Rick Perry tied to Agenda 21, globalist policies

Selling Texas to foreign creditors while jabbing Obama for same


By Terri Hall
Founder
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom
August 15, 2011

Rick Perry may be good at invoking states rights and property rights, while disavowing ‘foreign creditors,’ but his actions as Texas’ longest serving governor tell a different story. Public private partnerships (or P3s) are part and parcel of the United Nations’ Agenda 21. Two of the purposes of Agenda 21 are to abolish private property and restrict mobility and P3s act as the vehicle to do it. Perry made P3s a centerpiece of his transportation policy since he stepped in as governor.

It started with the Trans Texas Corridor, known at the federal level as high priority corridors, corridors of the future, or the NAFTA superhighways. Just in Texas, it was to be a 4,000 mile multi-modal network of toll roads, rail lines, power transmission lines, pipelines, telecommunications lines and more. It was going to be financed, operated, and controlled by a foreign company granted massive swaths of land 1,200 feet (4 football fields) wide taken forcibly through eminent domain.

Called the biggest land grab in Texas history, it was going to gobble up 580,000 acres of private Texas land (the first corridor alone was to displace 1 million Texans) and hand it over to well-connected global players using P3s, who would gain exclusive rights to determine the route and what hotels, restaurants, and gas stations were along the corridor in a government-sanctioned monopoly for a half century. It was the worst case of eminent domain for private gain ever conceived.

Property rights shredded

The Trans Texas Corridor, and P3s in general, represent an imminent threat to private property rights. While lawmakers repealed the Trans Texas Corridor from state statute only months ago due to the public backlash, the re-named corridor (‘Innovative Connectivity Plan’) and its threat to property rights lives on through P3s. Two such projects underway by a Spanish developer, Cintra, will charge Texans 75 cents per mile in tolls (nearly $13 a day while Perry claims he hasn’t raised taxes or indebted Texans to foreign creditors) to access lanes on two public interstates -- I-635 and I-820. A third project being developed by the same company for two segments on SH 130 is, perhaps, the only leg of the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-35 project that will ever be built.

While Perry distracted Texans and tea partiers with ‘emergency’ resolutions on state sovereignty during the 82nd legislature, P3s spread from transportation projects to virtually every other type of public infrastructure in a bill, SB 1048, passed by the Texas legislature which he signed into law June 17. Now all public infrastructure, including public buildings, schools, nursing homes, ports, mass transit, etc. can be auctioned-off to private interests in long-term sweetheart deals with taxpayer subsidies and profit guarantees using P3s.

P3s give a private corporation the power to tax the public, whether through charging tolls or other so-called ‘user fees,’ to access their own public infrastructure, and, perhaps more insidious, allowing well-connected private entities to profit from concessions on land taken through eminent domain.

Why shouldn’t the original landowner be able to profit from developing his/her land instead of having the government take it in the name of a “public use” and give it to another developer, one with government connections? Perry’s administration of P3s is like his administration of his Emerging Technology Fund that’s been highly criticized for steering taxpayer money to Perry’s campaign donors -- a case in point, Dan Shelley.

Shelley worked for Cintra, who had its sites set on developing the Trans Texas Corridor. Shelley lands a job as Perry’s aide, steers the $7 billion corridor P3 to his former employer Cintra, then goes back to work for Cintra. That’s how Perry does business -- pay to play.

Texas “Open for Business”

While Perry is staking his campaign on Texas being the top net jobs creator, Perry’s version of Texas being “Open for Business” isn’t about low taxes and less regulation as much as it is about doing business with foreign companies, including selling off Texas’ sovereign land and public assets to foreign creditors, an issue which Perry’s first television ad uses to take aim at President Obama.

Aside from the P3s, Texas has 20 active deals going with the Chinese and has 32 foreign trade zones (FTZs), a vehicle to ease the flow of foreign goods into the United States that are chalk full of tax breaks for importers. Perry’s office promoted these FTZs in a document entitled Foreign Trade Zones: Texas Wide Open for Business and even dedicates a web site for Texas FTZs, http://www.texaswideopenforbusiness.com/.

A recent Washington Post article documents Perry’s work to get Chinese government-owned telecommunications company Huawei, to base its U.S. operations in Texas, a company that the U.S. government has deemed a threat to national security noting that “three times since 2008, a U.S. government security panel has blocked Huawei from acquiring or partnering with U.S. companies because of concerns that secrets could be leaked to China’s government or military.”

