Posted on 07/05/2006 5:05:51 AM PDT by conservativecorner
A Mexican customs facility planned for Kansas City's inland port may have to be considered the sovereign soil of Mexico as part of an effort to lure officials in that country into cooperating with the Missouri development project.
Despite adamant denials by Kansas City Area Development Council officials, WND has obtained emails and other documents from top executives with the KCSmartPort project that suggest such a facility would by necessity be considered Mexican territory – despite its presence in the heartland of the U.S.
The documents were obtained with the assistance of Joyce Mucci, the founder of the Mid-America Immigration Reform Coalition, under the provisions of the Missouri Sunshine Law from the City of Kansas City, Mo., and from the Missouri Department of Economic Development.
The documents reveal a two-year campaign initiated in 2004 and managed by top SmartPort officials to win Mexico's agreement to establish the Mexican customs facility within the Kansas City "inland port." Kansas City SmartPort launched a concerted effort to advance the idea, holding numerous meetings with Mexican government officials in Mexico and in Washington to push the Mexican port idea in concert. The effort involved Missouri elected officials, including members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
The documents make clear that Mexico demanded Kansas City pay all costs.
"Kansas City, Mo., is leasing the site to Kansas City SmartPort," Tasha Hammes of the development council wrote to WND last month. "It will NOT be leased to any Mexican government agency or to be sovereign territory of Mexico."
Yet, an email written June 21, 2004, by Chris Gutierrez, the president of the KC SmartPort, stated that the Mexican customs office space "would need to be designated as Mexican sovereign territory and meet certain requirements."
Even more recently, an email dated March 10 of this year was sent by Gutierrez to a long list of recipients that left no doubt that KC SmartPort has not yet received federal government approval to move forward with the Mexican customs facility. Gutierrez informed the email recipients that the processing a critical form, designated "C-175," needs approval by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection before the form is passed to the State Department for final approval. The processing and approval of the C-175 application is holding up the final approval of the Mexican customs facility.
In the same memo, Gutierrez reported on a recent meeting in Washington: "Both sides (U.S. and Mexican officials) met several weeks ago and the 'document' or as the U.S. refers to it the 'C-175' is near completion. This document is the basis for the procedural, regulatory, jurisdictional, etc. for the project. It defines what will happen and how and what laws, etc. allow this to happen. Both sides have put a lot of effort into this document."
Gutierrez appeared concerned that the intensive lobbying done by KC SmartPort could be a wasted effort if the final U.S. government approvals were not completed before Mexico elected a new president this week.
"The process for the document is for U.S. Customs to present the document to the acting Commissioner and officials with the Dept of Homeland Security," he wrote. "This will happen in March. The document will then be reviewed by the U.S. State Dept who has been consulted on the document all along so they are aware of it. State will make the recommendation on the diplomatic status of the Mexican officials and the documents fit with existing agreements, accords or treaties. Mexico will wait for this recommendation and then get the sign off of their Foreign Ministry (Secretary [Luis Ernesto] Derbez and Under Secretary [Geronimo] Gutierrez are well versed on the project and support it). The hope of both sides is that this will be completed before the Mexican presidential elections in July."
Gutierrez's March 10 email ended by expressing a hope that discussion of the Mexican customs facility issue could be kept from the public, obviously concerned that press scrutiny might end up producing an adverse public reaction that could destroy the project. Gutierrez specifically proposes a low-profile strategy designed to keep the KC SmartPort and the Mexican customs facility out of public view.
"The one negative that was conveyed to us was the problems and pressure the media attention has created for both sides," he wrote. "They want us to stop promoting the facility to the press. We let them know that we have never issued a proactive press release on this and that the media attention started when Commissioner (Robert) Bonner was in KC and met with Rick Alm. The official direction moving forward is that we can respond to the media with a standard response that I will send out on Monday and refer all other inquiries to U.S. Customs. I will get the name from them to refer media calls."
Robert C. Bonner is the commissioner of CBP within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Rick Alm is a reporter for the Kansas City Star.
