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Tancredo confronts
'super-state' effort
Demands full disclosure of White House work with Mexico, Canada

Responding to a WorldNetDaily report, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., is demanding the Bush administration fully disclose the activities of an office implementing a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada that apparently could lead to a North American union, despite having no authorization from Congress.

As WND reported, the White House has established working groups, under the North American Free Trade Agreement office in the Department of Commerce, to implement the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP, signed by President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, March 23, 2005.

The groups, however, have no authorization from Congress and have not disclosed the results of their work despite two years of massive effort within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

Tancredo wants to know the membership of the SPP groups along with their various trilateral memoranda of understanding and other agreements reached with counterparts in Mexico and Canada.

Tancredo's decision has been endorsed by Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project.

"It's time the Bush administration to come clean," Gilchrist told WND. "If President Bush's agenda is to establish a new North American union government to supersede the sovereignty of the United States, then the president has an obligation to tell this to the American people directly. The American public has a right to know."

Geri Word, who heads the SPP office, told WND the work had not been disclosed because, "We did not want to get the contact people of the working groups distracted by calls from the public."

WND can find no specific congressional legislation authorizing the SPP working groups nor any congressional committees taking charge of oversight.

Many SPP working groups appear to be working toward achieving specific objectives as defined by a May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force report, which presented a blueprint for expanding the SPP agreement into a North American union that would merge the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a new governmental form.

A prior article on this subject:

Bush sneaking North American super-state without oversight?
Mexico, Canada partnership underway with no authorization from Congress

Despite having no authorization from Congress, the Bush administration has launched extensive working-group activity to implement a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada.

The membership of the working groups has not been published, nor has their work product been disclosed, despite two years of massive effort within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

The groups, working under the North American Free Trade Agreement office in the Department of Commerce, are to implement the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP, signed by President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005.

The trilateral agreement, signed as a joint declaration not submitted to Congress for review, led to the creation of the SPP office within the Department of Commerce.

The SPP report to the heads of state of the U.S., Mexico and Canada, -- released June 27, 2005, -- lists some 20 different working groups spanning a wide variety of issues ranging from e-commerce, to aviation policy, to borders and immigration, involving the activity of multiple U.S. government agencies.

The working groups have produced a number of memorandums of understanding and trilateral declarations of agreement.

The Canadian government and the Mexican government each have SPP offices comparable to the U.S. office.

Geri Word, who heads the SPP office within the NAFTA office of the U.S. Department of Commerce affirmed to WND last Friday in a telephone interview that the membership of the working groups, as well as their work products, have not been published anywhere, including on the Internet.

Why the secrecy?

"We did not want to get the contact people of the working groups distracted by calls from the public," said Word.

She suggested to WND that the work products of the working groups was described on the SPP website, so publishing the actual documents did not seem required.

WND can find no specific congressional legislation authorizing the SPP working groups. The closest to enabling legislation was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., on April 20, 2005. Listed as S. 853, the bill was titled "North American Cooperative Security Act: A bill to direct the Secretary of State to establish a program to bolster the mutual security and safety of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and for other purposes." The bill never emerged from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In the House of Representatives, the same bill was introduced by Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Fla., on May 26, 2005. Again, the bill languished in the House Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment.

WND cannot find any congressional committees taking charge for specific oversight of SPP activity.

WND has requested from Word in the U.S. Department of Commerce a complete listing of the contact persons and the participating membership for the working groups listed in the June 2005 SPP report to the trilateral leaders. In addition, WND asked to see all work products, such as memorandums of understanding, letters of intent, and trilateral agreements that are referenced in the report.

Many SPP working groups appear to be working toward achieving specific objectives as defined by a May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force report, which presented a blueprint for expanding the SPP agreement into a North American Union that would merge the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a new governmental form.

Referring to the SPP joint declaration, the report, entitled "Building a North American Community," stated:

The Task Force is pleased to provide specific advice on how the partnership can be pursued and realized.

To that end, the Task Force proposes the creation by 2010 of a North American community to enhance security, prosperity, and opportunity. We propose a community based on the principle affirmed in the March 2005 Joint Statement of the three leaders that "our security and prosperity are mutually dependent and complementary." Its boundaries will be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter within which the movement of people, products, and capital will be legal, orderly, and safe. Its goal will be to guarantee a free, secure, just, and prosperous North America.

The CFR task force report called for establishment of a common security border perimeter around North America by 2010, along with free movement of people, commerce and capital within North America, facilitated by the development of a North American Border Pass that would replace a U.S. passport for travel between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Also envisioned by the CFR task force report were a North American court, a North American inter-parliamentary group, a North American executive commission, a North American military defense command, a North American customs office and a North American development bank.

U.S.-Mexico merger opposition intensifies
Some see secret efforts to scrap dollar, end U.S. sovereignty, combine nations

WASHINGTON – Are secret meetings being held between the corporate and political elites of the U.S., Mexico and Canada to push North America into a European Union-style merger?

Is President Bush's reluctance to control the border and enforce laws requiring deportation of foreigners who enter the country illegally part of a master plan to all but eliminate borders between the U.S., Canada and Mexico?

Does the agenda of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America include a common currency that would scrap the dollar in favor of what some are calling the "amero"?

It may be the biggest story of the 21st century, but few press outlets are telling it. In fact, until very recently, few in the U.S. were aware of the plans and even fewer denouncing what appears to be the implementation of an effort some have characterized as "NAFTA on steroids."

But opposition is mounting.

Perhaps the most blistering criticism has come from Lou Dobbs of CNN – a frequent critic of Bush's immigration policies.

"A regional prosperity and security program?" he asked rhetorically in a recent cablecast. "This is absolute ignorance. And the fact that we are -- we reported this, we should point out, when it was signed. But, as we watch this thing progress, these working groups are continuing. They're intensifying. What in the world are these people thinking about? You know, I was asked the other day about whether or not I really thought the American people had the stomach to stand up and stop this nonsense, this direction from a group of elites, an absolute contravention of our law, of our Constitution, every national value. And I hope, I pray that I'm right when I said yes. But this is -- I mean, this is beyond belief."

What has Dobbs and a few other vocal critics bugged began in earnest March 31, 2005, when the elected leaders of the U.S., Mexico and Canada agreed to advance the agenda of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.

No one seems quite certain what that agenda is because of the vagueness of the official declarations. But among the things the leaders of the three countries agreed to work toward were borders that would allow for easier and faster moving of goods and people between the countries.

Coming as the announcement did in the midst of a raging national debate in the U.S. over borders seen as far to open already, more than a few jaws dropped.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. and the chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus as well as author of the new book, "In Mortal Danger," may be the only elected official to challenge openly the plans for the new superstate.

Responding to a WorldNetDaily report, Tancredo is demanding the Bush administration fully disclose the activities of the government office implementing the trilateral agreement that has no authorization from Congress.

Tancredo wants to know the membership of the Security and Prosperity Partnership groups along with their various trilateral memoranda of understanding and other agreements reached with counterparts in Mexico and Canada.

Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minutemen, welcomed Tancredo's efforts.

"It's time for the Bush administration to come clean," Gilchrist said. "If President Bush's agenda is to establish a new North American union government to supersede the sovereignty of the United States, then the president has an obligation to tell this to the American people directly. The American public has a right to know."

Geri Word, who heads the SPP office, told WND the work had not been disclosed because, "We did not want to get the contact people of the working groups distracted by calls from the public."

WND can find no specific congressional legislation authorizing the SPP working groups nor any congressional committees taking charge of oversight.

Many SPP working groups appear to be working toward achieving specific objectives as defined by a May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force report, which presented a blueprint for expanding the SPP agreement into a North American union that would merge the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a new governmental form.

Phyllis Schlafly, the woman best known for nearly single-handedly leading the opposition that killed the Equal Rights Amendment, sees a sinister and sweeping agenda behind the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.

"Is the real push behind guest-worker proposals the Bush goal to expand NAFTA into the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, which he signed at Waco, Texas, last year and reaffirmed at Cancun, Mexico, this year?" she asks. "Bush is a globalist at heart and wants to carry out his father's oft-repeated ambition of a 'new world order.'"

She accuses the president and others behind the effort of wanting to obliterate U.S. borders in an effort to increase the Mexican population transfer and lower wages for the benefit of U.S. corporate interests.

"Bush meant what he said, at Waco, Texas, in March 2005, when he announced his plan to convert the United States into a 'Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America' by erasing our borders with Canada and Mexico," she said. "Bush's guest-worker proposal would turn the United States into a boardinghouse for the world's poor, enable employers to import an unlimited number of 'willing workers' at foreign wage levels, and wipe out what's left of the U.S. middle class. Bush lives in a house well protected by a fence and security guards and he associates with rich people who live in gated communities. Yet, for five years, he has refused to protect the property and children of ordinary Arizona citizens from trespassers and criminals."

That's unusually harsh criticism of a Republican president from one of Ronald Reagan's most loyal supporters.

At least one of the nation's daily newspapers has officially weighed in in opposition to the mysterious plans for closer cooperation in security, commerce and immigration between the three North American nations.

Recently, the Pittsburgh Tribune Review questioned the unchallenged momentum toward merger.

"Will Americans trade their dead presidents for Ameros?" the newspaper asked in an editorial last month.

The paper chided efforts at replacing the U.S. and Canadian dollars and Mexican peso with "the amero" – a knockoff of the euro – along with the building of "a looming NAFTA-like superstate." Citing the meeting between the three national leaders at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in March 2005, the editorial warned: "Canadians, Mexicans and Americans who value the sovereignty of their respective countries should be concerned."

cont'd

The Tribune Review editorial saw synergy between the plans of the national leaders and the ambitious agenda of the Council on Foreign Relations – seen by many as a kind of secretive, shadow government of the elite. The CFR issued a bold report in the spring of 2005, shortly after the joint announcements in Waco by Bush and his counterparts.

"The Council on Foreign Relations published a report in May -- "Building a North American Community" -- calling for, among other things, redefining the borders of the three nations, creating a super-regional governance board and the North American Paramilitary Group to ensure that Congress does not interfere with whatever the trilateral union feels like doing," said the paper. "Must the Bush administration happily sacrifice every shred of American sovereignty for the greater good of the New World Order?"

In fact, the CFR report is a five-year plan for the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common "outer security perimeter."

Some see it as the blueprint for merger of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It calls for "a common economic space ... for all people in the region, a space in which trade, capital and people flow freely."

The CFR's strategy calls specifically for "a more open border for the movement of goods and people." It calls for laying "the groundwork for the freer flow of people within North America." It calls for efforts to "harmonize visa and asylum regulations." It calls for efforts to "harmonize entry screening."

In "Building a North American Community," the report states that Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin "committed their governments" to this goal March 23, 2005, at that meeting in Waco, Texas.

Alan Burkhart, who describes himself as a free-lance political writer, cross-country trucker "and proud citizen of one of the reddest of the Red States – Mississippi," is another critic seething over these plans that seem to have a life of their own – with little or no real public debate.

"As time passes, American corporations will find it unnecessary to move their facilities out of the country," writes Burkhart. "Our already stagnant wages will be just as low as those of Mexico. The cultures of three great nations will be diluted. Our currency will be replaced with the 'Amero.' And, we’ll be one giant step closer to the U.N.’s perverse dream of a one-world government."

The Amero is not a new concept. It was first proposed by the Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank, in a monogram titled "The Case for the Amero" in 1999.

Last month, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America made one of its most visible and public moves since it was first announced last year. In Washington, on June 15, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Mexican Economy Minister Sergio Garcia de Alba and Canadian Minister of Industry Maxime Bernier joined North American business leaders to launch the North American Competitiveness Council. It was a major development that showed the March 2005 meeting was no fluke – and that the plans announced by the three national leaders then were continuing to take shape. The NACC was first announced by Bush, Harper and Fox.

Made up of 10 high-level business leaders from each country, the NACC will meet annually with senior North American government officials "to provide recommendations and help set priorities for promoting regional competitiveness in the global economy."

Officially, the council has the mandate to advise the governments on improving trade in key sectors such as automobiles, transportation, manufacturing and services. The three countries do more than $800 billion in trilateral trade.

Gutierrez said the Bush administration is determined to develop a "border pass" on schedule despite worries about its implementation. The new land pass is to be in effect for Canadians, Americans and Mexicans by Jan. 1, 2008.

The U.S. executives involved in the NACC include: United Parcel Service Inc. Chairman Michael Eskew; Frederick Smith, chairman of FedEx Corp.; Lou Schorsh, chief executive of Mittal Steel USA; Joseph Gilmour, president of New York Life Insurance Co.; William Clay Ford, chairman of Ford Motor Co.; Rick Wagoner, chairman of General Motors Corp.; Raymond Gilmartin, CEO of Merck & Co. Inc.; David O'Reilly, chief executive of Chevron Corp.; Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of General Electric Co.; Lee Scott, president of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.; Robert Stevens, chairman of Lockheed Martin Corp.; Michael Haverty, chairman of Kansas City Southern; Douglas Conant, president of Campbell's Soup Co. and James Kilt, vice-chairman of Gillette Inc.

The concerns about the direction such powerful men could lead Americans without their knowledge is only heightened when interlocking networks are discovered. For instance, one of the components envisioned for this future "North American Union" is a superhighway running from Mexico, through the U.S. and into Canada. It is being promoted by the North American SuperCorridor Coalition, or NASCO, a non-profit group "dedicated to developing the world’s first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America."

The president of NASCO is George Blackwood, who earlier launched the North American International Trade Corridor Partnership. In fact, NAITCP later morphed into NASCO. A NAIPC summit meeting in 2004, attended by senior Mexican government officials, heard from Robert Pastor, an American University professor who wrote "Toward a North American Community," a book promoting the development of a North American union as a regional government and the adoption of the amero as a common monetary currency to replace the dollar and the peso.

Pastor also was vice chairman of the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force entitled "Building a North American Community" that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action within the executive branches of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada to transform the current trilateral Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America into a North American union regional government.

In fact, the CFR report is a five-year plan for the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common "outer security perimeter."

Some see it as the blueprint for merger of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It calls for "a common economic space ... for all people in the region, a space in which trade, capital and people flow freely."

The CFR's strategy calls specifically for "a more open border for the movement of goods and people." It calls for laying "the groundwork for the freer flow of people within North America." It calls for efforts to "harmonize visa and asylum regulations." It calls for efforts to "harmonize entry screening."

In "Building a North American Community," the report states that Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin "committed their governments" to this goal March 23, 2005, at that meeting in Waco, Texas.

Alan Burkhart, who describes himself as a free-lance political writer, cross-country trucker "and proud citizen of one of the reddest of the Red States – Mississippi," is another critic seething over these plans that seem to have a life of their own – with little or no real public debate.

"As time passes, American corporations will find it unnecessary to move their facilities out of the country," writes Burkhart. "Our already stagnant wages will be just as low as those of Mexico. The cultures of three great nations will be diluted. Our currency will be replaced with the 'Amero.' And, we’ll be one giant step closer to the U.N.’s perverse dream of a one-world government."

The Amero is not a new concept. It was first proposed by the Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank, in a monograph titled "The Case for the Amero" in 1999.

Last month, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America made one of its most visible and public moves since it was first announced last year. In Washington, on June 15, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Mexican Economy Minister Sergio Garcia de Alba and Canadian Minister of Industry Maxime Bernier joined North American business leaders to launch the North American Competitiveness Council. It was a major development that showed the March 2005 meeting was no fluke – and that the plans announced by the three national leaders then were continuing to take shape. The NACC was first announced by Bush, Harper and Fox.

Made up of 10 high-level business leaders from each country, the NACC will meet annually with senior North American government officials "to provide recommendations and help set priorities for promoting regional competitiveness in the global economy."

Officially, the council has the mandate to advise the governments on improving trade in key sectors such as automobiles, transportation, manufacturing and services. The three countries do more than $800 billion in trilateral trade.

Gutierrez said the Bush administration is determined to develop a "border pass" on schedule despite worries about its implementation. The new land pass is to be in effect for Canadians, Americans and Mexicans by Jan. 1, 2008.

The U.S. executives involved in the NACC include: United Parcel Service Inc. Chairman Michael Eskew; Frederick Smith, chairman of FedEx Corp.; Lou Schorsh, chief executive of Mittal Steel USA; Joseph Gilmour, president of New York Life Insurance Co.; William Clay Ford, chairman of Ford Motor Co.; Rick Wagoner, chairman of General Motors Corp.; Raymond Gilmartin, CEO of Merck & Co. Inc.; David O'Reilly, chief executive of Chevron Corp.; Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of General Electric Co.; Lee Scott, president of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.; Robert Stevens, chairman of Lockheed Martin Corp.; Michael Haverty, chairman of Kansas City Southern; Douglas Conant, president of Campbell's Soup Co. and James Kilt, vice-chairman of Gillette Inc.

The concerns about the direction such powerful men could lead Americans without their knowledge is only heightened when interlocking networks are discovered. For instance, one of the components envisioned for this future "North American Union" is a superhighway running from Mexico, through the U.S. and into Canada. It is being promoted by the North American SuperCorridor Coalition, or NASCO, a non-profit group "dedicated to developing the world’s first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America."

The president of NASCO is George Blackwood, who earlier launched the North American International Trade Corridor Partnership. In fact, NAITCP later morphed into NASCO. A NAIPC summit meeting in 2004, attended by senior Mexican government officials, heard from Robert Pastor, an American University professor who wrote "Toward a North American Community," a book promoting the development of a North American union as a regional government and the adoption of the amero as a common monetary currency to replace the dollar and the peso.

Pastor also was vice chairman of the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force entitled "Building a North American Community" that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action within the executive branches of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada to transform the current trilateral Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America into a North American union regional government.

'North American Union' major '08 issue?
Coalition mobilizes grass roots, targets Washington lawmakers

A coalition united by its determination to stop efforts to merge the U.S. into a North American Union is organizing a grass-roots effort to make it an issue in 2008, vowing to campaign against any candidate, Republican or Democrat, who won't side with them.

Spearheaded by Conservative Caucus Chairman Howard Phillips; WND columnist and author Jerome Corsi; and activist Phyllis Schlafly, leaders of the 50-member coalition held an event at the National Press Club yesterday, expressing support for a proposed congressional resolution that denounces any effort by the U.S. to enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.

Corsi said lawmakers need to be held accountable, and the plan, along with calling for a congressional investigation, is to train members of Schlafly's Eagle Forum to lobby on Capitol Hill when the 100th Congress convenes in January.

"We want to make it a major issue of the 2008 campaign," Corsi said. "The coalition will work to oppose any candidate who doesn't sign on, Republicans and Democrats alike."

The resolution – sponsored by Republican Reps. Virgil Goode Jr. of Virginia, Tom Tancredo of Colorado, Walter Jones of North Carolina, and Ron Paul of Texas – expresses "the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union (NAU) with Mexico and Canada."

Monday, Corsi announced the Internet release of about 1,000 documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. He says the documents show the White House is engaging in collaborative relations with Mexico and Canada outside the U.S. Constitution.

The documents can be viewed here, on a special website set up by the Minuteman Project.

Corsi told WND the coalition, which now numbers about 50 leaders, is calling for a congressional investigation.

"We'd like to see both the House and the Senate in the 110th Congress conduct a serious investigation and get full disclosure from SPP of all documents," he said. "If the Bush administration wants to continue to deny that we're on the same track that Europe went on to create the European Union and the euro, then there should be no harm in full disclosure."

Otherwise, he continued, "I'm charging they are secretly on the path to create a North American Union, a new currency – the amero – along the same stealth path that was used in Europe, keeping everything below the radar, by administrative decree, making it to late to stop before the American people finally realize what's gong on."

Phillips, who has been chairman of the public-policy Conservative Caucus since 1974, told WND "this could be the most important project on which we've ever worked."

"It's incredible that a project of this magnitude with such potential fatal consequences to American's status as an individual republic should get this far without serious public debate and consideration," said, Phillips, who was one of the founders of the U.S. Taxpayers Party, which changed its name to the Constitution Party in 1999.

He was the party's presidential candidate in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 elections.

The resolution Phillips is promoting reads, in part:

* Whereas, according to the Department of Commerce, United States trade deficits with Mexico and Canada have significantly widened since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA);

* Whereas the economic and physical security of the United States is impaired by the potential loss of control of its borders attendant to the full operation of NAFTA;

* Whereas a NAFTA Superhighway System from the west coast of Mexico through the United States and into Canada has been suggested as part of a North American Union;

* Whereas it would be particularly difficult for Americans to collect insurance from Mexican companies which employ Mexican drivers involved in accidents in the United States, which would increase the insurance rates for American drivers;

* Whereas future unrestricted foreign trucking into the United States can pose a safety hazard due to inadequate maintenance and inspection, and can act collaterally as a conduit for the entry into the United States of illegal drugs, illegal human smuggling, and terrorist activities;

* Whereas a NAFTA Superhighway System would be funded by foreign consortiums and controlled by foreign management, which threatens the sovereignty of the United States.

The resolution calls for the House of Representatives to agree on three issues of determination:

1. The United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System;

2. The United States should not enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada; and

3. The President should indicate strong opposition to these or any other proposals that threaten the sovereignty of the United States.

"As important as this resolution is," Corsi said, "we need still more congressional attention. Where is congressional oversight of SPP? We need congressional hearings, not just congressional resolutions."

H.Con.Res.487 has been referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and to the Committee on Internal Relations for consideration prior to any debate that may be scheduled on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Congressman: Superhighway about North American Union
Paul says goal is common currency, borderless travel, bigger bureaucracy

WASHINGTON – Rep. Ron Paul, a maverick Republican from Texas, today denounced plans for the proposed "NAFTA superhighway" in his state as part of a larger plot for merger of the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a North American Union.

"By now many Texans have heard about the proposed 'NAFTA Superhighway,' which is also referred to as the trans-Texas corridor," he said in a statement. "What you may not know is the extent to which plans for such a superhighway are moving forward without congressional oversight or media attention."

Paul explained that most members of Congress are unaware of the plans because only relatively small amounts of money have been spent studying the plans and those allocations were included in "enormous transportation appropriations bills."

"The proposed highway is part of a broader plan advanced by a quasi-government organization called the 'Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America,' or SPP," he explains. "The SPP was first launched in 2005 by the heads of state of Canada, Mexico, and the United States at a summit in Waco."

No treaties were involved, and Congress was not included in discussions or plans, he says.

"Instead, the SPP is an unholy alliance of foreign consortiums and officials from several governments," according to Paul. "One principal player is a Spanish construction company, which plans to build the highway and operate it as a toll road. But don't be fooled: The superhighway proposal is not the result of free market demand, but rather an extension of government-managed trade schemes like NAFTA that benefit politically connected interests."

Paul says, however, the real issue raised by the superhighway plan and the SPP is national sovereignty.

"Once again, decisions that affect millions of Americans are not being made by those Americans themselves, or even by their elected representatives in Congress," says Paul. "Instead, a handful of elites use their government connections to bypass national legislatures and ignore our Constitution – which expressly grants Congress the sole authority to regulate international trade."

The ultimate goal, he says, is not simply a superhighway "but an integrated North American Union – complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy and virtually borderless travel within the union. Like the European Union, a North American Union would represent another step toward the abolition of national sovereignty altogether."

Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., has introduced a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the U.S. should not engage in the construction of a NAFTA superhighway, or enter into any agreement that advances the concept of a North American Union.

"I wholeheartedly support this legislation and predict that the superhighway will become a sleeper issue in the 2008 election," says Paul. "Any movement toward a North American Union diminishes the ability of average Americans to influence the laws under which they must live. The SPP agreement, including the plan for a major transnational superhighway through Texas, is moving forward without congressional oversight – and that is an outrage. The administration needs a strong message from Congress that the American people will not tolerate backroom deals that threaten our sovereignty."

Mexico ambassador: We need N. American Union in 8 years
U.S. 'investment,' EU-style merger key to better relations, says diplomat

There have been conferences, academic papers, mock student parliaments and secret meetings on a confederation of the U.S., Canada and Mexico into future North American Union, but, until now, few officials of any of the three countries have publicly called for the creation of a European Union-style merger.

In a panel discussion on U.S.-Mexico relations last Tuesday at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Enrique Berruga, Mexico's ambassador to the United Nations, came right out and said a North American Union is needed – and even provided a deadline.

Berruga said the merger must be complete in the next eight years before the U.S. baby boomer retirement wave hits full force.

The discussion of was organized by the UTSA Mexico Center and the San Antonio campus of Mexico's National Autonomous University.

Noting that both countries depend on each other economically, Berruga urged leaders to put petty politics aside for the region's benefit. He said the U.S. should abandon plans to build border fences and instead "invest" more in Mexico so the country can do a better job standing on its own.

"We will be together forever and we need to make the best out of it," Berruga said, as reported in the San Antonio Express News.

Another panelist, economist Mauricio Gonzalez, who works for the North American Development Bank, created as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, explained that illegal immigration was actually good for the U.S. economy. While it's true, the said, that the immigrants bring down wages in the U.S., it is only by about 2 percent. In addition, he cited studies showing illegal immigrants do not drain U.S. social services.

"NAFTA was a very important first step, but we need to start thinking outside the NAFTA box," Gonzalez said.

Panelist Robert Rivard, editor of the Express-News and a former Newsweek correspondent in Latin America, spoke of the lingering impact of 9-6 – that is, Sept. 6, 2001, five days before the terrorist attacks, when the U.S. and Mexican governments were on the brink of a far-reaching immigration deal. In the wake of the terrorist attacks five days later, there was little chance Americans would accept more open borders and pardons for illegal aliens already in the country.

"People of peace can't build walls between each other," Rivard said of the move to build the border fence. "It's a wall meant to corral Republican voters, not to keep out Mexican workers," he added.

Analysts: Dollar collapse
would result in 'amero'
Think deep recession likely
regardless of Fed's actions

Two analysts who have reconstructed money supply data after the Fed stopped publishing it argue a coming dollar collapse will set the stage for creating the amero as a North American currency to replace the dollar.

The reconstructed M3 data – the broadest measure of money – published on econometrician Gary Kuever's website, NowAndFutures.com, shows M3 increased at a rate of 11 percent in May, compared to 9 percent when the Federal Reserve quit publishing M3 data earlier this year.

Asked why the Fed decided to stop publishing M3 data, Kuever told WND, "The Fed probably wants to hide how much liquidity is being pumped into the market, and I expect the trend to keep pumping liquidity into the market will continue, especially since the economy is slowing down."

Why is this important?

"The trend line in my M3-plus-debt chart is staggering," Kuever said. "There has been a straight, long-term trend line of M3-plus-credit increasing since 2000. Long-term, we are creating inflation and the dollar has lost almost 98 percent of its value in the past 100 years."

Kuever, a retired investor, is concerned that with growing budget and trade deficits "the dollar could collapse."

"Especially if the Fed cannot increase rates, because we have already entered a recession," he said.

Bob Chapman, who issued a reconstructed M3 estimate to the 100,000 subscribers to his newsletter, "The International Forecaster", agrees.

"The world is awash in money and credit," Chapman told WND. "My numbers show M3 increasing at about a 10-percent rate right now."

Chapman believes the U.S. economy entered a recession in February. In his newsletter of Dec. 9 he predicted the Fed would hold interest rates at 5.25 percent.

"The Fed is in a very tough spot here," Chapman wrote, "If they raise rates, the real estate market will collapse, and if they lower rates, the dollar will collapse."

Meeting yesterday, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee voted, as Chapman had predicted, to hold the overnight lending rates between banks steady at 5.25 percent. This was the fourth straight meeting the Fed had voted not to change rates. In its rate announcement, the Fed affirmed the economy had slowed.

Almost immediately after the announcement of the Fed's decision, the dollar weakened to a new 20-month low against the euro, with currency markets reportedly pricing in the expectation the Fed will be forced to lower rates next year to bolster the economy. Following the announcement by the Fed, the U.S. Dollar Index, or USDX, also dropped, with the dollar going below 83.

A dollar collapse is imminent, Chapman declared.

"Technicians studying the USDX think there is a support level for the dollar at 75, but I don't think so."

How low could the dollar go?

"If the dollar breaks through 78.33 on the USDX," Chapman answered, "my guess is the dollar will go through a 35-percent correction, which would put it at 55."

"The key in how low the dollar goes is the interest rates," Chapman told WND. "In January, the Fed is going to have to make a decision which way to go. If Fed rates go up, the dollar will hold in the 78.33 range, but the stock market and the economy will tank. If next year the Fed lowers rates to keep the economy from crashing, the bottom will fall out of the dollar, and I see it going as low as 55. Once the dollar hits bottom, it will take the stock market and the economy right with it anyway. The Fed is in a box they can't get out of."

As WND reported earlier this week, in an unusual move, the Bush administration is sending virtually the entire economic "A-team" to visit China for a "strategic economic dialogue" in Beijing Thursday and Friday. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are leading the delegation, along with five other cabinet-level officials, including Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez. Also in the delegation will be Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, Energy Secretary Sam Bodman, and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab.

But Chapman doubts the trip will help the Fed to engineer a slow dollar slide.

"The Chinese are going to do what the Chinese want to do, not what we want them to do," he said. "I believe the Chinese are going to send Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke home packing, with little or nothing to show for the trip."

How severe will the coming dollar collapse be?

"People in the U.S. are going to be hit hard," Chapman warned. "In the severe recession we are entering now, Bush will argue that we have to form a North American Union to compete with the Euro."

"Creating the amero," Chapman explained, "will be presented to the American public as the administration's solution for dollar recovery. In the process of creating the amero, the Bush administration just abandons the dollar."

U.S., Mexico, Canada
'harmonizing' policies
North American deep cooperation on many fronts
already under way, reveals new official publication

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, which some have criticized as a framework for moving toward regional government between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, has laid out plans for increased regulatory cooperation between the three nations in new, full-color, trilingual publications obtained by WND.

Copies of the "2005 Report to Leaders" and the "2006 Report to Leaders" were sent to WND by several congressional offices that are beginning to take a serious interest in SPP working group activities and decision-making.

The copyright page of the 2005 report indicates that the report was co-published by the governments of the United States and Mexico, as well as copyrighted in Canada.

The 2005 and 2006 reports continue to discuss numerous memoranda of understanding and other agreements that the trilateral working groups are formulating on their own, without direct congressional oversight or any reference to being published in the Federal Register. Yet, the vast majority of the agreements reached under SPP have never been published.

The reports discuss the SPP's trilateral modification of administrative rules and regulation under the rubric of "integrating" and "harmonizing" into a "North American" structure what previously were administrative rules and regulations of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

For instance, under a heading that includes the U.N. "sustainability" language, the energy working group announces in the 2005 report that their goal is, "Creating a sustainable energy economy for North America." Justifying the working group's activity as producing "appropriate coordination" between regulators, the report concludes: "All agree that the regulatory efforts of the National Energy Board (NEB), Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Comisión Reguladora de Energía (CRE) will benefit from increased communication and cooperation concerning the timing and other procedural aspects of related matters that may be pending between the three agencies."

The report then calls for the announcement of a trilateral regulators' group that will meet three times a year (every four months) to discuss "issues affecting cross-border energy projects." The 2006 report notes that this "key milestone" was completed.

Some critics of the SPP see it leading toward a breakdown of national sovereignty and representative government, fearing it will lead inexorably toward a European Union-style regionalization for North America.

"Now that we see books being published by SPP, how can anyone deny that the Bush administration is involved in a process of North American deep integration?" asks Jerome R. Corsi, author and WND columnist who is writing a book on the movement. "SPP is creating North American regulations that replace and supersede U.S. regulations in a wide range of policy areas. Just the three-language format of the full color production is enough to let readers know that the Bush administration considers our appropriate regulatory scope to be North American in nature. We no longer have a U.S. energy policy, for instance, we have a North American energy policy."

Corsi, known as one of the chief critics of plans for a North American Union, said:

"Since 2001 and the formation of the Prosperity Partnership with Mexico, trilateral working group activity in North America has been gaining momentum. After the declaration of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005, we have a full-fledged shadow bureaucracy that is setting up the regulatory structure for what could easily evolve into a full regional government."

The North American Energy Working Group has now set up a webpage on the U.S. Department of Energy website. A January 2006 report entitled "North America – The Energy Picture II" documents that the NAEWG first met June 27-28, 2001, in Washington. Since then, there have been eight more NAEWG full working group meetings "convened in various locations of the three countries, with many more meetings of the various expert groups convened under the NAEWG agenda."

According to "North America – The Energy Picture II," NAEWG activities can be traced back to the Hemispheric Energy Ministers Meeting in Mexico, on March 8, 2001, when the heads of Natural Resources Canada, the Mexican Secretariat of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Energy "formally committed to work together to facilitate a stronger North American energy sector."

"Despite the advanced stage of SPP working group activity," Corsi said, "few U.S. congressmen or senators have any idea that SPP working groups are producing a North American regulatory structure. I still find myself going into the offices of congressmen and senators on Capitol Hill and having to work with staff to show them SPP websites they never have seen before, even though some of their bosses sit on committees that are supposed to be responsible for oversight of the SPP activities I am showing them for the first time."

"SPP is one of the best kept secrets in Washington," Corsi told WND, "even though SPP has a website, there are SPP websites embedded in the websites of many government agencies, and now SPP is publishing full-color books in three languages. Yet, nobody in Washington has bothered to hold a single SPP hearing. Meanwhile, we are being led into regional government by bureaucrats whose mission is to create North American policies, not to worry about the sovereignty of the United States."

The SPP website contains somewhat different versions of the 2005 prosperity agenda and security agenda, as well as the 2006 prosperity agenda and the security agenda.

"This is no conspiracy," Corsi continued. "Conspiracies are conducted in secret. Now, SPP even publishes books documenting the North American deep integration agenda the SPP working groups are advancing day-by-day."

The 2006 published Report to Leaders documents the following working group activity in the Prosperity Agenda:

* Manufactured Goods and Sectoral and Regional Competitiveness
* Movement of Goods
* E-Commerce and ICT
* Financial Services
* Transportation
* Energy
* Environment
* Food and Agriculture
* Health

The 2006 Report to Leaders identifies the following Security Agenda initiatives, key milestones, and status of completion in the following areas:

1. Secure North America from External Threats

* Traveler Security
* Cargo Security
* Bioprotection

2. Prevent and Respond to Threats within North America

* Aviation Security
* Maritime Security
* Law Enforcement Cooperation
* Intelligence Cooperation
* Protection, Prevention and Response

3. Further Streamline the Secure Movement of Low-Risk Traffic Across Our Shared Borders

* Border Facilitation
* Science and Technology Cooperation

SPP is organized within the Department of Commerce. Those who want to receive copies of the printed 2005 and 2006 reports, may contact Geri Word, the administrator within the Department of Commerce who appears most responsible for organizing SPP activity.

Geri C. Word
U.S. Department of Commerce
Office of NAFTA and Inter-American Affairs

Congressman battles North Americanization
Introduces resolutions aimed at stopping SPP from integrating continent

Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., is preparing to introduce a series of House resolutions aimed at stopping the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America from integrating the continent into a trilateral U.S.-Mexico-Canada structure of administrative law.

Goode also intends to block the previously undisclosed, but already signed, Social Security agreement to "totalize" U.S. Social Security benefits with legal and illegal Mexicans working in the U.S.

"I hope our effort will be successful in stopping the implementation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership," Goode told WND. "If we are not successful in stopping SPP, we are going to see further erosion in the sovereignty of our country."

As WND previously has reported, SPP has laid out plans for increased regulatory cooperation between the three nations in new, full-color, trilingual publications of the 2005 and 2006 SPP Reports to Leaders, which is archived in electronic form on the Department of Commerce SPP website.

Goode objected that the open borders philosophy of the Bush administration "will level down the United States. SPP will enhance neither the security of the United States nor the prosperity of our economy."

Goode also told WND that he plans to re-introduce in the 110th Congress H.C.R. 487, a resolution he introduced previously to block both NAFTA Super Highways and the formation of a EU-style North American Union.

In an e-mail to WND, Goode's office affirmed the re-introduction of H.C.R. 487 can be expected perhaps as early as today.

"The NAFTA Superhighway will bring more trucks and vehicles from south of our border into our country," Goode explained to WND. "It will cost American jobs and decrease safety for our traveling public. The NAFTA Super Highway will end up opening further opportunities for illegals to be smuggled into the United States."

Goode said the Social Security totalization agreement with Mexico will allow Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal, to draw from the U.S. Social Security system for their work in this country.

"Because of the number of illegal immigrants from Mexico, it is difficult to devise an accurate estimate of how much this agreement will cost our system, but it could be billions," he said.

Goode pointed out his position is supported by a report from the General Accounting Office, the GAO.

"What the GAO points out," Goode said, "is that a common open border with Mexico and the economic disparity between Mexico and the U.S. have fostered significant and longstanding unauthorized immigration into the U.S., making a totalization agreement with Mexico potentially far more costly than any other."

The House resolutions Goode already has introduced into the current Congress include:

* H.C.R. 18. Expressing disapproval by the House of Representatives of the Social Security totalization agreement signed by the commissioner of Social Security and the director general of the Mexican Social Security Institute June 29, 2004. Introduced Jan. 4, it has been joined by 27 co-sponsors.

* H.C.R. 22. Expressing the sense of Congress that the president should provide notice of withdrawal of the United States from NAFTA. Introduced on Jan. 10, it is co-sponsored by Rep. Walter Jones, R-NC.

Among the claims made in the "whereas" clauses of the House Resolutions introduced by Goode are charges that:

* A totalization agreement between the United States and Mexico negatively impacts the Social Security system of the United States and puts America's seniors at risk.

* According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 1.8 million workers have applied for trade adjustment assistance as a result of jobs lost because of NAFTA.

* Unrestricted foreign trucking into the U.S. will pose a safety hazard due to inadequate maintenance and inspection, and can act collaterally as a conduit for the entry into the U.S. of illegal drugs and terrorist activities.

* The economic and physical security of the U.S. is impaired by the potential loss of control of its borders attendant to the full operation of NAFTA.

* The U.S. trade deficits with Canada and Mexico have widened significantly since the implementation of NAFTA.

The totalization agreement signed with Mexico allows workers, including illegal immigrants working in the U.S., to combine work credits from both countries to become eligible for benefits in the U.S. Thus, even if an immigrant worker for Mexico, legal or illegal, does not have enough U.S. work credits to draw U.S. Social Security benefits, credits can be combined from Mexico. Under totalization, Mexican workers could qualify for U.S. Social Security benefits with as few as six quarters of work, rather than the 40 quarters normally required of U.S. citizens.

On Sept. 11, 2003, testifying before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims of the House Committee on the Judiciary, Barbara D. Bovbjert, the GAO's director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues, noted the cost of a Social Security totalization agreement with Mexico is "highly uncertain."

She said the agreement would also extend Social Security benefits to the non-U.S. citizen family members of the Mexican workers under the program, even if the non-U.S. citizen family members do not live in the United States, as well as to survivors of entitled Mexican workers.

Bovbjert further testified, "Under totalization, unauthorized workers could have an additional incentive to enter the United States to work and to maintain the appropriate documentation necessary to claim their earnings under a false identity."

The totalization agreement signed with Mexico was being held secret by the Bush administration until a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the TREA Senior Citizens League, a 1.2 million-member nonpartisan seniors' advocacy group, forced the Social Security Administration to release the document to the public.

The agreement between the U.S. and Mexico was signed in June 2004 and awaits President Bush's signature. Congress will have 60 days following the president's signature to disapprove of the agreement by either the House or the Senate voting to reject it. If neither chamber rejects it, the agreement can become law without the approval of Congress.

Plan for superhighway
ripped as 'urban legend'
Congressman, DOT undersecretary
disagree over threat to sovereignty

Congressmen and a policy official of the Department of Transportation engaged in a spirited exchange over whether NAFTA Super Highways were a threat to U.S. sovereignty or an imaginary "Internet conspiracy," such as the "black helicopter myths," advanced by fringe lunatics.

At a meeting Wednesday of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Jeffrey N. Shane, undersecretary of transportation for policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation, testified.

During the questioning by committee members, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, asked Shane about the existence of plans for a "NAFTA superhighway."

Shane responded he was "not familiar with any plan at all, related to NAFTA or cross-border traffic."

After further questioning by Poe, Shane stated reports of NAFTA superhighways or corridors were "an urban legend."

At this, the chairman, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., questioned aloud whether Shane was just "gaming semantics" when responding to Poe's question.

"Mr. Shane was either blissfully ignorant or he may have been less than candid with the committee," Poe told WND in a telephone interview.

Asked about the Department of Transportation's work with Dallas-based trade group NASCO, the North American SuperCorridor Coalition Inc., and the Texas Department of Transportation plans to build the Trans-Texas Corridor, Poe told WND "the NAFTA superhighway plans exist to move goods from Mexico through the United States to Canada. It appears to be another one of the open-border philosophies that chips away at American sovereignty, all in the name of so-called trade."

Poe said there are security obstacles to the project that must be addressed.

"I don't understand why the federal government isn't getting public input on this," he said. "We get comments like Mr. Shane's instead of our own government asking the people of the United States what they think about all of this. This big business coming through Mexico may not be good business for the United States."

Poe continued to insist "the public ought to make this decision, especially the states that are affected, such as Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and all the way through up to Canada. The public needs to make input on this. So, I don't understand, unless there's some other motive, why the public isn't being told about these plans and why the public is not invited to make input."

Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., introduced House Concurrent Resolution 40 earlier this week to express the sense of Congress that the United States should not build a NAFTA superhighway system and should not enter into an agreement with Mexico and Canada to form a North American Union.

Asked to comment on Shane's response to Poe, Goode dismissed Shane's claim that NAFTA superhighways were just another "urban legend."

"Let's take Mr. Shane at his word. Let Mr. Shane come over here from the Department of Transportation and endorse House Concurrent Resolution 40," he said. "If, in his mind he's not doing anything to promote a NAFTA superhighway and he's not doing anything to promote the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, then he won't mind joining his voice with ours to be in opposition to any such 'urban legend,' as he so calls it."

Goode added this comment in a playful retort to Shane's attempt to dismiss the discussion: "My prediction is Mr. Shane will run for the timber."

In a serious tone, Goode objected to Shane's attempt to play what he agreed was a game of semantics.

"When President Bush had the meeting in Waco, Texas, the three leaders called the new arrangement the 'Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America,' SPP for short," Goode said. "But, as is suggested by Congressman DeFazio at the hearing, the intent of people like Mr. Shane is to use different words and different names as a way to deflect attention from what they are really doing."

Asked about White House Press Secretary Snow's denial that there was any White House plan to create a North American Union, Goode's reply also was direct.

"I guess Mr. Snow is saying that a Security and Prosperity Partnership and a North American Union are not one and the same," he said. "That's just the use of his words, but is he denying that President Bush, President Fox and Prime Minister Martin had the meeting and came up with the Security and Prosperity Partnership in 2005? I doubt it."

Also present in the audience at the subcommittee meeting was Rod Nofzinger, director of Government Affairs for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. Nofzinger told WND Shane's denial struck him as less than genuine. In an e-mail to WND, Nofzinger commented:

"Considering what we know about the Bush administration's efforts to open the border to Mexican trucks and that DOT officials have met with groups such as NASCO, I was truly surprised to hear Mr. Shane say flat out that he had no knowledge of plans or meetings related to NAFTA or cross-border surface trade corridors."

Substantiating Nofzinger's argument is a speech Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta gave April 30, 2004, at a NASCO forum in Fort Worth, Texas. Mineta told the NASCO meeting:

"NAFTA has opened the doors to expanding and flourishing trade across our borders. Since its implementation, total U.S. trade with Mexico has increased almost 200 percent – with 70 percent of the U.S./Mexico trade passing through Texas.

"There are, however, some things that we still need to do in the United States to fulfill our obligations under the NAFTA treaty. One of them is to finally open the market between Mexico and the United States for trucking and busing."

Mineta continued:

"And to our friends from Mexico who are here today, I say, 'Welcome, and get ready.' Opening the border is of mutual benefit."

Specifically referring to Interstate Highways 35, 29 and 94 – the core highways supported by NASCO as a prime "North American Super Corridor" – Mineta commented:

"You also recognized that the success of the NAFTA relationship depends on mobility – on the movement of people, of products, and of capital across borders.

"The people in this room have vision. Thinking ahead, thinking long-term, you began to make aggressive plans to develop the NASCO trade corridor – this vital artery in our national transportation through which so much of our NAFTA traffic flows.

"It flows across our nation's busiest southern border crossing in Laredo; over North America's busiest commercial crossing, the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit; and through Duluth, and Pembina, North Dakota, and all the places in between."

In a statement provided WND by e-mail, DeFazio cut past Shane's attempt to dismiss the subject by ridicule, writing:

In the hearing, Undersecretary of Transportation for Policy Jeff Shane, in response to a question from Representative Ted Poe, said the NAFTA superhighway was an urban legend. Whatever the case, it is a fact that highway capacity is growing to and from the border to facilitate trade, and there is no doubt that the volume of imports from Mexico has soared since NAFTA, straining security at the U.S. border. Plans of Asian trading powers to divert cargo from U.S. ports like Los Angeles to ports in Mexico will only put added pressure on border inspectors. The U.S. needs to invest in better border security, including enhanced screening of cargo crossing our land borders.

Shane declined to comment for this article.

House resolution opposes North American Union
Lawmakers seek to block NAFTA superhighway system, continental integration

Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., has introduced a House resolution expressing congressional opposition to construction of a NAFTA Super Highway System or entry into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.

Goode said the goal behind House Concurrent Resolution 40, introduced Monday, is "to block a NAFTA Superhighway System and to indicate the opposition of the Congress to the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America that was declared by President Bush, Mexico's then-President Vicente Fox, and Canada's then-Prime Minister Paul Martin, at the conclusion of their summit meeting in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005."

The preamble of HCR 40 refers to the Trans-Texas Corridor being built by the Texas Department of Transportation, noting "a NAFTA Super Highway System from the west coast of Mexico through the United States and into Canada has been suggested as part of a North American Union to facilitate trade between the SPP countries."

A subsequent "whereas" clause notes "the State of Texas has already begun planning of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a major multi-modal transportation project beginning at the United States – Mexico border, which would serve as an initial section of a NAFTA Super Highway System."

The resolution expresses concern "it could be particularly difficult for Americans to collect insurance from Mexican companies which employ Mexican drivers involved in accidents in the United States, which would likely increase the insurance rates for American drivers."

Another concern with the plans for a NAFTA Super Highway is that "future unrestricted trucking into the United States can pose a safety hazard due to inadequate maintenance and inspection, and can act collaterally as a conduit for the entry into the United States of illegal drugs, illegal human smuggling, and terrorist activities."

The Spanish investment consortium, Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., owned by the Madrid-based Groupo Ferrovial, is funding the construction of TTC-35 and will lease the highway for 50 years. To prevent more such foreign leasing of U.S. highways, HCR 40 notes as a risk that "a NAFTA Super Highway would likely include funds from foreign consortiums and be controlled by foreign management, which threatens the sovereignty of the United States."

Regarding SPP, HCR 40 states "reports issued by the SPP indicate that it has implemented regulatory changes among the three countries that circumvent United States trade, transportation, homeland security, and border security functions and that the SPP will continue to do so in the future."

Further, HCR 40 charges "the actions taken by the SPP to coordinate border security by eliminating obstacles to migration between Mexico and the United States actually makes the United States-Mexico border less secure, because Mexico is the primary source country of illegal immigrants into the United States."

The resolution calls for Congress to express its sentiment that:

* the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement Super Highway System;

* the United States should not allow the Security and Prosperity Partnership to implement further regulations that would create a North American Union with Mexico and Canada; and

* the president of the United States should indicate strong opposition to these acts or any other proposals that threaten the sovereignty of the United States.

As WND previously reported, in the 109th Congress, Goode had introduced HCR 487, which is substantially the same as the re-introduced HCR 40.

WND has also reported Goode has introduced two additional bills into the new Congress, with the intent of blocking any North American integration by the Bush administration. The two additional resolutions are:

* H.C.R. 18. Expressing disapproval by the House of Representatives of the Social Security totalization agreement signed by the Commissioner of Social Security and the Director General of the Mexican Social Security Institute June 29, 2004. Joined by 27 co-sponsors. Introduced Jan. 4, 2007.

* H.C.R. 22. Expressing the sense of Congress that the President should provide notice of withdrawal of the United States from NAFTA. Co-Sponsored by Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C.. Introduced Jan. 10, 2007.

HCR 40 currently has five co-sponsors, all Republicans: John J. Duncan Jr. of Tennessee, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, Jones of North Carolina, Ron Paul of Texas, Cliff Stearns of Florida and Zach Wamp of Tennessee.

North America activists
plotted 'stealth' strategy
Details of secret Banff meeting
released as part of FOIA request

Participants in a high-level, closed door, three-day conference on the integration of the three North American nations debated whether openness about goals was preferred to a stealthy policy of building infrastructure before a vision of the end result was even laid out to the people of the U.S., Mexico and Canada, according to notes obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Official notes taken on a session on "Border Infrastructure and Continental Prosperity" at the North American Forum in Banff, Canada, last September, reveal the internal debate over continued secrecy.

"While a vision is appealing, working on the infrastructure might yield more benefit and bring more people on board ('evolution by stealth')," record the notes discovered amid documents obtained by Judicial Watch.

Several speakers at the event emphasized the importance of "deepening economic integration," "integrating the energy infrastructure" and "the development of new institutions" between the three North American nations.

Participants promoted the idea of using popular issues, such as concern over climate change, to push integration of energy and environmental governance and the possibility of imposing a carbon tax.

Judicial Watch released yesterday the documents it received in a FOIA request from the U.S. Northern Command, whose commander, Admiral Timothy Keating, participated in the conference along with Northcom political adviser Deborah Bolton and Plans, Policy and Strategy Director Maj. General Mark Volcheff. A similar request concerning participation in the North American Forum meeting by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is still pending.

At least one attendee of the conference said the meeting was intended to subvert the democratic process. Mel Hurtig, a Canadian author and publisher elected as the leader of the National Party of Canada, told WND last fall the idea of the North American Forum is to move the countries toward integration without public consent or even knowledge.

"What is sinister about this meeting is that it involved high level government officials and some of the top and most powerful business leaders of the three countries and the North American Forum in organizing the meeting intentionally did not inform the press in any of the three countries," he said. "It was clear that the intention was to keep this important meeting about integrating the three countries out of the public eye."

The conference raised more suspicions about plans for the future merger of the U.S., Canada and Mexico – with topics ranging from "A Vision for North America," "Opportunities for Security Cooperation" and "Demographic and Social Dimensions of North American Integration."

Confirmed participants included Rumsfeld, former Secretary of State George Shultz, who serves as co-chairman of the North American Forum, former Central Intelligence Agency Director R. James Woolsey, former Immigration and Naturalization Services Director Doris Meissner, North American Union guru Robert Pastor, former Defense Secretary William Perry, former Energy Secretary and Defense Secretary James Schlesinger and top officials of both Mexico and Canada. But the only media member scheduled to appear at the event, according to documents obtained by WND, was the Wall Street Journal's Mary Anastasia O'Grady.

The event was organized by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the Canada West Foundation, an Alberta think-tank that promotes closer economic integration with the United States.

The next meeting of the North American Forum is set for Oct. 12-14 in Puerto Vallarta.

The Canadian event is another in a series of meetings, policy papers and directives that have citizens, officials and members of the media wondering whether these efforts represent some sort of coordinated effort to implement a "merger" some have characterized as "NAFTA on steroids."

Prominent at the Banff conference was Robert Pastor, an American University professor who wrote "Toward a North American Community," a book promoting the development of a North American union as a regional government and the adoption of the amero as a common monetary currency to replace the dollar and the peso.

Pastor also was vice chairman of the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force entitled "Building a North American Community" that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action within the executive branches of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada to transform the current trilateral Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America into a North American union regional government.

He calls for the establishment of a North American Community, which some view as a significant step toward a European Union-style system of regional or continental governance.

"Increasing interdependence offers additional costs and opportunities," he told the Banff audience. "To mitigate the dangers and expand the benefits of a more integrated and less regulated market requires continental plans and institutions. It requires a new consciousness among both leaders and people – a new way of thinking about our neighbors. This will take time, but we want to begin the journey."

Pastor continued: "Our purpose is to build a greater sense of being a part of North America. We do not want to displace the pride each of us feel in our countries, but rather to supplement that with a feeling of being North American. We do so not to build a fortress or to separate ourselves from the world. On the contrary, we want to connect better with our closest neighbors in order to strengthen our ability to compete in the world and to serve as a models for other regional groups."

Pastor said narrowing the gap in income "may be the single most important issue on the North American agenda." He pointed hopefully to a bill introduced June 29, 2006, by Sen. John Cornyn calling for a North American Investment Fund to channel grants to Mexico for this purpose. He failed to note, however, that Cornyn had already withdrawn his bill two months prior to the Banff conference after the senator was alerted by WND to the role it played in fostering regional government in North America.

11 states oppose North American Union
Eagle Forum working with legislators to halt globalists' plans

Eleven states are working on resolutions that would oppose not only the implementation but the idea of a "North American Union," or other plans that would lead to the integration of the United States into a larger structure.

"Americans are rapidly learning the new vocabulary of the globalists," Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum told WND, "and they don't like it."

While President Bush, many members of Congress, and Bush administration bureaucrats deny there are plans for a North American Union, under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, those in state legislatures are taking no chances.

Already, 11 states have introduced resolutions to oppose the SPP, the NAU, and even the idea of the amero, a proposed currency that could be used to replace the dollar.

The resolutions also typically oppose the creation of North American Free Trade Act superhighways along the model of the Trans-Texas Corridor, the car-truck-train-pipeline corridor that is four football-fields wide and is being built parallel to Interstate 35 from Laredo, Texas to the border with Oklahoma, south of Oklahoma City.

Schlafly told WND that those lawmakers, and their constituents, are reacting against a wide range of concepts and structures being generated by the increasing pace of the integration of North America they see under the Bush administration.

"That's why state legislators are responding with resolutions criticizing a 'North American Community,' SPP, 'harmonization' of regulations, NAFTA superhighways, foreign-owned toll roads, totalization of Social Security, and speculation about the amero," Schlafly explained. "The groundswell is growing against measures that lead to 'economic integration' with other countries."

Schlafly also has joined with Howard Philips of the Conservative Caucus to create an organization specifically opposing the NAU and NAFTA superhighways.

"Phyllis Schlafly is doing a magnificent job leading the charge to oppose the North American integration at the state level," Phillips told WND. "Once again, we see the genius of Eagle Forum being able to communicate a message throughout America in terms that mobilize voters to take action."

Robert Pastor is an American University professor who is using his book, "Toward a North American Community," to promote the development of a North American union as a regional government and the adoption of the amero as a common monetary currency to replace the dollar and the peso.

The resolutions are typically worded to oppose, in addition to SPP and the NAU, the construction of NAFTA Superhighways and the creation of the Amero as a North American unitary currency.

Anti-NAU resolutions have been introduced in the following state legislatures:

Arizona: Senate Concurrent Memorial 1002

Georgia: Senate Resolution 124

Illinois: House Joint Resolution 29

Missouri: Senate Concurrent Resolution 15 House Concurrent Resolution 33

Montana: House Joint Resolution 25

Oregon: Senate Joint Memorial 5

South Carolina: House Concurrent Resolution 3185 You also can find the bill here under "H 3185"

South Dakota: Senate Concurrent Resolution 7

Utah: House Joint Resolution 7

Virginia: Senate Joint Resolution 442

Washington: Senate Joint Memorial 8004 House Joint Memorial 4018

StopTheNAU tracks state legislative motions to oppose the SPP and NAU.

North American Union: Fact or fiction?
Exclusive: Henry Lamb provides evidence of efforts to destroy U.S. sovereignty

Reaction to reports about a possible North American Union have been robust, to say the least.

Reaction from a few conservative pundits is way beyond robust, nearing the ridiculous. Popular radio talk-show host, Michael Medved, describes the journalists reporting on the possible North American Union as '' ........ and creeps and jug-heads and drunks and reprobates.''

John Hawkins, a blogger at Right Wing News says claims about a North American Union are ''... not true at all.'' He then explains why he thinks the claims are false.

People who are unfamiliar with the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or the North America Free Trade Agreement, or the Trans-Texas Corridor, or the European Union could easily believe the very superficial analysis of these two, and other pundits who have ridiculed the formation of what could easily become a North American Union.

About the only thing that is correct in the reaction of either of these two pundits is the fact that no one is admitting officially that a North American Union is under construction.

