Bush sneaking North American super-state without oversight?

WorldNet Daily ^ | June 13, 2006 | Jerome Corsi

[conservativecorner]

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 Association 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.

This 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.

[AmishDude]

Now, what is a working group?

That's easy. A "working group" is neither. </voltaire>

[ActionNewsBill]

Why would Jerome Corsi be trying to whip you nuts up into a frenzy? LOL

Gee whiz, another attack the messenger post.

And I thought Corsi was one of the "Good Guys".

Jerome R. Corsi is an American author, terrorism expert, and conservative activist. Corsi gained national media exposure as co-author of Unfit for Command (along with John O'Neill), a book that topped New York Times Bestseller list.

This book, written in cooperation with Swift Vets and POWs for Truth (formerly known as "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth"), strongly questions John Kerry's Vietnam War record as presented by Kerry.

I guess he's just a lying leftist?

[zeugma]

I guess that our first option is to derail the TTC (Trans-Texas Corridor) and all other tolling schemes. Our roadways are already paid for.

Can't do that. Governor GoodHair will have to get a real job after he gets booted out of office if this doesn't go through. 

[Diddle E. Squat]

It blows my mind how amazingly stupid some people can be on these threads. They ask if she floats, then decides she is a witch. Art Bell conspiracy theories swallowed hook, line, and sinker. The biggest kooks at DU are no more gullible than some of the tinfoilers here. You see the sun rise in the east and set in the west and immediate conclude that the sun rotates around the earth (and that this will cause us to speak Spanish and then die.) Goodness gracious.

Nothing is "being built as we speak." The TTC-35 from Laredo to the Oklahoma border is in the planning process, with San Antonio-Dallas to be built by 2015 and the San Antonio-Laredo around 2025. The company awarded the operating concession (NOT ownership, and TXDOT can cancel the concession at will at any time) is the Cintry-Zachry consortium, with Cintry based out of Spain and Zachry based out of San Antonio, TEXAS. Nothing anywhere near that far along north of the Texas border.

Yes Kansas City is creating an inland port, which will open long before 2015 and utilize EXISTING road and rail during that time. So are Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, South Florida, Ohio, and a myriad of other places seeking to expand their port operations and capture more of the warehousing, repackaging, distribution and other jobs and economic development that comes with increased trade. Virginia has had an inland port for years at Front Royal. Was that inland port created years ago to smuggle in illegal aliens, create a 1-gov't North America, and take away your pistols? Or was it simply an economic development project to bring jobs to that area?

Ships are waiting days to get into the ports of LA and Long Beach, with all the west coast ports reaching buildout and there isn't any other place to build another without a decade or more of red tape, enviro lawsuits, NIMBY lawsuits, etc. So using Mexican ports become an obvious answer in the face of continued trade growth.

This website is being overrun by the crackpots, kooks, and vandals.

[jpl]

outer security perimeter, within which the movement of people and products would be legal, orderly and secure

Translation: everyone in Mexico is going to be able to get one of these "North American" travel documents and come into America legally, and stay as long as they want to. In other words, there goes the border and the country.

Better learn how to start speaking Spanish, gringos.

[LachlanMinnesota]

The CFR Working Group members, as identified in the CFR document:

Pedro Aspe is Chief Executive Officer of Protego, a leading investment banking advisory firm in Mexico. Mr. Aspe was most recently the Secretary of the Treasury of Mexico (1988–94).He has been a Professor of Economics at Instituto Tecnoloì gico Autoìnomo deMeìxico (ITAM)and has held a number of positions in the Mexican government.

Thomas S. Axworthy* is the Chairman of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Queen’s University. From 1981 to 1984, Dr. Axworthy was Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau. Since 2001, he has served as Chairman of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

Heidi S. Cruz* is an energy investment banker with Merrill Lynch in Houston, Texas. She served in the Bush White House under Dr. Condoleezza Rice as the Economic Director for the Western Hemisphere at the National Security Council, as the Director of the Latin America Office at theU.S.TreasuryDepartment, andasSpecial Assistant
to Ambassador Robert B. Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative. Prior to government service, Ms. Cruz was an investment banker with J.P. Morgan in New York City.
Note: Task Force members participate in their individual and not institutional capacities.
*The individual has endorsed the report and submitted an additional or a dissenting view.

