then with the Virginia Polytechnique) to create a cadre of economist willing to act in support of the tobacco industry must be credited to the PR consultant, George Berman, who suggested in May 1979 that the secretive ICOSI [International Committee on Social Issues] attack the concept of social-cost analysis [the idea that smoking cost the community more than it generated in tax revenues] by using academic economists to dispute the health activist's estimates of costs.

Ogilvy & Mather PR, then working for the Tobacco Institute, began to use Robert Tollison and his associates in various ways, and their sub-contractor/consultant Jim Savarese built a network of academic economists willing to work for the tobacco industry. Eventually they recruited more than one in each state — and over they years this numbered (in total, since they often moved on) over 130 with the title "Professor of Economics" which looked great on an op-ed (opinion-editorial) article in a local newspaper. The formal network existed from mid 1984 until early 1999 when it's activities were exposed by documents deposited in the tobacco archives.

The Tobacco Institute's network contractors (essentially Tollison and Savarese) kept a registry of those academics willing and available to write articles or letters on demand, provide witness services at legislative or local ordinance hearings, etc. or give lectures to various influential bodies — or have one-to-one meetings with legislators. They were not to divulge the industry connections, and they were never required to make any outright statement in support of smoking. In fact, the complete opposite was the case ... those who could maintain proudly that they were non-smokers were seen to be more sensible, and to have more credibility with gullible readers, who thought that political influence involved brass-bands and flag waving zealots.

Payments for network services were laundered through a couple of channels linked to the George Mason University's Center for the Study of Public Choice and its director Robert Tollison, but most of Walter Williams payments went directly to him, or passed through the laundry service offered by the George Mason Foundation. One of his most profitable projects was to agree to front a major "Social Cost Forum' in 1999, which never actually eventuated, but which earned him at least $30,000.

Williams was only spasmotically part of this state-specific network, mainly because he was a syndicated columnist who worked nationally through the Moonies Creators Syndicate Howver it is apparent that he wrote pro-corporate material extensively for the tobacco industry, and probably for a range of other problem industries as well.

The value of Walter Williams to the tobacco industry was largely because he was African-American and therefore had considerable clout among some minority groups — especially in the Black Press.

Some key documents

• Professor Walter Williams, Department of Economics, George Mason University Fairfax, VA
    His close friend since 1969 is Thomas Sowell (at the Urban Institute)

• His membership of far right-wing societies — especially those supporting distressed industries — was extensive.

• Reason Foundation.
• Center for Study of Public Choice - at GMU (ran the network)
• Institute for Research on Economics of Taxation (IRET) - front organisation
• Citizens for Tax Justice - front organisation
• Heartlands Institute
• Mont Pelerin Society (founded by Frederic Hayek)
• Independent Institute — tobacco lobby
• The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) — [subsidiary of Independent Institute] tobacco lobby in both USA and Australia.
• National Tax Limitation Foundation/Committee (with a substantial number of tobacco's Greek chorus of academics)
• Urban Institute (Minorities Program with Thomas Sowell)

• There are 526 documents in the tobacco archives with "Walter Williams" — and name variations take this number up to 810 or more. About 80% of the later documents are for this economist, but there is also a Walter L Williams who owns a candy/tobacco business in Oklahoma and a few others.

    We haven't looked at all the Walter Williams documents, so this time-line is probably only a fraction of the work he has done in supporting tobacco and as a 'consultant' to other poisoning and polluting industries.

    Walter E Williams. was both a nationally syndicated columnist with The Creators Syndicate (which was taken over by the Moonies/Unification Church) who was paid by Philip Morris, and also briefly a member of the Tobacco Institute's Tollison/Savarese cash-for-comment economist's network.

    The Creators Syndicate was a favourite media outlet for the tobacco industry. Over the years Philip Morris had a half-dozen or so 'consultants' syndicating their propaganda to various newspapers via this organization. Williams was significant, but not very important, mainly because his column only appeared in second-rate newspapers like the Washington Times and Cincinnati Enquirer where it was preaching mainly to the converted.
    • Education and Qualifications

• BA in economics from California State University
• MA and PhD in economics from UCLA
• Doctor of Humane Letters from Virginia Union University

• Los Angeles City College,
• California State University Los Angeles
• Temple University in Philadelphia.
• John H Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia,

1936 Mar 31: Born in Philadelphia

1959–61: US Army

1960: Married.

1965: Bachelor's Degree in economics from California State University, Los Angeles.

1967: Masters Degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

1967–69: Claims to have been a "Professor" at the Los Angeles City College

1967–71: Claims also to have been a "Professor" at the California State University, Los Angeles.

1972: Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

1973: Professor at the Temple University (and undated at Grove City College, Grove City PA)

1980–81: He is said to have done a study of government poverty programs and decided that they don't work.

1980: Professor of Economics at George Mason University

1981 Oct 13: The tobacco industry PR firm Burson-Marsteller sponsored a "A Conference on National Priorities" at George Washington University which was a

gathering of representatives from government, business, labor and academia to discuss our nation's economic future during the Reagan Administration.

In his Labor Day message, Lane Kirkland described those of us who want to slow the growth of government as "suspicious of government programs to feed the hungry, educate the young, secure dignity for the elderly, care for the sick, safeguard the rights of minorities, protect consumers and defend the environment from plunder."

    He's absolutely right. We are suspicious of those programs —not because we object to their goals, but because so often they don't work. We are suspicious, along with most Americans, when we read of a study of government poverty programs by economist Walter Williams. He figured that if we took all the money spent on poverty programs at all levels of government, and divided it up among the families we classify as poor, we would be able to give each of them $40,000 a year. Obviously, our needy get only a fraction of that. They could and should get more.

    But someone is taking a mighty big cut off the top. And both the taxpayers and the poor are suffering for it."

1982 May: In the Reason Foundation's [1981-82 Annual Report] (funded by Scaife, Koche, Olin, Reynolds, and Brown & Williamson) It says that they had a conference which

"brought six free-market oriented thinkers to Louisville [one of whom was] economist Walter Williams (on licensing restrictions).

1983 Apr 13: Williams is on the Advisory Board of the Reason Foundation which has a research arm called the LGC or Local Government Center. They claim that it has become "the country's leading source of expertise on privatisation. "

    The President of the Reason Foundation, Robert W Poole wants the Tobacco Institute to kick in a grant of $2,500 to the LGC to "'provide our cities with useful tools for achieving those goals [lower taxes and smaller government]."
[They would then use this to support the cigarette industry's claims that increases in excise taxes weren't needed, since services were now being outsourced and government was smaller.]

1984 Apr: Foresight journal (by lobbyist think-tank Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future) which opposes Health Care Legislation

The idea that only government can help the poor is false, says Walter Williams, an economics professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. "Today's poor don't need handouts" in the form of welfare and food stamps, he asserts. "They need what yesterday's poor received: golden opportunities. Government destroys people's choices and options. The free market is in the business of expanding these options."

Thomas Sowell, senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, maintains that "the problem of government policymaking is that no consideration is given to the inherent limitation of human beings. You can't move peop l e around like chess pieces. Too much ' emphasis has been placed on vision, on assumption dictating policy, while no focus has been placed on cause and effect"

1984 July: Nation's Business article quotes Michael Novak at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) who is attacking altruism.

The idea that only government can help the poor is false, says Walter Williams, an economics professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. "Today's poor don't need handouts" in the form of welfare and food stamps, he asserts.

    "They need what yesterday's poor received: golden opportunities. Government destroys people's choices and options. The free market is in the business of expanding these options."

1984 Aug: Towards the Future report of the Lay Commission on Catholic Social Teaching and the US Economy. Chairman was William E Simons, Vice Chairman was Michael Novak. Credited was

Dr WALTER WILLIAMS, George Mason University, who submitted testimony on the subject of government regulation of the economy.