Perry’s coziness with the Chinese and foreign investors exposes a huge weakness in his right flank -- illegal immigration and open borders. The Trans Texas Corridor has been linked to the global plan to economically integrate North America, with the eventual goal of a common security perimeter modeled after the European Union. Perry ushered in in-state tuition for illegals and has long been an obstacle to immigration reform or any Arizona-style immigration law.

Perry’s record paints a much different picture than what candidate Perry would have us believe -- that he’s a states rights, Constitutionally limited government conservative that’s responsible for the “Texas miracle.” In reality, he’s more like an Agenda 21 globalist willing to sell America to the highest bidder.


Continue reading on Examiner.com Rick Perry tied to Agenda 21, globalist policies - San Antonio Transportation Policy

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Mexican drug traffickers used Texas trucker, Georgia property

The September conviction of a Texas truck driver with ties to a major Mexican drug cartel gives a snapshot of the domestic operations of drug importers from outside the U.S.

In September, a federal jury convicted Gilberto Avalos-Rivera, 41, a documented legal alien, for transporting 911 pounds of marijuana hidden in a load of papaya fruit from Texas to Atlanta.

Avalos-Rivera was working for La Familia – a Mexican drug cartel based in Michoacan, Mexico. The cartel also used property in suburban Atlanta, in Fayette County, GA, including a secluded multi-acre site that it used to off-load drugs and cash. Avalos-Rivera drove from Texas to the Atlanta-area to deliver the marijuana. Investigators seized nearly $2 million in cash hidden on property used in the operation.

“As Mexican drug distributors continue to deploy resources to the Atlanta Metropolitan area in an effort to carry out their drug distribution activities, DEA and its multi-level law enforcement partners will continue to strike at the core and dismantle these organizations from top to bottom,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a statement.

Rod Nofziger, OOIDA director of government affairs, said the La Familia operation shutdown in Georgia is unfortunately just the cost of doing business for Mexican cartels.

“Trucks crossing our Southern border are still the principal way drug traffickers get their products into the U.S.,” Nofziger said. “They may lose a load here or there, but the reality is that most of their dope will make it past the port of entry.”

Nofziger said the increasing presence of Mexican cartels operating within the U.S. would only be worsened by proposals to allow for Mexican trucks unfettered access to all U.S. highways.

“Opening our highways to Mexico-domiciled trucks and drivers will amplify vulnerabilities that already exist in our infrastructure,” Nofziger told Land Line. “Those vulnerabilities will undoubtedly be exploited by drug traffickers from Mexico.”

Several publications of the U.S. Department of Justice tie increased smuggling to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“The introduction of NAFTA had a major impact on the El Paso/Juarez area,” read one 2008 report. “Illicit transporters favor the exploitation of the commercial trucking industry to move bulk (multi-hundred kilogram) quantities of Colombian cocaine through the Houston Division. Smaller loads are routinely seized from privately owned vehicles or from couriers utilizing busses or the airlines. The El Paso-Juarez corridor serves as a trans-shipment point for cocaine to various locations in the U.S. Seized loads range from 50-800 pounds.”

According to the National Drug Intelligence Center’s 2010 National Drug Threat Assessment, the U.S. seized more than 1,626 metric tons of illegal drugs from January through November 2009, a fraction of the estimated several thousand tons of cocaine, meth, marijuana and heroin imported into the U.S. annually by drug traffickers.

The El Paso Intelligence Center says that contraband sent by Mexican drug cartels is usually hidden among produce.

The La Familia operation in Texas and Georgia was investigated by Drug Enforcement Administration agents, the U.S. Marshal’s Service, the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, the Henry County Police Department and the Georgia State Patrol.

Capt. Jody Thomas of the Fayette, GA Sheriff’s Office said Mexican cartels have made their presence felt increasingly in suburban Atlanta in recent years. Atlanta’s position between several highway corridors makes it attractive to locate operation centers for drugs to be distributed and transported for sale on the street along the Eastern Seaboard, Thomas said.

“I’d say that over the last 10 years, we’ve participated in numerous cases where awesome amounts of narcotics and cash were seized,” Thomas told Land Line. “Since about 2001, we’ve really become a hub in the Atlanta area.