Nelson W. Cunningham* is Managing Partner of Kissinger McLarty Associates, the international strategic advisory firm. He advised John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign on international economic and foreign policy issues, and previously served in the Clinton White House as Special Adviser to the President for Western Hemisphere Affairs.
He earlier served as a lawyer at the White House, as Senate Judiciary Committee General Counsel under then-chairman Joseph Biden, and as a federal prosecutor in New York.

Thomas P. d’Aquino is Chief Executive of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), composed of 150 chief executives of major enterprises in Canada. A lawyer, entrepreneur, and business strategist, he has served as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Canada and
Adjunct Professor of Law lecturing on the law of international trade. He is the Chairman of the CCCE’s North American Security and Prosperity Initiative launched in 2003.

Alfonso de Angoitia is Executive Vice President and Chairman of the Finance Committee of Grupo Televisa, S.A. In addition, he has been a member of the Board of Directors and of the Executive Committee of the company since 1997, and served as Chief Financial Officer
(1999–2003). Prior to joining Grupo Televisa, S.A., he was a partner of the law firm of Mijares, Angoitia, Corteìs y Fuentes, S.C., in Mexico City.

Luis de la Calle Pardo* is Managing Director and founding partner at De la Calle, Madrazo, Mancera, S.C. He served as Undersecretary for International Trade Negotiations inMexico’sMinistry of the Economy and negotiated several of Mexico’s bilateral free trade agreements and regional andmultilateral agreements with theWorld Trade organization. As Trade and NAFTA Minister at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, DC, he was instrumental in crafting and implementing the North American Free Trade Agreement.

WendyK.Dobson* is Professor and Director, Institute for International Business, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. She has served as President of the C.D.Howe Institute and Associate Deputy Minister of Finance in the government of Canada. She is Vice Chair
of the Canadian Public Accountability Board and a nonexecutive director of several corporations.

Richard A. Falkenrath* is Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Previously, he served as Deputy Homeland SecurityAdviser and Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Policy and Plans at the White House’s Office of Homeland Security. He is also Senior Director of the Civitas Group LLC, a strategic advisory and investment
services firm serving the homeland security market, a security analyst for the Cable News Network (CNN), and a member of the Business Advisory Board of Arxan Technologies.

Rafael Fernaìndez de Castro is the founder and head of the Department of International Studies at the Instituto Tecnoloì gico Autoìnomo de Meìxico (ITAM). Dr. Fernaìndez deCastro is the editor of Foreign Affairs en Espan˜ol, the sister magazine of Foreign Affairs. He also has columns
in Reforma and the weekly magazine Proceso.

Ramoìn Alberto Garza is President andGeneral Director of Montemedia, a consulting firm specializing in media, public image, entrepreneur relations, and politics in the Americas. He was the founding executive editor of Reforma and President of Editorial Televisa.

Gordon D. Giffin is Senior Partner at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, and served as U.S. Ambassador to Canada (1997–2001). He also spent five years as Chief Counsel and Legislative Director to U.S. Senator Sam Nunn. He currently serves on several major corporate boards, as well as the Board of Trustees of the Carter Center, in addition to his international law practice.

Allan Gotlieb* was Canadian Ambassador to theUnited States,Undersecretary of State for External Affairs, and Chairman of the Canadian Council. He is currently a senior adviser to the law firm Stikeman Elliott LLP, and Chairman of Sotheby’s Canada and the Donner Foundation. He has also been a member of the board of a number of Canadian and U.S. corporations, taught at various universities in both
countries, and written several books and articles on international law and international affairs.

Michael Hart holds the Simon Reisman Chair in trade policy in the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa. He is a former official in Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, founding director of Carleton’s Centre for Trade Policy and Law, and the author of more than a dozen books
and a hundred articles on Canadian trade and foreign policy.

Carlos Heredia* is Senior Adviser on International Affairs to Governor Laìzaro Caìrdenas-Batel of the State Michoacaìn. He has held senior positions in theMinistry of Finance and the Mexico City government. For over twenty years, he has worked with Mexican, Canadian, and U.S. nongovernmental organizations, promoting economic citizenship and participatory development. Since 2002, he has been Vice President of the Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales (COMEXI).

