Secret-spilling group WikiLeaks wants its hands on a bilateral trade agreement being discussed behind closed doors, and it’s raising money to reward anyone willing to help make it happen.
A campaign to crowdfund a bounty in exchange for a copy of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, was unveiled by WikiLeaks on Tuesday. In 10 hours, it had raised nearly $30,000 — more than a quarter of its $109,700 goal — through hundreds of donors.
The United States and European Union are in the midst of negotiating the terms of the proposed trade deal, and the EU representative tasked with reaching an agreement with Washington said earlier this year that he expects discussions will stretch into 2016.
With those conversations occurring largely behind closed doors, WikiLeaks wants to ensure a public debate can happen before negotiators reach a deal in private.
“The secrecy of the TTIP casts a shadow on the future of European democracy,” said Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of the pro-transparency group. “Under this cover, special interests are running wild, much as we saw with the recent financial siege against the people of Greece. The TTIP affects the life of every European and draws Europe into long-term conflict with Asia. The time for its secrecy to end is now.”
According to WikiLeaks, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, American journalist Glenn Greenwald and Daniel Ellsberg, the military analyst responsible for leaking the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War, are among a group of “high profile activists and luminaries” from the EU and U.S. who have already contributed starting pledges to kickstart the campaign.
Daniel R. Russel, the U.S. State Department’s assistant secretary for its Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, has previously referred to the TTIP as a “companion piece” to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP — a proposed multilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and 11 Pacific Rim nations that President Obama said would open new doors between partners and create jobs at home and abroad.
Discussions concerning that proposal have also unfolded mostly absent public scrutiny, however, prompting WikiLeaks to launch a similar campaign to crowdfund a bounty for its release earlier this year. The group has so far raised over $100,000 toward its TPP award money.
WikiLeaks notoriously released a cache of State Department diplomatic cables and Pentagon files starting in 2010 that had been provided by Pfc. Bradley Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst. Now a transgender woman known as Pvt. Chelsea Manning, she was convicted and is serving 35 years for her role in disclosing the documents.
Mr. Assange, meanwhile, has been confined to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012. The South American nation granted him political asylum that same year, but Mr. Assange says he’s been unable to leave the building without being apprehended and brought to Sweden where he faces questioning for sex crimes and, according to him, potential extradition to the U.S.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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