Controversy Erupts Over NASCO and the NAFTA Super-Highway

Human Events Online ^ | Jun 26, 2006 | Jerome R. Corsi

[hedgetrimmer]

Last Thursday in a radio interview with the 55KRC Morning Show in Cincinnati, Tiffany Melvin, executive director of North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition, told host Jerry Thomas that my June 12 Human Events article on NASCO was “absolutely inaccurate.”



Melvin declined to be interview for this article, stating in an e-mail her current priority was to answer the “accusations, bad information, and false assumptions” in the June 12 article. “After I have a chance to get my life back and return to a normal schedule, I will contact you,” she wrote. “In the meantime, I will continue to respond to the inquiries your erroneous reporting has caused.”

What is NASCO? It is a non-profit 501c6 organization that functions as a trade association and sometimes lobbying group for the public and private entities that are members. NASCO is an acronym for North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition, which is the official title of the organization. According to the group’s website, NASCO is “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.”

Specifically, NASCO supports the corridor that encompasses Interstate Highways 35, 29 and 94, and “the significant east/west connectors to those highways in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.” That NASCO is organized around promoting NAFTA trade is obvious. Again, as stated by the group’s website:

From the largest border crossing in North America (The Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Canada), to the second largest border crossing of Laredo, Texas and Neuvo Laredo, Mexico, extending to the deep water Ports of Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico and to Manitoba, Canada, the impressive, tri-national NASCO membership truly reflects the international scope of the Corridor and the regions it impacts. (Emphasis in original.)

From an industry perspective, NASCO is one of the organizations supporting various north-south corridors identified to facilitate NAFTA trade. NASCO has absorbed the former North American International Trade Corridor Partnership, a non-profit group organized in Mexico with similar goals of internationalizing U.S. highways into a NAFTA structure to facilitate trade with Mexico and Canada. The North American Inland Port Network (NAIPN) is also listed as a NASCO partner. NAIPN functions as a NASCO sub-committee to develop “inland ports” along the highway corridors “to specifically alleviate congestion at maritime ports and our nation’s borders.”

To get a feel of the NAFTA corridor movement, we also reference CANAMEX, a trade organization that promotes a Western tri-lateral route utilizing I-19, I-10, I-93 and I-15 in the states of Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Montana to link the three countries in trade. Another non-profit group, the North American Forum on Integration (NAFI), identifies four bands of NAFTA corridors (Pacific, West, East and Atlantic), all relying primarily upon internationalizing north-south existing interstate highways into NAFTA trade corridors.

One of Melvin’s main bones of contention was that NASCO did not stand for the building the NASCO corridor into a Trans-Texas Corridor-type super-highway. “NASCO is working on existing infrastructure,” Melvin told 55KRC. Yet, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is a NASCO member and NASCO supports the Trans-Texas Corridor as part of that relationship. Melvin’s e-mail stated:

The Trans-Texas Corridor is not a NASCO initiative. We support the project in Texas, as it solves critical funding problems and congestion IN TEXAS. I know of NO plans to extend it into additional states. It is not the first section of a NAFTA Super Highway. It is not ready to begin construction next year.

According to the 4,000-page draft environmental impact statement, the plan is to build a 4,000-mile network of new super-highways that will be “up to 1,200 feet wide (at full build-out) with separate lanes for passenger vehicles (three in each direction) and trucks (two in each direction), six rail lines (separate lines in each direction for high-speed rail, commuter rail, and freight rail), and a 200-foot wide utility corridor.”

On March 11, 2005, TxDOT signed a definitive agreement with Cintra Zachry, a limited partnership formed by Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructures de Transport in Spain and the San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Co. “to develop the Oklahoma to Mexico/Gulf Coast element of the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC-35). This agreement calls for the Cintra-Zachry limited partnership to pay Texas $1.2 billion “for the long-term right to build and operate the initial segment as a toll facility.” The initial TTC-35 segment is scheduled to be built roughly parallel to I-35 between Dallas and San Antonio. The final public hearings are scheduled in Texas for July and August. While construction contracts have yet to be finalized, Cintra-Zachry presumably holds those rights as a result of the $1.2 billion payment to Texas, as described in the March 11, 2005, contract. The timeline published on the Trans-Texas Corridor website envisions final federal approval by the summer of 2007, with the construction of the first TTC-35 segment to follow immediately afterward.

In regard to whether NASCO intends to rely only on existing interstate highway infrastructure, the NASCO statement of purpose cited above calls for building “the world’s first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system.” The TTC-35 project is the first super-highway project in the U.S. proceeding to incorporate railroad as part of the design, producing a truly “integrated” and “multi-modal” highway-railroad system.