Carla A. Hills* is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hills & Company, an international consulting firm providing advice to U.S. businesses on investment, trade, and risk assessment issues abroad, particularly in emerging market economies. She also serves as Vice Chairman
of the Council on Foreign Relations. From 1989 to 1993, Ambassador Hills served as U.S. Trade Representative in the first Bush administration, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice in the Ford administration.

Gary C.Hufbauer* was Director of Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and holder of the Maurice Greenberg chair in 1997 and 1998. He then resumed his position as Reginald Jones Senior Fellow at the Institute for International Economics. Together with Jeffrey J.
Schott, he is completing a new appraisal of NAFTA, to be published in fall 2005.

Pierre Marc Johnson*, a former Premier of Queìbec, attorney, and physician, has been Counsel to the law offices of Heenan Blaikie since 1996. He was a senior member of Reneì Leìvesque’s cabinet (1976–85)and succeeded him. Since 1987, Mr. Johnson has been Professor of
Law at McGill University and an adviser to the United Nations in international environmental negotiations. He has written numerous books and essays on trade and the environment, civil society participation, and globalization. He lectures in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, and serves on Canadian and European boards.

James R. Jones is Chief Executive Officer of Manatt Jones Global Strategies, a business consulting firm.Formerly, hewas U.S.Ambassador to Mexico (1993–97); President of Warnaco International; Chairman and Chief Executive Order of the American Stock Exchange; and U.S. Congressman from Oklahoma (1973–87), where he was Chairman of the House Budget Committee. He was Appointments Secretary currently known as Chief of Staff) to President Lyndon B. Johnson. He
is Chairman of Meridian International and the World Affairs Councils of America, and is a board member of Anheuser-Busch, Grupo Modelo,Keyspan Energy Corporation, and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Chappell H. Lawson*, Project Director of this Task Force, is an Associate Professor of political science at MIT, where he holds the Class of 1954 Career Development Chair. Before joining the MIT faculty, he served as Director for Inter-American Affairs on the National Security Council.
John P.Manley is Senior Counsel at McCarthy Teìtrault LLP. He has held several senior portfolios in the Canadian government throughout his fifteen years of public service—including industry, foreign affairs, and finance—as well as holding the position of Deputy Prime Minister. Following 9/11, he was named Chairman of the Public
Security and Anti-terrorism Cabinet Committee and, in that capacity, negotiated the Smart Border Agreement with U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security Thomas Ridge.

David McD.Mann,Q.C., is Counsel at Cox Hanson O’Reilly Matheson,an Atlantic-Canadian law firm. He is the former Vice Chairman and former President and Chief Executive Officer of Emera Inc., a diversified investor-owned energy and services company.

Doris M. Meissner is Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute MPI) in Washington, DC. She has worked in the field of immigration policy and international migration for 30 years in both government and policy research organizations. She served as a senior official in the
U.S. Department of Justice during the Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations, and as a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She returned to government during the Clinton years as Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) from 1993–2000.

Thomas M.T. Niles is Vice Chairman of the United States Council for International Business (USCIB). He retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in September 1998, following a career of more than thirty-six years and having served as Ambassador to Canada (1985–89), Ambassador to the European Union (1989–91), Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Canada (1991–93), and Ambassador to Greece (1993–97).

Beatriz Paredes* serves as President of the Fundacioì n Colosio, A.C. Ms. Paredes is a former Ambassador of Mexico to the Republic of Cuba and former Governor of the State of Tlaxcala (1987–92). She was the first female Governor of that state and only the second woman ever to be elected Governor in Mexico. She is also a former Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Robert A. Pastor* is Director of the Center for North American Studies, Vice President of International Affairs, and Professor at American University. From 1977 to 1981, hewas Director of Latin American Affairs on the National Security Council. He is the author or editor of sixteen books, including Toward aNorth American Community: Lessons
from the Old World to the New.

Andreìs Rozental is President of the Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales. Mr. Rozental was a career diplomat for more than thirty years, having served his country as Ambassador to the United Kingdom(1995–97),Deputy Foreign Minister (1988–94),Ambassador
to Sweden (1983–88), and Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations in Geneva (1982–83).During 2001, he was Ambassador-at-Large and Special Envoy for President Vicente Fox.

