December, 03 2015, 03:15pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Expert Contact: Bill Waren, (202) 222-0746, wwaren@foe.org
Communications Contact: EA Dyson, (202) 222-0730, edyson@foe.org
WikiLeaks Exposes Environmental Threat of Trade in Services Agreement
WikiLeaks released today the secret text of the Annex on Environmental Services for the Trade in Services Agreement, which confirms that the global trade deal will stand in the way of new environmental and climate safeguards and begin a process of rolling back existing regulations. WikiLeaks also released an analysis prepared by Friends of the Earth, U.S. which unpacks the technical text of the TiSA deal, generally, and the Environmental Annex in particular.
WASHINGTON
WikiLeaks released today the secret text of the Annex on Environmental Services for the Trade in Services Agreement, which confirms that the global trade deal will stand in the way of new environmental and climate safeguards and begin a process of rolling back existing regulations. WikiLeaks also released an analysis prepared by Friends of the Earth, U.S. which unpacks the technical text of the TiSA deal, generally, and the Environmental Annex in particular.
Trade negotiators from the United States and 22 other World Trade Organization members, including the European Union, are seeking to "harmonize" environmental protections down to the lowest common denominator and to privatize environmental services provided by governments.
Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica had this statement:
"It is hypocritical for President Obama and other leaders of developed economies to meet in Paris to address climate change when their trade ministers are secretly crafting a Trade in Services Agreement which would undermine initiatives to cut carbon emissions. Regulations of emissions in the aviation and maritime sectors, in particular, are at risk. Big oil services companies, water services multinationals, tar sands pipeline companies, exporters of fossil fuels and other corporate polluters are beneficiaries of TiSA. President Obama and other heads of state are their willing handmaidens."
Read the leaked text of the TiSA Annex on Environmental Services here.
Read the Friends of the Earth analysis of TiSA text here.
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
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Amid Spying Fight, House Passes Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
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While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
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Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
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Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
"The passage of the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale underscores the extent to which reining in abusive warrantless surveillance is a bipartisan issue," Scott said. "We urge the Senate to take up this measure and close the data broker loophole."
Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
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As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has also claimed to support a so-called "two-state solution"—has alternately boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood.
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