WikiLeaks: U.S. Wanted Trade War Over GM Crops

US considered trade war on opponents of GM crops
LONDON: The US Embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a Military-style Trade War against any European Union country which opposed genetically modified crops, newly released Wikileaks cables show. In response to moves by France to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety in 2007, the then-US ambassador, Craig Stapleton, a friend and business partner of the former US president George Bush, asked Washington to penalise the EU and particularly countries which did not support the use of GM crops. ''Count...

WikiLeaks: US targets EU over GM crops
The US Embassy in Paris wanted to penalise the EU after France moved to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features The US Embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a Military-style Trade War against any European Union country which opposed genetically modified (GM) crops, newly released Wikileaks cables show. In response to moves by France to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety in late 2007, the ambassador, Craig Stapleton, a friend and business partner of former US pr...

Leaked cable: U.S. urged to wage trade war
LONDON, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- The United States was urged to wage a Trade War against European Union nations, diplomatic cables released by the Web site Wikileaks indicate. In a leaked 2007 cable, the U.S. ambassador to France advised President George W. Bush to retaliate against the reluctance of EU nations to accept genetically modified crops, CBS reported Tuesday. The EU's stance threatened to cut off a key export market for American farmers. In a message to Bush, Ambassador Craig Stapleton suggest...

WikiLeaks: US targets EU over (Monsanto) GM crops
Source: Guardian UK US Embassy cable recommends drawing up list of countries for 'retaliation' over opposition to genetic modification The US Embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a Military-style trade war against any European Union country which opposed genetically modified (GM) crops, newly released Wikileaks cables show. In response to moves by France to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety in late 2007, the ambassador, Craig Stapleton, a friend and business partner of former US president G...

You Heard It Here Second, But Before the Guardian or Times
Almost two weeks ago (Dec. 22), I griped about the US government hiring out its diplomatic staff in France to Monsanto. This revelation, or confirmation of obvious fact depending on how you look at it, came to us thanks to Wikileaks. The Establishment here in class-free America is rushing to cover up all the details revealed when the curtain was pulled back. I noticed at that time a complete lack of mention of this cable, pointed out by Mike Ludwig at Truthout, at the Times or the Post. Well, on...

W Apparently Understood Whats Good for GM Is Good for the Country
… to refer not to General Motors, but to Genetically Modified food: The US Embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a Military-style Trade War against any European Union country which opposed genetically modified (GM) crops, newly released Wikileaks cables show. In response to moves by France to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety in late 2007, the ambassador, Craig Stapleton, a friend and business partner of former US president George Bush, asked Washington to penalise the EU and particu...

Iran snubs main critics as it invites western diplomats to tour disputed nuclear sites
Iran has snubbed Britain, France, Germany and the United States in a surprise invitation to Diplomats to visit its Controversial nuclear plants. Ambassadors from Russia, China and the European Union were invited by Tehran to tour the sites, but the nations most opposed to its nuclear programme were excluded. Iran's surprise invitation yesterday to several ambassadors accredited to the UN ADVERTISEMENT nuclear Watchdog in Vienna was a bid to show openness about its disputed atomic activities,...

Guarding the Pork Barrel: Germany Resists Attempts to Reform EU Agricultural Subsidies
The European Commission wants to reform the Common Agricultural Policy, which eats up almost half of the EU's Budget and which primarily benefits large farms in "old" Member States. But Germany and France are resisting moves to change the system so it favors smaller, organic farms. The status quo suits them very nicely. An old cobblestone road leads to Carl-Albrecht Bartmer's property. Small, detached houses line Lindenstrasse in the village of Löbnitz an der Bode, near Magdeburg in eastern

Iran to let countries visit nuclear sites, not US
The Associated Press reported the invitation to tour the facilities on Monday, citing a letter from a senior Iranian Envoy that suggested Jan. 15-16 for the visit. A Diplomat familiar with the letter said Iran invited Russia, China, Egypt, the group of nonaligned nations at the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, Cuba, Arab League members at the IAEA, and Hungary, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency. Iran's economy appears to be struggling under the weight of four rounds of i...

U.S. Not Invited to Tours Iran's Nuclear Facilities
The Atomic Energy Agency has been locked in a tense standoff with the Iranian government over Iran's enrichment of Uranium and plans to participate in a new round of negotiations with the middle-eastern country in Istanbul at the end of this month. But the Iranian government has now invited several nations to come visit its nuclear facilities before those negotiations are held, the Times reports today. European Diplomats said the invitation was not likely to be accepted until after the next ro...

EU eyes return to sanctions against Belarus
Brussels | Tue Jan 4, 2011 11:29am EST Brussels (Reuters) - The European Union may reinstate a visa ban on President Alexander Lukashenko and other Belarus officials, because of a crackdown on the opposition after December's presidential vote, EU Diplomats said on Tuesday. The 27-member bloc imposed sanctions on Belarus after a disputed ballot in 2006 but suspended their application in 2008 in order to encourage democratic reforms. EU governments have grown increasingly concerned over human r...

House GOP asks business for advice on regulations
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans are turning to their business allies as they move to scrap Obama Administration programs and Regulations as varied as controlling Greenhouse Gases, regulating the Internet and modifying home Mortgages. Incoming committee chairmen already have asked businesses to identify Regulations that kill jobs. They've also denounced new climate change rules, pledged to stop regulation of the Internet and proposed shutting down a troubled program to modify Mortgages. To ...

