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Globalization Watch: Stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

“Through this agreement, the Obama Administration is seeking to boost U.S. economic growth and support the creation and retention of high-quality American jobs by increasing exports in a region that includes some of the world’s most robust economies and that represents more than 40 percent of global trade.”[1] Statement from the Office of the United States Trade Representative

“I think we need to look at the Trans-Pacific Partnership as the neo-liberal arm of the US pivot at Asia. So we have all these countries in South East Asia that basically have more incentive to do business with China….Many policy papers state the importance of South-East Asia in …counterbalancing the influence of China in the region. So that is what I perceive the TPP to be.”  Nile Bowie

Lost in the wake of headlines about controversies surrounding Canadian Senators’ housing and living expenses and allegations of a Toronto big city Mayor ailing from an apparent crack addiction, is the important negotiations on a major trade and investment deal taking place in Lima, Peru this past week.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) had its origins in the 2005 Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement or the P4 which involved the countries of Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore, and was aimed at liberalizing trade in those countries. [2] This deal was expanded in 2008 to include the US in negotiations and by 2009, the TPP began its first round of talks. [3], [4]. There are currently twelve negotiating partners in this comprehensive pact. In addition to the P4, and the US there are Australia, Peru, Vietnam, and Malaysia, with Mexico and Canada having joined the negotiations last October and Japan jumping on board in March. [5], [6]

TPP is the latest in a string of numerous free trade agreements that proponents say will generate increased economic activity between and within countries thereby leading to greater prosperity for citizens. [7]

Critics of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and its numerous successors argue however that these agreements really are not about trade. They are mechanisms by which corporations with international reach can overcome barriers, regulations, and other restrictions on their profit-making activities. [8]

Three critics from three separate countries explain their concerns in this week’s instalment of the Global Research News Hour.

Stuart Trew, Trade Campaigner for the Ottawa-based Council of Canadians provides his group’s analysis not only of the TPP, but also the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and the Canada-China Foreign Investment Protection Agreement (FIPA).

Kristen Beifus of the Washington Fair Trade Coalition dissects the impacts of free trade on Americans and the concerns specific to the TPP.

Kuala Lampur-based Nile Bowie provides his analysis of TPP in terms of its impacts on Malaysia where elections have recently been held. His commentaries on TPP appear on the globalresearch website.

References

1. http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/fact-sheets/2011/november/united-states-trans-pacific-partnership 2. “Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement” 2005 http://www.mfat.govt.nz/downloads/trade-agreement/transpacific/main-agreement.pdf 3. Daniels, Chris (10 February 2008). “First step to wider free trade”. New Zealand Herald. 4. US TRADE Representative TPP Round Updates; http://www.ustr.gov/tpp 5. “Mexico: Unexplored opportunities”. TPP Talk. New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade. 10 October 2012. http://www.mfat.govt.nz/Trade-and-Economic-Relations/2-Trade-Relationships-and-Agreements/Trans-Pacific/1-TPP-Talk/0-TPP-talk-10-Oct-2012.php 6. Canada Formally Joins Trans-Pacific Partnership” (Press release). Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. 9 October 2012; http://www.international.gc.ca/media_commerce/comm/news-communiques/2012/10/09a.aspx?view=d 7) Dr. Claudio Loser, May 6, 2013; Where Trade Is Free, Powerful Economic Growth Is The Norm; Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/05/06/where-trade-is-free-powerful-economic-growth-is-the-norm/ 8) Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, March 27, 2013, Truthout; http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15353-transpacific-partnership-will-undermine-democracy-empower-transnational-corporations

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Aftermath of the Boston Bombings: The FBI, Canada and the Politics of Terror

“In terrorism stings, it’s really only the FBI that’s making it possible for people who otherwise couldn’t acquire weapons, who couldn’t build a bomb to move forward in an act of terrorism like we’re seeing in these sting operations. So, it’s really the FBI that’s making the crime possible in a way that they aren’t with traditional drug stings even though it’s very much the same type of tactic that they’re using today.”

-Trevor Aaronson

“At different points of time in history non-Anglo and Francophone Canadians and including Francophones during the independence movement in Quebec were terrorists… everybody’s been interned. Every group has been interned or labeled treasonous when it was convenient to do so.”

- Rocco Galati

Speculation and skepticism percolates through the World Wide Web with regard to the official narrative of the Boston Bombings.