Among those copied on Gutierrez's email of March 10, 2006, was George D. Blackwood, the president of NASCO (North America's Super Corridor Coalition, Inc.). Blackwood is an attorney with Blackwood, Langworthy & Tyson in Kansas City. He also served as the former chairman of the North American International Trade Corridor Partnership, which he helped found in 1998 when he was serving as mayor pro tem of Kansas City. NASCO supports the Kansas City SmartPort's initiative to establish a Mexican customs facility as part of the NASCO SuperCorridor project.
LoL. But they just keep trying.
I have met Joyce Mucci numerous times. She is quite a looker.
Those who believe this crap may well be nuts. But such beliefs are common to those who think the World Nut Daily is a credible source of information.
But, but, but what about the Pan American Highway? Hasn't it led to disasters unimagined? Llamas walking into the US?
Thanks for posting this. My estimate is this KC port will be considered Mexican soil. That's how low some so called Americans will try to abase this nation. All to bring in Chinese crap via Mexico.
The banana crop in Ohio must be huge.
shhhh
Nice delusions there. Are they natural or artificially induced.
In this case, "worked up" = "correcting the record."
Wow, JV you are some kind of nut huh? ;)
My lebenteenzillion times Great Grandparents didn't~! But they had their own boat.
*ping*
F.Y.I and your ping list?
You know I am taking a lot of heat on this thread, but there are at least a few others that can see how worked up some folks have gotten over what is really nothing at all.
Take you. You seem to think that this facility in Kansas City, of all places, is intended to facilitate the import of "chinese crap" via Mexico.
Well, You don't want Chinese crap, don't buy it then. That's freedom for you.
But that's not really my point. My point is that this KC facility is being proposed to make if easier for Mexicans to Buy "American crap".
This is primarily an EXPORT facility. That's what pre-clearance is all about.
Think about it.
There is no need for a Mexican customs facility in Kansas City to facilitate import of Mexican good into the US. That's the function of US CUSTOMS, Einstein. This Mexican Customs facility is to facilitate our own exports to Mexico.
US Customs will set up in Mexico, not in Kansas City, to pre-clear Mexican cargo into the US.
This entire thread is powered by bad gas.
Like Bill Clinton and Fat Maddie, Pat Buchanan is still out there plotting.
They just go from thread to thread. And all by Corsi. All of them.
I was just on another thread. Well, when the debunking started happening, the usual suspects bugged out. I haven't checked, but I'm sure they're here.
What American crap are the Mexicans buying? We run a trade deficit with them. Was 30 billion dollars a few years ago. Before NAFTA we ran a surplus and the illegal alien problem wasn't nearly as bad. But the Mexicans do buy lots of Chinese craps and run a large trade deficit with China
Chinese craps coming into Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas then onward by rail to so called "Smart Port" in Kansas City ---->>>
http://www.kcsmartport.com/sec_news/media/articles/News.htm
The next stage of the SmartPort project will begin to track containers on railcars, using Kansas City Southern Railway's line that extends to the Mexican Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas. Hutchison Port Holdings, the port operator, is expanding container capacity from 200,000 containers in 2005 to 2.5 million in the near future, Gutierrez said. Kansas City is at the center of a port-to-port access that also extends north to Hudson's Bay at Churchill, Manitoba. Some planners are considering Churchill as terminus of an Arctic Ocean container route from Murmansk, Russia.
SmartPort is one of a growing network of inland ports that want to use ocean routes to Churchill, or Lazaro Cardenas, or other ports to relieve congestion on the West Coast. For more than a century, Kansas City boosters have pointed out that the overland distance is shorter to a Mexican port than any West Coast port. The north-south routes would not likely supplant Los Angeles or New York-New Jersey, but the inland ports working together can provide some benefits for warehousing and distribution.
"The idea is that there is a network of interested parties that recognize there is some synergy within these inland ports, linking Canada, the U.S. and Mexico together," said Greg Dandewich, director of economic development for Destination Winnipeg, the northernmost partner in the inland network.
I used to subscribe to Human Events but dropped them when they started spending too much time attacking the President. They are horning in on the NY Times business.
I myself have probably answered your question a dozen times over the past two years. Do you actually forget, or simply pretend to be ignorant?
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