What is quite publicly under construction is a ''North American Community,'' with the express goal of deeper ''integration'' of the economies and culture of the United States, Canada and Mexico. This North American Community is the brainchild of Dr. Robert Pastor, who, as co-chair of a special task force of the Council on Foreign Relations, produced a report entitled ''Building a North American Community.'' This report is essentially a regurgitation of Pastor's earlier book: ''Toward a North American Community.''

Among other goals, Pastor wants the three countries to:

* Adopt a common external tariff.
* Adopt a North American Approach to Regulation
* Establish a common security perimeter by 2010.
* Establish a North American investment fund
* Establish a permanent tribunal for North American dispute resolution.
* Hold an annual North American Summit meeting
* Establish minister-led working groups
* Create a North American Advisory Council
* Create a North American Inter-Parliamentary Group.

Pastor considers NAFTA to be '' ... the first draft of an economic constitution for North America,'' because it sets up the legal mechanism for achieving all his goals without bothering Congress.

The president apparently agrees with these goals, because he launched the Security and Prosperity Partnership in 2005, which consists of nearly 20 ''minister-led'' working groups, with appointed bureaucrats from each of the three countries, all working toward deeper ''integration'' through harmonization of procedures, rules and regulations – all of which is happening without bothering Congress.

While this is happening, Pastor, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Security and Prosperity Partnership all say they ''in no way, shape or form'' are working toward a North American Union. What they are working toward is Pastor's North American Community.

If it looks like a skunk, and smells like a skunk, it's probably a skunk – regardless of what you call it.

Is it just a coincidence that what is now the European Union began its life in 1957 as a customs union called the European Economic Community. A customs union is a free trade area with a common external tariff. The participant countries set up common external trade policies.

Do Robert Pastor's ideas point to a new and better direction, or are his ideas an echo of a treacherous past that robbed European nations of their independence, their currency and their sovereignty?

By following the European Union timeline, it is easy to see how the European ''Community'' evolved into a ''Common Market,'' and evolved its own currency, and finally established its own Parliament.

Look again at Pastor's goals. Are they not perfectly aligned with the history of the European Union? Again, it may be just a coincidence that the European Union was nurtured from the beginning by the Royal Institute for International Affairs. This non-government organization was created in 1920, by the same people who created its sister organization, the Council on Foreign Relations, in 1921.

Perhaps the North American Union is best described as a work in progress, having established a ''Common Market'' through NAFTA and CAFTA, and now approaching the ''Community'' stage through the Security and Prosperity Partnership. If the bureaucrats are not stopped by Congress, we will see, first, a ''North American Inter-Parliamentary Group,'' which is only a step away from a North American Parliament.

People, including pundits, who fail to see this work in progress could learn much from this NAU presentation. The NAU is moving quickly and quietly toward the same kind of political reality that now grips Europe. Only a concerned and enlightened constituency can compel elected officials to stop this erosion of America's sovereignty.

Commerce chief pushes for 'North American integration'
Communiqué shows SPP far more than just 'dialogue' with Canada, Mexico

While the Bush administration insists the controversial Security and Prosperity Partnership is just a dialogue with Canada and Mexico, a State Department cable released to WND shows Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez pressing to implement major trilateral initiatives to help "capture the vision of North American integration."

The cable was among some 150 pages of State Department SPP documents recently released to WND under a Freedom of Information Act request.

Howard Phillips, who has formed a coalition to block development of a "North American Union" and formation of NAFTA superhighways, told WND the document "makes clear that the agenda of SPP is to pursue major economic integration that redefines U.S. businesses into a 'North American' definition."

"By leading with economics, SPP is crafting a North American regulatory structure that transforms U.S. regulations by 'harmonizing' them with Mexican and Canadian regulations, all without specific congressional approval," said Phillips, chairman of the Conservative Caucus.

The State Department communiqué, dated May 20, 2005, documents a March 13, 2005, meeting between Gutierrez, Mexican Secretary of Economy Fernando Canales and Canadian Privy Council Assistant Secretary Phil Ventura. The meeting was held just prior to the announcement of SPP at the trilateral summit with the country's three leaders in Waco, Texas, March 23, 2005.

The cable notes Gutierrez opened the discussion by stressing that the July 23, 2005, "Report to Leaders" needed "to show results" that would be "enduring and create an on-going process."

Gutierrez suggested each working group should propose one "big ticket" issue, rather than the "50-60 smaller initiatives" that were then in the SPP "matrix," allowing the "SPP ministers" to capture the attention of the "SPP leaders" with major North American integration goals that were both tangible and important.

"This memo gives us an important 'behind the scenes' look at the trilateral bureaucratic process that gave rise to the "Report to Leaders.

The 2005 "Report to Leaders" on the SPP website, Phillips noted, resulted from a detailed process of trilateral bureaucratic meetings that led to cabinet-level discussions within the three governments. The end result, he said, was for the report to "focus on the major SPP working group initiatives that could advance the goal of North American integration."

Phillips contended a "close reading of the document makes a lie of the SPP 'myth vs. facts' contention that SPP is just a 'dialogue.'"

"The document quotes Canada's Ventura as stating that the three countries should prepare a joint document declaring their trilateral intention to 'integrate' a list of industries, including automobiles, pharmaceuticals, textiles, furniture, and steel," he argued. "Ventura said the more 'trilateral integrated' industries that could be listed, the better."

At the meeting, Gutierrez proposed that the SPP ministers think in terms of a trilateral "integrated" auto industry creating a "Made in North America Vehicle by 2009." He also suggested announcing "an IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) Violation Free Zone by 2010" and that SPP ministers should hold weekly conference calls to advance the agenda.

"The economic route being pursued behind closed doors by SPP working groups is a replay of the exact stealth route taken in Europe," Phillips noted.

"Right now the EU is celebrating with a series of television commercials the evolution over a 50-year period from an initial coal and steel agreement to a full-fledged European Union regional government with the euro as a regional currency," he said.

The recently uncovered State Department memo, Phillips added, makes clear the same bureaucratic process of regional integration is being implemented in North America within working group and minister meetings that are closed to the public and the press.

"The State Department memo also makes clear that Gutierrez is a major moving force driving the North American integration agenda for the Bush White House," Phillips said.

Supporting Phillips' contention, the State Department cable noted in the last paragraph the meeting got off to a slow start, but under Gutierrez's leadership "it resulted in concrete ideas and direction for the working groups."

Mexican truck stampede to hit U.S.!
Bush administration moving ahead despite congressional opposition

Despite congressional opposition, the Bush administration is fully committed to beginning within weeks a pilot test that will allow Mexican trucks to operate freely across the U.S.

A spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Ian Grossman, told WND the agency plans to grant the first authority for a Mexican trucking company to operate its long-haul rigs throughout the U.S. as early as the end of this month.

WND previously reported an amendment introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., into the Fiscal Year 2007 Supplemental Appropriations Bill is designed to block the Department of Transportation's pilot test until the Mexican government authorizes U.S. trucking companies to operate in Mexico.

WND also reported Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., has introduced the NAFTA Trucking Safety Act, designed to block the test until current FMSCA regulations regarding Mexican trucks operating beyond commercial zones along the international border are clarified and strengthened.

The Mexican trucking company can begin operating trucks in the U.S. immediately, once the FMCSA grants the authority, Grossman told WND.

Grossman explained granting authority to the 100 Mexican trucking companies specified under the DOT pilot test may take between four to six months to complete.

"The department is committed to moving forward with this program," he said, "and will continue to work with members of Congress to address their concerns."

Reaction from the Teamsters Union was immediate and sharp.

"The Department of Transportation can't enforce truck safety in the United States, let alone at the southern border," spokeswoman Leslie Miller told WND. "The Bush administration continues to show a reckless disregard for the will of Congress and the American people who oppose this illegal pilot project."

Rod Nofzinger, spokesman for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, was equally critical.

"Unfortunately, the administration is bound and determined to move forward with their Mexican trucking program despite the serious concerns that have been raised by the American public, Mexico-domiciled trucking companies and lawmakers on Capital Hill, both Republicans and Democrats alike," Nofzinger told WND.

"I have little doubt that they want to beat Congress to the finish line on this," Nofzinger continued. "They know that once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's awfully hard to get it back in. Once Mexican trucks start rolling throughout the U.S., it will be very difficult for Congress and the American people to turn them back, regardless of the safety and security risks that they'll be carrying with them."

Hunter also was critical of the FMCSA decision to begin implementing the Mexican truck pilot test immediately.

The congressman's spokesman, Joe Kasper, told WND Hunter has significant concerns about the program.

"Congressman Hunter maintains that compliance and enforcement standards must be clarified and strengthened before the pilot program is implemented," Kasper said. "Congressman Hunter will utilize the program's impending implementation as an opportunity to promote and continue highlighting the importance of the NAFTA Trucking Safety Act."

Responding to the congressional concerns, Grossman said Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta had certified in 2002 that DOT met each of the 22 safety requirements Congress in the Fiscal Year 2002 DOT Appropriations Bill demanded be met before allowing trucks from Mexico to drive beyond U.S. commercial zones along the border.

Kasper disagreed, insisting Mineta's certification was not enough.

"We need public disclosure of the safety requirements and public debate, including a DOT filing in the Federal Register before we approve this test," Kasper told WND.

"While the NAFTA Trucking Safety Act restates the safety conditions included in the FY2002 appropriations measure," Kasper continued, "the legislation goes further by requiring the implementation of English proficiency standards and data base accessibility for law enforcement officials to verify a driver's identification and criminal history."

Hunter's NAFTA Trucking Safety Act has been referred to several House committees, including House Transportation and Infrastructure; Homeland Security; Judiciary; and Ways and Means.

According to Kasper, the NAFTA Trucking Safety Act has collected 18 co-sponsors.

Asked to comment on the Feinstein amendment or Hunter's NAFTA Trucking Safety Act, Grossman told WND the FMCSA "was engaging in no speculation on the course of possible congressional legislation" regarding the Mexican truck pilot test.

Angry truckers to encircle D.C. with 'blockade'
Protesting administration plan to allow Mexican long-haulers on U.S. roads

American truckers plan to circle the White House and state capitals in a "rolling blockade" to protest a federal government plan to allow Mexican long-haul rigs to operate throughout the U.S.

Drivers who participate in "Truck-Out" also are being asked to run their rigs at the minimum speed permitted by law.

The protest is scheduled for April 23-25 to coordinate with the "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" rally and radio talk show marathon in Washington planned by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

"American truckers are going to have their jobs undercut or vanish into the hands of Mexican truck drivers as this Department of Transportation pilot project gains permanency," said Frosty Wooldridge, a writer and talk-show host who drove 18-wheelers for two decades.

Woolridge first called for the Truck-Out protest in a column at the end of March, asking truckers in the border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to participate.

The idea expanded to a national boycott when Wanda Piety, a California independent business owner, joined Wooldridge in planning "Truck-Out".

"Every American truck driver's job is at risk," Woolridge said. "American drivers are going to see their wages undermined or they will lose their jobs altogether to Mexican drivers and Mexican trucking companies."

As WND reported, despite congressional opposition, the Bush administration expects to begin within weeks a pilot test that will allow Mexican trucks to operate freely across the U.S.

A spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Ian Grossman, told WND the agency plans to grant the first authority as early as the end of this month.

WND previously reported an amendment introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., into the Fiscal Year 2007 Supplemental Appropriations Bill is designed to block the pilot test until the Mexican government authorizes U.S. trucking companies to operate in Mexico.

'Jobs will vanish'

Wooldridge told WND he expects Mexican truck drivers to haul loads for considerably less than half the cost of U.S. truck drivers.

"Jobs will vanish for American truckers," he contended. "The independents are going to be run right out of the business."

Working together, Piety and Wooldridge have created a website, SaveAmericaFund.org as the home of the boycott.

"The reaction we are getting to 'Truck-Out' has been overwhelmingly successful," Piety told WND. "We have thousands of truckers contacting us saying they will participate."

The plan calls for drivers to form a slow-moving line across major highways outlying Washington, D.C. and the state capitals of the lower 48 states.

"We want to circle the White House and the state capitals in a slow-rolling boycott," Piety explained. "As long as we keep moving, the trucks won't be ticketed. The truckers plan to drive the slowest minimum speed allowed by the law, running bumper-to-bumper and side-by-side across the highways to block up and jam up traffic."

Piety said the goal is to back up traffic behind the protest "as far as we can back it up."

"There's no law against anything we're doing," she said. "Even on the freeways, for trucks to go all the way across the freeway and back up traffic, there's no law that says that's illegal."

If police come and break up the protest, the truckers "will just go on down the road a ways and start up the protest up once again."

"We just want to continually have a cohesive flow of truckers boycotting going on, all across the nation, wherever we can get it to happen," Piety explained. "We want to let as many people to know as possible."

Piety told WND she sees the Department of Transportation's Mexican truck pilot test as part of a broader Bush administration plan to open the border.

"There's a problem in this country, and it revolves around George Bush's plans with Mexico," she said. "The plan to allow Mexican trucks into the U.S. is part of [the North America Free Trade Agreement] and we are opposed to that plan, just like we are opposed to NAFTA."

Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, the OOIDA, told WND his group shares "in the outrage that is being felt by the folks who are organizing and participating in the 'Truck-Out.'"

While OOIDA is not sponsoring or endorsing the protest, Spencer said the group is "encouraging our members to fully exercise their rights and responsibilities as American citizens to work within the system and convey their indignation to their elected officials."

"It is simply outrageous that our government plans to allow Mexican trucks full reign of U.S. highways before all safety, economic and homeland security concerns are completely and appropriately addressed," he said.

A Teamsters Union spokesman told WND the union was aware of "Truck-Out" but not involved.

"The union is concentrating on using its political clout to block the pilot program through the legislative process," Galen Munroe told WND.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., whose NAFTA Trucking Safety Act is now working its way through House committees, commented to WND on the "Truck-Out" boycott.

"The growing opposition to the pilot program and the overall effort to grant cross-border truckers immediate and direct access into the United States should not be ignored," he said.

"People have a right to be concerned with the Mexican truck pilot program," said Hunter, "especially when it could potentially compromise their safety and our nation's security."

Hunter stressed the reasons he has introduced the NAFTA Trucking Safety Act, noting it's "important that the implementing authority listen to and thoroughly address these concerns before moving forward with the program."

Wooldridge was a math-science teacher in Denver in the 1970s when he decided to supplement his salary by driving trucks in the summer.

For 21 summers, he was a long-haul driver for United Van Lines. For the last three years of his trucking career, Wooldridge was the head trainer and safety officer for Johnston Storage & Moving in Denver, a United Van Lines agency.

Wooldridge drove 18-wheel long-haul rigs in all 48 states of the lower U.S. and in Canada. He ran 48- and 53-foot freight boxes, with extensive experience on the Interstate highways.

Today, Wooldridge is a professional writer who specializes in non-fiction adventure books. He writes two columns a week on the Internet and hosts a radio show on the Republic Broadcasting Network twice a week.

Piety owns a private business in Los Angeles. She declined to name it because of her concern local pro-illegal immigration groups would harass her in response to organizing "Truck-Out."

NAFTA Superhighway hits bump in road
Given severe blow as Texas Legislature voting to block program

The Texas legislature moved closer to blocking the Trans-Texas Corridor last week with a bill that would place a two-year moratorium all public-private partnerships that would involve the construction of new toll roads financed and operated by private foreign investment groups.

Last Thursday, the Texas Senate unanimously approved Senate Bill 1267, requiring the study of long-term partnerships such as the Texas Department of Transportation recommended in the construction of TTC-35, a four-football-fields-wide NAFTA superhighway financed and operated for 50 years by the Cintra investment consortium in Spain.

The Texas Senate action takes place less than two weeks after the Texas House passed by a 137-2 margin House Bill 1892 that includes virtually identical language to the anti-TTC bill passed by the Senate.

The wide margins by which both measures passed assured seasoned observers of Texas politics that the anti-superhighway, two-year moratorium will likely pass both houses of the Texas legislature with more than enough votes to override a likely veto by Governor Rick Perry, a stalwart supporter of the Trans-Texas Corridor concept.

This measure follows a hotly contested Texas gubernatorial race in which Governor Perry faced anti-TTC competition from all three rivals – Carole Keaton Strayhorn, a Republican-turned-independent, a former comptroller of the state who fashioned herself as "One Tough Grandma"; Kinky Friedman, an outspoken independent with a characteristic mustache and limited goatee known for his country-and-western troubadour style and his ever present cowboy hat and cigar; and Democratic candidate Chris Bell.

Perry won re-election with 41 percent of the vote, which was widely interpreted by superhighway opponents as a 3-2 vote against the foreign-financed toll road concept.

In the hotly contested summer round of public hearings throughout Texas, strong local opposition was voiced to Perry's plan to build a 4,000-mile system throughout Texas over a 50-year period, removing in the process some 580,000 acres of land from public tax rolls and displacing an estimated 1 million Texans from their ranches, farms, businesses, and homes through eminent domain.

The moratorium vote by the Texas legislature also comes as a strong rebuke of the Bush administration, under which the Federal Highway Administration has devoted a section of the agency's website devoted to teaching state governments how to implement "PPP" projects designed to lease public highways to investment consortia desiring to run the roads a toll roads under long-term leases.

In March 2004, the city of Chicago leased the Chicago Skyway to an investment syndicate that included Cintra of Spain and Macquarie, an Australian private investment group.

In September 2005, Cintra and Macquarie finalized a long-term lease to operate the Indiana Toll Road.

In June 2006, negotiations were completed by the Virginia Department of Transportation with Macquarie to operate the Pocahontas Parkway under a similar long-term PPP lease.

Feds threaten Texas over superhighway funds
Transportation Department opposes bills delaying NAFTA project

The Federal Highway Administration has threatened Texas with the loss of federal highway funds if the state continues with its legislative plan for a two-year funding moratorium on construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

In the 4-page letter, FHWA Chief Counsel James D. Ray advises Michael Behrens, executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, some of the pending legislative proposals, if signed into law, "could affect the State’s eligibility for receiving Federal-aid highway funds."

Ray praises Texas for being "the nation's leader in developing new transportation facilities through public private partnerships."

But the letter expresses concern that the Texas Legislature is nearing passage of a two-year moratorium blocking planned Trans-Texas Corridor toll-road projects.

"We do not see the benefit of a moratorium if the State has already committed to legislation for a continuation of the program," Ray wrote, adding, "If Texas looses (sic) the initiative it now has, private funds now flowing to Texas will go elsewhere."

"We stand ready to work with Texas officials to ensure continued compliance with all of the applicable Federal laws and regulations. We wish to make sure that Texas can continue to receive the full benefits available under the Federal-aid Highway Program," he concluded.

David Stall, co-founder of the website CorridorWatch.org, alerted WND the federal agency was preparing the letter.

During a Wednesday morning teleconference, James Ray, chief counsel and acting deputy director of the FHWA, reportedly told the Trans-Texas Corridor Citizens Advisory Committee that the federal agency was preparing a letter to place the Texas Department of Transportation on notice that the proposed action by the Texas Legislature would jeopardize access to federal highway funds.

The Trans-Texas Corridor Citizens Advisory Committee is a group of citizens organized by the state transportation department to offer advice on projects concerning the Trans-Texas Corridor.

The federal agency did not respond to WND requests for comment, but Stall had an opinion.

"As you might guess, we greatly object to federal interference in state affairs and the attempt to influence public policy at the state level," Stall told WND via e-mail.

Stall told WND that Ray's letter was prompted by a request from Texas Rep. Mike Krusee, Williamson County, who sent a note to the FHWA asking for an opinion specifically on HB1892, the House version of the moratorium.

Krusee, a Republican, is a long-time supporter of the TTC toll-road project. In November 2006, he was re-elected with barely 50 percent of the vote in a campaign in which his TTC support was contested.

WND has reported previously that two different bills have passed the Texas House and Senate, and both are aimed at imposing a two-year moratorium on all public-private partnerships that would involve construction of new toll roads financed and operated by private foreign investment groups.

The large margins by which the moratorium bills have been approved suggest the legislature has the votes to override an anticipated veto by Gov. Rick Perry.

Battle with feds brewing over 'superhighway'
Texas legislators overwhelmingly pass bill blocking construction

A battle between Texas and the Bush administration is brewing over construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor after the state legislature passed a two-year moratorium.

The Texas House passed HB1892 Wednesday after the Senate last week approved an earlier version of the moratorium on a project some critics see as part of a "NAFTA superhighway" system and ties with Canada and Mexico that threaten U.S. sovereignty. The bill has been sent to Gov. Rick Perry for signature by May 14, but it passed with veto-proof margins of 27-4 in the Senate and 139-1 in the House.

The Bush administration appears determined to fight the moratorium.

WND reported last week FHWA Chief Counsel James D. Ray wrote a four-page letter to Michael Behrens, executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, threatening the loss of federal highway funds if the legislature were to pass a two-year moratorium of the public-private partnership financed by Cintra, an investment consortium in Spain.

WND previously has reported TTC-35, the nation's first NAFTA superhighway, is a four-football-field wide car-truck-train-pipeline toll road the Texas Department of Transportation plans to build parallel to Interstate 35 from Laredo, Texas, to the Texas-Oklahoma border south of Oklahoma City.

TTC is a public-private-partnership heavily promoted on the FHWA website, largely because the corridor will be financed by Cintra, an investment consortium in Spain that will manage the toll road under a 50-year lease.

On Tuesday, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R–Texas, wrote to the Federal Highway Administration objecting to a threatening letter the agency recently wrote the Texas Department of Transportation.

Hutchinson wrote J.Richard Capka, the FHWA administrator, charging that Ray's letter "placed a cloud over current actions being taken in the Texas Legislature."

Hutchinson further wrote that as "someone who has worked to increase Texas' share of federal transportation dollars, I understand the need to make sure that Texas has all options to leverage funds."

Hutchinson cautioned, "While the administration plays a valuable role in providing technical guidance and assistance for states considering legislation which may impact federal funds, there is a fine line between analysis and advocacy in those deliberations."

Hutchinson invited Capka to take steps to remove the threatening impression caused by Ray's letter.

In the looming battle, the Bush administration can expect to find an ally in Rep. Mike Krusee of Williamson County, Texas.

WND has confirmed a previous report that Ray's letter was prompted by a request Krusee sent to FHWA asking for an opinion specifically on HB1892, the version of the moratorium that passed the Texas House.

WND also previously reported Krusee was a prime mover of the enabling legislation the Texas legislature passed paving the way for the TTC project. In November 2006, Krusee barely won re-election to the Texas legislature, after a campaign in which his support of TTC development was hotly contested.

In a scathing attack on Krusee, the Texas blog EyeonWilliamson.org posted charges that Krusee has pursued a private consulting contract to help consultant Wilbur Smith Associates, a transportation infrastructure consulting firm, shepherd a proposal through the Department of Transportation's "Corridor of the Future" grant competition.

Wilbur Smith Associates proposes to build a new cross-country toll road along the Interstate 10. The Wilbur Smith proposal was designed to meet the "Corridor of the Future" emphasis on public-private partnerships of the type Krusee has pushed for years through the Texas legislature.

On Feb. 1, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters announced that the Interstate-10 proposal was among the eight "Corridor of the Future" finalists.

Krusee was also invited Feb. 9 to speak at an invitation-only White House "Transportation Leadership Summit," which EyeonWilliamson.org took to be "evidence of Krusee's ever-increasing favor with the Bush administration.

WND contacted Krusee's office and asked a series of specific questions, including whether Krusee had a business relationship with Wilbur Smith Associates, as charged by EyeonWilliamson.org.

Instead of answering the specific questions, James Walpole, a spokesman for Krusee, e-mailed to WND a press release.

The statement affirmed Krusee had asked FHWA for an opinion on the moratorium bill

"Since I had questions about whether the tollway moratorium now passed by the Senate would jeopardize precious federal highway funding," the press release read, "I asked the federal highway administration to give its opinion."

WND also has reported the Texas ports of Houston and Corpus Christi are planning to accommodate megaships from China that will pass through an expanded Panama Canal. Both ports are working with the Texas Department of Transportation to connect with TTC projects for the Chinese containers to be transported inland.

Anti-'superhighway' bill prompts backlash
Head of group promoting 'SuperCorridor' fires back at critics

The director of North America's SuperCorridor Coalition has gone to war against an Oklahoma state legislator, trying to distance the tri-national group from any identification with a new "NAFTA Superhighway" or any movement to evolve NAFTA into a North American Union.

The conflict began when Republican Oklahoma state Sen. Randy Brogdon entered an amendment to an Oklahoma bill (HB 1819) requiring the state's Department of Transportation "shall be prohibited from participating or entering any negotiations or agreement with NASCO."

Brogdon's amendment further specified, "No state funds or federal funds dedicated for state use, shall be used for any international, integrated, or multi-modal transportation system."

Brogdon also has sponsored Senate Concurrent Resolution 10, an Oklahoma legislature resolution urging the U.S. to withdraw from the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America and any other activity that seeks to create a North American Union, and to oppose any NAFTA superhighways.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 10 has passed the Oklahoma Senate and is now before the Oklahoma House.

Industry sources tell WND that NASCO Executive Director Tiffany Melvin is traveling to Oklahoma to argue her case directly with Oklahoma legislators, opposing both Brogdon-introduced measures.

HB 1819 appears designed to promote ODOT's increased involvement in the "Ports-to-Plains Corridor," a four-state NAFTA superhighway corridor stretching from Laredo, Texas, across Oklahoma and New Mexico to Denver.

Yet HB1819 is loosely written, suggesting ODOT will enter one or more memoranda of understanding with the U.S. Department of Transportation to implement a pilot project under the auspices of the Federal Highway Administration.

The Ports-to-Plains Corridor Coalition, a trade association headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, describes the project as a "planned, multimodal transportation corridor including a multi-lane divided highway that will facilitate the efficient transportation of goods and services from Mexico, through West Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma, and ultimately on into Canada and the Pacific Northwest."

According to a Ports-to-Plains Corridor website maintained by the Colorado Department of Transportation, the current goal is to obtain federal funding for development of the corridor.

A press release on the Texas Department of Transportation website confirms the agency is looking for a public-private-partnership to help finance the construction of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor.

NASCO attacks critics

Prior to her trip to Oklahoma, Melvin sent sympathetic state legislatures position papers attacking NASCO critics.

One such NASCO position paper, entitled "NASCO and Oklahoma" charged:

In recent months a few poorly informed and conspiracy-minded groups have falsely alleged NASCO's efforts to enhance business and trade in North America include such aims as the promotion and/or construction of 'a NAFTA superhighway,' that would undermine U.S. national sovereignty, promote illegal immigration and harm the U.S. economy. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The position paper continued to name the Arizona-based Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and the "ultra-right-wing" John Birch Society as attempting to convince the public that "there exists a genuine, active governmental conspiracy to merge the sovereign nations of Mexico, the United States and Canada into a North American Union."

A NASCO position paper entitled, "Who we are, what we stand for, and why the fervent devotion to transportation efficiency," claims: "In actual fact, there are no plans to build a 'new NAFTA Superhighway.' It already exists today as I-35 and branches."

WND has obtained a copy of an internal memo written by Melvin July 21, 2006. The document was obtained as part of an Oklahoma open records request.

In the memo, Melvin advises repositioning of NASCO's "talking points," suggesting they support only existing transportation systems.

Melvin stressed: "We have to stay away from 'Super-Corridor' because it is a very bad, hot button right now."

'Corridor of the Future'

In an internal memo written Sept. 21, 2006, Melvin announced NASCO's intention of submitting a proposal to the "Corridors of the Future" grant competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Here Melvin wrote: "We are THE Corridor of the Future. With all that is going on along this corridor (I-35), we MUST receive this designation."

The final proposal NASCO submitted in the DOT "Corridor of the Future" competition focused on NAFTRACS, a NASCO project to further develop the I-35 corridor with a new system of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) sensors designed to monitor and track international trade containers.

As WND previously reported, Lockheed Martin has engaged with NASCO in the NAFTRACS (North American Facilitation of Transportation, Trade, Reduced Congestion and Security) project to place cargo monitoring sensors along the NAFTA superhighway from Mexico to Canada.

WND also reported the Chinese firm Hutchison Port Holdings was involved as a joint venture partner with Savi Technology, the Lockheed Martin subsidiary contracted to implement NAFTRACS for NASCO.

NASCO's application was not accepted as a semi-finalist in the DOT "Corridor of the Future" competition.

cont'd

DOT spokesmen consistently have refused to provide WND any explanation why NASCO's application was denied.

Also documenting NASCO's determination to expand the I-35 corridor is an internal e-mail from Dawn Sullivan at ODOT to Melvin, dated Nov. 25, 2006.

In the e-mail, Sullivan asks Melvin the following question: "Have you guys sent out an RFP (Request for Proposal) for a study to look at expanding the Trans Texas Corridor into OK?"

WND repeatedly has reported the Federal Highway Administration is promoting public-private partnership projects to bring private capital to expanding superhighway projects, consistent with extending TTC-35 north into Oklahoma.

NASCO consistently has refused to accept repeated challenges to repudiate plans by the Texas Department of Transportation, a NASCO member, to build parallel to Interstate 35 a new Trans-Texas Corridor project, TTC-35, expected to be a four-football-fields-wide automobile-truck-train-pipeline corridor stretching from Laredo, Texas, to the Oklahoma border.

The Ports-to-Plains Corridor was identified as one of 43 "High Priority Corridors" in the Transportation Equity Act of the 21st Century.

According to AARoads.com, the route of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor was defined by two subsequent bills. The 2001 Transportation Department Appropriations Act authorized the routing of the corridor through Texas. A separate bill relating solely to the routing of this corridor was signed October 30, 2002. The second law provided the precise routing of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor through Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado.

In June 2001, Wilbur Smith Associates, a long-term consultant to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, prepared a Ports-to-Plains Corridor "Feasibility Study," for the Departments of Transportation in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado.

WND reported the ties between Texas representative Michael Krusee, a prime mover of the TTC projects in the Texas legislature, and Wilbur Smith Associates.

WND also reported Wilbur Smith Associates successfully shepherded a proposal to the Phase 2 level in the U.S. DOT Corridors of the Future competition. The Wilbur Smith proposal involves building a new cross-country toll road along the Interstate 10 right-of-way.

WND has identified NASCO as promoting a NAFTA Superhighway extending from Mexico to Canada, primarily along the Interstate 10 route, maintaining NASCO actively seeks to develop this route with new projects, including the Trans-Texas Corridor.

"NASCO News" reported on the National RFID Center website in July 2006 that NASCO President George Blackwood and Melvin traveled to the Port of Manzanillo, Mexico, for the first meeting of the NASCO Mexico committee.

NASCO background

NASCO's meeting in Mexico included more than 25 representatives from the public and private sectors and "inland ports" in Mexico, representing the states of Colima, Michoacán, Jalisco, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, Hidalgo and Aguas Calientes.

The goal of NASCO's July 2006 meeting in Mexico was "to promote multimodal infrastructure in Mexico and strengthen North American competitiveness in Mexico."

WND reported U.S. DOT Undersecretary Jeffrey Shane was severely criticized when he testified to Congress recently that NAFTA Superhighways were an "urban legend."

Also, DOT Secretary Norman Y. Mineta gave a April 30, 2004, speech at a NASCO forum in Fort Worth, Texas, in which he referred to Interstate Highways 35, 29, and 94 – the core highways supported by NASCO – as a "vital artery in our national transportation through which so much of our NAFTA traffic flows."

WND has reported 12 state legislatures already have passed anti-SPP, anti-NAU, anti-NAFTA Superhighway resolutions, with the number expected to grow.

The NASCO website confirms the State of Oklahoma is a member of the trade association.

Students join 'North American Parliament'
Youth come from U.S., Canada, Mexico to train

A group supporting North American integration is preparing to hold its annual "North American Model Parliament" for students from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The North American Forum on Integration, or NAFI, is scheduled to hold "Triumvirate," in Washington, D.C., May 20–25.

NAFI, according to the group's website, is as a non-profit organization based in Montreal, dedicated to "address the issues raised by North American integration as well as identify new ideas and strategies to reinforce the North American region."

The group's support of North American integration is documented by an objective listed to "identify the elements of the North American agenda which would allow the consolidation and reinforcement of the North American region."

Qualifying students are undergraduates or graduate students who have "an interest in North American integration" and are bilingual among English, French and Spanish.

Students will pay $845 in fees to attend if registered after Dec. 16, 2006.

Rotated each year between the three countries, NAFI bills the mock parliament as "Triumvirate – the only North American model parliament."

The participating students get to role play as parliamentary legislators, newspaper and television journalists.

A variety of issues pertinent to the formation and operation of a North American Community are debated by the mock parliament, including expanding immigration, stimulating investment in Mexico and revising NAFTA to move in the direction of becoming a regional government.

This year's Triumvirate themes are listed as the creations of a customs union, water management, human trafficking and telecommunications in North America.

Last year's Triumvirate 2006 was held in the Mexican Senate.

Triumvirate 2005, the first NAFI mock North American Parliament, was held in Ottawa, Canada.

As WND reported, Raymond Chretien, the president of the Triumvirate and the former Canadian ambassador to both Mexico and the U.S., was quoted as claiming the exercise was intended to be more than academic.

"The creation of a North American parliament, such as the one being simulated by these young people, should be considered," he told WND.

On the NAFI board of director are M. Stephen Blank, Ph.D., director of the North American Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University and Robert A. Pastor, Ph.D., director of the Center for North American Studies at American University.

Stephan Blank is the driving force behind the North America Works conference.

North America Works II, held in Kansas City, Mo, Dec. 1-2, 2006, was organized by the David Rockefeller-created Council of the Americas to discuss "North American Competitiveness and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP)."

A summer institute brochure on the website of the Center for North American Studies includes a photograph of Pastor and the students posed before a lawn marker with the words "The American University" inscribed in the stone.

Above the stone marker, the students held up a printed sign that said "North," such that the inscription read "The North American University."

As WND reported, Pastor's 2001 book, Toward a North American Community, argued North American integration should advance through development of a "North American consciousness" by creating various institutions which include a North American Customs Union and a North American Development Fund for the economic advance of Mexico.

Pastor also was vice chairman of the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force report, Building a North American Community, that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action though trilateral "working groups" constituted within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico, and Canada to advance the North American integration agenda.

Goodbye U.S. dollar, hello global currency
CFR chief: Monetary nationalism, sovereignty should be abandoned

The director of international economics at the Council of Foreign Relations has launched a scathing attack on sovereignty and national currencies.

Benn Steil, writing in the current issue of CFR's influential Foreign Affairs magazine, says "the world needs to abandon unwanted currencies, replacing them with dollars, euros, and multinational currencies as yet unborn."

In the article, "The End of National Currency," Steil clearly asserts the dollar and the euro are temporary currencies, perhaps necessary today. He argues "economic development outside the process of globalization is no longer possible."

His inevitable conclusion is "countries should abandon monetary nationalism."

Steil tempers his embrace of one world currency, writing, "Governments should replace national currencies with the dollar or the euro or, in the case of Asia, collaborate to produce a new multinational currency over a comparably large and economically diversified area."

He concludes: "It is the market that made the dollar into global money – and what the market giveth, the market can taketh away. If the tailors balk and the dollar falls, the market may privatize money on its own."

The "tailors" Steil has in mind are the world's central bankers. He advises that the U.S. needs "to perpetuate the sound money policies of former Federal Reserve chairmen Paul Volker and Alan Greenspan and return to long-term fiscal discipline." In our current era of large and growing trade imbalances and over $35 trillion in GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) accounted federal deficits, these targets appear unlikely.

Steil concludes "the foreign tailors, with their massive and growing holdings of dollar debt" no longer feel "wealthy and secure" in the economic environment of a resultant falling dollar. The inevitable conclusion is that the dollar, too, may be on the way out.

Steil's essay is antagonistic to the ideas of sovereignty and national currencies.

He writes, "The right course is not to return to a mythical past of monetary sovereignty, with governments controlling local interest and exchange rates in blissful ignorance of the rest of the world. Governments must let go of the fatal notion that nationhood requires them to make and control the money used in their territory."

Steil has ultimate confidence that economic globalism is irreversible, with national currencies doomed to the dustbin of history.

"In order to globalize safely," he advises, "countries should abandon monetary nationalism and abolish unwanted currencies, the source of much of today's instability."

Steil believes continued economic growth demands a global flow of capital unimpeded by the barriers inherent to "monetary nationalism." He asserts barriers created by monetary nationalism, such as national exchange rates or national monetary policy regimes, inevitably impede capital flow and cause currency crises as a consequence.

Steil fundamentally argues, "Monetary nationalism is simply incompatible with globalism."

Since Steil believes that only globalism offers the unrestrained flow of capital needed for worldwide economic development, he contends even re-establishing a gold standard would be counter-productive when the only real solution is to abandon the idea that nations have any reason to create currencies at all.

Throughout his analysis, Steil cautions that dependence upon the dollar or the euro as global currencies is not fundamental to his argument.

He stresses that "the dollar's privileged status as today's global money is not heaven-bestowed. The dollar is ultimately just another money supported only by faith that others will willingly accept it in the future in return for the same sort of valuable things it bought in the past."

In other words, if the institutions of the U.S. government fail to validate that faith, the dollar, too, merits being abandoned.

"Reckless U.S. fiscal policy is undermining the dollar's position even as the currency's role as a global money is expanding," he notes.

Steil imagines the ultimate solution is to privatize a global currency through a gold-based international monetary system.

"A new gold-based international monetary system surely sounds far-fetched," he concludes. "But so, in 1900 did a monetary system without gold. Modern technology makes a revival of gold money, through private gold banks, possible even without government support."

WND previously reported Steve Previs, a vice president at Jeffries International Ltd., in London, told CNBC Nov. 27, 2006, the amero "is the proposed new currency for the North American Community which is being developed right now between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico."

A video clip of the CNBC interview with Jeffries is now available for viewing at YouTube.com.

WND also has reported a continued slide in the value of the dollar on world currency markets could set up conditions in which the adoption of the amero as a North American currency gains momentum.

The amero was first proposed as a North American unitary currency by Canadian economist Herbert G. Grubel of the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In a publication entitled "The Case for the Amero," Grubel argued that a North American monetary union would eliminate the costs of currency trading and risk, furthering the development of a North American common market along the model of the European Common Market.

Robert Pastor, director of the Center for North American Studies at American University, supported Grubel's arguments for the amero.

In his 2001 book entitled Toward a North American Community, Pastor supported Grubel's suggestion that the creation of the amero would be accompanied by the creation of a Central Bank of North America, similar to the European Central Bank.

Grubel's argument on the amero has also been published as a book in Spanish, entitled El Amero: Una Moneda Comun para Améica del Norte, published by CIDAC (Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo), the Center for Research for Development in Mexico.

Students join 'North American Parliament'
Youth come from U.S., Canada, Mexico to train
Posted: May 9, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

A group supporting North American integration is preparing to hold its annual "North American Model Parliament" for students from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The North American Forum on Integration, or NAFI, is scheduled to hold "Triumvirate," in Washington, D.C., May 20–25.

NAFI, according to the group's website, is as a non-profit organization based in Montreal, dedicated to "address the issues raised by North American integration as well as identify new ideas and strategies to reinforce the North American region."

The group's support of North American integration is documented by an objective listed to "identify the elements of the North American agenda which would allow the consolidation and reinforcement of the North American region."

Qualifying students are undergraduates or graduate students who have "an interest in North American integration" and are bilingual among English, French and Spanish.

Students will pay $845 in fees to attend if registered after Dec. 16, 2006.

Rotated each year between the three countries, NAFI bills the mock parliament as "Triumvirate – the only North American model parliament."

The participating students get to role play as parliamentary legislators, newspaper and television journalists.

A variety of issues pertinent to the formation and operation of a North American Community are debated by the mock parliament, including expanding immigration, stimulating investment in Mexico and revising NAFTA to move in the direction of becoming a regional government.

This year's Triumvirate themes are listed as the creations of a customs union, water management, human trafficking and telecommunications in North America.

Last year's Triumvirate 2006 was held in the Mexican Senate.

Triumvirate 2005, the first NAFI mock North American Parliament, was held in Ottawa, Canada.

As WND reported, Raymond Chretien, the president of the Triumvirate and the former Canadian ambassador to both Mexico and the U.S., was quoted as claiming the exercise was intended to be more than academic.

"The creation of a North American parliament, such as the one being simulated by these young people, should be considered," he told WND.

On the NAFI board of director are M. Stephen Blank, Ph.D., director of the North American Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University and Robert A. Pastor, Ph.D., director of the Center for North American Studies at American University.

Stephan Blank is the driving force behind the North America Works conference.

North America Works II, held in Kansas City, Mo, Dec. 1-2, 2006, was organized by the David Rockefeller-created Council of the Americas to discuss "North American Competitiveness and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP)."

A summer institute brochure on the website of the Center for North American Studies includes a photograph of Pastor and the students posed before a lawn marker with the words "The American University" inscribed in the stone.

Above the stone marker, the students held up a printed sign that said "North," such that the inscription read "The North American University."

The "North" American University

As WND reported, Pastor's 2001 book, Toward a North American Community, argued North American integration should advance through development of a "North American consciousness" by creating various institutions which include a North American Customs Union and a North American Development Fund for the economic advance of Mexico.

Pastor also was vice chairman of the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force report, Building a North American Community, that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action though trilateral "working groups" constituted within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico, and Canada to advance the North American integration agenda.

Rudy Giuliani tied
to 'superhighways'
Law firm represents consortia
funding NAFTA-related routes

Questions are being raised over Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani's policy on terrorism, after a report revealed he has strong ties to two foreign investment consortia working to own or lease U.S. toll roads, including the Trans-Texas Corridor 35, which is identified as part of the I-35 "NAFTA Superhighway."

Although he opposed NAFTA in 1993, Giuliani recently declined to call for building a fence on the United States border with Mexico, and he has supported a guest-worker program.

Columnist Michelle Malkin also has documented that while mayor of New York City, Giuliani kept the municipality a sanctuary city for illegal aliens, adhering to a policy first established by Mayor Ed Koch in 1989.

Now comes a new report about Giuliani's involvement with public-private-partnership projects that include NAFTA Superhighway funding and his open borders record on immigration questions, all of which could undermine his otherwise tough policy on terrorism that has resulted from the 9/11 role Giuliani played in managing New York City's response to the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Giuliani's Houston-based law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, is identified by the Texas Department of Transportation as the sole law firm representing Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., the Spanish investment consortium that has joined with Zachry Construction Company in San Antonio on the TTC project.

WND previously reported that TTC-35 is the new four-football-fields-wide car-truck-train-pipeline corridor to be built parallel to the existing I-35 as the Texas segment of the emerging Mexico-to-Canada I-35 NAFTA Superhighway.

Bracewell & Giuliani also has advised Cintra on the completion of the Comprehensive Development Agreement negotiated with Texas to develop State Highway 121 into a toll road through Collin and Denton counties.

The state highway department also gave Cintra a 50-year concession to operate SH 121 as a toll road, with Cintra agreeing to pay $2.1 billion upfront and annual lease payments totaling $700 million.

In addition, Bracewell & Giuliani successfully negotiated a $1.3 billion deal with TxDOT for Cintra-Zachry to build the remaining 40 miles of State Highway 130 as a toll road.

WND also has reported that Giuliani Capital Advisors was acquired in March by Macquarie, an Australian investment consortium which has also been involved in leasing and operating U.S. toll roads.

Further, the Federal Highway Administration has created a public-private-partnerships website on which both Cintra and Macquarie are featured as joint venture partners in the 2005 deal involving $1.83 billion paid to the City of Chicago to operate the Chicago Skyway under a 99-year lease.

The FHWA website also discloses that Cintra and Macquarie partnered in the $3.85 billion 2006 deal to operate the Indiana Toll Road on a 75-year lease.

WND has previously reported EuroMoney Seminars, a UK-based company, is holding seminars to teach state and local governments in the U.S. how to lease a wide range of public assets – from highways to water departments, to prisons and schools – to international and foreign investment groups.

Just this month, independent journalist Diane Grassi first broke the story of Giuliani's involvement with the NAFTA Superhighway, writing that, "All negotiations for Cintra were and are presently handled by the law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, LLP, of which Republican Presidential candidate, Rudolph Giuliani, has been a senior executive partner since March 2005. His law firm is the exclusive legal counsel for Cintra."

The New York Sun also earlier reported that an October 2002 contract between Mexico City and Giuliani Partners, a Giuliani consulting firm, to reduce crime was a failure.

Giuliani began the project in January 2003 with a fanfare initial tour of Mexico City that included a motorcade of a dozen bulletproof SUVs, 400 officers, and a helicopter.

Still, the Sun reported that Giuliani Partners ended up being paid less than the full $4.3 million contract price tag, despite some 20 trips to Mexico City booked by Giuliani associates over a 10-month period.

In December 2004, Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, resigned as CEO of Giuliani-Kerik, a law enforcement-oriented subsidiary of Giuliani Partners, amidst the various scandals that developed following Kerik's nomination by President Bush to head the Department of Homeland Security.

House Votes to Put Brakes on Bush Administration Plan to Allow Mexican Trucks on U.S. Highways

The House voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to delay a Bush administration plan to allow Mexican trucks full access to U.S. highways.

The trucks would have to be declared safe first, the lawmakers said, and Mexico would have to give U.S. truckers the same access south of the border.

The House voted 411-3 to approve a three-year Department of Transportation pilot program that would restrict opening the border to 100 carriers based in Mexico. They would be allowed to use a maximum of 1,000 vehicles under the pilot program.

The Bush administration wanted to start a pilot program this year that would run for a year before fully opening the border to Mexican trucks.

The House bill, however, specifies criteria for the pilot program before it can start, including setting up an independent panel to evaluate the test program and getting certification from the inspector general that safety and inspection requirements have been met.

The Department of Transportation says it could be as late as 2008 before Congress's criteria are met, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Lawmakers said their major concern is whether Mexican trucks, often older than U.S. cargo vehicles, and Mexican drivers will be able to meet rigorous U.S. safety standards.

"We do not need 90,000-pound unguided missiles on our highways," said Rep. Robin Hayes, R-N.C.

American trucking companies have spent years getting their vehicles up to the Transportation Department standards, lawmakers said. Letting Mexican trucks across the border without making them meet those standards is wrong, they said.

"We're going to have a major accident somewhere, and people are going to say, 'How did this happen?" said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif.

Added Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich: "We need to ensure that this program only takes places after the Mexican companies meet the same conditions that American companies do."

Lawmakers also complained that allowing Mexican trucks greater access will cost American truckers their jobs.

"You can get a Mexican truck driver to work for a heck of a lot less than a Teamster in the United States, and you can get a Mexican dock worker to work for a heck of a lot less than a longshoreman in the United States and that's what this is ultimately designed to do," said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.

The Bush administration had planned to run a yearlong pilot program that would allow Mexican trucks beyond the current 20-mile limit from the border but the launch was halted after complaints from Congress.

Since 1982, trucks have had to stop within the buffer zone and transfer their loads to U.S. truckers to take them into the country. The legislation would allow Mexican drivers to take their loads from Mexico to any point within the country.

Supporters of the plan say letting more Mexican trucks on U.S. highways will save American consumers hundreds of millions of dollars. They include many in the trucking industry, the Bush administration and lawmakers who favor the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

Access to all U.S. highways was promised by 2000 under the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, as was access through Mexico for U.S. carriers. That aspect has been stalled by lawsuits and disagreements between the two countries, though Canadian and U.S. trucks travel freely across the northern border.

North America 'partnership'
fast-tracked in border bill
Calls for speedier regional economic
integration between U.S., Mexico

The controversial "Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007," which would grant millions of illegal aliens the right to stay in the U.S. under certain conditions, contains provisions for the acceleration of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a plan for North American economic and defense integration, WND has learned.

The bill, as worked out by Senate and White House negotiators, cites the SPP agreement signed by President Bush and his counterparts in Mexico and Canada March 23, 2005 – an agreement that has been criticized as a blueprint for building a European Union-style merger of the three countries of North America.

"It is the sense of Congress that the United States and Mexico should accelerate the implementation of the Partnership for Prosperity to help generate economic growth and improve the standard of living in Mexico, which will lead to reduced migration," the draft legislation states on page 211 on the version time-stamped May 18, 2007 11:58 p.m.

Since agreement on the major provisions of the bill was announced late last week, a firestorm of opposition has ignited across the country. Senators and representatives are reporting heavy volumes of phone calls and emails expressing outrage with the legislation they believe represents the largest "amnesty" program ever contemplated by the federal government.

President Bush yesterday attempted to tackle the concerns of those opposing the bill – denying again he would ever support an "amnesty" bill. The Senate is expected to begin debating the measure this week.

In its current form, the bill would offer probationary legal status to the estimated 15 million to 20 million illegal aliens who were in the U.S. before Jan. 1, 2007. Those who then met a series of requirements — including payment of a $5,000 fine and $2,000 in processing fees — could gain citizenship within an estimated 12 to 13 years.

In his weekly radio address, Bush said the plan "will help us resolve the status of millions of illegal immigrants who are here already, without animosity and without amnesty."

Bush said under the bill, those who "come out of the shadows" of illegal immigration will qualify for a special visa if they "pass a strict background check, pay a fine, hold a job, maintain a clean criminal record and eventually learn English."

To become citizens, he said, they must pay an additional fine, "go to the back of the line [of applications], pass a citizenship test, and return to their country to apply for their green card."

Among other provisions, including increased hiring of Border Patrol officers, the bill would establish a temporary worker program.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, called the deal "amnesty – a pardon and reward for lawbreakers."

"Many senators claim that their deal renews respect for the rule of law," King said. "Let me respond to that absurd statement by stating clearly, you cannot simultaneously tear down and rebuild one of our constitutional principles. I took an oath to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law. The price for amnesty is the sacrifice of the rule of law."

King, ranking Republican on the Immigration Subcommittee of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, said each of the senators who struck the deal "should wear a scarlet letter 'A' for amnesty."

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., also was quick to label the bill "amnesty."

The senator said it "rewards people who broke the law with permanent legal status and puts them ahead of millions of law-abiding immigrants waiting to come to America."

"I don't care how you try to spin it, this is amnesty," DeMint said.

"I hope we don't take a thousand page bill written in secret and try to ram it through the Senate in a few days," he added. "This is a very important issue for America and we need time to debate it."

In fact, while the draft bill is far from finished, it is 326 pages in its current form.

The House is not expected to act until the Senate passes a bill.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., called the deal "the best possible chance we will have in years to secure our borders and bring millions of people out of the shadows and into the sunshine of America."

Illegal immigrants would be allowed to come forward and obtain a "Z visa" that puts them on a track for permanent residency within eight to 13 years. Fees and a fine of $5,000 are required and heads of household first must return to their home countries.

The illegals would be able to obtain a probationary card right away to live and work in the U.S.

North American union plan
headed to Congress in fall
Powerful think tank prepares report on benefits
of integration between U.S., Mexico, Canada

A powerful think tank chaired by former Sen. Sam Nunn and guided by trustees including Richard Armitage, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Harold Brown, William Cohen and Henry Kissinger, is in the final stages of preparing a report to the White House and U.S. Congress on the benefits of integrating the U.S., Mexico and Canada into one political, economic and security bloc.

The final report, published in English, Spanish and French, is scheduled for submission to all three governments by Sept. 30, according to the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

CSIS boasts of playing a large role in the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 – a treaty that set in motion a political movement many believe resembles the early stages of the European Community on its way to becoming the European Union.

"The results of the study will enable policymakers to make sound, strategic, long-range policy decisions about North America, with an emphasis on regional integration," explains Armand B. Peschard-Sverdrup, director of CSIS' Mexico Project. "Specifically, the project will focus on a detailed examination of future scenarios, which are based on current trends, and involve six areas of critical importance to the trilateral relationship: labor mobility, energy, the environment, security, competitiveness and border infrastructure and logistics."

The data collected for the report is based on seven secret roundtable sessions involving between 21 and 45 people and conducted by CSIS. The participants are politicians, business people, labor leaders and academics from all three countries with equal representation.

All of this is described in a CSIS report, "North American Future 2025 Project."

"The free flow of people across national borders will undoubtedly continue throughout the world as well as in North America, as will the social, political and economic challenges that accompany this trend," says the report. "In order to remain competitive in the global economy, it is imperative for the twenty-first century North American labor market to possess the flexibility necessary to meet industrial labor demands on a transitional basis and in a way that responds to market forces."

As WND reported last week, the controversial "Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007," which would grant millions of illegal aliens the right to stay in the U.S. under certain conditions, contains provisions for the acceleration of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a plan for North American economic and defense integration with remarkable similarities to the CSIS plan.

The bill, as worked out by Senate and White House negotiators, cites the SPP agreement signed by President Bush and his counterparts in Mexico and Canada March 23, 2005 – an agreement that has been criticized as a blueprint for building a European Union-style merger of the three countries of North America.

"It is the sense of Congress that the United States and Mexico should accelerate the implementation of the Partnership for Prosperity to help generate economic growth and improve the standard of living in Mexico, which will lead to reduced migration," the draft legislation states on page 211 on the version time-stamped May 18, 2007 11:58 p.m.

Since agreement on the major provisions of the bill was announced late last week, a firestorm of opposition has ignited across the country. Senators and representatives are reporting heavy volumes of phone calls and e-mails expressing outrage with the legislation they believe represents the largest "amnesty" program ever contemplated by the federal government.

Meanwhile, while many continue to express skepticism about a plot to integrate North America along the lines of the European Union, WND reported last week that 14 years ago, one of world's most celebrated economists and management experts said it was already on the fast track – and nothing could stop it.

Peter F. Drucker, in one of his dozens of best-selling books, "Post Capitalist Society," published in 1993, wrote that the European Community, the progenitor of the European Union, "triggered the attempt to create a North American economic community, built around the United States but integrating both Canada and Mexico into a common market."

"So far this attempt is purely economic in its goal," wrote the Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree. "But it can hardly remain so in the long run."

Drucker describes in his book the worldwide trends toward globalization that were evident back then – the creation and empowerment of transnational organizations and institutions, international environmental goals regarding carbon dioxide and agreements to fight terrorism long before 9/11.

Continental currency all the rage

On Monday, Bank of Canada Gov. David Dodge told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs that North America could one day move toward a euro-style currency.

Dodge's comments add to a growing list of comments from Canadian economists, academics and government officials supporting the idea of creating the amero as a North American common currency.

Dodge argued a common North American currency would help buffer the adverse effects of exchange rate fluctuations between the Canadian dollar and the U.S. dollar.

Currently, the Canadian dollar has surged to a 30-year high against the U.S. currency, a move Dodge noted makes Canadian products a lot less competitive for export to the U.S., Canada's major foreign market.

"In the past two months alone," Dodge told the group in Chicago, "the Canadian dollar is up about 8 percent against the U.S. dollar, and is now worth more than 91 cents (U.S.)."

In October 2006, El Universal, a Mexican newspaper published in Spanish, reported in a little-noticed article the then-president-elect of Mexico and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in their first meeting together shared a vision of a future North America united under a common currency.

El Universal reported Gilles Duceppe, the leader of the separatist party Bloc Québécois commented at the October 2006 Calderon-Harper meeting in Ottawa that a unified North American currency might be necessary to compete in a global economy.

The Canadian, a progressive Canadian newspaper that supports preserving Canadian sovereignty, expressed surprise at Duceppe's support of what the paper characterized as "the amero."

The paper commented, "Mr. Duceppe and other elites of the so-called 'Québec sovereignty' movement view selling-out to U.S. based neo-cons to be much more commercially profitable than forming a new Québec nation."

WND has previously reported the initial concept paper on the amero was written by economist Herbert Grubel of Canada's Frasier Institute.

Another long-time supporter of the amero is the C. D. Howe Institute in Canada, a group that bills itself as "Canada's leading independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit economic policy research institute."

Since 1999, the Howe Institute has published several papers co-authored by Thomas J. Courchene of Queen's University and Richard G. Harris of Simon Fraser University calling on Canada to pursue a North American currency union.

WND has also reported Benn Steil, the director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, has published an article entitled "The End of National Currency" in the May/June 2007 issue of the CFR's monthly magazine, "Foreign Affairs." Steil called for countries to abandon "monetary nationalism" in favor of regional currencies more suited for competition in a global economy.

Previously, WND reported Steve Previs, a vice president at Jeffries International Ltd., in London, told CNBC Nov. 27, 2006, the amero "is the proposed new currency for the North American Community, which is being developed right now between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico."