1984 Sept 10: Williams is on the Board of Directors of IRET — the Institute of Research on the Economics of Taxation, who's President, Norman B Ture (former Undersecretary of the Treasury) is a keen supporter of the tobacco industry — and the Tobacco Institute returns the favour (as does Roy Marden at Philip Morris)

1984 Oct 2: Walter Williams begins writing his column in the Washington Times (owned by the Moonies, who also owned the Creators Syndicate). His first (or an early) column is entitled "Using scientific quackery to scare us" and it is cheer-leading for the "science-is-suspect" squad.

    This article is promoting the Mont Pelerin Society and the Hayek/Buchanan school of Public Choice economists. He promotes the views in one speech:

The Abuse of Science in Public Policy. The major paper was delivered by Edith Efron, author of The Apocalyptics: Cancer and the Big Lie.

    The thrust of her paper and her book is that people have used public fear of cancer to enhance government control over our lives. She points out that the big lie starts with assertations like,

'Industrially produced chemicals and products account for 90 percent of cancer deaths since World War II.'

    With no supporting evidence, major television, print, and radio news sources barrage us about the man-made cancer epidemic; we are told, Nature is good and Man is evil, specially those men in the Fortune 500.

    "Scientific quackery has been used to justify Marxism, racism, and all kinds of persecution. Now it's being used to justify bigger government."

The UK firm Campbell-Johnson and the Tobacco Institute approved of the article.

1984 Oct 3: The Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation (IRET) is writting to Ed Battison at the Tobacco Institute asking for feedback from a conference.

    It is run by Norman Ture, the former undersecretary of the Treasury for Tax & Economic Affairs. Many lobbyists and think-tankers are on the board, as is Walter E Williams of GMU.

1985: He wrote and hosted documentaries for PBS. The "Good Intentions" documentary was based on his 1982 book " The State Against Blacks", where he argued that laws regulating economic activity are far greater obstacles to economic progress for blacks than racial bigotry and discrimination.

1985 May 5: Ed Battison at the Tobacco Institute has

• Produced a Summary of Tollison's book "Smoking and Society" using the proceedings of the 1984 Workshop in New York City
  [This was a trial run of the Philip Morris technique of totally controlling the speakers at a supposed 'scientific conference' — then publishing the proceedings — which was later used in the McGill University ETS symposium in November 1989]
  
      The document has outlines of what can be expected from the main speakers: Robert D Tollison; Eysemek [sic Hans Eysenck]; Charles D Spielberger; Domingo M Aviado; Sherwin J Feinhandler; Douglas J Den Uyl; William F Shughart & RD Tollison; Peter Berger; HP Grant & Ingo Walters; Stephen C Littlechild; Bill Shughart and James Savarese; Jean J Boddewyn; James Buchanan
  
  It notes

  'it should be pointed out that each paper contains much more detail and information on each subject than presented here. Some of these points present a structure for defense of prosmoking views that are applicable to legislative hearings and lobbying during 1985 and 1986.

• With the prominent inclusion of many of the same people listed above, the document also identified a

  " List of Professional Persons who have potential to testify against... excise taxes or antismoking bills; for smokers rights; against cooercion of smokers; against earmarking excise taxes for public health care"

Glen Loury, Walter Williams, Amitai Etzioni, Robert Tollison, Richard Wagner, Dwight Lee, Peter Blau, Terry Anderson, Peter Berger and Theodor ('Ted') Sterling.

1985 May 5: Ed Battison from the Tobacco Institute has summarised Robert Tollison/s 1984 Workshop papers on "Smoking and Society" and also lists scientists and academics who would probably "Testify Against Excise Taxes or Anti-Smoking Bills, for Smoker's Rights and Against Cooercion of Smokers and Against Earmarking Excise Taxes for Public Health Care".

    He says about this individual:

WALTER WILLIAMS,
George Mason University, professor,
Center for Study of Public Choice, I.R.E.T. board member, against excise taxes.

1986: The Annual Report of George Mason Uni's Center for Study of Public Choice (a 43 page self-congratulatory booklet.) includes some gems of information:

• Three of their cash-for-comments economists were being celebrated
  • James Buchanan presently serves as President of the Mont Pelerin Society.
  • Robert D. Tollison was President of the Southern Economic Association during 1985.
  • A David Laband article in the Southern Economic Journal, ranks the George Mason Economics Department as among the top twenty in the country.
• Milton Friedman has also had a kind word to say about them!
• Another tobacco-rich academic Aaron Wildavsky, President of the American Political Science Association, was also a fan.
• A Wall Street Article on George Mason Uni explained why they were so popular:

  • "If you 're sitting around in Washington looking for new conservative ideas, you look to George Mason," says Phillip Truluck, executive vice president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group in the capital. 'The development of the university is one of the landmarks in the development of conservative thinking."
    
    
  • James C. Miller III, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and President Reagan's choice to succeed David Stockman as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, says he consults "a great deal" with Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Tullock and Robert Tollison.
    [Miller later became a tobacco lobbyist]
    
    
  • "We don't have any socialists or communists in our (economics) department," says Walter Williams, a leading black conservative economist. "At Harvard and Yale, they have people who believe in managed economies. We don't have that."
    
    
  • "I like to be at a place that has some dynamic to it," says Mr.[James] Buchanan, who is now paid $102,820 a year at George Mason. "This place has some leadership. It's going someplace."
    [He also received cash from industries like tobacco for spruiking their products]
    
    
  • 'There's a long recognition lag, but when the history of the Reagan administration is written, a lot of the thinking will be traced to George Mason." says Manuel Johnson, a George Mason economics professor who is assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy.
    For the Reagan Administration, the Center was "analyzing the federal budget deficit, studying ways of limiting taxes and the role government plays in economic life, and examining the potential effect of a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget."

1986: This is the Tollison/Saverese network list for 1986. It has 64 names, but it still doesn't cover all 50 States. Some States have two or three network members, so newspapers [and sometimes Congressmen] need to be specified for each member to ensure there is no accidental duplication.

    Telephone numbers (office and home) are often included in case an urgent op-ed or ordinance hearing is needed. These are grouped by State:

VIRGINIA
Professor Henry Butler
    George Mason University, School of Law, 3401 North Fairfax Drive, Fairfax, Virginia 22201, 703-841-2665

Professor Richard E. Wagner
    Center for Study of Public Choice, George's Hall, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22 030, 703-323-3773

Professor Walter Williams
    Department of Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, 703-323-2631

1987 June 18: Walter Williams, as Chairman of the Advisory Commitee of the Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation (IRET) has written to Robert Tollison, inviting him to join the Committee (and Tollison accepts).

[IRET was merged with the Citizens for Tax Justice, and run by Ogilvy & Mather for the Tobacco Institute. Bother IRET and CTJ were totally corrupt organizations.]

1987 Dec: /E Annual Report of Citizens for a Sound Economy lists a number of cash-for-comments Professors of Economics as an Academic Advisors of their Foundation, or on their Board of Directors.

• Dom Armentano, University of Hartford
• Robert Tollison, George Mason Uni (Center for Study of Public Choice)
• James Buchanan, George Mason University
• Richard McKenzie, Clemson University
• Jennifer Roback (Center organiser) George Mason Uni
• Richard Stoup, Montana State University
• Walter E Williams, George Mason University

1988 Jan 7: Professor Robert Tollison has a contract with Philip Morris for the book "Clearing the Air" which was to be (nominally) published 'independently' by Lexington Books, under a convoluted agreement which allows the cigarette company...

... to adapt and reprint portions of the Book and to stop publication of the Book.

