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“We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace.”

-- George W. Bush

News and Opinion

Glenn Greenwald: Cruz, Trump, Clinton "Playing into the Hands" of ISIL After Brussels Bombings

The rise of the Brussels hawks: Everybody is terrified of Donald Trump, but why aren’t they worried about Hillary Clinton too?

Yesterday’s attacks in Brussels obviously reflect the fact that ISIS is an apocalyptic death cult that treats human lives of all races and creeds as cheap currency to be cashed in at the alter of a twisted theology. But it’s also a reminder that the War on Terror, which the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq inaugurated, has set the world on fire. The bloodshed unleashed abroad continues to ricochet back home, inciting reactionaries on both sides who seek to define the world in starkly Manichaean terms: You’re either with us or against us; they either submit to the caliphate, or aid the crusaders. ...

The attacks will no doubt benefit the far right. But, as the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent astutely pointed out, the conventional wisdom that they will help Trump in November “rest on the assumption that the general election audience will acquiesce to Trump’s simplistic, blustery framing of foreign policy and national security issues.

In reality, the benefits very well may accrue to Hillary Clinton. ... Every single Trump flirtation with fascism and white supremacy makes her look more like a sensible moderate. Yet she is neither.

Earlier this week, at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, Clinton showed her true militarist colors, pledging to confront Iran with “real consequences for even the smallest violations” of the nuclear accord, and condemning Trump for his quickly discarded pledge to being a neutral arbiter on Israel-Palestine. ... Now, after months being dazzled by Clinton’s purported intersectionality, the candidate offers a pointed reminder that her foreign policy instincts intersect quite agreeably with the likes of neoconservative Robert Kagan. He’s with her.

The fog of war is no doubt clouding people’s minds. But making dumb decisions is not the sole prerogative of Trump voters.

Glenn Greenwald: Hillary Clinton Has Embraced Some of the Most Brutal Dictators in the World

Islamic State Bragged That Its Attacks Would Help Break Up the European Union

A newsletter circulated after Islamic State’s November massacre in Paris sheds light on what the group believes yesterday’s deadly attack in Brussels will accomplish, including weakening unity on the continent and exhausting European states economically.

An issue of the Islamic State newsletter, al-Naba, published weeks after the Paris attack, boasted in one section that “the Paris raid has caused the creation of a state of instability in European countries which will have long-term effects,” listed as “the weakening of European cohesion, including demands to repeal the Schengen Agreement…which permits free traveling in Europe without checkpoints” and “security measures [which] will cost them tens of millions of dollars,” along with “mutual accusations between France and Belgium” over security failings.

The same newsletter section also stated that a “general state of unease” created by terrorism would lead to decreases in tourism and new restrictions on travel, costing already cash-strapped EU countries “tens of billions of dollars” in revenue. ...

A similar strategy was famously outlined in 2004 by Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who claimed that the goal of the 9/11 attacks were to draw the United States into costly wars abroad that would drain its resources and political will, while engendering backlash from Muslim communities worldwide.

Pentagon Sidelining State Dept. on Matters of Foreign Aid

While it is nominally the job of the US State Department to handle foreign affairs, and the Secretary of State is intended to be America’s top diplomat abroad, nations seeking US aid are increasingly bypassing the State Department and going straight to the Pentagon, which is controlling an ever-growing portion of the foreign aid budget.

Officials are seen complaining about the “militarizing foreign policy” that the Pentagon’s control is having, noting that the Defense Department has repeatedly decided to send aid to countries the State Department had singled out for torture and other humanitarian concerns. Often the Pentagon just sends the money, and the State Department doesn’t find out until after the fact

Radovan Karadžić sentenced to 40 years for genocide at Srebrenica

The former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić has been found guilty of genocide over the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica and sentenced to 40 years in jail.

The key verdict from a United Nations tribunal in The Hague was delivered 18 months after a five-year trial of Karadžić, who was accused of being one of the chief architects of atrocities during the 1992-95 Balkans war.

The 70-year-old, who insisted his actions were aimed at protecting Serbs during the Bosnian conflict, was found guilty of 10 out of the 11 charges he faced at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Prosecutors said that Karadžić, as political leader and commander-in-chief of Serb forces in Bosnia, was responsible for some the worst acts of brutality during the war, including the 44-month deadly siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in the Srebrenica enclave.

The presiding ICTY judge delivering the ruling, O-Gon Kwon, only cleared Karadzic of responsibility for genocide in attacks on other towns and villages where Croats and Bosnians were driven out.

