Feds cooperate with U.N. programs..to steal private property

Feds cooperate with U.N. programs
to steal private property

By Jennifer Foster

June 1, 2005

I am reaching out for help for a lady who has become a very good friend of mine. She lives in the 1933 Ivanpah General Store, located in the East Mojave Desert. Her home happens to lie in the middle of the Mojave National Preserve, which is under management by National Park Service (NPS). NPS's crimes against the environment and human rights out there would be unbelievable - if my husband and I had not witnessed these crimes for ourselves.

Connie called me Christmas 2003. She had gone through a long list of phone numbers before she came to ours. Everyone else had told her they could not, or did not have time to help her. There was a sound to her voice that reached my heart. She told me I was the last number she had, and that she had prayed that I would be able to help. I told her that while my husband and I fight for rights to use Public Lands for grazing and recreation, I did not know if I knew enough to help her, but I made a date to drive the 2 and a half hours to her house to take a look around.

Connie's environs are like stepping back into history. No electricity, no modern conveniences. Her home is in need of repair, and we have people who will supply the materials and labor to restore her place, if the Park Service would just let her be.

We went out shortly after New Year's Day, 2004. Her full name is Connie Connelly, and back in 1963 her father, Don Connelly, purchased the Ivanpah Store and outbuildings on five acres of land. He moved his family into the store, and started the business going again. The store not only served the Cattlemen in the area, but also the miners and tourists. This area is rich in the history of pioneer travel, homesteading, mining, ranching, and other uses, long before California Statehood, and up to the present day. In 1968, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) managed some of the land out there. BLM Agents came to Connie's father, and told him he did not own the land. He fought their claims for two years and trusting them, he turned over his paperwork (that proved his ownership) to BLM's Field Manager so that they (BLM) could "set their records straight." In those days, Private Property Owners in the Mojave Desert had no mistrust of this government agency. Needless to say, Connie's father never saw his paperwork again. Now, these and other vital records are missing, at all levels of government: federal, county, and state.

Mr. Connelly's wife became very ill, and they had to move in closer to a medical facility for her care. He boarded up the place, and told BLM the situation, but that they would be back. Connie was about 8 years old then. Her mother was diagnosed with Dementia. (If she were alive today, she would have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.) When she was well enough to go back home, they returned to their home and store, only to find that BLM had let squatters move in. BLM told them the only way they could get the squatters out was to buy them out. So BLM arranged for a Land Contract to be drawn up between the Squatters and the Connellys, in order for them to buy out the squatters. Even with the contract, prepared by a local attorney, it still took the Connellys several years to get the squatters out. Once the Connellys were back in their home, the BLM instructed them to stop paying on the contract, as the contract was illegal from the start.

In 1994, the California Desert Protection Act was passed, much to the dismay of all of us who live and work in the Desert. With that Act of Congress, 1.2 million acres were turned over to management of the National Park Service, and the Mojave National Preserve was born: born out of stealing people's private property - real and personal - either through making "willing sellers," or outright moving of traditional boundary markers, and claiming private properties as federal properties. The Preserve is being managed by NPS, under the U.N. Biosphere Program with its un-American Agenda, through the Desert Managers Group. Contrary to BLM mapping, current NPS mapping shows "no private property within the preserve," although there exists close to 90,000 acres of private property in, and abutting the Preserve. Their mapping is a picture of what they intend for this area: a complete take-over of private properties and water.

Connie dropped out of school in the 8th grade because she needed to be at home with her mother while her father worked. From the time the Preserve was born, BLM, and now NPS, instituted a relentless badgering of Connie and her parents. Her father had been a Deputy Sheriff for two different Counties, and when he retired, he mined. Connie's father was killed in 1990 on his 80th birthday, leaving only Connie with a very ill mother, and a Park Service that kept trying to take their home. Connie did the best she could, but when her mother needed 24 hour care, Connie had no other choice than to put her into a facility. Connie's mother passed away at the end of 2003. Park Superintendent Mary Martin continues to say her parents passed away long before they did. Since that time, the only family Connie has had is mine. She is such an incredible human being, and a Christian woman. Connie never loses faith, no matter what evil comes her way. She may be frightened, but like she says, there is one thing they can never take from her, and that is her faith.

