Interview: Robert Kennedy Jr. Takes on the Lobbies

Interview of Robert Kennedy Jr. by Senta Depuydt (first published in 2018)

Robert Kennedy, Jr., an environmental law specialist with decades of experience, is one of the few attorneys who can take on the corporate giants. In early September, he was invited by some Green Party MEPs to speak at the European Parliament during additional hearings on the safety of the herbicide Roundup, for the Commission’s special report on pesticides. In 2018, Kennedy and his partners won an historical case against Monsanto and since, he hasn’t stopped there.

SD: Mr. Kennedy, in true testimony to the courage and political commitment of your famous family, today you are one of the top defenders of environmental rights on the planet. Why have you chosen this battle?

RFK: It’s a calling which goes all the way back to my childhood. I already had ecological leanings as a boy. I had great admiration for Rachel Carson, the research scientist who exposed the toxic impact of the pesticide DDT on the environment and one of the pioneers of the ecological movement. Her blockbuster book “Silent Spring” revealed the dangers of pesticides, particularly for birds. At the time, DDT was Monsanto’s blockbuster product and the company got their revenge by harassing her in every possible way, paying scientists and reporters to destroy her. From medical schools to gardening clubs and even the Department of Agriculture, already under Monsanto’s influence, they all ganged up against her, even publishing denigration of her private life in the press.

My uncle, the President, had granted my wish to meet her by inviting her to lunch. It was not long after that that she died of cancer, but the meeting left its mark on me and was one of the highlights of my childhood. Later, he took it upon himself to clear her name by commissioning a team of scientists to check and verify all the statements in her book, line by line. This is exactly what they did and DDT was finally banned.

SD: Today, you are still facing Monsanto and their practices have clearly not changed. What additional information can you give us on the Roundup case?

RFK: It’s an unprecedented victory. The giant was condemned to pay 289 million dollars in damages to a gardener who had been poisoned by Roundup and is now at the end of his life. The amount of this sentence is so high because it includes a penalty for fraud. We were able to prove that Monsanto was aware of the risks, the carcinogenicity of its product in particular, and had known this for decades. The company knowingly hid the truth and even went so far as to draft fake research, which it then paid experts to sign.

Thanks to a legal procedure called ‘Discovery’, we forced the other side to hand over all its data. We were thus able to peruse thousands of internal documents, emails and so on, and we gathered a very large number of compromising evidence. Just as they did with Rachel Carson, Monsanto pulled out all the stops to discredit the existing research and attack all troublesome scientists such as for example Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini, a very courageous man. I am surprised for that matter that he wasn’t summoned to appear before the commission.

SD: Indeed. That might just go to show how effective the company’s tactics are. But Monsanto will surely appeal, won’t they?

RFK: Of course. But I am very confident about the outcome. We won, in spite of being faced with a judge who was actually against us and only let us present very small number of evidence. Fortunately, the jury was impartial and top quality. Some of them filled whole notebooks with notes. They were not swayed by anything. For me, this is also a victory for American democracy. It proves that where ‘citizens’ still have voice, anything is still possible. I feel confident about the appeal because we still have a huge amount of proof to present. It won’t be easy for Monsanto.

SD: A Politico journalist spoke to you rather aggressively during the press conference after the hearing at the European Parliament, asking, off topic, ‘how can you hope to be credible about Roundup when we look at the way you question vaccine science?’, adding ‘it’s because of people like you that we are seeing a return of measles in Europe.’ What did you reply to her at the end of the discussion?

RFK: I was expecting this kind of question. First of all, I invited her to read ‘Thimerosal”, the book I wrote on the mercury used in certain vaccines. Just as if I were pleading in court, I referred not only to the approximately 400 scientific studies testifying to the toxicity of mercury, but also to all the fraud, corruption, pressure and censorship perpetrated by the pharmaceutical industry, and the politicians it controls.

As for measles and the measles vaccine, we know that the reality of the situation is far more complex than what we read in the media. For example, the fact that measles-related mortality and complications are on the increase everywhere is a direct consequence of the vaccination policy which has shifted the risk towards the more fragile age categories. The vaccine provides less protection and does not last as long as the life-long immunity conferred by natural transmission of the virus. Babies are now more at risk because their mothers have not naturally had wild measles so their maternal antibodies are insufficient. There are also a lot of young vaccinated adults who are getting measles because the vaccine loses its effectiveness after a few years. We have seen this in many epidemics like Disneyland and Toronto.