Karadžić’s other convictions were for five counts of crimes against humanity and four of war crimes, including taking UN peacekeepers hostage, deporting civilians, murder and attacks on combatants.

US Marines Enter Ground Combat in Iraq to Defend Oil Fields

Even as Pentagon officials have sought to emphasize their claims of ISIS being “on the run,” ever more US ground troops are being deployed into Iraq to try to cope with ISIS offensives, with the battle of Makhmur leading to the introduction of US Marines in front-line combat roles. ...

The Makhmur District is also a key to holding oil fields around Kirkuk, and the ISIS offensive is seen by many analysts as part of an effort to ultimately regain control over those lucrative oil fields, and have been “outgunning” the thousands of Iraqi troops in the area.

Whether they’re trying to save Iraqi ground troops who still can’t stand up to ISIS, or save oil fields, however, the latest escalation puts US troops even further in harm’s way, and has put the war even further afield from the “no boots on the ground” affair initially promised by the Obama Administration.

Syria: state TV claims Assad's troops entered ISIS-held Palmyra

Syrian forces enter Palmyra in battle with Isis, says state TV

Syrian state television says government forces backed by Russian airstrikes have fought their way into Palmyra, as the army tries to recapture the city from Islamic State.

Troops reached the “heart” of Palmyra, the state-run Ikhbariya news channel reported, broadcasting images from just outside the historic city that has been held by Isis since May last year.

State TV quoted its reporter embedded with the troops as saying that around midday on Thursday, the fighting was concentrated near the archaeological site on the south-western edge of the town.

Cracks of gunfire and explosions echoed as the reporter spoke. The TV also aired footage showing soldiers walking and SUVs driving near a building that appears to have been a hotel. ...

The Syrian government said on Wednesday it had control over two pathways into the city, tightening the noose on Isis fighters in the area.

Asymmetry in Syria and the Russian Drawdown

Many people expressed surprise when Russia militarily intervened last year in the conflict in Syria, and many of the same people are expressing surprise over the announced drawdown of Russian forces there. ...

The latest Russian move should not have been at all surprising. To the extent that it was, this is because of imputing to the Russians motives and thought processes that they do not exhibit, and neither do most other people. The announced withdrawal shows that Russian objectives in Syria were never unlimited or grandiose. The objectives had to do with such things as a temporary propping up of the Assad regime to prevent it from collapsing, and asserting a Russian role in helping to determine the future of Syria. The withdrawal also demonstrates that the Russians, just like most other people, consider costs and the risks of incurring more costs, along with considering benefits and objectives.

The Russian moves demonstrate in addition that Putin does not apply to the Syrian situation the kind of framework that many American critics of the Obama administration's policies apply, which is to equate activity and especially military activity with the degree to which a nation's interests are being upheld. A corollary to this framework is the belief that Russian military activity not only always advances Russian interests but also retards U.S. interests, and that a similar inverse relationship applies to U.S. military activity. Putin does not seem to have fallen into that zero-sum mindset, and there is no good reason for the rest of us to either.

A precondition for peaceful settlement of such a conflict is a hurting stalemate in which no side believes it can win a military victory. ... The entire sequence of Russian moves, including the initial intervention and the current reduction of forces, has helped to create and maintain the necessary hurting stalemate to make possible a negotiated settlement.

Schadenfreude alert!

Blackwater’s Founder Is Under Investigation for Money Laundering, Ties to Chinese Intel, and Brokering Mercenary Services

Erik Prince, founder of the now-defunct mercenary firm Blackwater and current chairman of Frontier Services Group, is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal agencies for attempting to broker military services to foreign governments and possible money laundering, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the case.

What began as an investigation into Prince’s attempts to sell defense services in Libya and other countries in Africa has widened to a probe of allegations that Prince received assistance from Chinese intelligence to set up an account for his Libya operations through the Bank of China. The Justice Department, which declined to comment for this article, is also seeking to uncover the precise nature of Prince’s relationship with Chinese intelligence. ...

For more than a year, U.S. intelligence has been monitoring Prince’s communications and movements, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence officer and a second former intelligence official briefed on the investigation. Multiple sources, including two people with business ties to Prince, told The Intercept that current government and intelligence personnel informed them of this surveillance. Those with business ties were cautioned to sever their dealings with Prince. ...

Working with a small cadre of loyalists — including a former South African commando, a former Australian air force pilot, and a lawyer with dual citizenship in the U.S. and Israel — Prince sought to secretly rebuild his private CIA and special operations enterprise by setting up foreign shell companies and offering paramilitary services, according to documents reviewed by The Intercept and interviews with several people familiar with Prince’s business proposals.

