A.LOEWENSTEIN ONLINE NEWSLETTER

• When chocolate isn’t just about eating and enjoying
• Prosecute Wikileaks and put reporting in jeopardy
• Australian PM speaks like a drunken autocrat when it comes to rights
• Assange: “It’s not the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning”
• Our wars are being controlled by somebody else
• Don’t blame Wikileaks for our incompetance
• Note to US; Australia is ruled by right-wing people
• India and Sri Lanka are our mates (and they cause violence)
• Australia; no laws broken by Wikileaks

When chocolate isn’t just about eating and enjoying Posted: 17 Dec 2010 03:39 PM PST My following review appears in today’s Weekend Australian newspaper: Chocolate Wars: From Cadbury to Kraft, 200 Years of Sweet Success and Bitter Rivalries, by Deborah Cadbury, Harper Press, 340pp, $35. Deborah Cadbury is a descendant of the Quaker family whose name has become synonymous with chocolate. In this entertaining and insightful book she reveals just how central confectionary was to the rise of modern capitalism. In the early 19th century the discovery and consumption of cocoa — a tropical commodity, according to the author — was a source of enjoyment. But soon enough it became a way to make a profitable living. The deeply observant Cadburys discovered a financial appetite for chocolate. Quaker capitalism, a quaint concept in the 21st century, was what launched the Cadbury brand on England and the world. When the Cadbury family started their enterprise in Britain, about 4000 Quaker families ran 74 banks and more than 200 companies. Very quickly the Cadbury brothers discovered how to manage a fortune and “helped shape the course of the industrial revolution and the commercial world”. Social justice and reform were integral to the early rise of the then exclusive cocoa product but it took two enterprising brothers to revolutionise the industry. Chocolate Wars opens with a Dickensian scene in mid-19th-century Birmingham. A struggling family was on the verge of financial ruin. The “little bean imported from the New World” was not initially a money spinner. Simply turning cocoa beans into a drink didn’t bring the Cadbury family success and something new was required, a treat that would charm Victorian England at a time of religious and social upheaval. At the same time, contamination scares — red lead found in cocoa products, supposedly to improve texture — increased public wariness. So it was up to advertising to transform perceptions, despite Quaker hesitation at the ethics of commercial assaults on supposedly unsuspecting customers. “Cadbury Essence” captured the mood of the time. “Absolutely Pure, Therefore Best”, were the words under a smiling child enjoying a cup of cocoa. In 1869, the Cadbury brothers sealed a patent for a new kind of chocolate biscuit. From this point, Chocolate Wars takes on the spirit of a thriller, as the Nestle family in Europe starts developing rival chocolate products. Interestingly, Nestle had early success with baby milk formula, a product that remains contentious to this day. Cadbury was also involved in a controversy that has contemporary echoes, the use of slave labour in plantations. More than a century later, with the Ivory Coast the world’s leading provider of cocoa, child slavery and exploitation remains an area of great concern. Chocolate Wars uses the struggle over slavery to highlight the battle to end the practice in a different age but a BBC Panorama program earlier this year found a litany of child slavery issues in Ghana, a country where Cadbury sources its cocoa from an advertised Fairtrade supply chain. It’s an uncomfortable reality largely ignored in this book. But Deborah Cadbury does an admirable job of documenting the conflict between a family’s Quaker beliefs and the moods of the day. For example, their anti-war stance aroused suspicions during World War I. Fast forward to 2003 and Cadbury chief executive Todd Stitzer expressed concern that the company was growing so fast it would lose touch with its original, humanitarian beliefs. He talked about “principled capitalism”, which included, for example, the need to reduce carbon emissions. The takeover of Cadbury by American food giant Kraft early this year prompts the author to speculate on the fate of a once-proud British name and image. She rightly worries about the viability of altruistic objectives in today’s corporate world, values that seemed so necessary to her enterprising family in the 19th century. She is sceptical about the Kraft stewardship and laments a more honourable time when “revenue synergies” were not in the business lexicon. This aspect of the Cadbury story will resonate in Australia because foreign takeovers of local companies — Kraft owns our national spread, Vegemite — invoke a combination of pride, anger and passionate nationalism. Antony Loewenstein is a journalist and author. His most recent book is The Blogging Revolution.

