Thursday, October 24, 2013

A CONSTITUTION FOR THE FEDERATION OF EARTH

A CONSTITUTION FOR THE FEDERATION OF EARTH

As amended at the World Constituent Assembly in Troia, Portugal 1991. Now being circulated worldwide with Call for ratification by the nations and people of Earth.
(Original world citizen signatories (320KB) to the Earth Constitution)

Contents

Preamble


PREAMBLE

Realizing that Humanity today has come to a turning point in history and that we are on the threshold of an new world order which promises to usher in an era of peace, prosperity, justice and harmony;
Aware of the interdependence of people, nations and all life;
Aware that man's abuse of science and technology has brought Humanity to the brink of disaster through the production of horrendous weaponry of mass destruction and to the brink of ecological and social catastrophe;
Aware that the traditional concept of security through military defense is a total illusion both for the present and for the future;
Aware of the misery and conflicts caused by ever increasing disparity between rich and poor;
Conscious of our obligation to posterity to save Humanity from imminent and total annihilation;
Conscious that Humanity is One despite the existence of diverse nations, races, creeds, ideologies and cultures and that the principle of unity in diversity is the basis for a new age when war shall be outlawed and peace prevail; when the earth's total resources shall be equitably used for human welfare; and when basic human rights and responsibilities shall be shared by all without discrimination;
Conscious of the inescapable reality that the greatest hope for the survival of life on earth is the establishment of a democratic worldgovernment;
We, citizens of the world, hereby resolve to establish a world federation to be governed in accordance with this constitution for the Federation of Earth.

A CONSTITUTION FOR THE FEDERATION OF EARTH


Article 1 - Broad Functions of the World Government

The broad functions of the Federation of Earth shall be:
  1. To prevent war, secure disarmament, and resolve territorial and other disputes which endanger peace and human rights.
  2. To protect universal human rights, including life, liberty, security, democracy, and equal opportunities in life.
  3. To obtain for all people on earth the conditions required for equitable economic and social development and for diminishing social differences.
  4. To regulate world trade, communications, transportation, currency, standards, use of world resources, and other global and international processes.
  5. To protect the environment and the ecological fabric of life from all sources of damage, and to control technological innovations whose effects transcend national boundaries, for the purpose of keeping Earth a safe, healthy and happy home for humanity .
  6. To devise and implement solutions to all problems which are beyond the capacity of national governments, or which are now or may become of global or international concern or consequence.

Article 2 - Basic Structure of World Federation and World Government

  1. The Federation of Earth shall be organized as a universal federation, to include all nations and all people, and to encompass all oceans, seas and lands of Earth, inclusive of non-self governing territories, together with the surrounding atmosphere.
  2. The World Government for the Federation of Earth shall be non-military and shall be democratic in its own structure, with ultimate sovereignty residing in all the people who live on Earth.
  3. The authority and powers granted to the World Government shall be limited to those defined in this Constitution for the Federation of Earth, applicable to problems and affairs which transcend national boundaries, leaving to national governments jurisd iction over the internal affairs of the respective nations but consistent with the authority of the World Government to protect universal human rights as defined in this World Constitution.
  4. The basic direct electoral and administrative units of the World Government shall be World Electoral and Administrative Districts. A total of not more than 1000 World Electoral and Administrative Districts shall be defined, and shall be nearly equal i n population, within the limits of plus or minus ten percent.
  5. Contiguous World Electoral and Administrative Districts shall be combined as may be appropriate to compose a total of twenty World Electoral and Administrative Regions for the following purposes, but not limited thereto: for the election or appointmen t of certain world government officials; for administrative purposes; for composing various organs of the world government as enumerated in Article IV; for the functioning of the Judiciary, the Enforcement System, and the Ombudsmus, as well as for the fun ctioning of any other organ or agency of the World Government.
  6. The World Electoral and Administrative Regions may be composed of a variable number of World Electoral and Administrative Districts, taking into consideration geographic, cultural, ecological and other factors as well as population.
  7. Contiguous World Electoral and Administrative Regions shall be grouped together in pairs to compose Magna-Regions.
  8. The boundaries for World Electoral and Administrative Regions shall not cross the boundaries of the World Electoral and Administrative Districts, and shall be common insofar as feasible for the various administrative departments and for the several or gans and agencies of the World Government. Boundaries for the World Electoral and Administrative Districts as well as for the Regions need not conform to existing national boundaries, but shall conform as far as practicable.
  9. The World Electoral and Administrative Regions shall be grouped to compose at least five Continental Divisions of the Earth, for the election or appointment of certain world government officials, and for certain aspects of the composition and function ing of the several organs and agencies of the World Government as specified hereinafter. The boundaries of Continental Divisions shall not cross existing national boundaries as far as practicable. Continental Divisions may be composed of a variable numbe r of World Electoral and Administrative Regions.

Article 3 - Organs of the World Government

The organs of the World Government shall be:
  1. The World Parliament.
  2. The World Executive.
  3. The World Administration.
  4. The Integrative Complex.
  5. The World Judiciary.
  6. The Enforcement System.
  7. The World Ombudsmus.

Article 4 - Grant of Specific Powers to the World Government

The powers of the World government to be exercised through its several organs and agencies shall comprise the following:
  1. Prevent wars and armed conflicts among the nations, regions, districts, parts and peoples of Earth.
  2. Supervise disarmament and prevent re-armament; prohibit and eliminate the design, testing, manufacture, sale, purchase, use and possession of weapons of mass destruction, and prohibit or regulate all lethal weapons which the World Parliament may decide.
  3. Prohibit incitement to war, and discrimination against or defamation of conscientious objectors.
  4. Provide the means for peaceful and just solutions of disputes and conflicts among or between nations, peoples, and/or other components within the Federation of Earth.
  5. Supervise boundary settlements and conduct plebiscites as needed.
  6. Define the boundaries for the districts, regions and divisions which are established for electoral, administrative, judicial and other purposes of the World Government.
  7. Define and regulate procedures for the nomination and election of the members of each House of the World Parliament, and for the nomination, election, appointment and employment of all World Government officials and personnel.
  8. Codify world laws, including the body of international law developed prior to adoption of the world constitution, but not inconsistent therewith, and which is approved by the World Parliament.
  9. Establish universal standars for weights, measurements, accounting and records.
  10. Provide assistance in the event of large scale calamities, including drouth, famine, pestilence, flood, earthquake, hurricane, ecological disruptions and other disasters.
  11. Guarantee and enforce the civil liberties and the basic human rights which are defined in the Bill of Rights for the Citizens of Earth which is made a part of this World Constitution under Article 12.
  12. Define standards and promote the worldwide improvement in working conditions, nutrition, health, housing, human settlements, environmental conditions, education, economic security, and other conditions defined under Article 13 of this World Constituti on.
  13. Regulate and supervise international transportation, communications, postal services, and migrations of people.
  14. Regulate and supervise supra-national trade, industry, corporations, businesses, cartels, professional services, labor supply, finances, investments and insurance.
  15. Secure and supervise the elimination of tariffs and other trade barriers among nations, but with provisions to prevent or minimize hardship for those previously protected by tariffs.
  16. Raise the revenues and funds, by direct and/or indirect means, which are necessary for the purposes and activities of the World Government.
  17. Establish and operate world financial, banking, credit and insurance institutions designed to serve human needs; establish, issue and regulate world currency, credit and exchange.
  18. Plan for and regulate the development, use, conservation and re-cycling of the natural resources of Earth as the common heritage of Humanity; protect the environment in every way for the benefit of both present and future generations.
  19. Create and operate a World Economic Development Organization to serve equitably the needs of all nations and people included within the World Federation.
  20. Develop and implement solutions to transnational problems of food supply, agricultural production, soil fertility, soil conservation, pest control, diet, nutrition, drugs and poisons, and the disposal of toxic wastes.
  21. Develop and implement means to control population growth in relation to the life-support capacities of Earth, and solve problems of population distribution.
  22. Develop, protect, regulate and conserve the water supplies of Earth; develop, operate and/or coordinate transnational irrigation and other water supply and control projects; assure equitable allocation of trans- national water supplies, and protect ag ainst adverse trans-national effects of water or moisture diversion or weather control projects within national boundaries.
  23. Own, administer and supervise the development and conservation of the oceans and sea-beds of Earth and all resources thereof, and protect from damage.
  24. Protect from damage, and control and supervise the uses of the atmosphere of Earth.
  25. Conduct inter-planetary and cosmic explorations and research; have exclusive jurisdiction over the Moon and over all satellites launched from Earth.
  26. Establish, operate and/or coordinate global air lines, ocean transport systems, international railways and highways, global communication systems, and means for interplanetary travel and communications; control and administer vital waterways.
  27. Develop, operate and/or coordinate transnational power systems, or networks of small units, integrating into the systems or networks power derived from the sun, wind, water, tides, heat differentials, magnetic forces, and any other source of safe, eco logically sound and continuing energy supply.
  28. Control the mining, production, transportation and use of fossil sources of energy to the extent necessary to reduce and prevent damages to the environment and the ecology, as well as to prevent conflicts and conserve supplies for sustained use by suc ceeding generations.
  29. Exercise exclusive jurisdiction and control over nuclear energy research and testing and nuclear power production, including the right to prohibit any form of testing or production considered hazardous.
  30. Place under world controls essential natural resources which may be limited or unevenly distributed about the Earth. Find and implement ways to reduce wastes and find ways to minimize disparities when development or production is insufficient to suppl y everybody with all that may be needed.
  31. Provide for the examination and assessment of technological innovations which are or may be of supranational consequence, to determine possible hazards or perils to humanity or the environment; institute such controls and regulations of technology as may be found necessary to prevent or correct widespread hazards or perils to human health and welfare.
  32. Carry out intensive programs to develop safe alternatives to any technology or technological processes which may be hazardous to the environment, the ecological system, or human health and welfare.
  33. Resolve supra-national problems caused by gross disparities in technological development or capability, capital formation, availability of natural resources, educational opportunity, economic opportunity, and wage and price differentials. Assist the processes of technology transfer under conditions which safeguard human welfare and the environment and contribute to minimizing disparities.
  34. Intervene under procedures to be defined by the World Parliament in cases of either intra-state violence and intra-state problems which seriously affect world peace or universal human rights.
  35. Develop a world university system. Obtain the correction of prejudicial communicative materials which cause misunderstandings or conflicts due to differences of race, religion, sex, national origin or affiliation.
  36. Organize, coordinate and/or administer a voluntary, non-military World Service Corps, to carry out a wide variety of projects designed to serve human welfare.
  37. Designate as may be found desirable an official world language or official world languages.
  38. Establish and operate a system of world parks, wild life preserves, natural places, and wilderness areas.
  39. Define and establish procedures for initiative and referendum by the Citizens of Earth on matters of supra-national legislation not prohibited by this World Constitution.
  40. Establish such departments, bureaus, commissions, institutes, corporations, administrations, or agencies as may by needed to carry out any and all of the functions and powers of the World Government.
  41. Serve the needs of humanity in any and all ways which are now, or may prove in the future to be, beyond the capacity of national and local governments.

Article 5 - The World Parliament

Sec. A - Functions and Powers of the World Parliament

The functions and powers of the World Parliament shall comprise the following:
  1. To prepare and enact detailed legislation in all areas of authority and jurisdiction granted to the World Government under Article IV of this World Constitution.
  2. To amend or repeal world laws as may be found necessary or desirable.
  3. To approve, amend or reject the international laws developed prior to the advent of World Government, and to codify and integrate the system of world law and world legislation under the World Government.
  4. To establish such regulations and directions as may be needed, consistent with this world constitution, for the proper functioning of all organs, branches, departments, bureaus, commissions, institutes, agencies or parts of the World Government.
  5. To review, amend and give final approval to each budget for the World Government, as submitted by the World Executive; to devise the specific means for directly raising funds needed to fulfill the budget, including taxes, licenses, fees, globally acco unted social and public costs which must be added into the prices for goods and services, loans and credit advances, and any other appropriate means; and to appropriate and allocate funds for all operations and functions of the World Government in accordance with approved budgets, but subject to the right of the Parliament to revise any appropriation not yet spent or contractually committed.
  6. To create, alter, abolish or consolidate the departments, bureaus, commissions, institutes, agencies or other parts of the World Government as may be needed for the best functioning of the several organs of the World Government, subject to the specific provisions of this World Constitution.
  7. To approve the appointments of the heads of all major departments, commissions, offices, agencies and other parts of the several organs of the World Government, except those chosen by electoral or civil service procedures.
  8. To remove from office for cause any member of the World Executive, and any elective or appointive head of any organ, department, office, agency or other part of the World Government, subject to the specific provisions in this World Constitution concerning specific offices.
  9. To define and revise the boundaries of the World Electoral and Administrative Districts, the World Electoral and Administrative Regions and Magna Regions, and the Continental Divisions.
  10. To schedule the implementation of those provisions of the World Constitution which require implementation by stages during the several stages of Provisional World Government, First Operative Stage of World Government, Second Operative Stage of World Government, and Full Operative Stage of World Government, as defined in Articles XVII and XIX of this World Constitution.
  11. To plan and schedule the implementation of those provisions of the World Constitution which may require a period of years to be accomplished.

Sec. B - Composition of the World Parliament

  1. The World Parliament shall be composed of three houses, designated as follows:
    • The House of Peoples, to represent the people of Earth directly and equally;
    • The House of Nations, to represent the nations which are joined together in the Federation of Earth; and a
    • House of Counsellors with particular functions to represent the highest good and best interests of humanity as a whole.
  2. All members of the World Parliament, regardless of House, shall be designated as Members of the World Parliament.

Sec. C - The House of Peoples

  1. The House of Peoples shall be composed of the peoples delegates directly elected in proportion to population from the World Electoral and Administrative Districts, as defined in Article 2-4.
  2. Peoples delegates shall be elected by universal adult suffrage, open to all persons of age 18 and above.
  3. One peoples delegate shall be elected from each World Electoral and Administrative District to serve a five year term in the House of Peoples. Peoples delegates may be elected to serve successive terms without limit. Each peoples delegate shall have one vote.
  4. A candidate for election to serve as a peoples delegate must be at least 21 years of age, a resident for at least one year of the electoral district from which the candidate is seeking election, and shall take a pledge of service to humanity.

Sec. D - The House of Nations

  1. The House of Nations shall be composed of national delegates elected or appointed by procedures to be determined by each national government on the following basis:
    1. One national delegate from each nation of at least 100,000 population, but less than 10,000,000 population.
    2. Two national delegates from each nation of at least 10,000,000 population, but less than 100,000,000 population.
    3. Three national delegates from each nation of 100,000,000 population or more.
  2. Nations of less than 100,000 population may join in groups with other nations for purposes of representation in the House of Nations.
  3. National delegates shall be elected or appointed to serve for terms of five years, and may be elected or appointed to serve successive terms without limit. Each national delegate shall have one vote.
  4. Any person to serve as a national delegate shall be a citizen for at least two years of the nation to be represented, must be at least 21 years of age, and shall take a pledge of service to humanity.

Sec. E - The House of Counsellors

  1. The House of Counsellors shall be composed of 200 counsellors chosen in equal numbers from nominations submitted from the twenty World Electoral and Administrative Regions, as defined in Article II-5 and II-6, ten from each Region.
  2. Nominations for members of the House of Counsellors shall be made by the teachers and students of universities and colleges and of scientific academies and institutes within each world electoral and administrative region. Nominees may be persons who are off campus in any walk of life as well as on campus.
  3. Nominees to the House of Counsellors from each World Electoral and Administrative Region shall, by vote taken among themselves, reduce the number of nominees to no less than two times and no more than three times the number to be elected.
  4. Nominees to serve as members of the House of Counsellors must be at least 25 years of age, and shall take a pledge of service to humanity. There shall be no residence requirement, and a nominee need not be a resident of the region from which nominated or elected.
  5. The members of the House of Counsellors from each region shall be elected by the members of the other two houses of the World Parliament from the particular region.
  6. Counsellors shall be elected to serve terms of ten years. One-half of the members of the House of Counsellors shall be elected every five years. Counsellors may serve successive terms without limit. Each Counsellor shall have one vote.

Sec. F - Procedures of the World Parliament

  1. Each house of the World Parliament during its first session after general elections shall elect a panel of five chairpersons from among its own members, one from each of five Continental Divisions. The chairpersons shall rotate annually so that each w ill serve for one year as chief presiding officer, while the other four serve as vice-chairpersons.
  2. The panels of Chairpersons from each House shall meet together, as needed, for the purpose of coordinating the work of the Houses of the World Parliament, both severally and jointly.
  3. Any legislative measure or action may be initiated in either House of Peoples or House of Nations or both concurrently, and shall become effective when passed by a simple majority vote of both the House of Peoples and of the House of Nations, except in those cases where an absolute majority vote or other voting majority is specified in this World Constitution.
  4. In case of deadlock on a measure initiated in either the House of Peoples or House of Nations, the measure shall then automatically go to the House of Counsellors for decision by simple majority vote of the House of Counsellors, except in the cases where other majority vote is required in this World Constitution. Any measure may be referred for decision to the House of Counsellors by a concurrent vote of the other two houses.
  5. The House of Counsellors may initiate any legislative measure, which shall then be submitted to the other two houses and must be passed by simple majority vote of both the House of Peoples and House of Nations to become effective, unless other voting majority is required by some provision of this World Constitution.
  6. The House of Counsellors may introduce an opinion or resolution on any measure pending before either of the other two houses; either of the other houses may request the opinion of the House of Counsellors before acting upon a measure.
  7. Each house of the World Parliament shall adopt its own detailed rules of procedure, which shall by consistent with the procedures set forth in this World Constitution, and which shall be designed to facilitate coordinated functioning of the three houses.
  8. Approval of appointments by the World Parliament or any house thereof shall require simple majority votes, while removals for cause shall require absolute majority votes.
  9. After the full operative stage of World Government is declared, general elections for members of the World Parliament to the House of Peoples shall be held every five years. The first general elections shall be held within the first two years followin g the declaration of the full operative stage of World Government.
  10. Until the full operative stage of World Government is declared, elections for members of the World Parliament to the House of Peoples may be conducted whenever feasible in relation to the campaign for ratification of this World Constitution.
  11. Regular sessions of the House of Peoples and House of Nations of the World Parliament shall convene on the second Monday of January of each and every year.
  12. Each nation, according to its own procedures, shall appoint or elect members of the World Parliament to the House of Nations at least thirty days prior to the date for convening the World Parliament in January.
  13. The House of Peoples together with the House of Nations shall elect the members of the World Parliament to the House of Counsellors during the month of January after the general elections. For its first session after general elections, the House of Co unsellors shall convene on the second Monday of March, and thereafter concurrently with the other two houses.
  14. Bi-elections to fill vacancies shall be held within three months from occurrence of the vacancy or vacancies.
  15. The World Parliament shall remain in session for a minimum of nine months of each year. One or two breaks may be taken during each year, at times and for durations to be decided by simple majority vote of the House of Peoples and House of Nations sitting jointly.
  16. Annual salaries for members of the World Parliament of all three houses shall be the same, except for those who serve also as members of the Presidium and of the Executive Cabinet.
  17. Salary schedules for members of the World Parliament and for members of the Presidium and of the Executive Cabinet shall be determined by the World Parliament.