Since 2014, Prince has traveled to at least half a dozen countries to offer various versions of a private military force, secretly meeting with a string of African officials. Among the countries where Prince pitched a plan to deploy paramilitary assets is Libya, which is currently subject to an array of U.S. and United Nations financial and defense restrictions.

Justice Dept to Indict Iranians Over Hacking Banks, Dam

Reports on Reuters tonight cite sources within the Justice Department saying they will soon indict a handful of Iranian citizens over hacking incidents targeting US banks in 2012 and 2013, and the fruitless 2013 hack of Bowman Avenue Dam on Long Island. ...

It’s unclear if any of those to be indicted are actually in a country where the US can get to them, but officials also said the indictment intends to formally blame the Iranian government for the hacks, which likely is the main purpose of the indictments in the first place.

Officials have been blaming the Iranian government in comments for years, but have never offered any public evidence of their involvement in the hacks. It remains to be seen if there will be direct evidence within the indictment, or if the allegation will just be another undefended assertion.

Court asks: Do police need a warrant to track your cellphone for months at a time?

Law enforcement officials have long relied on location details gleaned from cellphone towers as a powerful tool for tracing steps of suspects, particularly in the early stages of investigations.

But civil liberties groups and privacy advocates are increasingly challenging the practice. They are concerned that police and federal agents can too easily tap vast caches of information about people’s movements through devices most Americans carry in their pockets — trackings that could show how often someone goes to a doctor’s office, to a casino or to church. ...

A federal appeals court on Wednesday will be the latest front in the legal debate, in the case that involves [a series of] Baltimore robberies [where Maryland investigators pulled seven months of phone records tracking the physical location of two men they convicted for armed robbery].

The issue before a full panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which has jurisdiction over Maryland and Virginia, is whether investigators need a search warrant before they can track suspects’ long-term movements through their cellphones.

A three-judge panel of that court, based in Richmond, ruled in August that accessing the location information without a warrant for an “extended period” is unconstitutional because it allows law enforcement to trace a person’s comings and goings across public and private spaces.

But two other federal appellate courts — in Florida and New Orleans — concluded that warrants are not necessary.

If the full 4th Circuit upholds its panel’s 2-to-1 decision, there would be a clear split with the other federal appeals courts. That type of divide often attracts the attention of the Supreme Court, which has already expressed concern about the effect of long-term surveillance by law enforcement on individual privacy.

Lawmakers warn of 'radical' move by NSA to share information

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers is expressing alarm at reported changes at the National Security Agency that would allow the intelligence service’s information to be used for policing efforts in the United States.

“If media accounts are true, this radical policy shift by the NSA would be unconstitutional, and dangerous,” Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) wrote in a letter to the spy agency this week. “The proposed shift in the relationship between our intelligence agencies and the American people should not be done in secret.

“NSA’s mission has never been, and should never be, domestic policing or domestic spying.”

The NSA has yet to publicly announce the change, but The New York Times reported last month that the administration was poised to expand the agency's ability to share information that it picks up about people’s communications with other intelligence agencies.

The modification would open the door for the NSA to give the FBI and other federal agencies uncensored communications of foreigners and Americans picked up incidentally — but without a warrant — during sweeps.

Israeli company helping FBI crack iPhone security

The FBI has been reportedly using the services of the Israeli-based company Cellebrite in its effort to break the protection on a terrorist's locked iPhone, according to experts in the field familiar with the case.

Cellebrite has not responded to the report. But if it is indeed the "third party" in question, and it is able to break into the terrorist's iPhone, it would bring the high-stakes legal showdown between the government and Apple to an abrupt end.

Cellebrite, considered one of the leading companies in the world in the field of digital forensics, has been working with the world's biggest intelligence, defense and law enforcement authorities for many years.

The company provides the FBI with decryption technology as part of a contract signed with the bureau in 2013.

Cellebrite's technology is able to extract valuable information from cellular devices that could be used in criminal and intelligence investigations, even if the phone and the information it contains are locked and secure.

Yemen combat to halt April 10, a week before peace talks: U.N.

The warring parties in Yemen have agreed to a cessation of hostilities starting at midnight on April 10 and peace talks in Kuwait beginning a week later, United Nations special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said on Wednesday.