“I started working 25 years ago in a small town that never had more than three or four cops on duty,” Thomas said. “It used to be we’d spend half our nights stopping at the convenience stores and saying, ‘hey.’ Now it’s just unreal what we’re seeing. We’re earning our money.”

Federal drug investigators confirm Thomas’ observations.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, of the 327 official land, maritime and air ports of entry into the U.S., 88 percent of all drug seizures occurred at just 20 of the ports.

“From these and other (ports of entry), drug shipments are transported to dozens of national and regional distribution centers through eight principal corridors to the major drug markets within the United States,” the National Drug Threat Assessment 2010 report states.

That report cites “Corridor A,” mainly Interstates 10, Interstate 8 and Interstate 20 as being “the primary route for drug trafficking organizations transporting multi-ton quantities of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine from the southwest border to eastern U.S. drug markets.”

The investigation into Avalos-Rivera also resulted in charges for Roberto Huff of College Park, GA, who pleaded guilty to possessing more than 100 kilograms of marijuana with intent to distribute; Oscar Morfin-Vargas, 29, of Ellenwood, GA, who was charged with drug conspiracy and money laundering; and Enrique Morfin of Mexico, charged with drug conspiracy and money laundering.

Vargas, who is a citizen of Mexico and was illegally living in the U.S., pleaded guilty in early November to drug and money laundering charges. Huff pleaded guilty earlier this year to the possessing with intent to distribute charge.

– By Charlie Morasch, staff writer

charlie_morasch@landlinemag.com

Amid increased cartel presence in U.S., DHS touts border seizures

By Charlie Morasch, Land Line staff writer


The U.S. Department of Homeland Security this week announced rising numbers of drug and cash seizures at the southwest border shared with Mexico.

The announcement, however, isn’t likely to make truckers feel more secure about their jobs or safety near the border, as the White House continues to make noise about expanding cross border trucking.

At a press conference Tuesday in Tucson, AZ, officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and others announced that CBP and ICE seized more than $282 million in cash, 7 million pounds of drugs, and more than 6,800 weapons along the southwest border in 2009 and 2010.

Joe Rajkovacz, OOIDA director of regulatory affairs, pointed out that the rise in interceptions is notable, but “the fact remains that only a very small percentage of overall shipments of contraband are intercepted.”

“Completely opening the border to trucking from Mexico would only help to increase illegal trafficking – especially under the guise of trusted traveler programs like Free and Secure Trade (FAST) and Customs and Trade Partnership Against terrorism (C-TPAT),” Rajkovacz said.

DHS officials also touted a doubling of border agents in the area since 2004 – from 10,000 then to nearly 21,000 last year.

“In the coming months, DHS will continue to deploy additional resources to the Southwest border, including two new forward operating bases to improve coordination of border activities, improved tactical communications and 1,000 new Border Patrol Agents,” the release reads.

It appears the agents will have their work cut out for them.

Arizona has dealt with increasing violence, as well as human and drug trafficking spilling over the border from Mexico in recent years. In September, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management posted signs warning against travel near Interstate 8 in Arizona due to drug and human smuggling activity and violence.

For more information on smuggling and ties between increased violence among the cartels and the North American Free Trade Agreement, click here.

Copyright © 2011 OOIDA

STATE SENATOR RANDY BROGDEN FROM OKLAHOMA

There's more than the one road. In this video they're talking about the Trans-Texas Corridor. But there's the La Entrada and the Port to Plains. And another in Texas, I haven't been able to track yet. I heard a while back that the La Entrada was dead and that Gov. Richardson in New Mexico had said they'll just build La Entrada in New Mexico. Looks like La Entrada is not dead. With the moritorium on the TTC, it looks like they've just switched over to accomplishing their goal by increments on the other roads... or more likely, from all the maps and info I've seen, they're just continuing the overall plan. These other roads aren't being planned to be toll roads or as big as the TTC at this time. They still open our borders, and leave us open to the other provisions of NAFTA and the SPP that will jeopardize our sovereignty. So what happens when all that traffic gets on our current roads? They start with wanting to make them toll roads and selling off our infrastructure to foreign interest groups because of the maintenance costs. Same story, different day.

