Welcome To The TPP... 'Obama To Upgrade Malaysia On Human Rights Despite Mass Graves'

[WillyT]

Obama To Upgrade Malaysia On Human Rights Despite Mass Graves
Zach Carter - HuffPo
Posted: 07/08/2015 10:08 pm EDT Updated: 19 minutes ago


A Malaysian Muslim man looks on inside a pit during the re-burial of remains believed to be those of ethnic Rohingya found at human-trafficking camps in the country's north, at Kampung Tualang some 16kms east of Alor Setar on June 22, 2015. Malaysian authorities on June 22 held a sombre mass funeral for 21 suspected ethnic Rohingya found in human-trafficking graves last month, with fellow Muslims praying for the unidentified victims to find a place in heaven. AFP PHOTO / MANAN VATSYAYANA | MANAN VATSYAYANA via Getty Images

<snip>

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration will remove Malaysia from its official list of the world's worst human trafficking offenders, according to Reuters, a move human rights advocates fear will damage U.S. credibility on human rights.

The maneuver would allow the administration to continue negotiating a controversial trade agreement with Malaysia and 10 other Pacific nations. Legislation authored by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) effectively bars the U.S. from enacting trade deals with countries deemed "Tier 3" violators of human trafficking standards -- the worst of the worst in the State Department's formal reckoning of governments that facilitate modern-day slavery.

Malaysia earned its spot on that list, alongside Iran and North Korea, from years of human trafficking, including rampant sex slavery and forced labor in the agriculture and the textile industries, according to 2014 State Department documents. Malaysia's electronics industry also is rife with forced labor. This year, mass graves for trafficking victims were discovered in Malaysia near its northern border with Thailand.

Reuters reports that Malaysia will soon be upgraded to a "Tier 2" country, allowing it to sidestep the ban imposed by the Menendez legislation. The State Department said it does not comment on its human trafficking list before it is formally issued. In a statement to HuffPost, Menendez said the maneuver would undermine the international legitimacy of America's human rights efforts.

"If true, this manipulation of Malaysia’s ranking in the State Department’s 2015 TIP report would be a perversion of the trafficking list and undermine both the integrity of this important report as well as the very difficult task of confronting states about human trafficking," Menendez said in the statement. "The deplorable human trafficking crisis in Malaysia merits a global cry for action and justice -- not an attempt to sweep them under the rug for political expediency."

<snip>

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/08/obama-malaysia-trade_n_7758592.html

[abelenkpe]

1. Ugh seriously?

Mass graves of migrant workers from this year? How is this ok to overlook?

[roguevalley]

10. more of that hope and change. he has to do this because the TPP gives them

all kind of stuff. He overlooked slavery to get that past because apparently including them in it trumped killing children and other nobodies.

I hope I don't need a sarcasm smiley.

[enlightenment]

2. No excuses for this.

None. And anyone who attempts to defend it is outing themselves as anything BUT a liberal.

[WillyT]

3. But, But... Cheap Products... From Cheap Labor...

[enlightenment]

5. I am seriously

sick of this shite. Drew my line in the sand quite a while back.

[WillyT]

6. Me Too...

We get no wage increases, but that's OK because prices go down... because we've found cheap labor...

Or slave labor.

FUCK THAT !!!

[jeff47]

19. You're just an isolationist!! If we don't trade with them China will!! China!!

[pa28]

4. Welcome to the most progressive trade deal in history.

[WillyT]

7. Yeah... Huh... The Gold Standard...

Literally.

[Hydra]

8. Progressively bad?

Moving on to unbelievable?

[nationalize the fed]

9. Here's someone that isn't shocked

Stephen Lendman:

Obama is no man of the people. He never was throughout his political career. He serves powerful monied interests exclusively.

As an Illinois state senator, he represented Chicago real estate interests at the expense of Black communities they wanted gentrified. He disgraces the office he holds. He remains a front man for wealth, power and privilege.

Earlier, Partnership for Civil Justice Fund executive director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard called the "defining feature of (his presidency) the eagerness with which it embraced the stunning evisceration of civil rights and liberties that was a hallmark of the Bush administration, and then deepened those outrageous programs. He has successfully counted on the acquiescent silence of the liberals."

His agenda mocks democratic values, rule of law principles and social justice. It includes endless wars, corporate favoritism, anti-populism, harsh crackdowns on nonbelievers and replacing all sovereign independent governments with ones Washington controls...
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2015/06/obama-wants-regime-change-in-ecuador.html
(Excerpt from: Obama Wants Regime Change in Ecuador)

[840high]

11. Thank you.

[GoneFishin]

14. Yep. That meshes perfectly with his first Chief of Staff pick.

[SoapBox]

12. Ugh.

It's the tip of the TPP iceberg.

[Kurska]

13. Free trade continues to march on, right over the corpses of the dead. EOM

[n2doc]

15. Human Trafficking = Slavery

Call it what it is. And the Administration is apparently ok with that, so long as the almighty corporations get what they want.

[Romulox]

16. I don't see so good. Is this "the social" that we work for by denying economic justice? nt

[n2doc]

17. Hey WillyT, The Prez wants to "heal Dem wounds"!

President Obama is trying to repair his relationships with congressional Democrats as he heads into a crucial stretch of his second term.

Party unity is an important component of Obama’s strategy for the rest of 2015. Democrats were badly divided during last month’s vitriolic trade debate, and the aftereffects are still apparent.

Obama invited all Senate Democrats to the White House for a reception Tuesday evening to schmooze and give them a chance to air their pet issues. He also invited a small group of pro-trade Democrats to meet with him Wednesday to discuss the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, a lingering sore spot for some in the party after the trade debate.
“The president brought [trade] up. He said, ‘I know we weren’t together on this, but I also want to tell those of you who were on the other side I was listening, and many of the things you said about this trade agreement I’m going to keep in mind as we enter into final negotiations,’ ” said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.).

Obama promised to listen to the concerns of liberal Democrats as his administration completes negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal between the U.S. and 11 Pacific Rim nations that would be the largest in U.S. history.

It was a peace offering to liberals who were rankled by the president’s close cooperation with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to pass fast-track authority over the objections of the majority of Senate Democrats.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/247320-obama-aims-to-heal-dem-wounds


NOW he's "gonna listen"! Don't you feel better?

[WillyT]

20. No... I Feel Sick To My Stomach...

[Scuba]

18. Another disgusting betrayal of those who worked to get him elected.

[raouldukelives]

21. "Welcome to the Terrordome" nt

[MisterP]

22. they did this across Latin America in the 80s

the reasoning was--and get this--that if atrocities were reported the country would lose its human-rights certification and not get US money!

ambassadors were ordered to send all their letters only by encrypted channel so they'd be translated before being allowed to pass before the eyes of the desk jockeys and midlevels at Foggy Bottom