There have already been several failed attempts to defuse the conflict in Yemen, which has drawn in regional foes Saudi Arabia and Iran, and triggered a humanitarian crisis in the Arab world's poorest country. ...

The U.N. Security Council welcomed the announcement and urged parties to the conflict to "immediately reduce violence and refrain from any action that could lead to increased tensions, in order to pave the way for a cessation of hostilities." ...

The U.N. says more than 6,000 people, half of them civilians, have been killed since the start of the Saudi-led military intervention whose ultimate aim is to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.

Glenn Greenwald: What Is Happening in Brazil is Much Worse Than Donald Trump

Gosh, it seems that the British government just can't find a good time to talk about the war crimes of Tony Blair. Oh well, at least their (probably whitewashed) report will eventually come out. The US will likely never address the war crimes of Bush and Obama.

Chilcot inquiry to be 'delayed by EU referendum'

The inquiry into the war was launched in 2009 by Gordon Brown with former Whitehall mandarin Sir John Chilcot as its head.

But seven years later the report appears to be no nearer to being published.

The Daily Express has now learnt that MPs have been briefed that the latest delay is the EU referendum and the inquiry is to wait until after 23 June to publish its report. ...

The inquiry has seen high profile witnesses called including former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Previous delays have been blamed on giving people criticised time to respond to points in the draft report as well as trying to get a deal with the Americans over the inquiry team seeing communications between Mr Blair and former US President George W. Bush.

US to Release Secret 'Dirty War' Files—But Argentinians Aren't Satisfied

Obama—whose visit has been criticized for its timing due to the U.S.'s involvement in the military dictatorship and subsequent atrocities—made the announcement [that he would declassify and release secret files concerning the U.S. role in the country's so-called "Dirty War"] on Wednesday after talks with Argentine President Mauricio Macri.

According to Human Rights Watch:

Argentine authorities believe the new batch of documents might reveal details on the training of Argentine soldiers at what was then called the School of the Americas (now the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), at Fort Benning, Georgia, as well as on Plan Condor, a coordinated effort among the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay to repress dissent through torture and assassinations. Argentinian authorities also hope the US documents will help in the search for the children of those who were disappeared during the dictatorship and in the continuing prosecution of human rights cases.

On Wednesday, Human Rights First president and CEO Elisa Massimino added: "Release of these documents is important not only for the people of Argentina, who continue to struggle to come to terms with a dark chapter in their history. It's important for Americans, too."

"We have to come to terms with the role our country played in the so-called Dirty War," she explained. "We can't close the gap between our actions and our ideals until we can measure how far we strayed. And we can't learn the lessons of the past until we know the role of our own government in supporting the military dictatorship."

But for some, the "gesture" is not enough to make up for the timing of Obama's visit, and what it represents.

"His presence here [in Buenos Aires] on March 24th is a provocation," one Argentinian woman told the Washington Post. "I can't believe Plaza de Mayo, which is the symbol of our fight, has American flags all over, next to Argentine flags. It's a provocation."

"Military coups around Latin America were backed by the United States," she added. "It's shameful that now this man is here [in the capital] on such an important and symbolic date. They can't be so naive as to organize something like this on such a date. On March 24th, this square belongs to us, to those who were against the military dictatorship."

Sanders Calls Out Arizona for 5-Hour Voting Wait Times, Calls it "Disgrace"

Bernie Sanders is just as mad as his supporters about the Arizona primary election process, which is being widely regarded as a total fiasco.

“We got an email last night from a woman who was waiting in line for five hours to vote. For five hours to vote,” Bernie said incredulously today at a press conference in San Diego.

He said there was no excuse for a failure of this magnitude.

“Whatever the cause of that problem is, people in the United States of America should not have to wait five hours in order to vote. We do not know how many thousands of people who wanted to vote yesterday in Arizona did not vote. We don’t know if they wanted to vote for Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, whoever. We don’t know that.”

Despite expecting huge turnouts, the infamous Maricopa County actually cut the number of polling locations from 200 to 60, which meant there was only one polling site for every 20,000 voters. Many Democratic voters also arrived to vote only to discover they were improperly registered and given “provisional ballots” which may or may not have counted for anything.

[See also: There Were 5-Hour Lines to Vote in Arizona Because the Supreme Court Gutted the Voting Rights Act - js]

AZ recorder blames voters for 5 hour waits after she cut polling places from 200 to 60

Meet Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell– who oversees the polls in the heart of Joe Arpaio country — and who [shrugged and smiled] when confronted by a Fox reporter over 5 hour waits in the Arizona sun to cast a vote in a primary.

