Kyoto inside out: The Big Picture: Japanese Civil Society, American Foreign Policy, The CIA, and me (Rights of American Citizens Overseas)

Broadly speaking, these are the issues that frame the context in which the particulars exist.

The following speech by the president affirms that he and I share similar views on civil society.

"The Most Important Title is 'Citizen'": President Obama on the Significance of a Civil Society.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/09/23/most-important-title-citizen-president-obama-importance-civil-society

A search of “civil society” in my blog will return quite a few hits, and I first mentioned it in an email to CIA case officer Gary Schaefer. I made the following statement in a fax sent when initiating a complaint with the DOJ (posted on this blog at: http://kyoto-inside-out.blogspot.jp/2012/04/non-responsive-doj-new-influx-of-cia.html)

Civil society is a sphere that is protected under the law from government intervention, and that is the fundamental concept underpinning civil rights, to my understanding. Japan is a democratic state under constitutional rule of law. The people in the intelligence networks that I’m calling to account are in violation of many of the laws of Japan, not to mention the laws of the United States with respect to harassing Americans residing abroad.

It has become apparent that the types of covert action that can be authorized to be conducted in countries outside the USA include precisely the types of operations aimed at influencing the political processes and disseminating propaganda and disinformation to influence public opinion and perceptions that constitute part of my complaint. The point here is that the CIA attempts to use deception to convince people in other countries to act in a manner that serves the (perceived) interests of the USA as defined by a given administration. Disinformation and propaganda is aimed at portraying American policies in a misleading way to provide American “interests” (i.e., corporations, Wall St., etc.) an advantage operating overseas. I will examine the current issue of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and why the article written by Colin Jones pretty much assured to my mind that he is a CIA officer, not simply an American living abroad.

First, however, it needs to be pointed out that when there is a potential for such activities to adversely impact or actually come into active conflict with the lives and lawful work of Americans overseas, the authorization of covert action is always already problematic, and should probably not even be considered to begin with in many cases. And when someone reports abuses of the rights of Americans overseas, including their 4th, 5th, and 14^th Amendment rights, it is obvious that the covert operations need to be rethought and re-implemented in a manner that does not violate the rights of Americans residing in a given overseas area that has been targeted for covert operations.

TPP

Anyone that follows American politics to any extent will be aware of the recent protracted battle of farm subsidies in the USA with the enactment of the Farm Bill. The vested interests, including big agribusiness and the commodities markets, are so entrenched that, fight hard though he may, the president was not able to implement the badly needed reforms, but compromise is the name of the game. On the other hand, one thing sought by the anti-reform parties was a substantial reduction in the food stamps program at a time when more Americans than at any point in history rely on public assistance for food.

Farm subsidies in the USA have seriously compromised the economic viability of small-scale farming in places like the Mid-West. The coupling of farming to subsidies (i.e., being paid not to produce) has also had the collateral effect of demoralizing the American work ethic, much along the lines of the prescription o produce automobiles with “built-in obsolescence” demoralized American ingenuity in the automotive field.

The TPP basically seeks to open up Japanese markets to American big agribusiness, and threatens to bring about similar types of damage in Japan as has been wrought in the USA with the rise of big agribusiness. The UN has recently issued a report, in fact, pointing to the long-term problems associated with monoculture-focused big agribusiness.

UN REPORT: http://unctad.org/en/pages/PressRelease.aspx?OriginalVersionID=154

Commentary:

http://overgrowthesystem.com/un-report-says-small-scale-organic-farming-only-way-to-feed-the-world/

Other problems with the (secret negotiations of) the TPP include the attempt to proffer advantages to finance interests (i.e., “investors”) against the state itself. Here is a brief critique on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership#Investor.E2.80.93state_arbitration

Mr. Colin Jones attempts to reverse the negative characterization of the American finance sector and apply it to the Japanese farmers lobby. One problem with that, of course, is that he doesn’t address the American agribusiness lobby or discuss the recent multi-year Farm Bill negotiations. And everyone knows that the American finance sector (along with their British cohorts) are the largest white collar crime organizations in the world, after the CIA itself, of course.

It bears mentioning that the first CIA officer sent against me—Sasha Peterka—was trying to persuade me to leave Kyoto for a job with Goldman Sachs in Tokyo. At that point in time, compared to several years earlier when I lived in Tokyo, the foreigner population had exploded with the finance bubble, before the eventual collapse of Lehman Brothers, where another CIA officer sent against me—Jamie Roughan—had worked before moving on to Mizuho Finance, etc.

