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Update: Wikileaks released TPP documents. h/t to cosmic debris in the comments.
Here is their full press release. I haven't gone through the document yet. There is an html version on their site and a PDF (you can find both at the link below). It looks like this is just one chapter of the draft agreement on Intellectual Property Rights.
Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)
Today, 13 November 2013, WikiLeaks released the secret negotiated draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the largest-ever economic treaty, encompassing nations representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP. The WikiLeaks release of the text comes ahead of the decisive TPP Chief Negotiators summit in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 19-24 November 2013. The chapter published by WikiLeaks is perhaps the most controversial chapter of the TPP due to its wide-ranging effects on medicines, publishers, internet services, civil liberties and biological patents. Significantly, the released text includes the negotiation positions and disagreements between all 12 prospective member states.
The TPP is the forerunner to the equally secret US-EU pact TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), for which President Obama initiated US-EU negotiations in January 2013. Together, the TPP and TTIP will cover more than 60 per cent of global GDP. Both pacts exclude China.
Since the beginning of the TPP negotiations, the process of drafting and negotiating the treaty’s chapters has been shrouded in an unprecedented level of secrecy. Access to drafts of the TPP chapters is shielded from the general public. Members of the US Congress are only able to view selected portions of treaty-related documents in highly restrictive conditions and under strict supervision. It has been previously revealed that only three individuals in each TPP nation have access to the full text of the agreement, while 600 ’trade advisers’ – lobbyists guarding the interests of large US corporations such as Chevron, Halliburton, Monsanto and Walmart – are granted privileged access to crucial sections of the treaty text.
The TPP negotiations are currently at a critical stage. The Obama administration is preparing to fast-track the TPP treaty in a manner that will prevent the US Congress from discussing or amending any parts of the treaty. Numerous TPP heads of state and senior government figures, including President Obama, have declared their intention to sign and ratify the TPP before the end of 2013.
WikiLeaks’ Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange stated: “The US administration is aggressively pushing the TPP through the US legislative process on the sly.” The advanced draft of the Intellectual Property Rights Chapter, published by WikiLeaks on 13 November 2013, provides the public with the fullest opportunity so far to familiarise themselves with the details and implications of the TPP.
The 95-page, 30,000-word IP Chapter lays out provisions for instituting a far-reaching, transnational legal and enforcement regime, modifying or replacing existing laws in TPP member states. The Chapter’s subsections include agreements relating to patents (who may produce goods or drugs), copyright (who may transmit information), trademarks (who may describe information or goods as authentic) and industrial design.
The longest section of the Chapter – ’Enforcement’ – is devoted to detailing new policing measures, with far-reaching implications for individual rights, civil liberties, publishers, internet service providers and internet privacy, as well as for the creative, intellectual, biological and environmental commons. Particular measures proposed include supranational litigation tribunals to which sovereign national courts are expected to defer, but which have no human rights safeguards. The TPP IP Chapter states that these courts can conduct hearings with secret evidence. The IP Chapter also replicates many of the surveillance and enforcement provisions from the shelved SOPA and ACTA treaties.
The consolidated text obtained by WikiLeaks after the 26-30 August 2013 TPP meeting in Brunei – unlike any other TPP-related documents previously released to the public – contains annotations detailing each country’s positions on the issues under negotiation. Julian Assange emphasises that a “cringingly obsequious” Australia is the nation most likely to support the hardline position of US negotiators against other countries, while states including Vietnam, Chile and Malaysia are more likely to be in opposition. Numerous key Pacific Rim and nearby nations – including Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and, most significantly, Russia and China – have not been involved in the drafting of the treaty.
In the words of WikiLeaks’ Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange, “If instituted, the TPP’s IP regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons. If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you’re ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its crosshairs.”
Current TPP negotiation member states are the United States, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei.
http://ca.cair.com/...
Wow. Go read this. I had heard that Glenn Greenwald would be coming to the US soon to attend a CAIR ceremony where he's been asked to do a talk or presentation. The event is in Los Angeles. This guy is calling for his arrest when he gets here and check out this rant. I'm not familiar with the author, Cliff Kincaid. Here is his "bio" in the same publication: Cliff Kincaid. He sounds like a hard right winger. The sad thing is, I can think of a lot of people in the U.S. who have called for the same thing or worse. If Glenn really is coming to the U.S. on Saturday, I hope everything is okay.
Amazing that this is the first public discussion about firings. No talk of prosecution though. It's been evident for a long time who is going under the bus. But there are still a lot of hearings and interviews to be done.
Spying Scandal Alters U.S. Ties With Allies and Raises Talk of Policy Shift
Over the weekend Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, told the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel that “there should be a wholesale housecleaning” of the American intelligence community, and, echoing Mr. Kornblum, said that General Alexander “should resign, or be fired.”