DOUBLESPEAK 101

REGISTERED TRUCK CAUGHT CARRYING LARGE LOAD OF DRUGS

November 10, 2007
Feds seize tons of pot in Calexico

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized 8.85 tons of marijuana from a truck from Mexico on Friday afternoon, the largest marijuana load ever to be seized at the Calexico port of entry, officials said Saturday.

A 25-year-old Mexicali resident registered with the Free and Secure Trade program was driving a 1992 GMC tractor-trailer with a shipment described as flat-panel-screen televisions. As the truck waited to enter the U.S. about 4:20 p.m., border patrol agents with a police dog checked the truck. The narcotics dog alerted agents of the truck's load and agents then inspected the load with a gamma-ray system that showed images of anomalies inside the shipment, officials said.

When agents opened the truck doors, several large packages fell out. Officials said 1,019 large packages of marijuana valued roughly $67.3 million were seized. The driver was arrested and booked into the Imperial County jail.

Posted by Angelica Martinez November 10, 2007 06:17 PM TrackBack
http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/news/breaking/2007/11/feds_seize_tons_of_pot_in_cale.html

SECRET CONFAB TEACHES OFFICIALS TO SELL FOREIGNERS U.S. ASSETS

PREMEDITATED MERGER
Carlyle executive among moderators of conference that barred WND reporter
Posted: September 24, 20078:27 p.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

A top Carlyle Group executive is leading a panel tomorrow at a conference to teach government officials in the U.S. how to lease public assets to foreign groups – an event that barred WND.

Barry Gold, managing director in charge of infrastructure investment, will be at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City to lead a session at the "North American PPP & Infrastructure Finance Conference."

The government of Abu Dhabi has made an investment in the Carlyle Group, a Washington-based private investment firm with close ties to former President George H. W. Bush and his family and top officials in the Reagan and Clinton administrations.

Organizers say the conference's aim is to teach state and local government officials in the U.S. how to lease a wide range of public assets to international and foreign private investment groups.

WND reported last week, EuroMoney closed the conference, refusing to accept from WND the $1,999 registration fee because WND was "too political" to attend.

Gold is heading a panel on how institutional investors are approaching PPP structures in which state departments of transportation can lease current toll roads or develop a new generation financed and operated largely by foreign investment consortiums for decades after the roads are completed.
Last week Mubadala, a wholly owned investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government, purchased a 7.5 percent share of the Carlyle Group, permitting the Arab emirate's government to own or receive fees as a minority shareholder on PPP toll road infrastructure projects the Carlyle Group structures or finances.

With this equity structure, state departments of transportation that contract PPP toll road projects with or through the Carlyle Group may end up with UAE ownership of the operating leases. The roads could operate under that arrangement for decades without residents of the state being aware of Abu Dhabi ownership.

The following state department of transportation participants are listed on the EuroMoney seminar brochure:
Kenneth Newman, chief financial officer, Wisconsin DOT
Barbara Reese, deputy secretary of transportation, Virginia
James Bass, chief financial officer, Texas DOT
Cedric Grant, assistant secretary, Louisiana DOT
Peggy Catlin, deputy executive director, Colorado DOT
Kathy English, chief financial officer, Delaware DOT
Emeka Moneme, director, Washington, D.C., DOT

Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Colorado and Delaware are listed on the Federal Highway Administration website as being among the 21 states that have enacted PPP-enabling legislation for highway projects, containing the 28 key elements the FHWA recommends be enacted into state law.

The Carlyle Group website credits Gold with leading PPP financing for the Chicago Skyway, Autopista Central in Chile, Highway 407 in Toronto, California State Route 91 and the Santiago Airport.

The Carlyle Group website documents Gold's extensive international experience with infrastructure financing. At Airport Group International, a global airport development company, he was responsible for the Bolivian Airports concession and an Australian investment, operating agreement and financing. At Lehman Brothers, he worked on the Budapest Airport advisory and financing and the MC Cuernavaca Toll Road in Mexico.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57808

TEXAS GOVERNOR CLEARS WAY FOR NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY

PREMEDITATED MERGER
Vetoes legislation to delay big transportation corridor
Posted: June 22, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

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.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56309

NOW CHENEY CHIMES IN: AIN'T NO SUPERHIGHWAYS

PREMEDITATED MERGER
VP latest to make official denial, some call it 'gaming semantics'
Posted: July 29, 20075:00 p.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

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.