But above all, there are all the vaccine injury victims the press refuses to talk about. I have built up a huge file with several thousand testimonies from parents. This denial must end and the situation needs to be investigated urgently.

SD: If I remember correctly, when Donald Trump moved into the White House, the first political statement he made included the announcement of his intention to create a vaccine safety commission of inquiry and you were to chair the commission. So where is this up to? Was it just empty promises?

RFK: Donald Trump is convinced that we need such an inquiry. He has witnessed vaccine injury within his own family and circle of friends and he feels strongly about the topic. Unfortunately, the pressure on him has been heavy and he has not yet found the way to implement it.

SD: It seems easier to shake up China than the pharmaceutical industry! Did you not however manage to get a hearing before the US Congress?

RFK: No, unfortunately, it wasn’t possible. Whenever I appeal to our elected officials, they listen politely but then do absolutely nothing. There’s too much money at stake. To be honest, it’s no longer a government, it’s a kleptocracy run by lobbies and the pharmaceutical industry is the most powerful of them all. It spends twice the budget of the

oil sector and four times that of the weapons or aero-space on influencing the political decision-makers. When it comes to the mainstream media, Big Pharma represents 50 to 80% of their revenue. I think it’s clear.

SD: So, knowing that everyone was against you, what led you to take up this challenge?

RFK: For more than 30 years, I was chair of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a global alliance for water conservation. We went after the coal industries for their high mercury emissions and the damage caused to rivers, and I often lectured on this topic. Every time I spoke, mothers would come up afterwards and say “Mr. Kennedy, it’s all very good to worry about the mercury in our rivers, but we have vaccine-injured children and wish you would look into the mercury in vaccines.” This bothered me a great deal because at the time, I believed strongly in vaccination. In fact, I used to get the flu vaccine myself every year, but these ladies were very persistent with very solid arguments and testimonies as tragic as they were worrisome, so I finally gave in.

SD: You started off by founding the World Mercury Project whose aim was to reveal the impact of mercury toxicity, mercury in all its different forms, to protect both the environment and human health. Regarding vaccines, is mercury your only focus?

RFK: The autism numbers started to rise exponentially towards the end of the 80s, just when the vaccine schedule was intensified, particularly with vaccines containing Thimerosal. That was the first clue, but then later, I discovered that when it comes to vaccine safety, the gap between reality and the official claims that everything is completely “safe and tested” is abyssal. And it’s not only mercury that causes problems. Since then, we have discovered for example nanoparticles, retroviruses and even glyphosate in vaccines and the aluminium-based adjuvants are also an issue. There are no serious studies on vaccines, just propaganda to reassure the public.

SD: On September 11th, your organisation World Mercury Project changed its name to become Children’s Health Defense. Why was that?

RFK: One out of every six children in the United States suffers with developmental problems, one out of 36 has been diagnosed with autism and overall, 54% of American children suffer with chronic illness. It’s quite simply one of the greatest crises our nation has ever faced. When are we going to open our eyes? Our children are bathing in a toxic soup. We cannot continue to blame everything on genetics; it’s criminal. Our mission is to end this epidemic. We intend to get all metals removed from all pharmaceutical products and to reduce their use in industrial products. We would also like to see a return to honest and independent science, and regulatory agencies that serve human health rather than industry.

SD: So how can that be achieved?

RFK: We need to force the debate, do more research, take political measures to protect people and bring justice to the victims. There are two approaches: through the media and through the courts. Social media and the alternative press can be used to communicate until the mainstream media are forced to open up the debate and the various national authorities are required to reopen their files and do their work.

SD: Only a few days after you launched your new organisation, you struck again: you filed a complaint with the Office of the Inspector General and with the US Congress for

fraud committed by the US Departments of Justice and of Health in the omnibus hearing on autism and vaccination. Can you tell us briefly what this was about?