The White House has backed General Alexander, who is scheduled to retire early next year, but even some of President Obama’s advisers have begun questioning the judgment of the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., who is supposed to review the costs and benefits of these operations, and some officials, saying they are speaking for themselves, have suggested he should leave around the time General Alexander does.
“The only way the president is going to get a fresh start with the allies,” one of his advisers said last week, “is to present them with a new team.”
Bankster Paradise: President Obama Taps Another Wall Street Law Firm Partner to Head a Regulator
President Obama is about to do it again – appoint one of those revolving door Wall Street lawyers to head a critical top post at one of Wall Street’s key regulators. This time it’s the Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). According to multiple leaks in the business press today, this afternoon the President will nominate Timothy Massad to head the CFTC – a man who spent 27 years at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, a core part of Wall Street’s legal muscle. ...
If confirmed to head the CFTC, Massad will play a critical role in the regulation of derivatives, an area that has received heavy pushback from his former law firms’ clients.
CodePink projects drone documentary onto DHS secretary candidate’s house
Jeh Johnson, the Obama administration’s pick to head the Department of Homeland Security, is a relatively obscure figure. While some on the left are fans because of his involvement in the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, anti-war activist group CodePink wants to bring attention to the fact that he created the legal justification for the Obama administration’s drone policy. So last night, the group screened a documentary about drones on the side of his house. ...
Johnson and his family apparently went to a hotel during the screening (he later spoke with organizers for 20 minutes but wouldn’t allow photos or quotes). Not exactly comparable to suddenly having a drone dropped on you. Further, this action raises awareness about the drone program and Johnson’s involvement, an important topic to bring up prior to his confirmation hearing starting this Wednesday.
[Photo by Jenna Pope]
Populist Ire for Wall Street Make Clinton A Poor Choice: Critics
Politico reports that Wall Street is freaking out over the idea of a populist contender for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2016.
With the consummate insider Hillary Clinton—a former First Lady, US Senator and Secretary of State—once again seen in establishment circles as the "inevitable" choice to lead the party, The Hill says the left of the Democratic base wants a strong primary challenger in order to highlight Clinton's corporate-friendly, Wall Street-appeasing, and military hawkish instincts.
Though critics are sure to note the possible premature nature of the debate—it's still 2013, by the way—the uptick in the conversation this week was spawned by a feature-length article in the New Republic on Monday, titled Hillary's Nightmare? A Democratic Party That Realizes Its Soul Lies With Elizabeth Warren, in which journalist Noah Scheiber paints of a scenario in which the freshman senator from Massachusetts, championed for her tough positions on Wall Street and well-received populist message, rises to challenge the party's pro-corporate standard-bearer. ...
Picking up on the story, The Hill reached out to several prominent progressive DC groups to gauge their thoughts on a primary challenge from Clinton's left, and found that most worried about her inability to genuinely inhabit the anti-Wall Street, populist mood that has become a central tenet in an era of massive income and economic inequality. Not only did the groups cite economic disparity as one of the biggest problems facing the nation, it is also a galvanizing political issue for the left.
Mistaking Omniscience for Omnipotence
In a World Without Privacy, There Are No Exemptions for Our Spies
Let’s begin by positing this: There’s never been anything quite like it. The slow-tease pulling back of the National Security Agency curtain to reveal the skeletal surveillance structure embedded in our planet (what cheekbones!) has been an epochal event. It’s minimally the political spectacle of 2013, and maybe 2014, too. It’s made a mockery of the 24/7 news cycle and the urge of the media to leave the last big deal for the next big deal as quickly as possible.
It’s visibly changed attitudes around the world toward the U.S. -- strikingly for the worse, even if this hasn’t fully sunk in here yet. Domestically, the inability to put the issue to sleep or tuck it away somewhere or even outlast it has left the Obama administration, Congress, and the intelligence community increasingly at one another’s throats. And somewhere in a system made for leaks, there are young techies inside a surveillance machine so viscerally appalling, so like the worst sci-fi scenarios they read while growing up, that -- no matter the penalties -- one of them, two of them, many of them are likely to become the next Edward Snowden(s).
So where to start, almost half a year into an unfolding crisis of surveillance that shows no signs of ending? If you think of this as a scorecard, then the place to begin is, of course, with the line-up, which means starting with omniscience. After all, that’s the NSA’s genuine success story -- and what kid doesn’t enjoy hearing about the (not so) little engine that could?
Part 1: Intro and talk, ~ 1 hour. (Many thanks to Don Midwest for finding these).
Jeremy Scahill with Tom Engelhardt, Talk, 30 October 2013 [ Part 1 ]
Jeremy Scahill’s new book and film Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield, is an investigation into the U.S. government’s covert wars which he suggests are drawing the nation deeper into conflict across the globe, setting the world stage for destabilization and blowback. The talk was followed by a conversation with Tom Engelhardt.
This event was part of Lannan's In Pursuit of Cultural Freedom series.