Do other states plan to build TTC like roads? Most states today are strapped for cash even to maintain existing highways. Still, the investment banking and international capital pools that put together the TTC project are certain to want to apply the model to additional states along the I-35 corridor. I would also note that Cintra-Zachry is unlikely to be building TTC-35 with the idea that the four-football-fields-wide super-highway just ends at the Oklahoma border. Once the investment bankers have the deal sealed in Texas, the TTC plan and funding are certain to be taken to many other states, including Oklahoma and Kansas.

The city of Kansas City, Mo., and the Kansas City SmartPort are both listed on the NASCO website as NASCO members. The Kansas City Area Development Council has directly confirmed that the Kansas City SmartPort intends to build a Mexican customs facility to facilitate out-going traffic headed to Mexico. A copy of the Kansas City council resolution authorizing the construction of the Mexican customs facility can be found on the Internet.

Melvin also maintained that NASCO is “not competing with West Coast ports or trying to take work from them.” This argument is made, however, in a brochure posted on the website of the Kansas City SmartPort, titled “Lazaro Cardenas—Kansas City Transportation Corridor Offers Opportunities for International Shippers.”

Yet, in March 2005, Kansas City signed a cooperative pact with representatives from the Mexican state of Michoacan and with representatives from Lazaro Cardenas, a deep-port town on the Pacific coast south of the Baha peninsula, to increase the cargo volume between Lazaro Cardenas and Kansas City. The goal is to bring super-ships carrying 4,000 containers or more from China and the Far East into Mexico so the containers can be moved into the heart of the United States, bypassing the West Coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Right now transportation costs about double the cost of cheap goods made in China and the Far East. The Kansas City SmartPort plan offers a methodology for cutting out U.S. workers from the International Longshoremen’s Association, the United Transportation Union and the Teamsters. As the brochure explains:

Shipments will be pre-screened in Southeast Asia and the shipper will send advance notification to Mexican and American Customs with the corresponding “pre-clearance” information on the cargo. Upon arrival in Mexico, containers will pass through multiple X-ray and gamma ray screenings, allowing any containers with anomalies to quickly be removed for further inspection.

Container shipments will be tracked using intelligent transportation systems (ITS) that could include global positioning systems (GPS) or radio frequency identification systems (RFID) and monitored by the ITS on their way to inland trade-processing centers in Kansas City and elsewhere in the United States.

The Kansas City SmartPort brochure could not be more explicit: “Kansas City offers the opportunity for sealed cargo containers to travel to Mexican port cities with virtually no border delays. It will streamline shipments from Asia and cut the time and labor costs associated with shipping through the congested ports on the West Coast.”

The plan to put the NAFTA Super-Highway is intended to be done incrementally, designed to stay below the radar of mainstream media attention. The full build-out of the Trans-Texas Corridor’s 4,000-mile planned network is projected to be completed in discrete stages, over the next 50 years. This gives plenty of time to expand the super-highway network incrementally, state-by-state up-and-down the various identified NAFTA corridors.

The plan to create a North American Union as a regional government in 2010 is directly stated only in the May 2005 task force report, “Building a North American Community.” Still, we must examine how the Security and Prosperity Partnership signed by President Bush with Mexico and Canada in Waco, Tex., on March 23, 2005, is being implemented. We find that government offices such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership working groups being organized within the U.S. Department of Commerce are signing trilateral memoranda of understanding and other agreements with Mexico and Canada consistent with the goal of fulfilling the CFR’s dream to bring about a North American Union by 2010.

We find the same here. NASCO is a trade organization that will never fund or build a single highway anywhere. Yet NASCO supports its members and NASCO members are hard at work building the NAFTA Super-Highway.

[hedgetrimmer]

A public-private partnership is exactly what it says it is. It is a business partnership with the goal of making a profit and NOT providing a service like government. A formal business agreement or contract seals the partnership. The business form of partnership provides the most flexibility for operating business as it can be expanded and more partners can be added in the future. Secondly, there are public and private partners. The public partners are all levels of government, from local, to county, state, regional and federal as well as foreign and international, such as the United Nations. The private partners include corporations - those with the deepest pockets and non-governmental organizations like Planned Parenthood, The nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, Red Cross, or the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation. Examples of public-private partnerships include sewer systems, power plants, water facilities, charter schools, etc.,

Because all levels of government are broke, the fact that business comes in to "help" is really a transfer of the responsibilities that government use to provide for its citizens as a service to corporations. The corporations want to make a profit. The little lady who receives a 30% increase in her sewer or water bill is not going to understand that the sewer system that used to belong to the city where she lives has now been transferred into a business arrangement that still includes the City as a partner but also has new financial resources with the corporate partner. Who has the real power? Whoever has the money. All across the country and globe, at every level of government, assets are being transferred from government and the citizenry to a new business arrangement in which the goal is a profit.