On the day of the attacks, the FBI was placed in charge of the official investigation. [1]

To date, critical questions about the FBI’s role in these and other terrorist plots have yet to be addressed.

As documented on Global Research, the FBI has been caught deliberately lying about their actions and activities. [2]

Thoroughly documented, the FBI has been pivotal in the manufacture of several terrorist plots in the US. [3]

Trevor Aaronson’s pioneering work on the subject of FBI involvement in infiltrating and entrapping terrorist suspects made the cover of Mother Jones magazine in 2011 and became listed as one of the top 25 most censored stories of 2011-2012 by the media democracy organization Project Censored. This history is critical background in any sober analysis of the incident.

In Canada, the Conservative government invoked the Boston attacks to rush through legislation resurrecting previously sunsetted anti-terrorism provisions of preventative arrest and secret investigative hearings. By an amazing coincidence,  the same week the Canadian Parliament was debating the new anti-terrorism bill, the RCMP announced the arrest of two individuals implicated in a plot to attack a Via Rail passenger train. [4]

The RCMP said little about the evidence of their guilt though they helpfully volunteered the perpetrator’s links with Al Qaeda in Iran. Considering the enmity being expressed toward Iran by the US and Canada among other Western Countries, this tidbit interestingly parallels the innuendo of Iraq’s alleged links to terrorism in the lead up to the 2003 Iraq War.

In an effort to deconstruct the propaganda around the War on Terrorism’s biggest PR boost in years, the Global Research News Hour delves into the Boston Bombings and its aftermath.

In this week’s show, Trevor Aaronson, author of “The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism” examines the agency’s role of deliberately creating the plots they then disrupt. Aaronson’s analysis speaks to the FBI’s focus on marginalized individuals at the expense of real dangers.

Then, Canadian Constitutional Lawyer Rocco Galati trashes the recently passed Combating Terrorism Act as a completely unnecessary threat to civil liberties with consequences that go beyond Islamic extremism.

Finally, Global Research’s Julie Lévesque provides a much needed overview of the Boston Bombings legend and the critical questions the mainstream media should be asking but is not.

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Terrorists R Us: The Boston Mass Casualty Attack, Lockdown and High Profile Manhunt

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  – Benjamin Franklin, 1759

The mass casualty causing attack during the Boston Marathon, together with the high profile arrest of two men in Canada charged with plotting a terrorist attack on a commuter train have captivated the attention of regular citizens.

Fears have been ramped up to the point where Americans are tolerating if not welcoming martial law and erosions of civil liberties in the name of protection from the terrorist hordes.

Witness the high-profile man-hunt for bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev.

On April 19, the entire city of Boston was on lockdown. Residents told to lock themselves indoors while schools and businesses were closed while the entire transit system was shut down and SWAT teams took control of the streets.

The home of one of the most famous and iconic popular resistance actions in history, the Boston Tea Party, unquestioningly complied with authorities this time around – all in the name of capturing one wounded man.

Speaking of authorities, rigorous scrutiny of the authorities themselves may be in order.

Speaking to the Global Research News Hour in December, Andy Lee Roth, the Associate Director of Project Censored spoke of the fourth story in PC’s list of most censored stories of 2011-2012…

“…The FBI has a network of nearly 15,000 spies, moles and informants …whose job it is to infiltrate various communities within the United States, ostensibly to uncover terrorist plots …in many cases, those 15,000 spies, moles and informants are actually encouraging and then assisting the people in those communities in committing the very crimes that people are then busted for. So It’s a kind of set-up operation and it appears to be motivated by a desire on the FBI’s part to show that they are playing an effective role in the battle against terrorism on the home front.”

He further pointed out…

“This only works as a kind of PR strategy if the corporate media cooperate and basically take the government officials who speak on behalf of the program as the sole sources on the program’s efficacy.

What’s not covered in the corporate media but what can be documented in independent media coverage is that most of these cases when they go to court the judge throws them out for lack of merit.”

Without this context, the citizenry’s grasp of reality is imperiled. The common man and woman is left ripe for manipulation by powerful interests with another agenda entirely.

This, the twenty-fourth installment of the Global Research News Hour, sees independent broadcaster Stephen Lendman try to provide some of this context as the War On Terrorism gets its biggest PR boost in years and as tensions with Syria, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela are on the rise.