    You have also represented to us that you have the right under the Publishing Agreement, exercisable upon written notice to Lexington Books any time after sixty days from the date of publication of the Book, to have Lexington Books withdraw the Book from the market and terminate all distribution of the Book.
[This gives the cigarette company legal denial that they were the publisher of the book — they can claim that they only bought the rights to extract material.]

    The Book is comprised of articles by several authors, which you are compiling and editing, and an introduction and conclusion written by you. In consideration for the rights granted to us pursuant to this agreement, we agree to pay you $20,000 during the month of January, 1988.

    We further agree to pay the authors the following amounts on your behalf for their contributions to the Book:

Mark J Reasor	$10,000	[Lifelong academic tobacco lobbyist and 'scientific' witness]
W Allan Crawford	$ 7,500	[Australian medico and regular tobacco witness]
Gray Robertson	$ 7,500	[Pseudo-Indoor Air Quality 'expert' with company ACVA/HBI; also a member IAPAG]
Walter Williams	$ 7,500	[Professor of Economics at George Mason Uni, syndicated columnist, lifelong tobacco lackey]
James M Savarese	$10,000	(Preparation of manuscript and coordination with René Rondou)
Jody Powell	$10,000	[Pres. Carter's press aide; Democrat lobbyist/PR; associate of Savarese at O&M/Cassidy.]
R Emmett Tyrrell	$ 7,000	[Richard Mellon Scaife employee; editor of American Spectator; member of Libertad]
Peter L Berger	$ 7,500	[Boston Uni Sociologist; long-term tobacco lackey; member of Libertad.]
Burt Neuborne	$ 7,500	[Academic New York Uni Law School; ACLU president; long-term tobacco lackey]
Lord J Bruce-Gardyne	$ 8,000	[ex-UK Thatcher govt. Economic Secretary (cig. excise tax); European tobacco advertising and tax harmonisation lobbyist.]
George Mason Foundation	$ 5,000	reprint of James M.Buchanan article

    You agree to include the following acknowledgement in the preface of the Book: "This book is about environmental tobacco smoke, and has come to fruition with the support of Philip Morris Inc. This support was useful to our endeavors, but in no way influenced the opinions expressed by the authors." [But they had the right to censor anything written.]

1988 June 30: The Smokers Newsletter has an editorial:

We recently finished a book titled "Clearing The Air — Perspectives on Environmental Tobacco Smoke" edited by Robert D Tollison, copyrighted in 1988 by D.C. Heath and Company, and published by Lexington Books.

    The book is a collection of subjects relating to the dilemma of tobacco smoke. The twelve authors are a mixture of smokers and non-smokers. The Appendix is very informative. Most importantly, the book is factual.

    The authors include names prominent in their respective endeavors. They are: Mark J Reasor, W Allan Crawford, Gray Robertson, Walter E. Williams, Rene Rondou, Jody Powell, R. Emmett Tyrell, Jr, Peter Berger, Burt Neuborne, Lord Bruce-Gardyne, James L Buchanan and Mr Tollison.

• Rene Rondou was the secretary-treasurer of the Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers (BC&T) union in the USA, who in Oct 26 1970 had been elected as President, Tobacco Workers' International Union.
• Lord Bruce-Gardyne was once the UK Minister Of State For The Treasury (collector of excise taxes). He played a secondary role advising the UK Tobacco Advisory Committee on how to make approaches to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

1988 Oct 18: The New York City Tribune article My Cigarettes, My Smoke, My Airspace: Property Rights Of Smokers Being Violated by Williams.

The key issue isn't the health of smokers, or the nuisance and possible harm to bystanders; it's property rights: the right to keep, acquire, use and dispose of one's property as one sees fit.

    Virtually everyone would agree you have the right to smoke and create a nuisance, and possible harm the nonsmokers in your own house. Why? You own the air in your house and can decide how that air will be used. Anyone offended by your smoking can simply choose not to visit your house. Or. if he wishes, offer to pay you not to smoke in his presence.

    On the other hand, you have the right to prevent others from smoking in your house, because you own the air and can decide how it can be used in your home. It's not an issue of whether "passive' smoke harms you or not, it's a matter of property rights.

1989: Philip Morris are circulating a list of prominent academic and environmental consultants available to provide help in various countries. The economist, Walter Williams at George Mason University is listed, with the explanation that he contributed a chapter to their book "Cigarettes and Property Rights"

1989 Jan 11: The Tobacco Institute's Scientific Consultancy Activity for 1988-89
This is an 80 page mixed bag of files dumped together [Well worth perusing]. The first document is from 1990 [ordered in reverse]

• Pages 3 to 23 begin with Witness Appearances in 1988 and 1989 involving both "Indoor Air Quality experts" who work for the Tobacco Institute, and three economists [Bob Tollison, Richard Wagner and Dwight Lee]
• Pages 24 to 31 Labor IAQ Presentations in 1988 and 1989 which involves key figures in the labor movement and a few "IAQ experts."
• Pages 32 to 39 IAQ/ETS conferences attended by tobacco industry disinformation experts in 1988 and 1989
• Pages 40 to 41 Academic and Unaffiliated Scientfic Witnesses
• Pages 43 to 53 Smokers Rights Legislation in various states.
• See page 54: Tobacco Institute "Confidential" memo on "Tax Hearing Readiness" which is their battle plan to counter earmaking of cigarette excise taxes to fund health programs. It lists a large number of organizations and a few congressmen who can be relied on to help. It also has both primary and secondary lists of economists from Tollison's "cash-for-comments" network willing to give testimony.

  Economists: [Primary]

  • Bill Orzechowski, Tobacco Institute
  • Robert Tollison, George Mason University
  • Richard Wagner, George Mason University
  • Dwight Lee, University of Georgia, Athens
  • Michael Davis, Southern Methodist University
  • Gary Anderson, California State at Northridge
  • William Prendergast (resource: Prendergast/Solmon papers)
  • Other Network economists [see Secondary attached list below]
    
        "Due by mid-year is a book examining earmarking and "user fees" from a public choice perspective. The treatise will contain 8-10 chapters written by respected economists, including, Henri LePage and Nobel laureate James Buchanan."

  The Tobacco Institute's list of cash-for-comments professors and senior academics who were available to write op-eds and give evidence at Congressional hearings, etc. had grown extensively.

  VIRGINIA
  
  Prof Henry Butler, George Mason Uni, School of Law
  
  Prof Richard E Wagner, Center for Study of Public Choice, GMU
  
  Prof Walter Williams, George Mason University, Department of Economics.

[TI budget papers show that each op-ed now earned the economists $3,000. Presentations to conferences earned them $5,000. Savarese was paid $70 to $100,000 pa for this project, and Ogilvy & Mather $250,000.]

See page 5

1989 Sep: The Tobacco Institute Scientific Consultant Activity report for 1988-89 still lists Walter E Williams as one of their own.

1989 Oct 2: The Tobacco Institute's State Tax Plans for 1990 include the strategy of activating

"as many civil rights groups as possible, including the NAACP, the Urban League and Hispanic organisations".

    We will prepare a white paper demonstrating the impacts ot tax increases and prohibition ordinances/policies on minorities. Most of the data already exists. TI headquarters will draft this document.

National Media Effort: With TI headquarters, work to interest national columnist to discuss the subject of economic and job discrimination. Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams are among those we intend to screen during this process. Both of these black columnists are well-known within the minority community. An article by a national columnist would be an excellent addendum to the white paper and would help motivate the minority groups

1989 Nov 15: Debbie Schoonmaker of the Tobacco Institute writes to her Ogilvy & Mather/James Savarese contractors re the twelve State Tax Plans to defeat any excise tax increases. She reviews five states one-by-one and in detail: Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Massacusetts, Michigan. The strategy involves the use of economists in the various states and

"as many civil rights groups as possible, including the NAACP, the Urban League and Hispanic organisations".

