Iowa is set to become the first state to pass one of the recent “Ag Gag” laws introduced across the country to target undercover investigators who expose animal welfare violations on factory farms.
House File 589 creates a new crime of “agricultural production facility fraud,” and it has already passed the Iowa House and Senate with bipartisan support. It is on the desk of Gov. Terry Branstad for signature or veto.
The bill, and similar efforts such as Utah’s Ag Gag bill, carve out special protections in the law to shield factory farms from public scrutiny.
As Randall Wilson of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union of Iowa said: “We all know it’s a thinly veiled attempt to eliminate investigative reporting and whistle-blowing regarding abuses in our food production chain.” [click to continue…]
Coca Cola hired the “global intelligence” spy firm Stratfor to investigate People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, according to company emails released by Wikileaks.
In a reply email, Stratfor’s vice president for counterterrorism and corporate security said: “The FBI has a classified investigation on PETA operatives. I’ll see what I can uncover.”
The exchange is part of the 5 million Stratfor emails that Wikileaks promises to release in coming weeks. Stratfor, an intelligence firm that works closely with corporations and the government, has verified that company emails were stolen but refuses to say anything more.
In a June 2, 2009 email, Anya Alfano of Stratfor relays the intelligence request from Coca Cola (as background, Peta has protested Coca Cola for its involvement in animal testing): [click to continue…]
More than 70 cities will be protesting corporations that are part of a secretive lobby group called the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, that helps corporate interests literally write our laws.
Occupy Portland has called for a national day of protest on February 29. The protests will focus on corporations that pay tens of thousands of dollars to be part of ALEC, in exchange for the power to draft model legislation which is then introduced in state legislatures across the country — all the while, most state lawmakers have no idea the bills were actually written by corporations.