Considering that Mr. Jones is basically trying to convince the English language reading public that Japanese agriculture lobby is evil and the American finance sector is good for the economy (“stupid”), while masking the dysfunctional situation in the USA with respect to farm subsidies, he can be characterized as nothing but a propagandist, meaning that he in all likelihood is an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency that is participating in a covert disinformation campaign. Even considering the "ugly American" syndrome, an expat would have to be utterly delusional to rail against the government of his host country and not that of his country of origin in a fair and balanced manner under the circumstances. I wonder what the Japanese students and faculty at Doshisha University thought of the unfairly biased column.

Naturally, as a long-term American resident of Japan, I do not feel that the TPP is in the interest of my family and Japan. Fortunately, they have a pretty good Constitution in Japan, guaranteeing me the right to “freedom of speech”. One would imagine that CIA officers engaged in disinformation are not operating with tacit approval of the Japanese government under some secret intelligence agreement, but engaged in a covert disinformation operation.

Those of you that have been following this blog will recall that I've exposed at least one other writer for the Japan Times (staff writer Eric Johnston) as a CIA propagandist. Apparently, my exposing them doesn't have much of a chilling effect (though Mr. Johnston's columns are not objectionable as the one I analyzed and for which he was probably just a ghost writer/frontman), because they continually repopulate the same roles with different people and slightly modified modus operandi. Vigilance is not optional...

Now, back to civil society and the CIA overseas with respect to the impact on Americans overseas residing in a given theater where covert operations have been authorized. I have found the following which are extremely interesting and pertinent. I don’t have time to comment on these now, so I’m just provide links to two documents and some excerpts from one.

MOU between DOJ and CIA (revised 1995)

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING:

REPORTING OF INFORMATION CONCERNING FEDERAL CRIMES

http://cryptome.org/2014/07/spy-reporting-federal-crimes.pdf

IV. General Considerations: Allegations of Criminal Acts Committed By

Agency Employees

A. This Agreement requires each employee of the Agency to report to the

General Counsel or IG facts or circumstances that reasonably indicate to

the employee that an employee of an intelligence agency has committed,

is committing, or will commit a violation of federal criminal law.3

B. Except as exempted in Section III, when the General Counsel has

received allegations, complaints or information (hereinafter allegations)

that an employee of the Agency may have violated, may be violating, or

may violate a federal criminal statue, that General Counsel should within

a reasonable period of time determine whether there is a reasonable basis

to believe that a federal crime has been, is being, or will be committed

and that it is a crime which, under this memorandum, must be reported.

The General Counsel may, as set forth in Section V, below, conduct a

preliminary inquiry for this purpose. If a preliminary inquiry reveals that

there is a reasonable basis for the allegations, the General Counsel will

follow the reporting procedures set forth in Section VIII, below. If a

preliminary inquiry reveals that the allegations are without a reasonable

basis, the General Counsel will make a record, as appropriate, of that

finding and no reporting under these procedures is required.

VII. Reportable Offenses by Non-Employees

B. Any conspiracy or attempt to commit a crime reportable under this

section shall be reported if the conspiracy or attempt itself meets the

applicable reporting criteria.

VIII. Procedure For Submitting Special Crimes Reports

A. Where the Agency determines that a matter must be the subject of a

special report to the Department of Justice, it may, consistent with

paragraphs VIII.B and VIII.C, below, make such a report (1) by letter or

other, similar communication from the General Counsel, or (2) by

electronic or courier dissemination of information from operational or

analytical units, provided that in all cases, the subject line and the text of

such communication or dissemination clearly reflects that it is a report of

possible criminal activity. The Department of Justice shall maintain a

record of all special crimes reports received from the Agency.

B. Where the Agency determines that a matter must be the subject of a

special report to the Department of Justice; and where the Agency further

determines that no public disclosure of classified information or

intelligence sources and methods would result from further investigation

or prosecution, and the security of ongoing intelligent operations would

not be jeopardized thereby, the Agency will report the matter to the

federal investigative agency having jurisdiction over the criminal matter.

A copy of that report must also be provided to the AAG, or designated

Deputy AAG, Criminal Division.

C. Where the Agency determines that further investigation or prosecution of

a matter that must be specifically reported may result in a public

disclosure of classified information or intelligence sources or methods or

would jeopardize the security of ongoing intelligence operations, the

Agency shall report the matter to the AAG or designated Deputy AAG,

Criminal Division. A copy of that report must also be provided to the

Assistant Director, Criminal Investigations or National Security VIII. Procedure For Submitting Special Crimes Reports