Article 6 - The World Executive

Sec. A Functions and Powers of the World Executive

  1. To implement the basic system of world law as defined in the World Constitution and in the codified system of world law after approval by the World Parliament.
  2. To implement legislation enacted by the World Parliament.
  3. To propose and recommend legislation for enactment by the World Parliament.
  4. To convene the World Parliament in special sessions when necessary.
  5. To supervise the World Administration and the Integrative Complex and all of the departments, bureaus, offices, institutes and agencies thereof.
  6. To nominate, select and remove the heads of various organs, branches, departments, bureaus, offices, commissions, institutes, agencies and other parts of the World Government, in accordance with the provisions of this World Constitution and as specifi ed in measures enacted by the World Parliament.
  7. To prepare and submit annually to the World Parliament a comprehensive budget for the operations of the World Government, and to prepare and submit periodically budget projections over periods of several years.
  8. To define and propose priorities for world legislation and budgetary allocations.
  9. To be held accountable to the World Parliament for the expenditures of appropriations made by the World Parliament in accordance with approved and longer term budgets, subject to revisions approved by the World Parliament.

Sec. B Composition of the World Executive

The World Executive shall consist of a Presidium of five members, and of an Executive Cabinet of from twenty to thirty members, all of whom shall be members of the World Parliament.

Sec. C The Presidium

  1. The Presidium shall be composed of five members, one to be designated as President and the other four to be designated as Vice Presidents. Each member of the Presidium shall be from a different Continental Division.
  2. The Presidency of the Presidium shall rotate each year, with each member in turn to serve as President, while the other four serve as Vice Presidents. The order of rotation shall be decided by the Presidium.
  3. The decisions of the Presidium shall be taken collectively, on the basis of majority decisions.
  4. Each member of the Presidium shall be a member of the World Parliament, either elected to the House of Peoples or to the House of Counsellors, or appointed or elected to the House of Nations.
  5. Nominations for the Presidium shall be made by the House of Counsellors. The number of nominees shall be from two to three times the number to be elected. No more than one-third of the nominees shall be from the House of Counsellors or from the House of Nations, and nominees must be included from all Continental Divisions.
  6. From among the nominees submitted by the House of Counsellors, the Presidium shall be elected by vote of the combined membership of all three houses of the World Parliament in joint session. A plurality vote equal to at least 40 percent of the total m embership of the World Parliament shall be required for the election of each member to the Presidium, with successive elimination votes taken as necessary until the required plurality is achieved.
  7. Members of the Presidium may be removed for cause, either individually or collectively, by an absolute majority vote of the combined membership of the three houses of the World Parliament in joint session.
  8. The term of office for the Presidium shall be five years and shall run concurrently with the terms of office for the members as Members of the World Parliament, except that at the end of each five year period, the Presidium members in office shall con tinue to serve until the new Presidium for the succeeding term is elected. Membership in the Presidium shall be limited to two consecutive terms.

Sec. D The Executive Cabinet

  1. The Executive Cabinet shall be composed of from twenty to thirty members, with at least one member from each of the ten World Electoral and Administrative Magna Regions of the world.
  2. All members of the Executive Cabinet shall be Members of the World Parliament.
  3. There shall be no more than two members of the Executive Cabinet from any single nation of the World Federation. There may be only one member of the Executive Cabinet from a nation from which a Member of the World Parliament is serving as a member of the Presidium.
  4. Each member of the Executive Cabinet shall serve as the head of a department or agency of the World Administration or Integrative Complex, and in this capacity shall be designated as Minister of the particular department or agency.
  5. Nominations for members of the Executive Cabinet shall be made by the Presidium, taking into consideration the various functions which Executive Cabinets members are to perform. The Presidium shall nominate no more than two times the number to be elected.
  6. The Executive Cabinet shall be elected by simple majority vote of the combined membership of all three houses of the World Parliament in joint session.
  7. Members of the Executive Cabinet either individually or collectively may be removed for cause by an absolute majority vote of the combined membership of all three houses of the World Parliament sitting in joint session.
  8. The term of office in the Executive Cabinet shall be five years, and shall run concurrently with the terms of office for the members as Members of the World Parliament, except that at the end of each five year period, the Cabinet members in office s hall continue to serve until the new Executive Cabinet for the succeeding term is elected. Membership in the Executive Cabinet shall be limited to three consecutive terms, regardless of change in ministerial position.

Sec. E Procedures of the World Executive

  1. The Presidium shall assign the ministerial positions among the Cabinet members to head the several administrative departments and major agencies of the Administration and of the Integrative Complex. Each Vice President may also serve as a Minister to head an administrative department, but not the President. Ministerial positions may be changed at the discretion of the Presidium. A Cabinet member or Vice President may hold more than one ministerial post, but no more than three, providing that no Cabine t member is without a Ministerial post.
  2. The Presidium, in consultation with the Executive Cabinet, shall prepare and present to the World Parliament near the beginning of each year a proposed program of world legislation. The Presidium may propose other legislation during the year.
  3. The Presidium, in consultation with the Executive Cabinet, and in consultation with the World Financial Administration, (see Article VIII, Sec. G-1-i) shall be responsible for preparing and submitting to the World Parliament the proposed annual budget, and budgetary projections over periods of years.
  4. Each Cabinet Member and Vice President as Minister of a particular department or agency shall prepare an annual report for the particular department or agency, to be submitted both to the Presidium and to the World Parliament.
  5. The members of the Presidium and of the Executive Cabinet at all times shall be responsible both individually and collectively to the World Parliament.
  6. Vacancies occurring at any time in the World Executive shall be filled within sixty days by nomination and election in the same manner as specified for filling the offices originally.

Sec. F Limitations on the World Executive

  1. The World Executive shall not at any time alter, suspend, abridge, infringe or otherwise violate any provision of this World Constitution or any legislation or world law enacted or approved by the World Parliament in accordance with the provisions of this World Constitution.
  2. The World Executive shall not have veto power over any legislation passed by the World Parliament.
  3. The World Executive may not dissolve the World Parliament or any House of the World Parliament.
  4. The World Executive may not act contrary to decisions of the World Courts.
  5. The World Executive shall be bound to faithfully execute all legislation passed by the World Parliament in accordance with the provisions of this World Constitution, and may not impound or refuse to spend funds appropriated by the World Parliament, nor spend more funds than are appropriated bt the World Parliament.
  6. The World Executive may not transcend or contradict the decisions or controls of the World Parliament, the World Judiciary or the Provisions of this World Constitution by any device of executive order or executive privilege or emergency declaration or decree.

Article 7 - The World Administration

Sec. A - Functions of the World Administration

  1. The World Administration shall be organized to carry out the detailed and continuous administration and implementation of world legislation and world law.
  2. The World Administration shall be under the direction of the World Executive, and shall at all times be responsible to the World Executive.
  3. The World Administration shall be organized so as to give professional continuity to the work of administration and implementation.

Sec. B - Structure and Procedures of the World Administration

  1. The World Administration shall be composed of professionally organized departments and other agencies in all areas of activity requiring continuity of administration and implementation by the World Government.
  2. Each Department or major agency of the World Administration shall be headed by a Minister who shall be either a member of the Executive Cabinet or a Vice President of the Presidium.
  3. Each Department or major agency of the World Administration shall have as chief of staff a Senior Administrator, who shall assist the Minister and supervise the detailed work of the Department or agency.
  4. Each Senior Administrator shall be nominated by the Minister of the particular Department or agency from among persons in the senior lists of the World Civil Service Administration, as soon as senior lists have been established by the World Civil Serv ice Administration, and shall be confirmed by the Presidium. Temporary qualified appointments shall be made by the Ministers, with confirmation by the Presidium, pending establishment of the senior lists.
  5. There shall be a Secretary General of the World Administration, who shall be nominated by the Presidium and confirmed by absolute majority vote of the entire Executive Cabinet.
  6. The functions and responsibilities of the Secretary General of the World Administration shall be to assist in coordinating the work of the Senior Administrators of the several Departments and agencies of the World Administration. The Secretary General shall at all times be subject to the direction of the Presidium, and shall be directly responsible to the Presidium.
  7. The employment of any Senior Administrator and of the Secretary General may be terminated for cause by absolute majority vote of both the Executive Cabinet and Presidium combined, but not contrary to civil service rules which protect tenure on grounds of competence.
  8. Each Minister of a Department or agency of the World Administration, being also a Member of the World Parliament, shall provide continuous liaison between the particular Department or agency and the World Parliament, shall respond at any time to any questions or requests for information from the Parliament, including committees of any House of the World Parliament.
  9. The Presidium, in cooperation with the particular Ministers in each case, shall be responsible for the original organization of each of the Departments and major agencies of the World Administration.
  10. The assignment of legislative measures, constitutional provisions and areas of world law to particular Departments and agencies for administration and implementation shall be done by the Presidium in consultation with the Executive Cabinet and Secret ary General, unless specifically provided in legislation passed by the World Parliament.
  11. The Presidium, in consultation with the Executive Cabinet, may propose the creation of other departments and agencies to have ministerial status; and may propose the alteration, combination or termination of existing Departments and agencies of minist erial status as may seem necessary or desirable. Any such creation, alteration, combination or termination shall require a simple majority vote of approval of the three houses of the World Parliament in joint session.
  12. The World Parliament by absolute majority vote of the three houses in joint session may specify the creation of new departments or agencies of ministerial status in the World Administration, or may direct the World Executive to alter, combine, or term inate existing departments or agencies of ministerial status.
  13. The Presidium and the World Executive may not create, establish or maintain any administrative or executive department or agency for the purpose of circumventing control by the World Parliament.

Sec. C - Departments of the World Adminstration

Among the Departments and agencies of the World Administration of ministerial status, but not limited thereto and subject to combinations and to changes in descriptive terminology, shall be those listed under this Section. Each major area of administr ation shall be headed by a Cabinet Minister and a Senior Administrator, or by a Vice President and a Senior Administrator.
  1. Disarmament and War Prevention.
  2. Population.
  3. Food and Agriculture.
  4. Water Supplies and Waterways.
  5. Health and Nutrition.
  6. Education.
  7. Cultural Diversity and the Arts.
  8. Habitat and Settlements.
  9. Environment and Ecology.
  10. World Resources.
  11. Oceans and Seabeds.
  12. Atmosphere and Space.
  13. Energy.
  14. Science and Technology.
  15. Genetic Research and Engineering.
  16. Labor and Income.
  17. Economic and Social Development.
  18. Commerce and Industry.
  19. Transportation and Travel.
  20. Multi-National Corporations.
  21. Communications and Information.
  22. Human Rights.
  23. Distributive Justice.
  24. World Service Corps.
  25. World Territories, Capitals and Parks.
  26. Exterior Relations.
  27. Democratic Procedures.
  28. Revenue.

Article 8 - The Integrative Complex

Sec. A - Definition

  1. Certain administrative, research, planning and facilitative agencies of the World Government which are particularly essential for the satisfactory functioning of all or most aspects of the World Government, shall be designated as the Integrative Complex. The Integrative Complex shall include the agencies listed under this Section, with the proviso that other such agencies may be added upon recommendation of the Presidium followed by decision of the World Parliament.
    1. The World Civil Service Administration.
    2. The World Boundaries and Elections Administration.
    3. The Institute on Governmental Procedures and World Problems.
    4. The Agency for Research and Planning.
    5. The Agency for Technological and Environmental Assessment.
    6. The World Financial Administration.
    7. Commission for Legislative Review.
  2. Each agency of the Integrative Complex shall be headed by a Cabinet Minister and a Senior Administrator, or by a Vice President and a Senior Administrator, together with a Commission as provided hereunder. The rules of procedure for each agency shall be decided by majority decision of the Commission members together with the Administrator and the Minister or Vice President.
  3. The World Parliament may at any time define further the responsibilities, functioning and organization of the several agencies of the Integrative Complex, consistent with the provisions of Article VIII and other provisions of the World Constitution.
  4. Each agency of the Integrative Complex shall make an annual report to the World Parliament and to the Presidium.

Sec. B - The World Civil Service Administration

  1. The functions of the World Civil Service Administration shall be the following, but not limited thereto:
    1. To formulate and define standards, qualifications, tests, examinations and salary scales for the personnel of all organs, departments, bureaus, offices, commissions and agencies of the World Government, in conformity with the provisions of this World Constitution and requiring approval by the Presidium and Executive Cabinet, subject to review and approval by the World Parliament.
    2. To establish rosters or lists of competent personnel for all categories of personnel to be appointed or employed in the service of the World Government.
    3. To select and employ upon request by any government organ, department, bureau, office, institute, commission, agency or authorized official, such competent personnel as may be needed and authorized, except for those positions which are made elective or appointive under provisions of the World Constitution or by specific legislation of the World Parliament.
  2. The World Civil Service Administration shall be headed by a ten member commission in addition to the Cabinet Minister or Vice President and Senior Administrator. The Commission shall be composed of one commissioner from each of ten World Electoral and Administrative Magna-Regions. The persons to serve as Commissioners shall be nominated by the House of Counsellors and then appointed by the Presidium for five year terms. Commissioners may serve consecutive terms.

Sec. C - The World Boundaries and Elections Administration

  1. The functions of the World Boundaries and Elections Administration shall include the following, but not limited thereto:
    1. To define the boundaries for the basic World Electoral and Administrative Districts, the World Electoral and Administrative Regions and Magna-Regions, and the Continental Divisions, for submission to the World Parliament for approval by legislative ac tion.
    2. To make periodic adjustments every ten or five years, as needed, of the boundaries for the World Electoral and Administrative Districts, the World Electoral and Administrative Regions and Magna-Regions, and of the Continental Divisions, subject to approval by the World Parliament.
    3. To define the detailed procedures for the nomination and election of Members of the World Parliament to the House of Peoples and to the House of Counsellors, subject to approval by the World Parliament.
    4. To conduct the elections for Members of the World Parliament to the House of Peoples and to the House of Counsellors.
    5. Before each World Parliamentary Election, to prepare Voters' Information Booklets which shall summarize major current public issues, and shall list each candidate for elective office together with standard information about each candidate, and give sp ace for each candidate to state his or her views on the defined major issues as well as on any other major issue of choice; to include information on any initiatives or referendums which are to be voted upon; to distribute the Voter's Information Booklets for each World Electoral District, or suitable group of Districts; and to obtain the advice of the Institute on Governmental Procedures and World Problems, the Agency for Research and Planning, and the Agency for Technological and Environmental Assessmen t in preparing the booklets.
    6. To define the rules for world political parties, subject to approval by the World Parliament, and subject to review and recommendations of the World Ombudsmus.
    7. To define the detailed procedures for legislative initiative and referendum by the Citizens of Earth, and to conduct voting on supra-national or global initiatives and referendums in conjuction with world parliamentary elections.
    8. To conduct plebiscites when requested by other Organs of the World Government, and to make recommendations for the settlement of boundary disputes.
    9. To conduct a global census every five years, and to prepare and maintain complete demographic analyses for Earth.
  2. The World Boundaries and Elections Administration shall be headed by a ten member commission in addition to the Senior Administrator and the Cabinet Minister or Vice President. The commission shall be composed of one commissioner each from ten World Electoral and Administrative Magna- Regions. The persons to serve as commissioners shall be nominated by the House of Counsellors and then appointed by the World Presidium for five year terms. Commissioners may serve consecutive terms.

Sec. D - Institute on Governmental Procedures and World Problems

  1. The functions of the Institute on Governmental Procedures and World Problems shall be as follows, but not limited thereto:
    1. To prepare and conduct courses of information, education and training for all personnel in the service of the World Government, including Members of the World Parliament and of all other elective, appointive and civil service personnel, so that every person in the service of the World Government may have a better understanding of the functions, structure, procedures and inter-relationships of the various organs, departments, bureaus, offices, institutes, commissions, agencies and other parts of the Wo rld Government.
    2. To prepare and conduct courses and seminars for information, education, discussion, updating and new ideas in all areas of world problems, particularly for Members of the World Parliament and of the World Executive, and for the chief personnel of all organs, departments and agencies of the World Government, but open to all in the service of the World Government.
    3. To bring in qualified persons from private and public universities, colleges and research and action organizations of many countries, as well as other qualified persons, to lecture and to be resource persons for the courses and seminars organized by t he Institute on Governmental Procedures and World Problems.
    4. To contract with private or public universities and colleges or other agencies to conduct courses and seminars for the Institute.
  2. The Institute on Governmental Procedures and World Problems shall be supervised by a ten member commission in addition to the Senior Administrator and Cabinet Minister or Vice President. The commission shall be composed of one commissioner each to be named by the House of Peoples, the House of Nations, the House of Counsellors, the Presidium, the Collegium of World Judges, The World Ombudsmus, The World Attorneys General Office, the Agency for Research and Planning, the Agency for Technological and E nvironmental Assessment, and the World Financial Administration. Commissioners shall serve five year terms, and may serve consecutive terms.

Sec. E - The Agency for Research and Planning

  1. The functions of the Agency for Research and Planning shall be as follows, but not limited thereto:
    1. To serve the World Parliament, the World Executive, the World Administration, and other organs, departments and agencies of the World Government in any matter requiring research and planning within the competence of the agency.
    2. To prepare and maintain a comprehensive inventory of world resources.
    3. To prepare comprehensive long-range plans for the development, conservation, re-cycling and equitable sharing of the resources of Earth for the benefit of all people on Earth, subject to legislative action by the World Parliament.
    4. To prepare and maintain a comprehensive list and description of all world problems, including their inter-relationships, impact time projections and proposed solutions, together with bibliographies.
    5. To do research and help prepare legislative measures at the request of any Member of the World Parliament or of any committee of any House of the World Parliament.
    6. To do research and help prepare proposed legislation or proposed legislative programs and schedules at the request of the Presidium or Executive Cabinet or of any Cabinet Minister.
    7. To do research and prepare reports at the request of any other organ, department or agency of the World Government.
    8. To enlist the help of public and private universities, colleges, research agencies, and other associations and organizations for various research and planning projects.
    9. To contract with public and private universities, colleges, research agencies and other organizations for the preparation of specific reports, studies and proposals.
    10. To maintain a comprehensive World Library for the use of all Members of the World Parliament, and for the use of all other officials and persons in the service of the World Government, as well as for public information.
  2. The Agency for Research and Planning shall be supervised by a ten member commission in addition to the Senior Administrator and Cabinet Minister or Vice President. The commission shall be composed of one commissioner each to be named by the House of Peoples, the House of Nations, the House of Counsellors, the Presidium, the Collegium of World Judges, the Office of World Attorneys General, World Ombudsmus, the Agency for Technological and Environmental Assessment, the Institute on Governmental Procedures and World Problems, and the World Financial Administration. Commissioners shall serve five year terms, and may serve consecutive terms.