Stephen Lendman is the host of the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network, author of BANKER OCCUPATION: Waging Financial War on Humanity and a frequent contributor to globalresearch.ca.

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Coup D’Etat in Haiti

It was nine years ago, on February 29, 2004 that the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was removed from his Presidential Palace by US forces, assisted by Canada and France. In his place an unelected government was installed by the international community.

Thousands of UN ‘peace-keepers’ were assigned to Haiti to protect and enforce the authority of this new government. Many representatives of the Haitian government were jailed. The government of Gerard Latortue,installed at the behest of international forces, cracked down hard on the poverty-stricken population, particularly in the slums of Cité Soleil and Bel Air in Port-au-Prince. Thousands of deaths were estimated to have resulted. [1]

It is critical to understand this background and the subsequent erosion of domestic institutions and government agencies if one is to understand the current human security issues threatening this small Caribbean island country.

It is especially important for Canadians to acquaint themselves with this history. Canadians generally have a positive opinion of their country and role in the world. They are inclined to believe Canada’s role in Haiti has been generally beneficent. Such inaccurate perceptions are aided and abetted by compliant politicians, governing and in opposition, and by a silent media.

Roger Annis has been a long-time activist with the Canada-Haiti Action group, an organization that has been at the forefront of raising awareness about Canada’s true role in Haiti. The Global Research Hour spoke to him while he was in Winnipeg to discuss the nine year old coup, Canada’s role in the coup and other ways the Canadian government and Canadian NGOs and development agencies have undermined Haitian democracy and human rights. Annis also draws parallels between Canada’s treatment of Haitians, and its treatment of its own Indigenous population.

Tar Sands Alberta: The Bitumen Cliff

While opposition to the so-called ‘tar sands’ in Northern Alberta in Canada is generally framed as an environment versus economics debate, a new study from the Polaris Institute and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives seems to point to an argument that surprisingly reveals the (black) gold rush for bitumen in Western Canada actually putting the Canadian economy at a tremendous disadvantage. Carleton University Graduate student and report co-author Brendan Hayley speaks to the Global Research News Hour about Canada’s Bitumen Cliff.

America’s first African American President: An Obstacle to the Quest for Positive Change and Racial Equality

In this exclusive Black History Month interview for the Global Research News Hour, former Georgia Congresswoman and US Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney talks about how America’s first African American President has been an obstacle rather than an asset in the quest for positive change and racial equality, and about what needs to be done to make substantive rather than cosmetic changes in the US political life.

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Suppressing 9/11 Truth in the Mainstream Media, Demonizing the Messenger

“It’s easy to take an issue like the 9/11 truth movement and demonize it…that happened in the election of 2008. Even though at the time it was a rising tide and growing numbers of people… had actually rejected the official explanation and were actively looking at the evidence hoping to find out what really happened, even though that was happening, the Conservatives in that election chose to demonize those folks, and I guess I appeared to be one of them because I was willing to talk about it with respect.”

-Lesley Hughes

During the Canadian federal election of 2008, Lesley Hughes, overnight, went from the Liberal Party’s star candidate to a political liability.

An article Hughes wrote in 2002 entitled “Get the Truth” offered readers a contrarian viewpoint on the war in Afghanistan as retaliation for 9/11.

The anonymous blogger Black Rod, unearthed the article, conflated it into an anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theory, and circulated it throughout the on-line community and the mainstream press.

Liberal leader Stephan Dion, under pressure from B’Nai Brith, the Canadian Jewish Congress, and his political opponents, not to mention uncomfortable media scrutiny, removed the candidacy of Ms. Hughes without ever confronting her about it directly.

Hughes, humiliated, dropped off the media radar screen and spent the subsequent few months licking her wounds. She finally found herself a lawyer and launched a defamation suit against the above-named groups, as well as Conservative candidate Peter Kent, the entities she saw as most responsible for this disastrous blow to her reputation.

In December of last year, at the end of a four year ordeal, Hughes was finally cleared of all charges of anti-Semitism.

Who is Lesley Hughes?

Hughes is much more than the “earnest middle-aged mother and community activist” described by National Post columnist and author Jonathan Kay in his 9/11 Truth hit-piece “Among the Truthers.”