    We will prepare a white paper demonstrating the impacts ot tax increases and prohibition ordinances/policies on minorities. Most of the data already exists. TI headquarters will draft this document.

... work to interest national columnist to discuss the subject of economic and job discrimination. Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams are among those we intend to screen during this process.

    Both of these black columnists are well-known within the minority community. An article by a national columnist would be an excellent addendum to the white paper and would help motivate the minority groups.

1989 Dec 26: Terry Eagan, the Tobacco Institute State Director for Arizona wrote to George Minshew at the TI in Washington.

A couple of months or so ago I sent a memo on our Arizona tax strategy in which I suggest The Institute contact Walter Williams or Thomas Sowell, both syndicated columnists and both black, and discuss with them the disproportionate impacts visited upon minorities when such excises as the tobacco tax are increased either nationally or locally.

    The attached column by Walter Williams ran Christmas Day in the Sacramento Union. Williams and Sowell are both libertarian to the bone. Neither trusts government as the solution to contemporary problems. Both feel most governmental programs are counterproductive and endanger individual freedom.

1990: On list of those who have inserted into the record ETS Risk Assess Criticisms against the Environmental Protection Agency's characterisation of passive smoke as a carcinogen.

1990 Feb 28: Walter E Williams and Jennifer Roback (both of George Mason University) have been recruited as a witness by the Tobacco Institute to appear at the Luken Hearings in Congress. They are now listed as a witness for Kennedy & Waxman hearings, as if from the Washington Legal Foundation

1990 Mar 9: Walter Williams is listed as a prospective witness (working with Ed Battison of the Tobacco Institute) at the Kennedy hearings.

1990 May 7: The Tobacco Institute's "1991 Tax and Social Cost Plans" have sections on

• "Social Costs" Hearings Readiness (preparation for fielding witnesses at Congressional hearings.) They list here the arguments that the Institute and its allies must be prepared to present.
• "Tax" Hearing Readiness (as above, but for excise tax increases, State and Federal)
• List of cash-for-comment network economists in each State.

VIRGINIA
Professor Henry Butler
George Mason University School of Law
3401 North Fairfax Drive Fairfax, Virginia 22201 703-841-2665

Professor Richard E. Wagner
Center for Study of Public Choice, George's Hall
George Mason University Fairfax, Virginia 22030 703-323-3773

Professor Walter Williams
Department of Economics, George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030 703-323-2631

1990 June: /E Excise Tax Letter-Writing Fact Sheet. This is a list of points that the Tobacco Institute wanted the economists to include in their op-ed articles.

• Excise taxes are regressive
• Excise taxes are fundamentally inequitable
• Excise taxes are an unfair burden on minorities
• Government data demonstrates the unfairness of excise taxes.
• Excise taxes are arbitrary
• Excise taxes are hidden taxes
• Excise taxes are an unfair burden on businesses
• Excise taxes are bad economic policy
• Excise taxes are historically controversial.

• pages of data so that the economists got their facts right,
• a series of quotes that could be incorporated into the article.
• pages of State-by-State data including the number of jobs that the Tobacco Institute estimated would be lost by higher cigarette excises
• lost revenues for each State, due, it was claimed, to cross-state bootlegging and smuggling.
• a list of Congressmen to be contacted in every region.
• Tollison's C/V

1990 Aug 3: Sam Chilcote at the Tobacco Institute has advised the Members of the Executive Committee of plans for a "Celebrity Spokesman Project" — to develop a celebrity speakers program using academics and other expert consultants. They are to offer the speakers both money and personal promotion:

    BLOCKQUOTE CLASS=Q> [A]t the June meeting, this Committee asked Institute staff to make further revisions in a proposal to develop a "celebrity" speakers' program. At the same time, Philip Morris offered to share with Institute staff its own list of potential candidates, that it had developed independently.

    Those tasks have been completed. And while it is clear that there are a number of individuals who can and are speaking out on our issues independent of The Institute, there also is much more that could be done. There are, for example, opportunities to develop higher profiles for those individuals with whom we enjoy an existing relationship, and to increase within the media an awareness of their availability.

    There also are a number of individuals who have been identified who do not currently have a relationship with the industry, but whose views appear to be compatible with our own. Should the Executive Committee decide that it wants to proceed with an expansion of our speakers' program, these individuals would be contacted to determine their interest in our issues.

    The addition of new speakers to our program will be expensive. Most of these individuals command substantial consulting fees; media and other activity will require a new commitment of funds, although an exact amount cannot be determined until candidates have been approached.

• Authors, newscasters and newspaper columnists
• Well-known politicians, political aides, White House staffers, State authorities, agency administrators, etc
• Heads of various coalition groups (American Advertising Federation. etc)
• Cash-for-comments legal and business academics from Savarese's network list.
• Cash-for-comments 'risk assessment' academics and promoter.
• Cash-for-comment experts in indoor air pollution and ventilation systems.
• Cash-for-comment academic economists + some likely allies:

• BRUCE L. BENSON, professor of economics, Florida State University and board member, James Madison Institute, a Tallahassee think tank
• PAUL R. LAWRENCE, economist, Price Waterhouse
• DWIGHT R. LEE, professor of economics, holder of the Ramsey Chair of Private Enterprise, University of Georgia
• JAMES C. MILLER, Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation, Washington; former director of OMB
• NORMAN B. TURE, president, Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation, Washington, former Treasury Department official
• WALTER E. WILLIAMS, professor of economics, George Mason University, Fairfax, Va.
• BRUCE BARTLETT, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy Analysis, Treasury Department, author of "Reaganomics," former economic policy advisor to Jack Kemp
• JOE COBB, Joint Congressional Economic Committee, organizer of the free market-oriented Prosperity caucus
• STEVE ENTIN, Resident Scholar, Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation, former Treasury Department policy adviser
• KEVIN HOPKINS, Hudson Institute, former White House policy adviser -
• DAN MITCHELL, Heritage Foundation, economic policy analyst, formerly on the staff of Senator Packwood
• TIM MURIS, George Mason University Law School, formerly with Office of Management and Budget and FTC
• BOB OKUN, executive director, House Republican Conference, formerly executive director, House Republican Policy Committee

    This is followed by an extensive list of overt and covert academic and commercial lobbyists, with details of their records of service in 1989 and 1990.

1990 Nov: New Dimensions: The Psychology behind the News. Article on the Savings & Loan bail out: "Santa Claus view of government"

The S&L crisis ought to teach Amercians a good lesson about our Santa Claus view of government. "Deposits insured by the federal government" is at best a misleading, and possibly fraudulent usage of the term "insured".

1991 May 21: The Politics of Health symposium, jointly sponsored by The Manhattan Institute and the UK Social Affairs Unit at The Harvard Club in New York City. [Both well-funded by tobacco]

    The list of participants reads like a roll-call of academic tobacco lobbyists including three of the 14 with direct connections to tobacco lobbying through the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne (Australia).

    This symposium was funded by the tobacco industry, and run as part of its campaign to promote the idea that most environmental and health regulation was based on 'junk science', a term then being popularised (if not invented) by a 'senior fellow' at the Manhattan Institute, Peter Huber (another life-long tobacco industry lobbyist).