Luis Rubio is President of the Centro de Investigacioì n Para el Desarrollo-Center of Research for Development (CIDAC), an independent research institution devoted to the study of economic and political policy issues. Before joining CIDAC, in the 1970s he was Planning Director of Citibank in Mexico and served as an adviser to Mexico’s
Secretary of the Treasury. He is also a contributing editor of Reforma.

Jeffrey J. Schott* is Senior Fellow at the Institute for International Economics. He was formerly an official of the U.S. Treasury and U.S. trade negotiator, and has taught at Princeton and Georgetown Universities. He has authored or coauthored fifteen books on international
trade, including NAFTA: Achievements and Challenges; NAFTA:
An Assessment; North American Free Trade; and The Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement: The Global Impact.

William F. Weld is Principal at Leeds Weld & Co., a private equity investment firm in New York. Previously Mr. Weld was elected to two terms as Governor of Massachusetts (1991–97), served as Assistant U.S. Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC (1986–88), and as the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts during the Reagan administration
(1981–86).

Raul H. Yzaguirre currently serves as the Presidential Professor of Practice at Arizona State University (Community Development and Civil Rights). Mr. Yzaguirre, who recently retired as President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) in Washington, DC (1974–2005), spearheaded the council’s emergence as the largest
constituency-based national Hispanic organization and think tank in the United States.

Task Force Observers

Sam Boutziouvis
Canadian Council of Chief Executives

Daniel Gerstein
Council on Foreign Relations

Lawrence Spinetta
Council on Foreign Relations

David Stewart-Patterson
Canadian Council of Chief Executives

[hedgetrimmer]

Virginia has had an inland port for years at Front Royal.

Operated by US Customs authority. There is no sovereign territory established for a foreign government to operate a customs house there and that is a very big difference.

[Ben Ficklin]

I guess you can't dispute me so you have to comment on my typos and proof-reading. hah hah hah.

"amnesty sham"

You should take a few moments and thoroughly read HR 4437. It authorizes chertoff to begin cross-border emforcement. What will you do when the "federales" who are operating in the US ask you for your papers?

[Diddle E. Squat]

Post 104 was meant to be a response to your level or research and analysis, too.

[CWOJackson]

It's amazing that the President actually took time off from his busy schedule of creating the North American super-state to go visit the troops.

I almost wish we were back at the silly Denver Airport BS conspiracy that predated this silly secret Highway of Tyranny.

[Smokin' Joe]

Yes, the mysterious new world order.

Actually, when 'Daddy' Bush said it, it sounded more capitalized: New World Order.

[toddlintown]

I thought we buried this yesterday. Bring out the pipe again!

[Diddle E. Squat]

Yes, I couldn't sneak anything by you.

There is a playground in the park down the street that has red and green on some of the equipment (and blue, yellow, orange, pink, and purple, but just ignore that, it messes up your thesis), surely it too is part of the infrastructure being prepared for the invasion.

[Smokin' Joe]

Not if you farm on both ides of the border like a few folks I know, it is just another hassle.

[LachlanMinnesota]

We will all get an identity card to cross that works for all three countries:

the CFR report advises and recommends:

• Develop a North American Border Pass. The three countries
should develop a secure North American Border Passwith biometric identifiers. This document would allow its bearers expedited passage through customs, immigration, and airport security throughout the region. The program would be modeled on the U.S.-Canadian ‘‘NEXUS’’ and the U.S.-Mexican ‘‘SENTRI’’ programs, which provide ‘‘smart cards’’ to allow swifter passage to those who pose no risk. Only those who voluntarily seek, receive, and pay the costs for a security clearance would obtain a Border Pass. The pass would be accepted at all border points within North America as a complement to, but not a replacement for, national identity documetns or passports.

[houeto]

http://www.trilateral.org/

[Sarajevo]

Governor GoodHair will have to get a real job after he gets booted out of office if this doesn't go through.

Who would hire him?

[LachlanMinnesota]

Hey, Amishdude:

I was wondering if you read the "Building a North American Community" Report of an Independent Task Force Sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations with the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales. It sounds like you have read it.

What are your general impressions of the policy being recommended in that document, which was produced in 1995 after the tr-lateral meeting between the leaders fo the three nNorth American Countries?

Just curious as to your thoughts.

[hedgetrimmer]

There is a playground in the park down the street that has red and green on some of the equipment

?

[LachlanMinnesota]

Sorry, produced in 2005, not 1995. My bad.