By Brett Redmayne-Titley
Foreword: The secret Trans Pacific
Partnership Agreement (TPP) is very close to ratification by the US
Congress and the final draft of this insidious corporate takeover has
already been signed by twelve countries that value corporate interests
more than those of their own sovereign nations. In Europe and the UK the
TTIP treaty is the mirror image of this proposed treasonous treaty and
just as secret. Both must be stopped! Now!
In July of 2012, thanks to the help of local activists the author
obtained a Press Pass and a very coveted “Stakeholder’s Pass” that
allowed him into the San Diego TPP negotiations, thus being the only
reporter present who was not pro-TPP. His tough questions, interviews,
and press conference challenges put the author in the line-of-fire and
led to a shocking, multi-part exposé, possibly the most in-depth, inside look at TPP.
Due to the constant secrecy of the TPP negations – highlighted in
this series – very little new information has been revealed since. In
an effort to provide the reader information on the threat of TPP, Activist Post is
kindly re-publishing the series – one part each day – as a service to
its American and world-wide readers. A new final chapter will be offered
that will include the most recent updated information. TPP and TTIP
must be stopped! Read on and find out why. TPP is not secret anymore!
B.R-T.
“We have to stop them before it gets to Congress”, warned Brooke
Harper, referring to the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), the
proposed pan-Pacific trade treaty. This is likely the most insidious
piece of corporate-inspired global legislation ever to be secretly
slipped through the halls of the US Congress. Its details were a secret
until two weeks ago. Now, opposition must rise quickly. The consequences
for America and eleven other nations are indeed terminal.
Ms. Harper, who represents Global Trade Watch, an organization based
in Wash. DC, has just arrived in San Diego. Her goal: to rally Southern
California area activists in preparation for the upcoming TPP eight-day
negotiations to be held at the Hilton/San Diego Bayfront, in San Diego,
July 2-10, 2012. This is round thirteen of the “negotiations.”
A crowd of about forty, representing activist groups from the San
Diego area, listened as Harper explained the depth of the threat posed
by TPP. They had gathered at Canvass for a Cause, a community hall in
the City Heights area. What the audience heard was chilling and went far
beyond the fringes of our current broken American democracy and its
corrupt politicians.
US Pres. Barack Obama is a traitor. Period. This underhanded treaty
secretly sells out the American people’s legal, sovereign, and
constitutional protections in favor of this president’s corporate puppet
masters. The concept, inception, and mechanism of the TPP treaty – as
well as the effort to secretly pass it – come, solely, from the Obama
administration. In doing so, our one-time constitutional scholar
president attempts to create a new, world-wide, corporate dynasty. TPP
effectively allows for the overthrow of the legal sovereignty and
national jurisdiction of the United States’ courts and political system
to a foreign power. This is the very definition of treason.
If Americans don’t stop TPP corporations will literally be able to
circumvent the existing laws of the EPA, FDA, trade unions, collective
bargaining agreements, patent protections, banking regulations and many
other American regulations and rights. All will be negated solely by the
arbitrary diktats of corporations. This treason is being currently and
secretly included in the language of the TPP treaty here in San Diego.
Should state, local, or federal governmental agencies attempt to enforce
American laws in favor of their citizens that conflict with the wishes
of the multi-nationals, a separate corporate court will have supreme
jurisdiction – and the last say – over any American governmental agency.
Ominously called, “The Tribunal,” it has the power to override any
existing American regulation. Absurdly, Federal agencies, State Gov’ts,
City authorities, citizen’s property rights, and competing American
corporate interests will be considered as the Defendant before
this tribunal. When brought to the dock, these defendants – these
nations – will be charged, by the plaintiff corporation, with a new
crime: “Technical Barrier to Trade.” Really.
The Tribunal issues all final, irrevocable, decisions. Should the
defendant national interest choose not to comply with the Tribunal’s
diktat, or refuse to pay the Tribunal ordered financial compensation,
the judgment – per the TPP treaty – will be enforced by the federal
gov’t against subservient that American interest.
Making matters even worse, American-based corporations will not have
access to the authoritarian controls and manipulations of the TPP
treaty. These luxuries are only available to the big multi-national
corporations. Smaller American corporations will be subordinate to the
whims of TPP.
So… your state decides to place a health tax on cigarettes of one
dollar a pack, as compensation for increased healthcare costs created by
smokers of your state. (California’s Prop 29 attempted to do this in
the last primary election.) The voters actually approve the tax in a
democratic referendum. This seems pretty fair, so far. Au Contraire.
R.J. Reynolds doesn’t like this anecdote of democracy, considering it
bad for business, and their profits. Increased healthcare costs from a
self-propagating addiction be-damned; big corporations, at least the
ones with real power, don’t worry about the trifles of such democracy.