• Myron Magnet — Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute and Board of Editors, Fortune
• Peter Berger — a sociologist at Boston University who worked extensively for the tobacco industry, including through the Libertad organsiation.
• James LaFanu, a UK Sunday Telegraph 'curmudgeon' columnist, who took writing and speaking commissions from the tobacco industry.
• Leonard B Sagan, of the Electric Power Research Institute
• Aaron Wildavsky - tobacco lobbyist and Uni of California, Berkeley
• Peter Skrabanek, Trinity College Dublin
• Mark Mills, Center for Science Technology and Media, Washington DC
• Irving Kristol, Editor "The Public Interest"
• Walter E Williams, economist, George Mason Uni, and tobacco cash-for-comments network

  John M. Olin Professor of Economics, George Mason University (Virginia). Author of The State Against Blacks (the basis for the PBS documentary "Good Intentions") and America: A Minority Viewvoint. He has published articles In the American Economic Review and Social Science Quarterly as well as Newsweek and the Reader's Digest and writes a weekly syndicated column carried by over 100 newspapers throughout America. Williams holds a Ph.D. In economics from the University of California at Los Angeles.

• Digby Anderson, Director Social Affairs Unit, London [Virtually a full-time lobbyist for various industries]

• Raymond Johnstone, of the AIPP and IPA (also Uni of WA)
• Peter Finch, statistician from Monash Uni, and also the IPA
• Robert Browning, professional lobbyist from Melbourne and the IPA.

1991 July 8: One of the tobacco industry's Economists' Network members, Walter Williams, writes in the Washington Times. "Watch out for the health gestapo."

Remember the Alar scare in 1989 manufactured by loonies at the Natural Resources Council and "60 Minutes"?

    Accordmg to Dr Edward Remmers, vice president of ACSH, Americas must stop believing that man is evil and nature is benevolent.

    Remmers says, "Human dietary intake of nature's toxins is at least 10,000 time greater than the intake of man-made pesticides" In fact, the cancer hazard from drinking Alar-tainted apple juice is four to 30 times less than eating one peanut butter sandwich.

Despite the yeomanlilae work Dr Whelan's organization has done in debunking health nonsense, it fails to apply the same rigor and logic to the consumption of "passive" cigarette smoke. It joins the cigarette Nazis by calling for more government violation of private property rights.

1991 Nov 27: Your Christmas Seal Money\ Length: 1 page

• Bennett, J. — George Mason University
• Johnson, W. — Capital Research Center
• Walter E Williams — Richmond Times Dispatch, George Mason University

1993 May 24: A list of Director/Candidates considered for election fo the Board of Directors of Philip Morris between 1979 and 1990. It has a few hundred names, and includes some outright political and economic lobbyists, media personalities and right- and left-wing politicians and aides along with the socialites and corporate heads:   • Howard H Baker Jr   • Sidney Blumenthal   • Louis Gerstner Jr   • Alan Greenspan   • Robert L Johnson   • Richard C Marcus   • Rupert Murdoch   • Condoleeza Rice   • H Norman Schwartzkopf   • Lester Thurow   • Walter E Williams   • Clayton Yeutter
[This was the year Rupert Murdoch was selected.]

1993 Sept: The Smokers Advocate (published by Philip Morris) republishes an article 'EPA Lies' by Walter E Williams [with his permission]. This was in support of the cigarette companies legal attack on the Environmental Protection Agency which had reported that second hand smoke constituted a significant health hazard.
    Williams opines:

"When the EPA classified environmental __ tobacco smke (ETS) as a group A-carcanogen putting it in the category with benzene and asbestos, its actions were based on statistical methodology that would earn an F for a sophomore statistics student, if not expulsion for intellectual dishonesty.

    This is gross dishonesty; and all EPA bureaucrats involved should be summarily
    fired.
. [The dishonesty actually lay with the tobacco industry's distortions of the techniques of meta-analysis, which Williams reproduced without question.]

    As of late, Americans have abandoned this conflict-reducing role of private property in favor of government intimidation, threat and violence. That's fine except when you consider that you may not always be on the side of the dominant coalition, and it will be you who is victimized by official lies, threats and intimidation.

1993 Sep 16: Craig Fuller, VP for Corporate Affairs (and effectively the head domestic USA lobbyist or 'issues manager') at Philip Morris, saus in his Monthly Report to CEO Michael Miles, that his division (which included the WRO - Washington Regulatory Office) was working to defeat President Clinton's health care reform package. He lists numerous activities including:

• We continued to support company efforts to address the EPA's risk assessment on ETS.
• Conducted an ETS briefing for PMI Corporate Affairs staff. Reviewed and analyzed scientific articles on ETS and submitted letters to the editors of newspapers responding to the claims made in the studies.
• Briefed Walter Williams, an economist and syndicated columnist, on the ETS issue and excise taxes.

1993 Oct 28: A C/V "Biographical Sketch" of Walter Williams has been faxed from his Economics Department to Philip Morris.

1993 Oct 29: An internal Philip Morris memo to Steve Parrish includes a biography of Williams and comments:

Attached, per your request, is a copy of "EPA's Lies" by Walter Williams. Also, I spoke with Walker Merryman [Tobacco Instittue] for some background. Walker doesn't know Williams personally, but he does know that Williams is an economist, very conservative and very much his own thinker. Apparently the TI at one point tried to pitch a column idea to him, and Williams would not even entertain the idea of having a column idea dictated to him. [TI would not have been encouraging PM to steal one of its network economists, so take this with a grain of salt.]

    Finally, Tom Borelli had lunch with Williams not too long ago. Don't know any details since Tom is travelling this week.

1994 March 16: A group of academic economists including almost all the members of the Tobacco Institute's cash-for-comments network sent an "An Open Letter to President Clinton on Healthcare Reform." This had been organised by David J Theroux, the founder and operator of the Independent Institute apparently with the assistance of an academic network member, Simon Rottenberg. [The institute was well-funded by the tobacco industry]. They say:

In The Open Letter to President Clinton, 565 economists and 76 other scholars from all 50 states and the District of Columbia state their firm opposition to any form of direct and indirect price controls in any healthcare program.

    Rationing Health Care: The New Threat of Price Controls, by Simon Rottenberg and David J. Theroux

In countries that have imposed these types of regulations, patients face delays of months and years for surgery, government bureaucrats decide treatment options instead of doctors or patients, and innovations in medical techniques and pharmaceuticals are dramatically reduced.

1994 Nov 6: The Tobacco Institute's Briefing Book with a collection of 'Talking Points' and newspaper clippings to do with "Outdoor Smoking Bans" and general material on ETS. This material has been sent to the Tobacco Institute as part of a collection which includes anti-EPA pieces by the normal list of far-right tobacco lackeys like Jacob Sullum, Michael Fumento, Merrick Carey, Glenn G Lammi, et al

    The Washington Post carries a Walter Williams column "Science and totalarianism" which starts with the mouth-frothing opinion that:

Some of the world's most barbarous acts, from slavery to genocide, have been facilitated by bogus science. The Food and Drug Administration's Dr David Kessler; Rep. Henry Waxman, California Democrat; and Environmental Protection Agency head Carol Browner are modern day leaders of that ugly scheme.

Don't get ine wrong; I'm not equating them to Hitler. But what distinguishes them is a matter of degree, not kind.

Whatever we may feel about smoking, we can't deviate from good scientific principles to achieve the findings we want. Walter Williams, in writing about the "deceitful, dishonest use of science" to achieve political objectives observes that by such methods, "tyrants never tire of tyrannizing."

    We may achieve the result that some want in regulating ETS, but this could lead to many adverse consequences in other areas.

1994 Dec 21: Tom Borelli at Philip Morris is circulating Walter Williams recent articles on the FDA which "has appeared in over ten daily newspapers throughout the country."

[Borelli would not have gone to the trouble to circulate this to a dozen executives unless he was intimating that the article had been the result of his operations. It is quite likely, since the tobacco industry operated like the CIA on a 'need to know only' basis, that both PM and the TI were paying Williams for the same articles.]

