Category Archives: Wikileaks

Secret draft of TPP talks on environment show little enforcement measures

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A secret draft of what would be Australia's biggest trade agreement shows it will be toothless in enforcing environmental agreements.

The draft environment chapter of the twelve-nation Trans Pacific Partnership agreement published by WikiLeaks proposes next to no enforcement mechanisms with those that are suggested opposed by each of the 12 nations other than the United Stastes.

A summary on the WikiLeaks website says the draft makes use of the 'get out clause' approximately 43 times, using language such as: "Where possible and appropriate, the Parties shall seek to complement and utilise their existing cooperation mechanisms and take into account relevant work of regional and international organisations."

The word "may" is also found 43 times in the 23-page draft.

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Governments are urged to "...make every effort to arrive at a mutually satisfactory resolution...", "...take measures to prevent...", "...make best efforts...", "...exercise restraint in taking recourse...", and retain "the right to make decisions...".

WikiLeaks says other favourite words are "enhance" (12), "consider" (12), "encourage" (11), "address" (10), "endeavour" (9) and "seek" (9).

A report from the chairpersons of the environment section of the agreement despairs at ever getting meaningful agreement saying the so-called "red line" or non-negotiable positions appear irreconcilable."Many of the red lines for some parties were in direct opposition to the red lines expressed by other parties," it says.

"It bears emphasising that it is these differences that have prevented the environment working group from reaching agreement on all aspects of the chapter."

Australia is siding with Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam in opposing US moves to give the resolutions of biodiversity, climate change, fisheries and conservation more force.

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Secret draft of TPP talks on environment show little enforcement measures

Terabyte Leaks and Political Legitimacy in the U.S. and China

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The leaking of information is a time-honored tactic to undermine the legitimacy of a political opponent or a policy. Sir Winston Churchill relied on it during the run-up to World War II to attack what he saw as weak British responses to German rearmament.

Ever the master of using information and disinformation, he would use question time in the parliament to reveal morsels of secret information. As part of an embarrassment strategy, these were drawn from UK intelligence assessments of Germanys military build-up and from UK policy planning documents.

At another level, the sustained control of information has always been viewed as central to political power. The totalitarian governments of the 20th century were among the best practitioners. The term propaganda came to symbolize this technique of political control of information.

In such a governance frame, the idea of a strategic leak has always been one of a slow trickle of pieces of information. Meanwhile, the event itself or the process in question was unlikely to undermine the power of a determined state propaganda machine.

But now the old style of a steady flow of bit-by-bit leaks may be passing into history. Welcome to the brave new world of avalanche-like leaks, where the unauthorized release of secrets has moved from a trickle to a virtual flood.

And now, that flood has even biblical proportions. Wikileaks has been a manifestation of the changing times. All that is required is having a suitable platform to release those occasional floods of secret information.

In publishing 251,287 diplomatic cables from the U.S. government, the Wikileaks website provided a sustained embarrassment to the United States.

While there were temporary setbacks, the leaks did not shake the government to its core or bring about the end of any political career. The total file size of the entire package of leaked cables was less than two gigabytes (2 billion bytes).

But Wikileaks is passing into history. By comparison, on some estimates, Edward Snowden took from the NSA 2,000 times as much information (4 terabytes, or 8 trillion bytes).

This did shake the United States government to the core. It did so not because Snowden revealed unusual activities that were not previously contemplated. The surprise lay in the scale of activity for which the U.S. government was fingered. That stunned people around the globe, foreigners first and, remarkably, American citizens later.

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Terabyte Leaks and Political Legitimacy in the U.S. and China

