Cloaked daggers.(have you heard?)(Editorial)

It was the height or depth of euphemisms, depending on your perspective. In the early 1960s, the CIA formed a "health alteration committee." The group could change an enemy's health all right. As one acting division chief at the time said: "We do not consciously seek subject's permanent removal from the scene; we also do not object should this complication develop."

Much less dire, but equally deceitful, are some labeling tactics currently used to manipulate consumers into buying products that are not what they appear. Here are a few choice examples:

Free range. Unquestionably a play to our kinder instincts. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has defined the term for poultry, and the reality is far from the breezy outdoor existence we'd like to believe a bird enjoyed before we sauteed it. The USDA says that free-range poultry must be given daily "access" to the outdoors. But access can mean that thousands of cooped-up chickens are offered a five-minute chance at a single, small, open door. Whether any bird actually makes it outside is incidental. It's hard to know what's meant by free-range eggs; there's no official definition.

Cruelty free/No animal testing. Haunted by photographs of bunnies in pain, consumers may look for this label to ease animals' suffering and their own consciences. But there's no government or industry-wide definition of these terms. A cosmetics manufacturer may label its ...