1995: Advisory Board of Independent Institute

1995–20: 01 chairman of George Mason University's Economics department

1995 Mar 5: Walter Williams column, "Tobacco Bans Grow 'Serfs' for Tyrants" The Cincinnati Enquirer,

1995 May 10: The Orange County Register carried one of Walter Williams pieces "Junk Science and the Health Road to Serfdom" managing to link both the tobacco industry's favorite slogan with Frederich von Hayek, and health reform to feudal totalitarianism.

1995 May 12: A Washington Times column by Walter Williams "Highway to health serfdom" complains about the prospects of the states recovering Medicaid costs from the tobacco industry, and says "America's anti-smoking tyrants have little respect for private property rights...." It then goes on in a convoluted way to discuss the claim that there are raised breast cancer rates among women who have had an abortion. Williams' believes that young women who have had an abortion have 8-times the risk of breast cancer before the age of 45. This claim then segues into a statement that:

George Carlo and his associates did a survey of 1,461 epidemiologists, toxicologists, physicians and general scientists on their thinking about secondhand smoke. Their study, published in the Journal of Risk Analysis, found that 70 percent thought secondhand smoke was a serious health hazard and 85 percent thought government intervention was necessary.

    What can be made of a scientific community that supports oppressive government regulations to combat secondhand smoke, which has a relative risk ratio of 1.19, and greets with skepticism a report showing an abortion-induced breast cancer relative risk of 1.3?

    The most flattering answer I come up with is that they are dishonest people willing to be prostitutes for an evil agenda.

1995 July 13: Philip Morris's Victor Hann also has Robert Higgs and Walter Williams (both cash-for-comments economy hacks) listed under "Contacted Media" for some other project. They are anticipating Higgs publication of an op-ed in National Daily.
[This appears to be related to the Philip Morris suing of ABC TV]

1995 Aug 2: Barry Holt at Philip Morris sends a memo to Murray Bring about a plan some executive lobbyists have put together after a 'brainstorming' session "to interest some of the more conservative journalists to take on the issue of the latest coverage of the tobacco industry." Specific members of this "Media Fairness" lobby group are detailed to contact each columnist/journalist on their list. Burson-Marstellar has also recommended a dozen or so columns to target, including:

—Walter William's column called A Minority View (Creators Syndicate)

1995 Oct: /E List of Fair and Favourable columnists for Philip Morris lists Williams at the Washington Times, along with Jeffry Hart, Samuel Francis, William Rusher, Ron A Taylor and the Creators Syndicate columnists Stephen Chapman, Mona Charen, Tony Snow [In this list they are all grouped together — this must be after the Rev. Moon and his Unification Church took control of the Creators Syndicate]

1996 Jan 21: Walter Williams column, "Science Misreported to Destroy Industries," Cincinnati Enquirer [Guess which industry he thinks is being destroyed by 'junk science'?]

1996 Apr 17: Walter Williams column, "Smokeless Tobacco Offends the Crusaders," Richmond Times-Dispatch

1996 Dec: /E Cato Institute Annual Report: Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute. include Cash-for-Comments /Public Choice economists Terry Anderson, Dominick Armentano, Thomas DiLorenzo, Robert Higgs, Dwight Lee, Richard Stroup, Walter Williams and also Jennifer Roback, the Outreach Coordinator for the Center for the Study of Public Choice and Henry Manne from the GMU Law School

1997 /E: Roy Marden who organised Philip Morris's annual grants made to friendly think-tanks and advocacy institute, has produced this "Third Party Message Development List" which identifes the conservative columnists and executive lobbyists in the various think-tanks and institutes which owe them a debt of gratitude — or are ideologically aligned with tobacco promotion. Also included are notes on the areas where each might be most useful, and [in some] which of the company's lobbying staff was to maintain the contact.

    It lists

Walter Williams
Syndicated Journalist
Professor of Economics, George Mason University
(note: expertise in liberty-related issues, fiscal policy)

1997: Payments from Philip Morris to one group of collaborating policy Institutes were also handled by Josh Slavitt (head of Issues Management Team) and John Dunham (Fiscal Issues Manager).

George Mason's Law and Economics Center, which houses Walter Williams, has been receiving $10,000 this year from the company.
[The Tobacco Institute and the other cigarette companies also contributed both with annual donations and the occasional commissions.]

See page 2

1997: A 60-page file labeled "Nashville Tennessee" has details of Philip Morris's lobbying in the state during 1996, including:

• Both Company (PM) and Industry 'gifts' to the governor and politicians, some via lobbyist Bob Clement.
• "Focussed Giving" (commissions) by PM subsidiaries, Kraft, Millers, etc.
• Arts, Museums, College, Clubs, Societies — grants, sponsorships etc.
• "We Card" project ( a token attempt at limiting teenage smoking)
• TV Advertising expenditures of the Tobacco companies compared to the combined Democrat campaign and anti-smoking group advertising (about 30:1)
• Earned Media in Markets Reaching Tennessee together with the name of the commissioned author, the Market and the title of the article or editorial
  • cash-for-comments economist Lee Anderson (Uni of Delaware) has been prolific - dozens.
  • William Buckley Jr has had a couple of successes.
  • Reed Irving, of Scaife's Accuracy in Media makes a showing
  • Walter Williams has only one intriguing reference: "Court Rules for Williams, 9-0"

1997 Mar 12: John Dunham, the Fiscal Issues Manager on the Philip Morris disinformation staff, has written to the senior group:
RE Indiana Medicaid study
This is just the kind of stuff that we need to do as part of the "economic voice" I would suggest the following:

1. If the study can be done quickly and be used in the current tax fight we should find it now and get it done.
2. If the study will take a longer time, we should incorporate it into the "social cost forum" that we are planning for the summer.
3. Either way, we should sponsor the study with an"unrestricted research grant"

1998: Two of the more notorious cash-for-comments academics working for tobacco, James T Bennett and Thomas DiLorenzo have just published an industry-funded book: "Cancerscam: The Diversion of Federal Cancer Funds to Politics."
See the first typed draft sent to Philip Morris.

    Bennett is also a Professor of Economics, and George Mason University and a syndicated columnist with the Creators Syndicate. Here Walter Williams has written a review of the published book along with some other academic lackeys:

If you thought that citizens are seen as emancipated adults, fully capable of making decisions, think again. Professors Bennett and DiLorenzo have thoroughly documented that there are those who think they know better. What's worse is that they have deviously exploited American generosity to health charities who have forsaken their stated mission and in turn directed their energies in support of political forces who seek greater control over us.

1998 Mar 17: Walter Williams column, "Nanny State is Overreaching," Chattanooga Free Press,

1998 Mar 21: In a Philip Morris file of "Supportive Quotes and Editorials". Here the 'supportive' means those in favor of giving the tobacco industry legislated protection against future law-suits (the cash settlement terms had already been agreed).

Walter Williams, a nationally syndicated columnist, warns that legislating health is a dangerous business, one that could lead to Constitutional violations.

    Noting the evolution of anti-smoking attitudes — and their eventual translation into anti-smoking laws —Williams cautions Americans to be wary when Congress legislates behavior on the basis of perceived health concerns.

1998 Apr 14: A form-letter to RJ Reynolds seeking donations to the National Tax Limitation Committee (NTLC) and its non-profit Foundation (NTLF) (both based in California) pays homage to Walter Williams and a dozen or so other dedicated tobacco academics.
[It has ties to the Cato Institute, American Conservative Union, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), US Chamber of Commerce, and Business Leadership Council.]

    Also a favorite of the cash-for-comments set: Walter Williams, Barry Paulson, James Buchanan, James C Miller, Stanton Evans, Richard Vedder, Aaron Wildavsky... and also the theorist, Milton Friedman and the politicians Boydon Gray, Newt Gingrich, John Sununu and Robert Bork.