Sec. F - The Agency for Technological and Environmental Assessment

  1. The functions of the agency for Technological and Environmental Assessment shall include the following, but not limited thereto:
    1. To establish and maintain a registration and description of all significant technological innovations, together with impact projections.
    2. To examine, analyze and assess the impacts and consequences of technological innovations which may have either significant beneficial or significant harmful or dangerous consequences for human life or for the ecology of life on Earth, or which may require particular regulations or prohibitions to prevent or eliminate dangers or to assure benefits.
    3. To examine, analyze and assess environmental and ecological problems, in particular the environmental and ecological problems which may result from any intrusions or changes of the environment or ecological relationships which may be caused by technological innovations, processes of resource development, patterns of human settlements, the production of energy, patterns of economic and industrial development, or other man-made intrusions and changes of the environment, or which may result from natural causes.
    4. To maintain a global monitoring network to measure possible harmful effects of technological innovations and environmental disturbances so that corrective measures can be designed.
    5. To prepare recommendations based on technological and environmental analyses and assessments, which can serve as guides to the World Parliament, the World Executive, the World Administration, the Agency for Research and Planning, and to the other orga ns, departments and agencies of the World Government, as well as to individuals in the service of the World Government and to national and local governments and legislative bodies.
    6. To enlist the voluntary or contractual aid and participation of private and public universities, colleges, research institutions and other associations and organizations in the work of technological and environmental assessment.
    7. To enlist the voluntary or contractual aid and participation of private and public universities and colleges, research institutions and other organizations in devising and developing alternatives to harmful or dangerous technologies and environmentall y disruptive activities, and in devising controls to assure beneficial results from technological innovations or to prevent harmful results from either technological innovations or environmental changes, all subject to legislation for implementation by the World Parliament.
  2. The Agency for Technological and Environmental Assessment shall be supervised by a ten member commission in addition to the Senior Administrator and Cabinet Minister or Vice President. The commission shall be composed of one commissioner from each of ten World Electoral and Administrative Magna-Regions. The persons to serve as commissioners shall be nominated by the House of Counsellors, and then appointed by the World Presidium for five year terms. Commissioners may serve consecutive terms.

Sec. G - The World Financial Administration

  1. The functions of the World Financial Administration shall include the following, but not limited thereto:
    1. To establish and operate the procedures for the collection of revenues for the World Government, pursuant to legislation by the World Parliament, inclusive of taxes, globally accounted social and public costs, licenses, fees, revenue sharing arrangeme nts, income derived from supra-national public enterprises or projects or resource developments, and all other sources.
    2. To operate a Planetary Accounting Office, and thereunder to make cost/benefit studies and reports of the functioning and activities of the World Government and of its several organs, departments, branches, bureaus, offices, commissions, institutes, ag encies and other parts or projects. In making such studies and reports, account shall be taken not only of direct financial costs and benefits, but also of human, social, environmental, indirect, long-term and other costs and benefits, and of actual or possible hazards and damages. Such studies and reports shall also be designed to uncover any wastes, inefficiencies, misapplications, corruptions, diversions, unnecessary costs, and other possible irregularities.
    3. To make cost/benefit studies and reports at the request of any House or committee of the World Parliament, and of the Presidium, the Executive Cabinet, the World Ombudsmus, the Office of World Attorneys General, the World Supreme Court, or of any administrative department or any agency of the Integrative Complex, as well as upon its own initiative.
    4. To operate a Planetary Comptrollers Office and thereunder to supervise the disbursement of the funds of the World Government for all purposes, projects and activities duly authorized by this World Constitution, the World Parliament, the World Executive, and other organs, departments and agencies of the World Government.
    5. To establish and operate a Planetary Banking System, making the transition to a common global currency, under the terms of specific legislation passed by the World Parliament.
    6. Pursuant to specific legislation enacted by the World Parliament, and in conjunction with the Planetary Banking System, to establish and implement the procedures of a Planetary Monetary and Credit System based upon useful productive capacity and performance, both in goods and services. Such a monetary and credit system shall be designed for use within the Planetary Banking System for the financing of the activities and projects of the World Government, and for all other financial purposes approved by the World Parliament, without requiring the payment of interest on bonds, investments or other claims of financial ownership or debt.
    7. To establish criteria for the extension of financial credit based upon such considerations as people available to work, usefulness, cost/benefit accounting, human and social values, environmental health and esthetics, minimizing disparities, integrity, competent management, appropriate technology, potential production and performance.
    8. To establish and operate a Planetary Insurance System in areas of world need which transcend national boundaries and in accordance with legislation passed by the World Parliament.
    1. To assist the Presidium as may be requested in the technical preparation of budgets for the operation of the World Government.
  2. The World Financial Administration shall be supervised by a commission of ten members, together with a Senior Administrator and a Cabinet Minister or Vice President. The commission shall be composed of one commissioner each to be named by the House of Peoples, the House of Nations, the House of Counsellors, the Presidium, the Collegium of World Judges, the Office of Attorneys General, the World Ombudsmus, the Agency for Research and Planning, the Agency for Technological and Environmental Assessment, and the Institute on Governmental Procedures and World Problems. Commissioners shall serve terms of five years, and may serve consecutive terms.

Sec. H - Commission for Legislative Review

  1. The functions of the Commission for Legislative Review shall be to examine World Legislation and World Laws which the World Parliament enacts or adopts from the previous Body of International Law for the purpose of analyzing whether any particular leg islation or law has become obsolete or obstructive or defective in serving the purposes intended; and to make recommendations to the World Parliament accordingly for repeal or amendment or replacement.
  2. The Commission for Legislative Review shall be composed of twelve members, including two each to be elected by the House of Peoples, the House of Nations, the House of Counsellors, the Collegium of World Judges, the World Ombudsmus and the Presidium. Members of the Commission shall serve terms of ten years, and may be re-elected to serve consecutive terms. One half of the Commission members after the Commission is first formed shall be elected every five years, with the first terms for one half of the members to be only five years.

Article 9 - The World Judiciary

Sec. A - Jurisdiction of the World Supreme Court

  1. A World Supreme Court shall be established, together with such regional and district World Courts as may subsequently be found necessary. The World Supreme Court shall comprise a number of benches.
  2. The World Supreme Court, together with such regional and district World Courts as may be established, shall have mandatory jurisdiction in all cases, actions, disputes, conflicts, violations of law, civil suits, guarantees of civil and human rights, constitutional interpretations, and other litigations arising under the provisions of this World Constitution, world legislation, and the body of world law approved by the World Parliament.
  3. Decisions of the World Supreme Court shall be binding on all parties involved in all cases, actions and litigations brought before any bench of the World Supreme Court for settlement. Each bench of the World Supreme Court shall constitute a court of highest appeal, except when matters of extra-ordinary public importance are assigned or transferred to the Superior Tribunal of the World Supreme Court, as provided in Section E of Article IX.

Sec. B - Benches of the World Supreme Court

The benches of the World Supreme Court and their respective jurisdictions shall be as follows:
  1. Bench for Human Rights: To deal with issues of human rights arising under the guarantee of civil and human rights provided by Article XIII of this World Constitution, and arising in pursuance of the provisions of Article XIII of this World Constitution, and arising otherwise under world legislation and the body of world law approved by the World Parliament.
  2. Bench for Criminal Cases: To deal with issues arising from the violation of world laws and world legislation by individuals, corporations, groups and associations, but not issues primarily concerned with human rights.
  3. Bench for Civil Cases: To deal with issues involving civil law suits and disputes between individuals, corporations, groups and associations arising under world legislation and world law and the administration thereof.
  4. Bench for Constitutional Cases: To deal with the interpretation of the World Constitution and with issues and actions arising in connection with the interpretation of the World Constitution.
  5. Bench for International Conflicts: To deal with disputes, conflicts and legal contest arising between or among the nations which have joined in the Federation of Earth.
  6. Bench for Public Cases: To deal with issues not under the jurisdiction of another bench arising from conflicts, disputes, civil suits or other legal contests between the World Government and corporations, groups or individuals, or between national gov ernments and corporations, groups or individuals in cases involving world legislation and world law.
  7. Appellate Bench: To deal with issues involving world legislation and world law which may be appealed from national courts; and to decide which bench to assign a case or action or litigation when a question or disagreement arises over the proper jurisdiction.
  8. Advisory Bench: To give opinions upon request on any legal question arising under world law or world legislation, exclusive of contests or actions involving interpretation of the World Constitution. Advisory opinions may be requested by any House or committee of the World Parliament, by the Presidium, any Administrative Department, the Office of World Attorneys General, the World Ombudsmus, or by any agency of the Integrative Complex.
  9. Other benches may be established, combined or terminated upon recommendation of the Collegium of World Judges with approval by the World Parliament; but benches number one through eight may not be combined nor terminated except by amendment of this World Constitution.

Sec. C - Seats of the World Supreme Court

  1. The primary seat of the World Supreme Court and all benches shall be the same as for the location of the Primary World Capital and for the location of the World Parliament and the World Executive.
  2. Continental seats of the World Supreme Court shall be established in the four secondary capitals of the World Government located in four different Continental Divisions of Earth, as provided in Article XV.
  3. The following permanent benches of the World Supreme Court shall be established both at the primary seat and at each of the continental seats: Human Rights, Criminal Cases, Civil Cases, and Public Cases.
  4. The following permanent benches of the World Supreme Court shall be located only at the primary seat of the World Supreme Court: Constitutional Cases, International Conflicts, Appellate Bench, and Advisory Bench.
  5. Benches which are located permanently only at the primary seat of the World Supreme Court may hold special sessions at the other continental seats of the World Supreme Court when necessary, or may establish continental circuits if needed.
  6. Benches of the World Supreme Court which have permanent continental locations may hold special sessions at other locations when needed, or may establish regional circuits if needed.

Sec. D - The Collegium of World Judges

  1. A Collegium of World Judges shall be established by the World Parliament. The Collegium shall consist of a minimum of twenty member judges, and may be expanded as needed but not to exceed sixty members.
  2. The World Judges to compose the Collegium of World Judges shall be nominated by the House of Counsellors and shall be elected by plurality vote of the three Houses of the World Parliament in joint session. The House of Counsellors shall nominate between two and three times the number of world judges to be elected at any one time. An equal number of World Judges shall be elected from each of ten World Electoral and Administrative Magna-Regions, if not immediately then by rotation.
  3. The term of office for a World Judge shall be ten years. Successive terms may be served without limit.
  4. The Collegium of World Judges shall elect a Presiding Council of World Judges, consisting of a Chief Justice and four Associate Chief Justices. One member of the Presiding Council of World Judges shall be elected from each of five Continental Divisio ns of Earth. Members of the Presiding Council of World Judges shall serve five year terms on the Presiding Council, and may serve two successive terms, but not two successive terms as Chief Justice.
  5. The Presiding Council of World Judges shall assign all World Judges, including themselves, to the several benches of the World Supreme Court. Each bench for a sitting at each location shall have a minimum of three World Judges, except that the number of World Judges for benches on Continental Cases and International Conflicts, and the Appellate Bench, shall be no less than five.
  6. The member judges of each bench at each location shall choose annually a Presiding Judge, who may serve two successive terms.
  7. The members of the several benches may be reconstituted from time to time as may seem desirable or necessary upon the decision of the Presiding Council of World Judges. Any decision to re-constitute a bench shall be referred to a vote of the entire C ollegium of World Judges by request of any World Judge.
  8. Any World Judge may be removed from office for cause by an absolute two-thirds majority vote of the three Houses of the World Parliament in joint session.
  9. Qualifications for Judges of the World Supreme Court shall be at least ten years of legal or juristic experience, minimum age of thirty years, and evident competence in world law and the humanities.
  10. The salaries, expenses, remunerations and prerogatives of the World Judges shall be determined by the World Parliament, and shall be reviewed every five years, but shall not be changed to the disadvantage of any World Judge during a term of office. All members of the Collegium of World Judges shall receive the same salaries, except that additional compensation may be given to the Presiding Council of World Judges.
  11. Upon recommendation by the Collegium of World Judges, the World Parliament shall have the authority to establish regional and district world courts below the World Supreme Court, and to establish the jurisdictions thereof, and the procedures for appeal to the World Supreme Court or to the several benches thereof.
  12. The detailed rules of procedure for the functioning of the World Supreme Court, the Collegium of World Judges, and for each bench of the World Supreme Court, shall be decided and amended by absolute majority vote of the Collegium of World Judges.

Sec. E - The Superior Tribunal of the World Supreme Court

  1. A Superior Tribunal of the World Supreme Court shall be established to take cases which are considered to be of extra-ordinary public importance. The Superior Tribunal for any calendar year shall consist of the Presiding Council of World Judges togeth er with one World Judge named by the Presiding Judge of each bench of the World Court sitting at the primary seat of the World Supreme Court. The composition of the Superior Tribunal may be continued unchanged for a second year by decision of the Presiding Council of World Judges.
  2. Any party to any dispute, issue, case or litigation coming under the jurisdiction of the World Supreme Court, may apply to any particular bench of the World Supreme Court or to the Presiding Council of World Judges for the assignment or transfer of th e case to the Superior Tribunal on the grounds of extra-ordinary public importance. If the application is granted, the case shall be heard and disposed of by the Superior Tribunal. Also, any bench taking any particular case, if satisfied that the case is of extra-ordinary public importance, may of its own discretion transfer the case to the Superior Tribunal.

Article 10 - The Enforcement System

Sec. A - Basic Principles

  1. The enforcement of world law and world legislation shall apply directly to individual, and individuals shall be held responsible for compliance with world law and world legislation regardless of whether the individuals are acting in their own capacity or as agents or officials of governments at any level or of the institutions of governments, or as agents or officials of corporations, organizations, associations or groups of any kind.
  2. When world law or world legislation or decisions of the world courts are violated, the Enforcement System shall operate to identify and apprehend the individuals responsible for violations.
  3. Any enforcement action shall not violate the civil and human rights guaranteed under this World Constitution.
  4. The enforcement of world law and world legislation shall be carried out in the context of a non-military world federation wherein all member nations shall disarm as a condition for joining and benefiting from the world federation, subject to Article X VII, Sec. C-8 and D-6. The Federation of Earth and World Government under this World Constitution shall neither keep nor use weapons of mass destruction.
  5. Those agents of the enforcement system whose function shall be to apprehend and bring to court violators of world law and world legislation shall be equipped only with such weapons as are appropriate for the apprehension of the individuals responsible for violations.
  6. The enforcement of world law and world legislation under this World Constitution shall be conceived and developed primarily as the processes of effective design and administration of world law and world legislation to serve the welfare of all people on Earth, with equity and justice for all, in which the resources of Earth and the funds and the credits of the World Government are used only to serve peaceful human needs, and none used for weapons of mass destruction or for war making capabilities.

Sec. B - The Structure for Enforcement: World Attorneys General

1. The Enforcement System shall be headed by an Office of World Attorneys General and a Commission of Regional World Attorneys.
2. The Office of World Attorneys General shall be comprised of five members, one of whom shall be designated as the World Attorney General and the other four shall each be designated an Associate World Attorney General.
3. The Commission of Regional World Attorneys shall consist of twenty Regional World Attorneys.
4. The members to compse the Office of World Attorneys General shall be nominated by the House of Counsellors, with three nominees from each Continental Division of Earth. One member of the Office shall be elected from each of five Continental Divisions by plurality vote of the three houses of the World Parliament in joint session.
5. The term of office for a member of the Office of World Attorneys General shall be ten years. A member may serve two consecutive terms. The position of World Attorney General shall rotate every two years among the five members of the Office. The orde r of rotation shall be decided among the five members of the Office.
6. The Office of World Attorneys General shall nominate members for the Commission of twenty Regional World Attorneys from the twenty World Electoral and Administrative Regions, with between two and three nominees submitted for each Region. From these n ominations, the three Houses of the World Parliament in joint session shall elect one Regional World Attorney from each of the twenty Regions. Regional World Attorneys shall serve terms of five years, and may serve three consecutive terms.
7. Each Regional World Attorney shall organize and be in charge of an Office of Regional World Attorney. Each Associate World Attorney General shall supervise five Offices of Regional World Attorneys.
8. The staff to carry out the work of enforcement, in addition to the five members of the Office of World Attorneys General and the twenty Regional World Attorneys, shall be selected from civil service lists, and shall be organized for the following functions:
    Investigation.
    Apprehension and arrest.
    Prosecution.
    Remedies and correction.
    Conflict resolution.
9. Qualifications for a member of the Office of World Attorneys General and for the Regional World Attorneys shall be at least thirty years of age, at least seven years legal experience, and education in law and the humanities.
10. The World Attorney General, the Associate World Attorneys General, and the Regional World Attorneys shall at all times be responsible to the World Parliament. Any member of the Office of World Attorneys General and any Regional World Attorney can be removed from office for cause by a simple majority vote of the three Houses of the World Parliament in joint session.

Sec. C - The World Police

    1. That section of the staff of the Office of World Attorneys General and of the Offices of Regional World Attorneys responsible for the apprehension and arrest of violators of world law and world legislation, shall be designated as World Police.
    2. Each regional staff of the World Police shall be headed by a Regional World Police Captain, who shall be appointed by the Regional World Attorney.
    3. The Office of World Attorneys General shall appoint a World Police Supervisor, to be in charge of those activities which transcend regional boundaries. The World Police Supervisor shall direct the Regional World Police Captains in any actions which require coordinated or joint action transcending regional boundaries, and shall direct any action which requires initiation or direction from the Office of World Attorneys General.
    4. Searches and arrests to be made by World Police shall be made only upon warrants issued by the Office of World Attorneys General or by a Regional World Attorney.
    5. World Police shall be armed only with weapons appropriate for the apprehension of the individuals responsible for violation of world law.
    6. Employment in the capacity of World Police Captain and World Police Supervisor shall be limited to ten years.
    7. The World Police Supervisor and any Regional World Police Captain may be removed from office for cause by decision of the Office of World Attorneys General or by absolute majority vote of the three Houses of the World Parliament in joint session.

Sec. D - The Means of Enforcement

    1. Non-military means of enforcement of world law and world legislation shall be developed by the World Parliament and by the Office of World Attorneys General in consultation with the Commission of Regional World Attorneys, the Collegium of World Judges , the World Presidium, and the World Ombudsmus. The actual means of enforcement shall require legislation by the World Parliament.
    2. Non-military means of enforcement which can be developed may include: Denial of financial credit; denial of material resources and personnel; revocation of licenses, charters, or corporate rights; impounding of equipment; fines and damage payments; performance of work to rectify damages; imprisonment or isolation; and other means appropriate to the specific situations.
    3. To cope with situations of potential or actual riots, insurrection and resort to armed violence, particular strategies and methods shall be developed by the World Parliament and by the Office of World Attorneys General in consultation with the Commiss ion of Regional World Attorneys, the collegium of World Judges, the Presidium and the World Ombudsmus. Such strategies and methods shall require enabling legislation by the World Parliament where required in addition to the specific provisions of this World Constitution.
    4. A basic condition for preventing outbreaks of violence which the Enforcement System shall facilitate in every way possible, shall be to assure a fair hearing under non-violent circumstances for any person or group having a grievance, and likewise to a ssure a fair opportunity for a just settlement of any grievance with due regard for the rights and welfare of all concerned.

Article 11 - The World Ombudsmus

 

Sec. A - Functions and Powers of the World Ombudsmus

 
The functions and powers of the World Ombudsmus, as public defender, shall include the following:
    1. To protect the People of Earth and all individuals against violations or neglect of universal human and civil rights which are stipulated in Article 12 and other sections of this World Constitution.
    2. To protect the People of Earth against violations of this World Constitution by any official or agency of the World Government, including both elected and appointed officials or public employees regardless of organ, department, office, agency or rank.
    3. To press for the implementation of the Directive Principles for the World Government as defined in Article 13 of this World Constitution.
    4. To promote the welfare of the people of Earth by seeking to assure that conditions of social justice and of minimizing disparities are achieved in the implementation and administration of world legislation and world law.
    5. To keep on the alert for perils to humanity arising from technological innovations, environmental disruptions and other diverse sources, and to launch initiatives for correction or prevention of such perils.
    6. To ascertain that the administration of otherwise proper laws, ordinances and procedures of the World Government do not result in unforseen injustices or inequities, or become stultified in bureaucracy or the details of administration.
    7. To receive and hear complaints, grievances or requests for aid from any person, group, organization, association, body politic or agency concerning any matter which comes within the purview of the World Ombudsmus.
    8. To request the Office of World Attorneys General or any Regional World Attorney to initiate legal actions or court proceedings whenever and wherever considered necessary or desirable in the view of the World Ombudsmus.
    9. To directly initiate legal actions and court proceedings whenever the World Ombudsmus deems necessary.
    10. To review the functioning of the departments, bureaus, offices, commissions, institutes, organs and agencies of the World Government to ascertain whether the procedures of the World government are adequately fulfilling their purposes and serving the welfare of humanity in optimum fashion, and to make recommendations for improvements.
    11. To present an annual report to the World Parliament and to the Presidium on the activities of the World Ombudsmus, together with any recommendations for legislative measures to improve the functioning of the World Government for the purpose of better serving the welfare of the People of Earth.

