[Infowarrior] - Media finally realizes TPP secrecy is not helping things

[Richard Forno]

(Civil liberties, consumer groups, and others have said so for YEARS, but it's only now that the vote is imminent that the Beltway echomachine media takes notice.  Typical.   --rick)

Extreme secrecy eroding support for Obama's trade pact
By Edward-Isaac Dovere

5/4/15 5:40 AM EDT
Updated 5/4/15 9:52 PM EDT

Classified briefings and bill-readings in basement rooms are making members queasy.

If you want to hear the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the Obama administration is hoping to pass, you’ve got to be a member of Congress, and you’ve got to go to classified briefings and leave your staff and cellphone at the door.

If you’re a member who wants to read the text, you’ve got to go to a room in the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center and be handed it one section at a time, watched over as you read, and forced to hand over any notes you make before leaving.

And no matter what, you can’t discuss the details of what you’ve read.

“It’s like being in kindergarten,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who’s become the leader of the opposition to President Barack Obama’s trade agenda. “You give back the toys at the end.”

For those out to sink Obama’s free trade push, highlighting the lack of public information is becoming central to their opposition strategy: The White House isn’t even telling Congress what it’s asking for, they say, or what it’s already promised foreign governments.

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“My chief of staff who has a top secret security clearance can learn more about ISIS or Yemen than about this trade agreement,”

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Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/secrecy-eroding-support-for-trade-pact-critics-say-117581.html#ixzz3ZGL91foZ


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