Prosecute Wikileaks and put reporting in jeopardy Posted: 17 Dec 2010 06:16 AM PST Glenn Greenwald signals the fight: …It is impossible to invent theories to indict them without simultaneously criminalizing much of investigative journalism. … Bob Woodward’s whole purpose in life at this point is to cajole, pressure and even manipulate government officials to disclose classified information to him for him to publish in his books, which he routinely does.  Does that make him a criminal “conspirator”?  Under the DOJ’s theory, it would.  All of this underscores one unavoidable fact:  there is no way to prosecute Assange and WikiLeaks without criminalizing journalism because WikiLeaks is engaged in pure journalistic acts:  uncovering and publicizing the secret conduct of the world’s most powerful factions.  It is that conduct — and not any supposed crime — which explains why the DOJ is so desperate to prosecute.

Australian PM speaks like a drunken autocrat when it comes to rights Posted: 17 Dec 2010 06:13 AM PST Australia is run by a politician clown who ignores the rule of law, smears an Australian citizen and wonders why so few people respect her position: Prime Minister Julia Gillard is under renewed pressure over her initial response to the WikiLeaks controversy. At one stage Ms Gillard labelled the actions of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange “illegal”. It was later downgraded to “grossly irresponsible”. But today at a press conference in Sydney there was a slightly different tone after an investigation by the Australian Federal Police. “The Government believed it was appropriate to refer the matter to the Australian Federal Police. We’ve done that now. We’ve received the advice and the advice is that there have been no breaches of Australian law,” Ms Gillard said. Ms Gillard says she only meant it was against the law to steal classified cables, not release them as the whistleblower website has done in recent weeks. But Acting Opposition Leader Julie Bishop says Ms Gillard should admit she went beyond that. “There is no room here for the Prime Minister to weasel out of it,” she said. Ms Bishop says Ms Gillard’s comments were irresponsible. “She is a lawyer. She well knows about the presumption of innocence,” she said. Greens Senator Scott Ludlam says Ms Gillard must formally retract her comments. “There’s just some really important principles, not just fundamental legal principles, but obviously this gentleman has legal rights that should respected,” he said. “I think it’s very, very awkward for the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General to be rushing to judgment before any charges have even been brought in relation to these matters.” Mr Assange, who is wanted for questioning on sexual assault charges in Sweden, was freed on bail by the High Court in London overnight. He is now at a friend’s country house in Suffolk, where he must live until the start of his extradition hearing on February 7. Mr Assange has denied the Swedish charges against him and his legal team have said they are worried about the possibility of him being extradited to face possible espionage charges in the US. He thanked his supporters and said the release of classified US cables would continue.

Assange: “It’s not the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning” Posted: 17 Dec 2010 05:50 AM PST   Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Our wars are being controlled by somebody else Posted: 16 Dec 2010 10:36 PM PST The massive expansion of privatised military forces since 9/11 is largely unreported. Death squads paid for by tax dollars. American journalist Tim Shorrock examines this huge expansion in the age of Obama. It’s a world that is so bloated and so reliant on endless American wars that it’s no wonder the arms and defence industries are constantly looking for new places to sell their wares: Top U.S. commanders are meeting this week to plan for the next phase of the Afghanistan war. In Iraq, meanwhile, gains are tentative and in danger of unraveling. Both wars have been fought with the help of private military and intelligence contractors. But despite the troubles of Blackwater in particular – charges of corruption and killing of civilians—and continuing controversy over military outsourcing in general, private sector armies are as involved as ever. Without much notice or debate, the Obama administration has greatly expanded the outsourcing of key parts of the U.S.-led counterinsurgency wars in the Middle East and Africa, and as a result, for its secretive air war and special operations missions around the world, the U.S. has become increasingly reliant on a new breed of specialized companies that are virtually unknown to the American public, yet carry out vital U.S. missions abroad. Companies such as Blackbird Technologies, Glevum Associates, K2 Solutions, and others have won hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military and intelligence contracts in recent years to provide technology, information on insurgents, Special Forces training, and personnel rescue. They win their work through the large, established prime contractors, but are tasked with missions only companies with specific skills and background in covert and counterinsurgency can accomplish. Some observers fear that the widespread use of contractors for U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Horn of Africa could deepen the secrecy surrounding the American presence in those regions, making it harder for Congress to provide proper oversight. … Blackbird is a case in point. Based in Herndon, Virginia, a stone’s throw from the CIA, Blackbird deploys dozens of former CIA operatives and provides “technology solutions” to military and intelligence agencies. Much of the company’s revenue—including a $450 million contract awarded last year by the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command—comes from the deployment of special teams and equipment into enemy territory to rescue American soldiers who have been captured by Taliban or al Qaeda units or have stranded after losing their helicopters in battle.