Sec. B - Composition of the World Ombudsmus

    1. The World Ombudsmus shall be headed by a Council of World Ombudsen of five members, one of whom shall be designated as Principal World Ombudsan, while the other four shall each be designated as an Associate World Ombudsan.
    2. Members to compose the Council of World Ombudsen shall be nominated by the House of Counsellors, with three nominees from each Continental Division of Earth. One member of the Council shall be elected from each of five Continental Divisions by plural ity vote of the three Houses of the World Parliament in joint session.
    3. The term of office for a World Ombudsan shall be ten years. A World Ombudsan may serve two successive terms. The position of Principal World Ombudsan shall be rotated every two years. The order of rotation shall be determined by the Council of World Ombudsen.
    4. The Council of World Ombudsen shall be assisted by a Commission of World Advocates of twenty members. Members for the Commission of World Advocates shall be nominated by the Council of World Ombudsen from twenty World Electoral and Administrative Reg ions, with between two and three nominees submitted for each Region. One World Advocate shall be elected from each of the twenty World Electoral and Administrative Regions by the three Houses of the World Parliament in joint session. World Advocates shall serve terms of five years, and may serve a maximum of four successive terms.
    5. The Council of World Ombudsen shall establish twenty regional offices, in addition to the principal world office at the primary seat of the World Government. The twenty regional offices of the World Ombudsmus shall parallel the organization of the twe nty Offices of Regional World Attorney.
    6. Each regional office of the World Ombudsmus shall be headed by a World Advocate. Each five regional offices of the World Ombudmus shall be supervised by an Associate World Ombudsan.
    7. Any World Ombudsan and any World Advocatet may be removed from office for cause by an absolute majority vote of the three Houses of the World Parliament in joint session.
    8. Staff members for the World Ombudsmus and for each regional office of the World Ombudsmus shall be selected and employed from civil service lists.
    9. Qualifications for World Ombudsan and for World Advocate shall be at least thirty years of age, at least five years legal experience, and education in law and other relevant education.

Article 12 - Bill of Rights for the Citizens of Earth

 
The inhabitants and citizens of Earth who are within the Federation of Earth shall have certain inalienable rights defined hereunder. It shall be mandatory for the World Parliament, the World Executive, and all organs and agencies of the World Government to honor, implement and enforce these rights, as well as for the national governments of all member nations in the Federation of Earth to do likewise. Individuals or groups suffering violation or neglect of such rightst shall have full recourse through the World Ombudsmus, the Enforcement System and the World Courts for redress of grievances. The inalienable rights shall include the following:
    1. Equal rights for all citizens of the Federation of Earth, with no discrimination on grounds of race, color, caste, nationality, sex, religion, political affiliation, property, or social status.
    2. Equal protection and application of world legislation and world laws for all citizens of the Federation of Earth.
    3. Freedom of thought and conscience, speech, press, writing, communication, expression, publication, broadcasting, telecasting, and cinema, except as an overt part of or incitement to violence, armed riot or insurrection.
    4. Freedom of assembly, association, organization, petition and peaceful demonstration.
    5. Freedom to vote without duress, and freedom for political organization and campaigning without censorship or recrimination.
    6. Freedom to profess, practice and promote religious or religious beliefs or no religion or religious belief.
    7. Freedom to profess and promote political beliefs or no political beliefs.
    8. Freedom for investigation, research and reporting.
    9. Freedom to travel without passport or visas or other forms of registration used to limit travel between, among or within nations.
    10. Prohibition against slavery, peonage, involuntary servitude, and conscription of labor.
    11. Prohibition against military conscription.
    12. Safety of person from arbitrary or unreasonable arrest, detention, exile, search or seizure; requirement of warrants for searches and arrests.
    13. Prohibition against physical or psychological duress or torture during any period of investigation, arrest, detention or imprisonment, and against cruel or unusual punishment.
    14. Right of habeous corpus; no ex-post-facto laws; no double jeopardy; right to refuse self-incrimination or the incrimination of another.
    15. Prohibition against private armies and paramilitary organizations as being threats to the common peace and safety.
    16. Safety of property from arbitrary seizure; protection against exercise of the power of eminent domain without reasonable compensation.
    17. Right to family planning and free public assistance to achieve family planning objectives.
    18. Right of privacy of person, family and association; prohibition against surveillance as a means of political control.

Article 13 - Directive Principles for the World Government

 
It shall be the aim of the World Government to secure certain other rights for all inhabitants within the Federation of Earth, but without immediate guarantee of universal achievement and enforcement. These rightst are defined as Directive Principles, obligating the World Government to pursue every reasonable means for universal realization and implementation, and shall include the following:
    1. Equal opportunity for useful employment for everyone, with wages or remuneration sufficient to assure human dignity.
    2. Freedom of choice in work, occupation, employment or profession.
    3. Full access to information and to the accumulated knowledge of the human race.
    4. Free and adequate public education available to everyone, extending to the pre-university level; Equal opportunities for elementary and higher education for all persons; equal opportunity for continued education for all persons throughout life; the right of any person or parent to choose a private educational institution at any time.
    5. Free and adequate public health services and medical care available to everyone throughout life under conditions of free choice.
    6. Equal opportunity for leisure time for everyone; better distribution of the work load of society so that every person may have equitable leisure time opportunities.
    7. Equal opportunity for everyone to enjoy the benefits of scientific and technological discoveries and developments.
    8. Protection for everyone against the hazards and perils of technological innovations and developments.
    9. Protection of the natural environment which is the common heritage of humanity against pollution, ecological disruption or damage which could imperil life or lower the quality of life.
    10. Conservation of those natural resources of Earth which are limited so that present and future generations may continue to enjoy life on the planet Earth.
    11. Assurance for everyone of adequate housing, of adequate and nutritious food supplies, of safe and adequate water supplies, of pure air with protection of oxygen supplies and the ozone layer, and in general for the continuance of an environment which can sustain healthy living for all.
    12. Assure to each child the right to the full realization of his or her potential.
    13. Social Security for everyone to relieve the hazards of unemployment, sickness, old age, family circumstances, disability, catastrophies of nature, and technological change, and to allow retirement with sufficient lifetime income for living under condi tions of human dignity during older age.
    14. Rapid elimination of and prohibitions against technological hazards and man-made environmental disturbances which are found to create dangers to life on Earth.
    15. Implementation of intensive programs to discover, develop and institute safe alternatives and practical substitutions for technologies which must be eliminated and prohibited because of hazards and dangers to life.
    16. Encouragement for cultural diversity; encouragement for decentralized administration.
    17. Freedom for peaceful self-determination for minorities, refugees and dissenters.
    18. Freedom for change of residence to anywhere on Earth conditioned by provisions for temporary sanctuaries in events of large numbers of refugees, stateless persons, or mass migrations.
    19. Prohibition against the death penalty.

Article 14 - Safeguards and Reservations

 

Sec. A - Certain Safeguards

 
The World Government shall operate to secure for all nations and peoples within the Federation of Earth the safeguards which are defined hereunder:
    1. Guarantee that full faith and credit shall be given to the public acts, records, legislation and judicial proceedings of the member nations within the Federation of Earth, consistent with the several provisions of this World Constitution.
    2. Assure freedom of choice within the member nations and countries of the Federation of Earth to determine their internal political, economic and social systems, consistent with the guarantees and protections given under this World Constitution to assure civil liberties and human rights and a safe environment for life, and otherwise consistent with the several provisions of this World Constitution.
    3. Grant the right of asylum within the Federation of Earth for persons who may seek refuge from countries or nations which are not yet included within the Federation of Earth.
    4. Grant the right of individuals and groups, after the Federation of Earth includes 90 percent of the territory of Earth, to peacefully leave the hegemony of the Federation of Earth and to live in suitable territory set aside by the Federation neither restricted nor protected by the World Government, provided that such territory does not extend beyond five percent of Earth's habitable territory, is kept completely disarmed and not used as a base for inciting violence or insurrection within or against the Federation of Earth or any member nation, and is kept free of acts of environmental or technological damage which seriously affect Earth outside such territory.

Sec. B - Reservation of Powers

 
The powers not delegated to the World Government by this World Constitution shall be reserved to the nations of the Federation of Earth and to the people of Earth.
 

Article 15 - World Federal Zones and the World Capitals

 

Sec. A - World Federal Zones

    1. Twenty World Federal Zones shall be established within the twenty World Electoral and Administrative Regions, for the purposes of the location of the several organs of the World Government and of the administrative departments, the world courts, the offices of the Regional World Attorneys, the offices of the World Advocates, and for the location of other branches, departments, institutes, offices, bureaus, commissions, agencies and parts of the World Government.
    2. The World Federal Zones shall be established as the needs and resources of the World Government develop and expand. World Federal Zones shall be established first within each of five Continental Divisions.
    3. The location and administration of the World Federal Zones, including the first five, shall be determined by the World Parliament.

Sec. B - The World Capitals

    1. Five World Capitals shall be established in each of five Continental Divisions of Earth, to be located in each of the five World Federal Zones which are established first as provided in Article 15 of this World Constitution.
    2. One of the World Capitals shall be designated by the World Parliament as the Primary World Capital, and the other four shall be designated as Secondary World Capitals.
    3. The primary seats of all organs of the World Government shall be located in the Primary World Capital, and other major seats of the several organs of the World Government shall be located in the Secondary World Capitals.

Sec. C - Locational Procedures

    1. Choices for location of the twenty World Federal Zones and for the five World Capitals shall be proposed by the Presidium, and then shall be decided by a simple majority vote of the three Houses of the World Parliament in joint session. The Presidium shall offer choices of two or three locations in each of the twenty World Electoral and Administrative Regions to be World Federal Zones, and shall offer two alternative choices for each of the five World Capitals.
    2. The Presidium in consultation with the Executive Cabinet shall then propose which of the five World Capitals shall be the Primary World Capital, to be decided by a simply majority vote of the three Houses of the World Parliament in joint session.
    3. Each organ of the World Government shall decide how best to apportion and organize its functions and activities among the five World Capitals, and among the twenty World Federal Zones, subject to specific directions from the World Parliament.
    4. The World Parliament may decide to rotate its sessions among the five World Capitals, and if so, to decide the procedure for rotation.
    5. For the first two operative stages of World Government as defined in Article 17, and for the Provisional World Government as defined in Article 19, a provisional location may be selected for the Primary World Capital. The provisional location need not be continued as a permanent location.
    6. Any World Capital or World Federal Zone may be relocated by an absolute two-thirds majority vote of the three Houses of the World Parliament in joint session.
    7. Additional World Federal Zones may be designated if found necessary by proposal of the Presidium and approval by an absolute majority vote of the three Houses of the World Parliament in joint session.

Article 16 - World Territories and Exterior Relations

 

Sec. A - World Territory

    1. Those areas of the Earth and Earth's moon which are not under the jurisdiction of existing nations at the time of forming the Federation of Earth, or which are not reasonably within the province of national ownership and administration, or which are d eclared to be World Territory subsequent to establishment of the Federation of Earth, shall be designated as World Territory and shall belong to all of the people of Earth.
    2. The administration of World Territory shall be determined by the World Parliament and implemented by the World Executive, and shall apply to the following areas:
      • All oceans and seas having an international or supra-national character, together with the seabeds and resources thereof, beginning at a distance of twenty kilometers offshore, excluding inland seas of traditional national ownership.
      • Vital straits, channels, and canals.
      • The atmosphere enveloping Earth, beginning at an elevation of one kilometer above the general surface of the land, excluding the depressions in areas of much variation in elevation.
      • Man-made satellites and Earth's moon.
      • Colonies which may choose the status of World Territory; non-independent territories under the trust administration of nations or of the United Nations; any islands or atolls which are unclaimed by any nation; independent lands or countries which choo se the status of World Territory; and disputed lands which choose the status of World Territory.
    3. The residents of any World Territory, except designated World Federal Zones, shall have the right within reason to decide by plebiscite to become a self-governing nation within the Federation of Earth, either singly or in combination with other World Territories, or to unite with an existing nation with the Federation of Earth.

Sec. B - Exterior Relations

    1. The World Government shall maintain exterior relations with those nations of Earth which have not joined the Federation of Earth. Exterior relations shall be under the administration of the Presidium, subject at all times to specific instructions and approval by the World Parliament.
    2. All treaties and agreements with nations remaining outside the Federation of Earth shall be negotiated by the Presidium and must be ratified by a simple majority vote of the three Houses of the World Parliament.
    3. The World Government for the Federation of Earth shall establish and maintain peaceful relations with other planets and celestial bodies where and when it may become possible to establish communications with the possible inhabitants thereof.
    4. All explorations into outer space, both within and beyond the solar system in which Planet Earth is located, shall be under the exclusive direction and control of the World Government, and shall be conducted in such manner as shall be determined by the World Parliament.

Article 17 - Ratification and Implementation

 

Sec. A - Ratification of the World Constitution

 
This World Constitution shall be submitted to the nations and people of Earth for ratification by the following procedures:
    1. The World Constitution shall be transmitted to the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization and to each national government on Earth, with the request that the World Constitution be submitted to the national legislature of each nation for p reliminary ratification and to the people of each nation for final ratification by popular referendum.
    2. Preliminary ratification by a national legislature shall be accomplished by simple majority vote of the national legislature.
    3. Final ratification by the people shall be accomplished by a simple majority of votes cast in a popular referendum, provided that a minimum of twenty-five percent of eligible voters of age eighteen years and over have cast ballots within the nation or country or within World Electoral and Administrative Districts.
    4. In the case of a nation without a national legislature, the head of the national government shall be requested to give preliminary ratification and to submit the World Constitution for final ratification by popular referendum.
    5. In the event that a national government, after six months, fails to submit the World Constitution for ratification as requested, then the global agency assuming responsibility for the worldwide ratification campaign may proceed to conduct a direct referendum for ratification of the World Constitution by the people. Direct referendums may be organized on the basis of entire nations or countries, or on the basis of existing defined communities within nations.
    6. In the event of a direct ratification referendum, final ratification shall be accomplished by a majority of the votes cast whether for an entire nation or for a World Electoral and Administrative District, provided that ballots are cast by a minimum of twenty-five percent of eligible voters of the area who are over eighteen years of age.
    7. For ratification by existing communities within a nation, the procedure shall be to request local communities, cities, counties, states, provinces, cantons, prefectures, tribal jurisdictions, or other defined political units within a nation to ratify the World Constitution, and to submit the World Constitution for a referendum vote by the citizens of the community or political unit. Ratification may be accomplished by proceeding in this way until all eligible voters of age eighteen and above within t he nation or World Electoral and Administrative District have had the opportunity to vote, provided that ballots are cast by a minimum of twenty-five percent of those eligible to vote.
    8. Prior to the Full Operative Stage of World Government, as defined under Section E of Article XVII, the universities, colleges and scientific academies and institutes in any country may ratify the World Constitution, thus qualifying them for participat ion in the nomination of Members of the World Parliament to the House of Counsellors.
    9. In the case of those nations currently involved in serious international disputes or where traditional enmities and chronic disputes may exist among two or more nations, a procedure for concurrent paired ratification shall be instituted whereby the nations which are parties to a current or chronic international dispute or conflict may simultaneously ratify the World Constitution. In such cases, the paired nations shall be admitted into the Federation of Earth simultaneously, with the obligation for e ach such nation to immediately turn over all weapons of mass destruction to the World Government, and to turn over the conflict or dispute for mandatory peaceful settlement by the World Government.
    10. Each nation or political unit which ratifies this World Constitution, either by preliminary ratification or final ratification, shall be bound never to use any armed forces or weapons of mass destruction against another member or unit of the Federatio n of Earth, regardless of how long it may take to achieve full disarmament of all the nations and political units which ratify this World Constitution.
    11. When ratified, the Constitution for the Federation of Earth becomes the supreme law of Earth. By the act of ratifying this Earth Constitution, any provision in the Constitution or Legislation of any country so ratifying, which is contrary to this Earth Constitution, is either repealed or amended to conform with the Constitution for the Federation of Earth, effective as soon as 25 countries have so ratified. The amendment of National or State Constitutions to allow entry into World Federation is not ne cessary prior to ratification of the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.

Sec. B - Stages of Implementation

    1. Implementation of this World Constitution and the establishment of World Government pursuant to the terms of this World Constitution, may be accomplished in three stages, as follows, in addition to the stage of a Provisional World Government as provided under Article 19:
      1. First Operative Stage of World Government.
      2. Second Operative Stage of World Government.
      3. Full Operative Stage of World Government.
    2. At the beginning and during each stage, the World Parliament and the World Executive together shall establish goals and develop means for the progressive implementation of the World Constitution, and for the implementation of legislation enacted by the World Parliament.