Jeremy Scahill with Tom Engelhardt, Talk, 30 October 2013 from Lannan Foundation on Vimeo.
Part 2: Conversation with Jeremy Scahill and Tom Engelhardt, ~ 34 minutes.
Jeremy Scahill with Tom Engelhardt, Conversation, 30 October 2013 [ Part 2 ]
Jeremy Scahill’s new book and film Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield, is an investigation into the U.S. government’s covert wars which he suggests are drawing the nation deeper into conflict across the globe, setting the world stage for destabilization and blowback. The talk was followed by a conversation with Tom Engelhardt.
This event was part of Lannan's In Pursuit of Cultural Freedom series.
Jeremy Scahill with Tom Engelhardt, Conversation, 30 October 2013 from Lannan Foundation on Vimeo.
#HuffRuss: Russell Brand In Conversation With HuffPost UK's Mehdi Hasan (FULL VIDEO)
Here's the full conversation between comedian, actor and activist Russell Brand and the HuffPost UK's Mehdi Hasan, which took place in East London on Monday night.
Prof. Eben Moglen on Snowden & NSA spying talk 2 of 4
Less Than 20% Of Americans Believe That There's Adequate Oversight Of The NSA
One of the key responses from the NSA and its defenders to all of these Snowden leaks is that there is "rigorous oversight" of the NSA by the courts and Congress. Of course, that talking point has been debunked thoroughly, but NSA defenders keep trotting it out. It appears that the public is not buying it. At all. A recent poll from YouGov found thatonly 17% of people believe that Congress provides "adequate oversight" on the spying of Americans. A marginally better 20% (though, within the 4.6% margin of error, so meaningless difference really) felt that Congress provides adequate oversight of the NSA when it comes to collecting data on foreigners. ...
According to a different study, the more informed people are about the NSA, the less they like what the NSA is doing.
Heidi Boghosian on Spying and Civil Liberties
NSA's Vast Surveillance Powers Extend Far Beyond Counterterrorism, Despite Misleading Government Claims
Time and again we’ve seen the National Security Agency (NSA) defend its vast surveillance apparatus by invoking the spectre of terrorism, discussing its spying powers as a method to keep America safe. Yet, the truth is that counterterrorism is only a fraction of their far broader authority to seek “foreign intelligence information,” a menacing sounding term that actually encapsulates all sorts of innocuous, everyday conversation.
The New York Times demonstrated this disconnect last week, reporting, “the [leaked NSA] documents make clear, the focus on counterterrorism is a misleadingly narrow sales pitch for an agency with an almost unlimited agenda. Its scale and aggressiveness are breathtaking.” ...
[G]overnment officials consistently refer to terrorism as the reason NSA is conducting this surveillance, while occasionally adding the spice of nuclear proliferation or “cyber”-hackers. For example, Rep. Mike Rogers defended the NSA like this two weeks ago, telling CNN’s State of the Union that if French citizens knew what terror plots the NSA was protecting them from “they would be applauding and popping Champagne corks.” While Rogers knows full well that there is no terrorism connection to tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone, he wants the conversation to go to more familiar ground. ...
So let’s get one thing straight: when the NSA vacuums up millions of innocent people’s communications and metadata, the agency is not limiting itself to counter-terrorism uses. Pretending there is a narrower scope is not an honest way to have a debate.
Celente: France blocks Iran deal for Saudi arms sales
Brook's Law: "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later".
Troubled HealthCare.gov unlikely to work fully by end of November
Software problems with the federal online health insurance marketplace, especially in handling high volumes, are proving so stubborn that the system is unlikely to work fully by the end of the month as the White House has promised, according to an official with knowledge of the project.
[...]
According to the official, workers are trying to streamline the computer system so that it can handle outside queries from insurers and the call centers about whether people are eligible for subsidies. Technical workers are striving to have this part of the system working reliably within two to three weeks.
Bill Keller Advises Obama To ‘Crack Some Heads’ To Pass TPP
Bill Keller, the former Executive Editor of the New York Times and current columnist for the same, has some advice for President Barack Obama. In order to, as Keller puts it, “salvage his presidency” Obama must destroy accountability for corporations. This is ironically claimed to be some bizarre argument for domestic prosperity.
The biggest item awaiting some Washington juice is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an immense, stalled, Asian free-trade agreement that would do more to counter burgeoning China than any number of battleships.
Like most free-trade agreements, it has opposition, from critics who fear it would insufficiently protect labor, consumers, the environment and intellectual property. It’s time for the administration to cut some deals, crack some heads and open up those Asian markets.
[...]
But more to the point, does Keller know something we don’t? Does he have access to secret documents that even members of Congress can not get a hold of? If this plan is beneficial why not allow an open debate in the free market of ideas? Keller doesn’t say.
Action
Stop Watching Us.
The revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance apparatus, if true, represent a stunning abuse of our basic rights. We demand the U.S. Congress reveal the full extent of the NSA's spying programs.
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