Lesley Hughes is a Winnipeg-based broadcast and print journalist.

In the province of Manitoba, she became a house-hold name as co-host of the popular morning program Information Radio, a CBC show she helmed for more than ten years.

Her prowess as an interviewer earned her the distinction of sitting in briefly for CBC icon Peter Gzowski on the nationally broadcast Morningside, earning her praise from executive producer Patsey Pehleman for being “fresh and different.”

Over the course of a career that has spanned more than three decades, Lesley has interviewed a multitude of global movers and shakers, including former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, humanitarian Mother Theresa, South African President Nelson Mandela, dissident intellectual Noam Chomsky, French President Francois Mitterand, and playwright Tennessee Williams to name just a few.

She has since contributed articles to major newspapers. She covered the 1992 Earth Summit from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for the Globe and Mail. She reported from the World Poverty Summit in Copenhagen, and the Information Summit in Geneva. She has authored book reviews for the Winnipeg Free Press. She continues to write the back column for the distinguished Canadian organ of progressive political thought known as Canadian Dimension Magazine.

Hughes has had her work carried by Radio Denmark, Radio Antilles and the Grenadian Voice.

Hughes has been a media trainer, instructing students at the University of Winnipeg. She was designated as the University of Manitoba’s Outstanding Alumnus for Distinguished Achievement, named one of Canada’s top three columnists for a weekly community newspaper by the Canadian Community Newspaper Association, and honoured Manitoba’s Woman of the Year in Communications and Best Interviewer (Radio) by Winnipeg ACTRA among other accolades.

The recent court ruling has affirmed what informed people, supporters and detractors alike, know all too well. Lesley Hughes has not an anti-Semitic bone in her body!

Lesley Hughes, regardless of what one might think of her politics, is an inspirational, compassionate, hard-working, brilliant and breath-takingly decent human being. It is a sad commentary on the times we live in that she could be brought down from her well-earned pedestal in Canadian life, simply for…well…doing her job as a journalist.

In this exclusive interview for the Global Research News Hour, Lesley Hughes from the living room of her Winnipeg home explains how she was affected personally and professionally by the allegations, her take on the corrosive effect of anonymous blogging on journalism, and about how attacks on 9/11 skeptics signals a new kind of McCarthyism.

She also introduces her upcoming memoir, “Hit and Run: My Brilliant Life in Canadian Politics.”

Also featured in this one hour programme is an interview with Richard Sanders of the Coalition Opposed to the Arms Trade, (coat.ncf.ca) about how Canadian Pension Plan investments are aiding and abetting Israeli War Crimes. We also hear an assessment of the recent Israeli elections by Chicago based writer and broadcaster Stephen Lendman.

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On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War, the Global Research News Hour interviews Richard Sanders of the Coalition Opposed to the Arms Trade (COAT) about the myth of Canada’s non-involvement in Iraq. There is a follow-up interview with former UN Humanitarian Coordinator Hans Von Sponeck about the deterioration of the social conditions in Iraq from before the 1991 Gulf War to the present and the potential for redress against these and future war crimes.

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The Legacy of Hugo Chavez and The Korean Powder Keg

“I swear before my people that upon this moribund constitution I will drive forth the necessary democratic transformations so that the new republic will have a Magna Carta befitting these new times.”

-President Hugo Chavez, from his February 2, 1999 inauguration speech. [1]

Hugo Chavez (28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013)

One of the most beloved and inspirational leftist figures on the world stage passed away on March 5.

During his four terms and fourteen years as president of Venezuela, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías distinguished himself as a Latin American leader in the tradition of Simon Bolivar.

After nationalizing oil fields run by US based oil giants ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp, Chavez was able to utilize the proceeds to subsidize primary health clinics and food markets in poor neighbourhoods. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, poverty in the country dropped from 48.6 percent in 2002 to 29.5 percent in 2011. [2] Amendments to the Venezuelan constitution included 116 articles focusing on the protection of human rights, including protections of women and indigenous peoples, and the right of the public to education, health care and food. [3]

Chavez’s personal popularity with the Venezuelan people helped him frustrate a coup attempt in April 2002 and then a management lock-out of the oil industry several months later. In addition, he formulated critical ties with the President of Cuba, Fidel Castro, as well as with the socialist governments of Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua.