Brothers and Sisters,

This one hit me between the eyes and I had to find out more. I suggest that you do the same. The first thing I want to say is

THIS IS UGLY!

THIS IS REAL!

I'll help you a little bit with a good link to read all about this:

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=186414

However, don't stop here. Please do a Google Search and take your pick of hundreds of documents. The key search term is already in the article that Pastor Roger posted, and it works quite well. Please drop it WITH THE QUOTES into a search box for Google and find out all you want to about this TOP SECRET TREASON!

"North American Future 2025 Project"

You will find numerous areas to download PDFs on numerous issues surrounding this SECRET work being done under our noses. It appears that big businesses of various types have figured out how to line their pockets with money from some of the provisions, BUT this is very dangerous and TREASON in my opinion. Get the information and decide for yourself what you think it is.

The following areas are impacted in a major way:

Health Care
Trade
Water
Energy
Food
Peace

There is much going on behind the scenes, and it involves the previous administration. It's behind closed doors and secret, but there are reports about what has gone on behind those closed doors. Try this one on for size:

FORCED STEALTH INTEGRATION!

Much of this will be presented under the guise of "Security and Prosperity Partnership", but the real agenda is obviously a STEALTH INTEGRATION of North America - Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Open borders and the AMERO is NOT a conspiracy theory. If this isn't completely true, they certainly have a large number of sources with considerable prestige. In fact, you can wear yourself out just looking at links and deciding which ones you want to visit first.

Haven't you wondered why nobody in our government is moving to meet the demands of the people in securing our borders? How can they ignore the will of the people in a FREE country with a representative form of government? This is not a dictatorship placed in the hands of the President, or THE HOUSE, or THE SENATE. None of these entities are in charge! The PEOPLE are in charge and they are being ignored. THERE IS A BIG AND UGLY SECRET BEHIND THE SCENES, AND IT IS ABOUT TO BE REVEALED!

Do yourself a favor and BECOME INFORMED! Our government must be crazy to think that they can do all of these things WITHOUT a VOTE OF THE PEOPLE. BUT, it appears that the people won't have any say in this matter. It might even be "QUASI-LEGAL" if our so-called representatives say yes and vote for it. The thinking might be that we could vote those out of office who put things in motion, but it would go forward with the next administration anyway. I have no idea what their thinking is, but I consider it to be TREASON!

DECIDE FOR YOURSELF!

Governments never lie, they just don't tell the truth

"There is absolutely no U.S. government plan for a NAFTA superhighway of any sort," says David Bohigian, an assistant secretary of commerce, in reply to a reporter's question. The article also quotes Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., as saying that the notion of a NAFTA superhighway is based on "unfounded theories" with "no credence."

If these two gentlemen are correct, it will come as a great surprise to the North America's SuperCorridor Coalition, the Texas Department of Transportation, the City of Fort Worth and nearly two-dozen other major sponsors of a national conference: "Moving North America Forward," on "SuperCorridors" they promote. The conference, May 30-June 1, is designed to move the SuperCorridors projects forward.

Of course, these two gentlemen are not correct. NASCO boasts that it received millions in grants from the federal government. And TexDOT has been notified that its federal highway funding is in jeopardy if the state Legislature's two-year moratorium on toll-road construction is not overturned. The federal government is definitely involved in the creation of NAFTA SuperCorridors, but at an arms-length, sufficient to have "plausible deniability."

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v311/randers/nasco.jpg)

The federal government can say that the NASCO event is a "private" conference because NASCO is a private, not-for-profit organization. But is it really? Its members, in three countries, include city, county and state governments, as well as private industries, that pay up to $50,000 per year in membership fees. Most attendees to the conference will charge the $375 registration fee, and the $200-plus per-night hotel bill to an expense account paid by taxpayers.

Bohigian and Bond should attend this conference, and then tell the American people who is promoting NAFTA SuperCorridors, if it is not the federal government, and that the "unfounded theories" are advancing toward reality every day.

NASCO's conference is not the only conference happening in Texas. Six weeks after the NASCO elite go home, grass-roots leaders from around the nation will gather a few miles down the road, in Dallas. They will pay their own registration fees and hotel bills. They are not on an expense account. The people who attend the Freedom21 National Conference are working people who want to stop the integration of Mexico, Canada and the United States into a "North American Community."

Perhaps Bohigian and Bond should attend this conference. They could discover what the people who pay their salaries really think.

The NAFTA SuperCorridors are but a part of the much broader agenda that seeks to create a North American Community. This goal is also denied by government officials – even while government employees from Mexico, Canada and the U.S. meet daily in working groups to "harmonize" rules and regulations that will "integrate" the three nations.

The current immigration bill being debated in Congress contains many of the "integration" principles set forth in the Council on Foreign Relations report "Building a North American Community."

This concept has neither been debated nor approved by Congress. Still, many of the recommendations contained in the document are being implemented as elements of separate legislation, or administratively by the executive branch. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., and about 20 other representatives have introduced H.Con.Res. 40, which calls for stopping participation in agencies working to build a North American Community. Legislatures in at least 18 states are considering similar resolutions. Still, officially, both Congress and the executive branch deny there is an effort to create a North American Community.

Interestingly, before there was a European Union, there was a European "Community," which was sold to the Europeans as nothing more than a trade-enhancement agreement. Now, an unelected European Parliament makes laws with which the Europeans must comply. The Council on Foreign Relations' recommendations call for the creation a "North American Inter-Parliamentary Group," which sounds very much like a North American Parliament.

The North American Community now under construction is following precisely the same path that produced the European Union. Regardless of the denials, and the ridicule dispensed by those who are either ignorant or duplicitous, the erosion of U.S. borders continue. The voice of the voters is ignored, and the public-private partnerships between governments and industry beneficiaries continue to transform the United States of America into the bureaucratic state of North America.

Proponents of this transformation may call it what they will. In reality, it is destroying the foundation of the American system of governance. It is placing in the hands of appointed bureaucrats the power to make public policy. The decision to allow Mexican trucks to deliver deep inside the United States was made by appointed bureaucrats, designated by NAFTA. Neither elected officials in Congress nor in the states that must allow Mexican trucks to travel have a say in this matter. The deeper the "integration," the more power is transferred to bureaucrats.

Six weeks after the NASCO big wheels leave their Forth Worth conference, the Freedom21 conference in Dallas will teach hundreds of grass-roots leaders what they can do to stop and reverse this national tragedy.

Brothers and Sisters,

I'm very sad to state with complete certainty that our governments are lying to the people of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Tons of taxpayer money have already been spent on this project - just labeled in a misleading way or with names and projects we don't recognize. It's time to realize that we can't trust our governments, and they think they can get this done AGAINST the will of the people.

We will all have to stand up and TELL our government what they will and will NOT do! That's what it boils down to. This is part of the same issue I researched yesterday. Behind closed doors, they call this

FORCED STEALTH INTEGRATION!

They could care less what the people in three countries want. They honestly do think they can get this DONE against the will of the people. The people should demand arrest warrants for anyone attempting the first steps, and all of the first steps are planned out in detail. ANYONE can find the details in 1 minute using Google.

I'll simply state that all citizens have the power to swear out the details of an arrest warrant. It wouldn't take much to determine which courts the first charges should be filed. In fact, there is probably MORE than sufficient evidence right now to file a variety of serious charges. A week of work by a competent prosecutor could probably result in 100s of indictments right now. BUT, I think it would be wise to wait a little bit and get the big fish in the net. The timing should also be right and not give anyone the wiggle room to get out of it.

By the way, I'm not a conspiracy nut. Anyone can check for themselves. There are already heavily organized citizen groups, and they are just average, ordinary folks. ANYONE can download 100s of documents and study them all they want. They didn't just get caught with their hand in the cookie jar - they got caught trying to smuggle the entire cookie factory in plain sight daylight. They have all kinds of names for projects that have already been completed that involve FAR MORE than just a superhighway. A superhighway is small potatoes compared to what they plan to do. The FORCED INTEGRATION of a full-blown North American Union is what they have planned, and it is being carried out RIGHT NOW under our noses with LIES!

I haven't heard about the people of Mexico, but the people of Canada are against this and are already organizing to STOP their government. We need to be doing the same thing. We might even have a few politicians with enough guts to stand up. I understand that several are trying to stand up right now, and they will need our support.

THIS IS NOT A JOKE!

National borders erased for airlines in new plan
Aeromexico could get approval to fly Los Angeles-Toronto route

A new plan being discussed among officials from the United States, Mexico and Canada essentially would erase national borders in North America for air carriers, perhaps giving Aeromexico a pass to run a Los Angeles-Toronto route or Air Canada to compete on the New York-Paris connection, according to WND columnist Jerome Corsi.

He reported on a meeting held in Tucson, Ariz., involving U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and her Mexican and Canadian counterparts.

She's already under fire, as WND has reported, for continuing work on a program that could start as early as July 15 to give Mexican truckers a virtual free pass to travel on United States roads.

The meeting in Tucson, called the North American Transportation Trilateral, made it clear U.S. air transportation facilities also are being reviewed in light of proposed traffic from foreign carriers that also are based in North America, Corsi's report noted.

Peters met with Mexico's Secretary of Commerce and Transportation Luis Téllez and Canada's Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communications Lawrence Cannon to define under the Security and Prosperity Partnership a North American transportation system that will meet the continental needs of "free trade" agreements including NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, he reported.

Peters noted that existing agreements with Mexico and with Canada already work to lift restrictions on continental travel to provide for "free and open trans-border air travel."

But the next step, a North American Open Skies agreement, would virtually eliminate those national boundaries, as far as air carriers are concerned, Corsi reported.

The plan that was revealed shows over the next 10 years, "Air Canada could be competing with U.S. carriers on the New York-Paris route and Aeromexico might be launching flights between Los Angeles and Toronto."

Canada's government also noted that it is committed to "the future of our shared transportation interests in an increasingly globalized world."

The vision for a North American transportation system suited for world trade, Corsi reported, was articulated in the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations report entitled, "Building of a North American Community."

That is to "establish a seamless North American market for trade," including "open skies and open highways."

National borders erased for airlines in new plan
Aeromexico could get approval to fly Los Angeles-Toronto route
Posted: June 13, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

A new plan being discussed among officials from the United States, Mexico and Canada essentially would erase national borders in North America for air carriers, perhaps giving Aeromexico a pass to run a Los Angeles-Toronto route or Air Canada to compete on the New York-Paris connection, according to WND columnist Jerome Corsi.

He reported on a meeting held in Tucson, Ariz., involving U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and her Mexican and Canadian counterparts.

She's already under fire, as WND has reported, for continuing work on a program that could start as early as July 15 to give Mexican truckers a virtual free pass to travel on United States roads.

(Story continues below)

The meeting in Tucson, called the North American Transportation Trilateral, made it clear U.S. air transportation facilities also are being reviewed in light of proposed traffic from foreign carriers that also are based in North America, Corsi's report noted.

Peters met with Mexico's Secretary of Commerce and Transportation Luis Téllez and Canada's Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communications Lawrence Cannon to define under the Security and Prosperity Partnership a North American transportation system that will meet the continental needs of "free trade" agreements including NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, he reported.

Peters noted that existing agreements with Mexico and with Canada already work to lift restrictions on continental travel to provide for "free and open trans-border air travel."

But the next step, a North American Open Skies agreement, would virtually eliminate those national boundaries, as far as air carriers are concerned, Corsi reported.

The plan that was revealed shows over the next 10 years, "Air Canada could be competing with U.S. carriers on the New York-Paris route and Aeromexico might be launching flights between Los Angeles and Toronto."

Canada's government also noted that it is committed to "the future of our shared transportation interests in an increasingly globalized world."

The vision for a North American transportation system suited for world trade, Corsi reported, was articulated in the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations report entitled, "Building of a North American Community."

That is to "establish a seamless North American market for trade," including "open skies and open highways."

Protesters to converge on North America summit
Canada hosts trilateral SPP meeting with Bush, Mexican president

Activists already are preparing to protest the third summit meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, a trilateral initiative between the U.S., Canada and Mexico seen by critics as a major step toward a North American Union, according to WND columnist Jerome Corsi, author of a new book on the subject, "The Late Great USA."

The meeting, which has received almost no mention in the U.S. mainstream media, is scheduled for Aug. 20 and 21 in Montebello, Quebec, at the Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello resort.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scheduled to host the Quebec summit, which will be attended by Mexican President Felipe Calderon and President Bush.

Harper said in a statement announcing the SPP summit, "We share a continent with the United States and Mexico, and our people, our economies and our security are closely interconnected."

The first SPP summit was held in Waco, Texas, March 23, 2005. The second took place in was held in Cancun, Mexico, in March 2006.

Canadian groups that say they oppose the SPP agenda of North American "deep integration" are organizing to protest the meeting.

The Council of Canadians held a March 30-April 1 "teach in" titled "Integrate This! Challenging the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America." A brochure on the Council of Canadians website says SPP "is moving Canada quickly toward a continental resource pact, a North American security perimeter and harmonized military and security policies."

The brochure argues SPP working groups "composed of bureaucrats and corporate leaders are quietly putting this 'partnership' into action, and to date only industry 'stakeholders' have been consulted."

WND reported the Canadian Action Party flew the Canadian flag upside down during its 2006 convention as a sign of distress and resistance of any integration into a North American regional government.

WND also reported Canadian activists have protested "The North American Future 2025 Project" undertaken by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank that plans to present its research results to the U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament before the end of the year.

Canadian activists have argued a major goal of the CSIS study is to identify Canadian oil and fresh water as continental "North American natural resources" which, under SPP, could be diverted to U.S. cities without fair compensation to Canada.

Texas governor clears way for NAFTA superhighway
Vetoes legislation to delay big transportation corridor

The path has been cleared for the state of Texas to begin building the new Trans-Texas Corridor, a project that is designed to be four football fields wide, along Interstate 35 from Mexico to the Oklahoma border, according to a new report from WND columnist Jerome Corsi, the author of "The Late Great USA."

The way was opened when Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, vetoed a series of proposals the Texas Legislature assembled to slow down the work on what is considered to be a key link in a continental NAFTA superhighway network.

Perry's latest veto was of a plan to add a number of requirements to the Texas eminent-domain procedures, under which governments can grab and use private property.

But, Corsi reported, Steven Anderson of the Institute for Justice's Castle Coalition, objected. He said Perry's action "left every home, farm, ranch and small-business owner vulnerable to the abuse of eminent domain."

Earlier, Corsi reported, Perry vetoed a plan to impose a two-year moratorium on the TTC project.

As WND previously reported, these measures were approved overwhelmingly by the Texas Legislature.

On learning that Perry had vetoed the eminent-domain legislation, Corridor Watch, a public advocacy group that opposes the TTC project, responded immediately.

"It sure didn't take TxDOT long to shake off the legislative session and resume their headlong rush to use every available loophole, exception and remaining authority to build toll roads and grant toll road concessions just as fast as possible," the organization said.

Corridor Watch also noted that in the 49 bills Perry vetoed June 15 were measures that would have required TxDOT to consider using existing highway routes for future TTC routes and a bill that called on the Texas attorney general to study the impact of international agreements on Texas.

An override of Perry's vetoes is unlikely, since the governor threatened to call a special session of the lawmakers to handle transportation issues if his veto fell by the wayside.

As WND has previously reported, the $180 billion needed to build the 4,000-mile TTC network planned for construction over the next 50 years will be financed by Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., a foreign investment consortium based in Spain. Cintra will own the leasing and operating rights on TTC highways for 50 years after their completion is complete.

WND also has reported Perry has received substantial campaign contributions from Cintra and Zachry Construction Company, the San Antonio-based construction firm selected by TxDOT to build out the TTC.

And WND has established that Cintra is represented in the United States by Bracewell and Giuliani, Republican Party presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani's Houston-based law firm.

Just this week, WND reported TxDOT already is moving to apply its four-football-fields-wide NAFTA superhighway plan of building new train-truck-car-pipeline corridors to the states of Oklahoma and Colorado in a design that stretches from the Mexican border at Laredo, Texas, to Denver, Colo.

WND has documented a significant reason for the projects is to connect truck traffic from Mexican ports on the Pacific, such as Lazaro Cardenas, to U.S. roads. Mexican ports are being increasingly used as an alternative to West Coast ports such as Los Angeles and Long Beach as a cheaper, non-union alternative for the import of millions of containers from China.

WND also has reported the Department of Transportation plans to start a Mexican truck demonstration project as early as Aug. 15, despite continuing objections from Congress.

114 congressmen: Why is DOT ignoring law?
Letter questions 'demonstration' opening roads to Mexican truckers

More than 100 members of the U.S. House of Representatives have written to President Bush, asking him why the Department of Transportation apparently is ignoring what the legislators want.

The issue was raised by U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who circulated the letter dealing with plans to hurry along with a "demonstration" project to allow Mexican truckers access to U.S. roads. Specifically, the letter raised concerns about federal agency actions – apparently despite what Congress wrote into the law.

"The U.S. Congress and the American people seriously question the ability of Mexican motor carriers and drivers to adhere to our country's strict safety rules, as well as the administration's preparedness and willingness to ensure Mexican truck drivers obey our homeland security and immigration rules," said the letter.

"As such, Congress mobilized to speak against it. Congress had already passed H.R. 1773, the 'Safe American Roads Act of 2007,' which passed overwhelmingly 411-3, and related language in P.L. 110-28, the FY07 supplemental appropriations act. Both pieces of legislation provided strict measures to ensure that the Department of Transportation and the pilot program would adhere to security guidelines and that an independent panel would assess their progress in ensuring American safety," the letter continued.

"However, even after you signed the supplemental into law, the Department of Transportation arrogantly declared that these standards had already been met, that no independent assessment would be needed, and that the pilot program would proceed as planned," the members of Congress said.

"If Congress believed that the provisions in the supplemental had already been met, then there would have been no need to incorporate such language. The Department of Transportation should not stand above the law."

Joe Kasper, a legislative assistant to Hunter, told WND the 114 signatures on the letter make a statement to the president not to move forward with the cross-border trucking program right away.

The proposed test, he said, "certainly presents safety and security risks" that need to be addressed.

"From a safety perspective you have unregulated Mexican truckers and drivers entering the U.S. and freely operating on U.S. roadways. Their motor vehicle standards are not as strong as they are in the U.S., and you could have unfit motor vehicle traffic traveling on U.S. roadways," he said.

As for security, "the concerns are abundantly clear. You can carry any type of contraband or illicit cargo into the United States already. The idea that you would add one more complication to the already porous border just doesn't make sense," he said.

The letter from Hunter and others is telling the president to get it right, Kasper told WND.

"The Cross-Border Demonstration Program would give Mexican truck drivers unfettered access to the United State without a demonstrable way to verify their identity, immigration status and length of stay in the United States," the letter said. "It is also unclear which law enforcement personnel have the responsibility, authority and training to check a Mexican driver's status and enforce compliance with the federal laws once they are in the United States."

The letter warned the action would open "major loopholes" in law enforcement procedures.

"We understand the administration's duty to adhere to our obligations under the North American Free Trade Agreement, but this must never come before our duty to maintain the security and welfare of the American people," the letter said.

Kasper said something as simple as language could create issues. A Mexican driver unfamiliar with English-language instructions on highways could create an unacceptable risk of accidents.

"Mr. President, we understand your intention to fully implement the provisions of NAFTA by opening our southern border to commercial traffic. However, those interests should not be put ahead of our public safety, homeland security, and economic vitality. We strongly urge you to suspend plans for the Cross-Border Demonstration Program until these serious issues can be addressed," the letter concluded.

As WND reported earlier, the White House has been pressing the Senate on the issue, seeking to derail the House-approved "Safe Roads" plan.

Sources within the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation confirmed in background conversations that the panel has put on hold taking any action on the Safe American Roads Act of 2007, the bill the House passed May 15.

At the encouragement of the White House, the senators on the transportation committee are taking the position that the requirements of the Safe American Roads Act were wrapped into the provisions of H.R. 2206, the Iraq supplemental funding bill, signed May 25 by President Bush.

An unhappy Todd Spencer, executive director of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, believes the Bush administration "has preordained that the Mexican truck demonstration project will begin regardless who objects."

"Simply put, the Bush administration has turned a tin ear to both the public and the Congress and there are no objections which can put a stop to the DOT plans," he told WND.

10,000 protesters expected at N. America summit
Bush to attend meeting critics view as stepping stone to continental union

Protesters believe as many as 10,000 people could assemble in Quebec to demonstrate against the third summit meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, the trilateral group some critics see as a stepping stone to a "North America Community."

Canadian state and national police are preparing for a possible violent confrontation when President Bush joins Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Aug. 20, 21 in Montebello, Québec, at the Fairmont Le Château Montebello resort.

Stuart Trew, a spokesman for the Council of Canadians, said his group plans to hold a public forum in Ottawa Sunday, Aug. 19, at about 4:00 p.m., bringing together speakers from the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

"We are then going to encourage people to head to Montebello on Monday and get as close they can to the Fairmont resort where the SPP meeting is going to be held, so they can protest at the site of the summit," he said.

Trew said some of the same groups that brought 15,000 people to Ottawa to protest President Bush's Nov. 30, 2004, meeting with then-Prime Minister Paul Martin are organizing the demonstration against the SPP summit. CBC News estimated the number of protestors in 2004 at closer to 5,000.

Frederic Castonguay, the town general manager of Papineauville, Quebec, told WND in a telephone interview that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Sûreté du Québec will set up operations in a town community facility that adjoins a local high school.

"Papineauville is located about six kilometers from the Montebello resort where the summit meeting will be held," Castonguay told WND, "and the Canadian national and state police have evidently decided that our town facility will be their command center."

Castonguay suggested the Canadian police may try to maintain a 25-kilometer protest-free zone around the Montebello summit meeting site.

Castonguay affirmed to WND that a deposit to lease the facility to the Council of Canadians the day before the SPP summit meeting had to be returned at the insistence of the Canadian police, but he denied a report in the Canadian press that the U.S. Army would be part of the security detail at the Papineauville community center facility.

"That's a game the Canadian press likes to play," Castonguay told WND. "The RCMP said U.S. and Mexican security forces would be involved, but they did not specifically mention the U.S. Army."

The PGA Bloc Montreal has organized a mock website designed to model Canada's SPP governmental website. The group is calling for Aug. 20 at 3 p.m. to be a "Day of Action" organized against the SPP.

The PGA Bloc Montreal is a Canadian group affiliated with the Peoples' Global Action, a worldwide group organized to protest globalism and war.

"We are calling for a convergence on Montebello, or as close to Montebello as possible, on the 20th, in the afternoon," a PGA Bloc Montreal spokesman explained to WND in an e-mail. "People are invited to come as close as possible to Montebello to demonstrate against the SPP and its promoters. Mass transportation will be organized from Montreal, but we are not planning a peace march."

"If they will not let us demonstrate peacefully in Montebello, as we have the full right to do," the PGA Bloc Montreal spokesman continued, "it is imaginable that some outraged people would want to disrupt the summit by various means."

WND previously reported a large number of Canadian activist groups are expected to join the protests.

The meeting, closed to the press, is expected to include the 30 international business leaders who comprise the SPP North American Competitiveness Council.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met July 6 in Washington with Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay and Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa to prepare for the Quebec summit.

The July meeting followed an earlier Feb. 24 meeting of the three ministers in Washington to set the stage for the summit.

Since its creation in February 1998, http://uuhome.de/global/english/pga01.html the Peoples' Global Action has held large street protests around the world in opposition to meetings held by various international organizations, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the G-8.

'Declaration of North American Integration' unearthed
Activist points to mayor's endorsement on document signed by 90 leaders

The endorsement by a major city mayor of a document described as "The Declaration of North American Integration" represents a long-term effort by local governments to bypass state and federal governments and work directly with Mexico and Canada to create agreements that integrate the continent below the radar screen, charges an activist.

Adam Rott, founder of watchdog blog Oklahoma Corridor Watch, brought to light the document signed by Mayor Mick Cornett.

The document was presented at the May 2004 summit meeting of the North American International Trade Corridor Partnership, or NAITCP. According to an Internet-archived summary report of the meeting, held in Kansas City, Mo., the document was signed by 90 people.

Rott told WND he created Oklahoma Corridor Watch because, "I saw the efforts in Texas by Internet blogs such as Texas Corridor Watch and Texas Toll Party to get the word out in Texas about the Trans-Texas Corridor. I wanted to warn Oklahoma about plans to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor along Interstate 35 north into our state."

Rott said it should be clear to everyone "that the international business interests and government officials working with them do not intend to stop the four-football-fields wide TTC-35 at the Texas border with Oklahoma."

"Oklahoma has been at work for almost 15 years to get I-35 designated as a NAFTA superhighway," Rott said. "I want to wake Oklahomans up to the reality that Oklahoma is on the front lines of the battle being waged by investment bankers, foreign investment consortia and politicians who stand to benefit to expand the TTC-35 north into Oklahoma."

WND contacted Cornett's office for comment, but the mayor did not respond.

"What is so diabolical about Cornett's signature is that it has largely remained hidden from view since 2004," Rott charged. "It is disturbing to think that councilmen and councilwomen who live in our communities are working for North American integration in the mistaken notion that globalism will result in local economic development."

Roth is skeptical of the promise North American integration holds for economic development in Oklahoma.

"What we see is the sovereignty of the U.S. being compromised at a local level, and we have yet to see where globalism has benefited Oklahoma City," he said. "Our manufacturing base is deteriorating in Oklahoma City as plants close and multinational corporations outsource from Oklahoma to get cheaper workers in international markets."

Oklahoma Republican state Sen. Randy Brogdon agrees.

Brogdon told WND he believes "the ramifications of what Oklahoma City Mayor Cornett is doing is to destroy U.S. national sovereignty and to grab property like we have never seen before."

Brogdon was outspoken in his opposition to North American integration.

"Economic development at the expense of our sovereignty is not a fair trade as far as I am concerned," he said.

On June 24, 2005, NAITCP signed a memorandum of understanding with the North America SuperCorridor Coalition, or NASCO, effectively absorbing NAITCP into NASCO. An archived NASCO webpage no longer displayed on the current NASCO website documents that NAITCP had its origin as a "non-profit organization in Mexico dedicated to economic development and improving trade relations through the heartland of America to Canada and Mexico."

NASCO also did not respond to a request for comment.

WND previously reported Brogdon entered an amendment to an Oklahoma bill that would have required that the state's Department of Transportation "shall be prohibited from participating or entering any negotiations or agreement with NASCO."

Brogdon's amendment further specified, "No state funds or federal funds dedicated for state use shall be used for any international, integrated or multi-modal transportation system."

In a series of complicated maneuvers, the bill died.

Still, Brogdon is determined to press forward against NASCO.

"In this next legislature," he said, "I am going to add amendments to legislation that will continue to require the Oklahoma Department of Transportation to get out of NASCO. We have spent $481,000 in Oklahoma since 1995 to be a member of NASCO, and we have yet to receive any benefit."

In the last legislature, Brogdon also sponsored Senate Concurrent Resolution 10 urging the U.S. to withdraw from the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America and any other activity that seeks to create a North American Union, and to oppose any NAFTA superhighways.

The resolution passed unanimously in voice votes in both houses of the Oklahoma legislature, Brogdon noted.

"Hopefully, he said, "the legislature is waking up to all the subversive legislation that is trying to be sneaked past us by the George Bush Security and Prosperity Partnership agenda and interests such as (Texas) Governor Perry, who has pushed TTC-35 through despite the objections of the Texas legislature."

NASCO's website adamantly rejects the idea that a North American Super Corridor could ever be a "NAFTA superhighway."

Yet, the NASCO website documents that in addition to the state of Oklahoma, the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT, is a member. As fully documented on the TxDOT website, the department does plan to build a new Trans-Texas Corridor parallel to Interstate 35, and NASCO has yet to repudiate these new superhighway construction plans.

'Shared vision'

The NAITCP 2004 summit brochure initially presents the signed document, on Page 2, as the "Kansas City Declaration." Yet later, in a conference summary on the last page, the document is identified as "The Declaration of North American Integration."

The summary page notes "more than 90 North American leaders signed an important document entitled 'The Kansas City Declaration' to officially record their shared vision of future cooperation for communities along the NAFTA Trade Corridor in Canada, the United States and Mexico."

The summit brochure lists Mayor Cornett as a signatory.

Oklahoma Corridor Watch expressed concern that, "It is becoming increasingly more apparent that our government officials have been working overtime behind the scenes to bring in the "North American Union" and often in relative secrecy away from their constituents and from scrutiny."

Last month, Oklahoma House Speaker Lance Cargill brought superhighway proponent Robert Poole to Oklahoma to give presentations on the virtues of "public-private partnerships" designed to advance the interests of private investment consortia seeking to build or lease state toll roads.

Poole, a mechanical engineer who has advised the administrations of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to privatize U.S. highways, estimates more than $25 billion in public-private partnership highway projects are planned or approved in the U.S.

Among the other named signatories were two professors prominent in the push to create a "North American Community," Stephen Blank of Pace University and Robert Pastor of American University.

Blank is known for organizing the "North America Works" conferences held annually since 2005 in Kansas City. Pastor, a prolific author on the subject of North American integration, holds annually holds a student North American model parliament, an activity organized by the American Forum on Integration, of which Blank and Pastor are both directors.

Rott also documented that Cornett called for the economic integration of North America in a video interview given at the Conference of Mayors in Boston in 2004.

"This signifies how local governments across the nation are either moving forward with, or directly supporting, the economic integration of North America, also called the North American Union," Rott wrote on his blog. "While such a pursuit may seem like the stuff of conspiracy theories, it is increasingly becoming more apparent that our government, with the direct support of private sector participants, is building a union in North America comparable to the European Union."

The 2004 NAITCP "Kansas City Declaration" was also signed by Kay Barnes, then Mayor of Kansas City, Mo.; Michael Haverty, chairman and CEO of Kansas City Southern; Chris Guiterrez, president of Kansas City SmartPort; and Francisco Gil Diaz, secretary of finance and public credit in Mexico.

According to the NAITCP brochure, the Kansas City Declaration reads in part, "We have come to realize that our communities in Mexico, Canada and the United States are closely linked to each other, and that we share profoundly in this emerging North American economic system.

"The answer is to move forward together," the declaration continued. "We will deepen the ties among our communities. The economic vitality and social integration of our communities demand open, dynamic and secure borders. We encourage our respective governments to dedicate sufficient resources to create 'smart' and efficient borders. Likewise, we urge our governments to assist us in forming a 'North American Transportation and Infrastructure Committee' that will formulate a strategic vision for an integrated regional logistics system."

OKC mayor washes hands of North American Union
'It was a pretty stupid thing to get involved with'

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett has repudiated his signing in 2004 of a document described as "The Declaration of North American Integration."

"I do not favor the North American Union," Cornett he told WND in a telephone interview yesterday. "It was a pretty stupid thing to get involved with three years ago. I don't necessarily remember what I was thinking at the time, but I can speak for now and I do not favor a North American Union."

WND has reported that the document was presented at the May 2004 summit meeting of the North American International Trade Corridor Partnership, or NAITCP. According to an Internet-archived summary report of the meeting, held in Kansas City, Mo., the document was signed by 90 people.

WND asked Cornett if he remembered signing the declaration.

"No," Cornett answered. "I was certainly at the meeting, but it was a long time ago and I've learned a lot in the last few years."

Cornett told WND that Oklahoma City was not taking any steps to integrate with Mexico and Canada and that Oklahoma City has not declared itself an "inland port" targeted for warehousing containers from international trade coming in through Mexican ports on the Pacific Ocean, as has Kansas City to the north and San Antonio to the south of Oklahoma City.

"Oklahoma City is not an inland port for containers coming from China," Cornett stressed. "I am opposed to the extension of the Trans-Texas Corridor into Oklahoma if the whole point is to make it cheaper to transport containers from China coming through Mexican ports."

Cornett said new highway construction between Oklahoma and Texas only would be justified if the point were to relieve any growing gridlock between Dallas and Oklahoma City, not to facilitate international trade.

A check of the Federal Highway Administration website shows that Oklahoma is not one of the 21 states that have passed public-private partnership enabling legislation that includes the 28 key elements the FHWA considers essential to allow private investment consortia to lease existing toll roads or build new toll roads in a state.

WND asked Cornett if he agreed with Oklahoma Republican state Senator Randy Brogdon that Oklahoma ought to withdraw from the North American SuperCorridor Coalition.

"I don't know enough about NASCO to comment," Cornett told WND.

Brogdon told WND in a telephone interview that, "I am extremely pleased to know that Mayor Cornett is opposed to the North American Union and the NAFTA superhighway. Cornett is the mayor of Oklahoma City and the NAFTA Superhighway is designed to come right through the middle of Oklahoma City."

WND asked Brogdon if he plans now to call on Cornett to help him oppose in the Oklahoma legislature the North American Union, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, and the NAFTA Superhighway.

"Yes," Brogdon responded. "I hope Mayor Cornett will be a voice to help me in the legislature to curb and to change the opinions of a lot of people that want the NAFTA Superhighway to come through Oklahoma. Now that I know Mayor Cornett has repudiated this declaration, I will call on him to support me with future legislation."

"I would encourage Mayor Cornett to find out more about NASCO," Brogdon stressed. "Hopefully Mayor Cornett will be a voice to encourage the legislature to drop out of NASCO."

Adam Rott, founder of Oklahoma Corridor Watch, was cautiously positive to learn that Cornett had repudiated signing the 2004 declaration.

"I am very pleased to learn that Mayor Cornett has repudiated signing this document," Rott told WND in a telephone interview. "I'm just wondering to what extent Cornett's decision was just politically expedient."

"I knew Oklahomans would be very upset when they saw what Mayor Cornett was doing outside the limelight," Rott added. "It doesn't surprise me that he so quickly repudiated his action because he is also on video calling in no uncertain terms for North American integration."

WND has reported that Cornett called for economic integration of North America in a video interview given at the Conference of Mayors in Boston in 2004.

Rott told WND that he had contacted Cornett's office when his blog first broke the story on July 9 that Cornett signed the declaration in 2004.

"Back then, Mayor Cornett didn't answer my phone calls," Rott said, "but I would like to see what actual steps Cornett is going to take to solidify his repudiation of this declaration. He signed a document that was billed as 'The Declaration of North American Integration.' I would like to see him sign a document specifically saying that he believes North American integration represents a significant threat to our sovereignty."

Rott added that he would like to see Cornett directly take steps to oppose the NAFTA Superhighway coming through Oklahoma.

"If Cornett would like to go on record with his repudiation and sign another document that disavows North American integration, I would be very pleased," Rott continued.

Now Cheney chimes in:
Ain't no superhighways
VP latest to make official denial,
some call it 'gaming semantics'

Despite evidence to the contrary, Vice President Dick Cheney says there is no "secret plan" to create a continent-crossing superhighway to help facilitate a merger of the United States, Mexico and Canada.

"The administration is not engaged in a secret plan to create a 'NAFTA super highway,'" asserts Cheney in a recent letter to a constituent, according to a copy of the message obtained by WND.

The vice president's letter quotes an Aug. 21 statement from the U.S. Department of Transportation that, "The concept of a super highway has been around since the early 1990s, usually in the form of a claim that the U.S. Department of Transportation is going to designate such a highway."

DOT then refutes the claim, stating, "The Department of Transportation has never had the statutory authority to designate a NAFTA super highway and has never sought such authority."

The DOT statement then retracts the absolute nature of that statement, qualifying that, "The Department of Transportation will continue to cooperate with the State transportation departments in the I-35 corridor as they upgrade this vital interstate highway to meet 21st century needs. However, these efforts are the routine activities of a Department that cooperates with all the state transportation departments to improve the Nation's intermodal transportation network."

The DOT statement cited by the vice president seems to model the denial recently fashioned by the North America's SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc., or NASCO, on its website.

There NASCO states, "There a no plans to build a new NAFTA Superhighway – it exists today as I-35."

The coalition continues to distinguish its support for a North American "SuperCorridor" from a "NAFTA Superhighway," asserting that a "SuperCorridor is not 'Super-sized." The website then claims NASCO uses the term "SuperCorridor" to demonstrate "we are more than just a highway coalition."

In a July 21, 2006, internal e-mail obtained by WND under a Missouri Sunshine Law request, Tiffany Melvin, executive director of NASCO, cautions "NASCO friends and members" that, "We have to stay away from 'SuperCorridor' because it is a very bad, hot button right now."

As WND previously reported, Jeffrey Shane, undersecretary of transportation for policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation got into a spirited exchange in January with congressmen after he asserted to a House subcommittee that NAFTA Superhighways were an "urban legend."

In response to questioning by Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, before the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Shane asserted he was "not familiar with any plan at all, related to NAFTA or cross-border traffic."

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., then questioned aloud whether Shane was just "gaming semantics" when responding to Poe's question.

In June 2006, when first writing about NASCO, WND displayed the original homepage of NASCO, which used to open with a map highlighting the I-35 corridor from Mexico to Canada, arguing the trade group and its members were actively promoting a NAFTA superhighway.

In what appears to be the third major revamping of the NASCO website since WND first began writing articles about NASCO, the Dallas-based trade group carefully removes identifying NASCO with the words behind the acronym, "North America's SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc.," which the original NASCO website once proudly proclaimed.

The current NASCO homepage displays a photo montage of intermodal highway scenes, presumably taken along I-35, but without any map displaying a continental I-35 super corridor linking Mexico and Canada.

NASCO currently relegates the continental I-35 map to an internal webpage that describes the North American Inland Ports Network as a "working group" within NASCO that supports inland member cities who have designated themselves as "inland ports," seeking to warehouse container traffic originating in Mexican ports on the Pacific such as Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas.

The beige and blue continental I-35 map now positioned on an internal page of the NASCO website was originally used as the second NASCO website, in make-over of the original NASCO blue and yellow continental I-35 map that made the continental nature of the I-35 appear graphically more pronounced.

WND has also previously reported that in a speech to NASCO on April 30, 2004, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta referred to Interstate Highways 35, 29 and 94 – the core highways supported by NASCO as a prime "North American Super Corridor" – Mineta commented to NASCO that the trade group "recognized that the success of the NAFTA relationship depends on mobility – on the movement of people, of products, and of capital across borders."

WND has also reported Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a GOP presidential candidate, introduced an amendment to H.R. 3074, the Transportation Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008, prohibiting the use of federal funds for participating in working groups under the Security and Prosperity Partnership, including the creation of NAFTA Superhighways.

On July 24, Hunter's amendment passed 362 to 63, with strong bipartisan support. Later, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3074 by a margin of 268-153. The bill has been sent to the Senate with Hunter's amendment included.

According to Freedom of Information Request documents obtained by WND, Jeffrey Shane has been appointed by the Bush administration to be the U.S. lead bureaucrat on the North American Transportation Working Group under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.

On July 23, 1997, the NAFTA Superhighway Coalition was formed to promote continental highway development in association with the Ambassador Bridge.

Officials warned NAFTA trucks threatened bridge
Increasing traffic from international trade placed undue stress on Minneapolis span
Posted: August 7, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Public officials in Minnesota had been warned that increasing truck traffic from international trade was placing an undue stress on the state's transportation infrastructure, including specific warnings concerning the now-collapsed bridge over the Mississippi on Interstate 35W in Minneapolis.

As WND reported, a Federal Highway Administration study begun in 1998 warned increased NAFTA truck traffic would endanger Minnesota bridges along I-35.

A separate study by the Minnesota Department of Transportation, or MNDOT, published in May 2005 – a "Minnesota Statewide Freight Plan" – identified the need to improve bridge and pavement deficiencies affecting trucks.

The MNDOT website also archives a June 2006 "Fractural Critical Bridge Study" that recommended replacing Bridge #9340 ("Squirt Bridge"), the now collapsed span on I-35W in Minneapolis.

Before collapsing, the bridge was not under any restrictions, despite multiple reports of deficiencies. Overweight trucks were permitted to carry loads of up to 136,000 pounds on the interstate.

Estimates are that the collapsed I-35W bridge carried 144,000 vehicles per day, including 4,760 commercial vehicles.

Internal documents from MNDOT and the Dallas-based trade organization NASCO – North America's Supercorridor Coalition – show the Minnesota agency joined NASCO to help deal with the strain NAFTA and other world trade freight loads were placing on the state's I-35 infrastructure, including support to repair the Minneapolis bridge.

In a Feb. 15, 2006, letter, Abigail McKenzie, director of the MNDOT Office of Investment Management, wrote to Melvin identifying a list of approximately 100 MNDOT requests for NASCO to assist with finding funding for the years 2007-14, including a request for $3 million to "replace overlay, joints, repair anti-icing, etc." on the I-35W bridge.

A July 19, 2006, memo written by Brad Larsen, MNDOT federal relations manager, to the MNDOT division directors stressed several benefits of joining NASCO, including the possibility of help to lobby for additional discretionary federal highway funds.

Larson's letter also pointed out NASCO state membership typically cost $50,000 a year, but NASCO had allowed Oklahoma to join for $25,000, and Larson believed he could get a special exemption allowing Minnesota to join NASCO for only $15,000 a year.

To further induce MNDOT to join, Larsen noted NASCO's executive director, Tiffany Melvin, had offered MNDOT two positions on the NASCO board of directors.

A Dec. 16, 2006 letter from Melvin to MNDOT acknowledged receiving MNDOT $15,000 fee to become a NASCO member.

The file indicates MNDOT internal support to join NASCO was far from universal.

In a March 7, 2006, memo, Robert Gale, an MNDOT planner, wrote, "I do not see that Mn/DOT has much, if anything, to gain by giving these people $50,000 or $25,000 or anything for that matter." He continued, "I would say we should save the state's money for more worthwhile endeavors than this group has to offer."

There is no record in the file that NASCO was ever able to assist MNDOT with the $3 million request to repair the I-35W bridge.

International trade dramatically increases traffic

Truck traffic carries the vast majority of international trade. According to the FHWA, in 2002, trucks carried 797 million tons of international shipments, valued at approximately $1.2 trillion. By 2035, trucks are projected to carry 2.1 billion tons of international freight, valued at approximately $6.2 trillion.

By contrast, rail, the second largest carrier of international freight, is expected to grow from 200 million tons in 2002 to 397 million tons in 2025. The value of international shipments carried by rail is projected to grow from $114 billion in 2002 to $275 billion in 2035.

The FHWA estimates Minnesota is experiencing what is expected to be an 84.3 percent increase in truck tonnage on the state's highways from 1998 to 2020.

FHWA reports leave no doubt truck traffic is particularly damaging to U.S. bridge and highway infrastructure and that international trade is projected to increase traffic dramatically on U.S. highways.

The FHWA estimates trucks are responsible for 40 percent of FHWA program costs but account for less than 10 percent of total vehicle miles traveled.

A frequently cited road test conducted by the American Association of State Highway Officials established that it takes 9,600 cars to cause the road damage caused by one fully-loaded, 80,000-pound truck.

Even though subsequent research has refined the estimate, the overall disproportionate road damage by heavily loaded trucks, including damage to bridges, is well established.

With growing truck traffic carrying more international trade, the FHWA concludes, "Clearly, more traffic is moving over essentially the same infrastructure."

Between 1980 and 2002, the FHWA reports truck travel grew by more than 90 percent, while lane-miles of public roads increased by only 5 percent.

The FHWA openly admits, "The creation of NAFTA has fostered north-south traffic, placing more demands on the domestic transportation system."

As WND has reported, the importance of international trade to I-35 has resulted in the interstate being designated as the "NAFTA Superhighway," even by prominent trade associations such as NASCO.

3rd SPP summit shrouded in secrecy
Bush to interrupt Texas vacation to join Mexican, Canadian leaders

President Bush will interrupt his summer vacation in Crawford, Texas, next week to attend the third summit meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, slated for Aug. 20 and 21 in Montebello, Quebec, at the five-star Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello resort.

Bush will meet with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the event.

The meeting has been hidden in a cloud of secrecy until WND obtained from an Access to Information Act request a previously unreleased copy of a government report detailing agenda plans for the third SPP summit.

According to WND reports, as many as 10,000 protesters are expected to be in Quebec to oppose the meeting.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada's national police force, and the Sûreté du Québec, the state police, plan to maintain a 25-kilometer protest-free zone around the Montebello resort where the meeting is to be held.

(Story continues below)

WND has reported that a multinational business agenda is driving this upcoming SPP summit according to the heavily redacted document obtained from the Canadian government.

The memo clearly states at center stage in the Montebello SPP summit will be recommendations by the North American Competitiveness Council, regarding promoting North American competitiveness for multinational corporations through "integrating" and "harmonizing" regulations between Mexico, Canada and the U.S.

The council, an executive group composed of 10 top multinational corporations from each of the three SPP countries, was constituted under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Commerce to provide guidance to the 20 SPP working groups of U.S., Mexican, and Canadian bureaucrats.

WND has also reported that President Bush will discuss at the summit a plan to send U.S. military assistance to Mexico to assist Mexico's military and civilian law enforcement agencies to combat Mexican narco-criminals and drug lords.

The leaders at the end of their summit are expected to make a statement on U.S. military aid to Mexico, provided their discussions have reached a point of agreement and conclusion.

At issue are questions of how the U.S. military can limit involvement to equipment and training, and how U.S. and Mexican officials can be certain the corruption common to Mexico's drug war does not subvert their effort or provide sophisticated equipment and technology that ends up in the hands of the drug kingpins.

WND has also reported the Montebello SPP summit will create a coordinating body to prepare for the North American response to an outbreak of avian or pandemic influenza.

The three leaders also plan to create a coordinating body on emergency management similar to that set up for avian or pandemic flu.

WND previously reported on National Security Presidential Directive No. 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive No. 20, which allocate to the office of the president the authority to direct all levels of government in any event the president declares to be a national emergency.

WND also has previously reported that under SPP, the military of the U.S. and Canada are turning USNORTHCOM and Canada Command into domestic military command structures, with authority extending to Mexico, even though Mexico has not formally joined with the current U.S. – Canadian USNORTHCOM/Canada Command structure.

WND has also learned the Montebello SPP summit will include discussion of a proposal to provide U.S. military assistance to the government of Mexico to help Mexico's military combat narco-trafficking in Mexico.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America was declared at the first trilateral meeting held at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005.

The second SPP summit meeting was held by President Bush, Mexico's President Vicente Fox and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Fiesta Americana Condesa Cancún Hotel in Cancún, Mexico, on March 31, 2006.

The SPP website, maintained by the U.S. Department of Commerce, lists a "2005 Report to Leaders" dated June 2005 and a "2006 Report to Leaders" dated August 2006, which document over 250 memoranda of understanding and other agreements that have been signed by the SPP working groups.

Most of these SPP memoranda of understanding and other agreements cannot be found on the SPP website or elsewhere on the Internet published in their entirety.

No comparable "2007 Report to Leaders" has yet been published on the SPP website.

The Nation cover story denies Superhighway
Nevertheless acknowledges massive Texas project to accommodate NAFTA, WTO

In a cover story for the current Nation magazine, Christopher Hayes is the latest to join a growing list of those who deny a NAFTA Superhighway exists.

"There is no such thing as a proposed NAFTA Superhighway," Hayes declares.

The remainder of the article, however, shows how the Trans Texas Corridor under construction parallel to Interstate 35 is specifically designed to accommodate the steadily growing volume of NAFTA and World Trade Organization traffic pouring into Texas from China and the Far East through Mexican ports on the Pacific such as Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas.

Like Hayes, the the Dallas-based trade group North America's SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc., or NASCO, adamantly denies the superhighway.

But Hayes doesn't mention the NAFTA Superhighway Coalition, a trade group formed July 23, 1997, to promote continental highway development in conjunction with the Ambassador Bridge.

Hayes also does not refer to a study of I-35 conducted in 1998 by the Federal Highway Administration under the premise the interstate "carries a greater percentage of trade among the NAFTA partners than any other U.S. Interstate Highway."

The executive summary of the completed 1998 study noted, "Since January 1, 1994, when NAFTA went into effect, the heartland of America has become an increasingly important thoroughfare for trade among the United States, Mexico and Canada. Interstate 35 is the only interstate highway connecting Mexico, the U.S. and Canada through the heartland, and it carries a grater percentage of U.S.-Mexico trade among the NAFTA partners than any other U.S. interstate highway."

The study referred throughout to the "I-35 Trade Corridor" as the primary focus of its analysis.

Hayes article accepts NASCO's claim that a "North American Super Corridor" can be distinguished from a "NAFTA Superhighway."

Yet, as WND reported, even NASCO has sharpened its denial to arguing only that there are no plans to build a new NAFTA Superhighway.

On its website, NASCO proclaims, "There are no plans to build a new NAFTA Superhighway – it exists today as I-35."

Yet, NASCO has refused to acknowledge repeated requests by WND to reconcile its stance with the plans of the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT, to build a new four-football-fields wide corridor parallel to I-35 from Laredo, Texas, in the south, to the Texas border with Oklahoma, south of Oklahoma City.

TxDOT, a NASCO member, plans this year to begin building the first segment of TTC-35, having signed a Comprehensive Development Agreement with Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., the Spanish investment consortium financing the new toll road.

NASCO has refused to allow WND Books permission to publish the organization's original webpage in Jerome Corsi's "The Late Great U.S.A.: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada."

In an April 27 letter, Tiffany Melvin, NASCO's executive director, wrote WND Books, charging, "Mr. Corsi has attempted to convince the public that there is a genuine, active governmental conspiracy to merge the sovereign nations of Mexico, the United States and Canada into a North American Union; to create a North American currency called the 'amero'; to build a gigantic 'NAFTA Superhighway' through the heart of North America; and to undermine the sovereignty and strength of American governmental institutions. All these claims are baseless."

Melvin's letter, however, did not produce any evidence or arguments that the claims were baseless.

Further, as WND reported, in a July 21, 2006, internal e-mail obtained by WND under a Missouri Sunshine Law request, Melvin cautions "NASCO friends and members" that, "We have to stay away from 'SuperCorridor' because it is a very bad, hot button right now."

NASCO's multiple homepage remake are fully archived on Internet sites such as the "Way Back Machine." When first writing about NASCO, WND displayed the original homepage, which in June 2006 opened with a map highlighting the I-35 corridor from Mexico to Canada.

By September 2006, in an apparent makeover of the homepage designed to defuse criticism, NASCO attempted to minimize the impact of the I-35 map on the organization's homepage.

This second version of the NASCO homepage showed the continental route of the I-35, 29, and 94 NASCO super corridor in muted pastel tones of beige and soft brown. The routes into Canada did not extend east to Montreal and west to Vancouver, as initially, but ended in arrows headed toward central Canada through Winnipeg.

In what appears to be the third major revamping of the NASCO website since WND first began writing about NASCO, the Dallas-based trade group carefully removes identifying NASCO with the words behind the acronym, "North America's SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc.," which the original NASCO website once proudly proclaimed.

The current NASCO homepage displays a photo montage of intermodal highway scenes, presumably taken along the I-35, but without any map displaying a continental I-35 super corridor linking Mexico and Canada.

WND previously reported deniers of a NAFTA superhighway include Vice President Cheney and Jeffrey Shane, undersecretary of transportation for policy in the U.S. Department of Transportation.

According to Freedom of Information Act documents obtained by WND, Shane has been appointed by the Bush administration to be the U.S. lead bureaucrat on the North American Transportation Working Group under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.

Increasingly, members of Congress are addressing the issue.

WND reported Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a GOP presidential candidate, introduced an amendment to H.R. 3074, the Transportation Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008, prohibiting the use of federal funds for participating in working groups under the Security and Prosperity Partnership, including the creation of NAFTA Superhighways.

On July 24, Hunter's amendment passed 362 to 63, with strong bipartisan support. Later, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3074 by a margin of 368-153. The bill has been sent to the Senate with Hunter's amendment included.

WND has also reported Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., has introduced House Concurrent Resolution 40 designed to block moves toward a North American Union and NAFTA Superhighways.

WND reported investment bankers and certain politicians have begun advancing the argument in Oklahoma that extending TTC-35 north into the state would be a desirable move to promote economic development.

108,000 sign petition against SPP summit
Opposition growing to quiet moves to integrate U.S., Mexico, Canada

A petition opposing the controversial continental integration initiative supported by the Bush administration, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, has garnered 108,000 signatures after less than a week.

Grassfire.org says response to the petition has far exceeded expectations.

"The response is overwhelming," Steve Elliott, president of Grassfire.org, told WND. "The petition has been up on the website for less than a week and we have been getting as many as 500 signatures an hour."

Elliott originally had a target of 100,000 signatures before the start of next week's SPP meeting in Canada.

As WND has reported, President Bush will interrupt his vacation in Crawford, Texas, next week to attend the SPP's third summit meeting Aug. 20 and 21 in Montebello, Quebec, at the five-star Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello resort.

Bush will meet with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"Our team leaders have been urging us to launch a petition against the SPP," Elliott explained. "As we looked into the issue, we decided that this is an emergency issue that Americans need to address."

Elliott says he gets asked all the time why President Bush has not secured U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada, even though the U.S. is six years into a war on terror.

"The explanation is SPP," Elliott said. "When the Security and Prosperity Partnership was declared at the first summit with Mexico and Canada in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005, President Bush evidently agreed to open our borders with Mexico and Canada, even though that was never clearly explained to the American people."

Elliott said the petition is designed to let Bush know "the American people are not happy with his aggressive move toward a North American Union that would integrate the United States with Mexico and Canada."

The Grassfire explains the petition is designed to oppose developments to build a North American "framework," including on-going SPP trilateral working group meetings, structuring NAFTA Superhighways from the existing interstate highway system and encouraging the open borders "migration" within the three countries.

Grassfire introduces the citizen petition with a two-part audio interview with WND staff reporter Jerome R. Corsi.

Corsi is the author of the current New York Times bestseller, "The Late Great U.S.A.: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada," published by WND Books.

The Grassfire citizen petition states, "I am signing this petition stating my opposition to efforts that lead to the development and formation of a North American Union combining the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Such a 'union' is a direct threat to U.S. sovereignty, national security and economic stability."

The petition makes four statements:

* SPP: I oppose the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) – a trilateral arrangement formed without congressional oversight designed to create regulatory, economic and other institutional structures that facilitate economic, legal and political integration between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

* Border Security: I oppose proposed regulatory and border security changes that eliminate or reduce U.S. border controls and encourage open migration within a common U.S.-Mexico-Canada region.

* NAFTA Highway: I oppose the construction of the NAFTA Superhighway system and other measures designed to create a borderless, open transit system within North America.

* Congressional Oversight: I am deeply concerned that the SPP has not been subject to congressional oversight or approval. Any such multi-national agreements must be submitted for congressional approval. As such, I support congressional Resolution 40 which opposes the North American Union and NAFTA Superhighway.

WND has reported Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., has introduced House Concurrent Resolution 40, designed to block moves toward a North American Union and NAFTA Superhighways.

Grassfire intends to present the petition to the White House during the SPP summit in Canada.

"We are fighting an information process," Elliott told WND. "The Bush administration has been very secretive about SPP. The substantive meetings in Montebello will be held behind closed doors. As the American people learn more about SPP, they are becoming more and more outraged. That's what we are seeing with this petition."

China to install sensors along NAFTA highway
Documents reveal NASCO plan to militarize I-35

Radio sensing stations to track traffic and cargo up and down the I-35 NAFTA Superhighway corridor are being installed by Communist China, operating through a port operator subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, in conjunction with Lockheed Martin and the North America's SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc.

The idea is that RFID chips placed in containers where manufactured goods are shipped from China will be able to be tracked to the Mexican ports on the Pacific where the containers are unloaded onto Mexican trucks and trains for transportation on the I-35 NAFTA Superhighway to destinations within the United States.

NASCO, a trade association based in Dallas, Texas, has teamed with Lockheed Martin to use RFID tracking technology Lockheed Martin developed for the U.S. Department of Defense's projects in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as at U.S. military stations throughout the world.

China has a central position in applying the RFID technology on I-35, given Hutchinson Port Holdings' 49 percent ownership of Savi Networks, the Lockheed Martin subsidiary that will get the job of placing the sensors all up and down the NAFTA Superhighway.

Nathan Hansen, a Minnesota attorney, has archived on his blog a series of NASCO documents obtained under a Minnesota Data Practices Act.

Among these documents released by Hansen is a Letter of Intent between NASCO and Savi Networks which details how NASCO and Lockheed Martin intend to implement NAFTRACS.