Many evil things have taken place, at the hands of NPS Superintendent Mary Martin and her Chief Ranger, Dennis Zeiman. I have never in my life met someone and immediately felt evil emanating from them, like I did when I met this Park Superintendent. Connie has had the threat of her home being bulldozed - if she leaves it for any length of time. They even had heavy equipment sitting on the road down from her for days. Rangers carrying guns have terrorized her. Our own Congressman refuses to help her. When I called his office for help, all they would tell me were false rumors that she had a drug lab, and that, "No Desert Person was going to embarrass the Congressman!" I told them they should call the local Sheriff's office, and the Captain could tell them all about Connie, because when all the terrorizing of Connie started, I called the Sheriff. He was sending out Deputies to check on her all the time. Come to find out our local Congressman has family property, and a vested interest in the Preserve, as does a U.S. Senator. The politics that continue to go on out there are incredible. It is downright disgusting. They sit in their high paying jobs, and move people around, like pieces on a game board.

I have taken Connie's issues all the way back to Washington, DC, but so far, all they have done is work with NPS to relocate her to Wyoming, instead of helping her keep her home. Connie does not want to leave her home. It is hers. I have documents to prove this, including the fact that she and her parents paid county taxes on their home. It is all she has left: a lifetime of memories; a place where she can walk where her father and mother once walked. Probably more important to her than most, because of her Native American Heritage from both her parents.

Connie was issued a Federal Trespass Violation and told she would be tried under Maritime Law. I acted quickly, and found out that she would be going to court on the Marine Base in Yermo, and a Magistrate would oversee her case. All along she has never been afforded her Constitutional right of Due Process. Her rights have been trampled on, and it seems no one who could make a difference for her, cares. When I called the Marine Base, the person who was in charge of PR on the base told me that the Marine Corps wanted everyone to know that they did not want this case on their base. They did not want to be a part of persecuting and prosecuting an American that had done nothing wrong. I have also been informed that NPS could drop the trespassing charges anytime they wanted, but it is the only thing they can hold over her head to make sure she leaves her land.

Right now we have an extension of Connie's court date (re: federal trespassing charges) to the 10th of June, and I have found her a private attorney. I don't know what will happen to Connie, but my husband, a few friends, and I are trying our best to save her home for her. Connie is strong in her faith, she never wavers, and I tell her all the time, she is the brave one, because she looks evil in the eye every single day.

While we are trying to do what we can, we could sure use some help in shining a light on this situation, to expose it for the evil that it is. Connie is one among many property owners that Park Service is working to remove. They thought she would be easy to get rid of because they thought she had no one, and they could just stomp all over her, and her rights. Well, she has us to stand with her. Now, others out there are coming forward with their own horror stories of the takings of their properties. A 62-year-old gentleman was arrested earlier this year for protecting his friend's life and property. He is looking at 7-16 years in Federal Prison for keeping a potentially violent situation with Park Service rangers from happening in front of his friend's 9-year-old son. We are also helping with that case. (One of those out-of-control Rangers has now been conveniently reassigned to the U.S. Virgin Islands.)

We need in-depth and on-going reporting of these true-life stories to bring needed attention to the fact of our sovereign land being taken over by federal agencies, for ultimate control by the United Nations. Their actions are certainly not about the environment; it is all about grabbing land and controlling water. The Desert Managers Group, of which NPS is a member agency, publicly declared last year that it was going to eventually take over all private water rights out there. If it were about the environment, they would not have given orders to shoot burros that have always been protected under our Wild Horse and Burro Act. They would not have drained the only water reservoir that could be used for wildland fires, nor obliterated water guzzlers that wildlife counted on for water sources, for over 100 years. They certainly would not have put their foremost endangered desert species, the Desert Tortoise in harm's way, by having heavy equipment moving around ripping and tearing out historical fence lines and corrals, destroying not only our Historic Western Heritage, but also destroying precious Desert Tortoise Habitat. And certainly not without a Biologist on the ground during the operations, which would have been in accordance with their own rules. They did this during the mating season, when the tortoise is above ground. Hal Avery was the Lead NPS Biologist for the Desert Tortoise on the Mojave National Preserve at the time this was going on. He was held at bay in the town of Nipton, when Park Superintendent Mary Martin refused to issue him the requisite permit to study and monitor the Tortoises' wellbeing.

When land changes from private property ownership/stewardship to that managed under the U.N. Biosphere program, no Constitutional or true environmental protections for people or animals matter. It's more than time to investigate National Park Service on the Preserve, as well as the Desert Managers Group - a pilot program that has not, since its inception, been held accountable for its egregious actions against American citizens and the environment.