Don’t blame Wikileaks for our incompetance Posted: 16 Dec 2010 10:05 PM PST Christian Ahrendt, legal policy spokesman for Germany’s liberal Free Democratic Party’s parliamentary group: If government agencies don’t keep a close eye on their data, they can’t hold the press responsible after the event.

Note to US; Australia is ruled by right-wing people Posted: 16 Dec 2010 07:29 PM PST The Australian media have been plowing through the Wikileaks cables related to our country. Many interesting bits but this caught my eye: ACTIONS WORKING WELL TOGETHER 3. (SBU) One senior figure told us the factions have “never worked as well together”. He opined that the end of the Cold War had played a big part in blurring the ideological divide between the Left and Right, pointing out that the Defense and Finance Ministers are notionally from the Left. It was generally accepted that Rudd government Ministers and power brokers Mark Arbib (Right) and Anthony Albanese (Left) were Rudd’s key conduits to the factions. If the Left are in charge of defence and finance, why the hell are we living under a neo-liberal regime and involved in American-led wars in the Middle East? Nobody said US officials were very astute.

India and Sri Lanka are our mates (and they cause violence) Posted: 16 Dec 2010 07:06 PM PST Thank you, Wikileaks. One: US officials had evidence of widespread torture by Indian police and security forces and were secretly briefed by Red Cross staff about the systematic abuse of detainees in Kashmir, according to leaked diplomatic cables released tonight. The dispatches, obtained by website WikiLeaks, reveal that US diplomats in Delhi were briefed in 2005 by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about the use of electrocution, beatings and sexual humiliation against hundreds of detainees. Other cables show that as recently as 2007 American diplomats were concerned about widespread human rights abuses by Indian security forces, who they said relied on torture for confessions. The revelations will be intensely embarrassing for Delhi, which takes pride in its status as the world’s biggest democracy, and come at a time of heightened sensitivity in Kashmir after renewed protests and violence this year. Two: Liam Fox, the defence secretary, was tonight forced to abandon a private visit to Sri Lanka this weekend after a row with William Hague, who feared that he would upset Britain’s carefully balanced approach to Colombo. Fox announced his change of heart as US embassy cables leaked tonight provided fresh allegations of the Sri Lankan government’s complicity with paramilitary groups in last year’s offensive against the Tamil Tigers. Labour accused the government of adopting a “chaotic” approach to diplomacy when Fox announced that he would instead make an official visit to the country in the new year. Fox’s decision came after talks with Hague, the foreign secretary, and a warning by the British Tamils Forum that his trip would send mixed messages to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is facing strong international pressure for an investigation into allegations that Sri Lanka forces committed war crimes. The Ministry of Defence blamed the delay on the need for Fox to extend a visit to the Gulf. A spokesman for the defence secretary said: “Dr Fox has postponed his private visit to Sri Lanka due to an extension to his scheduled official visit to the Gulf. He intends to carry out an official visit to Sri Lanka next year, during which he proposes to fulfil the speaking engagement that he had planned.” The move by Fox came as the latest batch of US embassy cables to be published by WikiLeaks show that: • US officials expressed concerns that the Sri Lankan government was complicit with paramilitary groups. One cable, sent in May 2007 by the then US ambassador, Robert Blake, details abductions, extortion, forced prostitution and conscription of child soldiers. • Five Sri Lankan doctors were coerced by the Sri Lankan government to recant on casualty figures they gave to journalists in the last months of the civil war. • The Tamil Tigers (LTTE) were guilty of human rights abuses and demanded a cut of international NGOs’ spending in the areas they controlled. • The US ambassador to Colombo, Patricia Butenis, said on 15 January that one of the reasons there was such little progress towards a genuine Sri Lankan inquiry