NASCO's original map (above) highlighted the I-35 corridor from Mexico to Canada.

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.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56912

SATELLITE TRACKING MANDATED FOR MEXICAN TRUCKS

PREMEDITATED MERGER
Critic: 'This really accomplishes nothing. It's like putting earrings on a pig'
Posted: October 1, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern
By Michael Howe© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

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.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57918

TAXPAYERS FOOT BILL FOR MEXICAN TRUCKERS

PREMEDITATED MERGER
Safety equipment tab starts out at $367,000
Posted: November 7, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern
By Michael Howe© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced that U.S. taxpayers will be footing the startup costs of a program to install satellite tracking technology on vehicles taking part in the Mexican Truck Demonstration Program.

The announcement confirmed the U.S. government would "initially spend approximately $367,000 to outfit all trucks from the United States and Mexico that take part in the program."

According to the administration, "the decision to require the installation of satellite tracking technology on trucks in the program was made after members of Congress expressed a desire to know whether participants are complying with federal safety and trade laws."

A key opponent of the program, and author of the language in the transportation appropriations bill to halt funding of the program, continued to express disappointment Barry Piatt, spokesman for Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., told WND, "It's an indication that they are going forward with the program, despite strong and pretty clear opposition from both chambers of Congress."

Congressman Duncan Hunter's office told WND he agrees. "The tracking technology, while a step in the right direction, does very little to ensure compliance with safety and security standards. The focus must remain on implementing reliable and enforceable standards that ensure Mexican truckers with access to U.S. roadways do not threaten the safety of vehicle motorists or America's security," explained Joe Kasper, spokesman for Hunter, R-Calif.

According to the FMCSA, the technology will help continue to ensure that trucks operating as part of the program are complying with the agency's rigorous safety standards and U.S. trade laws.

The FMCSA intends to use the information gathered from the equipment to ensure trucks comply with hours-of-service laws and rules that govern the trips into and out of the country. The GPS-based technology also will allow real-time tracking of truck location, documenting every international-border and state-line crossing. The equipment does not provide cargo information.

The satellite-based technology will be used to track trucks by vehicle number and company only – no driver information will be collected," the administration statement said.

This, Hunter believes, does not go far enough. Kasper told WND, "Tracking technology, especially when driver data is not being collected, comes nowhere close to achieving this goal. Congressman Hunter continues to support an easily assessable database that includes driver history and background information, as well as stronger inspection requirements and enforcement standards."

At an Oct. 18, 2007, meeting of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters told members that the satellite tracking system would help ensure safety, and that the DOT was working to compromise with Congress to continue the Mexican Truck Demonstration program despite language in the funding bill that would kill it.

Reacting to methods of compromise, Piatt told WND, "The fact that the administration is ignoring the view of Congress makes it less likely, not more likely, that it will look for a compromise on this. 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."

He also questioned whether or not there are truly efforts to compromise. "Those rumors have been around, mostly fed by the administration, for some time. As the author of the Senate language, I can tell you their thumbing their nose at Congress – so to speak – is not helping their cause on this issue in Congress."

For some, the fact that the FMCSA will spend just under $400,000 of American taxpayer money to equip all trucks, Mexican or U.S., with satellite tracking equipment raises questions. Kasper said, "I am not familiar with the funding aspect. But one would assume that there would be a shared funding responsibility (between the two countries)."

FMCSA spokeswoman Melissa Delaney was contacted regarding the funding but did not respond to inquiries.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58546

THE 99-YEAR TAXPAYER BOONDOGGLE

COMMENTARY BY HENRY LAMB
World Net Daily
Posted: May 19, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern

American roads are the hottest commodity in the international marketplace. State and local governments are falling all over themselves to sell off highways, bridges and all sorts of other revenue-producing infrastructure to international financiers who are eager to snap up structures Americans have already paid for – and for which they continue to pay maintenance costs through endless taxes.

The Chicago Skyway, for example, brought $1.83 billion from a Spanish-Australian partnership. The 157-mile Indiana Tollway brought $3.85 billion from the same partnership. And the state of Texas has recently concluded a deal to sell a Trans-Texas Corridor for $7.2 billion to the same Spanish company that partnered with a Texas construction company.