This aggrieved corporation merely turns to the, “Investor/State Dispute Resolution Tribunal.”
No need to waste time in a state or federal court – nor the Supreme
Court of the United States – these courts will be useless at the hands
of the “Tribunal.”
This corporate-sponsored, US congressional science fiction continues
when, next, considering the makeup of the Tribunal and its members.
Composed of just three corporate lawyers (remember what Shakespeare
said?), the three will be divided into; one with experience with the
defendant’s issues, one for the plaintiff corporation, and a third who
is, somehow, neutral. The Tribunal will meet in closed session away from
cameras and reporters when adjudicating disputes between sovereign
national, American, federal, state, or local laws and the wishes of the
corporations whose countries’ governments will have treasonously
ratified the TPP treaty.
With
the likelihood of any national interest prevailing at the Tribunal
being effectively nil, the tribunal now rules against your state’s
cigarette tax. The tax is ordered to be repealed and, as punishment to
the state for the crime of effecting a “technical barrier to trade,”
money damages are awarded to the plaintiff corporation. This
manufactured new term is the mantra of TPP and translates directly in
this case into, “your (healthcare) law is restricting our profits.”
The Tribunal then issues an order for compensation of,
hypothetically, one hundred million dollars, due to the loss of profits
to R.J. Reynolds tobacco sales. Your state’s attorney general says,
“over my dead body”, and heads for the Appeals court, perhaps the
Supreme Court. Au Contraire.
Here lies the true treason of TPP. It grants, once Congress ratifies
it, the complete nullification of the jurisdiction of all US courts
regarding matters before the tribunal. So your state loses.
Automatically.
Well, now your state treasurer says, “we’ll never pay.” Good luck!
Thanks to TPP, and a majority of similarly treasonous US Congressman,
the federal government, which has authority over the states, must then
enforce the monetary judgment. Your state’s treasurer wakes up one
morning to a call from the bank. It’s something about a $100 million
withdrawal. Uncle Sam just stole your state’s $100 million and gave it
to R.J. Reynolds. And there wasn’t a damn thing your state could do to
stop it.
This is not fantasy. Nor hyperbole. It has already happened.
Right now, Australia is under a similar legal attack by Phillip
Morris, Ltd, one of the world’s largest cigarette manufacturers. Because
of a similar existing, Hong Kong/Australia, trade treaty, Phillip
Morris is currently seeking tens of millions of dollars in monetary
damages from the Australian Gov’t. Previously, the Aussies decided to
mandate plain paper packaging of all cigarettes and that this packaging
feature a large health warning as well as some very ghastly color images
of diseased lungs, stomas, etc., all designed to discourage smoking.
However, thanks to the terms of this real-life treaty, Australia’s
justice ministry is currently fending-off Phillip Morris and their very
arbitrary – and very large – money judgment delivered by a Tribunal.
The Obama administration’s treason in propagating TPP is shown in
many other likely future edicts. Using the broad brush of “Technical
Barrier to Trade” pro-American interests may soon be banned. Green
Energy, an Obama campaign promise, will not be a reality as this would
compete with the much stronger oil industry. Healthcare for employees?
Also gone, due to the cost to employers. Patent terms would be
lengthened to as much as ninety-nine years so as to restrict the
production of cheaper generic drugs of same quality, thereby maintaining
higher prices and restricting access to medication in impoverished
counties. How many millions of people world-wide who may die will never
be known. Banking regulation, already minimal, will be gone. The few
remaining small farmers will be forced from their land by multi-national
agri-business. Fracking? Whether you like it, or not! These are just
the obvious examples.
Substitute
into this scenario any governmental agency, fit in any restriction to
corporate profit, and add the name of any multi-national corporation and
the story plays out the same. These requirements are actually currently
written into the first two chapters of the TPP treaty – recently leaked
to the public. There are working-drafts in progress for twenty-six
additional chapters. Most have nothing to do with trade, but rather
impose limits on domestic food safety, health, environmental, and other
policies. The first two are bad enough. These draft copies were
released to Global Trade Watch two weeks ago. The governments involved,
including the US, won’t release the texts to the public. Nor to elected
US congresspersons and Senators! However, 600 corporate “trade advisors”
have full access.
What was – two weeks ago – initially met with a collective gasp by
most media, was quickly dampened to a mumble after a one-day news cycle.
It is now missing from the pages of our nations’ corporate-controlled
media, much like the recent NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act)
subterfuge. Media scoundrels are doing their job efficiently. During a
the previous Dallas negotiations, despite the presence of over 400 area
protesters, there was only one media crew, from Japan, present to cover
the event.
Tonight, these forty-plus activist leaders are determined to make the
week of July 2 -10 a call to action, and bring the attention of their
American and world-wide brethren to the pending horror of TPP.
