“The secrecy of the TTIP casts a shadow on the future of European democracy, affects the life of every European and draws Europe into a long term conflict with Asia."
On August 14th, 2015 I already reported on my Facebook wall about the facts that WikiLeaks was raising a €100,000 reward for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership ‘TTIP’:
- Yes, a €100,000 reward for Europe’s most wanted secret. The TTIP is a multi-trillion dollar international treaty that is being negotiated in secret between the United States and the European Union. It remains secret almost in its entirety, closely guarded by the negotiators, and only big corporations are given special access to its terms – VIDEO.
On October 4th the Dutch NPO and VPRO‘s weekly, 50-minute, Future Affairs- program VPRO Backlight aired an extraordinary piece of investigative journalism episode on this particular treaty. Directed by Roland Duong and research by William de Bruijn:
Is the proposed free trade (TTIP) agreement a lead to worries about Europe’s self-determination. Or Is it a treaty a protection to our commercial interests or a threat to our democracy?
South Korean institutional economist specialising in development economics Ha-Joon Chang, Canada’s Chief Trade Negotiator with the EU, Steve Verheul, Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, International Investment Law&Arbitration; Inquiries and Investigations Gus van Harten, and
Head of Legal Affairs at Global Investment Protection AG, Nikos Lavranos,
speak out in:
The Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has dubbed the TTIP an "economic NATO,” comparing it to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization military alliance.
Over the last two years WikiLeaks has published chapters from two other secret global trade deals, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), despite unprecedented efforts by negotiating governments to keep them under wraps.
Watch the explanatory video with John Pilger, Matt Kennard, Claire Provost, John Hilary (War on Want), and editor-in-chief of the website WikiLeaks,Julien Assange that should have 7.3 Billion views!
More:
- When It’s O.K. to Pay for a Story (NYTIMES)
- Ha-Joon Chang: Economics Is A Political Argument (Huffpost)
- TTIP Guardian Live Podcast Lifting the lid on TTIP – audio
Pledge today! Go to wikileaks. Tell your friends #LeakTTIP
More on the world’s best and my personal favourite investigative journalist John Pilger on AskTheRightQuestion:
- “Those whose job it is to keep the record straight ought to be the voice of people, not power.”
- “believe nothing until it has been officially denied"
- “I earned only 58 dollars last month”
- “We all need stories to help us make sense of the complexity of reality” (Adam Curtis)
Photo Credit: Wikileaks.