Gentlemen,
Please find attached documents relating to my filing of a criminal complaint
alleging violation of domestic terrorism, racketeering, and civil rights statutes.
This complaint is filed against the enterprise Action On Smoking And Health (ASH),
its Executive Director, John Banzhaf, and John Does 1 through 99 who are, or who may have
been during relevant periods, officers, directors, or other controlling persons of that enterprise.
ASH may be contacted at 2013 H Street, NW Washington D.C. 20006 (202) 659-4310.
The internet address of the ASH enterprise is WWW.ASH.ORG.
Documents included herein were accessed at locations on that web site, notably
WWW.ASH.ORG/PROTAGONIST.HTML and WWW.ASH.ORG/WHITEHOUSE.HTML.
The headlines for the two stated addresses are "NEW BOOK TELLS HOW PROTAGONIST KILLS SMOKERS"
[09/15] and "ASH HONORED AT WHITE HOUSE CEREMONY" respectively.
I strongly recommend that the FBI immediately archive the entire ASH web
site. It is reasonable to expect that the
site's contents will change should law enforcement inquiries be made to that organization.
Based upon the attached documents, as well as other proofs which are available,
this complaint alleges a pattern of conduct by the ASH enterprise and its participants which
directly threatens the security, physical well being and the civil rights of a specific "target group" of
US citizens. I believe that the current contents of the ASH web site are sufficient, in and of
themselves, to demonstrate such a pattern of conduct. Given the current controversy over
regulation of the internet, the ASH web site should be carefully reviewed by persons, regulators, law
enforcement bodies, and legislators who may have a professional interest in that subject.
The ASH enterprise utilizes federal funds, and/or operates with affiliated Project
ASSIST (American Stop Smoking Intervention Study) enterprises that are federally funded,
to conduct its operations. Participants in the ASH and Project ASSIST enterprises garner and
realize professional and/or economic benefits from the operation of those enterprises. ASH
also enjoys tax exempt status, and donations to it are fully tax deductible.
Please also note that the alleged pattern of conduct by the ASH enterprise and
its controlling persons recently culminated in the public distribution of information
through a means of interstate commerce which provides
access to detailed and tested instructions
for the mass cyanide poisoning of United States citizens.
According to the information presented in the ASH enterprise web site, such a terrorist act could feasibly be accomplished
through product tampering and insertion of cyanide into legal tobacco products. I refer
specifically to the ASH promotion of the Barricade book titled "Gasp! A Novel of Revenge"
by Frank Fruedberg on the ASH web site.
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Federal Bureau of Investigation
October 27, 1997
Please note that the activities of the ASH enterprise are conducted with the public
support of executive branch elected officials at federal offices and facilities, including the
White House. Participants in the ASH enterprise have a vested and long-standing financial
and/or professional interest in their anti-tobacco activities. ASH enterprise activities are actively
promoted by elected officials, and ASH participants have made contributions to the campaigns
of elected officials who openly promote their interests.
It should be noted by the FBI that the Executive Director of ASH, Mr. John Banzhaf, is
an attorney, and that he is aggressively lobbying members of congress regarding approval of
the proposed tobacco settlement. Should that settlement, as prepared on June 20, 1997, be
approved by congress, the ASH enterprise and its participants, including Mr. Banzhaf, will
realize significant economic and/or professional benefits. We, as a people, are therefore
confronted with the demonstrable reality that an enterprise is allowed to operate in this nation that
apparently uses and promotes the implied threat of mass cyanide poisonings through a proven
and tested means of product tampering in order to influence members of congress. Successful
application of such influence would cause approval of legislation from which that enterprise and
its participants would receive economic and/or other benefits.
Bluntly put, when one couples the aggressive lobbying for the tobacco settlement by
Mr. Banzhaf with the promotion of mass violence on his web site we plausibly find a scheme to
garner economic benefit through the implied threat of mass lethal product tampering if ASH and
Mr. Banzhaf's terms are not met. Who but racketeers would ever engage in such activity?