1998 Apr 19: Walter Williams column, "Crusade Against Teen Smoking is Stupid," Cincinnati Enquirer,

1998 May 14: Richmond Times Dispatch column by Walter Williams: titled "Or Will Health Zealots Not Stop With Smoking Ban?" It tells a story about a Salt Lake City gang of 20 teen-age thugs called the "Straight Edgers" who he claims are also anti-smoking zealots. They beat up smokers:

Following an exchange of words, the students were attacked with chains, bricks, and pepper spray. One student landed in the hospital after being beaten on the head with a baseball bat.

    The Straight Edgers don't drink, smoke, or take drugs — and they use violence to enforce their moral standards on others.

1998 May 17: The Cincinnati Enquirer carries a Williams column, reported by Brown & Williamson Tobbaco as "supportive" in its News Summary [Title not given]

Walter Williams, syndicated columnist and professor of economics at George Mason University, rues the prevalence of "lifestyle nazis" and their ongoing campaign to ensure "healthy" choices for all Americans.

    Whether it concerns the right to smoke, eat fat-saturated foods, or consume caffeine-laced soft-drinks, these people are always on hand to "enforce their own moral standards on others."

    Williams isn't happy about it either, and he says, "I'm not by myself...there's an increasing number of Americans fed up to our necks with these lifestyle Nazis."

1998 July 1: Sam Chilcote has been sent a Walter Williams column by an advertising lobbyist who is working with them to put together a coalition of industries to counter the state Attorney's-Generals. The only new name on his list is a handwritten "Microsoft".

    The Williams column is "Testing policy by Mom's rules." He calls into support the founding fathers, James Madison and Thomas Jefferon, who he believes would have supported his pro-smoking position.

If you think a majority consensus is fair, how would you like enactment of the following law: Congress shall have the power to ban, regulate or tax out of existence any product found to have no nutritional necessity but to be costly to the nation's health-care system?

    While most Americans support what Congress considered doing to cigarette smokers, I'd be willing to bet my bank account they wouldn't support those actions as a general rule.

    Why would Americans support cigarette control and not a general rule allowing Congress to ban or control consumption of other products deemed harmful to our health? Most of the answer is cigarettes are the other guy's vice, and a majority has the power to be arbitrary.

1998 Jul 23: Walter Williams column, "Prevailing Inanities," The Washington Times An attack on Medicaid reimbursement lawsuits.

Don't say that Williams didn't warn you about the lifestyle Nazis' attack on cigarette smokers. I warned that a lifestyle Nazi's work is never done.

    In New York City, there's a group calling itself the Anti-Dairy Coalition. Its executive director, Robert Cohen, author of the book "Milk, The Deadly Poison" says,

"Milk products, like tobacco, are an enormous threat to the health of both children and adults, yet we see the dairy industry protected by constitutionally Questionable laws, while the tobacco industry is held accountable."

There have always been kooks, quacks and lunatics. But the fact they've taken over Washington and are writing laws harmful to us all says something about the mental state of our nation as a whole, and I'm afraid to speculate what that is.

1998 Oct: /E Philip Morris has a "Third Party Message Development Contacts List" which has a range of think-tank operators, journalists, and academics who are willing to write pro-tobacco material without mentioning their tobacco connections [third-party = 'independent commentator'], or sometimes allow their names to be used as bylines on articles written by tobacco company staff. It often has some comments on their usefulness.

    This person is listed as:

Walter Williams
Syndicated Journalist
Professor of Economics, George Mason University
(note: expertise in liberty-related issues, fiscal policy)

1999 Feb 11: Walter Williams column, "Fur Tyranny Begins with a Label," Washington Times,

1999 March: Williams is listed on the masthead of The Freeman, produced by the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), which is itself a love-child of the Independent Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy (both worked for tobacco).

    His associates on the FEE newsletter masthead included a bunch of cash-for-comments economists ( Dwight Lee, Peter Boettke, Thomas J DiLorenzo, and Robert Higgs), the prominent payola pundit, Doug Bandlow, and an associate from the economists list for the Social Cost Forum, Donald J. Boudreaux.

    It carried a review of the book "For Vour Own Good: The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health" by Jacob Sullum of the Reason Foundation and magazine.
[This must be a 'birds-of-a-feather' aviary.]

1999 Apr: Walter Williams column, "Youths' Rights Come at High Cost," Deseret News On teenage smoking.

1999 Jun 13: Walter Williams column, "Limiting the Smog at EPA," Washington Times,

1999 Oct 19: Thirty Seven right-wing academics have signed an "Open Letter to the Attorney General" in support of senior tobacco industry executives and helpers who were under threat of being charged with Racketeering under the RICO Act. This was two years after the signing of the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA)

    It appears to be a final-draft version (organised through George Mason University) from the Philip Morris files. It says [truncated]

• The lawsuit instituted by the Department of Justice against the tobacco industry to recover Medicare expenses from smoking related illnesses is without legal or economic merit. This politically motivated, thinly disguised tax ignores the rule of law and establishes dangerous precedents and threats to free enterprise.
• The tobacco industry should not be denied its constitutional right to require individual evidence of causation and damages.
• The Administrations' effort to circumvent the will of Congress is transparent. Congress has already rebuffed federal government efforts to tax tobacco out of existence when it rejected the McCain tobacco tax bill in 1998. Other administration efforts such as the Food and Drug Administrations effort to expand its jurisdiction to include cigarettes and tobacco have been rejected by federal courts of appeals.
• This action poses an unprecedented threat to commerce and constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. The federal assault on cigarettes threatens to establish a dangerous precedent for other industries.
• The Department of Justice Tobacco Medicare litigation violates elementary considerations of fairness and undermines confidence in the constitutional system. We oppose this threat of vast expropriation of private property and this attempt at taxation through litigation.

1999 Oct 19: Thirty Seven right-wing academics have signed an "Open Letter to the Attorney General" in support of senior tobacco industry executives and helpers who were under threat of being charged with Racketeering under the RICO Act. This was two years after the signing of the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA)

    It appears to be a final-draft version (organised through George Mason University) from the Philip Morris files. It says [truncated]

• The lawsuit instituted by the Department of Justice against the tobacco industry to recover Medicare expenses from smoking related illnesses is without legal or economic merit. This politically motivated, thinly disguised tax ignores the rule of law and establishes dangerous precedents and threats to free enterprise.
• The tobacco industry should not be denied its constitutional right to require individual evidence of causation and damages.
• The Administrations' effort to circumvent the will of Congress is transparent. Congress has already rebuffed federal government efforts to tax tobacco out of existence when it rejected the McCain tobacco tax bill in 1998. Other administration efforts such as the Food and Drug Administrations effort to expand its jurisdiction to include cigarettes and tobacco have been rejected by federal courts of appeals.
• This action poses an unprecedented threat to commerce and constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. The federal assault on cigarettes threatens to establish a dangerous precedent for other industries.
• The Department of Justice Tobacco Medicare litigation violates elementary considerations of fairness and undermines confidence in the constitutional system. We oppose this threat of vast expropriation of private property and this attempt at taxation through litigation.

2001: This is an anonymous article which was held in the office of Steve Parrish (the top disinformation executive of Philip Morris). It is 59 pages long, and it provides a historic overview of the tobacco industry's problems, purporting to be from the standpoint of an 'independent/outside' observer — which turns out to be the team of lobbyists who run the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH).This is an astroturf-lobby group run on behalf of the chemical and food-processing industries.