The letter calls for Savi Networks to establish RFID sensors along the I-35 NAFTA trade corridor, with tracking designed to begin at Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas, and include "inland points of data capture" positioned at Laredo, San Antonio, Dallas, Kansas City, the Ambassador Bridge, and Winnipeg.

Data captured by the RFID sensors would be sent to a data collection center that NASCO has named "The Center of Excellence."

The Center of Excellence data collection center will be integrated into Lockheed Martin's militarized Global Transport Network Command and Control Center that is installed and operating at the Lockheed Martin Center for Innovation or "Lighthouse" facility in Suffolk, Virginia.

Lockheed Martin's GTN was developed for the U.S. Department of Defense as an electronic system used to support supply shipments and defense logistics to U.S. armed forces deployed worldwide.

GTN is operated by the U.S. Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.

In releasing to the public the NASCO internal documents, Hansen characterized NASCO's Total Domain Awareness as "an Orwellian nightmare," commenting that, "At least Orwell's tyrants had the dignity to be creative with the names of their various maniacal bureaucracies."

NASCO documents describe Total Domain Awareness as the ability to "automatically gather, correlate, and interpret fragments of multi-source data," including data received from radar, Automatic Identification System shipboard radar, Global Positioning System, open source data including weather reports, military intelligence data, law enforcement data, bioterrorism data, plus video surveillance and security cameras.

Hansen comments about the NASCO Total Awareness Domain that, "Truly, a major defense contractor tracking our every move here in our own country is undoubtedly a threat to our liberties."

As WND has previously reported, Hutchison Port Holdings owns 49 percent of Savi Networks, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin's wholly-owned subsidiary Savi Technology.

A contract signed with NASCO authorizes Savi Networks to place a system of RFID sensors along the entire length of I-35 to track RFID equipped containers which travel the I-35 NAFTA Superhighway, including those Chinese containers that enter the continent through the Mexican ports of Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas.

The Federal Highway Administration website is currently archiving a slide show presentation by Tiffany Melvin, NASCO’s executive director, containing a discussion of the North American Facilitation of Transportation, Trade, Reduced Congestion and Security, designed to track containers along I-35 with Savi RFID technology and to provide the information to "various federal and state DOT (Department of Transportation) participants."

Hutchison Ports Holding operates the ports at Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas, as well as both ends of the Panama Canal.

Savi Technology spokesmen refused to return WND calls after messages were left at the company for three consecutive days.

Will Canada become the 51st state?
The Security and Prosperity Partnership: what it's all about and what it could mean for Canadians
Kelly Patterson, CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, August 18, 2007

To some, it is a "corporate coup d'etat," a conspiracy by big business to turn Canada into the 51st state by stealth. Others see it as a plot to destroy the U.S. by forcing it into a North American union with "socialist Canada" and "corrupt Mexico."

It is the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a sprawling effort to forge closer ties among the three nations in everything from anti-terrorism measures to energy strategies to food-safety and pesticide rules.

Launched two years ago by then prime minister Paul Martin, President George W. Bush and his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, at the so-called Three Amigos summit in Waco, Tex., the SPP grew out of concerns that security crackdowns would cripple cross-border trade.

With juggernauts such as China and India looming on the horizon, the three countries agreed they had to act fast to stay competitive. Now the SPP has grown into a mind-boggling array of some 300 initiatives, involving 19 teams of bureaucrats from all three countries.

INTEGRATION BY STEALTH

Its stated mission is "to keep our borders closed to terrorism yet open to trade" by fostering "greater co-operation and information-sharing" in security protocols and economic areas such as product safety.

Little known in Canada, the accord, if implemented, could affect almost every aspect of Canadian life, from what drugs you can access to whether you can board a plane and even what ingredients go into your morning cornflakes.

While you may not have heard of the SPP, you may have heard about some of the controversies it has sparked: Canada's adoption of a no-fly list, negotiations to lower Canada's pesticide standards to U.S. levels or fears the deal will lead to bulk-water exports.

Liberal leader Stephane Dion charged Friday that, "under the veil of secrecy," Harper has let the Americans run roughshod over Canada, covertly using the SPP to impose a U.S. agenda on Canada. That's not what the Liberals intended when they signed the deal, which was meant to give Canada a stronger voice in Washington, not turn it into an"imitation" of the U.S., he says.

Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians says it is big business that is calling the shots, pushing aggressively for the harmonization -- and downgrading -- of everything from security norms to food standards, in a move that will lead to the "integration by stealth" of the three nations.

"Canadians would be shocked" if they knew the true scope of the SPP, says Barlow, whose Ottawa-based organization represents about 100,000 members.

Fringe groups such as the Canadian Action Party and the Minutemen in the U.S. go further, arguing the SPP is a plot to sweep all three nations into a North American union.

"Where are they getting this stuff?" says Thomas d'Aquino, head of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, which helped launch the SPP.

"This is a very nitty-gritty, workaday initiative" to make trade safer and more efficient through such steps as expanding border crossings and information-sharing programs on plant and animal safety, he says.

Other SPP projects are no-brainers, such as plans to cooperate in fighting West Nile virus and flu pandemics.

As for fears of a North American union, "anyone who believes that is smoking something," says d'Aquino.

This weekend, the debate hits the headlines across the nation as the three heads of state and their advisers converge on Montebello, Que., 60 kilometres east of Ottawa, for the SPP's third annual summit.

Thousands of protesters are also expected to descend on the area, hoping to confront the "Three Banditos" about a deal they say is a secretive sellout to the cowboy capitalism and militarism of the superpower to Canada's south.

"We always hoped from the outset we could broaden it beyond security," says Roland Paris, a University of Ottawa professor who worked as an adviser in the Privy Council Office when the SPP was launched. He adds that the SPP's architects hoped the "regular high-level meetings" would help "overcome bureaucratic inertia."

SOVEREIGNTY UNDER FIRE

But they also helped big business and its government allies bypass both the public and Parliament to push through a host of controversial changes without debate or scrutiny, critics charge. They say the accord has enshrined and fast-tracked a longstanding effort to quietly harmonize Canadian programs with those of the U.S. in everything from military policy to food and drug standards.

"The SPP is an unacceptable, closed-door process with enormous implications for Canadians," says NDP trade critic Peter Julian.

Roland Paris scoffs at charges the SPP is a grand design. If anything, he says, it is a timid collection of piddling efforts that has become bogged down in bureaucratic red tape.

"This is not a political vision of the future of the continent. If it were, it would be worth the fuss."

Defenders of the SPP dismiss concerns about regulatory change as fear-mongering, saying the accord aims only to cut out minor, needless variations between the three countries.

The goal is to end the "tyranny of small differences" that can turn the border into a theatre of the absurd, says John Kirton, a University of Toronto professor and expert in the environmental effects of free trade.

If fact, the SPP could dramatically raise standards across North America, proponents say, because it promotes information-sharing among the three countries.

Scientists would swap data on everything from car safety to new chemicals, enabling regulators to better evaluate products and react more quickly to public health threats.

The SPP also includes projects with obvious benefits for all three nations, such as reducing sulphur in fuel and air pollution from ships, and coordinating efforts to curb plant and animal diseases.

All three governments insist that the three nations remain sovereign under the SPP: If Canada doesn't like the way the U.S. does something, it can go its own way.

But NDP trade critic Julian is not so sure. He worries about the effect regulatory convergence will have in the future.

If, for example, Canada wants to pass new rules to deal with greenhouse gases, it could mean "Canada would have to go to Washington and lobby for the kinds of standards and protections they want," he says.

Will Canada become the 51st state? (http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=4b1bc1a3-32be-4aac-af56-5636db7ef5a3)

Aug. 18, 2007, 7:50AM
Perry's push for super highway raises conspiracy buzz
Some say it's part of a plan to create one nation in North America

By R.G. RATCLIFFE

AUSTIN — Black helicopters, the Illuminati, Gov. Rick Perry and the Trans-Texas Corridor are all now part of the vernacular of the global domination conspiracy theorists.

Perry's push for the Trans-Texas Corridor super highway is part of a secret plan, the conspiracy theorists say, to create the North American Union — a single nation consisting of Canada, Mexico and the United States with a currency called the Amero.

Government denials of the North American Union and descriptions of it as a myth seem to add fuel to the fire. A Google search for "North American Union" and "Rick Perry" returns about 13,400 Web page results.

"Conspiracy theories abound, and some people have an awful lot of time on their hands to come up with such far-fetched notions," said Perry spokesman Robert Black.

Perry enhanced the conspiracy buzz earlier this summer by traveling to Turkey to attend the secretive Bilderberg conference, which conspiracy theorists believe is a cabal of international monied interests and power brokers pressing for globalization.

And the conspiracy rhetoric is likely to ratchet up this week as President Bush meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Quebec in their third summit to discuss North American relations under the Security and Prosperity Partnership.

"There is absolutely a connection with all of it," said Texas Eagle Forum President Cathie Adams. The Trans-Texas Corridor "is something not being driven by the people of Texas."

The first, and most controversial, leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor plan is a proposed 1,200-foot-wide private toll road to run from Laredo to the Oklahoma border parallel to Interstate 35. This TTC-35 would be built by a consortium headed by Spanish owned Cintra S.A. and Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio.

The seed of the North American Union controversy rests in the 1992-93 passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Under that treaty, Interstate 35 was designated informally as the NAFTA highway.

'Stealth' attempt
Fast-forward to March 2005 to Crawford, when President Bush, Harper and then-Mexican President Vicente Fox agreed to pursue the Security and Prosperity Partnership, SPP. The idea was to promote cooperation among the countries on economic and security issues.

But conservative author Jerome Corsi — in his new book: The Late Great U.S.A.: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada — argues the SPP is a "stealth" attempt to wipe out the nations' borders and form a single economy like the European Union.

With an entire chapter dedicated to Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor plan, Corsi says the first step to integrating the economies is to integrate the transportation infrastructure.

"His (Perry's) actions have been to fight hard to build this toll road and not listen to the objections expressed by the people of Texas," Corsi said.

Corsi became nationally known in 2004 as the co-author of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry. Corsi said extensive research shows the SPP has created working groups on the North American Union that answer to presidential Cabinet secretaries.

"This is more of a shadow bureaucracy, a shadow government already in effect," Corsi said. "Unless it is stopped, it will turn into a North American Union with an Amero."

The official federal Web site for the SPP has a section dedicated to busting the North American Union as myth.

"The SPP does not attempt to modify our sovereignty or currency or change the American system of government designed by our Founding Fathers," the site says.

But that has not stopped a growing opposition to the North American Union by groups such as the Eagle Forum, The Conservative Caucus and the John Birch Society.

'Wanted' individual
The North American Union also has been fodder for cable television commentators: CNN's Lou Dobbs and Fox's Bill O'Reilly.

Perry fueled his role in the debate in June by attending the Bilderberg annual conference, a secretive closed-door meeting of about 120 business, government and media leaders from Europe and North America.

Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Lake Jackson was asked about the trip on the syndicated talk radio show of Alex Jones in June. Paul said the trip was "a sign that he's involved in the international conspiracy."

Jones' Web site features mug shot-like photos of Perry labeled "Wanted for Treason." Jones in an interview said Perry's trip and the Trans-Texas Corridor show a willingness by the governor to sell out Texas' infrastructure to international bankers.

"Perry is actively waging war, economically in the interests of the elites and neomercantilism," Jones said.

The 2001 book Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New by Robert A. Pastor, an American University professor and director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management, is cited by Corsi as the blueprint for the merger.

"I've never proposed a North American Union," Pastor said. "The only people who talk about a North American Union are those people who are trying to generate fear."

Belief in sovereignty
Pastor said greater cooperation between the three countries makes sense for both economics and internal security.

Pastor said those promoting the conspiracy are doing so because of "historical xenophobia," "a fear of immigrants, mostly from Mexico" and a "traditional isolationism."

Black said there is no way the governor would support merging the U.S. with its neighbors.

"The governor is a firm believer in the sovereignty of the United States. Too many of our brave men and women have died defending it," Black said.

Perry's push for super highway raises conspiracy buzz (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5064512.html)

Leaders of 3 nations meet for SPP confab
Bush, Harper, Calderon talking behind closed doors

Leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico have begun their discussions of the Security and Prosperity Partnership behind closed doors here at the five-star Fairmont Le Chateau resort in Montebello, Quebec.

President Bush arrived at mid-afternoon yesterday, with the presidential helicopter landing on the club's golf course, as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was waiting to greet him.

As the two met, Harper commented that Bush appeared to travel with his own security army of Secret Service.

Mexico's President Felipe Calderon arrived later, and could be the first to depart as forecasters estimated Hurricane Dean is pressing on a southern route headed toward the Yucatan peninsula.

Ottawa, Canada's nearby capital city, appeared militarized for the meetings, with police squad cars visible on virtually every downtown corner and cross-street.

All roads leading to Montebello were blocked off by military-like roadblocks, with the local police backed up by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada's national police force, in charge.

A last-minute court decision forced the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police, to allow protesters to be close enough to the Montebello resort to be seen.

But a security fence surrounded the Le Chateau resort to keep out the growing number of protesters who were confronted by Canadian police armed in full riot gear.

Protesters at several different perimeter security lines advanced yesterday toward police lines and were driven back by provincial police in riot gear, including batons and shields, using pepper gas and pellet bullets.

Harper brushed off the protesters when greeting Bush, who, in a comment recorded by cameras, noted the numbers.

Harper shrugged to Bush, "A couple of hundred? It's sad."

WND estimates put the protesters at several thousand, mixing radical anarchists with protesters whose message appeared more partisan, aimed at the Harper government's efforts to use the meetings to advance a North American integration message they opposed.

In Ottawa, hundreds of more subdued political protesters carried banners and chanted slogans in peaceful protest marches around the city's distinctive parliament buildings.

Only those with proper accreditation issued by the Canadian government after Royal Canadian Mounted Police security checks had any chance of getting within Montebello resort grounds.

The only "civilians" actually scheduled to attend the SPP closed-door sessions were representatives of the 30 multi-national corporations appointed by the Chambers of Commerce of the three nations to constitute the North American Competitiveness Council, or NACC.

Today's confidential sessions are scheduled to involve top-level trilateral working group bureaucrats meeting with NACC business members.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has set up the NACC to serve as the chief policy adviser to the 20 SPP trilateral working groups that have been "integrating" and "harmonizing" North American administrative laws and regulations across a wide spectrum of public policy issues.

As WND previously reported, the NACC is expected to dominate the SPP agenda.

"The SPP is pursuing an agenda to integrate Mexico and Canada in closed doors sessions that are getting underway today in Montebello," Howard Phillips, the chairman of the Coalition to Block the North American Union, told a press conference in Ottawa.

"We are here to register our protest," Phillips added, "along with the protests of thousands of Americans who agree with us that the SPP is a globalist agenda driven by the multi-national corporate interests and intellectual elite who together have launched an attack upon the national sovereignty of the United States, Canada and Mexico."

Connie Fogel, head of the Canadian Action Party, agreed with Phillips.

"Canadians are complaining that the SPP process lacks transparency," Fogel told the press conference. "Transparency is a major issue, but even if the SPP working groups were open to the public, we would still object to their goal to advance the North American integration agenda at the expense of Canadian sovereignty."

Bush doesn't deny plans
for N. American Union
President avoids question, ridicules
'conspiracy theorists' who believe it

President Bush today sidestepped a direct question about whether he'd be willing to categorically deny there is a plan to create the North American Union.

Instead, he ridiculed those who believe that is taking place as conspiracy theorists.

The exchange came at a news conference held by Bush, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who met at a resort in the rural woods outside of Ottawa, Quebec, to discuss their latest work on the Security and Prosperity Partnership.

After the trio presented their prepared statement about the SPP, several reporters who had been selected in advance were allowed to ask questions.

When it came time for a question from a Fox News reporter, Bush was asked if he would be willing to categorically deny that there is a plan to create a North American Union, or that there are plans to create NAFTA Superhighways.

"As you three leaders meet here, there are a growing number of people in each of your countries who have expressed concern about the Security and Prosperity Partnership. This is addressed to all three of you. Can you say today that this is not a prelude to a North American Union, similar to a European Union? Are there plans to build some kind of superhighway connecting all three countries? And do you believe all of these theories about a possible erosion of national identity stem from a lack of transparency from this partnership?" was the question, according to a White House transcript.

Reporters at the news conference said he sidestepped, instead adopting the tactic that those who are arguing the European Union model of integrating nations into a larger continental union is being used in North America should be ridiculed.

He called it an old political scare tactic, to try to create a wild conspiracy and then demand that those who "are not engaged" prove that it isn't happening.

Bush's answer was:

"We represent three great nations. We each respect each other's sovereignty. You know, there are some who would like to frighten our fellow citizens into believing that relations between us are harmful for our respective peoples. I just believe they're wrong. I believe it's in our interest to trade; I believe it's in our interest to dialogue; I believe it's in our interest to work out common problems for the good of our people.

"And I'm amused by some of the speculation, some of the old – you can call them political scare tactics. If you've been in politics as long as I have, you get used to that kind of technique where you lay out a conspiracy and then force people to try to prove it doesn't exist. That's just the way some people operate. I'm here representing my nation. I feel strongly that the United States is a force for good, and I feel strongly that by working with our neighbors we can a stronger force for good.

"So I appreciate that question. I'm amused by the difference between what actually takes place in the meetings and what some are trying to say takes place. It's quite comical, actually, when you realize the difference between reality and what some people are talking on TV about."

Harper joined in. There's not going to be any NAFTA Superhighway connecting the three nations, he said, and it's "not going to go interplanetary either," he said.

Harper said the SPP discussions that were held concerned such pressing issues as jelly beans. He said the business interests expressing their desires for progress on the SPP noted there were different standards in the United States and Canada, and there was a discussion about whether those standards could be made uniform for the U.S. and Canada.

Bush's comments echoed the comments published just a day earlier in the Ottawa Citizen by David Wilkins, the U.S. ambassador to Canada.

"While conspiracy theories abound, you can take it to the bank that no one involved in these discussions is interested in, or has ever proposed, a 'North American Union,' a 'North American super highway,' or a 'North American currency,'" he wrote.

"The United States, Canada and Mexico are three distinct, sovereign countries that practice democracy differently," he wrote. "Each proudly defends its own interests. But our leaders also recognize that we share a continent in this post-Sept. 11 world, where terrorism is but one threat. We have a vested interest in working together to prevent potential threats outside North America – like those posed by pandemic flu or improperly labeled foods, for example – from penetrating our borders.

Wilkins wrote that the nations also are "exploring ways to detect radiological threats and coordinating emergency efforts along our borders in the event of a man-made or natural disaster. It just makes sense when you share thousands of miles of common border to share a common emergency-management plan."

He said another goal is to reduce the cost of doing business across national borders.

However, Jerome Corsi, whose newly published book, "The Late Great USA," uses the government's own documentation to show the advance of a North American Union, said ridicule is the "last resort of someone who is losing an argument."

Such tactics, Corsi said, "underestimate the intelligence of people listening, and people realize that the argument wasn't answered."

At the news conference, Bush failed to respond to the Fox News question with a denial of the plans for a North American Union.

And, Corsi said, "Bush did not address the fact that Texas Gov. Rick Perrry vetoed a 2-year moratorium on the Trans-Texas Corridor project," believed to be the starting point for an eventual continent-wide grid of NAFTA Superhighways.

"Just to ridicule the idea, when he had a change to categorically deny it, raises doubts in peoples' minds, especially when these meetings aren't transparent," Corsi said.

The meeting this week, which focused on economic issues, was attended by representatives of dozens of multinational corporations anxious to have their manufacturing and sales processes smoothed.

However, Corsi said, "not one person who objects is permit inside the room."

At the same time, Bush did affirm that there is a plan under consideration for the United States to provide military assistant to Mexico's military in its battles in the drug war, although officials were not ready to announce what that plan includes.

The three national leaders simply affirmed that drug trade in a continental problem, and would demand a continental solution.

The formal statement from the three leaders talked about the "opportunities and challenges facing North America and to establish priorities for our further collaboration."

They said the three nations already have agreed to a North American plan for avian and pandemic influenza, a "Regulatory Cooperation Framework," an intellectual property action strategy and a "Trilateral Agreement for Cooperation in Energy Science and Technology."

"The North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), announced last year in Cancun, has provided us with thoughtful recommendations on how we could strengthen the competitive platform for business," the statement said.

The statement said the Regulatory Cooperation Framework will allow various rules to be streamlined across borders.

"In the coming year, we ask our ministers to consider work in areas, such as the chemicals, automotive, transportation, and information and communications technology sectors," the statement said.

And the Intellectual Property Action Strategy "also gives us an invaluable tool for combating counterfeiting and piracy, which undermine innovation, harm economic development and can have negative public-health and safety implications," the three said.

Food safety, and border security, also were discussed. "Our governments will continue to address the safety of food and products imported into North America, while facilitating the significant trade in these products that our countries already have and without imposing unnecessary barriers to trade," the leaders said.

"It is sometimes best to screen goods and travelers prior to entry into North America. We ask our ministers to develop mutually acceptable inspection protocols to detect threats to our security, such as from incoming travelers during a pandemic and from radiological devices on general aviation," the statement said.

But protesters who staged events in Ottawa as the meetings were moving forward, warned of the integration and harmonizing the SPP seeks.

"The SPP is pursuing an agenda to integrate Mexico and Canada in closed doors sessions that are getting underway today in Montebello," Howard Phillips, the chairman of the Coalition to Block the North American Union, told an earlier press conference in Ottawa.

"We are here to register our protest," Phillips added, "along with the protests of thousands of Americans who agree with us that the SPP is a globalist agenda driven by the multi-national corporate interests and intellectual elite who together have launched an attack upon the national sovereignty of the United States, Canada and Mexico."

Connie Fogel, head of the Canadian Action Party, agreed with Phillips.

"Canadians are complaining that the SPP process lacks transparency," Fogel told the press conference. "Transparency is a major issue, but even if the SPP working groups were open to the public, we would still object to their goal to advance the North American integration agenda at the expense of Canadian sovereignty."

Prophecy Unfolding Before Our Eyes? Summit In Canada Prompts Fears Of "Super-Government"
August 20, 2007

By Jon Ward - OTTAWA — President Bush's two-day summit with the leaders of Canada and Mexico, beginning today in nearby Montebello, is raising fears among some conservatives that the three governments are planning a European Union-style super-government.

Concerns about such an agreement and where it could lead started on Web sites and among talk-radio hosts, picked up by CNN commentator Lou Dobbs and gained traction among some of the House Republicans who successfully derailed Mr. Bush's immigration-reform plan, which critics described as an amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens in the United States.

"We want you to be aware of serious and growing concerns in the U.S. Congress about the so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership you launched with these nations in 2005," 21 Republican members of Congress, along with one Democrat, said in a letter to President Bush.

The House has adopted an amendment barring U.S. transportation officials from participating in future meetings of the partnership.

The White House dismissed suspicions of a coming North American Union as a "silly" conspiracy theory. "Americans are going to remain Americans, Canadians are going to remain Canadians and Mexicans are going to remain Mexicans," a senior Bush administration official said on the condition of anonymity.

But the fight over immigration policy, in which some conservatives accused Mr. Bush of siding with multinational business interests to adopt policies undermining U.S. sovereignty, has aggravated fears about cross-border cooperation with Mexico.

"A couple of events I've done this week, this question did come up about the issue of open borders, and how much is this country doing to cut these arrangements with Canada and Mexico to basically give free access in and out of this country," said Rep. Walter B. Jones, North Carolina Republican, who signed the letter of concern.

Rep. Chris Cannon, Utah Republican — who did not sign the letter — said he has heard questions and complaints from many constituents about the three-party talks and how they could affect U.S. sovereignty.

"Any time you're talking with another country about how you do things, by nature you're giving up sovereignty," Mr. Cannon said. Talks among the three nations' working groups should be more open, with Congress participating.

"If we're going to enter into agreements, they ought to be part of a ratifiable process. You want the Senate involved in ratifying them."

Howard Phillips, a newspaper columnist, conservative activist and one-time Nixon administration official, organized a press conference to be held this morning to announce opposition to the Partnership. "We're not getting a North American Union overnight, but it's headed in that direction incrementally," he said.

The Bush administration official said the White House has made the Partnership, a series of talks begun in 2005, overly complicated. "If people think it's that complicated, then there's something more to it," he said. The purpose of the Partnership is to build upon the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he said has generated $884 billion in trade among the United States, Mexico and Canada over the past 12 years. He said the Partnership adds a security element to the economic and trade partnership.

"We've tried to recognize that this is an economic relationship, but also in a post-9/11 world, we have to have security. You can't have one without the other," he said. "None of these three countries are talking about changing their fundamental political structure or their fundamental constitutional structure in any way, [nor] adding either a common currency or a "bureaucratic superstructure."

But with many of the working groups discussing security measures that the Bush official said cannot be fully disclosed, the element of secrecy continues to raise suspicions. Said the congressional letter to Mr. Bush: "We urge you to bring to the Congress whatever provisions have already been agreed upon and those now being pursued."

Mr. Bush will meet individually with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon at the Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello resort. Tomorrow, he will take part in three-way meetings and a press conference, and then fly to Minnesota for a fundraiser for Sen. Norm Coleman, Minnesota Republican.

Prophecy Unfolding Before Our Eyes? Summit In Canada Prompts Fears Of "Super-Government" (http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070820/NATION/108200067/1001&template=printart)

Mexican rigs
ready to roll
Truckers in 'demonstration'
expected on roads Sept. 1

The requirements for the U.S. Department of Transportation's Mexican Truck Demonstration Project have been met, and some 37 Mexican trucking companies have been approved to run their long-haul rigs through the U.S. starting as early as Sept. 1, according to a Mexican government report.

In the United States, the inspector general of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Aug. 6 issued to the House and Senate Appropriations Committee an audit about implementing NAFTA's cross-border trucking provisions, the last hurdle DOT faced before allowing the Mexican truck demonstration project to begin.

As required by Congress, the report was withheld from public release until August 21 – 15 days after being delivered to Congress.

At that point, industry commentators instantly noted that the FMCSA inspector general requested that additional improvements be made in two areas: to improve the quality of the data used to monitor Mexican commercial driver traffic convictions in the United States and to ensure adequate capacity to inspect Mexican buses.

The first industry reaction was that the report had blocked DOT from allowing the Mexican truck demonstration project to start until the FMCSA had adequately satisfied the deficiencies noted in these two recommendations.

However, the Mexican government report, posted in Spanish Aug. 14 on the Mexican government's Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes website, came to a different conclusion.

It said, "The conditions for the beginning of the Cross-Border Truck Demonstration Project have been met."

The Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes also announced in the document that 37 Mexican trucking companies had satisfactorily met the U.S. Department of Transportation's requirements for participating in the demonstration project.

Also little noted in the U.S. was a press release issued by Mexican Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez reporting the Mexican government anticipates starting the demonstration project in the last week of August.

A careful reading of the Aug. 6 FMCSA inspector general's audit shows that no sentence in the report states that DOT may not proceed with the Mexican truck demonstration project until the requirements of the audit's recommendations are met.

Focusing on the yet unmet recommendations, American industry leaders had just assumed that the additional demands would block DOT from giving approval to the Mexican trucks to proceed.

But the fine print of the Aug. 6 report signals the unmet recommendations were just that, recommendations, not requirements.

"These improvements are needed more urgently than ever because Mexican motor carriers may be granted long haul authority in the near future," the report said.

This month, the FMCSA and DOT have been unusually silent on the status of the Mexican truck demonstration project, dodging questions about their response to the Aug 6 audit.

Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told WND the behavior of the FMCSA and DOT in pushing the Mexican truck demonstration project has been "reprehensible."

"The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Department of Transportation under Secretary Mary Peters continue to thumb their noses at legitimate issues and important questions that have been raised by the American people and their elected representatives," Spencer told WND.

Spencer said he considered it "possible" that DOT would give the green light to the Mexican truck demonstration project as early as next week, since the Aug. 6 audit did not specifically prohibit them from doing so.

Spencer noted that a start date as early as Sept. 1 would be an additional affront, since Congress is still out of town for their annual August recess.

"The Bush administration is determined to push this Mexican truck project down the throats of the American people and Congress," Spencer stressed.

"Reading the inspector general's report, there are many serious safety concerns that are still far from resolved," he said. "Now we're just supposed to ignore those recommendations and let the Mexican long-haul rigs roll anywhere they want in the United States, regardless whether it's safe or not?"

WND previously has reported that on May 15, the House of Representatives passed the Safe American Roads Act of 2007 (H. R. 1773), by an overwhelming bipartisan 411-3 margin.

WND also reported a White House strategy to pressure the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation not to hold hearings or take any action on the House-passed Safe American Roads Act of 2007.

WND further reported the White House was trying to persuade senators on the transportation committee that the requirements of the Safe American Roads Act were wrapped into the provisions of H.R. 2206, the Iraq supplemental funding bill, which was signed into law by President Bush on May 25.

The Bush administration argued that a May filing by the FMCSA in the Federal Register was sufficient to satisfy the H.R. 2206 requirements to post safety regulations before the Mexican demonstration project was permitted to start.

Now that the FMCSA inspector general has issued the Aug 6 audit, the published government reports in Mexico suggest DOT is ready to take the position that the last congressional requirement has been met with the publication of this report.

WND left multiple requests with Brian Turmail, FMCSA spokesman, and Madeline Chulumovich, spokeswoman in the FMCSA's inspector general's office, asking for an interpretation of the audit requirements and the date for the program to begin, without getting a response.

Mexican trucks begin crossing border Saturday
Teamsters Union calls it 'slap in the face to American workers'

The Teamsters Union said it has been told by officials in the Transportation Department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that the first Mexican trucks will be coming across the border on Saturday.

The union said Wednesday it would ask a federal appeals courts to block the Bush administration's plan to begin allowing Mexican trucks to carry cargo anywhere in the United States.

Teamsters leaders said they planned to seek an emergency injunction Wednesday from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

What a slap in the face to American workers, opening the highways to dangerous trucks on Labor Day weekend, one of the busiest driving weekends of the year," said Teamsters President Jim Hoffa.
Joining the Teamsters in seeking the emergency stay were the Sierra Club and Public Citizen.
"Before providing unconditional access throughout the country to tens of thousands of big rigs we know little to nothing about, we must insure they meet safety and environmental standards," Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, in a statement, said it was working closely with the department's inspector general "as his office completes an additional assessment of the program and we prepare a detailed response to that report."

The Bush administration said last week it would start the cross-border program once the Transportation Department's inspector general certifies safety and inspection plans.

Leslie Miller, a Teamsters spokeswoman, said attorneys for the federal truck safety agency advised the union's lawyers that they expect to get that certification on Friday. She said the Teamsters also were told by the agency attorneys that limited authority for trucks to begin crossing the border will be approved Saturday.

Supporters of the plan say letting more Mexican trucks on U.S. highways will save American consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Labor and driver-owner groups have been fighting the measure -- part of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement -- since it was first proposed, saying the program will erode highway safety and eliminate U.S. jobs.

A one-year demonstration project would allow 100 Mexican motor carriers full access to U.S. roads. It can begin as soon as the inspector general certifies that safety and inspection plans and facilities are sufficient to ensure the Mexican trucks are as safe as U.S. trucks.

Since 1982, Mexican trucks have had to stop within a buffer border zone and transfer their loads to U.S. trucks.

According to the CHP, 18 percent of Mexican carriers were sidelined in 2006. That figure stands in contrast with the 19 percent of American companies.

Name changed to hide 'Superhighway'?
WND obtains document revealing original moniker of 'SuperCorridor'

A 1998 document which WND has obtained shows the North American SuperCorridor Coalition, or NASCO, was originally named the North American Superhighway Coalition.

The document plays into an emerging debate in which a number of critics, including President Bush, want to deny that a NAFTA "Superhighway" exists.

Christopher Hayes, writing in the Aug. 27 edition of the Nation claimed that, "There is no such thing as a proposed NAFTA Superhighway."

President Bush at the third summit meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America in Montebello, Quebec, on Aug. 21, answered a question from a reporter at Fox News that NAFTA Superhighways were part of a "conspiracy theory."

The document involves a June 10, 1998, letter written to Tiffany Newsom, executive director of NASCO, by Francisco J. Conde, editor and publisher of the Conde Report on U.S.-Mexico Relations.

Conde addresses NASCO as North America's Superhighway Coalition and compliments Newsom and NASCO for supporting the Interstate Highway 35 Corridor Coalition consulting team at David A. Dean & Associates, P.C. and Dean International, Inc.

The letter goes on to note the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, or TEA-21, was signed into law by President Clinton on June 9, 1998.

Conde writes that, "This bill contains for the first time in history a category and funding for trade corridors and border programs."

He continues, "The I-35 corridor is the strongest and most organized of the corridor initiatives so, if we play our cards right, we stand to get a part of the $700 million."

Conde was referring to a section of TEA-21 devoted to a new National Corridor Planning and Development program, identifying highway corridors that were specifically identified with international trade and a Coordinated Border Infrastructure program designed "to improve the safe and efficient movement of people and goods at or across the U.S./Canadian and U.S./Mexican borders."

A desire to obtain funds under TEA-21's corridor initiative may have been responsible for changing NASCO's name from North America's Superhighway Coalition to North America's SuperCorridor Coalition.

Interestingly, combining "SuperCorridor" into one word allowed preserving the correspondence required to continue using "NASCO" as the acronym for the newly renamed organization.

A close reading of NASCO's website shows NASCO does not deny that a NAFTA Superhighway exists.

NASCO insists on identifying the NAFTA Superhighway with the existing I-35, denying only that plans exist to build a new NAFTA Superhighway.

As WND has previously reported, this point is made clear by a sentence on the NASCO website which states, "There are no plans to build a new NAFTA Superhighway – it exists today as I-35."

Yet, NASCO has repeatedly refused to repudiate the plans of the Texas Department of Transportation to build the Trans-Texas Corridor as a new four-football-fields wide superhighway corridor parallel to the existing I-35.

An archived version of the NASCO website going back to Oct. 24, 2005, documents that NASCO played a role in lobbying for the creation of the National Corridor & Planning Development program and the Coordinated Border Infrastructure program when TEA-21 was being passed.

"We have assisted in the lobbying effort to bring hundreds of millions of dollars to the NASCO I-35 Corridor, resulting in High Priority Status for I-35 in 1995 under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficacy Act (ISTEA)," the 2005 NASCO website noted. "In addition, we successfully assisted in lobbying for the creation of two new categories under the Transportation Act of the 21st Century (TEA-21) – the National Corridor Planning & Development Program and the Coordinated Border Infrastructure Program."

North American Union driver's license created
Logo intended to standardize documentation across continent

The first "North American Union" driver's license, complete with a hologram of the North American continent on the reverse, has been created in the state of North Carolina.

"The North Carolina driver's license is 'North American Union' ready," charges William Gheen, who serves as president of Americans for Legal Immigration.

Gheen provided WND with a photo of an actual North Carolina license which clearly shows the hologram of the North American continent embedded on the reverse.

"The hologram looks exactly [like] the map of North America that is used as the background for the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America logo on the SPP website," Gheen told WND. "I object to the loss of sovereignty that is proceeding under the agreements being made by these unelected government bureaucrats who think we should be North American instead of the United States of America."

"To protest, I don't plan on applying for a North Carolina driver's license," Gheen told WND, "even though I am a resident of the state. I don't see how a Division of Motor Vehicles authorized in a Department of Transportation of a state of the United States can force me to have a license place that is designed with a North American Union insignia printed on the backside."

"My decision not to get a North Carolina driver's license could have very difficult consequences for me," Gheen told WND. "Without a valid driver's license, I may not be able to drive a car, fly on an airplane, or enter a government building."

Gheen told WND he does not have a U.S. passport.

In 2005, WND reported North Carolina was the state where illegal immigrants go to get a driver's license, with busloads of aliens traveling south on I-95 to get an easy ID.

The Tar Heel State's requirements to obtain a license are weaker than those of many surrounding states.

Marge Howell, spokeswoman for the North Carolina DMV, affirmed to WND the state was embedding a hologram of North America on the back of its new driver's licenses.

"It's a security element that eventually will be on the back of every driver's license in North America," Howell told WND.

Howell explained the hologram of the North American continent was the creation of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization that, according to the group's website, "develops model programs in motor vehicle administration, law enforcement and highway safety."

Founded in 1933, AAMVA represents state and provincial officials in the United States and Canada who administer and enforce motor vehicle laws. The government of Mexico is also a member, though the individual Mexican states have yet to join.

According to the group's website, AAMVA's programs are designed "to encourage uniformity and reciprocity among the states and provinces."

"The goal of the North American hologram," Howell explained, "is to get one common element that law enforcement throughout the continent can look at on all driver's licenses and tell that the driver's license is an official document."

Jason King, spokesman for AAMVA, affirmed the North American hologram was created by AAMVA's Uniform Identification Subcommittee, a working group of AAMVA members.

He explained the goal is to create a continental security device that could be used by state and provincial motor vehicles agencies throughout North America, including the United States, Canada and Mexico.

King referenced a document on the AAMVA website that describes guidelines for using the North America continent hologram as an Optical Variable Device (OVD) that AAMVA has now licensed with private manufacturers to produce.

AAMVA supplies member motor vehicle agencies with a quantity of North American continent hologram OVD foils to use on their driver's licenses and ID cards as needed.

As the guidelines document on the AAMVA explains, each North American continental hologram OVD foil is embedded with a unique set of control numbers that permit law enforcement electronic scanners to identify the exact jurisdiction and precise individual authorized to hold a driver's license or ID card with that particular OVD foil embedded.

"AAMVA understands its unique positioning and the continuing role identification security will play in helping the general public realize a safer North America," King explained to WND in an e-mail. "The association believes ID security will help increase national security, increase highway safety, reduce fraud and system abuse, increase efficiency and effectiveness, and achieve uniformity of processes and practices."

Jim Palmer, press director for ALIPAC, told WND that ALIPAC first became aware of the hologram when Missouri State Rep. Jim Guest held a seminar in North Carolina to protest the Real ID law.

"The surprise came at a meeting on the Real ID that Palmer held in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Saturday, July 28," Palmer told WND.

"When Rep. Guest asked participants to take out their driver's license and see what was on it," Palmer explained, "one gentleman was a state employee and on his license there was this hologram with the North American continent on the back. We were all surprised to see that on a North Carolina driver's license. Right there, that stopped the show."

Guest has formed a coalition called Legislators Against Real ID Act, or LARI.

"I was astonished when I saw that North American hologram on the North Carolina driver's license," Guest told WND. "I thought to myself that the state DMV has already included this North American symbol on the back of the driver's license without telling the people of North Carolina they were going to do this."

"I thought right then that this was going to be the prototype for the driver's license of the North American Union," Guest told WND.

"When we called the North Carolina DMV, they hedged at first," Guest said, "but finally they admitted that, yes, there was a North American continent hologram on the back of the license."

"This is part of a plan by bureaucrats and trade groups that act like bureaucrats to little by little transform us into a North American Union without any vote being taken and without explaining to the U.S. public what they are doing," Guest argued.

King explained AAMVA’s Uniform Identification Subcommittee created a number of task forces, including the Card Design Specification that developed the North America continent hologram OVD.

"The Task Group surveyed and met with many stakeholders during the development effort," King wrote to WND. "The Task Force gathered information from government and non-government users of the driver's License/ID card to determine their uses for the DL/ID card and how they believe the card should function. In addition, the Task Group surveyed and met with industry experts in the area of card production and security to gather their advice, especially about the physical security of the card."

King told WND the Task Group work was repeatedly reviewed by the UID Subcommittee as a whole, with final approval coming from the AAMVA Board.

In 2006, WND reported Pastor Rios Sanchez, 55, an illegal alien, was accused of killing three people, including two North Carolina State University students and a 26-year-old, while driving drunk.

"People who think the Real ID was created to keep illegal aliens from getting driver's licenses and IDs should come to North Carolina," Gheen told WND. "What the North Carolina DMV is doing is creating the basis for a continental driver's license."

"What difference does it make to North Carolina if an illegal alien gets a driver's license?" Gheen asked. "The photo on the license creates a close face scan that can be identified by face recognition technology, whether the DMV admits it or not."

"Illegal aliens who get driver's licenses are just being scanned in advance," Gheen concluded.

"Illegal aliens who get driver's licenses or IDs in North Carolina are just being prepared for their admission into the North America Union driver pool that North Carolina is at the vanguard of creating," Gheen said. "That is the truth, whether the North Carolina DMV or the AAMVA want to admit it or not."

King told WND North Carolina is the first AAMVA member jurisdiction to use the North America continent hologram on a driver's license or ID card.

Toll road deal imposes 'century of traffic congestion'
No-compete clauses granted foreign investors

An agreement has been reached with foreign investors to take over operations of the Denver area's Northwest Parkway transportation corridor, but one critic says the contract includes a no-compete clause that will impose mandatory traffic congestion – for the next 99 years.

"It's bad enough that the Northwest Parkway Public Highway Authority and its member governments sharply increased the tolls for today's drivers, but to intentionally impose a century of congestion on future generations in exchange for this short-term bailout is shockingly shortsighted," said Golden Mayor Pro Tem Jacob Smith.

The Northwest Parkway runs around the northwest corner of the Denver metropolitan area, and connects to several other segments of a transportation corridor that is being developed about 20 miles outside of the Denver downtown. The metropolitan area has been identified as an ultimate target for construction in several different NAFTA Superhighway configurations.

Golden has been battling the plans, because the proposals have been for a new highway to bisect the historic Colorado foothills town.

Officials with the highway authority, who report daily road usage totals ranging from 1,891 to 16,451 vehicles, recently announced a 99-year lease agreement with Auto-Estradas de Portugal, S.A., which is known as Brisa.

Officials in Portugal noted that it is the company's first adventure in leasing and running a toll road in the United States, although it already runs hundreds of miles of toll roads in Europe and South America.

Brisa reports it has 90 percent of the contract, while its Brazilian subsidiary Companhia de Concessoes Rodoviarias has 10 percent. The Colorado project already has about nine miles of roadway built and open for use, with another two miles yet to be constructed.

The company estimates it will invest about $543 million in the project. A different estimate came from Northwest Parkway officials, who said the company will pay off the $503 million in bonded indebtedness, and allow another $100 million for other costs.

But Golden officials, fearing the encroachment of transportation megaprojects, warned that Article 14 of the lease to privatize the Northwest Parkway operations "requires payments to the foreign corporation if certain roads or facilities are built in the area that would compete with the toll road."

"The lease provides that 'the construction of a Competing Transportation Facility' constitutes an action that gives the foreign corporation the right to terminate the lease and seek significant damages from the Highway Authority," the city said in a statement.

Such competing facilities, the city noted, would include the extension of several major arterials in the vicinity of the Northwest Parkway, certain other road projects within five miles of the highway, as well as even some mass transit projects.

"Because such damages would likely return the Authority to a financially perilous position, it will create a large impediment to future transportation projects in the area," the city said.

"This noncompete agreement intentionally ties the hands of local and regional governments and the state to address transportation needs in this area, which can only serve to further congest area roads over the 99-year term of the lease. The beneficiaries of this agreement are the Portuguese and Brazilian companies that will collect the tolls. Even then, it's unlikely they'll be able to generate sufficient traffic on the road," Smith said.

"If demand existed or was expected to materialize for the Northwest Parkway or potential extensions of the toll road, there wouldn't be a need for such a noncompete agreement. However, all the traffic studies to date show there is very little demand for a major tolled highway between Broomfield and Golden, and tolling could only pay for a small fraction of what would be needed to build such a road. The only thing that could make the noncompete agreement worse would be if taxpayers were forced to subsidize extensions of the toll road and then be forced to pay to use them," Smith said.

City officials noted that noncompete clauses on toll roads have produced difficulties in other parts of the region, and nation. In the 1990s, communities in the corridor northeast of Denver, which now includes Denver International Airport, agreed no roads would compete with the E-470 toll road there. So Commerce City was required to lower the speed limit and install traffic lights on another publicly funded corridor, Tower Road.

"According to a 2004 report from the U.S. Government Accounting Office, 'The language in the noncompete clause for the SR91 Express Lanes in Orange County, Calif., effectively prevented the state from improving the nontolled freeway lanes of SR91 until 2030 – the term of the franchise agreement – and was the subject of litigation and considerable public outcry,'" the city said.

The result there was that the Orange County Transportation Authority bought the road back from the private operator.

The contract also allows the tolls to rise from the current $2 for the nine miles to $3 over the next year, and then at least 2 percent every year thereafter.

The consortium will handle road maintenance, traffic enforcement and making improvements, and in return will take all of the tolls.

WND previously reported that North America's SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc., or NASCO, also has figured out a way to cash in on the Chinese containers passing along the NAFTA Superhighway from the Mexican ports of Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas to U.S. and Canadian destinations.

WND has obtained a copy of a draft preliminary joint venture contract between Savi Networks and NASCO, specifying that NASCO will get paid 25 cents for each "revenue-generating intermodal ocean cargo container" registered by the RFID sensors the communist Chinese are now installing along Interstate 35.

1st Mexican truck rolls
under cover of darkness
Official: 'Logistical Trans-Corridor
of North America' open for business

The first Mexican truck authorized by a Bush administration program opening U.S. highways to trucking companies from south of the border crossed into the U.S. this morning at approximately 1:50 a.m. EDT at Laredo, Texas, headed for North Carolina, according to a report from Trucker.com.

WND research indicates Transportes Olympic, the Mexican trucking firm sending this morning's tractor trailer north, was actually selected to be the first across the border nearly six months ago, despite the administration's "last-minute" announcement of the carrier earlier this week – a revelation that has been described as an example of "stealth."

The designation of Transportes Olympic actually was made at a Feb. 22, 2007, ceremony held in Apodaca, a municipality of the city of Monterrey in the Mexican state Nuevo Leon, the headquarters location of Transportes Olympic.

The government ceremony in Mexico went virtually unreported in the U.S. media.

In attendance were Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, together with her Mexican counterpart, Luis Téllez, secretary of communications and transportation, and José Natividad Gonzáles Parás, governor of Nuevo Leon.

There Peters officially blessed Transportes Olympic as the first Mexican trucking company that would be allowed to operate freely in the U.S. under NAFTA.

That Transportes Olympic had been selected months earlier was not disclosed last Thursday when John Hill, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Administration, announced Transportes Olympic to the U.S. public.

Hill's announcement came in a dramatic, surprise late-night telephone conference held with selected members of the U.S. media at 9:00 p.m. EDT, after many deadlines had past for filing Friday morning stories.

At the February ceremony, Gov. Gonzáles Parás took the occasion to make two other declarations that have not been reported in the U.S. media.

In speaking to the group assembled at the Transportes Olympic headquarters, Gonzáles Parás announced the Trans-Texas Corridor was not just the NAFTA Superhighway, but the "Logistical Trans-Corridor of North America," uniting Mexico, the U.S., and Canada.

Gonzáles Parás next announced that the time had arrived to declare a North American Economic Community.

Gonzáles Parás explained the Trans-Texas Corridor was more accurately known in Mexico as the "Logistical Trans-Corridor of North America."

"I want to let you know how much we in this border state of Nuevo Leon have been working with our neighbor state of Texas," Gonzáles Parás said, "making agreements which permit us to enrich what in Texas is called the 'Trans-Texas Corridor,' but what we in Mexico know as the 'Logistical Corridor of North America.'"

"We – Canada, the United States, and Mexico – have to perfect this Logistical Trans-Corridor of North America for our mutual benefit," Gonzáles Parás continued.

Gonzáles Parás expanded his vision of to include the construction of a train and truck corridor that would cut through the heart of North America.

In his speech, Gonzáles Parás confirmed what WND has previously described as a new NAFTA Superhighway, the first segment of which is the planned four-football-fields-wide Trans-Texas Corridor which the Texas Department of Transportation plans to build parallel to Interstate 35.

Explaining Nuevo Leon finds itself right at the center of this Logistical Corridor of North America, Gonzáles Parás said Mexico "must synchronize our truck and train systems of transportation and our maritime port connections" with those of the United States, anticipating the massive quantity of freight that will need to be carried from the ports in Mexico on the Pacific to the heart of North America.

A report in the Mexican press added that Téllez also used the February ceremony to announce Presidents Felipe Calderon and George Bush had agreed to create "an economically integrated North America."

On Friday, after discovering the report about the February ceremony in Mexico, WND phoned Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, and read him the newspaper article.

"Unfortunately, I'm not surprised," Spencer told WND. "This confirms what we have long believed. You have to read what the Mexican government says in Spanish to know what the Bush administration is doing with Mexican trucks, or for that matter, anything else that affects Mexico and the United States."

"The Bush administration pursues a stealth policy in the United States when it comes to Mexico," Spencer emphasized. "The Bush administration acts like they want to hide from the American public and from the U.S. Congress what they are really doing behind the scenes to open our borders with Mexico."

"Put simply," Spencer continued, "the policy of the Bush administration is to be less than honest with the American public and Congress when it comes to Mexico."

WND has experience which confirms Spencer's comments.

WND was only able to break the news the Department of Transportation Mexican truck demonstration project was scheduled to start early this month by reading reports in Spanish on the Mexican government Department of Transportation's website.

There, in Spanish, WND read statements by Mexican Transportation Secretary Luis Téllez announcing 37 Mexican trucking companies had satisfactorily met U.S. DOT requirements for participating in the test and the start date was scheduled to be Sept. 1.

Throughout August, DOT and FMCSA worked furiously behind closed doors to craft a highly technical regulatory response to the legal requirements of Congress.

Throughout last month, DOT and FMCSA spokesmen maintained a policy of saying nothing to Congress or to the U.S. media, even when directly asked when the Mexican trucking demonstration project was scheduled to start.

Even after Thursday's FMSCA announcement that the DOT Mexican truck demonstration project was ready to launch, WND continued to experience difficulties getting any response from the Bush administration.

As recently as last Friday, WND was unable to receive return phone calls from DOT and FMCSA spokesmen.

As WND has previously reported, Congress in 2002 blocked the Mexican truck demonstration project by inserting into the FY 2002 DOT appropriations bill a prohibition against starting the project until 22 specified safety requirements had been met by FMCSA.

Last Thursday saw a flurry of activity as DOT and FMCSA bureaucrats worked to make sure they were in technical compliance with these Congressional requirements.

The inspector general's report was finally delivered to Congress, dated Thursday.

Peters wrote a sign-off letter to Vice President Cheney just hours before Hill made his evening telephone call naming Transportes Olympic as the first Mexican trucking company the agency had certified.

Spencer objected to WND that DOT and FMCSA did not file in the Federal Register the final go-ahead decision.

"What happened to the 10-day period for public comment?" Spencer asked WND. "DOT and FMCSA may have complied with the letter of the law, but they where nowhere near complying with the spirit of what Congress had required."

Hoffa: Mexican truck program 'sucker punches' U.S.
Calls effort 'disaster waiting to happen' – leader vows Teamsters will fight funding

Calling a new pilot program opening the border to Mexican trucks dangerous, Teamsters President Jim Hoffa said today in Houston the union will lobby to cut its funding.

Hoffa said money for the new program came from somewhere and the union will press Congress to stop it.

"We can do that," he said.

In prepared remarks, the union president said the Bush administration has "sucker-punched" American workers by opening highways to Mexican trucks.

Under the year-long pilot program, up to 100 Mexican carriers can get permission to go beyond a 25-mile buffer zone in the U.S. There are also provisions for U.S. carriers to go into Mexico.

The program comes under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Hoffa told the annual Teamsters Women's Conference at the Hilton Americas hotel that drugs could come in the U.S. across the border in the trucks. He said that although the Bush administration says it is concerned about national security, the program will threaten safety.

The union, along with groups including the Sierra Club and Public Citizen, argues it endangers highways because safety issues aren't resolved. A new report by the Department of Transportation's inspector general strengthens that argument, Hoffa said.

That report concluded the Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration hasn't developed and implemented complete, coordinated plans for checking trucks and drivers in the demonstration project as they cross the border.

"It's a disaster waiting to happen," the Teamsters president said.

But the safety administration says the inspector general affirmed its plans to go beyond statutory requirements and to check every truck crossing the border.

John H. Hill, administrator of the Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said today every audit the inspector general has done since 2002 found the department made substantial compliance in meeting requirements laid out by Congress.

"Any time a government program is put in place, there are always ways to improve it," he said.

Hill added that the pilot program's safety protocols are more rigorous for Mexican carriers than they are for U.S. carriers. And he questioned why Hoffa is concerned that U.S. trucking companies can't compete with Mexican trucking companies.

"We believe they can," Hill said. "I think this is about issues unrelated to the safety agenda."

The administrator also said some of the comments being made are unduly alarming to the public. He stressed last week that the program meets all public safety requirements.

Thursday night, transportation officials said one Mexican carrier and two U.S. carriers had been certified under the program. Friday evening, the Mexican carrier sent a truck loaded with steel bound for Wilson Hills, N.C.

A lawsuit by the Teamsters and other groups aimed at blocking the program is pending in court.

NAFTA Superhighway plans advance south
Texas governor, Mexico agree to extend Trans-Texas Corridor

Official Mexican government reports reveal Mexico has entered discussions with the state of Texas and top officials in the Bush administration to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor into Mexico, with a plan to connect through Monterrey to the deep-water Mexican ports on the Pacific, including Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas.

The official website of the Mexican northeastern state of Nuevo León contain multiple reports that José Natividad Gonzáles Parás, governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo León, has actively discussed with numerous U.S. government officials, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the extension of the Trans-Texas Corridor into Mexico to create what's called a "Trans North America Corridor."

In an August trip to Mexico, Perry made news in U.S. media by calling the idea of building a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border "idiocy."

Largely unreported in the American press were meetings Perry held in Mexico with Gonzáles Parás in which the two discussed extending the corridor into Mexico.

In their private meetings, the pair thoroughly discussed extending TTC-35 into Mexico, according to a report on the government's site.

In an interview prior to Perry's visit, Gonzáles Parás made it clear the extension of TTC-35 into Mexico would be a discussed during Perry's time there.

"We have had interaction with the governor of Texas," Gonzáles Parás said. "We have had a very productive relationship with Rick Perry, who is also interested in what we can do to continue that which is known as the Trans-Texas Corridor, that in reality is the corridor of North America, the Trans North America Corridor, that includes railroads, bridges, passenger automobile highways, and truck highway lanes."

Gonzáles Parás further explained the extension of TTC-35 into Mexico would connect through Monterrey, a city which he suggested would function as a hub for truck-freight traffic. Monterrey is the capital of Nuevo León.

"One of the themes that merited the most attention on the part of the two governors was the development of the infrastructure needed for the competitive development of the region as it relates to developing the Trans-Texas Corridor in connection with the project we call the Corridor of Northeastern Mexico," the Nuevo León government website reported Gonzáles Parás saying Sept. 1, at the conclusion of Perry's visit.

Gonzáles Parás is reportedly pursuing plans to establish Monterrey as an "inland port" where international container freight cargo, largely delivered into Mexico via the Mexican ports on the Pacific, could be transported via a Trans North America Corridor into the United States via Laredo, Texas.

Once on I-35, the Mexican trucks transporting the Chinese containers could travel north, heading toward U.S. inland ports, such as WND has previously reported are being established by the Free Trade Alliance San Antonio in San Antonio and in Kansas City by the Kansas City SmartPort.

On May 24, Gonzáles Parás announced during his recent meetings in Austin, Perry had agreed the envisioned Trans North America Corridor would pass through Laredo and connect with San Antonio, just as Mexico ultimately planned to extend the superhighway south into Colombia.

"We have also worked in Monterrey to create an inland port, a metropolitan center for moving rapidly the commercial traffic from Monterrey to the inland port at San Antonio," Gonzáles Parás said in the state-published interview."For this strategic project to be accomplished, we have been working with the federal government in Mexico and well as holding discussions with the secretary of transportation and the secretary of state in the United States."

WND has previously reported similar comments made by Gonzáles Parás at a Feb. 22 press conference in Mexico that first announced Transportes Olympic had been selected as the first trucking firm to cross the border in the Mexican truck-demonstration project.

In speaking to the group assembled at the company's headquarters, Gonzáles Parás announced the Trans-Texas Corridor was not just the NAFTA Superhighway, but "the Logistical Trans-Corridor of North America," uniting Mexico, the United States and Canada.

He next announced the time had arrived to declare a North American Economic Community.

Gonzáles Parás explained the Trans-Texas Corridor was more accurately known in Mexico as the "Logistical Trans-Corridor of North America."