Four separate incidents of tobacco product tampering using explosive devices did
occur in Virginia this year, as reported on page B1 of the
Washington Post on Saturday, May 24, 1997 (byline Peter Finn and Ann O'Hanlon.) Four individuals did receive burn injuries in those
incidents. According to the news reports, all four cases involved a national name brand
product. Tobacco product tampering is a reality. One links this to past Sudafed and Tylenol
tampering cases that received national media attention, when considering the ASH enterprise activities.
In view of the demonstrated reality of potentially lethal tobacco product tampering
as apparently promoted by the ASH enterprise, I request that the Justice Department make a
legal determination as to whether the pattern of conduct by Mr. Banzhaf and the ASH
enterprise constitutes extortion. At a minimum, the ASH enterprise lobbying efforts are directly linked
to potential mass product tampering with insertion of lethal substances, through their web
site information and by the ASH enterprise participants' choice of web site content. This should
be more than sufficient basis to establish probable cause for further law enforcement investigation.
The ASH web site materials attached include a detailed and published admission by
the author, Mr. Freudberg, that he personally engaged in every step necessary to carry out a threat
of mass lethal product tampering. The author's admission includes a statement of all required
actions from opening and resealing cigarette packs to actually placing altered packaging in
public displays, as well as the accumulation of enough cyanide in his personal possession ". . . to
murder 2,500 people." The motivation for committing a crime of mass terror, and the availability of
a tested and feasible means to carry it out, are clearly presented in the ASH web site contents
and the author's statements. In view of these facts, I request that the FBI investigate the
possible involvement of Mr. Fruedberg in those incidents where explosive devices were employed in
tobacco product tampering in Virginia. I also request that the FBI investigate Mr.
Fruedberg's potential involvement in any other cases of tobacco product tampering that may currently
be under investigation.
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Federal Bureau of Investigation
October 27, 1997
At this time I file a complaint with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on behalf of
myself and my eleven year old son. I allege civil rights violations and violations of the Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statutes. I also allege violation of domestic
terrorism statutes. One consequence of those violations by the ASH enterprise is that I am presently
living in a constant state of fear for the physical well being of myself and my minor son due to the
assault upon our persons by the ASH enterprise and its participants.
The issues raised in this complaint cannot be dismissed as the irrational ravings of a
single wingnut with a limited audience. The open promotion of using cyanide against a defined
"target group" of citizens is undertaken and conducted by an enterprise and an individual who
enjoy public honor at the White House, the enterprise enjoys tax exempt status, and participants
in that enterprise garner significant economic and/or professional benefits for themselves
from federal and state programs sponsored with taxpayer dollars. The ASH enterprise widely
disseminates on the internet, through use of a means of interstate commerce, information which
communicates the fact that a tested and proven weapon of mass destruction and terror
(specifically, mass poisoning of citizens through product tampering with cyanide) is readily available.
ASH enterprise participants praise and glorify themselves at the White House about
their efforts to "save the children" and to "end the violence" as they make available to kids in
schools and public libraries on the internet the details of a feasible plan to engage in domestic
terrorism through lethal mass product tampering. According to the ASH enterprise, it appears that
their opinion of a credible person for our children to read about in their schools and public libraries
is a man who admits to having enough cyanide in his possession to ". . . murder 2,500 people."
It seems that the way ASH enterprise professional anti lawyers and activists will end the violence is
to accumulate enough cyanide to assure there are not any more members of their "target group"
to poison. This terrifies me. We, as a nation, fought a world war about that some 50 years ago.
In closing, I mention that I am not now, nor have I ever been an employee of any
tobacco interest. I am not a "front for tobacco," as is predictably claimed by anti-tobacco activists to dismiss
legitimate public objection to their agenda. I do not receive any income from anti-tobacco
or other federal grants. I am a US citizen acting as an individual who is extremely concerned
about, and frankly terrified by, the prospect that we support through federal grants, and publicly
honor at the White House, persons who are participants in a political enterprise that seems to
advocate mass lethal violence against members of the American public. The fact that my
eleven-year-old son is, through association with me, also deemed to be a member of that activists' "target
group" compels my action.
Thank you for your attention to these matters. I look forward to your response. I
shall participate in your investigation, and assist in prosecution of these crimes, as I am able.
Should you desire additional information, or wish to interview other persons who have also been
adversely effected by the operation of the ASH enterprise, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Norman E. Kjono
Via US Mail Certified