Our Western Heritage (including our precious wildlife) is being utterly destroyed, day by day, in our Federal Courts, and on our Public Lands by these "land managers." I do not believe that this is what our Founding Fathers had in mind when the Constitution was written, in order to secure our inalienable God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. (Originally, the Founders had declared the rights to life, liberty, and property.) I am just a Grandma who wants her grandchildren, and all future generations, to live in a free society - continuing as good stewards of the land, and respectful of their and their neighbors' rights to live peacefully on their own land. Right now, our freedoms are threatened from not only the U.N., but from our own government. I pray all the time for the people who are at the mercy of National Park Service and other government agencies. The violence against their persons, and loss of property and possessions that these property owners face, is incredible.

I thank you for taking time to hear this story. Documentation, including copies of handwritten notes by Federal Agents on their personal note pads, and photos related to the cases above, are available. These are American stories that need to be told; they need to be shouted from and heard in the highest places of our land. Again, thank you for taking the time to hear this story. I am so sorry for the length of this, but it has become impossible to summarize in just a few words. If you would like to know more about these issues, I can be contacted at:

Jennifer Foster
15546 Fir
Hesperia, CA 92345
760.244.9157
or 760.964.6291

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THIS article at Eco-Logic / Powerhouse

Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc.

from Positions on Property, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Nov. 1998)

Existing and Tentative
U.N. World Heritage Sites in the United States
(Source: United States Committee, International Council on Monuments and Sites (US/ICOMOS) and National Park Service )

State	Existing World Heritage Sites (22) (and Date Inscribed)	Tentative Sites Identified by National Park Service for Nomination (70) (in cooperation with the Federal Interagency Panel for World Heritage
Alabama		Moundville Site
Alaska	Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (1992) Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (1979)	Aleutian Islands Unit of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (Fur Seal Rookeries) Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Cape Krusenstern Archaeological District Denali National Park Gates of the Arctic National Park Katmai National Park
Arizona	Grand Canyon National Park (1979)	Casa Grande National Monument Hohokam Pima National Monument Lowell Observatory Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument Saguaro National Monument San Xavier Del Bac Taliesin West Ventana Cave
California	Redwood National Park (1980) Yosemite National Park (1984)	Joshua Tree National Monument Point Reyes National Seashore/Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks
California/ Nevada		Death Valley National Monument
Colorado	Mesa Verde National Park (1978)	Colorado National Monument Lindenmeir Site Rocky Mountain National Park
District of Columbia		Chapel Hall, Gallaudet College Washington Monument
Florida/ Georgia	Everglades National Park (1979)	Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
Georgia		Ocmulgee National Monument Savannah Historic District Warm Springs Historic District
Hawaii	Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (1987)	Haleakala National Park Pu’uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park
Illinois	Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site (1982)	Auditorium Building, Chicago Carson, Pirie Scott and Company Store, Chicago Eads Bridge, Illinois-St. Loius, Missouri Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Leiter II Building, Chicago Marquette Building, Chicago Reliance Building, Chicago Robie House, Chicago Rookery Building, Chicago South Dearborn Street-Printing House Row North Historic District Unity Temple, Oak Park
Indiana		New Harmony Historic District
Louisiana		Poverty Point
Maine		Acadia National Park
Massachusetts		Goddard Rocket Launching Site
Missouri		Wainright Building, St. Louis
Montana (more)	Glacier National Park (1995)
New Jersey/ New York	Statue of Liberty National Monument (1984)
New Mexico	Carlsbad Caverns National Park (1995) Chaco Culture National Historical Park (1987) Taos Pueblo (1992)	Pecos National Monument Trinity Site
New York		Brooklyn Bridge General Electric Research Laboratories, Schenectady Prudential (Guaranty) Building, Buffalo Pupin Physics Laboratory, Columbia University Original Bell Telephone Laboratories
North Carolina/ Tennessee	Great Smoky Mountains National Park (1983)
Ohio		Mound City Group National Monument
Oregon		Crater Lake National Park
Pennsylvania	Independence National Historic Site (1979)	Fallingwater
Texas		Big Bend National Park Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Utah		Arches national Park Bryce Canyon National Park Canyonlands National Park Capitol Reef National Park Rainbow Bridge National Monument Zion National Park
Virginia	Monticello (1987) University of Virginia Historic District (1987)	McCormick Farm and Workshop Virginia Coast Reserve
Washington	Olympic National Park (1981)	Mount Rainier National Park North Cascades national Park
Wisconsin		Taliesin
Wyoming		Grand Teton National Park
Wyoming/ Montana	Yellowstone National Park (1978)
Puerto Rico	La Fortaleza-San Juan National Historical Site (1983)

You are concerned about private property rights. Here's another 600,000 acres that are going to be taken away from the people by eminent domain or whatever tact is necessary. Expecting the U.S. Supreme Court to protect us? Look for the bold text below.