"I want to let you know how much we in this border state of Nuevo León have been working with our neighbor state of Texas," he said, "making agreements which permit us to enrich what in Texas is called the 'Trans-Texas Corridor,' but what we in Mexico know as the 'Logistical Corridor of North America.'"

"We – Canada, the United States and Mexico – have to perfect this Logistical Trans-Corridor of North America for our mutual benefit," Gonzáles Parás continued.

He expanded his vision of a Logistical Corridor of North America to include the construction of a train and truck corridor that would cut through the heart of North America.

WND has previously described as a new NAFTA Superhighway, the first segment of which is the planned four-football-fields-wide Trans-Texas Corridor which the Texas Department of Transportation plans to build parallel to Interstate 35.

WND has also reported that at the recent Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) third summit held in Montebello, Quebec, President Bush and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper ridiculed the idea that SPP might result in the creation of a North American Union or NAFTA Superhighways.

These reports in Spanish published on the Nuevo León government website suggest that discussions about extending TTC-35 into Mexico are much further advanced that have been admitted by the Bush administration or reported upon in the U.S. mainstream media.

Canada preparing ports for NAFTA Superhighway
Building 'free trade gateway' between Asia, North America

Canada is developing Pacific ports to compete with the U.S. ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, as well as with the Mexican ports of Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas, in an attempt to draw a substantial market share of the millions of containers expected to flow into North America in the coming decades from China and the Far East.

To attract Chinese container traffic, the Canadian government has launched a major ports-rail-truck-airport transportation infrastructure designed to build its version of the emerging NAFTA Superhighway.

In October 2006, the Canadian minority government under the direction of Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper launched the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative, or APGCI, as a key component of Canada's national transportation policy.

The idea is to prepare deep-water Pacific Ocean ports on Canada's West Coast to facilitate the import of millions of multi-modal containers from China as a "free trade gateway" between Asia and North America.

WND reported Mexico plans to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor south in what government officials in Mexico are calling a "Trans North America Corridor."

According to Transport Canada, Canada's equivalent to the U.S. Department of Transportation, rail and road connections through Prince Rupert and Vancouver in British Columbia will carry the Asian containers into Canada through Edmonton and Calgary in Alberta.

From there, the planned rail-truck-passenger superhighways will head toward Winnipeg, where cross-border connections south will direct the containers from China and the Far East onto the Interstate 35 corridor in the U.S., establishing a major link in the emerging continental NAFTA Superhighway.

The plan is clearly explained in Canada's National Policy for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors, a policy that includes development of the Ontario-Quebec Continental Gateway and Trade Corridor, as WND reported.

The National Policy for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors specifies the Canadian federal government has committed $1 billion to develop transportation infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative, identified as "a network of transportation infrastructure including British Columbia's Lower Mainland and Prince Rupert ports, their principal road and rail connections stretching across Western Canada and south (to) the United States, key border crossings and major Canadian airports."

Canada Transport states clearly a major purpose of the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative is to increase Canada's share of North America-bound container imports from Asia.

"Canada's Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor offers world class marine, rail, road and air infrastructure closer to Asia than all its North American competitors," the Transport Canada website announces.

In January, David Emerson, minister of international trade and minister for the Pacific Gateway, led a trade delegation of Canadian transportation and logistics senior executives on a mission to Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai.

During the trip, Emerson and the Chinese minister of communications signed an updated agreement "to foster cooperation on intermodal transportation gateways to support international trade."

Transport Canada articulates how the vision of a North American economy has driven the development of Canadian national transportation policy.

"The integrated North American economy provides the 'platform' for Canada's successful global engagement," a brochure on the Transport Canada website proclaims in the process of explaining Canada's National Policy for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors.

According to Transport Canada, between 1995 and 2005, Canada's exports more than doubled, from $3.5 billion to $7.1 billion, in Canadian dollars.

Yet, imports from China dwarfed the numbers.

Between 1995 and 2005, Canada's imports from China grew almost 550 percent, jumping from $3.6 billion to $29.6 billion, in Canadian dollars.

Transport Canada confidently announces "China's recent dramatic growth (in imports to Canada) is expected to continue."

"Canada's Asia-Pacific Gateway is a burgeoning national strategy that is responding to the rise of Asian economies and the challenges and opportunities Asia now poses for Canada," the official website of the Asia-Pacific Gateway states.

The province of British Columbia has devoted $12 billion for new transportation infrastructure and has established the Asia Pacific Trade Council to build marketing links with China and the Far East.

Canada's Prince Rupert and Vancouver are both deep-water ports suited to accommodate the post-Panamax class of container Megaships China is building.

Senate votes to kill Mexican truck demo
Bush 'Open Borders' agenda dealt serious bipartisan blow

The U.S. Senate has dealt a likely death blow to the Bush administration plans to give Mexican long-haul trucking rigs free access to United States roads and highways.

A bipartisan majority voted 74-24 tonight to pass an amendment offered by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., to remove funding from the Fiscal Year 2008 Department of Transportation appropriations bill for the Department of Transportation Mexican trucking demonstration project.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., joined Dorgan as a co-sponsor of his amendment.

"Tonight, commerce – for a change – did not trump safety," Dorgan said in a news release issued after the vote.

"Tonight's vote is a vote for safety," Dorgan said. "It also represents a turning of the tide on the senseless, headlong rush this country has been engaged in for some time, to dismantle safety standards and a quality of life it took generations to achieve."

Teamster General President Jim Hoffa praised the Senate for "slamming the door on the Bush administration's illegal, reckless plan to open our borders to trucks from Mexico."

"The American people have spoken, and Congress has spoken," Hoffa said. "Now it's time for the Bush administration to listen. We don't want to share our highways with dangerous trucks from Mexico."

A counter amendment offered by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was submitted in an effort to keep the Mexican truck demonstration project alive, even if on life support.

Cornyn had proposed to allow the demonstration project to go forward, while reserving the right of the Senate to pull the plug if safety problems developed in the initial phases of the program roll-out.

Cornyn's proposal was killed by a strong bipartisan 80-18 vote to table his amendment.

Repeatedly, in arguing from the floor of the Senate for his amendment, Cornyn mischaracterized NAFTA as having created a "treaty obligation" requiring the United States to allow Mexican trucks free access to U.S. roads.

Dorgan objected, pointing out that NAFTA was passed in 1993 as a law, not a treaty.

The vote, taken on the evening of the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, represented a strong sentiment in the Senate that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the DOT inspector general had failed to make the case in their eleventh hour reports submitted to Congress late last Thursday that adequate inspection procedures were in place to insure that Mexican trucks would meet U.S. safety standards.

Dorgan argued on the floor of the U.S. Senate that Mexico had no national database which would permit the FMCSA or the DOT inspector general to verify accident reports or driver violations of Mexican drivers or the reliability of vehicle inspections conducted in Mexico.

Speaking in favor of Dorgan's amendment, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said the issue really was "free trade" agreements advanced by the Bush administration that advantaged only the multi-national corporations.

Brown compared the safety concerns of allowing Mexican trucks to enter freely into the United States with the safety risks raised by lead paint use by the Chinese on imported toys and Chinese pet and human food that contained poisonous or otherwise toxic elements.

"We need to vote for our children, for our families, for our pets, and for ourselves," Brown charged, urging in an emotional plea that the Senate pass Dorgan's amendment.

In May, the House of Representatives passed the Safe American Roads Act of 2007 (H.R. 1773), by an overwhelming, bipartisan 411-3 margin.

The majority in the House opposing the DOT Mexican trucking demonstration project makes almost certain that the Dorgan amendment will survive when a conference committee reviews the DOT funding bill that will go to President Bush for his signature.

The Senate is now considered likely to finalize the DOT funding bill today, with the Dorgan amendment included.

"Because my amendment is identical to language already included in the House-passed version of this bill," Dorgan said in the press release issued after the vote, "I expect this provision will not be altered in the House-Senate conference committee and that we have, effectively, stopped this pilot program."

China mega-port catalyst for NAFTA Superhighway
North America about to be hit by tsunami of Far East goods

The Chinese deep-water port at Yangshan, near Shanghai, provides ample evidence North America is about to be hit by a tsunami of containers from China.

Yangshan is a reclaimed island the size of 470 soccer fields that lies in the East China Sea Port, offshore from Shanghai.

According to Bloomberg News, the Chinese have invested $15 billion to develop Yangshan, currently the largest port in China.

Currently handling 20 million containers a year, Yangshan is expected by 2010 to operate up to 30 berths, capable of exporting 30 million containers a year, with the vast majority destined for North America.

The Chinese developed Yangshan to accommodate the largest post-Panamax megaships now being constructed, with a capacity to carry up to 12,500 containers, three or four times the size of container ships now operating.

Yangshan Port is connected to the mainland by the 20-mile long Donghai Bridge.

As a clear indication of globalism's impact on the U.S. economy, international trade has grown from 13 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 1990, to 24 percent in 2000, with projections of 30 percent by 2010, according to Andrew Goetz and Sutapa Bandyopadhyay, transportation economists at the University of Denver.

Goetz and Bandyopadhyay observe that until now, most of the foreign trade enters the U.S. through containers delivered to West Coast ports, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, with the containers "transferred to rail cars and trucks for distribution to inland load centers and eventually to wholesale and retail outlets throughout North America."

With the West Coast ports "sagging from the weight" of the massive increase anticipated in containers coming from China, Goetz and Bandyopadhyay suggest the transportation infrastructure of North America is being transformed, with a plan of opening new international trade "gateways," including deep-water ports in Canada and Mexico, as well as developing advanced truck-train transportation infrastructure, including newly configured north-south transportation corridors connecting the U.S. with Mexico and Canada.

WND previously reported plans to deepen and widen the Panama Canal so post-Panamax container ships can access U.S. ports such as New Orleans, Houston and Corpus Christi.

In 2005, the largest container ships carried an average of less than 2,500 containers. Today, megaships containing 9,500 containers are in operation. The Emma Maersk, one of the largest container ships, is over four football fields long (1,300 feet) and capable of handling 12,500 containers, stacked in 22 rows across its deck.

A YouTube.com video showing the Emma Maersk at sea gives an idea of the megaship's magnitude.

According to the foreign trade statistics maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. imbalance of trade with China is in the billions and growing every year, from a deficit of approximately $162 billion in 2004, to $202 billion in 2005, and $233 billion in 2006.

China now holds $1.3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, 80 percent of which is held in U.S. dollar assets, the largest amount of foreign exchange currency ever held by any country in the world.

As WND reported, repeated visits of top Bush administration bureaucrats, including Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, have failed to get China to eliminate unfair trade practices, including subsidizing its currency.

Alan S. Blinder, a Princeton University economist who was former Federal Reserve Board vice chairman, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview reported March 28 that the U.S. was at risk of 40 million jobs being shipped out of the country to outsourcing in the next decade or two.

The Wall Street Journal reported 40 million jobs lost were more than double the total of U.S. workers employed in manufacturing today.

Blinder was a top adviser to President Clinton whose "free trade" views led him to strongly recommend the passage of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

WND also reported President Bush, in response to a question at the press conference concluding the third summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership in Montebello, Quebec, Aug. 21, ridiculed as "conspiracy theory" the idea SPP could develop into a North American Union or promote the development of a NAFTA Superhighway.

Yet, WND has documented plans by Transport Canada, the counterpart of the U.S. Department of Transportation, to build an Asia-Pacific Gateway Corridor linking deep-water ports in British Columbia in a continental transportation infrastructure aimed at taking a share of the rapidly developing Chinese container market for Canada.

WND also reported a Transport Canada announcement that Ontario and Quebec have signed a memorandum of understanding to seek a public-private partnership to finance a segment of the Canadian Continental Gateway and Trade Corridor, according to the dictates of Canada's National Policy Framework for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors.

WND reported the official website of the Mexican northeastern state of Nuevo Leon reports its governor, Jose Natividad Gonzales Paras, has actively discussed with numerous U.S. government officials – including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, and Secretary of State Condelezza Rice – the extension of the Trans-Texas Corridor into Mexico to create what Mexico is calling a "Trans North America Corridor."

WND also has documented plans the Texas Department of Transportation has finalized and disclosed on its website to build the four-football-fields-wide Trans-Texas Corridor.

Senate votes to eliminate funds for Mexican truck program

An immigration reform activist is praising the U.S. Senate for passing an amendment that will eliminate funds earmarked for the Bush Administration’s pilot program that would allow Mexican trucks to haul freight throughout the United States.

The Amendment was sponsored by Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), and passed by a whopping 74-24 margin. Since the amendment contains language already included in a House-funding bill, it will likely survive the conference committee and stop the program. Susan Tully of the Federation for American Immigration Reform says the Senate vote is a real blow to the Bush Administration.

"It’s a real big deal stopping the Mexican trucks from coming. President Bush signed the agreement with Mexico and Canada for the Security Prosperity Partnership across the borders and through that partnership without any agreement or any oversight on the part of Congress," says Tully.

She says there is great concern that the Mexican trucks have lower safety standards, and could facilitate the smuggling of drugs, terrorists, and illegal aliens. However, Tully says that perhaps the greater concern is that the Mexican truck pilot plan is just one step in the overall agenda of bringing about a North American Union. According to Tully, one can go to SPP.gov and find all of the documents pertaining to this pilot program and see exactly what is taking place.

She says that the American people need to thank Congress for stepping up and she hopes they continue to pay attention to this situation. But Tully says unfortunately there are members of both parties who will continue to push a globalist agenda. "I believe they’ll keep coming back with other ways trying to do end runs around Congress. And President Bush is committed to this," she says. "He’s a globalist. His father was a globalist. Bill Clinton’s a globalist. Hillary Clinton’s a globalist. And if any of these same people are elected, this agenda will be continued."

Mexican official urges North American Union
Tells Denver trade conference EU is 'model we need to follow quickly'

At a Denver conference on intercontinental trade corridors, a Mexican mayor called for a swift move toward a European Union-style merger of the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Referring to Europe, Evaristo Lenin Perez of Ciudad Acuna – a sister city of Del Rio, Texas – told the Great Plains International Conference, "It's a model we need to follow quickly."

Perez later told WND, "If only people know the benefits of opening the borders and working together, improving the quality of life for all, then no one would be opposed to the idea of a North American Union."

A spokesman for organizers of the conference – which began Wednesday and concludes today – rejected the Mexican mayor's view.

"This is not what the conference is about, it is not about a North American Union," said Joe Kiely, vice president of the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition. "It is about developing infrastructure and economic opportunities in the Great Plains. I am equally surprised the other items were brought up here."

Ports-to-Plains describes itself as "a planned, multimodal transportation corridor including a multi-lane divided highway that will facilitate the efficient transportation of goods and services from Mexico, through West Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma, and ultimately on into Canada and the Pacific Northwest."

The conference, held at the Adams Mark Hotel, is promoted as an opportunity to "highlight the efforts of communities and citizens working together to bring the benefits of investment in transportation infrastructure and trade home to the Great Plains region."

Asked why he chose the conference to promote the idea of a North American Union, Perez told WND, "It's as good as any place and the right people are here."

"This is not a new idea," he said. "In fact when there are border meetings between border governors or border legislatures this is a topic that continually comes up."

Perez also affirmed the Ports to Plains Corridor is basically a NAFTA Superhighway and needs to be developed as such.

"We need to begin by building the infrastructure in the three countries, investing in Mexico, and then we can sell the main idea that Mexicans should stay in Mexico. We just need to create an equal level for all," Perez said.

Del Rio, Texas, Mayor Efrain Valdes told conferees he came to build relationships he hopes will last for decades to come.

"We are all North Americans," he said. "Three countries, but we are all North Americans."

Michael Reeves, president of Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition, kicked off the conference with brief remarks.

Eduardo Arnal, consulate general of Mexico in Denver, later provided numerous statistics documenting the strong economic relationship between Mexico and the U.S.

"Because of NAFTA, we are partners in the fight against terror and need to help ensure each other's safety," Arnal said.

Arnal later discussed with WND the relationship between Mexico and the U.S. and the issue of illegal immigration.

"The best and only way to stop illegal immigration is for the United States to invest in Mexico," he said. "A fence will not work. It's a simple equation of supply and demand – Mexicans go to the U.S. for work because the demand for their labor and wages is there."

Arnal said although Mexico must share responsibility for the immigration issue, it is the U.S. that really needs to step up and begin investing more in Mexico to help bring the country to a level playing field.

The Canadian perspective was delivered by Phillippe Taillon, vice consul and trade commissioner of the Canadian Consulate in Denver. Like his Mexican counterpart, Taillon presented statistics on the relationship between the three countries and told the crowd "NAFTA has been hugely profitable for all three countries."

He also expressed an interest in continuing to integrate rail, truck and air transportation networks as Canada looks to open new markets from Asia.

Congress debate begins
on North America Union
Resolution calls for end of NAFTA superhighway,
abandonment of integration with Canada, Mexico

A House resolution urging President Bush "not to go forward with the North American Union or the NAFTA Superhighway system" is – according to its sponsor Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., in an exclusive WND interview – "also a message to both the executive branch and the legislative branch."

As WND previously reported, on Jan. 22, 2007, Goode introduced H.C.R. 40, titled "Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada."

The bill has been referred to the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

WND asked Goode if the president was risking electoral success for the Republican Party in 2008 with his insistence on pushing for North American integration via the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP.

"Yes," Goode answered. "You won't hear the leadership in the Republic Party admit it, but there are many in the House and Senate who know that illegal immigration has to be stopped and legal immigration has to be reduced. We are giving away the country so a few very rich people can get richer."

How did he react when President Bush referred to those who suggest the SPP could turn into the North American Union as "conspiracy theorists"?

"The President is really engaging in a play on words," Goode responded. "The secretary of Transportation came before our subcommittee," he explained, "and I had the opportunity to ask her some questions about the NAFTA Superhighway. Of course, she answered, 'There's no NAFTA Superhighway.' But then Mary Peters proceeded to discuss the road system that would come up from Mexico and go through the United States up into Canada."

Goode is a member of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development of the House Committee on Appropriations.

"So, I think that saying we're 'conspiracy theorists' or something like that is really just a play on words with the intent to demonize the opposition," Goode concluded.

Goode stressed that the Bush administration supports both a NAU regional government and a NAFTA Superhighway system: "The Bush administration as well as Mexico and Canada have persons in the government in all three countries who want to a see a North American Union as well as a highway system that would bring goods into the West Coast of Mexico and transport them up through Mexico into the United States and then in onto Canada," Goode confirmed.

The Virginia congressman said he believes the motivation behind the movement toward North American integration is the anticipated profits the large multinational corporations in each of the three countries expect to make from global trade, especially moving production to China.

"Some really large businesses that get a lot from China would like a NAFTA Superhighway system because it would reduce costs for them to transport containers from China and, as a result, increase their margins," he argued.

"I am vigorously opposed to the Mexican trucks coming into the country," Goode continued. "The way we have done it and, I think, the way we should do it in the future, is to have the goods come into the United States from Mexico within a 20-mile commercial space and unloaded from Mexican trucks into U.S. trucks. This procedure enhances the safety of the country, the security of the country, and provides much less chance for illegal immigration."

As WND has reported, the Department of Transportation has begun a Mexican truck "demonstration project" under which 100 Mexican trucking companies are being allowed to run their long-haul rigs throughout the United States.

Previously, Mexican trucks have been limited to a 20-mile commercial zone in the United States, with the requirement that goods bound for locations in the U.S. beyond the 20-mile commercial zone be off-loaded to U.S. trucks.

WND reported last month that Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., successfully offered an amendment to the Department of Transportation Fiscal Year 2008 appropriations bill to block DOT from spending any federal funds to implement the Mexican truck demonstration project.

Dorgan’s amendment passed 75-23, after Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., changed her vote to support Dorgan.

By a voice vote, the House passed an amendment offered by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., to the FY 2008 DOT appropriations bill comparable to Dorgan's, designed to block the agency from using federal funds to implement the Mexican truck demonstration project.

DeFazio chairs the House transportation subcommittee that oversees motor carriers.

"With the Trans-Texas Corridor, which I would say is part of the NAFTA Superhighway system, and with this NAFTA plot with the Mexican trucks just coming in and not loading off to U.S. trucks, they will just drive right over the Rio Grande and come on over into Texas," Goode argued. "A lot of these Mexican trucks will be bring containerized cargo from the west coast of Mexico where they will be unloaded in Mexican ports to avoid the fees and costs of unloading at U.S. ports."

"So, when you look at the total package," he continued, "we do have a NAFTA Superhighway system already in place. There are those in all three countries that believe we should have a North American Union and the Security and Prosperity Partnership, in my opinion takes us down that road. And I am vigorously opposed to the loss of our sovereignty."

Why, WND asked, do so many congressmen and senators insist on writing and telling their constituents that they don't know anything about the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or that SPP working groups are really just to increase our competitiveness?

"In the House, a strong majority voted to provide no money in the transportation funding bill," Goode responded. "I commend Congressman Duncan Hunter for submitting an amendment to the Department of Transportation funding bill [which] got over 360 votes that said no funds in the transportation appropriation measure, prohibiting Department of Transportation funds from being used to participate on working groups that promote the Security and Prosperity Partnership."

cont'd

As WND reported, Hunter's amendment to the FY 2008 Department of Transportation funding bill prohibiting DOT from using federal funds to participate in SPP working groups creating NAFTA Superhighways passed 362 to 63, with strong bipartisan support. The House approved H.R. 3074 by 268-153, with the Hunter amendment included.

"So, I think a majority the House, if you had an up or down vote on the SPP, would vote down on the SPP," Goode concluded. "But some still say, and it's a play on words, that we don't have a Security and Prosperity Partnership that will lead to a North American Union. I don't think they can say anymore that we don't have a Security and Prosperity Partnership arrangement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, because that was done in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005, and the recent meeting at Montebello was to talk about it further."

WND asked Goode to comment on the North American Competitiveness Council, or NACC, a group of multinational corporations selected by the Chambers of Commerce in Mexico, Canada and the United States as the central adviser of SPP working groups.

At the SPP summit in Montebello, Quebec, the NACC met behind closed doors with the three leaders, cabinet secretaries who were present, and top SPP working group bureaucrats, while various public advocacy groups, environmental groups, labor unions – and the press – were excluded.

Should SPP working group meetings be open to the public?

"I wish they were," Goode responded. "If it is as the Bush administration says, 'We're not planning any North American Union,' then why wouldn’t those meetings be open, why wouldn’t you let the media in?" Goode asked.

"But some of the very big corporations want the goods from China to come in here unchecked," he continued. "It costs money for U.S. trucks to transport Chinese goods from West Coast ports like Los Angeles or Long Beach. But if you can have a Mexican truck and Mexican truck driver, that's going to be cheaper. And it's all about the margins. The margins relate directly to how much money the multi-national corporations are going to make."

Has the Senate debate on the Dorgan amendment brought the issues of the NAU and NAFTA Superhighways more to the attention of the Senate?

"I think so," Goode said. "That debate had a very positive effect. You had grassroots support calling the Senate on the Dorgan amendment."

"The Bush administration engages in the same play of words with all these issues," Goode added. "Take a look at the Kennedy-McCain comprehensive immigration reform, which the Bush administration has now tried to jam through the Senate not once, but twice."

"The Bush administration claims it's not [amnesty] when you let someone stay in the country and give them a path to citizenship," Goode pointed out. "Well, that's their definition, not my definition, and not the definition of the majority of the public. The majority of the public called in and buried the amnesty bill because of public pressure. Public pressure also got de-funded the pilot program on Mexican trucks in this country."

So should the U.S. pull out of the SPP?

"Yes," Goode answered, "but the best way to end SPP would be to have a chief executive that wouldn't do anything with it."

What does Goode think of the state legislatures that are passing anti-NAU, anti-NAFTA Superhighway, and anti-SPP resolutions?

"If enough state legislatures pass resolutions like that, it surely should have an impact on the House and the Senate," Goode said.

"President Bush's position is that we need to carry out NAFTA and we need to have this free flow of goods with Mexico and Canada," Goode explained. "Well, Bush's approach involves a derogation of our sovereignty and it also undermines the security and the safety of the country."

"It will be much easier for a truck to get a container on the west coast of Mexico and haul in a biological or radiological or nuclear weapon than it would be if you are going to have to unload the trucks on the Texas-Mexico border and put the goods and material in a U.S. truck," he continued.

"The problem is that the NAU, NAFTA Superhighways and SPP all go back to money," Goode stressed. "The multinational companies want their goods from Mexico and China because they want the cheap labor."

What about the U.S.'s large and growing trade imbalance with China?

"I don't want to have to be an 'I told you so' person," Goode answered, "but I was a vigorous opponent of PNTR ["permanent normal trade relations"] and before that of 'most favored nation' trade status with China. We need tariffs and quotas with China. Personally, if I know food is coming in from China, I won't buy it. The American people with the adoption of COOL, country of origin labeling, with the food clearly labeled, I think you will see the American public will shy away from Chinese products."

In 2000, Congress voted to extend to China "permanent normal trade relations," or PNTR. "Most favored nation" or MFN trade status, was given to China first in 1980 by the Carter administration. Country-of-origin labeling, or COOL, rules are administered by the Department of Agriculture.

Goode concluded the interview by thanking WorldNetDaily for covering the SPP, NAU and NAFTA Superhighway issues: "I want to thank you for putting these issues out where people can read it," Goode said. "You have enlightened hundreds of thousands if not millions of American citizens who otherwise would have been greatly in the dark on the SPP."

Protesters kept away from 'secret' trade meeting
Mexican official urged swift movement toward 'North American Union'

Protesters were kept outside for the third and final day of the Great Plains International Conference – a Denver event on intercontinental trade corridors in which a Mexican official urged swift movement toward a "North American Union."

Gene Baldock, coordinator of the protest group, told WND, "We just want people to have both sides of the story, and at these secret meetings people aren't getting both sides."

Baldock also pointed out the meetings were funded, in part, with taxpayer money.

The conference was sponsored by Texas, Colorado and other member states and communities.

Scott Flukinger, spokesman for the conference, said, "Everyone is welcome here, they just need to pay the registration fees like everyone else."

"I understand the concerns," he said, "but once people are informed about what is really happening then those concerns are often minimized."

Baldock argued "the decisions and planning that occur in these meetings will have an impact on the American economy and will have an effect on everyone."

He said the protesters tried to enter the meeting each of the three days and were turned away: "We were told it is a private meeting."

As WND reported, on the first day of the event, which ended Friday, the mayor of Acuna, Mexico, called for the swift formation of a North American Union.

At the conference, David Bradley, CEO of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, urged businesses to become "more engaged in border issues."

"With the American's decision not to open the southern border, this has allowed standardization to go by the wayside, and instead leaves politicians alone in rooms to try and standardize," he said.

He contended the result of the controversial trilateral agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico – the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America are "underwhelming and those efforts need a kick start if North American is going to compete with other regions."

"If the goal is to make the North American trading block a vibrant one that can take on the EU and China, we need to get rid of roadblocks at the borders," Bradley said. "The biggest challenge is complacency."

Bradley joked with the audience after sharing news the Canadian dollar was on par with the U.S. dollar for the first time in 30 years.

"Someday, the way things are going, American baseball players will want to be paid in Canadian dollars," he said.

Another speaker at the trade conference, Ronald Corvais, president of the Americas division for Lockheed Martin praised the SPP.

"The SPP is good, and we need to insure that the SPP remains dynamic and effective," he said. "The North American private sector is committed to shaping a competitive North America."

Corvais also told the audience North American integration is supported from the top.

"Today we are looking at three nations working to enhance security and trade, and the efforts are supported at the highest levels of business and government," he said.

He denied, however, that any secret deals were being made.

Meanwhile, Texas Transportation Commission member Fred Underwood told conferees it's "time to establish the financial plan so we know exactly what we're aiming for."

Our agency will devote the resources to getting this done in partnership with the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition," he said.

Spokeswoman dodges question about NAFTA Superhighways
Perino says president 'comfortable' working with Mexico, Canada

President Bush is comfortable when the United States, Mexico and Canada work together on issues facing the continent, according to spokeswoman Dana Perino, even though Congress is considering a warning that the nation's sovereignty could be threaten by such efforts.

She was responding to a question from Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House. He asked: "Inspired in part by The New York Times best-selling book, "The Late Great U.S.A.," a resolution in the House of Representatives opposing work on any NAFTA superhighway or moves towards merging the U.S., Mexico and Canada into a North American union now has 27 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle. Do you support such legislation?"

"I've not heard of such legislation, but I think we are very comfortable believing that there can be Mexico, the United States and Canada as three separate countries all working together," was her full response.

The pending resolution expresses "the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada."

It was launched by U.S. Reps. Virgil Goode, R-Va., Ron Paul, R-Texas, Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., and Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and has been referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, in addition to the Committee on International Relations.

Nearly two dozen others now have joined with the effort, which says:

Whereas, according to the Department of Commerce, United States trade deficits with Mexico and Canada have significantly widened since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA);

Whereas the economic and physical security of the United States is impaired by the potential loss of control of its borders attendant to the full operation of NAFTA;

Whereas a NAFTA Superhighway System from the west coast of Mexico through the United States and into Canada has been suggested as part of a North American Union;

Whereas it would be particularly difficult for Americans to collect insurance from Mexican companies which employ Mexican drivers involved in accidents in the United States, which would increase the insurance rates for American drivers;

Whereas future unrestricted foreign trucking into the United States can pose a safety hazard due to inadequate maintenance and inspection, and can act collaterally as a conduit for the entry into the United States of illegal drugs, illegal human smuggling, and terrorist activities; and

Whereas a NAFTA Superhighway System would be funded by foreign consortiums and controlled by foreign management, which threatens the sovereignty of the United States: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That –

1. the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System;

2. the United States should not enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada; and

3. the President should indicate strong opposition to these or any other proposals that threaten the sovereignty of the United States.

WNDN previously has reported the resolution is a message to both the executive and legislative branches.

"You won't hear the leadership in the Republic Party admit it, but there are many in the House and Senate who know that illegal immigration has to be stopped and legal immigration has to be reduced. We are giving away the country so a few very rich people can get richer," Goode told WND.

How did he react when President Bush referred to those who suggest the Security and Prosperity Partnership could turn into the North American Union as "conspiracy theorists"?

"The president is really engaging in a play on words," Goode responded. "The secretary of transportation came before our subcommittee," he explained, "and I had the opportunity to ask her some questions about the NAFTA Superhighway. Of course, she answered, 'There's no NAFTA Superhighway.' But then Mary Peters proceeded to discuss the road system that would come up from Mexico and go through the United States up into Canada."

Goode is a member of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development of the House Committee on Appropriations.

"So, I think that saying we're 'conspiracy theorists' or something like that is really just a play on words with the intent to demonize the opposition," Goode concluded.

Goode stressed that the Bush administration supports both a NAU regional government and a NAFTA Superhighway system: "The Bush administration as well as Mexico and Canada have persons in the government in all three countries who want to a see a North American Union as well as a highway system that would bring goods into the west coast of Mexico and transport them up through Mexico into the United States and then in onto Canada," Goode confirmed.

The Virginia congressman said he believes the motivation behind the movement toward North American integration is the anticipated profits the large multinational corporations in each of the three countries expect to make from global trade, especially moving production to China.

"Some really large businesses that get a lot from China would like a NAFTA Superhighway system because it would reduce costs for them to transport containers from China and, as a result, increase their margins," he argued.

"I am vigorously opposed to the Mexican trucks coming into the country," Goode continued. "The way we have done it and, I think, the way we should do it in the future, is to have the goods come into the United States from Mexico within a 20-mile commercial space and unloaded from Mexican trucks into U.S. trucks. This procedure enhances the safety of the country, the security of the country, and provides much less chance for illegal immigration."

In a second question Kinsolving asked: "Republican Congressman and presidential candidate Duncan Hunter's Restoring Patriotism to America's Campuses Act would bar Columbia University from receiving any federal money because it not only refuses to allow an ROTC on campus, but also because it invited [Iranian President Mahmoud} Ahmadinejad as a guest lecturer. And my question: Does the president believe that is right, or wrong?'

"I haven't seen the legislation. And we have already said that Columbia University made its own decision," Perino said.

'NAFTA Superhighway stops here,' says OK senator
Trans-Texas Corridor needs to make 'Texas turnaround' at state border

"The NAFTA Superhighway stops here, at the border with Oklahoma," Randy Brogdon, a Republican state senator who has championed the fight to keep the Trans-Texas Corridor out of Oklahoma, told a packed 300-person audience at the first public meeting of OK-SAFE in Tulsa on Saturday.

Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free Enterprise, Inc. is a non-profit, Oklahoma corporation set up to oppose the NAFTA Superhighway and the North American Union, as threats to the sovereignty of the United States.

Brogdon objected to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America www.spp.gov, arguing that President Bush had entered the agreement after secret discussions with Mexico's then-president Vicente Fox and Canada's then-prime minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005.

"President Bush has proven that he is more than willing to over-step his executive authority when it came to trade policy," Brogdon told the group.

"Ariticle 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution says, 'Congress shall have the Power to Regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States,' not the president," Brogdon pointed out. "Yet President Bush has entered into an agreement with Mexico and Canada called SPP that seeks to eliminate our trade and security borders and he has failed to get the explicit approval of Congress."

The SPP website, in a section entitled "Myths vs. Facts," supports Brogdon's argument, openly admitting that SPP is neither a law nor a treaty.

"Texas highways are famous for 'Texas turnaround' U-turns," Brogdon quipped. "Maybe it's time we tell Governor Perry to do a Texas turnaround at the border with Oklahoma."

"We don't need a new superhighway four-football-fields-wide coming through the heart of our state just so Mexican trucks can carry Chinese containers from Mexican ports to Kansas City," he said.

Brogdon objected that the Bush administration's below-the-radar push for a new continental NAFTA Superhighway will risk the supremacy of U.S. laws on U.S. highways.

"Anyone driving on an international highway system running through the United States would be subjected not to U.S. law, but to international law," Brogdon argued. "We would be subject to an international tribunal in case of a dispute, including accidents or other lawsuits."

Brogdon objected to the Department of Transportation's push to allow 100 Mexican trucking companies to have free access on U.S. roads for their long-haul rigs.

"The Bush administration is pushing the Trans-Texas Corridor under the cause of better roads and economic development," Brogdon stressed. "I'm sure we all want good roads and bridges, but not at the expense of our nation's sovereignty."

As WND previously reported, Brogdon has opposed legislation that would have pre-authorized the extension north into Oklahoma, as a deceptive piece of legislation (HB 1917) that would have put Oklahoma in a highway "pilot project" that was unlimited in scope and required Oklahoma to waive its 11th Amendment rights.

"The 11th Amendment gives protection to Oklahoma from being sued in federal court by a foreign nation," Brogdon explained. "So for us to be a part of this project we had to waive our 11th Amendment rights. This benign piece of legislation that started out as a simple re-surface project in Southeast Oklahoma was in fact the first step to create the NAFTA Superhighway through Oklahoma."

The bill was strongly supported by the North America's SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc., a Dallas-based trade organization of which the State of Oklahoma is a member.

Brogdon has championed legislation demanding Oklahoma withdraw from NASCO, saving the state a $25,000 annual membership fee.

"NASCO's mission statement says their goal is 'to create the world's first 'international, intermodal superhighway' system," Brogdon pointed out. "NASCO lobbied the Oklahoma state legislature to pass HB 1917 and they found many of my colleagues sympathetic to their cause. In the state senate, we were able to kill the bill during debate. We won a battle, but the war is not over."

Brogdon predicted that the battle to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor north into Oklahoma would be pressed once again by NASCO in the Oklahoma legislature's next session.

"NASCO will probably work with legislators favorable to their cause to package the next bill with a catchy name," Brogdon warned. "The bill will come down as something like, 'Economic Development and Transportation for the Next Generation and Our Kids.' It will be disguised, but I assure you, the outcome will still be the same. Our sovereignty will be under attack."

Still, Brogdon expressed his confidence in winning the battle against the NAFTA Superhighway in Oklahoma.

"I'm encouraged at what lies ahead for this state and for the nation," Brogdon told the group. "History reveals that Americans always rise to the occasion to protect this country. We are in a battle for this nation's sovereignty. But I see American patriots here today, in this assembled group, men and women still dedicated to the Constitutional cause so eloquently laid out by our founding fathers."

"Ladies and gentlemen, know this – our future will not be determined by the politicians," Brogdon concluded. "Our future lies solely in our hands because 'We the People,' and not some bureaucrats in Washington or a trade group in Dallas, are the government of the United States."

WND has previously reported NASCO changed its name from the original name, North America's Superhighway Coalition.

NASCO has also repeatedly redesigned its webpage so as to de-emphasize the continental nature of the "super corridor" NASCO supports.

Satellite tracking mandated for Mexican trucks
Critic: 'This really accomplishes nothing. It's like putting earrings on a pig'

Federal officials, bowing to safety concerns over Mexican trucks on U.S. highways, announced last week trucks participating in the ongoing cross-border demonstration project will be required to submit to monitoring by a satellite-based vehicle tracking system – a move one critic dismissed as an "ornament" that "fails to address the real issues of driver safety."

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a statement Thursday saying the tracking plan jointly developed by FMCSA and Mexico's Secretaria de Communicaciones y Transportes applies to both U.S. and Mexican trucks in the program.

"This will give us the ability to monitor every vehicle from Mexico and ensure all companies are following our strict safety requirements, including those governing hours of service and sabotage," said John Hill, FMCSA administrator.

Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association, isn't buying FMCSA's claims of enhanced safety.

"This really accomplishes nothing. It's like putting earrings on a pig," he told WND.

"The FMCSA just proceeds with the program, placing more and more ornaments on it, but fails to address the real issues of driver safety."

Spencer pointed to the last line of the FMCSA statement to make his point.

"Vehicles will be tracked by vehicle number and company – no driver information will be collected or tracked," it reads.

"The issues are driver issues. There are no real hours of service regulations in Mexico, there is no effective way of checking driving or criminal records, and the Mexican CDL (commercial driver's license) does not measure up to the U.S. license," said Spencer.

"Tracking trucks and trailers tells us nothing about the drivers. The net effect of this announcement on safety is zero."

The FMCSA initiative comes despite efforts in Congress to completely halt the Mexican truck demonstration program through identical amendments in House and Senate versions of the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. That bill (HR3074/S1789) is currently awaiting conference committee action but may not go into effect until November or later.

"We think the amendments will remain in the final bill," Barry Piatt, spokesman for Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., sponsor of the Senate amendment, told WND. But, he added, the demonstration program could continue until the bill becomes law.

"The fact that they continue this program despite the wishes of Congress is in line with the arrogant approach they have taken all along. Under the defunding of a pilot program those carriers that are or will be approved will need to stop at that point," said Piatt.

"The FMCSA has maintained all along that they do not have to manage a pilot program. The administration is simply thumbing its nose at the wishes of Congress and those concerned about true safety on American roads," Spencer told WND.

To date, four Mexican carriers have been authorized to operate in the U.S., and 2 U.S. carriers have been authorized to operate in Mexico.

Bush seeks NAFTA expansion to Peru
Advocating open trade across hemisphere 1 nation at a time

The Bush administration, having been rebuffed on plans to advance a Free Trade of the Americas Act that would open a free trade market to the tip of South America, now is working on the expansion one nation at a time, according to critics.

The Bush administration is pushing Congress to pass a new "free trade" NAFTA-like agreement with Peru, amid growing opposition among Republican voters.

Leading the opposition in the House is presidential candidate Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.

"While proponents of free trade will argue the importance of the Peru agreement, Congressman Hunter does not buy that this trade deal, like any other free trade agreement, is good for America," Joe Kasper, communications director for Hunter, told WND in an e-mail.

"Congressman Hunter does not subscribe to the concept of free trade, … especially when international trade agreements promoting this concept continue hurting America's workforce while unfairly favoring our trading partners," he said.

"It is because of these policies that our industrial base is deteriorating and quality jobs once available to Americans are now being shipped overseas," he stressed.

The Bush administration plan is to get the trade agreement with Peru through Congress first, followed by trade agreements the administration already has negotiated with Panama, Columbia and South Korea.

Of the four agreements, the Bush administration believes that the deal with Peru will raise the least opposition, paving the way for the other, more controversial, deals, officials said.

Congressional Quarterly confirms this strategy, quoting U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab as telling reporters the "administration has had, right from the start, a four FTA [free-trade agreement] strategy," in which deals with the other three agreements would be pushed through Congress as soon as the Peru deal passes.

The Peru free trade agreement moved to center stage this week when the Senate Finance Committee voted to endorse it, making a debate on the floor of the Senate likely soon. The House Ways and Means Committee cleared the Peru trade deal by a Sept. 25 voice vote, setting the stage for debate on the measure on the House floor.

The Bush administration push to expand free trade agreements comes amidst growing Republican Party resistance to free trade.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday the results of a Wall Street Journal-NBC news poll showing "six in 10 Republicans in the poll agreed with a statement that free trade has been bad for the U.S. and said they would agree with a Republican candidate who favored tougher regulations to limit foreign imports."

The Peru free trade agreement was signed by U.S. Trade Representative Bob Portman and Peruvian Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism Alfredo Ferrero Diez Canseco on April 12, 2006.

The Peru vote will be a test of Democratic leadership in the Congress.

Democrats are being pressured by labor unions and voters who are concerned that free trade agreements are costing U.S. workers millions of jobs.

At the same time, top Democratic presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton, have accepted generous campaign contributions from top Wall Street hedge funds and multi-national corporations that have been pushing a globalization agenda.

WND has confirmed that the White House is lobbying Congress hard to gain passage of the Peru deal, but key Republican leaders in the House and Senate still are reluctant to state their final positions on the trade deal.

Under the remaining "fast track" authority, Congress has 90 legislative days to act on a clock that began when President Bush last week sent the Peru free trade agreement to the House and Senate.

Congress has not voted to renew President Bush's "fast track" authority to negotiate free trade agreements directly. Consequently, fast-track authority expired June 30 at midnight.

But according to Congressional Quarterly the agreements with Peru, Panama, Columbia and South Korea were signed before the June 30 fast-track deadline.

The Columbia deal faces stiff Congressional opposition over Columbian President Alvaro Uribe's alleged ties to the drug cartels.

Bloomberg reported Uribe "fired three generals tied to the drug cartels, agreed to extradite a narcotics boss and hired top Democratic lobbyists to try to persuade the U.S. Congress to sign on to a trade accord."

In September, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez led members of Congress on a trip to Columbia, Peru and Panama to lobby for approval of the trade pacts.

The trade agreement with South Korea also faces growing bi-partisan opposition.

According to Congressional Quarterly, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has vowed to block the South Korea deal until South Korea agrees to accept U.S. beef imports.

Objections to Panama center on Pedro Miguel Gonzalez who legislators in Panama voted to be president of the country's National Assembly, despite an outstanding arrest warrant in the United States charging Gonzales with a role in the 1992 killing of a U.S. soldier in Panama.

'Amero coming within decade'
Strategist expects currency changes as Canadian dollar matches greenback

BankIntroductions.com, a Canadian company that specializes in global banking strategies and currency consulting, is advising clients that the amero may be the currency of North America within the next 10 years.

"The amero would compete against other regional currency blocks," BankIntroductions.com says. "At present, with the Canadian dollar approaching par, more talk for an amero currency unit will become popular in Canada."

The company says that with the successful implementation of NAFTA, "the one dragging component for the amero will be Mexico, but in time this will change."

"Implementation of the amero currency may actually give Mexico an economic boost, thus helping to alleviate Mexican immigration pressures into the United States for those Mexicans seeking financial gain," BankIntroductions.com advises.

"The amero one day may well be circulating throughout North America."

Matt Bell, president of BankIntroductions.com, told WND in an e-mail to "feel free to quote our currency research on Canada. Our general opinion on the amero stands as stated."

As WND reported, coin designer Daniel Carr has issued for sale a series of private-issue fantasy pattern amero coins that have drawn attention on the Internet.

WND also reported the African Union is moving down the path of regional economic integration, with the African Central Bank planning to create the "Gold Mandela" as a single African continental currency by 2010.

The Council on Foreign Relations also has supported regional and global currencies designed to replace nationally issued currencies.

In an article in the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, entitled "The End of National Currency," CFR economist Benn Steil asserted the dollar is a temporary currency.

Steil concluded "countries should abandon monetary nationalism," moving to adopt regional currencies, on the road to a global "one world currency."

WND previously reported Steve Previs, a vice president at Jeffries International Ltd. in London, said the amero "is the proposed new currency for the North American Community which is being developed right now between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico."

A video clip of the CNBC interview in November with Jeffries is now available at YouTube.com.

WND also has reported a continued slide in the value of the dollar on world currency markets could set up conditions in which the adoption of the amero as a North American currency gains momentum.

Costa Ricans cast votes on free trade with U.S.

Costa Ricans voted on a free-trade deal with the United States on Sunday in a referendum that has split the Central American nation like no other issue in decades.

Opponents fear the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, will weaken the country's prized welfare system, among the strongest in Latin America.

Supporters, led by Nobel peace laureate President Oscar Arias, say Costa Rica needs to open its economy more since it is a small country with few natural resources.

Cars with "yes" and "no" flags fluttering from their windows honked their horns as they drove by schools being used as polling stations.

"As a mother who has children, there are a lot of opportunities (with free trade), more possibilities for the country to grow," said Liliana Cespedes, owner of a small gym.

In the second such warning in recent days, the White House said on Saturday it would not renegotiate the deal if Costa Ricans vote against the current proposal.

A poll last week in La Nacion newspaper showed Costa Ricans rejecting the trade deal by 55 percent to 43 percent. Other recent surveys showed the country -- home to 4 million people and the most prosperous and stable in Central America -- sharply divided.

Psychologist Ana Victoria Rosabal, who said she opposes the trade deal because it serves corporations and the rich, walked to a polling station with her husband, who planned to vote "yes."

"The negotiating process was not focused on the common good," she said.

The agreement would open state-run sectors like telecommunications and insurance to competition from foreign firms. Opponents say that threatens institutions that have contributed to the country's social stability for decades.

Critics also say the deal will mean a flood of cheap U.S. farm imports and limit the country's sovereignty by taking investment disputes to international arbitration.

Costa Rica is the only country not to have ratified CAFTA -- which includes Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic -- and is the only nation to decide the issue by referendum.

In the largest march in Costa Rica in years, about 100,000 people filled the streets of the capital last weekend to protest the trade pact.

'JUST RICHER'

Costa Rica, which has no army and boasts of pristine beaches and jungles, has enjoyed almost uninterrupted democratic government for over a century and has better education and health care than its neighbors.

Coffee farming, tourism, call centers and microchip manufacturing support the growing economy, which is more diversified than its neighbors. It attracts migrants from Nicaragua and Panama.

Arias, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for helping end Central American civil wars in the 1980s, says CAFTA will help Costa Rica stay ahead in the region.

"If this deal is approved, it won't make us better or worse," he said last week. "Just richer."

The White House warning on Saturday was the latest in a series of conflicting messages from Washington.

"If the free trade agreement is rejected, the United States will not renegotiate the agreement," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement.

Democrats in Congress have sought to reassure Costa Rican voters their country would not lose existing trade benefits if the pact is defeated.

Ex-Mexican prez:
Amero on the way
Vicente Fox confirms long-term plan
for regional currency made with Bush

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox confirmed the existence of a government plan to create the amero as a new regional currency to replace the U.S. dollar, the Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso, in an interview last night on CNN's "Larry King Live."

It possibly was the first time a leader of Mexico, Canada or the U.S. openly confirmed a plan to create a regional currency. Fox explained the current regional trade agreement is intended to evolve into other previously hidden aspects of integration.

According to a transcript published by CNN, King, near the end of the broadcast, asked Fox a question e-mailed from a listener, a Ms. Gonzalez from Elizabeth, N.J.: "Mr. Fox, I would like to know how you feel about the possibility of having a Latin America united with one currency?"

Fox answered in the affirmative, admitting he and President Bush had agreed to pursue the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas – a free-trade zone extending throughout the Western Hemisphere – and that part of the plan was to institute a regional currency from Canada to the tip of South America.

"Long term, very long term," he said. "What we proposed together, President Bush and myself, it's ALCA, which is a trade union for all the Americas."

ALCA is the acronym for the Area de Libre Comercio de las Américas, the name of the FTAA in Spanish.

King, evidently startled by Fox's revelation of the currency, asked pointedly, "It's going to be like the euro dollar, you mean?"

"Well, that would be long, long term," Fox repeated.

Fox noted the FTAA plan had been thwarted by Hugo Chavez, the radical socialist president of Venezuela.

"Everything was running fluently until Hugo Chavez came," Fox commented. "He decided to combat the idea and destroy the idea."

Fox explained that he and Bush intended to proceed incrementally, establishing FTAA as an economic agreement first and waiting to create an amero-type currency later – a plan Fox also suggested was in place for NAFTA itself.

"I think the process to go, first step is trading agreement," Fox said. "And then further on, a new vision, like we are trying to do with NAFTA."

Fox's reply to the CNN viewer was captured in a clip posted on YouTube.com. CNN posted video of the interview but did not include the segment with questions from viewers.

Last week, WND reported BankIntroductions.com, a Canadian company that specializes in global banking strategies and currency consulting, is advising clients the amero may be the currency of North America within 10 years.

Coin designer Daniel Carr has issued for sale a series of private-issue fantasy pattern amero coins that have drawn attention on the Internet.

WND also reported the African Union is moving down the path of regional economic integration, with the African Central Bank planning to create the "Gold Mandela" as a single African continental currency by 2010.

The Council on Foreign Relations has supported regional and global currencies designed to replace nationally issued currencies.

In an article in the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, entitled "The End of National Currency," CFR economist Benn Steil asserts the dollar is a temporary currency.

Steil concluded "countries should abandon monetary nationalism," moving to adopt regional currencies, on the road to a global "one world currency."

WND previously reported Steve Previs, a vice president at Jeffries International Ltd. in London, said the amero "is the proposed new currency for the North American Community which is being developed right now between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico."

A video clip of the CNBC interview in November with Jeffries is now available at YouTube.com.

WND also has reported a continued slide in the value of the dollar on world currency markets could set up conditions in which the adoption of the amero as a North American currency gains momentum.

Mexico's Fox openly calls for North American Union
Merger with Canada, U.S. is part of his dream to compete with Europe, Far East

Mexico's former President Vicente Fox is making no secret of his desire to promote a "North American Union" to compete economically with Europe and the Far East.

In a promotional tour for his new book, "Revolution of Hope," Fox told NPR's "Talk of the Nation" audience: "That's part of my Americas dream, that we can build our future together. We are partners with United States and Canada through NAFTA. There are other blocs in Latin America, but at the very end a continental trade agreement and union on the long term would be a way to develop ourselves and to be able to have the standards and level of living that we all need."

Fox shocked many in the U.S. earlier in the week when he told CNN's Larry King that he and President Bush had agreed to work toward a common currency not only for North America but for Latin America as well.

It was possibly the first time a top official of Mexico, Canada or the U.S. openly confirmed a plan for a regional currency. Fox explained the current regional trade agreement that encompasses the Western Hemisphere is intended to evolve into other previously hidden aspects of integration.

According to a transcript published by CNN, King, near the end of the broadcast, asked Fox a question e-mailed from a listener.

"Mr. Fox, I would like to know how you feel about the possibility of having a Latin America united with one currency?"

Fox answered in the affirmative, indicating it was a long-term plan. He admitted he and President Bush had agreed to pursue the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas – a free-trade zone extending throughout the Western Hemisphere, suggesting part of the plan was to institute eventually a regional currency.

"Long term, very long term," he said. "What we proposed together, President Bush and myself, it's ALCA, which is a trade union for all the Americas."

ALCA is the acronym for the Area de Libre Comercio de las Américas, the name of the FTAA in Spanish.

King, evidently startled by Fox's revelation of the currency, asked pointedly, "It's going to be like the euro dollar (sic), you mean?"

"Well, that would be long, long term," Fox repeated.

Fox noted the FTAA plan had been thwarted by Hugo Chavez, the radical socialist president of Venezuela.

"Everything was running fluently until Hugo Chavez came," Fox commented. "He decided to combat the idea and destroy the idea."

Fox explained that he and Bush intended to proceed incrementally, establishing FTAA as an economic agreement first and waiting to create an amero-type currency later – a plan he also suggested was in place for NAFTA itself.

"I think the process to go, first step is trading agreement," Fox said. "And then further on, a new vision, like we are trying to do with NAFTA."

When asked by WND White House correspondent Les Kinsolving about plans for the new currency, sometimes referred to as the amero, White House press secretary Dana Perino said she was not aware of any such efforts.

On the NPR program, host Neal Conan asked Fox: "You have called for much freer movement of labor. In fact, you've argued for a North American Union down the road. But a North American Union that would unite Canada, Mexico and the United States as an economic unit to compete with the European Union and with the tigers of the Far East."

Fox answered affirmatively and added: "And I also speak about the immigration policies here in the United States and the need to pace the issue, the need to debate the issue, and the need to fulfill those empty spaces that are being filled by the xenophobic, by those who are guided by fear, and that's what I notice in this nation. And its stand and we sit down and we look at the future with this vision. I don't think building walls is the answer to the problem. I love this land. I love America. I love the United States."

The issue of a unified currency is one discussed in "The Late Great USA," and recently, WND reported BankIntroductions.com, a Canadian company that specializes in global banking strategies and currency consulting, is advising clients the amero may be the currency of North America within 10 years.

Coin designer Daniel Carr has issued for sale a series of private-issue fantasy pattern amero coins that have drawn attention on the Internet.

WND also reported the African Union is moving down the path of regional economic integration, with the African Central Bank planning to create the "Gold Mandela" as a single African continental currency by 2010.

The Council on Foreign Relations has supported regional and global currencies designed to replace nationally issued currencies.

WND also has reported a continued slide in the value of the dollar on world currency markets could set up conditions in which the adoption of the amero as a North American currency gains momentum.

Bush: Protectionism will cost U.S. jobs
President launches blitz on behalf of pending free trade pacts with 4 nations

Alarmed by slipping support for free trade even among Republicans, President Bush is arguing that protectionism will cut Americans out of chances for more — and better — jobs.
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Bush has launched a blitz on behalf of pending free trade pacts with four nations. He continued the push Saturday in his weekly radio address.

"More exports support better and higher-paying jobs," the president said. "And to keep our economy expanding, we need to keep expanding trade."

His radio address followed a speech on trade he delivered Friday in Miami. Bush also granted interviews this week to business-oriented news organizations.

Since Democrats took control of Congress in January, it has not approved any free trade agreements that the administration has negotiated, and it has allowed Bush's authority to negotiate future deals under expedited procedures to expire.

Before lawmakers now are agreements with Peru and Panama, considered likely to pass, and with Colombia and South Korea, both seen as precarious. The deal with Colombia is in trouble over human rights issues and there is strong opposition to the South Korea agreement because of barriers erected by Seoul to keep out U.S. autos and beef.

The administration already has reached agreement with Democrats to include tougher language on protecting worker rights and the environment. But critics say five consecutive years of record U.S. trade deficits have played a major role in the loss of more than 3 million manufacturing jobs since Bush took office in 2001.

"I know many Americans feel uneasy about new competition and worry that trade will cost jobs," Bush said. "So the federal government is providing substantial funding for trade adjustment assistance that helps Americans make the transition from one job to the next. We are working to improve federal job-training programs. And we are providing strong support for America's community colleges, where people of any age can go to learn new skills for a better, high-paying career."

He said the deals would level the playing field for American businesses and farmers, many of which now face high tariffs on exported products while other countries enjoy relatively open access to U.S. markets. And he argued that freer trade with allies serves "America's security and moral interests" around the globe.

"Expanding trade will help our economy grow," Bush said. "So I call on Congress to act quickly and get these agreements to my desk."

After spending Friday in Florida talking trade and raising money for the Republican Party, Bush flew to Texas for a weekend stay at his ranch. He travels Monday to Rogers, Ark., for a speech on the budget and to Memphis to raise money to help Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., in his re-election bid. The president returns to Washington Monday evening.

Canadians call for vote on SPP
Activists demand national referendum on 'continental divide'

Canadian activists are demanding Prime Minister Stephen Harper fulfill a promise and submit the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America to a national referendum for an up or down vote.

"The Prime Minister of Canada and his cabinet in both Liberal and Conservative regimes support the unification of North America as witnessed by the fact of [former Prime Minister] Paul Martin and [current Prime Minister] Stephen Harper being signatories to the SPP process," said Connie Fogal, leader of the Canadian Action Party.