--Joan Veon

[hedgetrimmer]

The NASCO corridor is the product of "free trade".

A cautionary note about the end game of "free trade":

A continual process of war, revolution, and terrorism [creative destruction], removing major impediments for the global establishment of a unique and unified America/British capitalism based on the political, economic and social precepts of Fabian Socialism. Free trade requires the complete destruction of national sovereignty and is a cornerstone of the Fabian Socialism. In the end, it is an international form of socialism that will control all the economic, political, and social activities of this planet. The United Nations and its many agencies are assisting in helping to establish this reality. Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism are all integral parts of the same process

--The Permanent Revolution
Terry Hayfield

[winodog]

Why do we need this massive system in the middle of the country when the vast majority of the people live on the coast? Who made the decision to "abandon" Long Beach in favor of a new improved super port in Mexico, a nation that hates us?

What do these "business people" know that we dont about the future direction of our country?

[ckilmer]

The deep question is how do you make Mexico a first class country. This is something that Vincente Fox has brought up frequently recently.

The trouble is that no one quite sees that the very best thing we could do for Mexico is to send their now well trained citizens home.

Suddenly Mexico would have a skilled workforce who knew something about how a world class country worked.

Think these folk would propel a great leap forward for Mexico?

I do.

Basically the ruling class in Mexico is preditory to its own detriment and will not change of its own volition--even if those changes were in its own interest. But it can be forced to change.

The Mexicans in the USA have had the picture of what a well run country looks like tatooed on the back of their eyeballs. And they'll have an idea of how to get there. Send them back to Mexico and they'll get a revolution in Mexico that'll do that country some good.

The shock troops for that would be the 12 million repatriated Mexican citizens. Having seen what a well run country looks like they would not want to be stuffed back in the old wineskin.

There's something more.

I follow water desalination research pretty closely. While water desalination costs have dropped to about a third of what they were 15 years ago--the rate at which prices will drop over the next seven years will accelerate considerably. imo in even the next five years we will see desalination costs drop to 1/10th of today's costs. Or even faster than the fall the 3/4 fall that the LLNL researchers suggest.
http://www.physorg.com/news67262683.html
Basically, the foundations are being laid today to make it economically feasable to to turn all the world's deserts green. (The proper way to look at this is to recall that cars, tv's and computers were at first rich men's toys but when prices came down they changed the world. Desalinised water is still relatively speaking -- a rich man's toy. But when the price drops sufficiently--desalinised water will change the world--because most deserts are right beside the ocean. Pumping the water 1000 miles inland will require that the scientists collapse the cost cracking out hydrogen from water. I think that this nut will be cracked sooner than desalination.)

imho cheap desalinised water will do for the republicans (if they can get this on their agenda or even the democrats if the pubbies drop the ball) what the great dam building projects & the tva of the 1930's & 40's did for democrats because 1/3 of the US is deserts. We would increase the habitable size of the USA by 1/3.

Dirt cheap desalinised water will also do things like make it possible to double the habitable size of Mexico. Cheap water is no magic bullet but it will give the Mexican Nationalists a way to dream while the Mexican people do the real work.

And desalinated water in tandem with repatriation of now skilled Mexican citizens would propel Mexico into being a world class country.

Oh and one last thing. Mexico will need a stronger dose of of the Peruvian Hernando Desoto ideas. Basically DeSoto asked the question why are some countries poor and some questions rich. His answers are being implimented successfully in countries around the world. http://www.ild.org.pe/home.htm

Hernando de Soto's organization was invited to Mexico and did some work on the question. He says that only 6 percent of Mexican enterprises are legal, the rest are informal. So how do you reverse that so that only 6% of the economy is informal -- as is the case the USA. De Soto would provide the ideas around which the 12 million american trained Mexican returnees could rally.

There is a winner here. The winner is Mexico.

The US profits too by having a prosperous politically stable country with a broad middle class to the south as we do to the north.

[rottndog]

We find that government offices such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership working groups being organized within the U.S. Department of Commerce are signing trilateral memoranda of understanding and other agreements with Mexico and Canada consistent with the goal of fulfilling the CFR’s dream to bring about a North American Union by 2010.

Does anyone know under what legal authority this is happening? What bills passed by congress and signed into law provide the funding for this? What congressional committees have oversight?

[hedgetrimmer]

Does anyone know under what legal authority this is happening?

The Security and Prosperity Partnership was created by Executive Order. The president instructs federal government agencies to implement it, and they do so out of existing budgets. Congress has no authority, unless it is to rescind the EO.