For the 2012 primaries, Maricopa County accommodated 300,000 voters at 200 polling places. Yet, despite a heated primary with Bernie Sanders increasing his presence in the state and stubby-fingered buffoon Donald Trump turning the GOP primary into a WWE event — but with less class — Purcell reduced polling locations by 70 percent to 60.

The result, as AZ Central noted, was the last vote was cast just after in midnight in Maricopa County which encompasses Phoenix.

According to earlier estimate Tuesday night, about 800,000 people headed for those 60 poll locations with predictable results including voters giving up and going home.

This Race Far From Over: New Poll Shows Sanders and Clinton Tied Nationally

Signaling that the primary race is far from over, a new national poll shows Bernie Sanders tied with Hillary Clinton among those who have voted or plan to vote in a Democratic contest this year.

The Bloomberg Politics survey found 49 percent of respondents preferred Sanders, while 48 percent backed Clinton.

Bloomberg reports: "By a more than 2-to-1 ratio, Democratic primary voters say Sanders would fight harder than Clinton for the middle class and do the most to rein in the power of Wall Street. Nearly six in 10 say the Vermont senator cares the most about people like them, and 64 percent see him as the most honest and trustworthy candidate. Just a quarter of voters said that of Clinton."

J. Ann Selzer, whose firm conducted the poll, told Bloomberg, "It comes down to this: Bernie Sanders is the one Democrats see as looking out for them—meaning he will build a stronger middle class at the expense of Wall Street. They trust him to do it. In the end, Hillary Clinton has a trust problem."

Flint's children on the frontline of water crisis but facts hard to come by

The lead that leached into the city’s water is known to cause developmental problems but a lack of data is complicating responses to a long-term threat

A lack of data, the extreme limits of lead blood testing and dueling assessments of lead exposure have all compounded to complicate what may be one of the greatest long-term threats as Flint, Michigan, reels from its water contamination crisis: the potential impact on thousands of young children in the city. ...

Decades of studies have shown elevated blood lead levels can stunt mental growth in young children, and, in high concentrations, later lead to delinquent or sometimes violent behavior. In the classroom, low blood-lead levels in a child can translate into lower reading and math scores. Many experts say no level of lead is safe for children.

But the scope of just how Flint’s children are affected may not be fully understood for some time, if ever. It’s unclear if lead exposure has already had a noticeable impact on Flint’s public school system. The district has not released reading readiness and math test scores for years after 2012-2013. Widespread blood lead tests have not yet been released, and even when they are, they only reflect exposure from the previous 30 days, and don’t suggest what symptoms and impact lead exposure may have had.

Compounding the situation in Flint, where over 40% of the predominantly black population lives in poverty, is that long-term neurological problems could also be attributed to a multitude of circumstances – poverty, poor nutrition, low-quality schools.

“One will not be able to say if the issues identified were due to the lead or not,” said Dr Helen Binns, a Northwestern University professor of pediatrics and preventive medicine, in an email. “Plenty of children are identified with developmental issues that do not have lead exposure. Lead can be a contributing factor, but is not the only factor.”

On World Water Day, See Our Extended Interview with Flint Activists Nayyirah Shariff & Melissa Mays

Congressman: 'Obsession With Austerity' Triggered Flint Water Crisis

The congressman who represents Flint, Michigan has lambasted what he says is at the heart of his city's water crisis: austerity.

Speaking at the White House Water Summit, which took place Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D) said, "I think the story of Flint, in part, is a story about water infrastructure. Because when we have aging infrastructure, particularly in Flint with so many lead service lines, we are at risk."

"But, the other part of the story, which is really the trigger to the crisis in Flint, is a story about the effect or the consequence of a brand of governmental austerity that is really dangerous," the Flint native continued.

"That backdrop [of aging infrastructure], with the overlay of governmental austerity that minimizes the need for robust enforcement of environmental protection, by essentially making it a second almost afterthought at the state level, and essentially defunding direct support for the city itself, created a series of almost unbelievable decisions to go from using the Great Lakes—the greatest surface fresh water source on the planet, which is only a few miles away from Flint, to the Flint river as a temporary water source, untreated," he said.

"It is almost unbelievable that that could happen, but it's this obsession with austerity," Kildee declared. "And the result... is astronomically higher than the cost associated with preventing it in the first place." ...

There's a cautionary tale to take from Flint, he warned, saying that "an obsession around governmental austerity...is really dangerous and that's really the lesson we had all better learn really fast."