What's going on here? Why are government officials so eager to sell off our infrastructure? Because it's a win-win deal for everyone – except the people who pay taxes and use the highways. Governments get a pot full of cash up front, and the "public-private" partnerships get a long-term cash cow. The taxpayers and highway users get ______ – well, you fill in the blank.
Actually, these "sales" are long-term leases, which is much worse than an outright sale. The Chicago Skyway deal is for 99 years. The Indiana Tollway is for 75 years. In what condition will these important roads be when they are returned to government? The folks who celebrate the deals today – and spend the billions – will be pushing up daisies by the time a new crop of government officials will have to explain why the roads have crumbled.
The roads that exist today were bought with taxes and tolls. They are maintained with taxes and tolls. Neither taxes nor tolls will be reduced when these roads are sold to public-private partnerships. In fact, taxes are likely to increase, and the tolls are certain to increase. Tolls for commercial use on the Indiana Tollway were scheduled to double during the first three years of the deal. Auto tolls would remain flat for the first three years, and then "catch up" with the commercial rate.

When the taxpayers and highway users get slapped in the budget by these increases and complain to their elected officials, the elected officials can do nothing but say "We're sorry; it's out of our hands for the next 99 years." When the roads begin to crumble and potholes begin to appear, elected officials can do nothing but say, "We're sorry; it's out of our hands for the next 99 years."

When the people of Texas learned about the $7.2 billion deal the state was constructing, they overwhelmed the Legislature and demanded a two-year moratorium during which the consequences of the deal could be studied. The moratorium legislation passed the state House and Senate by a combined vote of 165 to 5 – more than enough to override the governor's threatened veto. But legislators are trying to take the teeth out of the legislation by exempting half the roads in Texas.

The chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee says the public-private partnership project must go forward because the state has not raised gasoline taxes in 16 years, and there's not enough money to build the roads that are desperately needed.

Well, now, he didn't say what portion of the state and federal gasoline taxes were spent on non-highway projects. He didn't say why the gasoline taxes were not increased if a valid need existed. He didn't say why the state could not raise the necessary construction funds the same way the public-private partnership will raise it – by pledging future revenues to pay for the funds borrowed. He didn't say why he is eager to turn public transportation over to a public-private partnership that is not accountable to the voters.

There is another reason for the media hype and popularity of public-private partnership funding. To meet the anticipated construction costs of the NAFTA Super-corridor network, incredible sums of capital must be amassed – rather quickly. Not all cities or states have the expertise or the credit worthiness to structure a multi-billion-dollar financing package. It's much easier to turn to an outfit that has done it before – and damn the consequences that will fall on another generation.

The sale, or long-term lease, of the nation's infrastructure is not just a fix for immediate congestion problems; it is a method of financing a whole new infrastructure designed to allow goods to flow from Chinese-controlled ports in Mexico, throughout the United States, and into Canada.

Proponents of the project know that it will be much easier to get financing from public-private partnerships than from taxpayers who are already over-taxed. Left up to the taxpayers in each state, the international NAFTA Super-corridor network would be in great jeopardy if even one state refused to cooperate.

That's why it is necessary to take the matter out of the hands of taxpayers and let the professional bureaucrats do what they know is best for the poor, uneducated taxpayers, who, in the end, must still pay the bill. The sale of the nation's infrastructure is nothing less than a national tragedy.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55771

HANK GILBERT ON PAVING OVER TEXAS

AUDIO

On the Issues - Straight Talk with Hank

The Trans-Texas Corridor - Paving over Texas


...I know what a skunk smells like in the barn. And we got a big skunk in the barn. ...

Hank Gilbert

Transcript of Straight Talk with Hank on the Trans-Texas Corridor

The Trans-Texas Corridor is basically a transportation issue and there's are a lot of different aspects to the Trans-Texas Corridor that go far beyond Texas. And go far beyond the United States.

But, you know I grew up in rural Texas where you expected a man to look you in the eye when he talked to you. You expected a man's word to be his bond. And when our governor has made a deal with a Spanish company over major roadways in our state over a 50-year time period. A deal in which this foreign company is going to collect tolls for 50 years. But more importantly, the governor; the foreign company; and the American company that brokered the deal, Zachary Construction; will not release the full contents of the contract to the general public. Something don't smell right. And I know what a skunk smells like in the barn. And we got a big skunk in the barn. So obviously, there's issues they don't want us to know, which automatically makes it bad.