    It appears to be a commissioned piece to provide an external view of the industry from scientists and doctors who were critical of tobacco — but Republican, and therefore supportive of their rights to sell product. The lead author is 'EMW' which are the initials of Elizabeth Murphy Whelan who ran the ACSH. She created a 'health activist' reputation by attacking smoking — while supporting pesticides, chemical residues, etc.

Over the past decade it has become increasingly evident that major American cigarette manufacturers took calculated steps to suppress research on smoking and health and to mislead the public about the dangers of cigarette use. In a landmark lawsuit brought against the cigarette industry by the State of Minnesota in 1994 and settled in 1998, Judge Kenneth Fitzpatrick found that the major cigarette companies had used their lawyers to conceal research into the health effects of tobacco and had engaged in "abuse and disregard for the judicial process."

• Washington Times columnist Armstrong Williams says he doesn't like smoking but doesn't think the FDA should control tobacco.
• Ex presidential candidate Bob Dole also spruiked for tobacco, although he said in public that he'd "like to see no American smoke".
• Washington Times columnist Walter Williams

  opines that the real reason people object to smoking in public places is that they are disturbed by smoke, rather than concerned about the purported health effects, at the same time that he complains about the continued impact of the "fraudulent" report of the Environmental Protection Agency:

  The right asserts that the left is being disingenuous

  ... economist and syndicated columnist Walter Williams refers disparagingly to "[t]obacco prohibitionists, their allies in Congress and 'useful idiots' among the public, as well as the news media," whom, he says, "applaud the deceitful, dishonest use of science to achieve their objective."
  
      The tactics of the cigarette Nazis are an excellent example of [tyrants'] methods. Like the Beverly Hills Consumers for Informed Choice, cigarette Nazis started out demanding laws requiring cigarette manufacturers to put warning labels on their product. Emboldened by that success, they successfully demanded no-smoking sections on airplanes.
  
      Then they demanded no smoking at all on airplanes, then airports, then restaurants, workplaces and bars. The rest of the story includes confiscatory cigarette taxes, lawsuits against tobacco companies, and even promoting and condoning violence against people smoking cigarettes."

2001: Williams stepped down from the position of chairman of George Mason University's Economics department Williams has become known nationally as a highly popular guest host before the twenty million listeners of the Rush Limbaugh radio program when Limbaugh is away traveling.

2001: See Water Williams foreword to "Waging the War of Ideas" from the Institute of Economic Affairs

2001–11: Williams served on the board of directors of Media General and was chairman of the Audit Committee.

2002 Feb 25: article "They're Coming After You"

The real reason for the attack on smokers is that many people are offended by the tobacco odor. Unfortunately, in their quest to eliminate tobacco fumes, Americans are willing to trade away constitutional principles and rule of law.

    Tyrants are never satisfied. They've lined up new victims.

    The Center for Consumer Freedom (www.consumerfreedom.com) keeps up-to-date information on these and other tyrants. You might say, "What's the fuss, Williams? These people will never get away with controlling what we eat and drink!" Think again. In the 60's, when the anti-smoking zealots were simply asking for smoking and non-smoking sections on airplanes, no one would have ever anticipated today's tobacco taxes, laws and regulations.

    Most evil done in the world is done in the name of promoting this or that good. By turning away from rule of law and constitutional government, Americans are following in the footsteps of the decent Germans, who during the 1920s and 30s, built the Trojan Horse that enabled Hitler to take over.

2003 Oct 6: Column by Williams "Trashing Rule of Law" which says:

Sam Katzman, attorney for the Washington, D.C.-based Competitive Enterprise Institute says, "The tobacco litigation campaign's most significant impact may well be not its effect on the tobacco industry or on smokers, but its creation of a template for attacking other industries."

    The nation's tyrants have already begun using the tobacco litigation template against the food and beverage industries.
[No wonder Americans on the right are paranoid to the point of psychotic if they read crap like this all the time.]

2007 April 17: A rant in the Jewish World Review, "Phony Science and Public Policy" continues promoting the anti-science line.

"[T]he public has become increasingly aware that the science behind man-made global warming is a fraud. [] A serious public health threat had to be manufactured, and in 1993 the EPA stepped in to the rescue with their bogus ETS study that says secondhand tobacco smoke is a class A carcinogen"

"The liberty-oriented solution has to do with private property rights, whereby the owner of property makes the decision whether he will allow smoking or not. If one is a nonsmoker, he just doesn't do business with a bar or restaurant where smoking is permitted. A smoker could exercise the same right if a bar or restaurant didn't permit smoking. Publicly owned places such as libraries, airports and municipal buildings, where ownership is ill defined, presents more of a challenge.

    The tyranny-oriented solution is where one group uses the political system to forcibly impose its preferences on others. You might be tempted to object to the term "tyranny," but suppose you owned a restaurant where you did not permit smoking and smokers used the political system to create a law forcing you to permit smoking. I'm sure you'd deem it tyranny. [This has to be the most idiotic and fallacious inversion of an argument ever published in an intelligent journal. Substitute 'farting' or 'spewing' for 'smoking' and see how long the example holds up.]

    The public policy debate on smoking has been settled through bogus science. My question is, how willing are we to allow bogus science to be used in the pursuit of other public policy agendas, such as restrictions on economic growth, in the name of fighting global warming? "

2008: Cartoonist Bruce Tinsley, in his comic strip Mallard Fillmore, launched a campaign to draft Williams for the Republican presidential nomination in the United States presidential election.

    Although Williams initially stated that he wouldn't completely rule out the possibility, he ultimately decided against such a run, and endorsed Ron Paul.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/walter-e-williams#ixzz2SgE7g0K1

2008 Oct: Speaking at an American's for Prosperity (Koch funded) conference at the Marriott, Washington DC. Walter Williams is listed as a guest host for Rush Limbaugh
    [Source: New Yorker, article on Koch Bros. Aug 30 2010]

2009,: Greg Ransom, a writer for the Ludwig von Mises Institute, ranked Williams as the third-most important "Hayekian" Public Intellectual in America, behind only Thomas Sowell and John Stossel.

2010: The Hoover Institute has published his autobiography: "Up from the Projects: An Autobiography"

    If anyone ever reads it, we'd be interested to know how much of the material revealed in this web page has been included. We suspect, not much.

2011: National Legal Center for the Public Interest (NLCPI) [funded by Scaife and Fluor which merged with the American Enterprise Institute in September 2007] list him on their board (along with Henry Butler on the Legal Advisory Council)

2011,: Williams retired from the board of directors of Media General. He served on the board of directors from 2001—2011 and was chairman of the Audit Committee.

2011 Dec: Williams has written on his web-site about Ayn Rand's 1967 work Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal that it is "one of the best defenses and explanations of capitalism one is likely to read."[See web site]

Williams pro-tobacco rantings
Williams still writes pro-tobacco material, as part of his uber-libertarian output. There's a small fraction of it which is searchable at his GMU web site. Type "tobacco" into the search entry.

2013 Jan 23 color=#ff0000> Walter Williams has a Damascian conversion.

    See Experts aren't Dieties. That's the only way to explain this column published at Townhall.com.

    He spells out the mistakes that great men like Isaac Newton have made... and then slides into what we might consider his own 'mea culpa'.

The take-home lesson is that experts are notoriously fallible outside of their fields of endeavor — and especially so when making predictions. There tends to be an inverse relationship between a predictor's level of confidence and the accuracy of his prediction.

    Irving Fisher, a distinguished Yale University economics professor in 1929, predicted, "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." Three days later, the stock market crashed.

    In 1954, Dr W.C. Heuper of the National Cancer Institute said, "If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production of lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one."

    The bottom line is that the fact that a person has academic degrees, honors and status is no reason for us to abandon our tools of critical thinking.

CONTRIBUTORS:samf dlo2 srs2