By Phyllis Spivey
SPIVEY2@infostations.com

June 10, 2005

Imagine this: your state government puts a transportation corridor in your neighborhood. It’s nearly a quarter-mile wide. It will serve vehicles and trains and incorporate oil, gas, electric and water lines. Try to fight it and you’ll not only face the combined might of your local, state, and federal governments, but foreign interests as well. The internationalization of U.S. roads has begun.

We’re not just talking about isolated instances of privately-built toll roads with foreign management, as we’ve seen in Southern California. We’re talking about networks of toll roads that may be built by foreign builders, managed by foreign operators, function primarily to accommodate foreign goods, and connect U.S. roads to similar networks in Canada, Mexico and, later, Central and South America.

Interstate 69, for example, is a planned 1600 mile national highway connecting Mexico, the U.S., and Canada. Eight states are involved in the project: Once completed, I-69 will extend from Port Huron, Michigan to the Texas/Mexico border.

In Texas, I-69 will be part of the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) project http://tinyurl.com/cufvc – a 4000 mile network of existing and new toll roads – which will create the largest private highway system in America. Interstate 35, also called the Oklahoma to Mexico/Gulf Coast element, will be developed as part of the TTC.

Plans call for the TTC to be 1200 feet wide with 10 vehicle lanes (three passenger vehicle lanes in each direction), truck lanes (two in each direction), six rail lines (three in each direction), two tracks for high-speed passenger rail, two for commuter rail and two for freight. The corridor will include a 200 feet right-of-way for oil, gas, electric and water lines.

According to Corridor Watch www.corridorwatch.org/ , a group opposing the TTC, Governor Rick Perry announced his Corridor vision in 2002, instructed the Texas Department of Transportation to prepare an action plan and within six-months the Department of Transportation presented the finished product to the state Transportation Commission. “Without any substantive discussion or debate and without public comment,” the Commission approved it, a plan projected to cost up to $185 billion and take up to 50 years to build.

In 2003, the Texas Department of Transportation sent representatives to Europe to find “partners,” visiting London, Paris, Rome, Madrid and Barcelona. By December 2004, Texas had selected a Spanish firm to finance and build the first segment of the TTC. In March 2005, Department of Transportation officials, joined by Governor Perry and Federal Highway Administrator Mary Peters, signed a 342-page agreement with the firm.

Not only did the Bush Administration bless the project, but the Federal Highway Administration www.fhwa.dot.gov/ announced in March 2004 that the first segment of the TTC had been granted “experimental project status” and construction could begin before the environmental study was complete. Work could start even before public hearings were completed.

Three months later, the Republican Party of Texas adopted as part of its platform the following statement: “Because there are issues of confiscation of private land, State and National sovereignty . . . , the Party urges the repeal of (legislation) authorizing the Trans-Texas Corridor. Further, we urge the removal of all authorization and powers granted the Texas Transportation Commission and the Texas Department of Transportation for the construction and operation of the Trans-Texas Corridor.”

Corridor Watch now reports widespread and growing public opposition, describing Texans as “extremely concerned about the state creating a transportation, communication, utility and economic development monopoly. They are concerned about a project that will consume 584,000 acres of land impacting land owners, farms, ranches, wildlife, the environment, communities, taxpayers, water rights, local economies, and more.”

Texans are also concerned about how the law authorizing the TTC grants dictatorial powers to the Transportation Commission for the taking of private property. The powers include purchase and condemnation of property contiguous to an existing or planned segment of the TTC, for use in constructing or operating the TTC, or for ancillary facilities that directly benefit users of the TTC, e.g., businesses, and – “for virtually any revenue generating purpose.”

“With complete disregard for public will and the citizens of Texas,” Corridor Watch says, “our government is marching forward.” But Texas state officials are not marching alone.

Texas politicians are marching in lockstep with international trade groups such as North America’s Super Corridor Coalition ( NASCO), the North American International Trade Corridor Partnership, (NAITCP) and the Central North American Trade Corridor Association (CNATCA)

Texas politicians are marching in lockstep with international trade groups such as North America’s Super Corridor Coalition ( NASCO), the North American International Trade Corridor Partnership, (NAITCP) and the Central North American Trade Corridor Association (CNATCA),

NASCO (www.nasco.com) describes itself as a “public/private, non-profit corporation seeking to create an international trade corridor system throughout North America, secure funding for certain projects, i.e., tax dollars, and promote the development of International Trade Processing Centers. A lobbying group, linked to other lobbying groups, it is “partnered” with the North America’s Supercorridor Caucus in Congress and working with Senate committees on a Multi-State International Corridor Development Program. Tim Brown, a Bell County, Texas Commissioner is President.