Fogal rejects the idea that the vote on SPP should be taken solely in the Canadian Parliament.

"A decision about the restructuring of Canada into an integrated North America is not a decision for parliament, but for the citizens of Canada," Fogal says. "What every Parliamentarian should do is call for a no confidence vote on this issue to cease unification of Canada, the USA and Mexico, and then run a campaign on the life of Canada not its death."

Maude Barlow, the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, agrees.

"So far, only 30 CEOs from North America's richest corporations, including Lockheed Martin, Bank of Nova Scotia, Chevron, Power Corporation and Merck, have had any meaningful input," a news release on Barlow's website proclaims. "Only they have been invited to annual closed-door meetings of SPP leaders and ministers, such as the one that took place in Montebello, Quebec, in August."

As WND previously reported, the North American Competitiveness Council, or NACC, dominated the SPP closed-door meetings with the SPP trilateral working groups, the trilateral cabinet members in attendance and President Bush, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, and Harper at the third annual SPP summit in Montebello, Quebec, on Aug. 20-21.

WND has also reported the NACC is a shadowy council of 30 top North American multinational corporations self-appointed by the Chambers of Commerce in each of the three countries to constitute the sole outside advisory to the SPP.

The 30 companies composing the NACC are listed on a memo posted on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website.

In the United States, the companies on the NACC are:

* Campbell Soup Company
* Chevron Corporation
* Ford Motor Corporation
* FedEx Corporation
* General Electric Company
* General Motors Corporation
* Kansas City Southern
* Lockheed Martin Corporation
* Merck & Co., Inc.
* Mittal Steel USA
* New York Life Insurance Company
* Procter & Gamble
* UPS
* Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
* Whirlpool Corporation

No union leaders, public interest groups, environmental advocates or news media have ever attended the closed-door of the NACC with the SPP.

According to a document on the Commerce Department's SPP website, the organization of the NACC was agreed upon by the three leaders on March 31, 2006.

"We are pleased to announce the creation of a North American Competitiveness Council," the White House announced the same day.

"The Council will comprise members of the private sector from each country," the White House said, "and will provide us recommendations on North American competitiveness, including, among others, areas such as automotive and transportation, steel, manufacturing, and services. The Council will meet annually with security and prosperity Ministers and will engage with senior government officials on an ongoing basis."

On Sept. 25, Harper made a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York where he again endorsed SPP.

In a transcript archived on the CFR website, Harper referred to the NACC, saying: "At the North American summit that Canada hosted in Montebello last month, I was struck by the power of the message sent to us by the leaders from the American and Canadian private sectors."

"They appealed to us to see the connection between security and prosperity," Harper continued. "They told us that without the ‘and' we won't have either."

The CFR website also has archived a video of Harper's Sept. 25 remarks.

Bush officials team with Mexico to defend trucks
But Congress members opposed to vehicles on U.S. roads won't budge

Bush administration officials held a news conference with Mexico's transportation secretary yesterday to respond to criticism of a program allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. roads, but critics in Congress who helped pass counter-legislation are unmoved.

"It is difficult to understand how a program that opens our roadways to virtually unregulated cross-border vehicle traffic can be safely regulated," said Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter's spokesman, Joe Kasper, in a WND interview.

Mexican Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez teamed with his counterpart U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez to call on Congress to reconsider its pending prohibition of the program and let the trucking demonstration program proceed.

Barry Piatt, spokesman for Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., in a conversation with WND prior to the press conference, characterized the media event as obscene and irrelevant.

By overwhelming margins, the Senate and the House adopted identical amendments into the Transportation/HUD Appropriations bill that would cut off federal funds for the truck project. The House passed the measure 411-3 while the Senate voted 75-23. The bill awaits consideration by a Joint Conference Committee.

Peters urged, "With the change of just a few words, Congress can show that we can trade with the world, keep our highways safe, and our companies competitive at the same time."

The secretary illustrated the point by inviting a Maryland state trooper to conduct a comprehensive safety inspection of two trucks participating in the cross-border demonstration, one a U.S. truck and the other the first Mexican truck to make a U.S. delivery. The trucks are virtually identical, Peters said, because both must meet the same strict U.S. safety standards.

"We want to demonstrate to Congress that tough safety standards and rigorous inspections work and that trucks participating in this program will have the same features, the same upkeep and the same commitment to safety that any U.S. truck has," Peters said.

But Dorgan insisted the inspection "means nothing."

"The information we need to ensure the safety of American drivers on American highways is not available," he said. "That includes vehicle inspection and drivers' records and accidents reports. None of that information is available. An 'inspection' of a hand-picked Mexican truck at a press conference doesn't change that."

Dorgan said Congress "has spoken loud and clear in its opposition to allowing long-haul Mexican trucks to enter the United States, based on concerns that included a lack of access to Mexican driver and vehicle safety records."

"Instead of responding to those concerns, the administration rushed its pilot program into implementation and is now presenting a fancy press conference in Washington, D.C., that features the 'inspection' of one, hand picked Mexican truck," he said.

Hunter spokesman Kasper told WND the truck project presents long-term safety and security challenges that cannot be casually addressed.

"Congress put in place very specific guidelines that guaranteed Mexican truckers would be regulated by the same rules as their American counterparts," Kasper said. "Rather than working with Congress to address the concerns that have been raised about the program, DOT announced that Mexican truckers were in compliance for some time and quickly moved to implement the program."

As of this writing, the website of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, indicates that there are five Mexican carriers authorized to participate in the program, and three U.S. carriers. The website has not been updated since September, however.

Since announcement of program's commencement, the FMCSA has said trucks will be tracked via satellite in a joint effort between Mexico and the U.S.

Questions remain about what happens to the program if the appropriations amendment passes in tact. A Sept. 14 WND article offered information from the FMCSA that a demonstration program is not required at all, and perhaps they can just continue without the funding.

Feds outsource Mexican truck safety
Trilateral trade association becomes chief inspector

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has delegated key inspection requirements for Mexican trucks to a non-governmental trilateral trade association, whose goal is to impose North American standards on all commercial motor vehicles operating in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

Since the early 1980s, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, or CVSA, operating as a non-governmental organization, has quietly knit together the motor-vehicle agencies in the three countries, building a common regulatory continental structure below the radar of public opinion, available now to function as the backbone of the FMCSA effort to allow approved Mexican trucking companies to run their long-haul rigs throughout the United States.

According to a Colorado law enforcement document obtained by WND, the FMCSA has made arrangements for the CVSA to provide inspection decals to all Mexican trucks who pass inspection in the Department of Transportation's Mexican truck NAFTA demonstration project.

The CVSA is a non-profit association composed of "state, provincial, and federal officials responsible for the administration and enforcement of motor carrier safety laws in the United States, Canada and Mexico."

CVSA membership includes all 50 states, the District of Columbia, all 13 Canadian provinces, Mexico, and various U.S. territories, including Guam, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

According to the group's website, the CVSA has evolved from an informal gathering of western states motor-vehicle agencies in the 1980s, to a trilateral group setting uniform commercial vehicle safety requirements in all of North America.

The Colorado law enforcement bulletin specifies that Mexican carriers who are part of the "Cross Border Demonstration Project" must display a valid CVSA inspection decal.

The law enforcement notice further specifies, "In general, vehicles with valid CVSA decal(s) are not subject to re-inspection until the decal is expired. If obvious violations are noticed, the vehicle may be re-inspected."

The key position of the CVSA in the FMCSA's Mexican truck demonstration project is affirmed by a cross-border operating requirements handbook published on the FMCSA website.

The group's website identifies CVSA as "a public/private partnership," with open invitation to individuals and trucking companies to join as members, along with law enforcement organizations.

A section of the group's website describing CVSA inspections notes, "Inspections must be performed by and CVSA decals affixed by North American Standard Level I and/or Level V certified inspectors. The term 'certified' as defined in this section means the government employee performing inspections and/or affixing CVSA decals must have first successfully completed a training program approved by the Alliance."

The website further specifies, "CVSA decals, when affixed, shall remain valid for a period not to exceed three consecutive months. Vehicles displaying a valid CVSA decal generally will not be subject to re-inspection."

The language consistently reflects standards for North America, consistent with the group's goal to standardize continental driver and vehicle safety requirements on a continental basis.

A Level I "North American Standard Inspection" is specified on the CVSA website to include examination of driver's license and other driver's records including alcohol and drug testing, as well as a vehicle inspection for multiple physical safety requirements.

A Level V inspection is a vehicle-only examination under the Level I North American Standard Inspection requirements, without a driver present.

The FMCSA website currently identifies five Mexican trucking companies and three U.S. trucking companies qualified to participate in the demonstration project.

As WND has reported, both the House and the Senate have overwhelmingly voted to remove the funding from the Department of Transportation's FY 2008 appropriations bill.

DOT, however, has decided continue allowing approved Mexican trucking companies to run their long-haul rigs throughout the United States, arguing that the vote of Congress is not binding until President Bush signs the bill.

WND reported Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the sponsor of the House amendment to block DOT funding, has charged the Bush administration with being "hell-bent" in opening our borders to Mexican trucks, while defying the will of the American public and failing to convince Congress that Mexican drivers and trucks will meet the same safety standards as U.S. drivers and trucks.

WND has also reported that Melissa DeLaney, spokeswoman for the FMCSA, indicated further defiance to Congress and the will of the American people by suggesting that the FMCSA might sidestep the amendments designed to cut off funding for approved Mexican trucks to continue to operate within the United States.

"We are committed to incremental steps in demonstrating the safety of the cross-border program," DeLaney told WND, "but there is no requirement to have a demonstration project."

FMCSA close working relationship with CVSA is demonstrated by "Operation Safe Driver," a trucking industry program the two are launching together today in Orlando, Fla.

The program, subtitled "Cutting it Close Can Cut Your Life Short," is aimed at addressing the 12 percent of fatal crashes in the U.S. involving trucks and buses.

The effort is aimed at "launching a new campaign concentrating on the unsafe driving practices of commercial and non-commercial drivers."

The Colorado law enforcement document was provided to WND by the Peter Boyles radio show in Denver.

A copy of the document is available for viewing on the program's website.

'Stop SPP' marches in 9 cities tomorrow
New York, Chicago, L.A. among sites for protest of 'North American Union'

Protest marches opposing the controversial Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America are scheduled tomorrow for nine cities across the nation.

Opponents of the SPP will gather in Atlanta, Chicago; Houston; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; New York City; Sacramento; Clearwater, Fla.; and Yakima, Wash., to bring attention to a U.S. agreement with Mexico and Canada they charge is part of an incremental move toward an EU-style continental merger.

President Bush first declared the establishment of the SPP at a summit meeting with Mexico's then-president, Vicente Fox, and Canada's then-prime minister, Paul Martin, in Waco, Texas, March 23, 2005.

Jonnie Crivello, national organizer for the March for America!, explained to WND in an e-mail that the goal of tomorrow's event is to demonstrate the country's opposition to the SPP and the establishment of a "North American Union."

"In addition to letter writing and making phone calls to elected officials, Americans are now taking to the streets to show that there are real people behind the demands to halt North American integration and to keep the United States a sovereign nation," Crivello said.

"March for America! is a vehicle to unite," she stressed. "Many Americans who otherwise might never have heard about the Security and Prosperity Partnership or the North American Union will learn about both through our marches."

Crivello told WND originally was established last summer to oppose the Bush administration's attempt to pass its "comprehensive immigration reform" bill.

Then, in August, the group held a protest in Seattle in opposition to the third SPP summit meeting, held in Montebello, Quebec.

WND reported Bush met with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper August 20–21.

In response to a question from Fox News during the final press conference in Montebello, Bush ridiculed as a "conspiracy theory" the idea that SPP might develop into a North American Union.

Still, opponents organizing tomorrow's "Stop SPP" marches insist the administration is following the European model, charging that Europe progressed from a trade agreement comparable to NAFTA – the European Coal and Steel Agreement reached 50 years ago this year – to the European Union today, a full-fledged regional government with the euro as its currency.

After protesting the SPP summit, Crivello decided to keep the March for America! idea going.

She was encouraged by radio talk show host Jim Stachowiak of Freedom Fighter Radio, who picked up on Crivello's idea and proposed to hold a Nov. 17 "Stop SPP" march in his home city of Atlanta.

Crivello liked Stachowiak's suggestion and decided to keep alive the March for America! website to endorse "Stop SPP" nationwide.

Since then, organizers in Chicago; Clearwater, Fla., Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento and Yakima, Wash., have joined Stachowiak.

"We will not wait for the North American Union to be put in place in a stealth fashion, just as the European Union was created in Europe," Crivello told WND. The time to act is now. We encourage all Americans who are concerned to join us, to carry the flag in their city."

North American Union
'a couple years away'
Bilderberg author who 1st exposed plot
in 1996 sees EU replication as imminent

The next giant step toward world government will be integration of the U.S., Canada and Mexico in European Union-style merger in the next few years, says the author of a best-selling book on the power of shadowy international organizations promoting the move.

"I would say [it's just] a couple of years away," reports Daniel Estulin, author of "The True Story of the Bilderberg Group."

Estulin, a Canadian now living in Europe, says the original plans for a North American Union involved the U.S. and Canada as the prime participants. It was motivated primarily by the desire to harvest Canada's abundant natural resources.

In his new book, Estulin reveals the first efforts in this plan date back to 1996 when the elite Bilderberg Group first discussed plans for the dismantlement of Canada as an independent nation and proposed its merger – minus Quebec – with the United States into a Greater North America.

"Actually, the North American Union, or rather a Canada-U.S. merger, was initially discussed shortly after the Reagan-Bush candidacy won the White House," he says in an interview with WND. "Upon taking over the reins of the country, George Bush and Ronald Reagan called in the presidents of the key trans-national companies and asked them for the real picture. The money people told them that if the United States were a corporation it would have to be shut down immediately. It was bankrupt."

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The solution proposed then, according to Estulin, was merger between the U.S. and Canada.

"Canada is virgin country with a multitude of natural resources, water, mines, oil, gas, etc.," he explains. "They decided that it was going to take 14 or 15 years to put the whole project together. In the interval, the economies, social programs and laws of the two countries would be quietly harmonized as much as possible."

Back then, part of that harmonization plan involved the separation of Quebec as an independent state, he says.

"Actually, when all is said and done, it all comes down to money," Estulin says. "Money makes its own rules. If your goal is to make the most money possible using Canada's natural resources, what would you ask for? Number one, give me control over the sun. Number two, give me control over the air. Number three, give me control over water. Now, we know we cannot control the sun, nor can we control the air. But we can control water. Water, after all, is the most important element that can be controlled."

But the plot for a North American Union, as exposed in detail in Jerome Corsi's new bestselling book, "The Late Great USA," is but a prelude, Estulin says, to the ultimate merger – one-world government.

"Everything is in place," he says. "Europe is now one country, one currency and one constitution. North America is about to become one. The African Union has had its working model going for over a decade. Asia is openly discussing the near-future Asian Union, being sold to us as an economic inevitability beneficial to all its citizens."

Estulin sees the current focus in the U.S. on the presidential election of 2008 as something of a farce in light of this trend.

"Does it really matter who wins?" he asks. "As I make very clear in 'The True Story of the Bilderberg Group,' every politician of note and promise belongs to the Bilderbergers, CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) or the Trilateral Commission. Unless you are one of them, you can hardly hope to win the presidency. If we vote for the lesser evil, forced upon us by the secret oligarchies and the powerful men behind the curtain, we end up playing the game imposed upon us by them. Democracy, I guess what I really want to say, is a fallacy, an unattainable dream, a useless label trotted out and dusted off by the rulers every four years for the benefit of the great unwashed – us. There are two sides in this equation – the powerful elite who control the world's wealth and the rest of humanity."

Estulin "guarantees" today's Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani will not get the nomination of his party. With less certitude, he speculates the current mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, could still be positioned to head the GOP ticket.

"Bloomberg, according to my sources within Bilderberg, will emerge as a credible candidate of consensus for the discredited American political establishment, your virtual "People's Choice" candidate," he says.

What is the agenda behind these groups, which Estulin says are comprised of "self-interested elitists protecting their wealth and the investments of multinational banks and corporations in the growing world economy at the expense of developing nations and Third World countries"?

"The policies they develop," he writes, "benefit them as well as move us towards a one-world government."

Those questioning Estulin's conclusion as mere speculation need only recall organizational financer David Rockefeller's own words as recorded in his "Memoirs."

"Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will," he wrote. "If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."

Estulin's book, first written in 2005 in Spain, has been translated into 24 languages, most recently this English edition. He has covered the Bilderberg Group as a journalist for more than 15 years.

Why does he singularly devote so much attention to exposing their activities?

"They cannot survive the light, and they know it," he says. "This is why the powerful people have long insulated themselves from that possibility. You see, the greatest form of control is when you think you are free while you are being manipulated and dictated to. People have been disarmed through the greatest hypnotist the world has ever known – the oblong box almost everyone has in the corner of their living rooms known as the television. By persuading ordinary people that what they can see with their eyes is what is there to see, the men behind the curtain have ensured their own survival, because people will laugh in your face when you explain to them that there is a bigger picture they are not seeing."

What is his personal prescription for fighting back? He offers a five-point program:

1. Understanding that governments do not represent the people nor have their best interests at heart.

2. Understanding that corporate media's main job is to hide the transgressions of the most powerful people in the world not shine the light of truth on it.

3. Understanding that the corporate media forms part of the world's elite societies such as the Bilderbergers, the CFR and the Trilateral Commission.

4. Understanding how money works and how through intelligent use of money we can destroy the Bilderbergers of this world.

5. Getting out of debt now.

Billionaire to Canada:
Time for amero is now
Wants euro-style currency
to avoid exchange problems

Stephen Jarislowsky, a billionaire money manager and investor the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail bills as the Canadian Warren Buffet, has told a parliamentary committee Canada and the United States both should abandon their national dollar currencies and move to a regional North American currency as soon as possible.

"I think we have to really seriously start thinking of the model of a continental currency just like Europe," Jarislowsky told the Canadian House of Commons' finance committee, according to the Globe and Mail in Toronto.

Jarislowsky's call for immediate action belied an article published in the Boston Globe on Sunday that said the call for the amero to become the new North American regional currency was "purely theoretical."

In an exclusive telephone interview with WND, Jarislowsky repeated his call for a European Union-style currency to be created between Canada and the United States.

"The idea would be a European Union-type set-up," Jarislowsky said, "with a North American Central Bank that would issue the new currency and sit over the Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve Bank in the United States."

"An alternative would be to create a peg on the U.S. dollar which would allow the Bank of Canada to adjust the Canadian dollar in a 5 percent plus or minus range, based on the fluctuation in value of the U.S. dollar," he explained.

Still, Jarislowsky was less confident the U.S. dollar peg would work.

"The Bank of Canada only pinpoints inflation," he told WND. "My idea would be to have the Bank of Canada manage the Canadian dollar with a view both to inflation and the U.S. dollar. The Bank of Canada has never been very receptive to this idea."

Jarislowsky insisted Canada was going to be forced to do something because the increased value of the Canadian dollar vis-à-vis the U.S. dollar was likely to depress business activity in Canada and cause a recession.

"Two-thirds of the Canadian economy is tied to the U.S. economy," Jarislowsky pointed out. "Some 85 percent of our exports are headed for the U.S. market. Our economy is tied to the U.S. dollar, whether we like it or not."

In an interview published with the Globe and Mail, Jarislowsky emphasized the likely adverse impact on the Canadian economy triggered by the rise in the value of the Canadian dollar.

"We don't have a single mill in Canada which isn't losing cash at the current exchange rate despite the fact we invested hundreds of millions in dollars into new equipment when we had the money," Jarislowsky said.

"I believe that if we stay at the present levels, the entire forest products industry practically is going to be in liquidation-bankruptcy and there's going to be an enormous loss of employment," he continued.

Jarislowsky told the House of Commons finance committee that a regional North American currency would reduce the adverse currency exchange risk being experienced in Canada since the Canadian dollar has risen more than 20 percent against the U.S. dollar this year.

Jarislowsky brushed aside stated opposition from the Canadian Finance Department, including a negative recommendation to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty because of concerns a common North American currency would mean an erosion of sovereignty for Canada.

"I know Finance Minister Flaherty quite well," Jarislowsky told WND. "Sure, first he will have to deny he is taking seriously the idea of a new currency, then later he will come out and say he was forced to create one anyway."

Jarislowsky insisted he made very seriously the suggestion to create a euro-style currency for North America.

"Pretty soon, the Finance Ministry will have no choice but to create a new currency," Jarislowsky argued, "unless the Canadian dollar all of a sudden changes course and reverses against the U.S. dollar all on its own."

"In the provinces we are already seeing economic activity slowdown because of the rise in value of the Canadian dollar," he insisted. "If our automobile and lumber industries begin to decline, we will have a serious recession as a result."

"The Finance Ministry knows how closely our economy in Canada is tied to the U.S. market," he continued. "A common currency would avoid the problems we are now facing with currency exchange risk added to the normal risks of doing business."

Jarislowsky currently heads the Canadian investment firm Jarislowsky Fraser Limited, headquartered in Montreal.

According to Canadian Business, Jarislowsky has amassed a personal fortune of $1.2 billion, ranking him as the 25th richest person in Canada.

Canadian Business also claims the average private client at Jarislowsky Fraser typically has more than $10 million in liquid assets to invest.

Forbes put Jarislowsky's net worth at $1.5 billion, ranking him No. 512 in the list of the world's richest people in 2006.

Forbes estimates that Jarislowsky Fraser currently manages $50 billion for a select list of institutional clients and high-net-worth individuals.

Jarislowsky's 2005 book, "The Investment Zoo: Taming the Bulls and the Bears," was a business best-seller in Canada.

The Canadian dollar reached parity with the U.S. dollar at the end of September. Since then, the Canadian dollar has been trading above the U.S. dollar, at values not seen since the 1960s.

The Canadian dollar closed yesterday at $1.01 to the U.S. dollar on major currency exchanges.

Canada's Finance Department did not respond to WND requests for a comment.

Hundreds of safety violations documented for Mexican rigs
'Clear double standard' subs foreign limits for U.S. laws

Members of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association say they have documented hundreds of safety violations by Mexican trucks rolling on U.S. roads under the Department of Transportation's Mexican truck demonstration project.

"The Department of Transportation is allowing Mexican long-haul rigs to operate in the United States without requiring U.S. rules and regulations to be enforced," Rick Craig, the director of regulatory affairs for the group, told WND in a telephone interview yesterday.

"The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is providing exemptions from U.S. safety rules that the FMCSA claim are covered in a Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Mexico," Craig continued.

"It's a clear double standard," he said. "Mexican truck safety regulations are being accepted by the FMCSA as equivalent to U.S. rules, even though the FMCSA refuses to provide any real detail about how or why the decision was made."

The association has filed a lawsuit against the DOT and FMCSA in San Francisco, challenging that the Mexican trucks the government is allowing into the U.S. under the DOT demonstration project are unsafe when tested by U.S. safety rules and regulations.

Catherine O'Mara, a paralegal at the Cullen Law Firm which is representing OOIDA, has provided the court with documentation of her research on safety violations by the Mexican trucks.

She searched the FMCSA database looking for all safety violations cited for four of the Mexican trucking companies currently in the DOT test for the year preceding the start of the demonstration project on Sept. 21, 2007.

The largest number of safety violations, 1,123 in total, was found for Trinity Industries De Mexico S de R L de CV.

Second on the list was GCC Transporte SA de CV, with 372 violations, followed by Avomex Internacional SA DE CV with 206 violations and Fidepal S de RL de IP y CV with 11 violations.

WND examined the FMCSA violation records O'Mara provided the court.

Among the safety violations listed on the FMCSA database for the four carriers were multiple infractions for inoperative or defective brakes, faulty suspension, defective systems to secure loads, defective lighting devices, tension bars cracked and/or broken, axle positioning parts defective or missing, tires with less than adequate tread depth, various parts and accessories needing repair, inoperable required lamps including headlights and tail lights, wheel fasteners loose and/or missing, and defective power steering systems.

Other violations in the OOIDA database included drivers who were not licensed for the type of vehicle being operated.

Each violation in the database was identified by the vehicle description and license plate number, as well as the time, date, report number and inspection facility location where the infraction was documented.

"Our search of the FMCSA records indicates the FMCSA should know the Mexican trucking companies in their test have unsafe safety inspection records according to U.S. standards," Craig told WND.

The FMCSA is also accepting the Mexican commercial driver's license, or CDL, as equivalent to the U.S. CDL," he added, "even though Mexico has no CDL database that is reliable. There is no way, for instance, to track driving violations in Mexico that Mexican drivers are cited for."

Craig also pointed out that the FMCSA is operating under a 1991 MOU with Mexico regarding commercial driver's licenses.

"This is a problem," Craig told WND, "because U.S. CDL regulations have changed a lot since 1991. Now, U.S. drivers who are cited for violations in non-commercial vehicles, for instance DUI or driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs violations, that can go toward disqualifying a CDL, even if the driver is driving the family car on their own time when they are cited for the DUI."

The legal brief filed by the Cullen Law Firm objects to the FMCSA argument that Mexican regulations will provide the same level of safety as compliance that corresponds with U.S. safety regulations.

Under the current terms of the DOT Mexican truck demonstration project, the Cullen Law Firm argues, the FMCSA has decided to substitute compliance with Mexican regulations with compliance of FMCSA regulations.

Under FMCSA's own admission there is no drug or alcohol testing facility in the entire country that is certified," Craig pointed out. "The current FMCSA plan is for Mexican drivers to send drug and alcohol testing specimens to a U.S. certified testing facility, even though there is no reliable way to determine who the specimen came from in Mexico."

"In light of the empirical data set forth in Mr. Craig's declaration"” the brief argues, "there is no question that the harm faced by American truckers is concrete, particularized, and imminent."

The brief contends the safety violations noted for the Mexican truck should have prompted out-of-service orders.

"In examining the records of violations for these Mexican operators, we found many cases where the same truck comes back over the border and is cited again for the same types of violation," Craig told WND.

The brief also points out that the terms of NAFTA had specified the border would be open to the extent that Mexico-domiciled carriers are willing and able to abide by the same laws and regulations as are applicable to U.S.-domiciled motor carriers.

The OOIDA lawsuit seeks an order from the federal court to halt the DOT Mexican trucking demonstration project until the FMCSA is able to demonstrate its ability to enforce the standards of U.S. safety rules and regulation upon the Mexican trucks given access to U.S. roads.

On Nov. 14, the House of Representatives passed the DOT Fiscal Year 2008 appropriations bill by an overwhelming bi-paritsan 270-147 vote.

WND reported at the time Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., offered an amendment to the DOT Fiscal Year 2008 appropriations bill to block DOT funding for the Mexican trucks, which passed by a voice vote.

WND also reported Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, successfully offered in the Senate an amendment comparable to DeFazio's.

The House bill emerging from the conference committee included language to de-fund the DOT Mexican trucking demonstration project.

The Senate version of the DOT Fiscal Year 2008 appropriations bill also contains the language which emerged from the conference committee to de-fund the DOT Mexican trucking project.

President Bush has threatened to veto the bill if it reaches his desk with these provisions in place.

Canada openly proclaims NAFTA Superhighway
Readers bombard Newsweek with evidence after adverse story on Ron Paul

A Newsweek story critical of Rep. Ron Paul and labeling the NAFTA Superhighway a baseless conspiracy theory has generated approximately 250 adverse reader responses on the "comments" section of Newsweek's website, many citing hard evidence that the proposed transcontinental trade corridor is quite real.

"There is a broad coalition of Americans developing across the United States who are opposed to a North American Union and know that Ron Paul is right and we need to take action now before it is too late," Jesse Benton, national press secretary for the Ron Paul Presidential Campaign 08 told WND.

Particularly interesting among Newsweek's reader comments were citations of Canadian government websites that openly discuss and declare plans to create a NAFTA Superhighway.

Several readers pointed to a Canadian government video clip gaining wide circulation on the Internet. It involves a Nov. 20 "Speech from the Throne," in which John Harvard, lieutenant-governor of the Province of Manitoba, Canada, opened the second session of the 39th assembly of the provincial legislature with comments proclaiming support for the development of a "Mid-Continent Trade Corridor."

"Manitoba is also taking a major role in the development of a Mid-Continent Trade Corridor, connecting our northern Port of Churchill with trade markets throughout the central United States and Mexico," Harvard told the legislature.

"To advance the concept," Harvard continued, "an alliance has been built with business leaders and state and city governments spanning the entire length of the Corridor. When fully developed, the trade route will incorporate an 'inland port' in Winnipeg with pre-clearance for international shipping."

A video posted on YouTube shows excerpts from Harvard's speech juxtaposed with clips of President Bush and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the press conference of the third summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership in Montebello, Quebec, on Aug. 21, ridiculing the North American Union and the NAFTA Superhighway as baseless conspiracy theories.

A Destination-Winnipeg trade group website identifies the Mid-Continent Trade Corridor as "the northern gateway of this vast Corridor, a network of highways and railways linking the business community with cities to the south, through the U.S. and into Mexico."

The Canadian government's Canada Transport website describes the Mid-Continent International Trade Corridor as a rail and highway network which stretches from Manitoba to Mexico.

Other Newsweek readers provided links to an Alberta government website.

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation in Alberta, Canada, has posted on its website a trade corridor map that shows a NAFTA Superhighway clearly designated in the same route, including Interstate Highways 35, 29 and 94, that the North America's SuperCorridor Coalition, or NASCO, designates as the I-35 NAFTA Superhighway.

Craig Offman of the National Post writes that this Alberta map of the NAFTA Superhighway on the Alberta Government website is currently Number Two on the popular U.S. web site Digg.com.

"Well, now, Mr. Paul might think he has some real fodder," Offman writees. "The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation website uses the exact phrase, showing a thoroughfare that begins in Manitoba and drops all the way down to West Texas."

"Why would the Canadian government web page in Alberta show a NAFTA Superhighway if the highway doesn't exist?" asks a Newsweek reader linking to the Alberta site. "Keep on lying to the people, Newsweek, it is what you do best."

"We have had that map with the NAFTA Superhighway on our website for 5 years or more," Jerry Bellikka, director of communications for the Alberta Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation told WND in a telephone interview.

"The website is a site for truckers," Bellikka explained. "We try to harmonize our trucking regulations with Canada and the United States so truckers can log on and see where they fit on our requirements when they are traveling along these North American corridors."

WND asked Bellikka if the Alberta Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation had any intention of changing the NAFTA Superhighway map on its website.

"No," Bellinkka answered directly. "We have no plan to change the designation of NAFTA Superhighway on our website."

Mexican trucks roll on despite opposition
Congress unified on bill to halt Bush administration program

The Bush administration continues to push forward with its controversial project allowing Mexican trucks to move freely on U.S. roads despite strong protests from both chambers of Congress, where legislation is pending.

"Congress has stated clearly that it believes going forward with such a program, without the information needed to assure safety on American roads, is not safe," said Barry Piatt, spokesman for Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

Dorgan successfully amended the Senate Transportation Appropriations Bill to include language to stop the Mexican Truck Demonstration Program, hoping the Bush administration would respond.

However, even though the House and Senate agreed to retain the language, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, is continuing with the program.

According to the conference report on the House bill, HR 3074, issued Nov. 13, "None of the funds made available under this Act may be used to establish a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones along the international border between the United States and Mexico."

The bill, however, awaits approval by both the full House and the full Senate.

Jenny Tallheimer, spokeswoman for the Senate Appropriations Committee, told WND, "At this point the transportation appropriations bill is being lumped with the other appropriations bill into a larger omnibus bill.

"Both the House and the Senate are currently negotiating the details of the larger appropriations bill, and once that is complete the legislation will be introduced in the House and the Senate," she said. "No time table has been set at this point however."

There also is no guarantee that the language in the conference report designed to defund the Mexican Truck program will remain in a new omnibus bill.

Without an appropriation bill containing such language, the program can continue.

FMCSA's website lists 10 Mexican carriers with a total of 55 trucks that are approved to transport goods throughout the U.S.

The FMCSA was asked to comment but did not reply to phone calls or e-mails.

About 40 more Mexican carriers will soon join the 10 already approved. The agency, according to its website, said it "has notified an additional 37 Mexico-domiciled motor carriers that they have successfully passed a Pre-Authorization Safety Audit."

The FMCSA says there are four U.S. carriers participating in the cross-border program.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., continues to show frustration with the Bush administration.

His spokesman, Joe Kasper, told WND, "Rather than working with Congress to ensure the program is implemented in a manner that is safe and efficient, the department has instead decided to continue its plan of opening our roadways to an increasing number of Mexican trucking companies."

Kasper called it "a dangerous program that threatens our security and the safety of vehicle motorists."

"It now appears the only way Congress can make the department listen is by ensuring it does not have the funds to move the program forward as currently planned," he said.

North-of-border link finishes NAFTA superhighway grid
Atlantic-Pacific route would allow cross-continental goods deliveries

Canada has announced a plan to extend the NAFTA Superhighway network north in a way that would finish a continental grid designed to accommodate an anticipated tsunami of containers from China and the Far East.

The Canadian Intelligent Super Corridor, or CISCOR, is a national transportation route designed to reach from the West Coast ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert to Montreal and Halifax.

As WND has documented, recent articles published in The Nation and Newsweek magazines have attempted to characterize the NAFTA Superhighway as a "conspiracy theory."

Yet, the CISCOR case study provides strong evidence that the continent's ports, highways and rail lines are being reconfigured into an inter-modal system emphasizing technological logistics and "inland smart ports" designed to meet the demands of world trade, largely driven by the relocation of North American manufacturing to China.

Inter-modal is a transportation economics reference to containers that can be transported on several different modes of transportation, including container ships, trucks and trains, without having to be unloaded or repacked.

According to the CISCOR website, the Saskatchewan-based CISCOR Inland Port Network of the cities of Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw is designed to serve "as the central logistics and coordination hub, creating a Canadian east-west land bridge connecting three major North American north-south corridors: North America's SuperCorridor, or NASCO, the Canada-America-Mexico Corridor, or CANAMEX, and the River of Trade Corridor Coalition."

A multi-color North American continental map on the CISCOR website leaves no doubt the Canadian super corridor is designed to interface with the NAFTA Superhighway, extending down into Mexico.

The CISCOR map strongly models the continental map displayed by NASCO on the trade group's website in 2005.

The CISCOR website confirms an earlier WND report documenting the Canadian national transportation plan to open Prince Rupert and Vancouver as deep-water ports capable of handling the new class of 12,500 container-capacity post-Panamax ships now being built for China.

The CISCOR strategy falls under the umbrella of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative as defined by Transport Canada, the Canadian counterpart to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

WND previously documented how the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railroads are included in Canada's Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative, positioned to operate as NAFTA railroads.

Under the CISCOR plan, the Saskatchewan cities are defined as an "inland smart port," as are Kansas City, San Antonio and Denver in the U.S.

The CISCOR website cites the University of Texas Center for Transportation research to define an inland port as follows: "An Inland Port is a physical site located away from traditional land, air and coastal borders with the vision to facilitate and process international trade through strategic investment in multi-modal transportation assets and by promoting value-added services as goods move through the supply chain."

The plan to make the Saskatchewan cities an inland port centers on utilizing the West Coast deep-water ports in British Columbia as the input point for millions of containers from China and the Far East.

American companies have taken advantage of cheap labor in China that in some cases functions at slave or near-slave levels. Communist Chinese prison camps also continue to make goods for the U.S. market, despite human rights pressure.

Reconfiguring the transportation infrastructure of North America into NAFTA Superhighways or Super Corridors drastically reduces the cost of transporting the containers from China

A quick look at the continental map shows the physical location of the Saskatchewan cities qualifies them to be an "inland port" because the area can function as a switching center, with easy access either to CANAMEX or to what NASCO refers to as the NASCO Corridor, the complex of Interstate Highways 35, 29 and 94.

Containers can be unloaded by crane in Saskatchewan and placed in giant warehouses. There they await pick-up by truck or train to be transported to the next regional warehouse for delivery to the final destination in North America.

An inland port is considered to be a "smart port" when technology – such as Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID systems – are utilized to facilitate customs clearance, security, warehouse distribution, multi-modal trans-load operations, empty container management and advanced container logistics tracking.

As WND reported, the Chinese ports management firm, Hutchison Ports Holdings, is working with Lockheed Martin in a joint venture with NASCO to place RFID sensors along I-35 to track inter-modal containers from China that enter North America through the Mexican ports of Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo.

An 87-page business analysis archived on the CISCOR website lays out the case for developing Saskatchewan as an Inland SmartPort in the following points that begin the report's Executive Summary:

* A majority of the new containerships entering the world fleet in the next five years will be post-Panamax vessels ready to transport cargo from China, Southeast Asia and India to North American ports already strained with capacity.

* The Panama Canal is approaching operational capacity and the U.S. transportation network is struggling to meet the predicted 15 percent annual rise in Asian container traffic.

* In response to the rapid growth in North American trade, the shift in the global freight supply chain and the increased congestion at U.S. ports and along the inter-modal system, shippers are now routing a growing share of cargo via Canadian ports.

The CISCOR business report Executive Summary concludes, "Canada can serve as the North American gateway at the intersection of three powerful and shifting trade networks – the north-south North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the European-NAFTA, and the highly-utilized trans-Pacific route."

"The desired result is a fully-integrated, seamless cargo transport corridor moving cargo from the ports to rail and highways and to an inland port logistics center that serves all North American markets," the CISCOR Executive Summary concludes.

To open the connection to the European Union, CISCOR envisions extending the Canadian Intermodal Network to the east coast port of Halifax.

Congress cuts funding for Mexican trucks
But Bush administration expected to find other ways to keep program rolling

Congress has passed a bill that cuts funding for the controversial Mexican truck program, but lawmakers expect the Bush administration to keep the foreign vehicles rolling on American roads amid safety and security concerns.

Joe Kasper, spokesman for Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., told WND that "without federal funding, it will be difficult to continue the program. However, we must expect that the administration will continue looking for ways to do so."

The newly passed 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act prohibits the Department of Transportation from using the funds in it "to establish a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones along the international border between the United States and Mexico."

"In a Democratic-sponsored spending bill filled with rewards for special interests, this is actually one of the few beneficial provisions included in the bill," Kasper said.

He points out Bush is expected to sign the bill.

"Congressman Hunter introduced the first bill in Congress to stop the program from moving forward and never relented in his effort to ensure the safety of our roadways and that American security would not be threatened by an inundation of foreign motor carriers," Kasper said.

Ten Mexican carriers, with another 37 awaiting final approval, are now operating under the program. Four American carrier are allowed to drive on Mexican roads.

Clayton Boyce, vice president of public affairs for the American Trucking Association said Congress "has clearly expressed its will on the issue, and we are waiting to see what the Department of Transportation's next step will be."

"There are four U.S. trucking companies with 41 trucks in the cross-border program. If the demonstration program ends, there will be no U.S. trucks crossing the border," Boyce explained.

Congress has expressed its will before, however, and the program has continued.

Kasper said Hunter, a presidential candidate, "intends to work against any effort by the administration, just as he did over the last year, to ensure the brakes are put on this program once and for all."

The American Trucking Association hopes the Mexican project will be successful.

"We have generally supported NAFTA and the cross-border trucking program as an improvement in cross-border efficiency," said Boyce.

"We had expected that the demonstration program would prove whether the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration can regulate and ensure the safety of Mexican trucks and drivers traveling in the United States," he said.

Opposition to the program comes not only from the U.S. Congress but from the other side of the border as well. The Mexican National Truck Drivers Federation plans to block the border between Mexico and the U.S. in January if the program doesn't come to an end, according to the Mexican newspaper El Financiero.

"It is irresponsible of the Mexican government, of (President) Felipe Calderon, to allow the interests of a powerful 2 percent of people in the Mexican economy to hand Mexican trucking over to the Americans," Elias Dip Rame, president of the Mexican National Truck Drivers Federation, told the paper.

If American trucks are able to continue operating in Mexico, the ATA expects them to be protected.

"In any situation, we expect Mexico's authorities to protect U.S. drivers and vehicles lawfully in that country," Boyce said.

Melissa Delaney, spokeswoman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, was contacted by phone and e-mail but declined comment.

Mexican trucks defy Congress, still roll
Bill cuts off funds, but Bush insists program can continue

A constitutional crisis is developing between Congress and the Department of Transportation over the federal government's decision to continue its project allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. roads, in defiance of new legislation.

"The DOT response is both arrogant and wrong!" Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., wrote in a letter yesterday to Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration officials told the San Diego Union Tribune the cross-border Mexican truck demonstration project would continue because the program was established in September and the amendment allows programs that have already begun to continue.

But Dorgan insisted a provision in the 2008 omnibus spending bill was "clearly written and designed to put the brakes on the current pilot program."

"Failure to end the pilot program, I believe, will put the Department of Transportation in direct violation of federal law," the senator charged.

As WND reported in September, the amendment championed by Dorgan to remove funding for the project from the 2008 DOT appropriations bill passed the Senate by a bipartisan majority of 74-24.

The amendment survived into the Consolidated Appropriations Act which President Bush signed Dec. 26.

WND left a message with Melissa DeLaney, a spokeswoman for the FMCSA, asking for comment but received no reply.

Polly W. Craighill, legislative counsel to the Senate, wrote a formal letter to Dorgan, at the senator's request, arguing the clear legislative intent of his amendment was clear.

"No funds made available under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 were to be used in fiscal year 2008 to establish or implement a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones along the international border between the United States and Mexico," Craighill wrote to Dorgan Dec. 28.

Craighill further expressed an opinion that the legislative history in the Senate established clearly the purpose was to preclude the carrying out of any demonstration program, including the pilot program put into effect in September.

"DOT is showing a blatant disregard for U.S. laws," Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, or OOIDA, told WND in a phone interview.

"The Bush administration is showing itself to be a rogue administration," Spencer said. "I understand the need to reduce the size of government, but I didn't realize it could involve doing away with the entire legislative branch.

"It's outrageous and hypocritical for the Bush administration to be preaching democracy around the world, while blowing off democracy at home," he added.

The Teamsters expressed outrage as well.

"The Bush administration should enforce the law, not break it," Leslie Miller, communications coordinator for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters told WND in a telephone interview.

Both OOIDA and the Teamsters have launched federal law suits aimed at blocking the continuance of the Mexican truck project.

The FMCSA website currently lists 11 Mexican trucking companies that remain authorized to cross the border with their long-haul rigs and operate anywhere in the U.S.

University reshuffles 'North American Union architect'
Robert Pastor's global program dismantled, on sabbatical working with 'The Elders'

Robert Pastor – the American University professor whose writings have championed the creation of a North American Community – has resigned his position in the school's Office of International Affairs amid a reorganization that has dismantled many of his key programs.

Pastor confirmed to WND he began a one-year sabbatical Jan. 1 at American University and plans this year to work on three new books, including one on North America. He also is working with The Elders, the conflict-resolution group of world figures, including Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter.

Pastor explained in an e-mail he has stepped down as vice president of international affairs at the university and as director of the Center for North American Studies in the Office of International Affairs, a program he has headed since he began at American University in 2002.

"This reflects no change in my focus," Pastor insisted, "just a sabbatical to devote more time to research and writing."

WND confirmed, however, that university President Neil Kerwin has decided to shut down Pastor's Office of International Affairs.

The university's student newspaper, The Eagle, reported last week that Pastor had resigned his post in the Office of International Affairs following a decision by Kerwin to dismantle the department.

"Now that Kerwin has become permanent university president, he wants to change the international program to meet a new strategic focus," Eagle writer Jimm Phillips told WND.

WND contacted Kerwin's office to inquire about the ultimate status of Pastor's international programs after the break-up of the Office of International Affairs but received no return phone call before publication time.

Pastor explained his sabbatical to the Eagle.

"With the dismantling of the Office of International Affairs, there is, of course, no need for a vice president," Pastor told the campus paper. "President Kerwin and I both agreed that it would be helpful if I would remain until the end of the year to assure that the transition is smooth and the movement of OIA units to other parts of the campus is done properly and effectively and in a manner that could permit them to become even stronger."

Pastor admitted to the Eagle the move disappointed him.

"I personally believe that American University had set a gold standard in designing a cabinet-level position to give priority to these international programs," he said. "So, therefore, I am disappointed that the office will now be dismantled."

The Elders

Pastor told WND he planned to remain at American University after the sabbatical.

He said he has begun working as interim co-director of The Elders, a group of 13 world figures, including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter.

"I have been responsible for directing the Elders' work on conflict-resolution, with a special focus on Sudan and the Middle East with the help of some very talented and dedicated people," Pastor said. "I will continue directing this work for the next few months."

The Elders website explains the rationale for the group: "We are moving to a global village and yet we don't have our global elders. The Elders can be a group who have the trust of the world, who can speak freely, be fiercely independent and respond fast and flexibly in conflict situations."

Kerwin took over the presidency of American University on an interim basis following the dismissal of Benjamin Ladner, who was suspended in August 2005 by the university's board in a scandal looking into his alleged misuse of university funds in personal and travel expenses.

Kerwin's status was made permanent Sept. 1, becoming the school's 14th president.

In his interview with the university newspaper, Pastor admitted the controversy surrounding Ladner had been detrimental to his plans in 2005 to establish an American-style university in China.

"These issues came to a head shortly after the resignation of Dr. Ladner," Pastor told the Eagle, "and given the uncertainty within the university, after consultation with cabinet and faculty, [Kerwin] decided that AU should not go forward."

On Oct. 24, 2005, Ladner agreed to a $3.75 million departure package from American University in a deal that allowed him to resign rather than be fired. Ladner's request for a $6 million termination package had been rejected by the university board, which voted to fire him "for cause" if he did not accept the lower offer.

Resolution fights North American Union
Urges U.S. to withdraw from Security and Prosperity Partnership

A state lawmaker in Utah has introduced a resolution encouraging the U.S. to withdraw from the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America and any other bilateral activity that would move the country toward an EU-style continental merger.

Republican state Rep. Stephen Sandstrom introduced House Resolution 1 to the Utah legislature this week after a similar measure passed the House last year by a 47-24 vote but was blocked by a Senate committee just before the session's close.

"I feel confident we will get this resolution passed this year," Sandstrom told WND. "We learned a lot last year about our opponents, and this year we are better prepared to anticipate their legislative moves to block us."

The resolution reads in part: "The gradual creation of such a North American Union from a merger of the United States, Mexico and Canada would be a direct threat to the United States Constitution and the national independence of the United States and would imply an eventual end to national borders within North America."

In a speech given in Salt Lake City to the Utah Eagle Forum's annual convention Jan. 19, Sandstrom compared the move toward a North American Union to the stealth methodology used by corporate elite to move Europe toward the European Union. The 50-year process began with the European Coal and Steel Agreement in 1957.

"While the newspaper articles and reporters published the sequential events of European integration, most people in the European Community nations thought, 'Ho-hum – no big deal,'" Sandstrom told the Eagle Forum meeting. "As a matter of fact, the Europeans continued to sleep like Gulliver until they were jolted awake when the euro replaced their national currencies."

When the euro was introduced, Sandstrom explained, "fortunes were made and lost, savings were devalued, prices and commodities were suddenly revalued, borders essentially evaporated and individual countries could no longer control their own immigration laws.

"Even their national flags – for which their ancestors had fought and died – were slowly being replaced by the flag of the European community, with its twelve golden stars on a blue background," he continued.

"When that happened, many political leaders and vast numbers of usurped citizens wanted to stop the pan-European train and get off, but it was too late," he said. "Too late, because they were part and parcel of the European Union – now and forever."

Sandstrom explained he introduced H.R. 1 a second time because he wants to stop the forward movement of the Security and Prosperity Partnership into a North American market, following the European model in which economic integration inevitably led to political integration.

"Just as in the European market decades ago," he told the Eagle Forum audience, "now there are both official and ad hoc forces here in the U.S. that continually press for further integration and harmonization at every opportunity."

As evidence, Sandstrom cited the free flow of labor invited to the U.S. by the failure to secure the border with Mexico, the push by the Bush administration to expand NAFTA and CAFTA by a series of individual free trade agreements seeking to push open markets country by country – first into Peru, followed by Columbia and Panama – and the bureaucratic trilateral working groups seeking under SPP to integrate and harmonize U.S. administrative laws with those in Mexico and Canada.

"We cannot and will not tolerate – not without a fight – the tearing down of 232 years of sovereign progress in which American has protected the etched-in-stone, under-God principles that were bequeathed to us by our founding fathers," he concluded.

According to tabulation on StopTheNau.org, 13 states have now passed similar resolutions opposing the SPP and the movement toward a future North American Union.

Utah is among six states considering a resolution against the SPP.

As WND reported, Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., has introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives a resolution expressing congressional opposition to construction of a NAFTA super highway system or entry into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.

Goode's House Concurrent Resolution 40 currently has 43 bipartisan co-sponsors.

N.J. Parkway lease mirrors NAFTA superhighway plan
Governor wants to generate money for state budget crisis

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, is proposing a variation of the "public-private partnerships," being implemented in other parts of the country and according to critics a danger to the sovereignty of the U.S., as a solution for the state's expected $3 billion budget deficit, the biggest after California and New York.

Under the typical PPP structure that has been supported by the Bush administration, through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration, projects such as the Trans-Texas Corridor highway, are under way. That new highway project is planned to be four football fields wide and run through Texas parallel to Interstate 35 from Laredo to the Oklahoma border.

It is being leased by foreign investors including Cintra, an infrastructure investment consortium in Spain that has made large payment to operate the highway and collect tolls on contracts written to last as long as a half century.

Critics' comments about such plans were typified by an attendee at a conference at which a Colorado "public-private partnership" plan was discussed.

"Under P3, the USA is up for sale," a conference attendee said. "Whatever the public now owns – roads, ports, waste management water systems, rail lines, public parking facilities, airports, even lotteries and sports stadiums – are up for grabs and the only requirement is that the foreigners have the cash."

Corzine's variation is that his public-private partnership would involve the creation of a New Jersey non-profit corporation that would issue bonds to raise the revenue to pay for a 75-year long-term lease on the highway.

The governor is calling the structure a "public benefit corporation," but whatever the name, he faced a hostile crowd at a recent town hall meeting on the issue.

"You’re supposed to be the wizard of Wall Street," an angry citizen challenged Corzine Monday night in Marlboro, N.J. "Can't you come up with a better solution to the state's debt crisis other than leasing away the Garden State Parkway?"

"This scheme to lease the Garden State Parkway doesn't work it's not done on the KISS principle," the questioner insisted. "Why can't you 'Keep it Simple, Stupid?' and just cut state spending until it meets your tax revenue?"

An estimated 750 New Jersey residents, angered the governor failed to propose a reduced New Jersey budget in light of the expected $3 billion deficit, objected to the highway manipulation.

Corzine's goal is to raise immediately somewhere between $32-$38 billion on a one-time basis when the PBC uses the bond revenue to lease what amounts to three highways – the Garden State Parkway, the Atlantic Highway, portions of the New Jersey Turnpike, and Route 440, which links the Turnpike with a Staten Island bridge.

Some $4 billion of the proceeds would be used in a capital reserve for toll road improvements and widening.

An estimated $10 billion would be used to eliminate existing debt on the toll roads and to create the appropriate bond reserves, while an upfront payment in the range of $18-$24 billion would be used to reduce state debt and fund transportation improvements.

"These won’t be junk bonds," Corzine, the onetime head of Wall Street investment banking firm Goldman Sachs pleaded with the Marlboro High School audience. "The bond market has received very favorably state finance proposals linked to a certain stream of revenue, such as toll road receipts."

But for more than an hour, dozens of attendees launching sharply critical questions, some bordering on anger and outrage.

"Why are you going to mortgage New Jersey highways for generations to come, just to get once-only upfront payment of $35 billion?" an attendee asked from the audience.

"You're going to give up some $150 billion in future toll revenues, or more, over decades just to get this one-time bailout," he continued. "What are you going to lease the next time you have a budget deficit?"

At one point, the strain on Corzine revealed itself. "If you have a better solution, let me know," he shot back at one critic.

Some said they did have better ideas: Cutting the budget by dismissing employees and working to reduce pension expenses, disqualifying part-time state workers and various state commissioners from pensions, cutting pension payments, and eliminating various Corzine appointees from participating.

"You talk out of both sides of your mouth and you are mortgaging our future by leasing the Parkway," one citizen said.

Corzine admitted the solution is not all good. "I don't like this situation one bit," he said. "As a politician, I don't like the challenge of having to explain this proposal."

He said under the plan, New Jersey may need to hike tolls 50 percent in 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022 to make needed toll road improvements.

"The state transportation fund will be broke in 2011," he said. "If we do nothing, we may have to both increase tolls and raise the gasoline tax in the state by 20 cents or more."

Another audience member said, "We simply don’t trust anybody in Trenton anymore. What will the next governor do, if we let you lease the Parkway now?"

In 1952 the New Jersey Highway Authority was established to oversee final construction on the Garden State Parkway, with the idea that the road would operate as a self-liquidating toll road.

WND earlier reported a top Texas Department of Transportation official told a EuroMoney conference that establishing public-private partnerships that give away control of U.S. infrastructure to foreigners is like playing the casino game "Texas hold'em."

"Sure, you can expect political objections, but if you play your cards right, you'll win," James Bass, the chief financial officer of TxDOT, told a two-day seminar devoted to teaching state government officials how to lease public assets to foreign investment interests.

Heads to roll? Mexican trucks in U.S. sparks firing call
Transportation secretary 'breaking law' by allowing foreign vehicles

Teamsters are launching a nationwide campaign to fire U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters for what they say is her "unlawful decision" to keep the American border open to Mexican trucks.

As WND reported, the Bush administration has decided to ignore a provision passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush as part of the 2008 omnibus spending bill that was intended to remove funding from the 2008 DOT appropriations bill for the Mexican truck demonstration project.

"It's a disgrace that Mary Peters is still in office," said Teamsters General President James Hoffa in a news release today. "She has broken the law and defied the will of the American people by exposing them to dangerous trucks from Mexico."

The Teamsters have created FireMaryPeters.com, a website complete with downloadable "Fire Mary Peters" windshield signs, recommended actions and an e-mail component urging citizens to ask their elected representatives to find Mary Peters in contempt of Congress.

The Teamsters have mailed a "Fire Mary Peters" bumper sticker to thousands of union members and supporters.

(Story continues below)

"Transportation Secretary Mary Peters is the latest member of the Bush administration to break the law," the Teamster website proclaims. "She continues to give dangerous Mexican trucks access to our highways despite overwhelmingly bipartisan measures passed by Congress and signed by President Bush."

The Teamsters have also placed posters and floor graphics in the Navy Yard Metro stop in Washington, D.C., near the DOT building.

Planned as well is a leafleting campaign at the Metro stop, where DOT employees will be handed cards asking them to call a "Fire Mary Peters" hotline to report other laws Peters has broken.

A "Fire Mary Peters" radio ad prepared by the Teamsters can be heard on the website.

A series of videos on the website shows a Teamster rally at the San Diego border and testimony Hoffa has given Congress opposing NAFTA.

The "Fire Mary Peters" campaign has a special focus in Peters' home state of Arizona, where letters and bumper stickers have been mailed to thousands of Teamsters, urging them to take action.

Although not yet announced, widespread rumors persist that Peters is planning to run for governor of Arizona in 2010.

In a separate legal action, the Teamsters Union will argue in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Feb. 12 that Peters broke federal laws aimed at ensuring American voters are not endangered by allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. roads.

WND telephoned the Department of Transportation asking for comment on this story, but received no return call.

'Hola! Mexico!' says the Fed in Dallas
U.S. Federal Reserve adds top banker to new globalization panel

Mexico's equivalent of the chairmen of the Federal Reserve has been invited to join a new think tank on globalization created by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Guillermo Ortiz, the governor of the Banco de Mexico since 1998, has joined the advisory board for the Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, according to a press release issued by the Fed last Thursday.

The Dallas Fed created the Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute in 2007 "for the purpose of better understanding how the process of deepening economic integration between the countries of the world, or globalization, alters the environment in which U.S. monetary policy decisions are being made."

Initially, the Stanford-educated Ortiz served Mexico's President Ernesto Zedillo as telecommunications and transportation secretary, but when the peso crashed during Zedillo's first month in office, Ortiz was shifted to serve as Mexican secretary of finance and public credit, where he helped manage the resulting devaluation of the peso.

He has also served as an executive director of the International Monetary Fund.