The worst thing, from an agricultural standpoint is this first proposed highway, TTC-35. It is supposed to ease congestion on IH-35, from Laredo to the Oklahoma border north of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. It is going to take, under it's proposed route, or recommended route, going to consume over 100,000 acres of prime farmland.

For the people that don't understand the different types of soils we have in the state of Texas. The best growing soil we have period, bar none, is blackland soil. And it's basically riverbed soil that's come through river basins. Very rich soil. A 100,000 acres of this we're going to lose in the state of Texas. This is where we predominantly grow a lot of our grains in the state: corn and milo. Where we grow a lot of cotton. And in some areas it's good grassland. In the beef cattle industry, when a calf comes off the cow and before it goes into the feedlot, they graze these cattle on grass for months to develop a larger frame. Consequently they can add more muscle to that frame when they get them in the feedlot. We're going to take a lot of that grassland out of production, which hampers our overall beef market.
The biggest thing about the TTC-35? Actually there's a couple of things other than taking the land out of production. Taking that land out of production is going to relate to millions of dollars of lost revenue in the agricultural industry. It's going to relate to millions of dollars of lost revenue in our state's economy. It's going to relate to thousands of agricultural jobs lost in our state.

Agriculture is the second largest industry in the state. Agriculture puts over $80 billion a year into the state's economy. The Trans-Texas Corridor is going to take a big chunk of that money out of it.

And when you take land off the tax roll, for a statewide project, everybody in the state pays higher property taxes because of it. It doesn't matter if you live in Bellaire. If you live in El Paso. If you live in Pearsall, Texas. You're going to pay higher taxes because of this land being taken off the tax roll. So it's bad.

A question I have posed to TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) in these meetings deals with their 4,000 page study. Of course they are not answering questions in these hearings, and they let you know that right off the bat. This is just a time for you to express your opinion, they will not field questions. They have a 4,000 page study. Four thousand pages sounds like a lot. Well, you pick up a box of paper. An entire case of paper is 5,000 pages. The Bible was a lot less pages and is a lot more informative. Four thousand pages of documentation. Millions of dollars spent on researching this project through environmental impact studies. And they used absolutely none of the environmental study. Its effects on wildlife. Its effects on the environment itself. Its effects on creeks and streams. Its effects on the total ecosystem. The entire data they used to develop this route was transportation patterns, regardless of environment.
That I have a problem with. Every Texas should have a problem with this approach.I question how much, how many millions of dollars? How many pages of documents? And how many thousands of man-hours did they spend in researching, expanding our existing roadways. Land they already own easement to. That they already own the rights to. And that we have plenty. There's more easement ground associated with our interstate highways than there is actually ground under pavement. So they can more than expand them, a 100% of what they are, that wasn't even considered in this project.

So there's a lot that we don't know about it.

From what they are telling us at these meetings, our legislature I thought, I haven't researched it to make sure, but I thought I remember our legislature last year passing legislation doing away with "eminent domain" because of the case in New Jersey. However, this legislation, that was adopted by our House and Senate, actually was co-authored by my opponent in the senate, calls for eminent domain if they cannot agree to an appraised value with the landowner.

They'll send out an appraiser, a contractor for the state, which by the way my opponent is in the land appraisal business also. They'll send out a contractor for the state. And if you and that appraiser cannot work out an agreement - they can take your land through eminent domain by this legislation.

There's some waterline issues. There's big water transmission lines within this corridor. The state, when they take that land they also get the rights to that land. And what bothers me is that Water District "C," which is basically the Dallas-Fort Worth area, owns 67% of the state's water rights. And we're going to bed with Mexico on this corridor. What's going to happen to our water through East Texas and Central Texas. Is it going to be sold or bargained to the highest bidder - in Water District "C" or into Mexico? This is the best kept secret of this corridor that they are not talking about whatsoever. And one that really concerns me from an agricultural standpoint.

HANK GILBERT ON NAFTA

AUDIO OF TRANSCRIPT


On the Issues - Straight Talk with Hank

NAFTA and its impact on Texas Agriculture


...TTC is the NAFTA super-highway from Mexico all the way to Canada. And if that is allowed to happen we will kill our entire vegetable industry in the United States.

Every vegetable you eat will come from Mexico or Central America. . ...

