FORMER USDA INSPECTOR: THEY'RE HIDING MAD COWS

"A scientist and former inspector for the U.S Department of Agriculture says he is willing to take a lie detector test to back his charge that the United States is covering up mad-cow disease. Lester Friedlander, now a consumer advocate, was fired from his job as head of inspections at a large meat-packing plant in Philadelphia in 1995 after criticizing what he called unsafe practices. Mr. Friedlander said U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarians sent suspect cow brains to private laboratories, which confirmed they were infected with mad cow disease. Samples from the same animals, however, were cleared by government labs. He would not reveal the names of the veterinarians, saying in an interview that they still work for the agriculture department and would be fired if identified."

Interesting. Friedlander was quoted a lot by Steve Mitchell last year, but not to the extent of this allegation. It will be interesting to see if he can back this up with anything, though.

UPDATE 4/13: Wow. Two other USDA scientists, one retired and the other apparently still on the job, tell a very similar story of bad and/or suspicious testing - dating back to 1997. Still no one else coming forward to confirm the spiked positive test, though. I gotta say, love how Canada is going after this like a pitbull, as it would "prove" the US really was the cause of Mad Cow in North America after all. Fascinating stuff.