Sec. C - First Operative Stage of World Government

    1. The first operative stage of World Government under this World Constitution shall be implemented when the World Constitution is ratified by a sufficient number of nations and/or people to meet one or the other of the following conditions or equivalent :
      1. Preliminary or final ratification by a minimum of twenty-five nations, each having a population of more than 100,000.
      2. Preliminary or final ratification by a minimum of ten nations above 100,000 population, together with ratification by direct referendum within a minimum of fifty additional World Electoral and Administrative Districts.
      3. Ratification by direct referendum within a minimum of 100 World Electoral and Administrative Districts, even though no nation as such has ratified.
    2. The election of Members of the World Parliament to the House of Peoples shall be conducted in all World Electoral and Administrative Districts where ratification has been accomplished by popular referendum.
    3. The Election of Members of the World Parliament to the House of Peoples may proceed concurrently with direct popular referendums both prior to and after the First Operative Stage of World Government is reached.
    4. The appointment or election of Members of the World Parliament to the House of Nations shall proceed in all nations where preliminary ratification has been accomplished.
    5. One-fourth of the Members of the World Parliament to the House of Counsellors may be elected from nominees submitted by universities and colleges which have ratified the World Constitution.
    6. The World Presidium and the Executive Cabinet shall be elected according to the provisions in article VI, except that in the absence of a House of Counsellors, the nominations shall be made by the members of the House of Peoples and of the House of Na tions in joint session. Until this is accomplished, the Presidium and Executive Cabinet of the Provisional World Government as provided in Article 19, shall continue to serve.
    7. When composed, the Presidium for the first operative stage of World Government shall assign or re-assign Ministerial posts among Cabinet and Presidium members, and shall immediately establish or confirm a World Disarmament Agency and a World Economic and Development Organization.
    8. Those nations which ratify this World Constitution and thereby join the Federation of Earth, shall immediately transfer all weapons of mass destruction as defined and designated by the World Disarmament Agency to that Agency. (See Article 19, Sections A-2-d, B-6 and E-5). The World Disarmament Agency shall immediately immobilize all such weapons and shall proceed with dispatch to dismantle, convert to peacetime use, re-cycle the materials thereof or otherwise destroy all such weapons. During the first operative stage of World Government, the ratifying nations may retain armed forces equipped with weapons other than weapons of mass destruction as defined and designated by the World Disarmament Agency.
    9. Concurrently with the reduction or elimination of such weapons of mass destruction and other military expenditures as can be accomplished during the first operative stage of World Government, the member nations of the Federation of Earth shall pay annually to the Treasury of the World Government amounts equal to one-half the amounts saved from their respective national military budgets during the last year before joining the Federation, and shall continue such payments until the full operative stage o f World Government is reached. The World Government shall use fifty percent of the funds thus received to finance the work and projects of the World Economic Development Organization.
    10. The World Parliament and the World Executive shall continue to develop the organs, departments, agencies and activities originated under the Provisional World Government, with such amendments as deemed necessary; and shall proceed to establish and beg in the following organs, departments and agencies of the World Government, if not already underway, together with such other departments, and agencies as are considered desirable and feasible during the first operative stage of World Government:
      • The World Supreme Court;
      • The Enforcement System;
      • The World Ombudsmus;
      • The World Civil Service Administration;
      • The World Financial Administration;
      • The Agency for Research and Planning;
      • The Agency for Technological and Environmental Assessment;
      • An Emergency Earth Rescue Administration, concerned with all aspects of climate change and related factors;
      • An Integrated Global Energy System, based on environmentally safe sources;
      • A World University System, under the Department of Education;
      • A World Corporations Office, under the Department of Commerce and Industry;
      • The World Service Corps;
      • A World Oceans and Seabeds Administration.
    11. At the beginning of the first operative stage, the Presidium in consultation with the Executive Cabinet shall formulate and put forward a proposed program for solving the most urgent world problems currently confronting humanity.
    12. The World Parliament shall proceed to work upon solutions to world problems. The World Parliament and the World Executive working together shall institute through the several organs, departments and agencies of the World Government whatever means sha ll seem appropriate and feasible to accomplish the implementation and enforcement of world legislation, world law and the World Constitution; and in particular shall take certain decisive actions for the welfare of all people on Earth, applicable througho ut the world, including but not limited to the following:
      • Expedite the organization and work of an Emergency Earth Rescue Administration, concerned with all aspects of climate change and climate crises;
      • Expedite the new finance, credit and monetary system, to serve human needs;
      • Expedite an integrated global energy system, utilizing solar energy, hydrogen energy, and other safe and sustainable sources of energy;
      • Push forward a global program for agricultural production to achieve maximum sustained yield under conditions which are ecologically sound;
      • Establish conditions for free trade within the Federation of Earth;
      • Call for and find ways to implement a moratorium on nuclear energy projects until all problems are solved concerning safety, disposal of toxic wastes and the dangers of use or diversion of materials for the production of nuclear weapons;
      • Outlaw and find ways to completely terminate the production of nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction;
      • Push forward programs to assure adequate and non-polluted water supplies and clean air supplies for everybody on Earth;
      • Push forward a global program to conserve and re-cycle the resources of Earth.
      • Develop an acceptable program to bring population growth under control, especially by raising standards of living.

Sec. D - Second Operative Stage of World Government

    1. The second operative stage of World Government shall be implemented when fifty percent or more of the nations of Earth have given either preliminary or final ratification to this World Constitution, provided that fifty percent of the total population of Earth is included either within the ratifying nations or within the ratifying nations together with additional World Electoral and Administrative Districts where people have ratified the World Constitution by direct referendum.
    2. The election and appointment of Members of the World Parliament to the several Houses of the World Parliament shall proceed in the same manner as specified for the first operative stage in Section C-2,3,4 and 5 of Article 17.
    3. The terms of office of the Members of the World Parliament elected or appointed for the first operative stage of World Government, shall be extended into the second operative stage unless they have already served five year terms, in which case new elections or appointments shall be arranged. The terms of holdover Members of the World Parliament into the second operative stage shall be adjusted to run concurrently with the terms of those who are newly elected at the beginning of the second operative stage.
    4. The World Presidium and the Executive Cabinet shall be re-constituted or reconfirmed, as needed, at the beginning of the second operative stage of World Government.
    5. The World Parliament and the World Executive shall continue to develop the organs, departments, agencies and activities which are already underway from the first operative stage of World Government, with such amendments as deemed necessary; and shall proceed to establish and develop all other organs and major departments and agencies of the World Government to the extent deemed feasible during the second operative stage.
    6. All nations joining the Federation of Earth to compose the second operative stage of World Government, shall immediately transfer all weapons of mass destruction and all other military weapons and equipment to the World Disarmament Agency, which shall immediately immobilize such weapons and equipment and shall proceed forthwith to dismantle, convert to peacetime uses, recycle the materials thereof, or otherwise destroy such weapons and equipment. During the second operative stage, all armed forces and para-military forces of the nations which have joined the Federation of Earth shall be completely disarmed and either disbanded or converted on a voluntary basis into elements of the non-military World Service Corps.
    7. Concurrently with the reduction or elimination of such weapons, equipment and other military expenditures as can be accomplished during the second operative stage of World Government, the member nations of the Federation of Earth shall pay annually to the Treasury of the World Government amounts equal to one-half of the amounts saved from their national military budgets during the last year before joining the Federation and shall continue such payments until the full operative stage of World Governmen t is reached. The World Government shall use fifty percent of the funds thus received to finance the work and projects of the World Economic Development Organization.
    8. Upon formation of the Executive Cabinet for the second operative stage, the Presidium shall issue an invitation to the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization and to each of the specialized agencies of the United Nations, as well as to other useful international agencies, to transfer personnel, facilities, equipment, resources and allegiance to the Federation of Earth and to the World Government thereof. The agencies and functions of the United Nations Organization and of its specialized agencies and of other international agencies which may be thus transferred, shall be reconstituted as needed and integrated into the several organs, departments, offices and agencies of the World Government.
    9. Near the beginning of the second operative stage, the Presidium in consultation with the Executive cabinet, shall formulate and put forward a proposed program for solving the most urgent world problems currently confronting the people of Earth.
    10. The World Parliament shall proceed with legislation necessary for implementing a complete program for solving the current urgent world problems.
    11. The World Parliament and the World Executive working together shall develop through the several organs, departments and agencies of the World Government whatever means shall seem appropriate and feasible to implement legislation for solving world problems; and in particular shall take certain decisive actions for the welfare of all people on Earth, including but not limited to the following:
      • Declaring all oceans, seas and canals having supra-national character (but not including inland seas traditionally belonging to particular nations) from twenty kilometers offshore, and all the seabeds thereof, to be under the ownership of the Federation of Earth as the common heritage of humanity, and subject to the control and management of the World Government.
      • Declare the polar caps and surrounding polar areas, including the continent of Antartica but not areas which are traditionally a part of particular nations, to be world territory owned by the Federation of Earth as the common heritage of humanity, and subject to control and management by the World Government.
      • Outlaw the possession, stockpiling, sale and use of all nuclear weapons, all weapons of mass destruction, and all other military weapons and equipment.
      • Establish an ever-normal grainery and food supply system for the people of Earth.
      • Develop and carry forward insofar as feasible all actions defined under Sec. C-10 and C-12 of the First Operative Stage.

Sec. E - Full Operative Stage of World Government

    1. The full operative stage of World Government shall be implemented when this World Constitution is given either preliminary or final ratification by meeting either condition (a) or (b):
      • Ratification by eighty percent or more of the nations of Earth comprising at least ninety percent of the population of Earth; or
      • Ratification which includes ninety percent of Earth's total population, either within ratifying nations or within ratifying nations together with additional World Electoral and Administrative Districts where ratification by direct referendum has been accomplished, as provided in Article 17, Section A.
    2. When the full operative stage of World Government is reached, the following conditions shall be implemented:
      1. Elections for Members of the House of Peoples shall be conducted in all World Electoral and Administrative Districts where elections have not already taken place; and Members of the House of Nations shall be elected or appointed by the national legisl atures or national governments in all nations where this has not already been accomplished.
      2. The terms of office for Members of the House of Peoples and of the House of Nations serving during the second operative stage, shall be continued into the full operative stage, except for those who have already served five years, in which case electio ns shall be held or appointments made as required.
      3. The terms of office for all holdover Members of the House of Peoples and of the House of Nations who have served less than five years, shall be adjusted to run concurrently with those Members of the World Parliament whose terms are beginning with the full operative stage.
      4. The second 100 Members of the House of Counsellors shall be elected according to the procedure specified in Section E of Article 5. The terms of office for holdover Members of the House of Counsellors shall run five more years after the beginning of the full operative stage, while those beginning their terms with the full operative stage shall serve ten years.
      5. The Presidium and the Executive Cabinet shall be reconstituted in accordance with the provisions of Article 6.
      6. All organs of the World Government shall be made fully operative, and shall be fully developed for the effective administration and implementation of world legislation, world law and the provisions of this World Constitution.
      7. All nations which have not already done so shall immediately transfer all military weapons and equipment to the World Disarmament Agency, which shall immediately immobilize all such weapons and shall proceed forthwith to dismantle, convert to peaceful usage, recycle the materials thereof, or otherwise to destroy such weapons and equipment.
      8. All armies and military forces of every kind shall be completely disarmed, and either disbanded or converted and integrated on a voluntary basis into the non-military World Service Corps.
      9. All viable agencies of the United Nations Organization and other viable international agencies established among national governments, together with their personnel, facilities and resources, shall be transferred to the World Government and reconstitu ted and integrated as may be useful into the organs, departments, offices, institutes, commissions, bureaus and agencies of the World Government.
      10. The World Parliament and the World Executive shall continue to develop the activities and projects which are already underway from the second operative stage of World Government, with such amendments as deemed necessary; and shall proceed with a compl ete and full scale program to solve world problems and serve the welfare of all people on Earth, in accordance with the provisions of this World Constitution.

Sec. F - Costs of Ratification

The work and costs of private Citizens of Earth for the achievement of a ratified Constitution for the Federation of Earth, are recognized as legitimate costs for the establishment of constitutional world government by which present and future generations will benefit, and shall be repaid double the original amount by the World Financial Administration of the World Government when it becomes operational after 25 countries have ratified this Constitution for the Federation of Earth. Repayment specifically includes contributions to the World Government Funding Corporation and other costs and expenses recognized by standardsd and procedures to be established by the World Financial Administration.

Article 18 - Amendments

    1. Following completion of the first operative stage of World Government, amendments to this World Constitution may be proposed for consideration in two ways:
      • By a simple majority vote of any House of the World Parliament.
      • By petitions signed by a total of 200,000 persons eligible to vote in world elections from a total of at least twenty World Electoral and Administrative Districts where the World Constitution has received final ratification.
    2. Passage of any amendment proposed by a House of the World Parliament shall require an absolute two-thirds majority vote of each of the three Houses of the World Parliament voting separately.
    3. An amendment proposed by popular petition shall first require a simple majority vote of the House of Peoples, which shall be obliged to take a vote upon the proposed amendment. Passage of the amendment shall then require an absolute two-thirds majori ty vote of each of the three Houses of the World Parliament voting separately.
    4. Periodically, but no later than ten years after first convening the World Parliament for the First Operative Stage of World Government, and every 20 years thereafter, the Members of the World Parliament shall meet in special session comprising a Const itutional Convention to conduct a review of this World Constitution to consider and propose possible amendments, which shall then require action as specified in Clause 2 of Article XVIII for passage.
    5. If the First Operative Stage of World Government is not reached by the year 1995, then the Provisional World Parliament, as provided under Article XIX, may convene another session of the World Constituent Assembly to review the Constitution for the Federation of Earth and consider possible amendments according to procedure established by the Provisional World Parliament.
    6. Except by following the amendment procedures specified herein, no part of this World Constitution may be set aside, suspended or subverted, neither for emergencies nor caprice nor convenience.

Article 19 - Provisional World Government

Sec. A - Actions to be Taken by the World Constituent Assembly

Upon adoption of the World Constitution by the World Constituent Assembly, the Assembly and such continuing agency or agencies as it shall designate shall do the following, without being limited thereto:
    1. Issue a Call to all Nations, communities and people of Earth to ratify this World Constitution for World Government.
    2. Establish the following preparatory commissions:
      • Ratification Commission.
      • World Elections Commission.
      • World Development Commission.
      • World Disarmament Commission.
      • World Problems Commission.
      • Nominating Commission.
      • Finance Commission.
      • Peace Research and Education Commission.
      • Special commissions on each of several of the most urgent world problems.
      • Such other commissions as may be deemed desirable in order to proceed with the Provisional World Government.
    3. Convene Sessions of a Provisional World Parliament when feasible under the following conditions:
      • Seek the commitment of 500 or more delegates to attend, representing people in 20 countries from five continents, and having credentials defined by Article 19, Section C;
      • The minimum funds necessary to organize the sessions of the Provisional World Parliament are either on hand or firmly pledged.
      • Suitable locations are confirmed at least nine months in advance, unless emergency conditions justify shorter advance notice.

Sec. B - Work of the Preparatory Commissions

    1. The Ratification Commission shall carry out a worldwide campaign for the ratification of the World Constitution, both to obtain preliminary ratification by national governments, including national legislatures, and to obtain final ratification by people, including communities. The ratification commission shall continue its work until the full operative stage of World Government is reached.
    2. The World Elections Commission shall prepare a provisional global map of World Electoral and Administrative Districts and Regions which may be revised during the first or second operative stage of World Government, and shall prepare and proceed with p lans to obtain the election of Members of the World Parliament to the House of Peoples and to the House of Counsellors. The World Elections Commission shall in due course be converted into the World Boundaries and Elections Administration.
    3. After six months, in those countries where national governments have not responded favorable to the ratification call, the Ratification Commission and the World Elections Commission may proceed jointly to accomplish both the ratification of the World Constitution by direct popular referendum and concurrently the election of Members of the World Parliament.
    4. The Ratification Commission may also submit the World Constitution for ratification by universities and colleges throughout the world.
    5. The World Development Commission shall prepare plans for the creation of a World Economic Development Organization to serve all nations and people ratifying the World Constitution, and in particular less developed countries, to begin functioning when the Provisional World Government is established.
    6. The World Disarmament Commission shall prepare plans for the organization of a World Disarmament Agency, to begin functioning when the Provisional World Government is established.
    7. The World Problems Commission shall prepare an agenda of urgent world problems, with documentation, for possible action by the Provisional World Parliament and Provisional World Government.
    8. The Nominating Commission shall prepare, in advance of convening the Provisional World Parliament, a list of nominees to compose the Presidium and the Executive Cabinet for the Provisional World Government.
    9. The Finance Commission shall work on ways and means for financing the Provisional World Government.
    10. The several commissions on particular world problems shall work on the preparation of proposed world legislation and action on each problem, to present to the Provisional World Parliament when it convenes.

Sec. C - Composition of the Provisional World Parliament

    1. The Provisional World Parliament shall be composed of the following members:
      1. All those who were accredited as delegates to the 1977 and 1991 Sessions of the World Constituent Assembly, as well as to any previous Session of the Provisional World Parliament, and who re-confirm their support for the Constitution for the Federatio n of Earth, as amended.
      2. Persons who obtain the required number of signatures on election petitions, or who are designated by Non-Governmental Organizations which adopt approved resolutions for this purpose, or who are otherwise accredited according to terms specified in Call s which may be issued to convene particular sessions of the Provisional World Parliament.
      3. Members of the World Parliament to the House of Peoples who are elected from World Electoral and Administrative Districts up to the time of convening the Provisional World Parliament. Members of the World Parliament elected to the House of Peoples ma y continue to be added to the Provisional World Parliament until the first operative stage of World Government is reached.
      4. Members of the World Parliament to the House of Nations who are elected by national legislatures or appointed by national governments up to the time of convening the Provisional World Parliament. Members of the World Parliament to the House of Nation s may continue to be added to the Provisional World Parliament until the first operative stage of World Government is reached.
      5. Those universities and colleges which have ratified the World Constitution may nominate persons to serve as Members of the World Parliament to the House of Counsellors. The House of Peoples and House of Nations together may then elect from such nomin ees up to fifty Members of the World Parliament to serve in the House of Counsellors of the Provisional World Government.
    2. Members of the Provisional World Parliament in categories (a) and (b) as defined above, shall serve only until the first operative stage of World Government is declared, but may be duly elected to continue as Members of the World Parliament during the first operative stage.

Sec. D - Formation of the Provisional World Executive

    1. As soon as the Provisional World Parliament next convenes, it will elect a new Presidium for the Provisional World Parliament and Provisional World Government from among the nominees submitted by the Nominating Commission.
    2. Members of the Provisional World Presidium shall serve terms of three years, and may be re-elected by the Provisional World Parliament, but in any case shall serve only until the Presidium is elected under the First Operative Stage of World Government .
    3. The Presidium may make additional nominations for the Executive Cabinet.
    4. The Provisional World Parliament shall then elect the members of the Executive Cabinet.
    5. The Presidium shall then assign ministerial posts among the members of the Executive Cabinet and of the Presidium.
    6. When steps (1) through (4) of section D are completed, the Provisional World Government shall be declared in operation to serve the welfare of humanity.

Sec. E - First Actions of the Provisional World Government

    1. The Presidium, in consultation with the Executive Cabinet, the commissions on particular world problems and the World Parliament, shall define a program for action on urgent world problems.
    2. The Provisional World Parliament shall go to work on the agenda of world problems, and shall take any and all actions it considers appropriate and feasible, in accordance with the provisions of this World Constitution.
    3. Implementation of and compliance with the legislation enacted by the Provisional World Parliament shall be sought on a voluntary basis in return for the benefits to be realized, while strength of the Provisional World Government is being increased by the progressive ratification of the World Constitution.
    4. Insofar as considered appropriate and feasible, the Provisional World Parliament and Provisional World Executive may undertake some of the actions specified under Section C-12 of Article 17 for the first operative stage of World Government.
    5. The World Economic Development Organization and the World Disarmament Agency shall be established, for correlated actions.
    6. The World Parliament and the Executive Cabinet of the Provisional World Government shall proceed with the organization of other organs and agencies of the World Government on a provisional basis, insofar as considered desirable and feasible, in partic ular those specified under Section C-10 of Article 17.
    7. The several preparatory commissions on urgent world problems may be reconstituted as Administrative Departments of the Provisional World Government.
    8. In all of its work and activities, the Provisional World Government shall function in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution for the Federation of Earth.
     
The Constitution for the Federation of Earth was originally ratified at the second session of the World Constituent Assembly held at Innsbruck, Austria in June 1977; and was amended and ratified at the fourth session of the World Constituent Assembly held at Troia, Portugal in May 1991. The Amended Constitution is being personally ratified by outstanding personalities throughout the world as the campaign for ratification by the people and governments of the world gets underway.
Original world citizen signatories (320KB) to the Earth Constitution, from 1977 and 1991.
Back up page to Table of Contents
For hard copies of this document, print this webpage. Distribution for ratification under the direction of the World Constitution and Parliament Association (wcpa.biz.).
World Constitution and Parliament Association
313 Seventh Avenue
Radford, Virginia 24141
USA
Phone 1-540-639-2320
Fax 1-540-831-5919

World Constitution and Parliament Association
41, Dias Place
Colombo 12, SRI LANKA
fax/phone: 94-1-345483



  • Back up page to Table of Contents Quote from Benjamin Franklin at the close of the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787
    "I doubt, too, whether any other Convention we can obtain may be able to make a better constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded, like those of the builders of Babel... Thus I consent to this constitution, because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors I sacrifice to the public good... I hope therefore, that for our own sakes, as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts and endeavors to the means of having it well administered."