into the killings was that President Rajapaksa, and the former army commander, Sarath Fonseka, were largely responsible. “There are no examples we know of a regime undertaking wholesale investigations of its own troops or senior officials for war crimes while that regime or government remained in power,” Butenis noted. It is understood that Fox, who held a private meeting with the president in London two weeks ago, abandoned his private visit after intense pressure from Hague. Foreign Office sources said that Fox’s private visit could have jeopardised Britain’s nuanced approach to Sri Lanka, in which ministers put pressure on Colombo to agree to an investigation into last year’s offensive against the Tamil Tigers while acknowledging the Tigers were responsible for terrorism. One Whitehall source said: “William has said to Liam: ‘This is the Foreign Office line, Liam.’ In brackets William will have said: ‘You have needed my support in the past.’” Fox still plans to deliver the Lakshman Kadirgamar memorial lecture after being invited by the widow of the late foreign minister who was murdered by a Tamil Tiger sniper in 2005. But he will do this as part of his official visit next year. Yvette Cooper, the shadow foreign secretary, said: “Chaotic diplomacy like this does no good for the government’s standing on such a significant issue. It also raises serious questions about the defence secretary’s judgment. “What on earth has he been doing holding ‘private’ meetings with the Sri Lankan president while refusing to say if he has pressed for the war crimes investigation we need or supported the foreign secretary’s position? William Hague must be spitting mad.” President Rajapaksa, who won a second term in January following the military victory over the separatists last year, has repeatedly denied any involvement in or knowledge of human rights abuses. But the latest cables published by WikiLeaks highlight human rights abuses committed by the LTTE, against whom the paramilitaries and the government forces were engaged. Sources told representatives of the US embassy to Sri Lanka that the LTTE regularly demanded a cut of international NGOs’ spending in the areas they controlled. Other sources described a harsh regime of compulsory conscription into fighting forces. “If they fail to report, they are taken forcibly, often at night,” one said. Cables from early this year referred to “progress” by the Government of Sri Lanka on a range of human rights issues in recent months. “There has been a dramatic improvement in the treatment of IDPs and their living conditions … [and] numbers of disappearances have experienced a steady and significant decline across the island since the end of the war,” one dispatch said. Another affirmed that “child soldiers affiliated with the [paramilitaries] have been significantly reduced over the past year, with just five reportedly remaining at the end of 2009.” One senior journalist had been released from detention, the cable added, and diplomats were “not aware of any additional physical attacks on journalists since June [2009]“. There was even some tentative steps” on “accountability” for human rights abuses during the civil war, Washington was told. “Accountability for alleged crimes committed by [government of Sri lanka] troops and officials during the war is the most difficult issue on our bilateral agenda, and the one we believe has the lowest prospect for forward movement,” a cable sent in late January said. “In Sri Lanka this is further complicated by the fact that responsibility for many of the alleged crimes rests with the country’s senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate [and former military commander] General Fonseka.”

Australia; no laws broken by Wikileaks Posted: 16 Dec 2010 06:50 PM PST Oops Australia. Now how are you going to please your American masters? How about fully defending the rights of our citizen Julian Assange? The Australian Federal Police (AFP) say they have not found any breaches of Australian law by Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks organisation. Attorney-General Robert McClelland says that based on the information to date, the AFP has not identified any criminal offences where Australia has jurisdiction, and has not started an investigation. But he says it was “prudent” for the Government to have referred the matter to the AFP.