After a 90-minute presentation by Brooke Harper on the nuances of
TPP, the gathering spent another hour and a half discussing protest
plans for each day of the week during the TPP negotiations. A
coordinated effort from across Southern California is expected to make a
strong presence daily. Twenty members of the group have been given
passes to enter the assembly each day as, “Stakeholders”, (implying that
they actually have a say in the negotiations) and can meet and discuss
issues with the official trade representatives of the countries present.
Harper warns these stakeholders to be prepared for the self-serving
arguments of the negotiators, since the invitation is designed to be the
foil for the negotiators to challenge these protesters in public and
thus legitimize the TPP process.
The countries who are party to this attempt at corporate world
domination, i.e. globalization, are United States, Canada, Australia,
Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New
Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. All these countries are champions
of this new corporate Democratic model.
The TPP negotiators refer to the treaty as a “Docking Agreement”
meaning it is an opportunity for other countries to join. Mexico and
Canada have recently joined.
Two-and a- half years ago, America’s one-time constitutional scholar
president commenced his assault on Americans’ best interests by
commissioning, in secret, the drafting of the TPP treaty. Next, his
administration just as secretly began inviting countries to participate
in the negotiations. These negotiations have been continuing routinely,
with the recent twelfth stopover in Dallas, Texas this past May and now
San Diego. All the twenty US trade negotiators and the US trade
representative, Ron Kirk, will be present at the TPP conference. All
were selected by Obama.
This
president’s treason must deliberately be concealed as the release of
secret two chapters reveals. US Congressmen and Senators will not be
able to see a final draft until it is submitted to them for
consideration, and presumably, automatic passage. This pre-authored TPP
treaty, in the mold of so many previous pieces of legislation
pre-authored by A.L.E.C. (American Legislative Exchange Council), will
have no need to be read by these congressmen, who seem – due their lack
of interest – already in the bag. The likely punch-line to this
treasonous joke will be: that Obama will use his “fast-track authority”
via current US trade authority, to get this through Congress without the
possibility of formal congressional review – or massive public outcry.
Like his midnight signature to the secret “ear-mark” provisions of this
past New Year’s sinister NDAA, this treasonous president, and his
congressional co-conspirators, attempt to put, using TPP, a final death
nail in American democracy.
Unless….
The time-line for passage of the TPP treaty by the US Congress and
the other member nations is intended to be by late summer this year.
So far, just two congresswomen are taking an interest in protecting
American sovereignty and its citizens from TPP. Reps. Rosa L. DeLauro
(D-CT) and Rep. Donna Edwards (D- MD) are the current leaders in
exposing and challenging TPP. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), chairman of the
Trade Committee in the Senate, which supposedly has jurisdiction over
trade agreements, has been denied any access to viewing a copy despite
persistent requests. Already – even before ratification – a US senator
lacks standing or jurisdiction in the eyes of the TPP conspirators.
Times were dire and corporations were already running amuck over
public interests before the sudden, shocking, news of TPP. Now,
corporations seek supreme authority over sovereign nations. Desperate
and ever greedy, the minions of authoritarian, corporate democracy wish
to give their corporate masters the keys to the base of the financial
pyramid. From Citizens United to the BP oil disaster cover-up; from
Obama’s sham Heath Care bill to the NDAA’s new gutting of American civil
liberties, these treasons were not enough. We now have TPP, designed to
finish the job. It must be stopped. Efforts in San Diego and across the
nation must commence. Congressmen must be contacted. Phones must ring.
The call to national action must go out.
Or the last vestiges of freedom will.
George Orwell cried last night. The “Pigs” are winning.
BRETT REDMAYNE-TITLEY
Independent Journalist
Photographer/ World Citizen
Former Columnist: PRESS TV/IRAN
Writer & Contributor To: Earth First!;
Veterans Today; Western Journalism;
Intellihub; Shift Frequency;
Fars News Agency; Blacklisted News;
Before It’s News; Common Dreams; Activist Post.
“La sabiduría de la vida consiste en la eliminación de lo no esencial. En reducir los problemas de la filosofía a unos pocos solamente: el goce del hogar, de la vida, de la naturaleza, de la cultura”. Lin Yutang
Cervantes
Hoy es el día más hermoso de nuestra vida, querido Sancho; los obstáculos más grandes, nuestras propias indecisiones; nuestro enemigo más fuerte, el miedo al poderoso y a nosotros mismos; la cosa más fácil, equivocarnos; la más destructiva, la mentira y el egoísmo; la peor derrota, el desaliento; los defectos más peligrosos, la soberbia y el rencor; las sensaciones más gratas, la buena conciencia, el esfuerzo para ser mejores sin ser perfectos, y sobretodo, la disposición para hacer el bien y combatir la injusticia dondequiera que esté.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quijote de la Mancha.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quijote de la Mancha.