    Back up page to Table of Contents

    CALL to the GLOBAL RATIFICATION and ELECTIONS CAMPAIGN

    In the course of history, particularly during the past several hundred years, the technique of a Constituent Assembly has been developed and used under various circumstances as a means to devise the constitutions for democratic governments, either to create new governments where none existed before or to replace old or crumbling governments under both peaceful and revolutionary situations.
    Sometimes such assemblies have been appointed by existing governments. At other times, under the most favorable circumstances, such assemblies have been elected by vote of established electorates. But at other times such assemblies have been composed and convened under circumstances where only a limited number of people of the country or areas involved actually took part in the selection of delegates. Only a small minority of any electorate might actually participate during the time when a new democratic government is emerging under conditions of revolution from tyranny or of political turmoil or urgent crises; or in the absence of any organized political system which was willing or able to supervise a vote of the total potential electorate for such an assembly or newly emerging democratic government.
    It is under the later kind of circumstances that the move has gone forward during the years since World War II for the organization of a World Constituent Assembly to devise the constitution for a democratic form of federal world government. No previous world government or competent world authority has existed to organize or supervise elections to such a World Constituent Assembly. No universally approved electoral lists exist for the conduct of such elections. Existing national governments heretofore have proved unwilling or uninterested or hostile or otherwise unable to assist in either the appointment or election of working delegates to such a World Constituent Assembly, despite numerous appeals -- although these appeals are continuing.
    Under the existing circumstances of global anarchy, of political turmoil in many parts of the world, of the suppression or non-functioning of democratic electoral procedures in many parts of the world, as well as of the unprecedented urgencies of many growing world-wide crises requiring extra-ordinary measures if humanity is to survive, action has been organized by the World Constitution and Parliament Association -- as well as by other organizations and groups since 1945 -- to attempt to convene World Constituent Assemblies for the purposes of preparing a constitution for democratic federal world government, and of securing the acceptance and ratification of such a world constitution.
    Under these circumstances, the World Constitution and Parliament Association does not claim to have organized a World Constituent Assembly composed of delegates fully representative of and elected by the full potential electorate for such an assembly or for the subsequent world parliament which may emerge. The only claim made is that the delegates and volunteer participants in the four sessions of the World Constituent Assembly are composed of and are representative of those people and elements of society scattered around the globe who are ready, willing and able to move constructively under crises circumstances to devise a Constitution for Democratic Federal World Government, and to launch the first efforts to obtain widespread consideration and ratification and the beginnings of implementation of such a World Constitution.
    Under these circumstances, we believe there have been convened four sessions of a World Constituent Assembly -- the first in August-September, 1968, at Interlaken, Switzerland, and Wolfach, Germany; the second in June, 1977, at Innsbruck, Austria; the third in 1978-79 at Colombo, Sri Lanka; and the fourth Assembly in Troia, Portugal, in May 1991.
    Finally, these sessions of a World Constituent Assembly are fully consonant with the respected theory that democratic government arises from the initiative and consent of the people who will be the citizens under that government, that people at all times have the democratic right and prerogative to discharge or change any governments which do not adequately serve their welfare, and to initiate new governments when urgently required to their safety or welfare. No superior authority exists at any time to this basic right of people to initiate such action; and in particular, no authority superior to action by people exists for the organization and functioning of a World Constituent Assembly or a democratic World Parliament.
    Therefore, let us go forward with a GLOBAL RATIFICATION and ELECTIONS CAMPAIGN, appealing to people and governments to ratify the Constitution for the Federation of Earth which has been produced by these four sessions of the World Constituent Assembly.
    We call upon the people of Earth to ratify the Constitution for the Federation of Earth, by direct Referendum and by Initiative Petition followed by election of delegates to the House of Peoples.
    We call upon the national governments and legislatures of the world to ratify the Constitution for the Federation of Earth and elect delegates to the House of Nations.
    We call upon the Universities, Colleges and Churches, Scientific Academies and Institutes to ratify the Constitution for the Federation of Earth and nominate delegates with a world view as candidates for election to the Hose of Counsellors.
    Let us move forward with courage and humility in the spirit in which these sessions of the World Constituent Assembly have been conceived, knowing that we are fully justified by the circumstances of world crises, the conditions of world-wide political turmoil and de facto global anarchy, and the recognized right and authority of people to act in the creation of democratic forms of government to serve their safety and welfare, as provided by the Constitution for the Federation of Earth. Although time may reveal the need for some amendments to this Constitution, it has been prepared by a broad global representation of qualified people and it is ready for ratification and implementation now. So let us build on this solid base which has been prepared over the last 25 years and unite our energies in achieving ratification and implementation.
    (A major portion of this statement above, under title of RATIONALE FOR WORLD CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY, was adopted at the Third session of the World Constituent Assembly meeting at Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 29 December 1978, to 6 January, 1979.)
Original world citizen signatories (320KB) to the Earth Constitution, from 1977 and 1991.
Back up page to Table of Contents
Distribution for ratification under the direction of the World Constitution and Parliament Association (wcpa.biz).
World Constitution and Parliament Association
313 Seventh Avenue
Radford, Virginia 24141
USA
Dr. Glen Martin
Phone 1-540-639-2320
Fax 1-540-831-5919


Dr. Terence Amerasinghe, Late IOWP President and one of the five primary authors of the Earth Constitution (In memoriam, 1917-2007)


Eugenia Almand, JD
govt_rules yahoo.com

 

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Evading the NSA TCP/IP Traffic Analysis Program


The NSA TCP/IP traffic analysis program primarly focuses on the traffic analysis of WAN ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) cell header and payload data at IXPs (Internet Exchange Points) globally that employ Cisco Systems routing equipment.

Concerned persons should implement the following:

  1. If possible, ensure that your network routing equipment’s’ ATM switched virtual connections and permanent virtual connections are disabled; AND
  2. Tunnel your TCP/IP connections over a new SSH2 session for each and every new WAN TCP/IP routed connection (for EVERY transmission to any WAN address); AND
  3. Create transmission latency for each of your new WAN SSH2-enabled TCP/IP routed connections through a modified SSH login command such as:


ssh -N -L 6000:localhost:4000 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4 -l User 1.2.3.4

Note that localhost is on port 6000 and remote web host proxy is on port 4000; username is User (if using SSH user authentication); and remote SSH server IP is 1.2.3.4; transmission latency is created with multiples of -l User 1.2.3.4.

More to follow on creating transmission latency when using remote port forwarding through OpenVPN.

If your server traffic is a specific collection target of NSA/Level 3 Communications Regional Security Center (NSA/CSS Georgia) at Fort Gordon Georgia USA or of one of NSA’s non-US affiliates, flagging of sniffed IXP traffic for subsequent analysis can only be triggered by your server’s SECOND or subsequent routing connection to one or more WAN addresses.

Perhaps surprisingly, if your server’s traffic is a collection target, your users’ use of the above SSH transmission latency will also actually increase users’ upload and download speeds during SSH2 sessions.

http://jollyblog.squarespace.com/updates/2008/9/30/evading-the-nsa-tcpip-traffic-analysis-program.html

Friday, October 18, 2013



Posted By Colum Lynch

A U.N. disputes tribunal has awarded $65,000 in compensation to an American whistleblower in a landmark case that exposed failings in the U.N.'s Ethics Office and challenged the privileges of the U.N. secretary general to withhold sensitive internal documents from the U.N. administrative court.
The award was a fraction of the more than $3.8 million sought by James Wasserstrom, who was forced from his U.N. job in Kosovo after cooperating in an internal investigation of corruption by U.N. officials. He was subsequently stripped of his U.N. passport and treated like a criminal by his U.N. bosses.
Wasserstrom dismissed the award as paltry -- enough to purchase "half a dozen first class plane tickets for the secretary general and his senior staff" -- but too little to compensate for the "five years of legal battles and expenses" and the "degrading treatment" he endured.  
"I put them, the U.N. Ethics Office, the whistleblower protection machinery, and the internal justice system of the U.N. to the integrity test and they all failed," he told Turtle Bay. The "message to U.N. staff who might one day want to come forward and do the right thing: do so at your own risk. You have absolutely no protection. And those who retaliate against you suffer no consequences."
The U.N. did not respond to a request for comment this afternoon. (*See note below for U.N. response)
In February 2007, the American diplomat began cooperating with a U.N. inquiry into reports of kickbacks given to U.N. officials responsible for Kosovo's energy sector. Two months later, Wasserstrom was informed that the United Nations was shutting down his department, the Office for Coordination of Oversight of Publicly Owned Enterprises, and that his contract would expire by June 30. In May, Wasserstrom signed a consultancy contract to advise executives of Kosovo's main airport, triggering a conflict-of-interest investigation.
On June 1, 2007, Wasserstrom was detained by U.N. police. His home was searched: his office was cordoned off with police tape. A poster with his picture instructed officials not to permit him onto U.N. premises, effectively ending a 27 year career at the United Nations. The episode, he said, made it impossible for him to secure a new job within the U.N. system, killing off his prospects to gain full retirement benefits two years before he was scheduled to retire.
Wasserstrom -- who now works as a senior anti-corruption advisor at the U.S. embassy in Kabul -- filed a retaliation complaint in June 2007, with the U.N. Ethics Office. The office subsequently ruled that his treatment "appeared to be excessive" but that an investigation "did not find any evidence that their activities were retaliatory."
The case cast a troubling light on the U.N.'s internal safeguards for protecting whistleblowers. The presiding judge, Goolam Meeran, wrote  in his ruling that the U.N. Ethics Office, which bears responsibility for determining whether whistleblower retaliation has occurred, had failed to recognize "the significance of documentary evidence" showing he had suffered retaliation.
"There was clear and uncontested evidence, supported by the findings ... that the applicant's contractual rights were breached, which included clear evidence of severe human rights abuses," the judge wrote.
The breaches, however, were never addressed by the ethics committee, nor were the reasons for subjecting him to "such insensitive and degrading treatment," Meeran wrote. "In the absence of a cogent and satisfactory explanation, the inescapable inference must be that the underlying motive was retaliatory."
"The tribunal finds it difficult to envisage a worse case of insensitive, high handed and arbitrary treatment in breach of fundamental principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," Meeran added. "The failure of the ethics office to recognize such gross violations calls seriously into question its suitability and effectiveness as a body charged with" helping the U.N. secretary general ensure the "highest standards of integrity" among staff and fostering "a culture of ethics, transparency and accountability."
The judge also battered the U.N.'s lawyers for having delayed the disclosure of key documents, including a critical internal investigative report on the case. "The tribunal has unquestionable power to 'require any person to disclose any document or provide any information that appears to it to be necessary for a fair and expeditious disposal of the proceedings'," Meeran wrote.  "The tribunal finds that the [UN's] conduct of the proceedings in deliberately and persistently refusing, without good cause, to abide by the Orders of the Tribunal and not granting access to the full ID/OIOS's investigation report constituted manifest abuse of proceedings.
Meeran awarded Wasserstrom $50,000 in compensation for the mistreatment he endured in Kosovo and $15,000 in legal fees. But the judge did not compensate him for the loss of his job in Kosovo, citing insufficient evidence that his firing was the result of retaliation.
The low award reflected the fact that judges on the U.N. disputes tribunal have "no power to award exemplary or punitive damages" against the organization. But Judge Meeran also denied Wasserstrom's prospect of a larger award on the basis of a technicality.
Wasserstrom had argued that he was entitled to future compensation, including salary and benefits, because he would have expected to return to a job with his longstanding employer, the U.N. Development Program, after he concluded his stint in Kosovo. But he said the stain of the episode had made him unemployable.
The judge, however, ruled that irrespective of the merits of such a claim the U.N. Development Program was not a party to the dispute, and that Wasserstrom had no basis for raising a claim so late in the proceedings. "It is now too late to raise this matter," Meeran wrote. "Consequently, the tribunal dismisses all [Wasserstrom's] claims regarding compensation for lost earnings and associated benefits."
*The U.N. issued this response after the story was posted. Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the U.N. secretary general:  "Judgements of the U.N. Dispute Tribunal are not final until they have been confirmed by the U.N. Appeals Tribunal. The organization is examining this judgment to determine whether an appeal is warranted. Consistent with established policy regarding ongoing cases, which includes cases under appeal and cases that may be appealed, the organization is not in a position to provide any further comments at this time."

Mr. Pierre J. Falcone Sr.

Pierre Falcone, a French ...
www.mg.co.za, 11 Oct 2008 [cached]
Pierre Falcone, a French businessman who serves as Angola's representative to Unesco, and Arkady Gaydamak, an Israeli-Russian whose son owns Portsmouth football club, are at the heart of the affair dubbed Angolagate by the French media.
...
Most of the other defendants are alleged to have received "misused" funds from Brenco International, a Paris-based company run by Falcone, in the businessmen's alleged attempts to smooth over potential sticking points in the deals.
The conviction of Pierre ...
www.mpdaangola.com [cached]
The conviction of Pierre Falcone for arms trafficking is an embarrassing blow to Angola's president
...
The convictions of Pierre Falcone, Arcadi Gaydamak, ex-president's son Jean-Christophe Mitterrand and Charles Pasqua in a French court for arms trafficking to Angola have exposed the impunity with which arms traffickers supplied weapons to Angola during its 27-year civil war.
...
The Angolan government employed primarily the services of Pierre Falcone and Gaydamak to procure the arms, while the main arms dealer supplying Unita rebels was the infamous Ukrainian Victor Bout, who is currently sitting in jail in Thailand.
In order to understand the significance of these convictions it is important to focus on one key player, Pierre Falcone, and his relationship with the Angolan leadership.
...
It coincided with the period of arms trafficking for which Falcone has just been convicted.
In 2004, for instance, Dos Santos' office called for the prosecution of Falcone to be abandoned:
...
During a difficult moment of the recent Angolan history, Mr Pierre Falcone, by his volition and at his own risk, made funds available to the Angolan government for it to exercise its right of sovereignty, a right that was almost denied by the international community.
...
It is in this context that Falcone has also become a key player in Angola's state contracts with China, which are worth billions of dollars. His conviction is a serious blow to Dos Santos' arrogance as an untouchable political figure.
Three years of digging later, it ...
chieftain.com, 1 Jan 2008 [cached]
Three years of digging later, it says, they traced the apartment's ownership back to two men who have taken center stage in this legal drama: Arkady Gaydamak and Pierre Falcone.
...
Falcone, 54, is an Algerian-born French businessman with oil industry ties.He now serves as Angola's representative to UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural agency, a post that provides him limited diplomatic immunity.He faces many legal cases in France, and spent 11 months in detention during the trafficking probe.
...
The indictment says French and Russian intelligence services had suspected illegal activity by Falcone and Gaydamak as far back as 1996.
...
French investigators say Gaydamak hooked up with Falcone, and the two enlisted Jean-Christophe Mitterrand to put them in touch with the Angolan leader.
...
Via a Slovak company called ZTS-OSOS that they controlled, Gaydamak and Falcone arranged for military goods to be dispatched, mostly from Russian arms depots, to Angola starting in 1993, according to the indictment.
...
Most are accused of ,,receiving misused funds'' from Brenco International, a company Falcone controlled.Investigators say these undeclared gifts came in the form of cash, armored cars, French Riviera real estate, trips to Las Vegas, even private medical care.
According to the indictment, Falcone told investigators the money was spent to ,,facilitate things, not to buy people.''
SUPERPOWER SILENCE IN CABINDA
www.cabinda.net, 1 Mar 1991 [cached]
Pierre Falcone and Sofremi 11
...
Jean-Christophe Mitterrand allegedly then introduced businessman Pierre Falcone to engineer a solution. Falcone headed a group of companies under the umbrella, 'Brenco International', whilst simultaneously working as 'key advisor' for Sofremi, a security export company that was controlled by the French Interior Ministry, then headed by Minister Charles Pasqua.
...
According to the press, though Falcone had been brought into the discussion courtesy of the French Political left, he now received endorsement from Pasqua's team on the right, and was thus tasked to provide a solution to Angola's weapons and finance requirements, on the proviso that supplies did not come directly from France.
According to numerous French press articles, Falcone then formed a partnership with Russian émigré and businessman Arkadi Gaidamak (also spelt 'Gaydamac').
...
Interestingly, Gaydamac's (sic) signature appears to have been included alongside Falcone's on this 1995/6 ZTS-Osos contract, reproduced on page 16.
...
Following a complex series of judicial investigations, described later in this report, Pierre Falcone was arrested on 1st December 2000. His arrest, together with interviews and searches at the offices and residences of other individuals allegedly connected to this scandal, precipitated press reports and speculation about Angolagate.
...
After numerous legal challenges, Falcone was finally released on 1st December 2001, after spending precisely one year in prison. His release was accepted on a bail posting of 105 million French Francs (US$14,351,000),6 more than ten times France's previous highest bail demand. Nouvelle Observateur reports that the Court of Appeal reduced Falcone's bail demand to €5 million (US$4,309,000)7, which it says is to be paid by Angola's State oil company Sonangol, as a mark of Angola's solidarity with Falcone.8
The Brenco group and links to the United States
Reports in both Arizona Republic and in Newsweek Magazine suggested that Falcone is well established in the United States and that he has strong connections with the US political elite. In late 2000, Falcone purchased an immense mansion in Paradise Valley, Arizona, for a reputed US$10.6 million, the highest value personal property purchase in Arizonan history. Interviews in Arizona Republic with individuals claiming familiarity with Falcone and his Bolivian beauty queen wife Sonia, suggested that they led a dream life, circulating within the party circuit of Arizona's elite, and spending significant funds on a variety of philanthropic ventures.9
...
The company was incorporated in Delaware on 6th April 1994, with Sonia and Pierre Falcone listed as directors.10 Essanté is also connected to the Brenco group in terms of shareholdings and common addresses, both in the UK, and for holding companies in the British Virgin Islands.
...
This money was returned in January 2001, with the Arizona Republic quoting Newsweek 'the money was returned to avoid questions about whether an international weapons merchant was trying to buy influence with the new Bush Administration.' The Arizona Republic reported that Falcone family spokesman, Jason Rose, 'scoffed at that insinuation.' Newsweek's January 2001 article referred to both the donation and to Falcone's December 2000 arrest in France.9
...
European Deputy Jean-Charles Marchiani, and Sonia Falcone, wife of the alleged arms dealer Pierre Falcone, are also on the list.'11 There are no suggestions of any charges against or wrong-doing by Sonia Falcone - it appears this request relates to the investigation into her husband.
...
Michael Austin, an Arizona-based friend of the Falcone family and domain name holder of a website in support of Falcone wrote to Global Witness in an e-mail, '...Pierre derives a great deal of income from Exxon Block 33 located within the boundaries of Angola.' Given the apparent meetings between Falcone and Phillips, and given ExxonMobil's operatorship of Angola's Block 33, ExxonMobil should clarify what, if any role is, or has been played by Falcone in Block 33.
...
In particular, ExxonMobil should clarify if it has also held meetings with Falcone, and if the latter played any role in advising, or facilitating the company's acquisition of its operatorship of Block 33.
...
According to a February 2002 article in the Geneva publication Le Temps, 'in 1996, the pair [Gaidamak and Falcone] negotiated the re-purchase of Angola's debt to Russia: the latter was intended to receive US$1.5 billion instead of the US$5 billion owed by Luanda's Government.' The paper continued, 'the Angolans agreed to reimburse this amount, thanks to the country's oil revenues.' Commenting on those involved in the deal, the paper reported 'swiss-based companies took part in the operation: Glencore, in Zug, traded the oil; Paribas (Switzerland), together with other banks, advanced the money promised by Angola.'12
...
Falcone wrote personally to President Chirac both in 1997 and in 1998, and these letters provided considerable detail about projects underway.
...
Further, sources suggest that during President Chirac's state visit to Angola in 1998, at least one meeting was held in Luanda between Chirac and dos Santos in which Falcone was present.
...
...that gentleman [Falcone] dealt with sensitive matters which had the consent of the French authorities and were very useful to Angola. We interpreted his action as a gesture of confidence and friendship by the French State and, for this reason, my Government took decisions that permitted spectacular growth of cooperation with France in the area of oil and economically and financially.
...
Jean-Christophe Mitterrand's incarceration followed the earlier arrest on 1st December 2000 of the lesser-known Pierre Falcone, named in Global Witness' December 1999 report A Crude Awakening as a member of Angola's 'oiligarchy'.
...
Falcone was also a key advisor to 'Sofremi' (the 'French Company for the Export of Goods, Systems & Services'),18 which was a part-private, part-state run organisation operating under the auspices of the French Interior Ministry that, at the time, was headed by Interior Minister Charles Pasqua.
...
There are differing accounts regarding the first meeting of Jean-Christophe Mitterrand and Pierre Falcone. According to his lawyer, Mitterrand first met Pierre Falcone following his departure from the Elysée, but according to Le Monde, a former employee of Falcone places Mitterrand's first visit to Brenco International's offices, then at 56 Avenue Montaigne in Paris, prior to July 1992;18 in other words, when Jean-Christophe Mitterrand was still his father's African Advisor.
...
By late 1994, according to Le Monde, Pierre Falcone had been involved in the selling of weapons to Angola worth some US$633 million.18 Sources indicate that although the face value of these contracts may have been as high as US$633 million, a significant proportion of the weapons listed in contracts were delivered much later than this date.
According to Le Monde, Falcone's Angolan contact in Paris was Elísio de Figueiredo who had become the 'third Angolan Ambassador' in Paris through a formal request by dos Santos, in addition to Angola's formal Ambassador and the UNESCO representative.18 This unorthodox arrangement provided for de Figueiredo,20 who had previously been Ambassador in Paris, to take on the role of roving Ambassador, without portfolio and act as dos Santos' go-between.
Pierre Falcone and Sofremi
...
According to Le Monde, Pierre Falcone became one of the most significant advisors to Sofremi, between 1989 and 1997, with his introduction to the company coming through an intermediary of then director Philippe Melchior.
...
Poussier also insisted that Sofremi did not mix its business interests with those of Pierre Falcone.
...
One of his first acts as head of Sofremi had been to conduct an independent audit. 'The most significant point was the omnipresence of Pierre Falcone,'131 adding, 'the general rule was that for each market there was to be a different representative, but from 1992, Falcone became the only representative of the Sofremi. It is totally abnormal. He received outrageous fees for every operation.'131 When asked about the termination of Sofremi's relationship with Falcone in 1997, he said, 'Once I took my decision we had a long discussion. I do not think that he understood my determination.
...
Reports suggest that Pierre Falcone did not manage this process alone. Falcone appears to have formed a partnership with Arkadi Gaidamak, a Russian émigré who had spent sufficient time in Israel to pick up an Israeli passport before moving to reside in France.
...
According to Le Monde, Chirac had long been convinced that Pasqua would officially support his opponent, Edouard Balladur.18 The paper continued, 'if this were to happen, a grip on Angola would be a major asset,' and then taking the argument further stated 'as a r
Haaretz - Israel News - Ofer Brothers spurned Russian investor s bid for Israel Corp.
www.haaretz.com, 19 Aug 2004 [cached]
Gaidamak is suspected of being the main partner of Brenco's CEO, Brazilian arms dealer Pierre Falcone