More than that, Chavez proved himself to be a consistent thorn in the side of US hegemony in the region. The US has a long history of supporting Latin American governments that rule in the interest of US-backed oil, agri-business and other industrial enterprises. Governing in the interests of the people is not usually good for business.

With Chavez’s recent passing, the Global Research News Hour contacted Michel Chossudovsky to help assess his legacy. Professor Chossudovsky conducted research in Venezuela during the early part of his career. In this interview he comments on the changes brought about in Venezuela since those days, the advice he conveyed to the government at the time and how he met personally with President Chavez.

Chossudovsky also comments on speculation around Chavez as having been targeted for assassination under the Obama administration.

North Korea

The Western media has reported frequently in recent weeks on the behaviour of the North Korean government and has portrayed leader Kim Jung-un as being ‘bellicose’ and aggressive’. The impoverished country has in recent months launched a satellite into orbit and conducted a third nuclear test. They have even threatened in recent days to launch a pre-emptive nuclear attack against the US.

Greg Elich is a long time observer of Korean geo-politics. In this interview with the Global Research News Hour, Elich puts North Korea’s recent actions within a historical context and addresses recent US-South Korean military drills as well as the so-called Asia-Pivot as integral to understanding the larger picture.

References

1 JONES, BART (2007). Hugo! The Hugo Chávez Story from Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution. Hanover, New Hampshire: Steerforth Press. ISBN 978-1-58642-135-9.

2 Charlie Devereux & Raymond Colitt. March 7, 2013. Venezuelans’ Quality of Life Improved in UN Index Under Chavez. Bloomberg.

3 “Bolivarian Constitution of Venezuela”. Embassy of Venezuela in the US. 2000.

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Outlawing Natural Health, The Fracking Bubble, The Life and Death of Hugo Chavez

Imagine a middle-aged couple starting a simple business. They provide herbs or vitamins or some other innocuous product to the public. Let’s suppose they also promote the health benefits of taking this product.

Under current laws, the couple could find themselves the target of a sting operation in which an armed RCMP SWAT team might swoop down on their residence, bust their door down, stick guns in the occupants’ faces and force them to sit on a couch for eleven hours while the agents search for contraband.

According to constitutional lawyer Rocco Galati, not only could this happen, it has happened! In Canada!

The offensive legislation in question relates to an Act that governs so-called Natural Health Products. Dietary supplements, vitamins, herbs, foods and any other such natural item have proven to be far less dangerous than most over the counter prescription medications. These are now being targeted by Health Canada as a potential health hazard.

Galati is mounting a legal challenge against Health Canada. He tells the Global Research News Hour why the legislation on the books is insidious and unconstitutional and needs to be changed.

The Fracking Bubble

According to Deborah Rodgers of Energy Policy Forum, the current boom in shale oil and gas is not only unsustainable and environmentally contentious, it is built on unreliable estimates and projections. In this interview she explains the critical difference between reserve estimates and resource estimates, and why Wall Street is deriving profits from what appears to be a bubble akin to the Sub Prime Mortgage bubble which burst in 2008.

The Death of Chavez

Millions around the world are mourning the death of Bolivarian leader Hugo Chavez who died of cancer on Tuesday March 5 at the age of 58. Chavez defied US imperial aims including a coup attempt in 2002. He has since been a thorn in the side of both the Bush and the Obama administrations.

As the Venezuelan people grieve and admirers around the world pay homage, the Global Research News Hour brings in frequent guest and Chavez admirer Stephen Lendman to examine Chavez’s impact on international geo-politics. We also discuss the possibility that the Venezuelan President may have been the victim of a US assassination attempt!

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Investigative Journalist and former LAPD officer Mike Ruppert explains the significance of the Chris Dorner story in the framework of the power of the US Police State. Richard Gage and Peter Drew discuss an upcoming Court case in the UK that could signal a breakthrough for the 9/11 Truth movement. Former Georgia Congress Woman and Presidential candidate Cynthia McKMinney talks about her background in the context of Big Money corruption and control of the US political framework, Part one of two.

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Ten Years after former Secretary of State Colin Powell made the case for war against Iraq in front of the UN Security Council, we examine the evidence of war crimes perpetrated by both the George W Bush administration and the Barrack Obama Administration. And we also hear from Iraq War veteran and US army deserter Joshua Key about finding sanctuary in Conservative Canada.

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