[rottndog]

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the Executive branch limited to implementing and enforcing laws passed by Congress? The President can send out all the EOs he wants, but without a specific law giving him the authority, especially with regards to expenditures of tax dollars, does he really have the legal right?

Also, isn't this subject to FOIA? (Where's Judicial Watch when you need them?)

[processing please hold]

A question.

If I had the chance to inform an uninformed about what is going on with the North America Union BS. If I could only offer them one article to see what's happening, what would that article be? Remember, I would only get one shot...one article.

[hedgetrimmer]

If I could only offer them one article to see what's happening, what would that article be?

What do you all suggest?

[1rudeboy]

Do you have the E.O. number? I'd like to read it.

[antisocial]

"The US profits too by having a prosperous politically stable country with a broad middle class to the south as we do to the north."

How will these ideas of yours solve the #1 problem of Mexico, which is massive corruption?

Corruption, payoffs, etc.

[Ben Ficklin]

"Congress has no authority"

Sure they do. They have the authority to pass the North American Cooperative Security Act.

[rottndog]

How will these ideas of yours solve the #1 problem of Mexico, which is massive corruption?

I would include in that question what is to be done with the fact that much of Northern Mexico is controlled by drug cartels (the ones for which beheadings are now standard operating procedure)?

[hedgetrimmer]

Rechecking the SPP, and its not formed from an EO but a trilateral agreement with Canada and Mexico. It is linked to the Department of Commerce. Through them, you can request documents via FOIA.

How to File a FOIA Request
A FOIA request can be made for any agency record that is not publicly available. Describe as best as possible the records you are requesting. In your description include information such as the date and place the records were created, the file descriptions, subject matter, persons involved, and other pertinent details that will help identify the records. Please be aware that the FOIA does not require agencies to answer questions, or to create records to respond to a request.

Include a mailing address and a daytime telephone number so we can contact you if necessary. When submitting your request by mail, please mark the envelope "FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUEST."

Note: Keep a copy of your request. You may need to refer to it in further correspondence with the agency.

Office of the Secretary
Bobbie Parsons
Immediate Office of the Secretary
Office of Management and Organization
U.S. Department of Commerce
14th and Constitution Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20230
Phone: 202-482-3707
Fax: 202-219-8979
BParsons@doc.gov

Sample FOIA Request Letter
Date

Freedom of Information Act Request

Agency Head or FOIA Officer

Name of agency or agency component

Address (see discussion above on whom to contact

Dear __________:

Under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, I am requesting copies of [identify the records as clearly and specifically as possible].

If there are any fees for searching or copying the records, please let me know before you fill my request. [Or, please supply the records without informing me of the cost if the fees do not exceed $______, which I agree to pay.]

If you deny all or any part of this request, please cite each specific exemption to think justify your withholding of information. Notify me of appeal procedures available under the law. Optional: If you have any questions about handling this request, you may telephone me at ___________ (home phone) or at ___________ (office phone).

Sincerely,


Name

Address





http://www.osec.doc.gov/omo/FOIA/foiarequest.htm

[Smartass]

It's a very large subject that can't be wrapped into one article. For starters, I'd go to an article posted here on the Free Republic in 1999, titled:
"Shadow Government of the United States"
Shadow Gov.
Lots of good info. Build your knowledge base from there.

 

[ckilmer]

Masssive corruption is what you get when everything is off the books. Hernando de Soto estimated that 94% of Mexico's economy is informal or off the books. Hernando de soto would put everything back on the books. Its harder to cook the books.

So you wouldn't stop the corruption but you would scale it back considerably.

[OB1kNOb]

Thanks for the ping and keeping us up to date on the latest.

[1rudeboy]

If I had the chance to inform an uninformed about what is going on with the North America Union BS. If I could only offer them one article to see what's happening, what would that article be?

I would search the SPP website, myself. You could use its own words to make your point without sounding like a nutter.

[JoeFromSidney]

In the Twentieth Century, a prominent statesman named Benito Mussolini had a name for public-private partnerships: Fascism. By definition, that's private ownership with government control.

It's worth keeping in mind that Hitler was a National Socialist (Nazi), not a Fascist. The 1920 platform of the National Socialist Party was a typical socialist platform. There was no room for private ownership in it. Mussolini rejected pure socialism, wanting to combine the efficiency of private ownership with the egalitarianism of government control. The results were disastrous. Italy is still stuck with the remnants of Fascism, with certain industries largely being under the control of particular political parties, who traditionally get certain ministries, no matter who forms a government.

[hedgetrimmer]

They have the authority to pass the North American Cooperative Security Act.

Do they? The have the authority to secure Canada and Mexico with our tax dollars? To secure Mexico's southern border with our tax dollars?