The Arms Dealer Next Door

 
The Arms Dealer Next Door
 
International billionaire, French prisoner, Angolan weapons broker, Arizona Republican. Who is Pierre Falcone?
Pierre Falcone is out on $15 million bail.
n December 1, billionaire businessman Pierre Falcone walked out of the Fleury-Merogis prison near Paris after a judge opted not to prolong his provisional detention. Despite having spent a full year behind bars, it’s doubtful that Falcone felt a great sense of relief that day.
The key player in a huge scandal that has tarnished some of France’s best-known politicians, Falcone is still expected to stand trial later this year for his role in the sale of half a billion dollars worth of Eastern European weapons to Angola. He obtained his release only after paying a $15 million bail, turning over his passport to the court, and accepting severe restrictions on his movements and activities.
Falcone was initially charged with illegal arms dealing because he allegedly brokered the Angola sales without authorization from the French government agency that reviews weapons exports, but prosecutors later dropped that count due to a legal technicality. He remains accused of bribing numerous prominent parties to further his arms business—most notably Jean-Christophe Mitterand, son of ex-President Francois Mitterand—and of failing to pay tens of millions of dollars in taxes on profits from the Angola deals, legal or not.
Though largely unreported, the man at the center of “Angolagate,” as the French press has dubbed the scandal, has extensive American ties. Falcone’s primary residence is a mammoth estate in Paradise Valley, Arizona, where he and his wife, Sonia, a former Miss Bolivia International, are active in political and community affairs. Falcone’s American activities range from advising a major U.S. oil company to teaming with a Virginia-based arms dealer who has worked for both the CIA and Saddam Hussein. What’s more, a floundering health and beauty company run by Sonia Falcone made a controversial $100,000 donation to the Republican Party during the 2000 presidential campaign.
Beyond Falcone’s own stake in the legal outcome, Angolagate has significant geopolitical implications. Angola has emerged as one of the world’s leading oil producers—it is now America’s ninth-largest supplier, ahead of Kuwait and England and right behind Norway and Colombia—and is sitting on enormous untapped reserves. But civil war and rampant corruption in Angola, which serves as the backdrop to the Falcone affair, has kept the country isolated on the international stage and its economy in shambles. “Angola is going to remain a pariah as long as the government keeps cutting deals with people like Falcone,” says a former State Department official who has closely followed Angolagate. “It sends a terrible message to the rest of Africa, because if Angola can’t make it with all of its energy resources, there’s not much hope for the rest of the continent.”
hen I first heard about Pierre Falcone—and his beautiful Bolivian wife, vast wealth and jet-setting lifestyle—I imagined a dapper, handsome man straight out of a John Le Carré novel. It came as something of a surprise when I first saw his picture, which revealed him to be a plump, balding man who looked more like an upscale insurance salesman than a covert operator.
Falcone was born in 1954 in Algeria, which was then under French rule. His father, Pierre Sr., was the mayor of a town called Bou-Haroun-Alger, ran a fishing fleet and, according to Le Monde, was involved in the arms trade. After the Algerian Revolution of 1962, the family moved to France, where Falcone lived until he was 22. Since then, he has traveled the world, building a business empire that runs from advertising in China to oil in Africa.
Falcone bought a home in Arizona in the ’80s and met Sonia Montero at a 1990 Formula One auto race in Phoenix. They were married four years later at a church outside of Paris. Hundreds of guests attended the wedding and reception—the latter was held at the Chateau de Ferrieres, the 19th-century home of the Rothschilds—including the groom’s good friend, Jean-Christophe Mitterand.
The arms trade comprises a small, if notable, part of Falcone’s commercial activities. In France, he served as a consultant to a government agency known as SOFREMI, which exports military equipment under the auspices of the Interior Ministry. In that capacity, he reportedly arranged sales to Africa and Latin America. Through Arcadi Gaydamak—an immensely wealthy Russian émigré businessman and his chief partner in Angola—Falcone also had good contacts in Eastern Europe, which in the post-Cold War period has become a global weapons bazaar.
The deals that sparked the Angolagate scandal took place in 1993, when the Angolan government of Eduardo dos Santos was under siege by the right-wing guerrilla group known as UNITA, headed by Jonas Savimbi. During the Cold War, Angola could count on the Soviet Union for weapons—UNITA had been backed by Presidents Reagan and Bush, but was dumped by the Clinton administration—but its former ally had disappeared from the map. Furthermore, arms purchases by the government and UNITA remained prohibited under the 1991 Bicesse Accords negotiated in Portugal. Desperate, dos Santos contacted Jean-Bernard Curial, a friend and member of the French Socialist Party, to see if Paris would arm his regime.
Curial was dubious about the prospects. France was then in a period of political “cohabitation” with Socialist Francois Mitterand (who died in 1996) holding the presidency, but day-to-day governing was carried out by conservative Prime Minister Eduardo Balladur. Several key members of Balladur’s government, including the minister of defense, traditionally had been close to UNITA. Curial turned for advice to Jean-Christophe Mitterand, who had built up a network of contacts in Africa while serving as his father’s chief adviser and, despite having resigned his post the previous year, remained well-connected at the presidential palace. He suggested to Curial that his friend Falcone might be able to offer assistance to dos Santos through less formal channels.
n November 1993, Falcone and Gaydamak helped arrange the sale to Angola of $47 million in small arms. A second deal for $563 million worth of weapons, including tanks and helicopters, got underway early the following year. The supplier in both cases was ZTS-OSOS, a Slovakian company that rounded up the weapons from Russia, Bulgaria and Ukraine. The Angolans paid for the weapons with oil, which Falcone and Gaydamak sold with the help of Glencore—a company owned by Marc Rich, the fugitive financier who would later receive a controversial pardon from Bill Clinton during his last days as president.
Thanks to their sensitive role in Angola, Falcone and Gaydamak became intimate cronies of dos Santos, whose systematic pilfering of the state treasury has made him by some accounts one of the world’s 50 richest men. (On December 12, Reuters reported that $1.5 billion of the $3.5 billion that Angola earned in 2000 from oil exports was unaccounted for.) The two men were given a stake in virtually every key sector of the Angolan economy, from food to diamonds to oil. In 1999, the government picked Falcon Oil Holdings, a Falcone-owned firm registered in Panama, as a minority partner to ExxonMobil on a huge offshore site.
Beyond these economic privileges, Falcone and Gaydamak gained a remarkable degree of political influence in Angola. According to Gaydamak—a wanted man in France who now resides in Israel, where I reached him on his cell phone—both he and Falcone were granted Angolan citizenship and diplomatic passports, served as advisers to the government and were named employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Indeed, Falcone was so well-connected in Angola that before his arrest he had become a door-opener for companies hoping to do business there. In June 2000, top officials from Phillips Petroleum, which has been seeking to expand in Angola, made the pilgrimage from corporate headquarters in Bartlesville, Oklahoma to Arizona to seek Falcone’s counsel and assistance. (Phillips declined to discuss the meeting.)
The first vague details of Angolagate came to light five years ago when a highly regarded insider newsletter called La Lettre du Continent broke the story. French judicial officials later found that Brenco International, a Falcone firm involved in the Angola arms transfers, subsequently made payments to a number of his associates. Jean-Christophe Mitterand, who has been out on bail since early last year but remains under investigation, acknowledges receiving $1.8 million into his numbered Swiss bank account four years ago, but says that the money was for consulting work unrelated to Angolan arms sales.
There’s surely an element of hypocrisy in the French government’s prosecution of Falcone, for it’s clear that key officials viewed his arms transfers to Angola as serving French foreign policy objectives and approved of the deals. France depends on Africa for most of its petroleum needs, but traditional suppliers like Gabon and Cameroon have declining reserves. Angola—set to become one of the world’s major petroleum exporters in the next 20 years—has not traditionally had strong ties to France, but in recent years it has become an increasingly important source of its oil, and French energy companies have been awarded major contracts by the dos Santos regime. “There is a relationship between Falcone selling the weapons and the improved relationship between France and Angola,” says Sharon Coutoux of Survie, a Paris-based human rights group.
Falcone, too, has suggested that the French government endorsed his activities. In a 14-page letter to investigators, he denied paying off any government officials, saying his role in the Angolan arms sales was limited to selling the oil that paid for the weapons. The greatest indignity of all, he wrote, is that the French are the primary beneficiary of his activities. His work with SOFREMI enabled Paris to “penetrate delicate and complex markets” abroad, while his role in Angola helped France win favor with an energy-rich regime that “the entire world is interested in courting.” The accusations against him, Falcone said, are as “unjust as the charge of witchcraft [was] in the Middle Ages.”
n Washington, Falcone’s complex ties in Angola were well known among government Africa specialists. Four past and present officials told me they were acquainted with Falcone via diplomatic cables and intelligence reports. J. Stephen Morrison, who served on the secretary of state’s policy-planning staff until last year, says Clinton administration officials were aware that Falcone was a key player in Angola and that “most of what he did was not very transparent. The scandal caught people by surprise, but it was not a big shock.”
Falcone’s name is also familiar within the narrow world of international arms dealers. Sarkis Soghanalian, whose 40-year career in the arms business began when he armed Christian militias in Lebanon at the request of the CIA, says he met Falcone several times in Paris, where both had offices off the Champs-Elysées. Through Mark Geragos, his American attorney (whose other clients include Rep. Gary Condit), Soghanalian said that he and Falcone shared a mutual client, Mobutu Sese Seko, the former dictator of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). According to Soghanalian, Falcone brokered diamonds-for-weapons deals on behalf of Mobutu and was intimate with the dictator and his entourage.
Among Falcone’s closest contacts in the arms business is Stephen “Satch” Baumgart, who operates out of Reston, Virginia. A former Naval officer, Baumgart has been involved in the murkier fringes of the weapons trade since the ’70s, when he brokered sales to American allies such as Mobutu and Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines—all apparently with a wink and a nod from U.S. intelligence. “A CIA agent would drop by our office and Baumgart would brief him about his overseas travels, particularly about his contacts in the Arab world,” recalls Gerhard Bauch, a one-time German intelligence officer who worked for Baumgart. “They knew about everything we did.”
During the mid-’80s, Baumgart—who did not return phone calls seeking comment—helped supply Saddam Hussein, who was then seen by the Reagan administration as a bulwark against the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. A prominent European arms broker who knows both Falcone and Baumgart says the two men first teamed up in the ’80s and worked together until at least a few years ago. This source says that Falcone and Baumgart had interests in Angola, among other places. (Gaydamak also confirms that Falcone and “Mr. Satch” worked together, though he denied knowing details of their business dealings.)
f it was an open secret in certain Washington circles, Falcone’s involvement in the arms trade was entirely unknown in Paradise Valley, an elite enclave wedged between Phoenix and Scottsdale. Reginald Ballantyne III, president of PMH Health Resources Inc., says the Falcones are highly regarded local figures and that he and other residents were stunned when Angolagate hit the press. “It didn’t make any sense to me then, and it still doesn’t make any sense to me,” Ballantyne said. “I just couldn’t connect the dots.”
One of the nation’s wealthiest communities, Paradise Valley is solidly conservative. The local government levies no property taxes, and services such as water and fire protection have been privatized. I received a tour of the town from Kathy Smith of Hague Partners, which sold $103 million worth of property here last year. As we drove along Lincoln Road in Smith’s cream-colored Cadillac, we passed one of the town’s few commercial properties, the newly renovated Applewood pet resort, where residents board their pets when they’re on vacation. A suite for a dog, which includes a bed and cable TV, goes for $38 a night, but extras—a fitness walk, “pupsicles,” a swim in the resort’s bone-shaped pool, topped off with a blow dry—can raise that rate quite a bit higher.
For brokering the arms deals, President Eduardo dos Santos gave Falcone a stake in everyting from oil to diamonds.
Far atop Mummy Mountain, Smith pointed to the estate of Leona Helmsley, which has been on the market for several years without attracting a buyer, despite a price cut from $24 million to $14 million. Smith used a magnetic card to pass through the gates of the El Maro neighborhood, where Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf erected a private playground for his grandchildren on a two-acre lot adjacent to his summer home. Just before his arrest, Falcone bought a new $10.6 million estate not far from the El Maro section—the most expensive home purchase in state history, according to the Arizona Republic. A post-sale real estate listing speaks in hushed tones of the property’s paneled library, theater, swimming pool, tennis courts, seven bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, and reveals that the Falcones don’t have a mortgage on the property. It was purchased outright by SPEP, a Turk and Caicos Island trust controlled by Pierre.
As members of the area’s upper crust, the Falcones occasionally pop up in local society pages. Based on nuggets that ran after Falcone’s arrest, their standing has not been tarnished by his legal difficulties. In the April 2001 issue of Arizona Trends, a magazine filled with ads for Feng Shui consultants, plastic surgeons, anti-aging treatments and day spas, then-publisher Danny Medina recounted his lunch with Sonia Falcone: “She was perfectly stunning with a great personality and rich, rich, rich. Oy! You should have seen the square cut diamond on her hand!”
In May, Scottsdale Life, a glossy freebie sent to selected area homes with an assessed value of $250,000 or more, featured a cover story on the Falcones’ new estate. It spoke of bedroom suites that “bear the imprimatur of Sonia’s exquisite taste,” of the Vera Wang evening gowns hanging in her 1,100-square-foot closet, and of her devotion to family and friends. (“And, yes, it does help to have a butler, cook, domestic help, chauffeurs and an army of nannies to help out.”)
Like many Paradise Valley residents, the Falcones are regulars on the local black-tie charity circuit and contribute generously to organizations such as the American Heart Association, Phoenix Children’s Memorial Center and the Kids in a Korner Foundation. During my stay in Arizona, Sonia attended a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society at Marriott’s Camelback Inn resort. After dining on pinenut-crusted filet of beef and wild-mushroom risotto, attendees bid at auction on donated items such as a week at the Hacienda del Mar in Cabo San Lucas, a variety of golfing packages and diamond jewelry.
Sonia, who declined to be interviewed for this story, was accompanied to the fundraiser by Jason Rose, a Phoenix PR man and Republican political consultant whom she has retained to tell her husband’s side of the Angolagate story. The son of a prominent area family, Rose is a rising star in GOP circles. He knows the Falcones from local social and political circles (“They’re cool people who you’d like to have a drink with”) and argues that Pierre is the victim of a French legal system that deems people “guilty until proven innocent.”
n addition to charity, the Falcones have also taken an interest in politics. In June 2000, the couple hosted a fundraiser at their home for Scott Bundgaard, a Republican state senator and close ally of President Bush. (Bundgaard endorsed Bush over native son John McCain during last year’s GOP primaries and was a major fundraiser for his campaign.) The affair attracted political luminaries such as Gov. Jane Hull and several members of Arizona’s congressional delegation, as well as Jean-Christophe Mitterand.
Sonia Falcone was also a donor to the Bush campaign, and pictures of her with the president and first lady, snapped at political functions in Arizona, hang in her home. During the summer of 2000, Bundgaard invited Sonia to join a small local entourage that greeted then candidate Bush at the Phoenix airport when he flew in for a campaign event. Most of Sonia’s political contributions came from the coffers of Essante, her Utah-based health and beauty firm. The company gave $20,000 to the Republican Party in May 2000 and another $80,000 in November. Sonia Falcone has insisted that her husband had no connection to Essante and that the company’s political contributions came out of corporate profits. She made the donations, she says, to increase Latino awareness in the Republican Party. (The GOP returned the contributions following Pierre’s detention—“to avoid the appearance of impropriety,” in the words of a statement issued by the Republican National Committee.)
Yet Essante was incorporated in Delaware on April 6, 1994 with Sonia as its founding president and one of two directors—the other was Pierre Falcone. He no longer holds that title, but the firm’s accountant until just recently was Henry Guderley, who fills the same position for the London offices of Brenco International. More significantly, Essante, which has been losing money for the past seven years, has no profits from which to make political contributions. Essante publicist Lee Solters—a legendary Hollywood PR agent whose clients have included everyone from Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand to Pia Zadora and Kato Kaelin—says Essante spent its first six years, and $6 million, developing its product line. Sales only began in earnest last September, after Essante threw a three-day launch party at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas.
So who’s been footing the bill? A source familiar with the company says Pierre has always provided the money for Essante. “The company has come a long way with Pierre’s generosity, but after a few years he’d like to see some profit,” this person says. “It rubs him the wrong way, but out of love for his wife he’s done it with a smile on his face.”
It’s possible that Essante’s political contributions were spurred by nothing more than Sonia’s open desire to be a player in state and national politics. Even after her husband’s arrest, she remains active on the Arizona scene and close to several state officials. Last June, Bundgaard accompanied her and several other friends to Washington for a gala affair at the Ritz-Carlton honoring Sharon Stone. A few months later, Sonia appeared at a campaign function for Matt Salmon, an Arizona congressman who’s running for governor on the GOP ticket. She called him a “true conservative” and said she planned to help his campaign “any way I can.”
But one of the American officials I interviewed suspects that Pierre may have been thinking about Angola’s interests when his wife sent $100,000 to the GOP. As the official noted, businessmen who operate in Angola are expected to support its government back home, and Luanda is eager to cement ties to Washington, which during the Clinton years became its chief international ally and biggest source of foreign investment. Furthermore, dos Santos has reason to be jittery about the policies of George W. Bush, whose father’s supported UNITA. In February 2000, just weeks after Bush’s inauguration and a few months after Essante sent its final payment to the RNC, two major lobby shops in Washington—Patton Boggs and Daniel J. Edelman— signed contracts that called for them to work to improve U.S.-Angola ties.
Of course, only Falcone himself can offer a full explanation of why his money went to the Bush campaign. Given his current circumstances, chances are he won’t be talking anytime soon.
Ken Silverstein is a Washington-based reporter who frequently writes about the arms trade. His latest book, Private Warriors, a look at the post-Cold War arms trade, was just released in paperback