Wikileaks – Wikileaks

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Disclosed documents are classified, censored or otherwise opaque to the public record. We rely on readers to alert their communities and press to the revelations here. Go to it! Big Pharma caught spying on the WHO Toll Collect Vertraege, 2002 Egads! Confidential 9/11 Pager Messages Disclosed Ratiopharm: Geld und Geschenke fr rzte Guardian still under secret toxic waste gag Ivory Coast toxic dumping report behind secret Guardian gag Verfassungsschutz soll zur Polizei werden Gmail may hand over IP addresses of journalists Turks and Caicos former PM to fight British rule Transparency after the Turks and Caicos Islands scandal WikiLeaks victorious over corruption report gag order WikiLeaks releases suppressed Turks and Caicos report Big Trouble in Little Paradise: the Turks and Caicos Islands takeover Iran blocks WikiLeaks Serious nuclear accident may lay behind Iranian nuke chief's mystery resignation WikiLeaks wins Amnesty International 2009 Media Award US detainee interrogation: a road not taken Shadowy Bilderberg group meet in Greece - and here's their address Guardian journalist arrested for trying to penetrate secret Bilderberg meet Bilderberg Group Meets In Athens Amid Tight Security Australian Senate questions government on ACMA censorship and WikiLeaks Guantanamo's Immediate Reaction Force still terrorizing detainees U.S. Denies Incendiary Weapon Use in Afghanistan The Most Wanted Leaks of 2009 Groups rip secrecy over IP protection talks O homem-bomba da Sua CRS Report Leaks Prove Tough to Stop Obama's Chilling Crew: The legal harassment of those investigating Tony Rezko East Timorese go begging as foreign advisers rake it in Correction of DPA article in respect to WikiLeaks and Steve Jobs HIV test WikiLeaks.de back in service WikiLeaks.de Theodor Reppe im Interview Interview with WikiLeaks.de domain sponsor Theodor Reppe Mehr Details zur Wikileaks.de Stilllegung More detail on WikiLeaks.de suspension Experten greifen von der Leyen an Deutsche Wikileaks Domain ohne Vorwarnung gesperrt Germany deletes WikiLeaks.de domain after raid Defence contractor suspended over neo-Nazi link Gericht: Durchsuchung wegen mittelbarer Links auf Kinderporno-Sperrliste rechtmig Western internet censorship: The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning? In Britain, Web Leaves Courts Playing Catch-Up A Blacklist for Websites Backfires in Australia Hausdurchsuchung bei WikiLeaks.de Domaininhaber Police raid home of Wikileaks.de domain owner over censorship lists Trade agency pledges to review its transparency It certainly looks like the ACMA blacklist, eh Senator Conroy Dentist's website on leaked blacklist Leaked Australian blacklist reveals banned sites Burning Toxic Waste is Making U.S. Soldiers and Iraqis Sick, But the Pentagon Refuses to Admit It There is no bigger issue than net censorship Banned hyperlinks could cost you 11,000 dollars a day Whistleblower exposes insider trading program at JP Morgan The mother of all media leaks Wikileaks, IT pro not 'in any danger' in Coleman leak, lawyer says Missouri report on militias, terrorists draws criticism Patents Being Abused To Put Your Life In Danger The Big Bad Database of Senator Norm Coleman Intelligence failures crippling fight against insurgents in Afghanistan, says report UN urges probe into Kenya murders Raila now attacks security agencies Cooperate with FBI, Raila tells Kenya police Two Kenyan rights activists shot dead How to Hijack an EU Open Source Strategy Paper Wikileaks cracks NATO's Master Narrative for Afghanistan Clearstream et le mystrieux compte Bank Madoff An insight into child porn Einblicke in die Kinderpornoszene UN probe indicts Kenya on police killings United Nations Sexual Assault/Harassment Reports on Wikileaks Decommissioning the arms trade Euro MP expenses 'can reach 1m' Secret report reveals how MEPs make millions Geographic Survey Project of the Sierra Juarez Mountains Stirs Protests Davenport Lyons Threatens to Sue Wikileaks Over Publication of Extortion Letter Anthropologists Adopt New Language Against Secret Research Afghanistan: Slipping out of control UN group to probe poll chaos deaths Demonstrators accuse police over disappearance of kin Wikileaks releases NATO report on civilian deaths Tax Gap: Rare glimpse into offshore world of big money and low taxes Tax Gap: Isles of plenty Report: new Fairness Doctrine would face high legal hurdle Thousands of Congressional Reports Now Available Online Parts for 'dirty bomb' found in slain US man's home GOP's Stimulus Talking Points Contradict Congressional Research Service Wikileaks posts 6,780 Congressional reports -- fun, but no smoking gun J.Baer confirms trading incident, shares off lows How One Fund's Profits Ended Up in the Caymans Nuevos audios ilegales quedan en poder de juez Anticorrupcin Counterinsurgency A royal offence Commission blushes as banks are stripped bare Lists of allegedly illegal websites always leak Bank Fees: Banking on silence Sex, Waffenhandel, Korruption: Ungeheuere Vorwrfe gegen die Uno UN peacekeeping logistics not secure in 2008 UN finds 217 sex abuse claims against blue helmets United Nations confidential reports Swiss banks crafty strategy shows how difficult it is to clamp down on tax havens Hackers blow whistle on banks Competition body wants hackers prosecuted Secret gag orders undermine core Western values Die angebliche E-Mail vom BND-Chef 1,203 new websites censored by Thailand German spy chief threatens Wikileaks MPs accuse courts of allowing libel tourism Kafka comes to the British courts Bank Julius Br Bank Julius Br vs. Wikileaks How One Fund's Profits Ended Up in the Caymans Ex-Rock Impresario Tony Defries lost $22 million in offshore tax evasion scheme Rudolf Elmer files against Swiss banking secrecy at ECHR Exbanker klagt die Schweiz an Full correspondence between Wikileaks and Bank Julius Baer Notfallsuberung des BND nach Wikileaks Enthllung German intelligence scrubs European records after Wikileaks exposure Northern Rock vs. Wikileaks Changes in Guantanamo Bay SOP manual (2003-2004) Die Deutsche Telekom und ihr Kunde BND

