Spooking for Monsanto

During the 50th anniversary celebrations at Langley, President Bill Clinton talked about the CIA's mission for the next millennium. Among the list of new spying projects Clinton enumerated back in November, two caught our attention: environment and free trade. The CIA has quickly adapted to this new mission. On July 11, the London Sunday Telegraph reported that the CIA has been spying on Michael Meacher, environment minister for the Blair government, presumably because Meacher--nearly alone among the Blairites--has been skeptical about Monsanto's plans to market genetically engineered crops in Europe.

The snooping came to light when the Telegraph filed Freedom of Information Act requests with several U.S. government agencies asking for any files on British ministers and elected officials. Most agencies said they had no files, while a few replied that they kept short biographical briefs, which they duly turned over. The exception was the Environmental Protection Agency, headed by Al Gore's former staffer, Carol Browner. The EPA replied that it had a file on Meacher, but refused to turn it over, saying it "originated with the Central Intelligence Agency." The CIA also refused to release the file.

Meacher is known as one of the more left-leaning members of the Blair government. But he has drawn fire from Monsanto and the U.S. State Department and Commerce Department for his recalcitrant position on genetically engineered crops. Meacher has said that genetically engineered crops should not be commercially grown in Europe until they have been proven not to pose health problems or environmental risks. Meacher has also moved to reformulate a government panel on genetically engineered crops by reducing the number of industry representatives. The U.S. maintains that any restrictions on Monsanto's ability to market its GE crops is an unfair restraint on free trade.

Meacher says he's astonished that the CIA has a file on him and says he has no idea what the reason might be. Chris Prescott, head of Friends of the Earth's London office, offers one: "The immediate fear is that the CIA is working hand in glove with Monsanto to do anything they can to force this technology down our throats, whatever democratic politicians have to say. What business is it of the CIA's to worry about any politician's views about biotechnology products?" We wonder how big Monsanto foe Prince Charles' file might be.

This disclosure comes amid growing uproar in Europe about the scale of electronic surveillance by the National Security Agency in collusion with the CIA. Two recent European Parliament studies have confirmed for the first time that the NSA now has the ability to monitor Europe's communications networks, with a grid of computers known as Echelon having the capacity to scan all communications. One of these reports discloses that the NSA has upgraded its surveillance of commercial transactions. The European Parliament has debated the NSA's spying, an international law enforcement network aimed at abolishing any solemn concepts of privacy. The House Intelligence Committee, and in particular Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia, have generated an amendment to the Intelligence Act for FY 2000 requesting the directors of the CIA, NSA, along with Attorney General Janet Reno, to report to Congress on the legal standards being employed in the Echelon Project to protect the [notional] privacy guarantees of American citizens.

From Watts to Fat Cats

President Bill Clinton wrapped up his Magical Misery Tour in Watts, where he handed out the following advice to students at a job retraining center in one of the nation's poorest communities: "For those of you who've done well in the stock market, how can you keep it going? The easiest way to keep it going is to go to places where there aren't enough jobs and there aren't enough consumers and create more business owners, create more workers, create more consumers. That's all growth completely without inflation."

>From Watts Clinton set off for South Florida to raise money for Florida Democrats. The Coral Gables party was hosted by Alfonso Fanjul, the sugar baron whose call to the White House interrupted a private session between Bill and Monica. The Fanjul event raised over a million dollars (the price of admission was $25,000 a couple) and came less than two weeks after Clinton and Al Gore delivered to Congress an $8 billion Everglades "restoration" project that gave Fanjul everything he wanted: namely, an unimpeded flow of water to his sugar plantations and an agreement that the feds would not try to expand Everglades National Park. Fanjul told the St. Petersburg Times he thought Clinton had been "a great president." One of the beneficiaries of the Clinton/Fanjul event was South Florida Rep. Carrie Meek. Meek is herself a top rank Everglades destroyer, who that very week had introduced a bill in Congress that would turn over the Homestead Air Force Base to a conglomerate of Cuban exiles called HABDI, which is backed by the family of the late Jorge Mas Canosa. The HABDI group, as we have previously reported, wants to build a huge new commercial airport on the site, which sits between the Everglades and Biscayne national parks.

While Bill was partying in south Florida, Hillary was in upstate New York on her Listening Tour. Hillary's campaign was blessed by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who said, "I hope she will go all the way. I mean to go all the way with her." Don't get carried away, Senator.

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