Rockefeller family charity to withdraw all investments in fossil fuel companies

Started by John D Rockefeller – who made his fortune from oil – the fund singled out ExxonMobil, calling the world’s largest oil company ‘morally reprehensible’

A charitable fund of the Rockefeller family – who are sitting on a multibillion-dollar oil fortune – has said it will withdraw all its investments from fossil fuel companies.

The Rockefeller Family Fund, a charity set up in 1967 by descendants of John D Rockefeller, said on Wednesday that it would divest from all fossil fuel holdings “as quickly as possible”.

The fund, which was founded by Martha, John, Laurance, Nelson and David Rockefeller, singled out ExxonMobil for particular attention describing the world’s largest oil company as “morally reprehensible”.

John D Rockefeller, who was the richest person in US history when he died in 1937, made his fortune from Standard Oil a precursor of ExxonMobil.

“There is no sane rationale for companies to continue to explore for new sources of hydrocarbons,” the RFF, which has relatively small total holdings of $130m (£92m), said in a statement. “We must keep most of the already discovered reserves in the ground if there is any hope for human and natural ecosystems to survive and thrive in the decades ahead.

Global coal and gas investment falls to less than half that in clean energy

Record year for renewables also sees financial investment by developing countries overtake that of the developed world in 2015, research shows

Global investment in coal and gas-fired power generation plants fell to less than half that in renewable energy generation last year, in a record year for clean energy.

It was the first time that renewable energy made up a majority of all the new electricity generation capacity under construction around the world, and the first year in which the financial investment by developing countries in renewables outstripped that of the developed world.

In the US, money committed to renewables rose strongly as new rules took effect. Although investment was up by a fifth, to $44bn, it was still less than half of China’s.

Europe, once world leader in clean energy, gave one of the worst showings. Investment fell by a fifth to $49bn, despite a surge in offshore wind, according to the report, which was co-authored by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.

In part, these headline investment figures reflect falling costs, particularly for solar panels, which have tumbled in price by more than 60% since 2009. But they also illustrate the need for politicians to play a role in encouraging clean technology, according to Catherine Mitchell, professor of energy policy at the University of Exeter.

How the World's Biggest Polluters are Two Trade Deals Away from Steamrolling Climate Protections

When TransCanada announced at the start of the year that it that it was demanding compensation under North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) rules for the Obama administration's decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, many observers saw it as a sign of things to come.

Indeed, critics of two pending trade deals—the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)—have already warned that other corporations could take similarly take advantage of the same mechanism to exert their power before private tribunals, demanding compensation for lost profits while supplanting democracy and trampling on workers' rights and environmental protections.

Now, a new report from the Sierra Club reveals just how many fossil fuel corporations the two deals would embolden to use these tribunals, thereby undermining U.S. commitments made under Paris climate agreement and efforts to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Entitled "Climate Roadblocks: Looming Trade Deals Threaten Efforts to Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground," the new report explains that the TTIP and TPP "would more than double the number of fossil fuel corporations with the power to challenge U.S policies in unaccountable ISDS tribunals," bestowing them to "100 foreign fossil fuel corporations that own more than 1,000 U.S. subsidiaries—more than the total number of fossil fuel firms that have such rights under all 56 existing U.S trade and investment pacts combined," the report states.

Described by Public Citizen as "Among the most dangerous but least known parts of today's 'trade' agreements," ISDS gives foreign corporations the right to "sue" the U.S. before a tribunal of three private lawyers for profits they say they would have earned had the climate protections not been in place.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Mocked and forgotten: who will speak for the American white working class?

JPMorgan and Donald Trump Have Unusual Trading Patterns

They abandoned the 90 percent: How the Reagan Revolution and Third Way politics led America to ruin

“The United States Has Lost the Will and Ability to Prosecute Top Corporate Executives”

Tulsi Gabbard: Bernie Sanders Is the Commander in Chief We Need

University of California Adopts Policy Linking Anti-Zionism to Anti-Semitism

DOJ’s Pre-Ass-Handing Capitulation

GOP Congressman Responds to Ted Cruz’s Proposal: “We Shouldn’t Have a Police State”

Markos Moulitsas: Is it game over for Sanders?

A Little Night Music

Tiny Bradshaw - Knockin' Blues

Tiny Bradshaw - Heavy Juice

Tiny Bradshaw - Bradshaw Boogie

Tiny Bradshaw - I ain't got nobody

Tiny Bradshaw - Straighten Up And Fly Right

Tiny Bradshaw and His Orchestra - Cat Fruit