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Glimmerglass Intercepts Undersea Cable Traffic for Spy Agencies

Glimmerglass Intercepts Undersea Cable Traffic for Spy Agencies
by Pratap ChatterjeeSpecial to CorpWatch
August 22nd, 2013

Glimmerglass 2011 presentation on CyberSweep.
Glimmerglass, a northern California company that sells optical fiber technology, offers government agencies a software product called “CyberSweep” to intercept signals on undersea cables. The company says their technology can analyze Gmail and Yahoo! Mail as well as social media like Facebook and Twitter to discover “actionable intelligence.”

Could this be the technology that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) is using to tap global communications? The company says it counts several intelligence agencies among its customers but refuses to divulge details. One thing is certain - it is not the only company to offer such capabilities - so if such data mining is not already taking place, that day is not far off.

"Revolutions in communications technologies are usually followed by revolutions in collection capabilities," Jeffrey Richelson, a senior fellow at the National Security Archives and the author of the definitive guide to the U.S. intelligence agencies, told CorpWatch.

The recent leaks by whistleblower Edward Snowden to the Guardian newspaper specifically suggest that the NSA is tapping undersea cables although no details on the specific technology have yet been published. Notably Snowden has revealed evidence that the
NSA paid £15.5 million ($25 million) in 2009 to “radically” upgrade a listening station operated by its U.K. equivalent – the Government Communications Head Quarters (GCHQ) in Bude, north Cornwall, England, where many of the cables surface.

If GCHQ and the NSA installed Glimmerglass’s commercial optical fiber switching technology on the undersea cables to tap the torrent of data that crosses the Atlantic, they will be able to pair it up with CyberSweep to make sense of the information,
according to advertising claims made in a treasure trove of documents on dozens of surveillance contractors released by Wikileaks.

Privacy experts say that if the NSA is using this Glimmerglass technology, it will prove whistleblower Edward Snowden’s claim that the government is collecting everyone’s communications, regardless of their citizenship or innocence.

Vanee Vines, a spokesperson for the NSA, declined to comment to CorpWatch on either Glimmerglass or the tapping of the undersea cables. Glimmerglass officials did not return multiple email and phone calls.

CyberSweep

On the Glimmerglass website, the company claims that CyberSweep can process optical signals to “extract the data source format” and aggregate the data for “probes” to uncover “
actionable information from the flood of data on persons of interest, known and unknown targets, anticipated and known threats.”

More details on what Glimmerglass claims CyberSweep can do are explained in
“Paradigm Shifts” – a confidential 18 page Powerpoint presentation made in 2011 by Jim Donnelly, the Glimmerglass vice president of North American sales. The document was released by Wikileaks as part of the Spy Files series in December of that year.

On page five of the presentation, Glimmerglass notes that CyberSweep is an “end to end cyber security solution” that can “select, extract and monitor” all “mobile and fixed line data, voice and video, internet, web 2.0 and social networking” with “probes and sniffers.” On the following page, it notes that its product can be used at “submarine landing stations” – a reference to the locations where the undersea cables are connected to terrestrial systems.

On page eight, Glimmerglass provides specific examples of what it can gather – like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail as well as Facebook and Twitter. Over the next four pages it offers screenshots of these capabilities.

One display of what CyberSweep is capable of is a visual grid of Facebook messages of a presumably fictional person named John Smith. His profile is connected to a number of other individuals with arrows indicating how often he connected to each of them. Each individual can be identified with images, user names and IDs. Another pane shows the detailed chat records. Yet another graphic shows Facebook connections between multiple individuals, presumably to identify networks.

A third graphic is a grid of phone calls made by an individual with a pane that allows an operator to select and listen to audio of any specific conversation. Other images show similar demonstrations of monitoring webmail and instant message chats.

Where is this product being used? In a product video on the company website, Glimmerglass states that their optical data management products have been used by the U.S. intelligence agencies for the last five years. The video specifically mentions data transmissions from Predator drones and well as the tapping of undersea fiber optic cables, but it does not go into any details.

“The
challenge of managing information has become the challenge of managing the light,” says an announcer. “With Glimmerglass, customers have full control of massive flows of intelligence from the moment they access them.”

The description
mirrors the technology described in documents provided by Edward Snowden to the Guardian newspaper.

Collecting All the Signals
The GCHQ Advantage

Why go overseas to collect the data? Well, there are legal obstacles in the U.S. to collecting phone calls made by U.S. citizens – such a program would violate the fourth amendment to the U.S. constitution that protects individuals against invasion of privacy. (Exceptions are granted for communications with foreigners if government agencies suspect terrorism under a 1981 presidential executive order, although they still need approval of the U.S. Attorney General).

But given that U.S. laws stop at the border, foreign spy agencies like GCHQ can legally pick up and store any and all information from data that travels outside the country, suggest reporters at the Guardian newspaper.

“We know the NSA is forbidden from spying on American citizens; in the case of (Faizal) Shahzad (the would-be Times Square bomber in New York),
this question remains – was GCHQ doing it for them?” ask the Guardian reporters, noting that the GCHQ now has the “opportunity to build such a complete record of someone's life through their texts, conversations, emails and search records” allowing it to make a "unique contribution to the NSA in providing insights into some of their highest priority targets.”
In a document released by Snowden, Lieutenant General Keith Alexander, the NSA director, was quoted on a June 2008 visit to an intelligence facility in the U.K., saying: "Why can't we collect all the signals all the time? Sounds like a good summer project."

According to the leaked documents, a three year trial project was soon set up with a $25 million grant from the NSA to "radically enhance the infrastructure” at the Cyber Development Centre in Bude, Cornwall, as well as potentially at other sites like the GCHQ base in Cheltenham.

Probes were installed on 200 undersea cables and in the fall of 2011, a project code-named Tempora was launched with the help of NSA analysts who came to help at the Bude site. At least seven companies took part in the project -
British Telecom, Global Crossing, Interoute, Level 3, Viatel, Verizon Business and Vodafone Cable – according to the German paper Suddeutsche Zeitung, all of whom manage major undersea cable systems.

Under Tempora, a three day buffer of global internet traffic was held at any given time - totaling some 600 million "telephone events" a day or as much as 21 petabytes (million gigabytes) of data. While much of it was deleted through a process called Massive Volume Reduction for reasons of space, the meta-data (such as the details of who called whom, and when, but not the content) was held for as long as 30 days.

Snowden’s documents suggest that GCHQ now "produces larger amounts of metadata than NSA" which was being analyzed by 300 U.K. analysts in addition to 250 NSA analysts, as of last May. The U.K. analysts were encouraged to dig deep since they had a less onerous oversight regime compared to the U.S.

"Over the last five years,
GCHQ's access to 'light' (has) increased by 7,000%," a Tempora official is quoted as saying in another Powerpoint document cited in the Guardian. "We will have exploited to the full our unique selling points of geography, partnerships, the UK's legal regime and our skilled workforce."

A recent interview of a “senior intelligence official” by the New York Times confirmed that “the
N.S.A. is temporarily copying and then sifting through the contents of what is apparently most e-mails and other text-based communications that cross the border” by making a “clone of selected communication links.” The official did not state where the communications were being intercepted.

Optical Tapping

It so happens that the undersea cables are an extremely convenient place to collect all the signals all the time: An estimated 90 percent of trans-border telecommunications data travels along the transatlantic cables, even if they are merely connections between an individual in Asia and another in Africa, especially if they are using services like Skype.

These cables date back in history to 1858 when they were first installed to support the international telegraph system, with the British taking the lead to wire the far reaches of its empire. Today a
multi-billion dollar shipping industry continues to lay and maintain hundreds of such cables that crisscross the planet – over half a million miles of such cables are draped along the ocean floor and snaked around coastlines - to make landfall at special locations to be connected to national telecommunications systems.

The original cables were made of copper but about 25 years ago, they were replaced by fiber-optic cables. The oldest undersea cable was Trans Atlantic-8 (installed in 1988 by AT&T to transmit data from Tuckerton, New Jersey to Bude, Cornwall) which transmitted data at 280 megabits per second. The latest cables like Yellow/Atlantic Crossing 2 (installed in 2000 and upgraded in 2007 by Level Three Communications from Brookhaven, New York to Bude, Cornwall) is capable of transmitting data at an astonishing 640 gigabits per second, which is roughly equal to 7.5 million simultaneous phone calls.

In order to make sure that data and voice are transmitted quickly and accurately across the world even if cables break or equipment fails, cable companies break the data into separate tiny packets that are dispatched over what they call “redundant fiber optic paths” across the ocean before it is captured and re-assembled on the other side, where it also becomes easy to intercept the data unobtrusively.

This is where Glimmerglass comes in. In September 2002, the company started to
ship a pioneering technology to help transmit data accurately over multiple optical paths. Their patented “3D Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) mirror array” is composed of 210 gold-coated mirrors mounted on microscopic hinges, each measuring just one millimeter in diameter, etched on a single wafer of silicon.

Each mirror can be individually managed by remote operators anywhere in the world to capture or bounce the light signals and even more importantly, communicate with the other mirrors to make sure that the rest of the array stays in place, allowing very accurate data transmission. This technology slashed the cost of optical switching by a factor of 100, and the company claims that the switches are very robust with an expected failure rate of once in 30 years.

For telecommunication companies, Glimmerglass offers
three hardware racks to handle optical data – the entry level “100” system which can handle as many as 96x96 fiber ports for traffic as high as 100 gigabits per second all the way up to the “600” system which can handle 192x192 fiber ports. It also offers the “3000” system which can hold up to 12 racks.

Another major advantage of the Glimmerglass technology, according to the company, is that operators can “monitor and test remote facilities” at undersea cable landings from a central office and then select any one of multiple optical signals to distribute it to multiple recipients, as well as ability to redirect any signal.

“With Glimmerglass Intelligent Optical Systems,
any signal travelling over fiber can be redirected in milliseconds, without adversely affecting customer traffic. At a landing site, this connectivity permits optical layer connections between the wet side and dry side to be re-provisioned in milliseconds from the Network Operations Center with a few clicks of a mouse.”

In another section of the public website the company also promotes a product named Glimmerglass Intelligent Optical System (IOS) that combines the 3D-MEMS switches with CyberSweep into an integrated product that has the ability to “monitor and selectively intercept communications.”

“Service Providers can use the speed and flexibility of the IOS to
select and deliver signals to Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA),” add company brochures uncovered by Wikileaks. “The agency gains rapid access, not just to signals, but to individual wavelengths on those signals (and) make perfect photonic copies of optical signals … for comprehensive analysis.”

Glimmerglass does not deny that its equipment can be used to capture global internet traffic by intelligence agencies, in fact it assumes that this is probably happening.

“If you are going to monitor (communications traffic), you need to do much of it optically. But clearly, the massive top of the (intelligence gathering) funnel is coming through optically and you need to manage that,” Robert Lundy, the CEO of Glimmerglass for the last nine years, told AviationWeek in 2010. “If we were (installed) at an operations center of some country,
our systems could be used to look at all the international entry and exit points for fiber optics. Once you have extracted the wavelengths, you can dynamically select the ones you are interested in and do it all from a remote location.”

Keith May, his deputy in charge of business development, has gone even further. “We believe that our 3D MEMS technology – as used by governments and various agencies – is involved in the collection of intelligence from sensors, satellites and undersea fiber systems,” May told the magazine. “We are deployed in several countries that are using it for lawful interception.”

Cashing in on the Fiber Boom

Lundy is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, with two degrees from Stanford University in the heart of northern California’s high technology Silicon Valley - a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration –
making him well placed to ride the fiber optic boom.

In addition to the right degrees from the right military and technology colleges, Lundy retired as an Army lieutenant colonel after working for the U.S. Army in Europe where his job was managing contracts for “tactical data systems.” He worked as the first general manager of IBM’s wireless business unit and then he helped found three successful start-ups: Wavtrace, a pioneer in manufacturing wireless broadband access systems for business; Optos, a company that builds optical switches for metropolitan networks; as well as Xtera, a company that provides equipment to push data via submarine cables.

Lundy was hired as chief operating officer for Glimmerglass in 2004 when it was a five year old start-up that had patented dozens of 3D MEMS inventions, from its offices in Hayward on the eastern edge of Silicon Valley. Initially the company made its money
selling testing and measurement equipment for what Lundy calls their “core optical switch or engine” to a couple of dozen customers in the telecommunications industry like Cisco and Sandvine, but was unable to expand in a major way because of the collapse of the telecommunications industry at the time. (Global Crossing, a major cable operator, had just gone bankrupt, as had WorldCom)

The company branched out to make most of its profits from the software to manage the optical switches, rather than the physical hardware which sold for under $100,000 in competition with
similar products from companies like Calient. Glimmerglass quickly landed contracts with AMS-IX, the largest internet exchange in Europe, and with Cable & Wireless in the UK.
Eavesdropping On The Whole World

Analysis of bulk telecommunications data to track as yet unknown targets has long been on the NSA wish list. For decades, the agency stuck to following specific individuals because there was no way to capture and analyze everything.

In 2000, two rival projects were commissioned to try to collect “all the signals all the time.” Science Applications International Corporation, based in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, was given a contract to design a collection system called TrailBlazer, while the NSA’s in-house Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) Automation Research Center (SARC) worked on a project called ThinThread.

Trailblazer was eventually jettisoned as unworkable after $1.2 billion had been spent. ThinThread was more successful, according to its proponents, because it was able to selectively process important information and dump the rest. The designers also created controls to anonymize the data collection to avoid violating privacy laws.

ThinThread could "correlate data from financial transactions, travel records, Web searches, G.P.S. equipment, and any other 'attributes' that an analyst might find useful in pinpointing 'the bad guys,'" writes Jane Mayer in the New Yorker magazine, based on her interviews with former NSA staff.

Unfortunately for the SARC team, ThinThread was vetoed by upper management at the NSA in August 2001. But after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the NSA is believed to have returned to the drawing board. Rumor has it that the project was restarted, stripped of any privacy controls.

Recently William Binney, a former NSA staffer who helped design ThinThread and has now become a whistleblower, says that the project was a mistake. “I should apologize to the American people,” Binney who was once the technical director for the 6,000 employees of the NSA's World Geopolitical and Military Analysis Reporting Group told Mayer. “
It’s violated everyone’s rights. It can be used to eavesdrop on the whole world.”
In May 2005, Lundy was promoted to CEO of the company. Four months later - on September 21, 2005 - Glimmerglass Networks was awarded a no-bid contract of $769,600 for telecommunications support equipment for the U.S. Navy Sea Systems Command.

Lundy’s experience managing data contracts for the U.S. Army in Europe would not have hindered the sale. Nor would the deep connections of
Glimmerglass board member Alan Rogers, a retired U.S. Air Force Major General, who had previously been in charge of planning for the Pentagon at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) headquarters in Brussels.

By 2010, Lundy had successfully expanded Glimmerglass’ business by marketing “lawful interception systems” to seven international customers outside the U.S., which appear to include Germany, Israel and the UK as well as two unnamed countries in Asia.

We've become as a result a gold standard in the intel and defense community … they're managing these optical signals so they can acquire, split, move and obtain the necessary information to protect the country,” Lundy told Fierce Telecom, an industry blog, in an interview about global malware threats. “At their undersea landing locations, their major points of presence, on a selective basis they need to acquire and monitor those optical signals … rather than wait to get it off somebody's, when it hits a PC or cellphone.”

Questions remain as to how well the Glimmerglass product works. Ed Loomis, who worked on the NSA’s ThinThread signal collection and monitoring project in the 1990s, (see box: Eavesdropping On The Whole World) told CorpWatch that the company claim that they can extract "actionable information" would be limited to little more than selecting from a customer-supplied list of phone numbers, IP addresses, and DNS email addresses.

“In order to replicate an analyst's deductive reasoning process to create an artificial intelligence equivalent requires an immense amount of cooperation by an analyst and an understanding of analytic processes by the programmer,” said Loomis. “Unless the two have acquired years of experience in the intelligence production business, I doubt the ‘target analytics’ is as robust as Glimmerglass would have its clients believe.”

Are Companies Helping Invade Privacy?

Civil liberties experts have denounced the practice of wholesale data collection. “By injecting the N.S.A. into virtually every crossborder interaction, the
U.S. government will forever alter what has always been an open exchange of ideas,” says Jameel Jaffer, the deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Such collection would also violate numerous legal principles that safeguard individual privacy. In addition to the fourth amendment to the U.S. constitution, human rights experts say that it would violate Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The big questions now are what role did the telecommunication companies play in the data interception and are intelligence contractors like Glimmerglass helping to design the collection and analysis system?

"Tempora would not have been possible without the complicity of these undersea cable providers," says Eric King, head of research at Privacy International. “What we, and the public, deserve to know is this: To
what extent are companies cooperating with disproportionate intelligence gathering, and are they doing anything to protect our right to privacy?”

The Glimmerglass brochures can be downloaded here: http://www.wikileaks.org/spyfiles/docs/glimmerglass/55_glimmerglass-cybersweep.html and http://www.wikileaks.org/spyfiles/docs/glimmerglass/275_transparent-signal-access-and-monitoring.html