RFK: When the government granted the pharmaceutical companies complete immunity with respect to vaccine injury, it created a “Vaccine Court” to compensate vaccine injury victims. We then learned that no less than 5000 families had initiated a procedure claiming a causal link between vaccination and autism. It was huge. It represented hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation. So they consolidated all these claims into a single collective procedure called “Autism omnibus proceedings”. They decided to examine only six cases that would determine the verdict for all the others.

One case was acknowledged and compensated but it was removed from all the others and kept secret. In the other five cases, they decided there was no link. All 5000 were then dismissed without any other form of procedure. We have recently obtained several items of proof however that the health department lawyers lied and manipulated the main expert witness’ conclusions to ensure that a causal link would not be allowed in some of the cases examined. The expert witness in question has just signed a statement confirming that the DoJ lawyers deliberately misinterpreted his testimony. We want to re- open the case. It could totally tip the balance. Justice must be rendered, not only for this family but for the 5000 others and for all those who will have automatically been brushed aside later as a result of this.

SD: So, in a nutshell, this denial of justice brings to mind what happened in the UK with the MMR. The government vouched for the vaccine injuries and dismantled the victims’ or class action lawsuits. The whole stitched-up claim that the “MMR research by the evil Dr. Wakefield was fraudulent”, orchestrated by the Murdoch group and journalist Brian Deer, was simply an excuse to put an end to the complaint filed by 2000 families only a few weeks before it all went to court.

RFK: Absolutely. There is collusion between the industry, the press and the national regulatory and control authorities. In fact most of the studies to which we refer in the omnibus hearing have been manipulated by the CDC (Centres for Disease Control, the authority in charge of US vaccine policy): the study by di Stefano, and William Thompson who manipulated the data upon instruction from their superiors, the Danish studies by Poul Thorson for whom there is even an arrest warrant issued after he escaped with the grants from the study, or even the Verstraeten study on Thiomersal. And let’s not forget that even the national US authorities make money from vaccination. The CDC for example generates an annual turnover of 4.5 billion dollars from vaccine distribution and the American authorities hold a large number of patents that bring in juicy profits. This is the case for Gardasil, which they are trying to impose on everyone. It’s time to end this scam!

SD: How can people support you in your work?

RFK: Families of victims can join us; we need testimonies. Others can call or write to their elected representatives to demand that this case be re-opened. The information must be shared far and wide, the media censorship broken, the cases financed with donations. Everyone is concerned. If all parents share our request and scientists join us also, this whole mountain of lies could soon collapse like a house of cards.

SD: And it could have a ripple effect everywhere! You recently signed an open letter on vaccine safety, addressed to the World Health Organisation, along with 130 other associations from all over the world.

RFK: Yes. An international people’s movement is needed to develop common actions and win this battle for democracy. Clearly, the coal, chemical, agro-food and pharmaceutical industries all work globally with common strategies to grow their profits and increase their control on society, by shaping increasingly docile populations.

Most people believe that the greatest threats to democracy are military-run governments but the excessive power of the multinationals is the same, even worse, because it is less visible. Mussolini stated that “fascism should be called corporatism because it involves the integration of the power of the state with the power of free markets”… This is why it is so important for the public to be informed by the independent media.

SD: Yes, you and actor Robert de Niro, who has a vaccine-injured autistic son, sent a vibrant appeal to the press. No one budged, not even a peep. It’s the same in Europe. No television channel has ever reported the many large demonstrations in Italy and Poland against their vaccine mandates, although there were 15,000 in Rome, 20,000 in Warsaw and nearly 80,000 in Pesaro.

RFK: The influence of the media empires is decisive all over the planet. In Australia, Murdoch made a massive contribution to create a real medical tyranny, through constant collusion between the mainstream media, the scientific journals and industry. He is everywhere at once and if he is perhaps the worst of them all, he is not the only one.

SD: He attended the official dinner at the White House when Macron visited Trump. Could the press agencies and media who continue to broadcast fake news to serve the industry be taken to court?

RFK: In the United States, it’s possible, under racketeering laws.

SD: Will you be taking on the challenge?

RFK: The power of the industrial giants has infiltrated every democratic institution and federal agency. Everyone who ever opposed them has been immediately neutralised. I have always had to face up to these bullies, right from the start. These people are arrogant with power. They think they are above the law and can do whatever they want, even destroy the lives of our children, so I will fight for families, I will fight for their children and if necessary, I will fight until my last breath!