14 Feb 2007 

SpinWatch is a partner of the ALTER-EU, a coalition of citizen's organisations to campaign for transparacy on lobbying in the EU. CEO is another member of this coalition. 

Today, CEO sent a complaint letter to EPACA chairman John Houston, in reaction to a chapter that Houston wrote in Challenge and Response -- Essays on Public Affairs and Transparency, published in September 2006.
In his chapter, Houston makes unfounded and unsubstantiated accusations against CEO and ALTER-EU.

The letter is published at the Corporate Europe Observatory website.

13 Feb 2007

by Eveline Lubbers 

Dear George,

Your Guardian column today  devoted to "The parallel universe of BAE" reveals that confidential and legally privileged material belonging to CAAT landed on the desks of BAE Systems plc. The company has refused to state how it came into possession of the material.

You recall the exposure in the Sunday Times that revealed how BAE had carried out a “widespread spying operation” on its critics.  CAAT took the case to the UK’s Information Commissioner, who found that the email address belonged to “a company with links to Evelyn Le Chene.”

I have had the opportunity the study the many surveillance reports about CAAT that were sent to BAE, the source material used by the Sunday Times. SpinWatch published an elaborate dossier on the case. It's called the  Threat Response Spy Files, investigating this case of corporate intelligence.

Eveline Lubbers, 28 Jan 2007 

Shell was one of the first companies to take a hit in the new-media war. The company was taken by surprise in 1995 when a Greenpeace campaign against sinking the redundant Brent Spar oil platform succeeded. Such a disaster would not be allowed to happen again. Shell International developed an online strategy, which included monitoring what was being said about the company in cyberspace.

For my book Battling Big Business I researched the on line detective agencies hired by Shell. Back then I also found out that the company’s impressive new website offered means of surveillance too. The forums were used to monitor Shell’s critics. For my present PhD research I was curious to know what had happened to the forums since.

10 January 2007

January 5's Newsnight is in keeping with BBC's long tradition of relaying state propaganda while maintaining a veneer of respectability. The BBC is "shooting the gun from someone else's shoulder", as the Pakhtun saying goes, when it employs the white man's other favorite Iraqi (Ahmad Chalabi being the first), Salam Pax, to present a potted history of Saddam's rule that considerately elides the US-UK role in sustaining his reign of terror.

Salam Pax (real name Salam al Janabi), son of Adnan al Janabi, a "moderate" Sunni member of Iyad Allawi's party, is the ideal embedded native --  fluent in English, well placed, resourceful and blithely reconciled to the idea of foreigners occupying his country. The dominant theme in his reporting is the normalcy of life in Iraq: a life of consumption -- familiar Western brands of course -- and reminiscences of past horrors. There is a clear disjuncture between the Baghdad Salam lives in and the one inhabited by millions of less privileged Iraqis frequently reported on by respected journalists, such as Patrick Cockburn: there is a virtual absence of the occupation, bombings, blackouts and water shortages.

The Furediite love of colonising science communication bodies has now taken in even engineers. According to the website for Engaging Cogs, it is funded by EPSRC (the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council) as a forum to explore how society thinks about engineering, and it's hosted by the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. But not only does the website have a decidedly Spiked-ish look to it but Engaging Cogs is based, like Spiked, in LM's old offices at Farringdon Road. And keen Furediite, Timandra Harkness is part of the team. Needless to say, Timandra has no background in engineering.  

13 December 2006 

Tonight in Brussels ExxonMobil and DG Internal Market were 'named and shamed' after topping the polls in the “Worst EU Lobby Awards 2006”. The winners of the awards were publicly announced at a ceremony organised by Corporate Europe Observatory, Friends of the Earth Europe, LobbyControl and Spinwatch.

In the "Worst EU Lobbying" category, ExxonMobil was the clear winner, gaining almost half of the votes cast. The oil giant continues to pay climate sceptics to manipulate the climate debate in Brussels. In this last week though there has been a subtle change of tack by some of the better known climate deniers, who now claim that economics dictate that we shouldn't do anything about climate change because India and China will simply carry on with carbon.

11 December 2006

The Campaign for Freedom of Information (CFOI) has submitted a formal response to the Department for Constitutional Affairs regarding proposed changes to the Freedom of Information Act. (FOIA). Additionally the campaign is encouraging members of the public to sign an online petition urging the Government to reject the proposals.

Three major changes to the Act are being considered. The first is the introduction of a standard fee for all requests. At the moment, applications made under the FOIA are processed without charge.

7 December 2006

Ok – so it’s the beginning of the festive season, when many people treat themselves to a trip to the theatre or pantomine. How about an opera? An opera with a difference? Award-wining arts and environment group Platform has just produced a downloadable opera for a walk in London.

For years Platform has been pioneering guided walks of the city of London, giving a critical analysis on the oil industry, especially the antics of BP or Shell.

Now they have gone one step further and produced a walk that is an opera. You download the opera and walk the route on your own at any time. Called “And While London Burns” it calls itself a compelling collusion of “thriller, opera and guided walk”. It is, says Platform, a requiem for a warming world.

30 November 2006

Yesterday, Corporate Europe Observatory, Friends of the Earth Europe, LobbyControl and Spinwatch sent letters to EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and Finnish Presidency trade expert Eeva Korolainen, urging them to cancel of EU trade officials and Member State trade experts in a closed meeting annex cocktail party organised by the European Services Forum next Monday 4 December (17:00-20:00) at the UNICE building, Av. Cortenbergh 118 Brussels.

Services industry lobbyists are scheduled to brief EU trade experts on their recent lobbying missions to Malaysia and Indonesia, while the EC representatives are to report on the current on-going bilateral and regional negotiations (GCC, Euromed, EPAs, etc.). Discussion on how to resume the stalled DDA negotiations, on the new EU Trade Policy Strategy and on the importance of services in the forthcoming bilateral negotiations are also on the agenda.

After that, the cocktails will be brought in...

Our letters and the leaked documents through whch we learned of this meeting are available on the CEO website at: http://www.corporateeurope.org/esfcocktaildec2006.html

Peter Mandelson is candidate for the Worst Privileged Access category in the Worst EU Lobby Awards 2006. You can cast your vote till next Monday, 4 December.