He opposed Mexico's President Vicente Fox by arguing Mexico should secure the border with the United States and create jobs in Mexico, to reduce the economic incentive for illegal immigration.

Still, with remittances from Mexican nationals working in the United States sending dollars back to Mexico reach an annual total exceeding $25 billion, economists such as Steven Hanke at Johns Hopkins University have been arguing since 2003 that Ortiz and the Banco of Mexico should "dollarize," by abandoning the peso to adopt the U.S. dollar as the official currency.

In 2007, the U.S. ran a $74 billion negative balance of trade with Mexico, up from a negative trade balance of $64 billion in 2006 and $49.7 billion in 2005.

In recent years, Ortiz has directed Banco de Mexico monetary policy to fight the continued threat of inflation.

The U.S. Department of State notes Mexico's economy is heavily dependent upon the U.S. with the U.S. buying 86 percents of Mexican exports in 2005.

This year, Ortiz has expressed concern the slowdown in the U.S. economy will cause an economic downturn in Mexico.

Others on the Dallas Fed's globalization advisory board include Charles R. Bean, chief economist and executive director, Bank of England; Martin Feldstein, president and CEO, National Bureau of Economic Research; George F. Baker, Professor of Economics, Harvard; R. Glenn Hubbard, dean, Columbia Business School; Otmar Issing, president Center for Financial Studies, Frankfurt, Germany; Finn Kydland, 2004 Nobel Laureate in Economics and Professor of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara; Kenneth S. Rogoff, Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Harvard; and William White, Bank of International Settlements.

N. American Army created without OK by Congress
U.S., Canada military ink deal to fight domestic emergencies

In a ceremony that received virtually no attention in the American media, the United States and Canada signed a military agreement Feb. 14 allowing the armed forces from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a domestic civil emergency, even one that does not involve a cross-border crisis.

The agreement, defined as a Civil Assistance Plan, was not submitted to Congress for approval, nor did Congress pass any law or treaty specifically authorizing this military agreement to combine the operations of the armed forces of the United States and Canada in the event of a wide range of domestic civil disturbances ranging from violent storms, to health epidemics, to civil riots or terrorist attacks.

In Canada, the agreement paving the way for the militaries of the U.S. and Canada to cross each other's borders to fight domestic emergencies was not announced either by the Harper government or the Canadian military, prompting sharp protest.

"It's kind of a trend when it comes to issues of Canada-U.S. relations and contentious issues like military integration," Stuart Trew, a researcher with the Council of Canadians told the Canwest News Service. "We see that this government is reluctant to disclose information to Canadians that is readily available on American and Mexican websites."

The military Civil Assistance Plan can be seen as a further incremental step being taken toward creating a North American armed forces available to be deployed in domestic North American emergency situations.

The agreement was signed at U.S. Army North headquarters, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, by U.S. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, or USNORTHCOM, and by Canadian Air Force Lt. Gen. Marc Dumais, commander of Canada Command.

"This document is a unique, bilateral military plan to align our respective national military plans to respond quickly to the other nation's requests for military support of civil authorities," Renuart said in a statement published on the USNORTHCOM website.

"In discussing the new bilateral Civil Assistance Plan established by USNORTHCOM and Canada Command, Renuart stressed, "Unity of effort during bilateral support for civil support operations such as floods, forest fires, hurricanes, earthquakes and effects of a terrorist attack, in order to save lives, prevent human suffering an mitigate damage to property, is of the highest importance, and we need to be able to have forces that are flexible and adaptive to support rapid decision-making in a collaborative environment."

Lt. Gen. Dumais seconded Renuart's sentiments, stating, "The signing of this plan is an important symbol of the already strong working relationship between Canada Command and U.S. Northern Command."

"Our commands were created by our respective governments to respond to the defense and security challenges of the twenty-first century," he stressed, "and we both realize that these and other challenges are best met through cooperation between friends."

The statement on the USNORTHCOM website emphasized the plan recognizes the role of each nation's lead federal agency for emergency preparedness, which in the United States is the Department of Homeland Security and in Canada is Public Safety Canada.

The statement then noted the newly signed plan was designed to facilitate the military-to-military support of civil authorities once government authorities have agreed on an appropriate response.

As WND has previously reported, U.S. Northern Command was established on Oct. 1, 2002, as a military command tasked with anticipating and conducting homeland defense and civil support operations where U.S. armed forces are used in domestic emergencies.

Similarly, Canada Command was established on Feb. 1, 2006, to focus on domestic operations and offer a single point of contact for all domestic and continental defense and securities partners.

In Nov. 2007, WND published a six-part exclusive series, detailing WND's on-site presence during the NORAD-USNORTHCOM Vigilant Shield 2008, an exercise which involved Canada Command as a participant.

In an exclusive interview with WND during Vigilant Shield 2008, Gen. Renuart affirmed USNORTHCOM would deploy U.S. troops on U.S. soil should the president declare a domestic emergency in which the Department of Defense ordered USNORTHCOM involvement.

In May 2007, WND reported President Bush, on his own authority, signed National Security Presidential Directive 51, also known as Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20, authorizing the president to declare a national emergency and take over all functions of federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments, without necessarily obtaining the approval of Congress to do so.

Trans-Texas corridor stirs controversy

The debate in Texas over a proposed 4,000-mile network of toll roads that will parallel the state's existing highway system is heating up

More than 10,000 people have attended public hearings across Texas to discuss the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor, which has also been dubbed the "NAFTA superhighway." It is a project that is expected to cost an estimated $183 billion over 50 years. (hear audio report)

Terry Hall with the group Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom warns the project will create widespread eminent domain abuse and involve foreign control of public infrastructure. "They're taking huge swaths of land, up to a million acres of private Texas farm and ranch land," warns Hall. "Some of it is prime agriculture land ... and they're going to take that land and hand it over to private entities for commercial gain."

Hall accuses Congress of pulling a "bait and switch" when they promised Texas taxpayers a free interstate. "They designated this corridor route an international trade corridor back in 1995," argues Hall. "So for Governor Perry, or any of those folks who are trying to push toll roads here in Texas, to try and say that this road stops at the Texas border ... that it's not a NAFTA superhighway ... it is an international corridor and it has been designated as such."
Hall alleges that Governor Perry is "representing the interest of private industry over the public good," noting he has accepted more than $1 million worth of campaign contributions from road contractors and the "road lobby."

But the Republican governor is dismissing the concerns of some state residents who are upset the proposed 4,000-mile Trans-Texas Corridor running from Laredo to Canada will turn operation of the public highway system over to private, if not foreign companies. (hear part two of audio report)

Critics of the proposed highway project claim it was never approved by voters, and Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), CNN's Lou Dobbs, and others call the project a "NAFTA superhighway" and warn it will be part of a "North American Union" between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.

Governor Perry calls critics of the Trans-Texas Corridor "unenlightened." "Here's what's more important rather than all of the black helicopter ... conspiracy theories," argues Perry. "We have many, many multi-national groups that run various things ... in the United States as we do in other countries, and nobody is going to roll up our highways and carry them back to Spain."

According to Perry, there is a reason CEO Magazine selected Texas as the number-one state to do business. "... nderstand you have to have a transportation infrastructure system in place so that people can get from point A to point B, and they don't spend all their time in gridlock instead of being with their kids at soccer practice or back home with their families," Perry explains.

Governor Perry maintains the controversial transportation network is necessary to "move [the state's] people and product around" and reduce road congestion.

Leaders push PR campaign for North American Union
Business council members to confront and refute critics of trilateral agenda

The controversial Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, continues closed-door meetings with business leaders while the heads of state of the U.S., Mexico and Canada now openly urge them to launch a public relations campaign to counter growing criticism of the trilateral cooperative some fear is a step toward a North American Union.

The information is contained in an internal memo from Canada's Foreign Affairs and Internal Trade ministry, obtained by WND under an Access to Information Act request.

The text of the undated memo is an internal government summary of the third SPP summit meeting held Aug. 20-21, 2007, in Montebello Quebec.

The redacted memo does not disclose the author or the date the memo was written.

The first sentence of the memo makes clear, as WND previously reported, the North American Competitiveness Council, or NACC, was the only participant invited to meet behind closed doors with the SPP bureaucrats. The SPP consists of 20 working groups plus the attending cabinet officers from each country and the heads of state.

"Leaders had a successful meeting with the members of the NACC, which had been launched at the leader's meeting in Cancun in March 2006, to counsel governments on how they might enhance North American competitiveness," the memo begins.

The NACC is a largely secretive SPP advisory council of representatives of 30 North American corporations selected by the Chambers of Commerce in the three nations.

The NACC has issued no press releases disclosing specific recommendations made to the SPP trilateral working groups tasked with "integrating" and "harmonizing" administrative rules and regulations into a North American format.

Nor have any minutes of SPP meetings with NACC participants ever been made public.

The PR offensive is clearly discussed in the third paragraph of the internal memo, where following an initial redacted sentence, the paragraph discusses comments made by the three heads of state in the closed door discussions, noting, "He also urged NACC members to assist in confronting and refuting critics of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP)."

The "He" in the sentence is not identified.

The fourth paragraph continues the PR theme: "In closing, all leaders expressed a desire for the NACC to play a role in articulating publicly the benefits of greater collaboration in North America."

Later, the memo admits, "Leaders discussed some of the difficulties of the SPP, including the lack of popular support and the failure of the public to understand the competitive challenges confronting North America."

After a redacted sentence, the memo continues, "Governments are faced with addressing the rapidly evolving competitive environment without fueling protectionism, when industry sectors face radical transformation."

The memo then documents a comment made by President Bush: "In terms of building public support, President Bush suggested engaging the support of those who had benefited from NAFTA and from North American integration (including small business owners) to tell their stories and humanize the impressive results."

The document says, regarding import safety, "President Bush underlined the importance of tackling the issue more broadly and showing that governments are ahead of this issue in order to prevent a trade protectionist backlash, especially against China."

Toward the end, the memo reinforces the public relations theme, emphasizing, "NACC members should have a role in communicating the merits of North American collaboration, including by engaging their employees and unions."

Meanwhile, the SPP ministers and trilateral working groups continue to pursue a policy of secret, closed-door meetings, where the press and the public is not invited to participate or observe the process.

In a meeting that was virtually unreported in the U.S. and Canada, a SPP ministerial meeting Feb. 27-28 in Las Cabos, Mexico, was disclosed openly in the Mexico City newspaper La Jornada.

The report in La Jornada said Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez visited Mexico City prior to the Los Cabos meeting "to renegotiate NAFTA" by offering to Mexico that undisclosed U.S. corporations and the U.S. government are planning to put as much as $141 billion in new investments in Mexico under Mexico's National Infrastructure Project 2007-2012.

A press release on the U.S. Trade and Development Agency website published Feb 21 presented the agenda for a Feb. 26-28 meeting in Mexico City at which Secretary Gutierrez planned to announce USTDA grants totaling more than $1.7 million were being made "to promote the development of transportation, energy and environmental projects under Mexico's National Infrastructure Program (NIP)."

A separate press release on the USTDA website documented that Mexico's National Infrastructure Program, launched by President Calderon in July 2007, was intended to create $141 billion in new infrastructure investment opportunities for U.S. firms by 2012.

An announcement posted on the homepage of the Department of Commerce's SPP website Feb. 28 confirmed Gutierrez and Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff traveled to Las Cabos to meet with their Mexican and Canadian counterparts in a ministerial meeting, preparing for the fourth SPP annual summit meeting scheduled for New Orleans April 21-22.

The SPP press release also confirmed the NACC attended the Los Cabos closed-door ministerial meeting.

Several other important points were disclosed in the Foreign Affairs and Internal Trade document obtained under the Access to Information Act request.

The document confirmed a much-rumored concern that the Harper government intended to downplay the SPP summits, as part of a strategy to defuse the intense criticism the effort has received from the political left in Canada.

"Prime Minister Harper described the SPP as a worthwhile project driving numerous low-profile, but important initiatives," the documents noted under the heading, "SPP Management."

The document further disclosed Harper's recommendation that each government appoint a single lead minister with overall responsibility for managing the trilateral bureaucrats involved in the 20 SPP working groups.

The commerce minister in each country, or "prosperity minister" as identified by the document, was tasked with this responsibility.

Until the document had come to light, the three governments had not given a clear explanation of the tasks or areas of responsibilities of each of the three ministers assigned in the U.S., Canada and Mexico to SPP.

Now, it appears the foreign minister representative, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the United States and her counterparts in Mexico and Canada, represent the top state-level official among the three, a designation that clearly places the SPP within the top foreign policy diplomatic level in each country.

Commerce Secretary Gutierrez and his counterparts would be considered the "SPP Prosperity Ministers," while Secretary Chertoff and his counterparts would be considered the "SPP Security Ministers," with overall management of the SPP coming under the "Prosperity Ministers" sphere.

Also, the document disclosed President Bush's continuing determination to favor only a virtual fence, not the placement of a physical fence, along the U.S. border with Mexico.

"President Bush outlined his vision of the border, with a strong emphasis on the use of technology," the document stressed.

As WND previously reported, an amendment submitted by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, gutted the Secure Fence Act of 2006 by leaving the building of a 700-mile double-layer fence along the border with Mexico up to the discretion of the Department of Homeland Security and Chertoff.

WND has also reported Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., author of the fencing provisions of the Secure Fence Act of 2006, has introduced new legislation in the House of Representatives to put back the requirement of constructing double-layered fencing along the Mexican border within six months.

Transportation Department to WND: No admittance
Reporter denied permission to hear defense of Mexican truck program

The Department of Transportation today barred WND from attending a news conference in which Secretary Mary Peters defended the controversial Bush administration program allowing Mexican trucks to travel freely on U.S. roads.

Agency spokesman Duane DeBruyne, who was screening reporters at the security entrance of the federal building at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., said he did not have the authority to allow entry to WND senior staff writer Jerome Corsi, who has reported extensively on the program and attended other news conferences on the subject.

DeBruyne telephoned his supervisor, DOT spokeswoman Melissa DeLaney, who declined permission without explanation, requiring WND to leave the premises.

In a phone call to the DOT public affairs office, the agency explained it was requiring "press credentials" for admittance, and no one without them was allowed to participate.

The news conference was only for "credentialed members of the media," spokesman Bill Moseley told WND. "There's a specific credential. He did not have a media credential."

And how can a reporter obtain such a credential providing permission to attend?

"I don't know," Moseley responded.

But Corsi said he was never asked to produce media credentials of any kind, noting he had a press ID card issued by WND. DeBruyne, Corsi said, immediately recognized him and apologetically explained the department would "not accept your press credentials."

Corsi paraphrased DeBruyne saying, "We know who you are, we're know you're from WND, we read your stories."

"They never asked for what credentials I had," Corsi said. "They didn't want to see anything from me. That was never in question."

"It's outrageous you were turned away at the door," Teamster President James P. Hoffa told WND. "I thought we had free press in the United States. What's Secretary Peters afraid of?"

The press conference by Peters came in advance of what is expected to be a rancorous oversight hearing tomorrow scheduled by the Senate Commerce Committee on the issue.

"WND sent a New York-based reporter to Washington to cover an area within his specialization, only to be turned away by bureaucrats for not being 'credentialed,'" said Joseph Farah, WND's founder and editor.

"WorldNetDaily is credentialed by the Senate Press Gallery to cover the Capitol. WorldNetDaily is credentialed to cover the White House. WorldNetDaily is a member in good standing of the Washington Press Club. Our reporter on the scene is a Harvard Ph.D and best-selling author. WorldNetDaily is one of the largest news sources in the world, larger than any newspaper websites except the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today. If those credentials aren't good enough, I’d sure like to know which journalists were permitted in the Department of Transportation hearing."

Hoffa told WND he planned to call Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J, who is expected to chair the hearing, to protest WND being turned away.

Leslie Miller, the Teamsters communications coordinator, also was dismayed WND had been prevented from hearing the DOT press conference.

"It's an absolute outrage when the executive branch of the government tries to stifle free speech by selecting who it shares information with," Miller wrote WND in an e-mail.

"What are they afraid of? Are their arguments so weak they can only allow people they consider 'friendly' into their news conferences?" she asked.

As WND previously reported, a constitutional crisis is developing over DOT's decision to continue the Mexican demonstration project in defiance of a vote by the House and Senate that removed funding for the effort. That vote was in the Consolidated Appropriations Act signed by President Bush Dec. 26.

At the press conference today, Peters announced plans to forward to Congress a letter signed by 69 companies and associations urging Congress to allow the project to continue, under the argument that Mexico could retaliate if it is discontinued.

The letter argued Mexican retaliation could jeopardize up to 49,909 U.S. jobs in 17 states.

In a statement posted on the agency's website, Peters "cautioned Congress" not to stop the program.

"Whatever their reason, this is not time to let the politics of pessimism dim the promise of prosperity for hundreds of thousands of American drivers, growers and manufacturers," she said. "We should be looking for every chance to open new markets for our drivers, to find new buyers for our products and encourage new consumers for our produce.

"Our drivers and our workers don't deserve a timeout from success and prosperity. So my message to Congress is clear. If you want to help American businesses thrive, support American agricultural success, and champion American highway safety, then keep on trucking with cross border shipping," the statement said.

Rod Nofziger, director of government affairs at the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, was not impressed with Peters' statement.

"The Bush administration seems to appreciate Vladimir Putin's approach to executive branch activism," he said.

"Today's press conference was a weak attempt to shift the focus away from the safety and security deficiencies of their pilot program," Nofziger said in a e-mail. "It's sad they are turning to economic fear mongering to cover their tails."

Hoffa agreed, arguing Peters is on the losing side of the argument, both legally and in the court of public opinion.

"How many times does the Department of Transportation have to be told 'No'? The Senate has said 'No' and the House has said 'No.' President Bush signed the bill removing funding for the Mexican truck demonstration project to continue. What more does DOT need?" he said.

As WND reported, the Teamsters argued Feb. 12 in front of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that Peters broke federal laws aimed at ensuring American voters are not endangered by allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. roads.

In a press teleconference today, Hoffa cited as evidence of the safety hazards represented by Mexican trucks a Jan. 11 accident at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge in Texas caused by a Mexican driver who made a U-turn at the border, triggering a collision and fire that killed four and left six with minor injuries.

Mexican truck drivers routinely make U-turns back into Mexico when they realize they will be stopped at the border and denied entry because they lack proper documentation to bring their cargo into the U.S.

"George Bush is a lame duck," Hoffa said. "The administration has a limited time frame to get Mexican trucks into the United States on an unlimited basis, and they don't care what they need to do to get this done."

Asked about Peter's argument that U.S. trucking companies want access to Mexico, Hoffa scoffed.

"It's ridiculous when the State Department issues regular warnings to alert U.S. citizens to the dangers of kidnappings and murder if they travel Mexico's roads," he said. "No trucker wants to drive a load of automobiles into Mexico to park them somewhere."

The arguments presented to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came in cases brought by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and a coalition of the Sierra Club, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Public Citizen.

"It makes no sense that while safety and security laws are continually being ratcheted up on U.S.-based drivers and companies, the DOT wants to allow their Mexico-based counterparts to get by with lower standards," said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA.

His organization alleges the Mexican-based carriers are not meeting U.S. rules and regulations regarding safety. Specifically, OOIDA has challenged Department of Transportation claims that drug and alcohol testing programs, medical qualifications standards and commercial driver's license demands for truck drivers in Mexico are "equivalent" to those for U.S. drivers.

Catherine O'Mara, a paralegal from the Cullen Law Firm of Washington, D.C., previously compiled the safety inspection reports on the Mexico-based motor carriers and a summary of selected SafeStat Data.

Her work showed that in the span of one year, Sept. 21, 2006, to Sept. 21, 2007, four of the Mexican companies participating in the Bush administration's test trucking program collected more than 1,700 safety violations.

The Teamsters, who argued a separate legal challenge to the program on related issues, have taken the issue one step further, launching a campaign to encourage the firing of Peters, on whose watch the program has been developed.

Inside the hush-hush North American Union confab
State Department talks open borders, EU links

A largely unreported meeting held at the State Department discussed integration of the U.S., Mexico and Canada in concert with a move toward a transatlantic union, linking a North American community with the European Union.

The meeting was held Monday under the auspices of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy, or ACIEP. WND obtained press credentials and attended as an observer. The meeting was held under "Chatham House" rules that prohibit reporters from attributing specific comments to individual participants.

The State Department website noted the meeting was opened by Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Business Affairs Daniel S. Sullivan and ACIEP Chairman Michael Gadbaw, vice president and senior counsel for General Electric's International Law & Policy group since December 1990.

WND observed about 25 ACIEP members, including U.S. corporations involved in international trade, prominent U.S. business trade groups, law firms involved with international business law, international investment firms and other international trade consultants.

No members of Congress attended the meeting.

The agenda for the ACIEP meeting was not published, and State Department officials in attendance could not give WND permission under Chatham House rules to publish the agenda.

The meeting agenda included topics reviewing the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, and the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Economic Council, or TEC.

The SPP, declared by the U.S., Canada and Mexico at a summit meeting in 2005, has 20 trilateral bureaucratic working groups that seek to "integrate and harmonize" administrative rules and regulations on a continental basis.

Several participants said the premise of the SPP is to create a North American business platform to benefit North America-based multi-national companies the way the European Union benefits its own.

Others noted the premise of the TEC is to create a convergence of administrative rules and regulations between Europe and North America, anticipating the creation of a "Transatlantic Economic Union" between the European Union and North America.

Participants pointed out that transatlantic trade is currently 40 percent of all world trade. They argue that trade and non-trade barriers need to be further reduced to maintain that market share as a framework is put in place to advance transatlantic economic integration.

Still, some participants argued that many corporations in North America already have moved beyond a North American focus to adopt a global perspective that transcends even the Transatlantic market.

"Supply chains and markets are everywhere," one participant asserted. "What's to stop global corporations from going after the cheapest labor available globally, wherever they can find it, provided the cost of transporting goods globally can be managed economically?"

Other participants argued regional alliances were still important, if only to put in place the institutional bases that ultimately would lead to global governance on uniform global administrative regulations favorable to multi-national corporations.

"North America should be a premiere platform to establish continental institutions," a participant said. "That's why we need to move the security perimeters to include the whole continent, especially as we open the borders between North American countries for expanding free trade."

One presentation on the agenda identified four reasons why administrative rules and regulations need to be integrated by SPP in North America and by the Transatlantic Economic Council, bridging together European Union and North American markets:
# Standardization – to keep prices low and productivity high;

# Investment – for every $1 traded, $4 is invested; right now 75 percent of investment in the U.S. comes from the EU, and 52 percent of the investment in the EU comes from the U.S.;

# Productivity Improvements – to lower production costs and stimulate trade; and

# Open Borders – to facilitate the free movement of labor to markets where employment opportunities are available.

The discussion pointed out the SPP trilateral working groups and the Transatlantic Economic Council were being supported by top-level Cabinet officers and the heads of state in both the EU and in North America.

Progress in EU-U.S. regulatory integration was noted in financial market coordination, investment rule cohesion, trade security measures and efforts undertaken recently to preserve intellectual property rights.

Before the meeting began, concerns were raised informally by participants worried that the Ohio Democratic Party primary had prompted both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to talk of renegotiating NAFTA.

Participants at the State Department meeting pointed out U.S. political candidates could be expected to argue "protectionist themes opposed to global economic integration" as a tactic, without necessarily being committed to taking aggressive steps once in office.

"The political dialogue misses the point of economic reality," one participant argued. "There is a J-curve correlation between when a currency like the U.S. dollar depreciates and when exports kick in to increase. We should accelerate the J-curve and our discussion about it, to help the local politics catch up with the international reality."

Part of the discussion was devoted to concerns that national regulators in North America and Europe were too reluctant to abandon provincial regulatory advantages.

"Regulators by nature are advocates, and they are hard to move," one participant grumbled. "What we need is more diplomats and negotiators to identify solutions, otherwise the bureaucrats will bog down the progress we need to see coming out of the SPP and TEC."

"North America is already an integrated continental economy and a continental-wide business platform," another said. "What we need now is more regulatory convergence. 'Harmonized' should mean that once approved, the same set of administrative regulations and procedures ought to be ready throughout NAFTA, SPP and the TEC."

As WND previously reported, the Transatlantic Economic Council, or TEC, was created by President Bush at an April 30 summit meeting at the White House with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the current president of the European Council, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

WND also reported the Transatlantic Policy Network, a non-governmental organization headquartered in Washington and Brussels and advised by a bi-partisan congressional policy group chaired by Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, has called for the creation of a Transatlantic Common Market between the U.S. and the European Union by 2015.

A complete membership list of the current 60-person Advisory Committee on International Policy is published on the State Department website.

ACIEP members include corporate officers from General Electric, Exxon Mobil, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Archer Daniels Midland, United Parcel Service, Citibank, Proctor & Gamble, Hunt Oil, CMS Energy, Boeing, 3M, Goldman Sachs and Cargill.

The most recent "Summary of Discussions" published on the Department of State website was for the Dec. 18 ACIEP meeting.

A published article on the State Department website includes photographs of the Dec. 18 ACIEP meeting, listing by name several participants who were photographed in attendance.

Mexican truck drivers take English exam in Spanish
DOT chief's admission to Senate panel contradicts administration's assurances

Mexican truck drivers allowed to travel throughout the U.S. under a Bush administration demonstration project may not be proficient in English, despite Department of Transportation assurances to the contrary.

A brochure on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's website instructs Mexican truck drivers, "Did you know … You MUST be able to read and speak English to drive trucks in the United States."

Still, at the Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing Tuesday, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and DOT Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel III reluctantly admitted under intense questioning from Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., that Mexican drivers were being designated at the border as "proficient in English" even though they could explain U.S. traffic signs only in Spanish.

In the tense hearing, Dorgan accused Peters of being "arrogant" and in reckless disregard of a congressional vote to stop the Mexican trucking demonstration project by taking away funds to continue the project. Toward the end, the senator asked if it were true Mexican truckers could explain U.S. traffic signs only in Spanish when given English proficiency tests at the border.

"Does the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration test for English proficiency at the border include questions about U.S. highway signs?" Dorgan asked.

"Yes," Scovel replied. "The FMCSA English proficiency test at the border did not originally include U.S. highway signs, but now it does."

"Do you show a driver an octagonal 'STOP' sign at the border and qualify him if he explains the sign means 'ALTO'?" an incredulous Dorgan pressed.

"Alto" is the Spanish word for "Stop."

"Yes," Scovel answered reluctantly. "If the stop sign is identified as 'alto,' the driver is considered English proficient."

Dorgan drew the obvious conclusion, "In other words the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is allowing Mexican drivers in the demonstration project to prove their proficiency in English by responding to the examiner's questions in Spanish"

Peters responded, "U.S. highway signs comply with international standards. I drive frequently in Mexico and I always recognize the octagonal 'ALTO' signs as 'STOP' signs."

Dorgan interrupted.

"Excuse me, Madame Secretary," he interjected. "The question is not whether you understand Mexican highway signs when driving in Mexico but whether Mexican drivers entering the U.S. in your demonstration project can pass an English proficiency test by answering questions totally in Spanish."

Peters persisted: "But answering in Spanish, the drivers explain they understand the English-language highway signs."

Dorgan appeared astounded at the explanation.

"If you answer in Spanish, you're not English proficient," he insisted.

"My main concern is safety," Dorgan emphasized. "We've established that there are no equivalencies between Mexican trucks and U.S. trucks. There are no equivalent safety standards. Mexico has no reliable database for vehicle inspections, accident reports or driver's records.

"Now you tell us Mexican drivers can pass their English proficiency tests in Spanish," the senator continued, obviously outraged. "The Department of Transportation is telling Congress, 'We're doing this and we don't care.'

"I've treated you respectfully today, Secretary Peters, but I don't respect your decision," Dorgan said. "You have angered me further with your testimony and you reflect a Bush administration that obviously doesn't care what Congress thinks."

As WND reported yesterday, Dorgan accused Peters of defying Congress by parsing words to continue to allow Mexican trucks into the U.S. under the demonstration project, despite the clear intent of Congress to take away funds to bring the program to a halt.

WND also has reported Dorgan joined with Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Reps. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn, and Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., in a bipartisan, bicameral request for the General Accountability Office to investigate the DOT's decision to continue the project.

Mexico Plans to Expand Migrant Education in US & Canada
March 17, 2008
Frontera NorteSur

Building on a cross-border educational initiative, Mexico's federal government plans to expand educational and vocational training programs for Mexican migrants in the United States. Speaking at an educational and economic development conference in Mexico last week, Mexican Education Minister Josefina Vazquez Mota said the administration of President Felipe Calderon plans to open an additional 100 community education centers to serve the migrant population in the United States. The functionary also announced that Mexico will open a similar educational facility in Canada for the first time.

The purpose of the centers is two-fold. Besides providing basic and secondary education skills, the programs aim to professionalize the work skills of migrants. Certification programs will be made available for Las Vegas gardeners, New York restaurant industry employees, California cosmetologists and Wisconsin dairy workers, Vazquez said, adding that better education and economic competitiveness are linked together by the ties between the three member states of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

"(Workers) will have certainty and labor mobility," Vazquez contended. "Their labor competencies will be recognized." For businessmen, the programs will provide "much more competitive, committed and cohesive personnel," she added. In the academic realm, the new community education centers will initially focus on teaching English to migrants.

According to Vazquez, the international program will be managed by Mexico's National College of Professional and Technical Education (Conalep), which will celebrate its 30th anniversary later this year. The educational institution is in the process of expanding its curricula to encompass robotics, informatics, alternative energy, tourism and health, among other subjects.

Mexico Plans to Expand Migrant Education in US & Canada (http://www.mexidata.info/id1759.html)

Mexican official says NAFTA includes superhighways
'Transportation linking the United States, Mexico and Canada is key to the future'

While President Bush and other U.S. officials have derided fears of a NAFTA superhighway as merely conspiracy theory, a Mexican transportation expert contends the trade agreement includes plans for a network of international ship, rail and truck connections to deliver consumer goods from China and the Far East to Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.

"Transportation linking the United States, Mexico and Canada is key to the future of NAFTA," Eduardo Aspero, president of the Mexican Intermodal Association, told a recent luncheon sponsored by the Free Trade Alliance San Antonio.

In transportation economics, the term "intermodal" refers to the ability to move a container by crane to different modes of transportation, including ship, truck and railroad, without having to unpack or repack the container.

"It was interesting how the NAFTA transportation network so vehemently denied by the U.S. government was alive and well in Aspero's speech and openly discussed in San Antonio," said Terri Hall, founder of the San Antonio Toll Party.

WND reported President Bush, while attending the third annual summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership meeting in Quebec last August said in an internationally televised press conference that those who believe the SPP might lead to NAFTA superhighways or a North American Union are "conspiracy theorists."

Hall, who attended Aspero's San Antonio speech, is a political activist whose website, TexasTurf.org, is dedicated to fighting the Trans-Texas Corridor and the expansion of toll roads in the state.

Aspero focused on plans by the Chinese firm of Hutchison Ports Holdings to develop the deep-water Mexican ports of Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo, on the Pacific Ocean south of Texas, to bring containers from China into North America.

As WND has reported, Hutchison Ports Holdings is paying billions of dollars to deepen Mexican ports such as Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo in anticipation of the arrival of post-Pamamex mega-ships capable of holding up to 12,500 containers currently being built for Chinese shipping lines.

WND also has reported how the U.S. southern border is being blurred for the benefit of global trade, with the official website of the Mexican northeastern state of Nuevo Leon disclosing plans to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor south through Monterrey to connect with Pacific ports in Mexico.

Aspero noted that currently 400,000 containers a year are being transported by truck and rail from Mexican ports on the Pacific into the U.S.

"The purpose of ports such as Lazaro Cardenas is to facilitate the cost-efficient transportation of container goods from Asia into the United States," he explained.

"Lazaro Cardenas is the new hope for intermodalism in Mexico," Aspero said, noting that Lazaro Cardenas is Mexico's deepest port at 49 feet, capable of accepting virtually any cargo ship in the world.

"Aspero noted that the largest markets for the Chinese-manufactured goods are at the center of the United States and in the Northeast," Hall said.

"He was trying to explain why multi-national corporations engaged in global trade continue to pressure the Bush administration," she continued. "Their goal is to cut loose American longshoremen on the West Coast in favor of the cheaper Mexican labor that can get goods into the interior of the United States through the southern route from these Mexican ports on the Pacific."

Aspero also argued the Automated Manifest System (AMS) put in place by U.S. Customs in 2002 is a key development in North American intermodal transportation.

"AMS allows cargo from Asia to go through Mexican ports virtually without any physical inspection," he explained. "AMS pre-clears cargo at the point of origin, not at the border when the container enters the United States."

Baja port proposed to rival Los Angeles, Long Beach
Public-private partnerships bidding on Punta Colonet Chinese container biz

Plans have been finalized by Mexico to develop Punta Colonet as a West Coast Mexican alternative to the U.S. ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The proposal includes a deep-water Pacific Ocean port on Mexico's Baja California peninsula about 150 miles south of Tijuana that could serve as a destination for the 30 million containers headed to North America from China and the Far East each year, according to a report published Tuesday in the Los Angeles Times.

The on-again, off-again plan to develop Punta Colonet has been discussed as the number of containers from China grows and multi-national corporations out-sourcing their North American manufacturing to China are looking for cuts in transportation costs.

The lure of Punta Colonet is the cheaper Mexican transportation labor available if Chinese containers arrive there to be moved into the interior of the U.S., rather than the more expensive American labor in Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The model to develop Punta Colonet is based on Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas, two Mexican ports on the Pacific south of Texas, which have been developed by Hutchison Ports Holdings, a Chinese port operations firm with close ties to the communist Chinese government and military.

As WND has reported, containers from China off-loaded at Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas bypass the labor costs of the U.S. Longshoreman Union dock workers, United Transportation Union railroad workers and U.S. truck drivers.

Manuel Rodriguez Arregui, Mexico's secretary of transportation, announced in February his intention to publish in June a request for proposals for the operation of a deep-water port at Punta Colonet. His goal is to see work on the port begin next year, open for business in 2010 and be completed no later than 2015.

The plans are to take advantage of a public-private partnership, or PPP, in which private developers would work with government officials to use government powers to acquire whatever land or other rights were needed for the port to be developed. The capital for the project would be provided by the private developers, who in turn would seek long-term contracts to operate and derive revenue from the port.

In turn, the proposals submitted by private development companies can be expected to pay the government of Mexico one-time up-front seven-figure sums for the rights to develop the project and operate it for as long as 45 years after completion.

The project, which may take as much as $9 billion in private capital to develop, will involve some 7,000 acres at Punta Colonet, about as large as the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach combined.

The goal is to construct a modern port capable of handling annually 8 million containers or 20-foot equivalent units, according to a report published by the San Diego Union-Tribune, which was based on an interview the newspaper conducted with Eugenio Elorduy Walther, the governor of Baja California in Mexico.

The containers will then move to the U.S. interior on a 180-mile rail line expected to connect the port at Punta Colonet with existing rail systems at Yuma, Ariz.

The Union-Tribune also reported Hutchison Port Holdings has now bought property at Punta Colonet, and Union Pacific is seeking options on a railroad right-of-way in Yuma.

The Los Angeles Times said a competitive bid may be organized by Mexican Carlos Slim Helu, the world’s second-richest man with a net worth Forbes estimated in 2006 at over $30 billion.

The consortium would involve teaming up with Miguel Favela, the general director of Mexican operations for cargo terminal operator MTC Holdings of Oakland.

Favela told the Los Angeles Times Slim's IDEAL infrastructure company, Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleo en America Latina SA de CV, and the Mexican mining and railroad giant Grupo Mexico could team up to grab the deal.

WND previously reported plans implemented in China to ship millions more containers to North America every year.

The Chinese are investing $15 billion to develop Yangshan, a reclaimed island the size of 470 soccer fields in the East China Sea off Shanghai. The plan by 2010 is to operate 30 berths accommodating post-Panamex megaships, each capable of carrying up to 12,500 containers, three or four times the size of the typical container ships now operating.

Currently handling 20 million containers a year, Yangshan is expected by 2010 to export up to 30 million containers a year, with the vast majority destined for North America.

WND also has reported the Canadian government is developing plans to open West Coast ports including Vancouver and Prince Rupert as part of Canada's publicly declared "Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative" transportation policy.

Promoting the North American Union
Michael Howe probes notion of premeditated merger at trucking show

Paving the road to the North American Union is something several companies hope to profit from, and at least two vendors at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky., are openly promoting the benefits of NAFTA.

National Distributors Leasing, Inc., promotes itself as "The International Connection." Its logo consists of the flags of Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

The Canadian flag is in the background with the U.S. flag overlaid on it, and the Mexican flag placed prominently on top of the American banner.

Though the staff members at the booth were not willing to discuss the goals of the company as it relates to NAFTA, the website is very descriptive.

"We operate heavily in the NAFTA lanes ... . We can expedite shipments to or from any of these areas as well as international shipments to and from Canada or Mexico or any point in between."

NDL is an American-owned carrier based in Sellersburg, Ind., that operates primarily in the Midwest and along the NAFTA corridors.

One independent owner-operator of 37 years, Collin Genge of Spring Hill, Fla., told WND he's concerned with the way the country is going as a result of NAFTA.

"You don't want to get me started on NAFTA and Mexican trucking," said Genge. "It's hard enough for a driver, let alone an owner-operator like me, to make an honest living competing with the large American trucking companies, but then make us compete with the low wages of Mexican drivers. That's not good for America."

Looking at the logo of NDL, Genge was visibly troubled.

"I understand that NAFTA exists and that American carriers need to do what they can to make money as a result. But look at the logo. Why is the Mexican flag overlaid on the U.S. flag? Why have the three flags at all? It's almost as if they are promoting a North American Union."

Genge is also concerned about the NAFTA Superhighways.

"And, the company says they run NAFTA lanes. Is that the same as the NAFTA Superhighways? It's just very disconcerting," he said.

Another vendor at the MATS was BESTPASS. It's affiliated with the North American Pre-clearance and Safety System, or NORPASS. The NORPASS logo is the North American continent.

According to its website, NORPASS is "a partnership of state and provincial agencies and trucking industry representatives who are committed to promoting safe and efficient trucking throughout North America."

NORPASS allows "safe and legal trucks to proceed unimpeded (even across the Canadian border) while enforcement resources are focused on high risk motor carriers."

NORPASS is available to American and Canadian drivers, with applications available in English or French.

"It's basically a pre-approval to pass through the tolls and scales, even on the border. No doubt it is efficient, but when will it open up the southern border, too?" asks Genge.

This is the 37th annual MATS, having more than 1,150 companies signed up to take part in the 2008 show. One of the more dominant displays at the show was from a conglomerate of about 40 different companies and 150 people from China.

Genge concluded, "I guess the Mid-America Trucking Show is less about America than it was in the past."

Cop who reported 'torture'
escalates case to Congress
State Department says situation
sparked new policy for Canada

Canada has agreed to implement new policies and procedures to protect U.S. citizens who may be jailed there, according to the U.S. State Department. The move, however, falls far short of the corrections sought by a former U.S. policeman who spent four years in jail there without having access to U.S. consular services, and he says he is planning to meet with a member of Congress about the dispute.

A spokesman for the State Department told WND yesterday that there have been discussions regarding the claims raised by Scott Loper.

"We are aware Mr. Loper was not allowed access to American consular officials while arrested and detained in Canada. In our discussions with Canadian officials they have acknowledged that oversight," a spokesman for the department said.

"Since then they have put into place policies [including] prompt notification and access whenever Americans are arrested. We believe our consultations with Canadian officials will help Americans get adequate notice and access when they're arrested," he continued.

The specific case involving Loper was raised, but the official could not provide further details on anything stemming from that issue.

WND has reported previously not only on Loper's case, but also on confirmation from the State Department it was opening an investigation into the disappearance of Loper's son.

Loper, a former New Jersey police officer, has described stumbling upon an alleged police-run drug ring in Canada, then his sudden jailing before he could contact the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, that nation's federal police department, and the abrupt disappearance of his wife and son, Edward.

Officials from the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs have continue to decline to respond to WND inquiries about the status of an investigation into the situation.

The formal hunt for Loper's son, Eddy, now 11, was confirmed in a letter from Barbara J. Greig, with the International Parental Child Abduction Unit in the State Department.

"I am writing in response to my telephone conversation with you of February 22, 2008, regarding your child, Edward Loper, who may still be alive in Canada. I am the officer responsible for cases in Canada for the International Parental Child Abduction Unit of the Office Children's Issues. International parental child abduction is an issue of great concern to the Department of State. We place the highest priority on children who have been victimized by parental or State abduction. I have already opened a case in the name of Edward Loper that will remain open until you gain access to him or all possible efforts have been exhausted," she said.

While the hunt for his son is good, and policy changes might help, the status of his complaint within the State Department remains unsatisfactory to Loper, and he confirmed to WND he has a meeting scheduled within the next week with a leader in Congress to discuss further the situation. Details of that scheduled meeting were not being released immediately.

He has called on the U.S. government to pursue a complaint internationally, because of the treaty violations Canada's failure to notify the U.S. included.

Loper's civil rights lawyer, Scott Shields of Media, Pa., told WND his client has few options left if the State Department refuses to pursue his case.

"Otherwise he'd have to go back into Canada and hire Canadian counsel and sue them there," he said.

His client's case is a "cry out to the State Department to demand some accountability for [Canada] not notifying our government he was in custody to begin with. … They've admitted they didn't notify our government and still don't want to address the issues," he said.

"Our government can file a claim through the International Court of Justice. We [as individuals] cannot," Shields said.

"But for reasons, not told to me, other than apparently our federal current administration perhaps doesn't want to upset the Canadian government, they're not pushing it," he said.

"I don't even know how to classify the inaction on the part of our government now," said Shields.

Loper's insistence on pursuing the situation through international courts assigned to handle treaty violations comes because the Bush administration submitted a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing to overturn the death penalty of Jose Medellin. He confessed in 1993 to participating in the rape and murder of two Houston teenagers. Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena were sodomized and strangled with their shoe laces, and Medellin bragged about keeping one girl's Mickey Mouse watch as a souvenir of the crime.

But he sought to overturn the conviction claiming he had not been provided access to consular services.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision recently that the state of Texas had handled the prosecution properly, but the White House said that would make no difference in its pursuit of compliance with international treaties.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the president's goal was the assure that compliance.

"The solicitor general in this case argued on behalf of the United States that the president has the authority to compel a state to comply with provisions of a legally ratified treaty – in this case, one between the United States and a foreign power – regarding a provision of the International Court of Justice. In their decision …. the Supreme Court disagreed. … They recognized that there is an international obligation to comply with treaties, but that the president of the United States does not have the legal authority to compel a state to take that action," she said.

Loper told WND he was returned to the U.S. in 2004 after a four-year prison term for "domestic" charges he believes were trumped up to silence him after he discovered the alleged cop-run drug ring.

Loper, who had moved to Canada so his wife at the time could be closer to her family, said the whole situation was unsettling from the beginning. He was divorced from his original Canadian wife, then married his second wife, Carolyn.

cont'd

While moving into a townhome, they were welcomed by a beer-drinking crowd in the next unit who identified themselves as police officers, one of whom later warned him that a neighbor on the other side was "under surveillance" as a possible drug dealer.

Loper's experience as a New Jersey officer alerted him, and he subsequently watched officers repeatedly sneak into the next-door unit. He bought some microphones and a tape recorder and installed the mikes so they would monitor what was going on, discovering that police officers in the Durham region allegedly were busting drug dealers being identified by his neighbor, then bringing the drugs to him for sale, he said.

Before he could take his evidence to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada's federal police unit, he was busted by local police on what he describes as trumped-up charges, taken to a mental health facility and detained, he said.

While he was confined, his townhome was ransacked, his tapes confiscated and his wife and young son disappeared. He recalls a last telephone call from Carolyn. "I love you but they'll take Eddy away!" were the last words he heard her say, Loper told WND.

Released from the mental facility after a few days, he found his wife and son gone, and when he tried to find them, found himself the subject of a restraining order. He tried to express his love for his wife and son in a letter to a friend, and authorities determined that was an attempt at an "indirect communication" and he was sentenced to prison for four years.

There, he said, officers repeatedly tried to get him to admit that he was making up the claims about the police officers' drug connections. "There was a hot water radiator. They would spray me with that to get me to recant my story, to get me to stop saying it," he said.

He said he's been told stories of his wife now being in a witness relocation program, or considers the real possibility that she may have been part of the conspiracy to get rid of him in order to move forward with another man, possibly a police officer.

Back in the United States, he's remarried and pursuing another line of work. But he still is demanding justice for what he experienced.

"I was arrested and locked in a filthy cockroach infested solitary confinement with no light, no heat. I was starved, beaten, tortured with a scalding shower tapped off a radiator pipe while in a locked cage, and put into a steel coffin for weeks at a time…

"On numerous occasions as I asked and demanded to see a representative of the American government … I was laughed at by Canadian prison authorities…," he said.

"This is a clear violation of my Hague Rights and a violation of treaties between Canada and the United States going back over 40 years … It is also a violation of international law," he said.

On a Restore the Republic website, a commentator called Loper's situation, "absolutely insane."

"Kirralin23," a forum participant, said the situation is appalling.

"For the government to refuse to protect his rights as a U.S. citizen is equivalent to you or [me] not seeking prosecution of our best friend for raping our child. How could that individual remain our friend? How can our government remain cozy with a foreign goverment (sic) which has so viciously and unjustly attacked one of our citizens."

From "Taquoshi," came: "Canada is becoming more and more of a police state, from the seizing of firearms, to the enforcement of 'hate crime' legislation, 'universal' health care and now to the possible false imprisonment of a U.S. citizen without notifying the embassy and possibly the concealment of his wife and son. Oh, yeah, we really want to join together with them as part of a North American Union. Right!"

Makeover urged for 'North American Union' effort
Heavy criticism of continental integration prompts plan to save flagging movement

On the verge of next week's North American summit in New Orleans, a Canadian think tank has suggested renaming the "North American Union" to renew progress toward continental integration in the face of mounting criticism.

A paper entitled "Saving the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership", published last month by the Fraser Institute in Canada, contends President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper have decided to expend no more political capital in pursuing "the bust" that has occurred because of the "brand" of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America or SPP.

The solution, the authors argue, is a public relations makeover in which the goals of North American political and economic integration remain the same but the names get changed to keep trilateral arrangements between the U.S., Mexico and Canada on track.

While the paper continues to dismiss critics of the SPP as "conspiracy theorists," Fraser Institute political scientist Dr. Alexander Moens and his co-author Michael Cust, a Fraser Institute intern, proposes the name "North American Union," or NAU, be dropped in favor of a declaration that the three countries now want to create a "North American Standards and Regulatory Area," or NASRA.

Moens and Cust write that the attacks of SPP critics "are starting to hurt."

"In the wake of the Montebello Summit (in Quebec last summer), one Canadian commentator declared the SPP 'dead' and 'defunct,'" Moens and Cust noted. "Another stated recently that the SPP has 'collapsed under a heap of conspiratorial rubbish."

But the authors argue the SPP is "far from dead."

Acknowledging the SPP has a "low profile" currently, the Frasier Institute authors stress that trilateral talks in the bureaucratic working groups constituted under SPP by the three governments are continuing on both security and competitiveness policy issues.

"Its critics may have tarnished the 'SPP brand,'" Moens and Cust concede, "but the precise areas of its work – to follow where NAFTA left off and to do so by incorporating post-9/11 security criteria as well as public safety and quality of life issues (pandemic illnesses and food safety) – are key Canadian interests."

The Fraser Institute paper also encourages the SPP working groups to develop "a better communications strategy," so that the public "can begin to understand its benefits."

The authors, however, are opposed to expanding the list of SPP advisers to include public interest groups or the media, preferring to stay with the closed-door advice offered by the 30 corporations picked by the chambers of commerce in the three countries to serve as members of the North American Competitiveness Council, or NACC.

They also concede that Mexico has been a "drag" on border security talks, especially since illegal immigration into the U.S. has continued, if not accelerated, under the SPP. They admit "there is an enormous problem of illegal entry, drug smuggling, and violent incidents on the Mexican border," while continuing to argue "there is also a very large legal and orderly flow of goods between Mexico and the United States."

In 1999, economist Herbert G. Grubel of the Fraser institute wrote a paper entitled, "The Case for the Amero," presenting the first arguments in print that a North American currency should be created on the model of the euro in the European Union as a replacement for the U.S. dollar, the Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso.

WND reported the third SPP summit, held last August in Montebello, Quebec, involved a series of closed-door meetings attended only by the three state heads, the cabinet members in attendance, the SPP trilateral bureaucrats assigned to head the 20 working groups established under the SPP and the NACC business leaders.

Next Monday and Tuesday, President Bush will meet in New Orleans with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Harper.

The White House has changed the name of the meeting from the "Fourth SPP Annual Summit" to simply the "North American Leaders' Summit."

WND has applied to the White House for press credential to attend next week's New Orleans meeting.

New Orleans gears up for North American summit
Police chief expects 'some protesters, but not a mass'

Police expect protests but few problems when the two-day North American Leaders Summit gets under way Monday in New Orleans.

It's VIP duty as President Bush, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper get together to talk trade. But for the New Orleans Police Department, it's more of the same in a a string of high-profile, crowd-generating events early in 2008.

The North American summit in Quebec last August drew several hundred protesters vocal on the war in Iraq and what they claimed was a gradual merging of the three countries. There also were marches in New Orleans in 2003, when the city hosted negotiations for the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Police Superintendent Warren Riley said he expects "some protesters, but not a mass."

"We handle these situations better than anyone in the country," Riley said.

New Orleans police are among the world's most skilled at crowd control. Their methods in handling the up to 1 million people who turn out each year at Mardi Gras have been studied by law enforcement agencies around the world.

Still, there are local tensions that officers will be on watch for _ among them simmering unhappiness about the City Council's decision last December to approve demolition of many large public housing complexes. A small group of protesters clashed with police as the council was debating on the issue. Police deployed chemical spray and Tasers and some arrests were made.

For the summit, they'll get help from state police, National Guard and the Coast Guard, though Riley wouldn't say how many additional security forces will be deployed.

The summit's scheduled events take place in the Central Business District, not far from the French Quarter but distant from neighborhoods hard hit by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. It was unclear Friday whether the visiting leaders would meet with hurricane victims still rebuilding their homes and lives.

For Calderon, a visit to recovering neighborhoods would present an opportunity to meet some of New Orleans' newcomers _ Hispanic craftsmen attracted to the region by the promise of jobs in the massive effort to rebuild homes and businesses.

After a string of events in early 2007 _ the BCS championship and Sugar Bowl college football games, Mardi Gras and the NBA All-Star Game among them _ the summit will turn the international spotlight on the city.

City leaders and tourism interests want to continue sending a message that New Orleans is open for business, said Mary Beth Romig, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Bush announced the summit would be held in New Orleans during his State of the Union speech in January. The president was criticized in 2007 for not including the city, or its struggles, in the speech. Despite billions of dollars of federal investment in rebuilding levees, homes and public infrastructure, the initial response to the flooding that swamped the city left a bad taste for many residents. They think the federal government has failed to do enough to bring the city back.

Mayor Ray Nagin, in January said he will meet with the president during the summit.

Not everyone believes New Orleans is the proper venue for the summit.

One target of protesters is expected to be the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. They say the pact, which aims to share information between the three governments and smooth out regulatory differences, is a threat to national sovereignty and an attempt to create a military partnership to enforce the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Jessica Walker Beaumont, an organizer of a People's Summit on North American issues, also wants to focus on concerns such as increased privatization of hospitals and schools _ "a lot of what NAFTA is about," she said.

Class distinctions, too, will be in the spotlight.

By coming to impoverished New Orleans, Bush is "having the arrogance to say, This is what prosperity looks like," said Kathleen Chandler, of Buffalo, N.Y., an organizer for the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization. The group plans a demonstration Sunday.

Advocates of 'continental integration' on defensive

Author and investigative journalist Dr. Jerome Corsi, who attended the recent "North American Leaders Summit" in New Orleans, says public outcry over the controversial issue of continental integration has put supporters of such an idea on the defensive.

Corsi says the recent meeting was, in reality, the fourth annual summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). But the name was changed to the North American Leaders Summit, he alleges, because the public has become all too aware of the agenda of the SPP.

The journalist says President Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Mexican President Felipe Calderon even avoided the term during their summit. "The words Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America have become kind of radioactive. I think with the criticism of North American integration and now people being aware that it's happening, you couldn't see the words 'SPP' or 'Security and Prosperity Partnership' anywhere in evidence at the meeting," Corsi points out.

According to Corsi, the American people do not want the SPP to create what amounts to a North American version of the European Union. "You know this globalism initiative, which is being pushed forward in fast gear, is now meeting increasing resistance from the people of the United States," he argues. "And I think this meeting in New Orleans reflected that the three leaders are on the defensive now and [that] people are becoming more aware of their integration plans and are saying no to it."

Corsi believes the American people are going to resist similar free-trade agreements and demand they be renegotiated in order to be fair to U.S. workers and put a stop to integration efforts like the SPP. "I think they're going to get less and less attention from an administration that is afraid to invest political capital into an effort where, if it were publicized, the people would react vehemently against it," Corsi notes.

The supporters of the SPP agenda, says Corsi, are clearly on the defensive.

Poll results: SPP plans are 'treason'
97 percent oppose North American Community without congressional approval

A new poll by the American Policy Center has revealed that the lack of widespread opposition to the agenda of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, announced in 2005 by President Bush and his counterparts from Mexico and Canada, is because more than half of the American residents polled hadn't heard of it.

But when they did, their voices were clear, with overwhelming majorities opposing the concept, plans and ideas.

The poll was done by the APC, a grassroots activist group in Washington that asked a series of questions about the SPP, the Trans Texas Corridor transportation project and other issues.

"While President Bush and his counterparts in Mexico and Canada continue to deny that the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) is the beginning of a North American Union, Americans around the nation are expressing their growing opposition to the scheme," the center said in introducing its poll results.

The poll of one million American households revealed that 58 percent of the households contacted had not heard of the SPP.

"It is important to note that APC did not select households that might represent specific ideological positions," the group said. "The chosen households represented neither conservative nor liberal positions. Instead the recipients were a wide [variety] of Americans who live in the direct path of the proposed Trans Texas/NAFTA Corridor, from Texas to Minnesota."

The center said the first question was whether the residents had heard of the SPP, and 58 percent said they had not.

But the rest of the results were lopsided. The center said 95 percent of those responding opposed the concept that "private corporations should have the power to enforce trade policy that may adversely affect our national sovereignty and independence."

That related to the public-private partnerships being established across the U.S., from foreign corporations running highways and airports in Illinois to Spanish investors building a new transportation corridor across Texas.

"Chapter 11 of the NAFTA Agreement states that disputes over NAFTA-related issues will be heard in NAFTA courts superseding U.S. local, state and federal courts…." the third question noted, and 91 percent of the respondents indicated that would threaten U.S. sovereignty.

A total of 87 percent said they did not believe it would enhance U.S. security by expanding the nation's security perimeter to include Canada and Mexico, and 95 percent opposed a Mexico truck program instituted by federal administrators.

That program set up by the Bush administration allows Mexican trucks directly on U.S. highways, even though the 2008 omnibus spending bill "was clearly written and designed to put the brakes on the current pilot program," according to sponsor Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

A total of 92 percent said they opposed a common North American currency such as the "amero."

"Though denied by the Bush Administration, there has been much discussion in economic and academic circles about the creation of a North American currency much like the euro," the center, which has compiled an information sheet about the plans, said. "In October 2007 during an appearance on the Larry King Show on CNN, former Mexican President Vicente Fox answered in the affirmative when King asked him about the creation of a united currency."

Ninety-five percent said public hearings and debate should be held before the plans move further forward.

"To date, there has been no congressional legislation, no congressional hearings and no congressional oversight concerning the establishment or operation of the SPP," the center said. "No federal money has been officially allocated by Congress. No official authority has been provided for the creation of the SPP."

The opposition figure was even higher – 97 percent – when surveyors asked: "Should the Bush administration be allowed to move forward with its plans to create a "North American Community' without congressional approval?

A still-high 88 percent opposed the suggestion that the "United States should be 'harmonized' or merged into a union with Mexico or Canada," the survey said.

"Finally, responders were asked to provide their own comments and thoughts on the SPP. The word most often used was 'treason.' Another said, 'I want no part of the social health care of Canada and I do not want to incorporate Mexico's turmoil and poverty into our United States," the center said.