NASCO opines that, because of “several important trade agreements, the heartland of America enters a new era as a geographic crossroad for international trade.” They refer to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) nations of Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. and “those who will follow,” doubtless meaning the CAFTA and FTAA (pending trade agreements) countries of Central and South America. NASCO’s Web site links to the NAFTA Secretariat site where you may view "the complete text of the NAFTA."

The NAITCP (www.naitcp.org) purports to be a “partnership of cities of Mexico, the United States and Canada linked by a trade corridor that works to promote economic and social development in our region.” NAITCP just held its 11th annual summit in Mexico, May 11-13. It was called “Hemispheria, the North American Convergence Summit,” and featured working groups on “Trade and Transportation Corridors in North America, Smart Borders, and Cultural Integration.”

The CNATCA (www.cnatca.org) aims to encourage “continued economic integration between the three North American countries and to foster greater collective involvement in the emerging global economy.” Dedicated to “proactive global citizenship,” the Association’s Web site presents the flags of Canada, the United States and Mexico both horizontally and vertically, but as one entity, the U.S. flag between the other two.

CNATCA’s project, the Central North American Trade Corridor, extends from Alaska through the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, the Oklahoma panhandle, and Texas, and then south of the U.S. border to Mexico City.

No wonder Texans are frustrated. How much influence can citizens exert when policy-making goes international? This is a question Americans everywhere should be asking, for the next trade corridor, toll road network, or inland port could land anywhere.

Nearly two dozen states have passed legislation allowing their transportation systems to operate toll roads and okaying private firms to build and run them. The Bush Administration is easing the way for states to convert car pool lanes to toll lanes, and to allow private investors to build and operate highways. Converting existing roads to toll corridors – thereby forcing taxpayers to pay each time they use roads for which they’ve already paid – is a great revenue producer for big spending governments.

California might be next. Governor Schwarzenegger reportedly favors toll roads and last February offered a provocative glimpse of California’s future: “We’re going to make an announcement really soon where we’re going to look at our whole infrastructure and transportation and we have a very creative way of financing it. We want to approach it in a very radical way and then look at all kinds of transportation.”

Could the governor be thinking of the TTC model, transit ways built by foreign firms with foreign money in exchange for decades of toll revenue? Providing political justification for such a move is the state’s near-bankrupt condition, years of diverting road monies to finance general obligations, and a freeway system in crisis with the volume of international cargo traffic exploding.

Why foreign involvement? Besides cost considerations, modern trade agreements prohibit discrimination against trading “partners”, i.e., foreign suppliers of goods and services, even in the area of government procurement. NAFTA, for example, mandates treatment “no less favorable than the most favorable treatment” the U.S. accords to its own goods and suppliers.

Another NAFTA mandate – and likely the primary impetus for developing the Texas corridor – authorizes Mexican trucks to transport international cargo throughout the U.S.; it also allows the establishment of Mexican trucking enterprises in the U.S. and permits Mexican bus services throughout the U.S.

Lawsuits based on environmental issues have delayed implementation of these provisions, but in June 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that environmental reviews were not required. The latest holdup is an agreement on safety standards, UPI reporting in March 2005, that Mexico would not allow U.S. safety inspectors to check trucks on its side of the border.

But expect Mexican trucks to roll soon and, then, look out. Trade agreements with all of Central and South America are pending. If approved by Congress – the North American Trade Corridor will likely be linked with transportation corridors all the way to Tierra del Fuego.

The trade agreements that have already transformed America’s culture and economy; will now slice up America’s heartland – at U.S. taxpayers’ expense – decimating farmland, small communities and, of course, property rights. Our shredded borders will open fully to trucks, busses, and people from all points north and south, the trucks delivering products and services once produced in the U.S.A. by Americans.

President Bush is demanding Congressional approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Many legislators – even those who express outrage over present border problems -- have already caved. Call your Congressman toll free at 1(877)762-8762. Demand a No! vote on CAFTA.

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Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc.

&COPY; 2003 Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be broadcast, published, rewritten or redistributed without written permission.

&COPY; 2003 Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc.
All rights reserved. This material may not be broadcast, published, rewritten or redistributed without written permission.