Mike Ludwig — WikiLeaks Reveals Global Trade Deal Kept More Secret Than the Trans-Pacific Partnership

Another shoe drops.

Embattled WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange announced Wednesday from London the publication of a secret draft text of the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), a controversial global trade agreement said to make it easier for corporations to make profits and operate with impunity across borders. 

The whistleblower and transparency website WikiLeaks published on Thursday the secret draft text of the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) Financial Services Annex, a controversial global trade agreement promoted by the United States and European Union that covers 50 countries and is opposed by global trade unions and anti-globalization activists. 

Activists expect the TISA deal to promote privatization of public services in countries across the globe, and WikiLeaks said the secrecy surrounding the trade negotiations exceeds that of even the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) that has made headlines in the past year. 

Demonstrations erupted in Geneva in April as diplomats met in secret for the sixth round of negotiations over TISA, which would cover international trade in a wide range of service industries ranging from finance and telecommunications to transportation and even local utilities such as water. Protesters demanded that the draft text be released, but it has remained secret until now. 

Public Services International (PSI), a global trade union federating public service workers in 150 countries, has reported that TISA threatens to allow multinational corporations to permanently privatize vital public services such as healthcare and transportation in countries across the world. 

"This agreement is all about making it easier for corporations to make profits and operate with impunity across borders," said PSI General Secretary Rosa Pavanelli in response to the leak. "The aim of public services should not be to make profits for large multinational corporations. Ensuring that failed privatizations can never be reversed is free-market ideology gone mad."

Truthout
WikiLeaks Reveals Global Trade Deal Kept More Secret Than the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Mike Ludwig, Truthout | Report

Making it personal:

Assange said he continues to be the target of "the largest ever criminal investigation into a publisher by the US Department of Justice," and demanded that Attorney General Eric Holder end its investigation of WikiLeaks or resign. He also warned President Obama about leaving office with a legacy that includes "extrajudicial killings, including those of Americans" and chilling free speech by targeting more journalists for investigation than "all other presidents combined."

President Obama is in the running to go down in history as worse than George W. Bush and Bush even had massive assistance from Dick Cheney in racking up his abysmal record. Obama did all by himself, contradicting much of what he had promised previously. History is not going to look on this kindly, and I would like to see the lot of them before the Hague for crime against humanity. Is this how "the American experiments" ends?