"Yet," said Tom DeWeese, president of the APC, "as the Texas Department of Transportation signs an agreement with the Spanish company Cintra containing no-compete clauses and guaranteed returns; as the Kansas City council loans $2.5 million to build the inland truck port called KC Smart Port; as the 20 SPP working groups continue to write policy; as the Mexican trucks roll over our borders; as high level meetings go on – the Bush administration dares to deny that ANYTHING is happening. Why? The responses to APC's survey show why. When Americans understand the truth, they say NO in resounding numbers."

The government's original statement announcing the "partnership" said it would "increase the security, prosperity, and quality of life of our citizens. This work will be based on the principle that our security and prosperity are mutually dependent and complementary, and will reflect our shared belief in freedom, economic opportunity, and strong democratic values and institutions."

But the SPP organization itself has taken the unusual step for a government agency of posting on its website a multi-page "debunking" of "myths."

For example, the document says the SPP is not even an agreement, but is a "dialogue," and it "does not attempt to modify our sovereignty or currency."

Further, it says the SPP updates and consults with members of Congress, although there is no mention of a congressional authorization or oversight.

It does affirm that the SPP is a White House-driven initiative but denies having a "secret plan" to build a NAFTA superhighway. Critics say it's just called the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Stretching through the rural countryside with limited access and no speed limit in 1940, the Pennsylvania Turnpike was built to resemble Germany's autobahn. Now thanks to a $12.8 billion dollar offer, it may soon become Spain's.

According to a report in the Philadelphia Daily News, Gov. Ed Rendell has announced that Abertis Infraestructuras of Barcelona has offered the top dollar bid to the state of Pennsylvania for the rights to manage the toll road under a 75-year lease.

The highway could become just the latest in a string of U.S. infrastructure landmarks to be operated by foreign companies.

In 2004, management of the Chicago Skyway, a stretch of elevated road connecting I-90 and I-94, was granted to Cintra, another Spanish operation that outbid Abertis at $1.83 billion. Abertis lost out to Cintra again when the Indiana Toll Road was taken over in 2006 for $3.8 billion.

This time, Abertis beat out Cintra and other firms, hoping to add the Pennsylvania Turnpike to its list of operations including toll roads in Spain, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Chile, Colombia and Argentina. Abertis also operates airports, including the airports in Orlando, Fla.; Burbank, Calif.; and one concourse of the Atlanta airport.

Even though the controversial Dubai ports deal was squashed by public outcry in 2006, foreign firms have nonetheless purchased long-term leases on other American transportation networks.

The Chicago Skyway is tied up for 99 years. The Indiana Toll Road is leased for 75. As WND reported earlier this year, Chicago is seeking a more than 50-year lease on Midway Airport. Among the potential suitors for Midway are 6 international firms, including Abertis.

The leases are being made possible through an increasingly common practice of establishing "public-private partnerships" (PPP's), contracts between public agencies and private entities that enable private sector participation in public transportation.

Many of the PPP's implemented in the U.S. bring large up-front cash infusions. In both the proposed Midway and Pennsylvania Turnpike offers, the billions in cash are touted as a quick solution to shoring up under-funded government employee pension funds.

Many, however, see an imminent threat in turning over U.S. infrastructure to foreign companies.

"The USA is up for sale," an attendee of a conference in Colorado to discuss PPPs told WND. "Whatever the public now owns – roads, ports, waste management water systems, rail lines, public parking facilities, airports, even lotteries and sports stadiums – are up for grabs and the only requirement is that the foreigners have the cash."

Even William Capone, the director of communications for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, told WND in a telephone interview earlier this year, "We don't favor turning the Pennsylvania Turnpike into a private entity through a PPP lease. If we keep the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the hands of a public entity, we believe we can actually invest more dollars into roads than a private corporation could do."

"Besides," he said, "the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is not profit-driven, so we don't have to generate profits to pay shareholders the way a PPP would have to operate."

Rendell, however, is now advocating the proposal that would turn his state's best known road over to Abertis. Rendell called the plan "a very good deal for Pennsylvanian drivers and taxpayers" and is urging lawmakers to move the highway – 359 miles of east-west routes and another northeast extension – into private hands by September.

The proposal still has to go through the Pennsylvania legislature, a decision that is likely to be hotly contested. Many in the capital are hoping Act 44, a law passed by the state legislature in 2007 to make I-80 a toll road as well, will stem the financial crisis and deflate the impetus for accepting the Turnpike proposal.

According to the newspaper report, the toll road plan with Abertis allows the newcomer to raise tolls 25 percent year and 2.5 percent or the rate of inflation every year after that.

'North American Parliament' under way
Some hope exercise of U.S., Canadian, Mexican reps becomes reality

A group supporting North American integration is holding its fourth annual "North American Model Parliament" for 100 university students from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The North American Forum on Integration, or NAFI, began is "Triumvirate" sessions Monday in Montreal's City Hall with a plan to conclude Friday.

According to the NAFI website, "Triumvirate 2008" brings together the students "to participate in an international negotiation exercise in which they will simulate a parliamentary meeting between North American political actors."

Participants are assigned to play one of three roles: a legislator, representing a country other than their own; a journalist; or a lobbyist.

Four themes were selected as subjects of the mock parliament's debate: Fostering Renewable Electricity Markets (in English); Countering North American corporate outsourcing (in French); Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (in English); and NAFTA's Chapter 11 on investments (in English).

A major goal of the model parliament, according to the NAFI Triumvirate website, is to "develop the participants' sense of belonging to North America."

WND contacted the NAFI office in Montreal requesting comment but received no reply.

As WND previously reported, Raymond Chretien, the president of the Triumvirate and the former Canadian ambassador to both Mexico and the U.S., was quoted as claiming the exercise was intended to be more than academic.

"The creation of a North American parliament, such as the one being simulated by these young people, should be considered," Chretien told WND.

Among the NAFI board of directors are Robert A. Pastor, Ph.D., former director of the Center for North American Studies at American University; and M. Stephen Blank, Ph.D., director of the North American Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University.

Pastor has written extensively on his proposal for the creation of a "North American Community," while denying he has intended to form a North American Union modeled after the European Union."

In January, Pastor resigned his position at American University's Office of International Affairs amid a reorganization. Pastor announced he was taking a one-year sabbatical in which he planned to work as co-director of The Elders, a group of 13 world figures, including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter.

As WND previously reported, Pastor's 2001 book, "Toward a North American Community," presents an argument that North American integration should advance through the development of a "North American consciousness" by creating various institutions which include a North American customs union and a North American Development Fund for the economic development of Mexico.

Pastor also was vice chairman of the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force report, "Building a North American Community," that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action though trilateral "working groups" constituted within the executive branches of the U.S, Mexico and Canada to advance the North American integration agenda.

Stephen Blank is the driving force behind the North America Works conference.

North America Works II, held in Kansas City, Mo., Dec. 1-2, 2006, was organized by the David Rockefeller-created Council of the Americas to discuss "North American Competitiveness and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP)."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50618">Critics contend the working groups are pursuing a stealth process to transform the SPP into a North American regional governmental structure.

WND reported last year's Triumvirate 2007 was held in Washington, D.C.

The Triumvirate 2006 North American Model Parliament was held in the Mexican Senate, and Triumvirate 2005, the first model parliament, took place in Ottawa, Canada.

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative emerged from the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which requires all travelers to present a passport or other equivalent documents denoting identity and citizenship when entering the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean.

NAFTA Chapter 11 establishes an international tribunal to resolve disputes in which NAFTA investors claim national, state or local laws in the U.S., Canada or Mexico adversely impact NAFTA investments.

NAFTA Chapter 11 tribunals are empowered under NAFTA to overturn U.S. federal, state or local laws or ordinances that are judged to have harmed the interests of investors under NAFTA.

A Canadian government website lists Chapter 11 arbitrations involving Canadian companies and investors.

The U.S. State Department website lists on a sidebar all current NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-state arbitrations.

Texas Corridor detour:
Officials nix land grab
Toll plan tossed: 'Any area that is not along
an existing highway will not be considered'

Opponents of a plan to build a Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) road and rail system from Mexico to Oklahoma received welcome news this week, as Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) officials announced their strategy would no longer include building new highway routes southwest of Houston, a plan that would have annexed huge tracts of private land.

The $184 billion TTC project originally called for a 4,000-mile network of transportation corridors, 1,200 feet wide, to be built across Texas. The plan would have taken about a half million agricultural acres out of private hands, leading to a maelstrom of objections from Texas landowners.

But now TxDOT executive Director Amadeo Saenz says plans have changed. In a conference call with reporters he said TxDOT "had narrowed the study area for TTC I-69" and that the department "is going to be considering only existing highway" routes, and "any area that is not along an existing highway will not be considered."

"This is great news for landowners," said John Means, president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. "TSCRA appreciates the agency's decision to not build the toll roads through rural lands that would threaten the private property rights of many of our members."

The TxDOT website states that "the preliminary basis for this decision centers on the review of nearly 28,000 public comments made" on the issue. Saenz added that 47 town hall meetings with Texas residents had further influenced the decision.

Brehham, Tex., State Rep. Lois W. Kolkhorst, who joined in the battle to protect rural lands from the project, told The Huntsville Item, "The real heroes who deserve the credit here are the constituents. I want to thank the thousands of people who joined me in fighting the I-69 TTC for the past 5 years, writing letters, calling and attending meetings to make their voices heard."

Though opponents of the TTC celebrate victory in this battle, they have been quick to point out that the war is not over.

"This is good news about a retreat from the corridor," Kolkhorst said, "but the controversy over how we pay for our roads will continue. We need to stay strong against the forces out there who want to sell off our highway infrastructure to foreign sources."

"This is a great first step," said Kenneth Dierschke, president of the Texas Farm Bureau. "But we must continue to hold TxDOT's feet to the fire during the next legislative session to ensure they keep these promises."

David Stall of the anti-TTC group CorridorWatch is also wary of crying victory too soon. Speaking of TxDOT, Stall told a Houston Community Newspaper, "They've never taken the public's input into consideration before."

Part of the concern is that the announcement to limit the TTC's scope only included project proposals south and west of Houston. The announcement did not mention plans for the northern I-35 corridor.

"We want (Saenz) to send the same letter to the Federal Highway Administration for TTC I-35 that he sent about I-69," Stall said. "There was as much public input about I-35 as there was about 69."

Stall also worries that TxDOT was motivated largely by "financial ability and political expediency," warning, "As soon as it becomes fiscally viable, it will come back."

For now, landowners in southwestern Texas are breathing a sigh of relief and preparing for future battles if necessary.

Last year Amy Klein, a member of CorridorWatch, quoted Stall in the Gainesville Daily Register with words that are just as meaningful now to the group as they were then. "You eat an elephant one bite at a time," she quoted. Then she added, "I think we're slowly devouring this elephant."

Father of North American Community concedes dream 'is dead'
Says critics have blocked alignment of U.S., Mexico and Canada

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America is dead, says Robert A. Pastor, the American University professor who for more than a decade has been a major proponent of building a North American Community.

"The new president will probably discard the SPP," Pastor wrote in an article titled "The Future of North America," published in the current July/August issue of the Council on Foreign Relations magazine Foreign Affairs.

The SPP, which critics contend is a step toward a North American Union, is an agreement to increase cooperation on security and economic issues signed by the leaders of the U.S., Mexico and Canada in 2005. Despite having no authorization from Congress, the Bush administration launched extensive working-group activity to implement the agreement. The working groups – ranging from e-commerce, to aviation policy, to borders and immigration – have counterparts in Mexico and Canada.

"The April summit meeting was probably the last hurrah for the SPP," Pastor wrote, referring to the fourth annual SPP meeting held in April in New Orleans.

Pastor attributes the failure of SPP to its largely bureaucratic nature and the decision policy makers made to keep SPP largely below the radar of public opinion.

"The strategy of acting on technical issues in an incremental, bureaucratic way and keeping the issues away from public view has generated more suspicion than accomplishments," Pastor admitted.

Pastor blames critics for the failure of the SPP, charging it has come under attack from both ends of the political spectrum.

"From the right have come attacks based on cultural anxieties of being overrun by Mexican immigrants and fears that cooperation with Canada and Mexico could lead down a slippery slope toward a North American Union," he wrote. "From the left came attacks based on economic fears of jobs lost due to unfair trading practices."

"These two sets of fears came together in a perfect storm that was pushed forward by a surplus of hot air from talk-show hosts on radio and television," he continued. "In the face of this criticism, the Bush administration was silent, and the Democratic candidates competed for votes in the rust-belt states, where unions and many working people have come to see NAFTA and globalization much as (commentator Lou) Dobbs does."

Pastor denied he had ever urged the creation of a North American Union.

"Dobbs, among others, viewed a report by a 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force (which I chaired), 'Building a North American Community,' as the manifesto of a conspiracy to subvert American sovereignty," he asserted. "Dobbs claimed that the CFR study proposed a North American Union, although it did not."

Pastor has argued consistently for a "North American Community," as suggested by the title of his 2001 book entitled "Toward a North American Community."

In a commentary authored for WND, Pastor stressed, "I do not propose a North American Union; I propose a North American Community."

Pastor argued the two were different in that North American Community would involve "three sovereign governments that seek to strengthen bonds of cooperation."

Noting that the European Community was a transitional state between the European Common Market and the European Union, Pastor conceded to WND that, "I don't think a political union of North America is an inherently bad idea, nor do I think it is a good idea for right now."

Despite the SPP setback, Pastor remains determined to advise a different approach to his continued goal of integrating the U.S., Mexico and Canada into a North American Community.

"The three heads of state must also commit to building a new consciousness, a new way of thinking about one's neighbors and about the continental agenda," he said. "Americans, Canadians and Mexicans can be nationals and North Americans at the same time."

To correct the defects of the SPP bureaucratic closed-door process, Pastor's CFR article recommended creating new North American institutions, including a North American Investment Fund of at least $20 billion a year "to connect central and southern Mexico to the United States with roads, ports, and communications."

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, dropped his support for Senate bill 3622 in the 109th Congress when WND reported the North American Investment Fund proposed by the legislation would enact a key proposal Pastor has frequently made for advancing his North American Community agenda.

In his CFR article, Pastor also called for the continuation of annual North American heads-of-state summits and the appointment in the next administration of a national adviser for North American affairs, who would chair a cabinet-level committee to formulate a comprehensive plan for North America.

Pastor also encouraged creating a dozen university centers for North American studies "to educate a new generation of students to think North American."

WND reported on the fourth annual North American Model Parliament held this year in Montreal, Canada, for 100 university students from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The North American Model Parliament is sponsored by the North American Forum on Integration, on which Pastor serves as a board member.

Bush team extends Mexican truck test
Waits until congressional opponents out of town to make announcement

A demonstration project allowing Mexican truck companies and their drivers to run on U.S roadways has been extended for two years by officials at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on the first day opponents in Congress were out of Washington for their August break.

"I am pleased with the success of our demonstration project, but the participation has been limited by the uncertainty of the project's longevity. A number of potential companies have been unwilling to invest the time and resources necessary to participate due to uncertainties concerning the project's longevity," FMCSA chief John Hill said in his announcement today which extended the pilot project for two more years.

"When the cat's away, the mice will play," said a statement from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. "The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration curiously chose the first day Congress is out of session for one month to announce a two-year extension of the unpopular cross-border trucking program."

The organization said it was not surprised and maintains the continuance of the program is in defiance of congressional directives "as well as existing laws and regulations."

"The administration has shown time and again that when it comes to this program they are willing to run roughshod over Congress and the American public," said Todd Spencer, OOIDA executive vice president. "Announcing this on the first day of the recess is unfortunately par for the course with them. Sorry for the cliché, but it's 'Bush league' tactics."

Norita Taylor, a spokeswoman for the truckers' group, said Congress previously forbade funding for such programs but used the word "establish" in its directive. Federal administration officials noted the ban did not apply to the trucking program since it already had been "established."

The truckers organization also has a lawsuit pending in federal court over the implementation of the program.

"OOIDA agrees with Congress, which has voted more than once to end the program, in its contention that the pilot program as conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) does not comply with U.S. laws and regulations with regard to safety and security," the organization said.

"DOT has consistently bent over backwards to force this program on the public. They seem oblivious to the inherent safety and security risks of what they are trying to do,” Spencer said.

The trade association has more than 161,000 members in the U.S. and Canada and represents the interests of small-business trucking professionals and professional truck drivers. It's leaders believe the decision to allow Mexican trucking companies and truck drivers on U.S. roads will not help.

Federal Department of Transportation officials, however, were enthused over the extension.

"We intend this extension to reassure trucking companies that they will have sufficient time to realize a return on their investment, and we anticipate additional participation with this extra time. The extension will ensure that the demonstration project can be reviewed and evaluated on the basis of a more comprehensive body of data," said Hill.

He said, "To date, the project has shown that U.S. and Mexican carriers can engage in cross-border trucking operations in compliance with applicable laws and with no compromise to public safety or security. In fact, Mexican trucks and drivers have established compliance rates equal or better to those of U.S. trucks and drivers."

Federal officials said there currently are 27 Mexican trucking companies running 107 trucks into the U.S. They have made nearly 10,000 trips across the border. Only 10 U.S. companies are making similar trips into Mexico.

WND previously reported Transportation Secretary Mary Peters admitted under questioning from Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., that Mexican drivers involved in the program were being designated as "proficient in English" even though they could explain U.S. traffic signs only in Spanish.

The designation was made despite a brochure on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's website instructing Mexican truck drivers, "Did you know … You MUST be able to read and speak English to drive trucks in the United States."

Dorgan asked, "Does the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration test for English proficiency at the border include questions about U.S. highway signs?"

"Yes," DOT Inspector General Calvin Scovel replied. "The FMCSA English proficiency test at the border did not originally include U.S. highway signs, but now it does."

"Do you show a driver an octagonal 'STOP' sign at the border and qualify him if he explains the sign means 'ALTO'?" an incredulous Dorgan pressed.

"Alto" is the Spanish word for "Stop."

"Yes," Scovel answered reluctantly. "If the stop sign is identified as 'alto,' the driver is considered English proficient."

Dorgan also has accused Peters of defying Congress by parsing words to continue to allow Mexican trucks into the U.S. under the demonstration project, despite the clear intent of Congress to take away funds to bring the program to a halt.

Border patrol agent held at gunpoint
Jerry Seper

A U.S. Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint Sunday night by members of the Mexican military who had crossed the border into Arizona, but the soldiers returned to Mexico without incident when backup agents responded to assist.

Agents assigned to the Border Patrol station at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the international border in an isolated area about 100 miles southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who was not identified.

It was unclear what the soldiers were doing in the United States, but U.S. law enforcement authorities have long said that current and former Mexican military personnel have been hired to protect drug and migrant smugglers.

"Unfortunately, this sort of behavior by Mexican military personnel has been going on for years," union Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) said on its Web page. "They are never held accountable, and the United States government will undoubtedly brush this off as another case of 'Oh well, they didn't know they were in the United States.'

"It is fortunate that this incident didn't end in a very ugly gunfight," said the local's posting.

The NBPC represents all nonsupervisory personnel among the agency's 16,000 agents.

Border Patrol spokesman Michael Friel did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

State Department spokeswoman Nicole Thompson said Tuesday that the department had no information on the incident, and referred further questions to the Border Patrol. "It is not an incident that we are aware of," she said.

Ricardo Alday, spokesman at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, said Tuesday that Mexico and the United States are engaged in "an all-out struggle to deter criminal organizations from operating on both sides of our common border."

"Law enforcement operations have led, from time to time, to innocent incursions by both U.S. and Mexican law enforcement personnel and military units into the territory of both nations, and in particular along non-demarcated areas of our border," he said.

"We always try to solve these incidents in a cooperative fashion, and as acknowledged by the Border Patrol, this was the case in the episode at Ajo," he said.

Since 1996, there have been more than 200 confirmed incursions by the Mexican military into the United States.

Local 2544, the largest in the NBPC, is headed by veteran Border Patrol agent Edward "Bud" Tuffly II. He noted on the Web page that the local's leadership would "withhold further comment on this incident until we see how our leaders handle it."

"We don't have much confidence in most of them," the local's posting said.

Sunday night's incident bears similarities to other incursions by armed men in Mexican military gear in recent years:

cThe incident occurred in the same area where heavily armed Mexican soldiers riding in a Humvee shot at a Border Patrol agent in 2002. A .50-caliber bullet ripped through the agent's rear window as he sped away.

Mexican officials denied at the time that the shooters were Mexican soldiers, saying they were criminals using military uniforms. It is a position they steadfastly have maintained.

But the agent who reported encountering the gunfire was certain he saw soldiers, said Mr. Tuffly. He said at the time that the agent was able to identify their attire "down to a T, and it matched exactly what they [Mexican soldiers] wear."

That purported incursion began after a Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation police ranger reported being chased by men in a Humvee.

cA year ago, U.S. law enforcement authorities were confronted by gunfire from automatic weapons as they chased and caught a drug-smuggling suspect in Texas trying to flee back into Mexico, the Hudspeth County (Texas) Sheriff's Office said.

No one was hurt in that incident, and the gunmen were not identified, although the area has been the scene of similar incidents over several months, including a confrontation in January 2007, when heavily armed men in Mexican military uniforms fired on Texas officers with a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on a camouflaged Humvee.

The men were identified at the time by Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West as "soldiers."

In that incident, Hudspeth County deputies pursued three sport utility vehicles back to Mexico after spotting them driving north from the Rio Grande. The pursuit ended on the U.S. side of the border when the deputies encountered 10 heavily armed men in what they described as battle-dress uniforms.

At that time, deputies found 1,400 pounds of marijuana in one of the vehicles abandoned after it blew a tire early in the pursuit. Another made it into Mexico and a third got stuck in the Rio Grande and was burned by the "soldiers" after it was unloaded.

cIn November 2007, the Border Patrol chased a dump truck full of marijuana in the same area when it also got stuck in the river while trying to return to Mexico. While agents sought to unload 3 tons of marijuana, the driver - who had fled - returned with a heavily armed group of men wearing Mexican military uniforms and carrying military-style weapons.

The soldiers backed the agents away and bulldozed the truck back into Mexico.

"Nothing was ever done," Local 2544 said. "Nobody was ever held accountable. Particularly galling is the fact that the Mexican military often pulls these stunts in Humvees donated to them by the American taxpayers. We note that Border Patrol agents have historically driven worn-out, junk vehicles."

A coalition of Texas border sheriffs has demanded that the U.S. and Mexican governments investigate incursions into the United States by heavily armed drug escorts dressed in Mexican military uniforms "before someone gets killed."

Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. of Zapata County, Texas, who founded the coalition, said a growing number of suspected incursions and violence aimed at the area's law enforcement officers is making the border "a pretty dangerous place."

Sheriff Gonzalez said three of his deputies in 2006 spotted 25 men dressed in military uniforms in the U.S. during a late-night patrol. He said the men marched two abreast and carried duffel bags and automatic weapons, and that his "outmanned and outgunned deputies" were forced to retreat.

"The only thing you can do in that kind of situation is seek cover," Sheriff Gonzalez said. "I'm not going to lose someone in an unfair fight."

The State Department on Tuesday also confirmed a separate case in which two California police officers were arrested at the border Friday on charges of attempting to smuggle guns, ammunition and training materials into Mexico.

A Mexican court is expected to decide Wednesday whether the two Monterey County officers will remain in jail or be released on bail.

The U.S. Consulate in Tijuana said Mexico holds the largest population of U.S. prisoners outside the United States.

Border patrol agent held at gunpoint (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/06/soldiers-cross-into-us-hold-guns-to-agent/#)

North American Union supporter top Obama economic adviser
Socialist activist Bonier reportedly being considered for Labor secretary
Posted: November 28, 2008
1:35 am Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

President-elect Barack Obama recently appointed to his economic transition team a known socialist activist who has previously urged the creation of a North American Parliamentary Union, a governing body to consist of Mexico, Canada and the U.S.

Former Rep. David Bonior, reportedly being considered for the Labor secretary position in the incoming Obama administration, has a longstanding close relationship with the Democratic Socialists of America, an organization dedicated to transforming America into a socialist society.

There is evidence indicating Bonior is a member in good standing of the DSA.

Earlier this month, the Detroit chapter of the DSA honored Bonior and his wife Judy at its annual dinner. Bonior has been honored at several DSA functions the past six years, including in 2003, where he was the keynote speaker at the U.S. socialist organization's national convention in Detroit.

At the 2003 convention, Bonior laid out his plan for a North American Parliamentary Union, according to a DSA transcript of the event.

Bonior was a longtime critic the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, a trilateral trade bloc created by the U.S., Canadian and Mexican governments. But he argued that as long as NAFTA was in affect, a joint parliament should be formed to oversee the agreement.

"How do we democratize this globalization argument (NAFTA)?" Bonior stated at the DSA convention. "One of the ideas we came up with was forming a North American Parliamentary Union. A North America Parliament, with Mexico, Canada and the United States, with people – probably first appointed, but eventually elected like they are in the European Parliament – so we can begin to raise these issues of human rights, civil rights and labor rights and immigration, which never get talked about here.

The proposed North American Parliamentary Union would be a democratic structure to enfranchise all citizens – farmers, laborers, small business, environmentalists, consumer advocates and others – in the NAFTA countries, as well as, hopefully, Central America," he said.

Bonior added: "I think the chances of this happening in the short run are not very good, but in the long run ... we have a chance of forming a North American parliament, and with that, I think, the dialogue on these issues that we all struggle with and are frustrated with will have a place in which they can surface and hopefully we can move forward."

Bonior has other ties to the DSA. The socialist group reportedly campaigned for him in 2002, after he left Congress and ran unsuccessfully for governor of Michigan.

The New Zeal blog (http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2008/11/obama-file-53-why-did-obama-appoint.html)discovered a 2002 DSA newsletter that reports the organization's work "focused on Rep. David Bonior's gubernatorial campaign."

"The local endorsed Rep. Bonior almost eighteen months ago. DSA helped with the early fundraising for his campaign, collecting signatures for his nominating petitions, distributing literature at Detroit churches, and walking door to door in Macomb County on his behalf on the weekend before the primary," stated the DSA newsletter.

There is some evidence indicating Bonior may have been a member of the DSA. In 2006, the socialist group formed a political action committee to which only DSA members in good standing are allowed to contribute, according to FEC guidelines. The DSA states the committee, which seeks to support federal political candidates supported by the socialist group, is careful about who contributes to the fund.

"Because the law is so specific, all contributions are carefully screened to make sure that they are from (DSA) members," states a 2006 DSA newsletter.

New Zeal found that on June 19, 2006, Bonior contributed $1,000 to the DSA's committee.

Obama appointee was a 'Saddam Hussein Baghdad boy'

First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976, Bonior served from 1991 to 2002 as Democratic whip, the second-ranking Democrat position in the House. He was known as a supporter of labor unions, later chairing the board of the pro-union American Rights at Work, whose board members include the American Union Movement AFL-CIO's president, John Sweeney, who is a DSA member.

Bonior is a champion of the Employee Free Choice Act. The measure seeks to make the creation of unions more lenient than current requirements, such as lowering the percentage of employees that must join. It would require an employer to begin bargaining with a new union 10 days after the union is certified as the exclusive bargaining representative. If the union and employer cannot agree upon the terms of a bargaining contract within 90 days, either party can request federal mediation, which could lead to binding arbitration.

The former congressman previously was the center of controversy when in 2002 he visited Iraq, according to some reports at the behest of Saddam Hussein. In late September of that year, Bonior traveled to Iraq along with fellow congressmen Jim McDermott and Mike Thompson.

Prior to the trip, the three politicians issued a joint press release, posted on each of their congressional websites, explaining their visit was aimed at "gaining insight into the humanitarian challenges another war on Iraq would have on innocent Iraqis and the dangerous implications of a unilateral, preemptive strike on U.S. national security."

After the trio's trip generated criticism, with one magazine, the Weekly Standard, coining them the "Baghdad Democrats," and "Baghdad boys", Bonior claimed to the U.S. media the visit was about ensuring freedom of access to Hussein's suspected weapons facilities.

"We wanted to impress upon the Iraqi government and the people of Iraq how important it was for them to allow unconditional, unfettered, unrestricted access to the inspectors," Bonior said.

But Bonior and the other congressmen didn't seem bothered when, during their trip, the Iraqi state-run media painted their visit as a show of support for Hussein's regime.

The Iraq Daily, published by Hussein's Ministry of Information, reportedly printed daily updates of the trip, including in English. One September 30 report stated, "the members of the U.S. Congress delegation have underlined that this visit aims to get acquainted with the truth of Iraq's people sufferings due to ongoing embargo which caused shortage in food and medicine for all Iraqi people."

That report was carried alongside another article boasting of Hussein's support for Palestinian terror organizations.

The Weekly Standard highlighted how, upon touching down in Iraq on September 27, Iraqi Satellite Channel Television reported the congressional visit would be brought to Iraqi hospitals "to see the suffering caused by the unjust embargo and the shortage of medicines and medical supplies. Congressman Jim McDermott told reporters upon arrival at Saddam International Airport that the delegation members reject the policy of aggression dominating the U.S. administration."

In 2002, WND reported former FBI officials charges that Bonier, while in Congress, had hampered efforts to investigate terrorist suspects in Detroit.

Economic crisis stalls NAFTA superhighway
Good news for those opposing Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America

Amid an economic storm, there is good news for opponents of North American integration under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.

As the U.S. and global economy slows, the volume of freight being moved internationally over "intermodal" ship-train-truck connections is also slowing. This is reducing the immediate pressure to reconfigure the U.S. transportations system into a global network for moving containers.

"Still, the pressure to reconfigure the U.S. into NAFTA Superhighway container-moving structures should be expected to resume, perhaps even as a stimulus to jump start now lagging global 'free trade,'" Corsi writes.

Freight traffic on U.S. railroads in December appears to be dropping almost as low as the record 10 percent plunge that occurred in November. Intermodal container volume is also down nearly 10 percent from last year, reflecting the overall decline in global trade.

While the U.S. railroad industry appears to have enough capital to weather even a strong recession, Corsi notes, its trucking industry is entering 2009 in a weakened state. It was plagued by high gas prices in the early part of 2008, only to experience a significant dip in truck freight demand beginning in September, even as gas prices eased.

"Even Texas' Gov. Rick Perry is receiving increased opposition over the Trans-Texas Corridor," he writes. "The TTC-35 project to build a new four-football-fields wide truck/train/automobile/pipeline toll road parallel to Interstate 35 is facing mounting opposition."

WND has reported that in 2007, Perry vetoed multiple pieces of legislation passed by the Texas legislature to block TTC projects, including one bill that would have placed a two-year moratorium on TTC-35 construction.

Now Red Alert's author, whose books "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command" have topped the New York Times best-sellers list, reports a growing number of Texas legislators are pushing for a TTC suspension

Red Alert's Jerome Corsi received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972. For nearly 25 years beginning in 1981, he worked with banks throughout the United States and around the world to develop financial services marketing companies to assist banks in establishing broker/dealers and insurance subsidiaries to provide financial planning products and services to their retail customers. In this career, Corsi developed three different third-party financial services marketing firms that reached gross sales levels of $1 billion in annuities and equal volume in mutual funds. In 1999, he began developing Internet-based financial marketing firms, also adapted to work in conjunction with banks.

In his 25-year financial services career, Corsi has been a noted financial services speaker and writer, publishing three books and numerous articles in professional financial services journals and magazines.

Sudden death for NAFTA highway plan
'To be clear, the Trans-Texas Corridor as it is known, no longer exists'

Tens of thousands of opponents to a NAFTA highway project that would have crossed Texas with a corridor the width of four football fields have been given good news by the state: the Trans-Texas Corridor plan is being dropped.

Official word came from Amadeo Saenz Jr., the chief of the Texas Department of Transportation, during the state's annual transportation forum in Austin this week.

"The Trans-Texas Corridor, as a single-project concept, is not the choice of Texans, so we decided to put the name to rest," he said, according to the Houston Chronicle. "To be clear, the Trans-Texas Corridor as it is known, no longer exists.

"Texans have spoken, and we've been listening," Saenz said in a statement released by the department. "Citizens across the state have had good ideas about how Texas roads can better serve Texas communities."

He said work will continue on highway projects, but there will be changes.

"I believe this transformed vision for the TTC and other major corridor development goes a long way toward addressing the concerns we've heard over the past several years," his statement said.

Saenz said the department would be working on the Innovative Connectivity in Texas/Vision 2009 program. The project transforms the original TTC vision, making changes in corridor width, transportation mode, use of existing facilities, timeline and other issues, he said.

The original vision for the TTC, according to the statement, was outlined in Crossroads of the Americas: Trans-Texas Corridor Plan. It called for a corridor of up to 1,200 feet in width that would allow rails highways, special lanes for freight trucks as well as utilities.

But WND reported extensively on opposition to the plan, which was quickly labeled a NAFTA highway that would provide transportation routes for mass quantities of Chinese goods imported into Mexico, then hauled throughout the United States and Canada.

Texas officials said after the concept was introduced in 2002 communities along the proposed transportation corridors raised numerous objections and concerns.

"TxDOT agrees with many of the recommendations of the I-35 and I-69 Corridor Advisory Committees, citizen advisory groups created to participate in planning transportation projects along the two TTC project corridors already under way," the Texas agency statement said.

"Major corridor projects will now be comprised of several small segments closer to 600 feet wide and will no longer be called the Trans-Texas Corridor. Instead, the department will use the highway numbers originally associated with each segment, such as I-69, SH 130 and Loop 9."

The agency also said whether any projects will include rail or other services remains to be determined.

"I'm pleased with the level of public involvement called for in this document," Saenz said. "I'm hopeful that, working together, we'll develop a corridor that serves both the economic interests of the state and the needs of each individual community."

The $184 billion TTC project originally called for a 4,000-mile network of transportation corridors, 1,200 feet wide, to be built across Texas. The plan would have taken about a half million agricultural acres out of private hands, leading to a maelstrom of objections from Texas landowners.

WND reported earlier when state officials admitted they were dropping specific segments of the project.

Saenz said then the department would consider "only existing highway" routes for the project's expansions.

The TxDOT website said then "the preliminary basis for this decision centers on the review of nearly 28,000 public comments made" on the issue.

Saenz's latest announcement earned approval from several watchdog groups, including David Stall of the citizen's group Corridor Watch.

"We're real pleased that a project once described as unstoppable has now screeched to a halt," he told the Houston newspaper.

On a comment forum at the newspaper, one participant withheld nothing.

"YES!" the commenter wrote. "We do have a voice."

Added another, "This debacle was going to have a highway running from the Mexican coast, where goods were to be unloaded from ships, straight to Kansas City where the first inspections of the goods would take place. … I'm serious, that was the plan and the public outcry shut it down. But rest assured, it will be revived under the 'Innovative Connectivity Plan.'…

WND senior investigative reporter Jerome Corsi previously documented signs of the project's demise in his Red Alert report.

He reported as the U.S. and global economies slow, the volume of freight being moved via intermodal ship-train-truck connections also was slowing.

The slowdown reduced the pressure to reconfigure U.S. transportation systems through projects like the TCC into an integrated infrastructure to serve the needs of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.

"Still, the pressure to reconfigure the U.S. into NAFTA Superhighway container-moving structures should be expected to resume, perhaps even as a stimulus to jump start now lagging global 'free trade,'" Corsi wrote.

New center revives North America agenda
Presses Obama administration to advance continental integration

Arizona State University has created a new trilateral research center to advance the continuing globalist agenda to integrate the United States, Mexico and Canada into a North American configuration.

The North American Center for Transborder Studies, or NACTS, makes clear that while North American integration advocates may have backed off promoting the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America as their vehicle to create a North American Union, the globalist effort to integrate North America economically and politically continues under different names.

NACTS Director Rick Van Schoik held a press conference Feb. 10 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to appeal directly to President Obama to utilize his first foreign presidential trip, to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, "to strengthen U.S. partnerships with its neighbors on challenges ranging from border security and environmental protection."

Prominent among members of the NACTS Board of Advisors is Robert A. Pastor, who for more than a decade has called for the creation of a North American Community, which would include a central bank to manage a new currency, the amero, to replace the dollar.

In the July/August 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, published by the Council on Foreign Relations, Pastor wrote an article entitled "The Future of North America," in which he declared that the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, is "dead" in wake of exposure from sources such as WND and CNN's Lou Dobbs.

Reference to the SPP appears nowhere in NACTS documents.

At the National Press Club, Schoik unveiled a new 28-page document entitled, "North America Next: A Report to President Obama on Building Sustainable Security and Competitiveness."

In the first of a series of eight recommendations to Obama, NACTS recommended an expansion of the Merida Initiative.

WND has reported on the Merida Initiative under which the U.S. Congress, at the strong urging of the Bush administration, allocated last December a total of $197 million of the $500 million authorized, under a $1.6 billion program.

The Merida Initiative aimed to provide U.S. military assistance in the form of training and equipment to the Mexican military to help it contain the drug cartels.

NACTS second recommendation was to "energize and expand the North American Trilateral Leaders' Summit" to provide "solutions to needs throughout North America."

Under this recommendation, NACTS neglected to address whether or not the Obama administration should continue or discontinue the operation of some 30 trilateral bureaucratic working groups organized under SPP to "integrate and harmonize" U.S. laws and regulations into North American laws and regulations across a wide range of policy issues, including border security, transportation, health, energy and the environment.

NACTS recommended the creation of a "revolving fund for infrastructures in North America" in which the three nations would pool resources to "maximize the competitiveness benefit vis-à-vis Asia and Europe and jump-start our collective economic engine."

WND reported in July 2006 that Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, withdrew legislation to create a North American Investment Fund Act – a similar idea to the NACT proposal for an infrastructures fund – after WND pointed out the legislation would have put into place a key piece of Pastor's plan to create a North American Community.

In his 2001 book "Toward a North American Community," Pastor argued a North American Development Fund would advance the "North American integration" needed to produce the union as a super-regional government according to the model of the European Union.

Pastor was vice chairman of a May 2005 task force report by the Council on Foreign Relations entitled "Building a North American Community." Creating a North American Investment Fund was also a key recommendation of the CFR task force report.

The NACTS report also recommended the creation of an "effective trade and transportation plan with Canada and Mexico" as well as creating a common border crossing permit with a "single window" electronic form, a joint customs team and common U.S.-Mexican and U.S.-Canadian booths to prevent duplicative border procedures and expedite crossings.

NACTS also recommended creating a North American Greenhouse Gas Exchange to facilitate the type of "cap-and-trade" step toward a global tax the Obama administration has recommended.

This recommendation confirms NACTS has embraced global warming alarmism, as has the Obama administration, despite what WND reports is continued scientific debate on whether or not human emissions of greenhouse gases cause global warming and the new fear of "climate chaos" that recent unusually cold winters have caused anti-carbon fuel advocates to substitute as their new banner.

NACTS' "North America Next" document repeatedly argues that the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, has been responsible for massive continental job creation.

"Almost 40 million jobs were created n Canada, the U.S. and Mexico between 1993 and 2007, and today," the executive summary notes, without pointing out that the U.S. trade balances with both Mexico and Canada have become negative under NAFTA.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Statistics, in 1993, the year President Clinton signed NAFTA into law, the U.S. enjoyed a nearly $1.7 trillion favorable balance of trade with Mexico, exporting approximately $41.6 billion and importing approximately $39.9 billion.

By 2008, the trade balance had reversed, such that the U.S. had a negative $64.4 billion trade balance in Mexico's favor, after the U.S. exported approximately $151.5 billion to Mexico and imported $215.9 billion.

With Canada, the U.S. in 1993 already had a $10.7 billion negative trade balance, which had expanded to a $74.2 billion negative by the end of last year.

What these data would suggest is that the net new jobs created under NAFTA in North America are likely being created in Mexico and Canada, not in the U.S.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. manufacturing sector has lost approximately 4 million manufacturing jobs since 2000, nearly 25 percent of the total manufacturing workforce.

Partner universities for the ASU North American Center for Transborder Studies include four Mexican universities and two in Canada.

Also included on the trilateral Board of Advisors is Stephen Blank, co-director of the North American Transportation Competitiveness Research Council.

Blank has been the driving force behind the North America Works II conference held in Kansas City, Mo., Dec. 1-2, 2006. The meeting was organized by the David Rockefeller-created Council of the Americas to discuss "North American competitiveness" and the SPP.

Pastor and Blank are joined on the NACTS board by fellow North American Forum on Integration, or NAFI, board member Christine Frechette, the founding president and executive director of NAFI.

As WND has reported, NAFI conducts an annual "North American Model Parliament" in which 100 university students from the U.S., Canada and Mexico participate in an exercise in which they simulate a North American parliamentary meeting in which the students role-play North American legislators, lobbyists and journalists.

American University continues to list Pastor as on sabbatical, but the university media relations office told WND he has returned.

The NACTS Board of Advisor lists Pastor as the director of the Center for North American Studies at American University in Washington, D.C.

Yet, WND reported last year that Pastor explained in an e-mail that he had stepped down as vice president of International Affairs at American University and as director of the Center for North American Studies in the Office of International Affairs, a program he had headed since he began at American University in 2002.

Last year, WND also confirmed that American University President Neil Kerwin had decided to shut down Pastor's Office of International affairs.

The university media relations office told WND in a phone call that there is no current phone number for the Office of International Affairs.

The number the university media relations gave WND as the phone number for the Center for North American Studies was answered as "The Elders."

WND has reported that Pastor had begun working with The Elders, a conflict-resolution group of world figures, including Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter.

A WND e-mail to The Elders asking to determine Pastor's relation with group went unanswered.

A WND phone call to Pastor was also not immediately returned.

Now Canada joins Transatlantic Union effort
Working along with U.S for free-trade deal with European Union

Canada has decided to join the United States in negotiating a transatlantic free trade agreement with the European Union.

According to Canada's daily Financial Post, Canada and the EU have come to an agreement on the areas they would like to negotiate in a free trade deal that Canadian government officials believe could expand Canada's economy by approximately $12 billion.

The agreement announced last Thursday concluded "scoping exercises" between Canada and the EU that began Oct. 17. The exercises determined 14 areas to be placed on the negotiating table, including trade in goods and services, investment, trade facilitation, customs regulation, technical barriers to trade, competition policy and sustainable development.

As WND has reported, "competition" is a key free-trade theme that shows up, for instance, in the 30-member North American Competitiveness Council, the 30-member multinational advisory council selected by the chambers of commerce in the U.S., Mexico and Canada to advise the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.

"Sustainable development" is a code term coined by the United Nations' Agenda 21, which critics have charged outlines a globalist agenda for redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor, on the premise wealth is accumulated at the expense of the poor.

As WND previously reported, a key step in advancing the goal of creating a Transatlantic Union was the creation of the Transatlantic Economic Council by the U.S. and the EU through an agreement signed by President Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel – then the president of the European Council – and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at a White House summit April 30, 2007.

The agreement constituted the Transatlantic Economic Council as a permanent body that committed the U.S. to "deeper transatlantic economic integration," without ratification by the Senate as a treaty or passage by Congress as a law.

The formation of a Transatlantic Common Market between the U.S. and the European Union by 2015 has been targeted by the http://www.tpnonline.org/about.html Transatlantic Policy Network, a non-governmental organization headquartered in Washington and Brussels with a policy advisory board of U.S. congressmen and senators.

In February 2007, the Transatlantic Policy Network formed a Transatlantic Market Implementation Group to put in place a "a roadmap and framework" to direct the activity of the Transatlantic Economic Council to achieve the creation of the Transatlantic Common Market by 2015.

The Transatlantic Policy Network is chaired by Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, and advised by a bipartisan congressional policy group consisting of six U.S. senators and 49 U.S. congressmen.

Another NGO urging transatlantic integration is the Atlantic Council of the United States, a Washington-based policy group headed by former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., who currently serves as the group's chairman of the board.

On April 20, 2007, an Atlantic Council commission co-chaired by Stuart E. Eisenstat, former deputy-secretary of the treasury, and Grant D. Aldonas, former under-secretary of commerce for international trade, issued a report entitled "Transatlantic Leadership for a New Global Economy."

The report argued that to deal with a new international economy, the U.S. and EU "must lead a major effort to restructure the governing institutions of that economy and seek new ways to reduce barriers to trade and investment."

Among the group's recommendations was that the U.S. and EU should establish a "barrier-free Enhanced Trade Market" as a first step toward moving into a "more open global market."

As WND previously reported, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger openly called for the Obama administration to manipulate the current financial crisis to create a "new world order."

Kissinger's commentary in the International Herald Tribune made clear globalists intend to utilize the current financial meltdown. In developing his call for action, Kissinger also made clear that his view of globalism involves a lessening of American power and influence to elevate less-advantaged countries.

"The economic world has been globalized," Kissinger proclaimed. "Its institutions have a global reach and have operated by maxims that assumed a self-regulating global market."

Kissinger warned against individual countries taking action through national political institutions to cushion the shock of the current financial decline, with a view to ameliorating their domestic economies.

Rather than focus on domestic politics, Kissinger said the solution involves creating global political institutions to better govern and regulate global economic markets and institutions.

"Every major country has attempted to solve its immediate problems essentially on its own and to defer common action to a later, less crisis-driven point," Kissinger wrote. "So called rescue packages have emerged on a piecemeal national basis, generally by substituting unlimited governmental credit for the domestic credit that produced the debacle in the first place – so far without more than stemming incipient panic."

Kissinger strongly objected to nation-states action as such to protect their domestic economies.

"In the end, the political and economic systems can be harmonized in only one of two ways: by creating an international political regulatory system with the same reach as that of the economic world," he suggests, "or by shrinking the economic units to a size manageable by existing political structures, which is likely to lead to a new mercantilism, perhaps of regional units."

Obama reverses opposition to Mexican trucks
White House reacts to diplomatic pressure with vow to retain program

One day after signing the $410 billion omnibus funding bill into law, along with provisions ending the Department of Transportation's Mexican truck demonstration project, the Obama administration has announced intentions to restart the program as soon as possible.

Debbie Mesloh, a spokeswoman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, told the Associated Press Obama has asked the office to work with Congress, the DOT, the State Department and Mexican officials to come up with legislation to create "a new trucking project that will meet the legitimate concerns" of Congress and the U.S. under the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

The Obama administration's determination to see Mexican long-haul rigs roll throughout the U.S. is a setback for labor unions, including the Teamsters, who supported Obama in the 2008 presidential election, in part on his promise to renegotiate NAFTA to preserve U.S. jobs.

The sharp policy reversal will also be a blow to many Democrats in Congress, including Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., who fought hard for the past two years to stop the project out of concerns that Mexican trucks do not conform with U.S. safety regulations.

After Tuesday's vote in the Senate to pass the funding bill with language ending the truck project, the Mexican government put immediate pressure on the Obama administration to reinstate approval for Mexican trucks to operate throughout the U.S.

"Mexico still believes that the United States' noncompliance on this issue, more than 14 years overdue, is a violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement," Mexican Embassy spokesman Ricardo Alday told the AP.

Alday insisted Mexico is willing to work with Congress and the U.S. "in finding a solution that honors its international obligation."

The Mexican truck issue became rancorous over the past two years as Bush administration Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters fought off repeated efforts by Congress to confine Mexican trucks to a narrow 20-mile-wide commercial area north of the southern border.

WND reported that after the truck project began, an examination of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration database revealed hundreds of safety violations by Mexican long-haul rigs on U.S. roads.

The contention of opponents has been that Mexican trucks and truck drivers do not reliably meet U.S. standards.

As WND reported, in a contentious Senate hearing last March, Dorgan got Peters to admit that Mexican drivers were being designated at the border as "proficient in English" even though they could explain U.S. traffic signs only in Spanish.

In the tense hearing, Dorgan accused Peters of being "arrogant" and in reckless disregard of a congressional vote to stop the truck project by taking funds away.

As WND reported, opposition in the House was led by DeFazio, who in September 2007 accused the Bush administration of having a "stealth plan" to allow Mexican long-haul rigs on U.S. roads.

"This administration [of President George W. Bush] is hell-bent on opening our borders," DeFazio then said, "but has failed to require that Mexican drivers and trucks meet the same safety and security standards as U.S. drivers and trucks."

Previously, Peters had argued the wording of the Dorgan amendment did not prohibit the Transportation Department from stopping a Mexican truck project already under way, even if the measure prohibited DOT from starting any new project.

Despite strong congressional opposition, the Department of Transportation under President Bush had announced it planned in its final months to extend the truck project for another two years – an attempt to force the incoming Obama administration to comply.

Obama backtracking on NAFTA promises?

The administration's determination to open the U.S. to Mexican trucks raises questions about whether Obama intends to fulfill campaign promises to renegotiate NAFTA to get provisions more favorable to American workers and jobs.

During the presidential campaign, top Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, an economics professor at the University of Chicago business school, stirred controversy after reporters learned he traveled to Canada to reassure Canadians that Obama's harsh words about NAFTA were just campaign rhetoric.

In the Ohio and Pennsylvania Democratic Party primaries, Obama pledged to renegotiate NAFTA as part of his appeal to workers in the states that have lost manufacturing jobs under the free trade agreements negotiated by Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.

Now, Goolsbee has joined the Obama administration, having taken a leave of absence from the University of Chicago after Obama appointed him chief economist and staff director of the newly created Presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board, chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker.

Obama also appointed Goolsbee to the Council of Economic Advisors, or CEA, which is charged with assisting in the development of White House economic policy.

In his first trip to a foreign nation, Obama traveled to Canada, where he used a press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to backtrack on his promise to renegotiate NAFTA.

The London Guardian reported Obama's comments in Canada "muddied his position" on NAFTA.

Obama responded to a question at the joint press conference with Harper saying, "Now is a time where we have to be very careful about any signs of protectionism."

Translated, this meant that any renegotiation of NAFTA by the Obama administration might involve fine-tuning some of the side agreements, not renegotiating NAFTA itself in any fundamental way.

Then there was the issue of the "Buy American" provision inserted into the administration's $787 billion economic stimulus plan.

Canada was concerned that the provision could hurt Canadian steel exports to the U.S., and the EU complained the provision was antithetical to the spirit of the Transatlantic Economic Council, which President Bush signed with the EU last April.

The Obama administration did not object when language was added to the economic stimulus bill to specify that the "Buy American" provision would be interpreted as buying American products if it was consistent with U.S. international trade obligations. That meant any free trade agreement would override the obligation.

Nafta Superhighway Returns From The Dead

prisonplanet.com/

The Trans-Texas Corridor, part of the NAFTA Superhighway projected to link the United States with Canada and Mexico as an integral cog of the North American Union, is back on the agenda .

The open plan to merge the US with Mexico and Canada and create a Pan-American Union networked by a NAFTA Superhighway has long been a Globalist brainchild, but fierce opposition to the plan from activists across the country has stalled the plan at least temporarily.

A key component of the NAU transport system was the proposed Trans Texas Corridor, a massive 4,000 mile network of highways that were to be sold to the Spanish company Cintra and operated as toll roads - creating a huge new tax on the American people which would be paid directly to a foreign-owned private company.

Texas Governor and Bilderberg invitee Rick Perry launched a PR stunt in January when he claimed that the Trans Texas Corridor was dead, when in reality as Jerome Corsi and others pointed out, the project was merely to have its name changed and its design slightly altered.

“Close examination shows Perry’s declaration from Iraq involves yet more public relations efforts by the governor and TxDOT to defuse criticism from voters and reposition a hugely unpopular initiative by dropping the designation ‘Trans-Texas Corridor,’ or ‘TTC,’ while still allowing TxDOT to proceed with the components of the original TTC plan that had been scheduled for implementation now,” wrote Corsi.

Corsi’s warning that the TTC was still very much in the pipeline has proven accurate with the news that the authority of the Texas Department of Transportation, TxDOT, will run for at least 2 more years with a fresh injection of $2 billion in state funds that will be allocated to new transport projects.

Using the cover of a special session of the legislature, Perry will push “a measure that allows private companies to build more toll roads across the state,” according to the Houston Chronicle.

“Gov. Perry wants to get the legislature to reauthorize through 2013 the ability of Texas to enter into Comprehensive Development Agreements, or CDAs, with foreign developers to develop Texas highways under public-private partnerships,” Hank Gilbert, a board member with TexasTurf.org, or Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, told World Net Daily.

“We are fighting to defeat any attempt by Gov. Perry to extend CDAs,” he said. “Without CDAs, TxDOT will have a difficult time getting foreign development companies to come into Texas to convert our freeways to toll roads.”

Obama 'clones' Bush in killing sovereignty
You thought plan was dead, but Democrat brings it back

President Obama is continuing President George W. Bush's effort to advance North American integration with a public-relations makeover calculated to place the program under the radar of public opinion and to deflect concerns about border security and national sovereignty.

The Obama administration has "rebranded" and "refocused" the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, to advance the Bush administration's agenda of North American integration under the rubric of the "North American Leaders Summit," a less controversial banner, according to confidential sources in the U.S. Department of Commerce and State Department who agreed to speak with WND only if their comments were kept off the record.

As WND reported in August, the White House offered few details to the press in advance of the most recent North American Leaders Summit held in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Moreover, the Guadalajara summit was reduced to a one-day meeting, whereas all previous SPP trilateral summits had been two-day events.

Sources confirmed to WND that the SPP is now being directed from within the White House, as reflected by a new blog posted on the White House website entitled "The North American Leaders Summit." The site is intended to replace SPP.gov as the official website documenting trilateral government activities going forward under the rebranded name.

The SPP website maintained by the Department of Commerce now has a disclaimer that reads: "This website is an archive for SPP documents and will not be updated."

Sources also confirmed the SPP mission was "refocused" at the Guadalajara summit Aug. 10 to emphasize three themes: (1) North American citizen security; (2) North American economic competitiveness; and (3) North American energy policy and climate change agenda.

The refocusing resulted from a think-tank analysis that argued the trilateral bureaucratic working groups created under SPP did not pursue enough "big picture" agenda items to make a positive public relations impact on the national voters in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Sources in the State Department confirmed that the more than 20 trilateral working groups will continue under the North American Leader's Summit, with bureaucrats from the three nations assigned from different agencies within each government. The groups will work on a North American agenda "integrating and harmonizing" administrative rules across a broad range of policy areas ranging from transportation to border security, health, e-commerce, movement of goods, environment, energy and financial services.

The SPP website has not yet been scrubbed of an extensive set of documents describing the "prosperity agenda" and "security agenda" of the SPP working groups.

WND was unable to obtain a copy of the intra-governmental organizational chart of the North American Leaders Summit to determine if the working group organizational chart was identical to the one WND obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request and published in the 2007 book "The Late Great USA: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada.".

Sources in the State Department also confirmed that the North American Competitiveness Council will continue to operate under the North American Leaders Summit.

WND has previously reported that a multinational business agenda drove much of the trilateral working group activity under the SPP, with the North American Competitiveness Council serving as a closed-door adviser made up of 30 business leaders hand-picked without congressional approval or confirmation from the U.S., Mexico and Canada by the chambers of commerce in each nation.

WND also reported that the rebranding of the SPP into the more innocuous-sounding North American Leaders Summit began at the fourth annual summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America hosted by President Bush in New Orleans in April 2008, when the official logo of the conference dropped the SPP designation.

WND has previously reported that Robert A. Pastor, the American University professor who for more than a decade has been a major proponent of building a North American Community, has declared the SPP "is dead," largely due to the efforts to expose the SPP's North American integration agenda.

WND has also reported that President Obama has actively backtracked on his campaign promises to renegotiate NAFTA to get provisions more favorable to American workers.

During the presidential campaign, Obama was forced to fire from his campaign an important economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, after reporters learned Goolsbee – a University of Chicago economics professor – had traveled to Canada to reassure Canadians that campaign promises to renegotiate NAFTA were just empty rhetoric.

In the Ohio and Pennsylvania Democratic Party primaries, candidate Obama had pledged to renegotiate NAFTA as part of his appeal to workers in the states that have lost manufacturing jobs under the free trade agreements negotiated by Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.

Now, Goolsbee is back in the White House, having taken a leave of absence from the University of Chicago after President Obama appointed him to serve as chief economist and staff director of the newly created Presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board, chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker.

Obama also appointed Goolsbee to the Council of Economic Advisors, or CEA, which is charged with assisting in the development of White House economic policy.

SPP organizational chart = http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=109347

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Entertainment => Politics and Political Issues => Topic started by: Soldier4Christ on June 15, 2006, 06:51:23 AM