For many more media reports see Google news reports on Wikileaks, past 30 days (without syndications)

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Wikileaks - Wikileaks

WikiLeaks, drought and Syria

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IN the 1970s, I got my bachelor's and master's degrees in modern Middle East studies, and I can assure you that at no time did environmental or climate issues appear anywhere in the syllabi of my courses.

Today, you can't understand the Arab awakenings or their solutions without considering climate, environment and population stresses.

I've been reporting on the connection between the Syrian drought and the uprising there for a Showtime documentary that will air in April, but recently our researchers came across a WikiLeaks cable that brilliantly foreshadowed how environmental stresses would fuel the uprising.

Sent on Nov 8, 2008, from the United States embassy in Damascus to the State Department, the cable details how, in light of what was a devastating Syrian drought -- it lasted from 2006 to 2010 -- Syria's United Nations' food and agriculture representative, Abdullah Yehia, was seeking drought assistance from the UN and wanted the US to contribute.

Here are some key lines:

"The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs launched an appeal on Sept 29 requesting roughly US$20.23 million (RM67.2 million) to assist an estimated one million people impacted by what the UN describes as the country's worst drought in four decades.

"Yehia proposes to use money from the appeal to provide seed and technical assistance to 15,000 small-holding farmers in northeast Syria in an effort to preserve the social and economic fabric of this rural, agricultural community. If UNFAO (UN Food and Agriculture Organisation) efforts fail, Yehia predicts mass migration from the northeast, which could act as a multiplier on social and economic pressures already at play and undermine stability."

"Yehia does not believe that the (government of Bashar al-Assad) will allow any Syrian citizen to starve. ... However, Yehia told us that the Syrian minister of agriculture... stated publicly that economic and social fallout from the drought was 'beyond our capacity as a country to deal with'. What the UN is trying to combat through this appeal, Yehia says, is the potential for 'social destruction' that would accompany erosion of the agricultural industry in rural Syria.

"This social destruction would lead to political instability.

"Without direct assistance, Yehia predicts that most of these 15,000 small-holding farmers would be forced to depart al-Hasakah province to seek work in larger cities in western Syria.

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WikiLeaks, drought and Syria

WikiLeaks – Official Site

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Archives 2006-2010

WikiLeaks released the UK government database of all 1,841,177 UK post codes together with latitude and longitude, grid references, county, district, ward, NHS codes and regions, Ordinance Survey reference, and date of introduction. The database was last updated on July 8, 2009 and is over 100,000 pages in size.

Read this in Wikileaks Archives

The released document detailed the key facts and themes NATO representatives are to give and to avoid giving to the world press. Among the revelations, which we encourage the public to review in detail, is Jordans presence as secret member of the US lead occupation force.

Read this in Wikileaks Archives

On Monday 16th March 2009, The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom published a series of leaked memos from the banking giant Barclays. The next day, these documents were removed from The Guardian web archive, as a result of a court injunction obtained in the middle of the night

Wikileaks obtained the documents from an anonymous source and published them the next day. The documents are copies of alleged internal memos from within Barclays Bank. They were sent by an anonymous whistleblower to Vince Cable, Liberal-Democrat shadow chancellor. The documents reveal a number of elaborate international tax avoidance schemes by the SCM (Structured Capital Markets) division of Barclays. According to these documents, Barclays has been systematically assisting clients to avoid huge amounts of tax they should be liable for across multiple jurisdictions.

Read this in Wikileaks Archives

Wikileaks released a confidential NATO report from January 2009, revealed that civilian deaths from the war in Afghanistan had increased by 46% over the past year. The report showed a dramatic escalation of the war and civil disorder. Coalition deaths increased by 35%, assassinations and kidnappings by 50% and attacks on the Kabul based Government of Hamid Karzai also more than doubled, rising a massive 119%.

Read this in Wikileaks Archives

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WikiLeaks - Official Site