The Practice of Politics
There are few things in politics more absurd, or more reliably recurring, than the Candidate for Congress who proclaims earnestly that once elected, he or she will "change the way they do things in Washington." Just you wait, you logrolling legislators, you leeching Lobbyists, you blundering Bureaucrats -- once freshman Rep. Smith gets to town, the old order is going to come crashing down! Within a few months, the representative stops talking about "change" and assures his constituents he know...

House GOP asks business for advice on regulations
House Republicans are turning to their business allies as they move to scrap Obama Administration programs and Regulations as varied as controlling Greenhouse Gases, regulating the Internet and modifying home Mortgages. Incoming committee chairmen already have asked businesses to identify Regulations that kill jobs. They've also denounced new Climate Change rules, pledged to stop regulation of the Internet and proposed shutting down a troubled program to modify Mortgages. To the new GOP majority...

Winner-Take-All
My fellow political scientists frequently eschew actual involvement in policy debates and political conflict, preferring, like Chauncey Gardiner in Jerzy Kosinsky’s Being There, to watch. But Hacker and Pierson, distinguished political scientists (Yale and Berkeley, respectively), launch themselves forcefully into political engagement with this well-documented analysis of how the United States government, since the 1970s, has systematically enriched the top one percent of the country at th...

India's hidden climate change catastrophe
Source: Independent Naryamaswamy Naik went to the cupboard and took out a tin of Pesticide. Then he stood before his wife and Children and drank it. "I don't know how much he had borrowed. I asked him, but he wouldn't say," Sugali Nagamma said, her tiny grandson playing at her feet. "I'd tell him: don't worry, we can sell the salt from our table." -------- "Poverty has assaulted rural India," he said. "Farmers who used to be able to send their Children to college now can't send them to school. F...

Vatican official tamps down perceived OK to GMOs
VATICAN CITY (AP) - A Vatican cardinal backed off the Holy See's perceived approval of Biotech crops Tuesday, saying farmers in the developing world shouldn't be dependent on foreign multinationals for their seeds. Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson, a Ghanian who heads the Vatican's office for justice and peace, likened such economic dependence on big corporations to a new form of Slavery. It was the second time in a month that the Vatican has made clear that while it's not entirely opposed to bio...

Vatican official tamps down perceived OK to GMOs
VATICAN CITY — A Vatican cardinal backed off the Holy See’s perceived approval of Biotech crops Tuesday, saying farmers in the developing world shouldn’t be dependent on foreign multinationals for their seeds. Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson, a Ghanian who heads the Vatican’s office for justice and peace, likened such economic dependence on big corporations to a new form of Slavery. It was the second time in a month that the Vatican has made clear that while it’s not ...

Vatican official tamps down perceived OK to GMOs
A Vatican cardinal has backed off the Holy See's perceived approval of Biotech crops by saying farmers in the developing world shouldn't be dependent on foreign multinationals for their seeds. Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson, a Ghanian who heads the Vatican's office for justice and peace, likened such economic dependence on big corporations to a new form of Slavery. The United States, home to major multinationals that produce Biotech seeds and crops, has lobbied the Vatican for years to persuade i...

Aftenposten: Germany, U.S. plan secret spy project
Source: CTV Oslo, Norway — Wikileaks documents published by Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten say that Germany and the U.S. are engaged in a $270 million satellite spying program that is causing friction in the European Union. Citing diplomatic cables sent from the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, the newspaper said Monday that the project was presented as a commercial enterprise but is actually run by the German intelligence service. Aftenposten cites cables revealing that the HiROS venture -- a network o...

Hungary unmoved by EU criticism over media law (AFP)
Budapest (AFP) – Hungary's government insisted Tuesday it would not bow to outside pressure and rethink its disputed media law, even after the European Commission expressed concerns and said it would sanction Budapest if necessary -- even during the nation's EU presidency. "It isn't necessary to change a Hungarian law just because it is subject to criticism from abroad," Zoltan Kovacs, state secretary for communication, told national radio. "Before criticising,...

AP Exclusive:Iran invites EU, others to nuke sites
VIENNA - Iran has invited Russia, China, the European Union and its allies among the Arab and developing world to tour its nuclear sites, in an apparent move to gain support ahead of a new round of talks with six world powers. In a letter made available Monday to The Associated Press, senior Iranian Envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh suggests the weekend of Jan. 15 and 16 for the tour and says that meetings "with high ranking officials" are envisaged. While no reason was given for the timing of th...

Iran invites EU, Russia to nuclear sites
Iran has invited Russia, China, the European Union and its allies among the Arab and developing world to tour its nuclear sites, in an apparent move to gain support ahead of a new round of talks with six world powers. In a letter made available to The Associated Press, senior Iranian Envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh suggests the weekend of January 15 and 16 for the tour and says that meetings "with high ranking officials" are envisaged. While no reason was given for the timing of the offer, it comes j...

Iran invites diplomats to view nuke plants
TEHRAN, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Iran has invited a number of western Diplomats to visit the republic's nuclear facilities, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said. Mehmanparast said International Atomic Energy Agency-accredited ambassadors in Vienna, including representatives from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States as well as the European Union and non-aligned countries, have been invited, the state news agency IRNA said Tuesday. "The new move of inviting the ambass...

Awesome: Tyrant Toddler Julian Assange Might Just Have Murdered Zimbabwe Opposition Leader
He prances and preens like he's some kind of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, but he's really a child running around with a shiny new toy of scissors. Zimbabwe's last best hope is probably going to wind up getting the death penalty thanks to Captain Oblivious' utter inability to do any sort of homework. Selectiveness is difficult, requiring hours of reading and evaluating. Better just to put all of Pfc. Manning's cables out there and let other people, like insane dictator Robert Mugabe, figure out what it...