Transcript of Straight Talk with Hank on NAFTA

You know, NAFTA was a federal treaty that our government entered into with Mexico and Canada. It, just like the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), was done without the input of the people. We didn't get to vote on it. We didn't get to vote on the TTC.

I have a couple of problems with NAFTA.

What NAFTA ultimately did, or has done, is practically killed the fruit and vegetable market in the state of Texas. By the time our farmers are putting the seed in the ground to plant those vegetables, we're receiving those very same vegetables across the border from Central America and Mexico. They're hitting our grocery markets at the very same time our farmers are putting the seeds in the ground. So NAFTA has taken away any and all early markets away from our farmers. Which is where they used to make their money.

One example I use all the time is watermelons because people traditionally in East Texas can't wait until the first watermelons get to the grocery store. Well, when our farmers are putting the watermelon seed in the ground in the early spring, we're getting watermelons out of Central America. If you'll take notice in the grocery store, those first melons will sell for five or six bucks a piece. I mean, pretty good money for a melon. By the time our Texas melons hit the market, they're worth 99 cents a piece in the grocery market. And that, at best, in a good year, is break- even cost for the farmer. And consequently, we've lost the biggest majority of our vegetable market in Texas.

This relates a lot to TTC because TTC is basically known as the NAFTA super-highway. It's supposed to reach from Mexico all the way to Canada. And if that is allowed to happen we will kill our entire vegetable industry in the United States. Every vegetable you eat will come from Mexico or Central America. Or other Latin producing countries closer to the equator.
We had an agreement prior to NAFTA with Mexican authorities where we could move live cattle back and forth across the border. Because of BSE [Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy a.k.a. Mad Cow Disease], Mexico has restricted movement of live cattle into or through their country for going on 26 months now. Canada is the same way. We can't move live cattle into Canada.

There are American ranchers who have live cattle in Canada and can't get them out because of the BSE. However, we're still allowing Mexico to bring live cattle into the United States. Over 150,000 head a month.
Those types of things have made NAFTA a killer to Texas agriculture. The NCNB, the National Cattleman's Beef Board, junior board, met with Texas Agricultural Commissioner Susan Combs in February.

Their main issue was that they wanted progress made in opening up the borders to Mexico for live cattle exports. Susan Combs looked them dead in the eye.

I know this because two of the board members at the meeting told me this. She looked at them perplexed and told them as far as she knew the border was open to exports. And they assured her that it wasn't.

And then half-hearteningly, jokingly, because I've had the opportunity to hear Ms. Combs a couple of different times, and she really thinks she is kind of humorous. But she looks across the desk at them and kind of half-jokingly says, "Well look at it this way guys, at least they can't send cattle over here either." So they presented the documents to her where 1.395 million head came across in '05. And 150,000 head came across in January '06.

So there again lies the problem when you have a career politician running an office that really matters. It means something.

I intend to try and work out, negotiate with the Mexican government, to see what we can do.

Back in the days when John C. White and Jim Hightower were Commissioners problems like that never got to their office. Because they had staff in place along the border that could work out things across the border with their counterparts and it never even made it to Austin.

And I want to build that relationship back with Mexico.

Incoming! Mexican airplanes on radar

Posted: June 13, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern
Jerome Corsi, World Net Daily

With the U.S. Department of Transportation pushing ahead to start the Mexican truck demonstration project as early as July 15, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters met with her Mexican and Canadian transportation counterparts in Tucson, Ariz., April 27 to participate in the first "North American Transportation Trilateral."
A major goal of the Bush administration is to open the United States to Mexican and Canadian airplanes as well as Mexican trucks.
The April 27 North American Transportation Trilateral also made clear U.S. transportation infrastructure is being reconfigured to meet the increasing demands of globalization and world trade.
Meeting with Mexico's Secretary of Commerce and Transportation Luis Téllez and Canada's Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communications Lawrence Cannon, the ministerial meeting was dedicated to defining under the Security and Prosperity Partnership a North American transportation system designed to meet the continental needs of "free trade" agreements, including NAFTA, and the World Trade Organization.
Peters opened the meeting by commenting, "This is an historic meeting – the first time North America's transportation ministers have ever come together for trilateral talks."
In a meeting that went virtually unreported in the United States mainstream media, Peters commented that the 2005 air services agreement between the United States and Mexico and the Open Skies accord signed with Canada in March lift restrictions on continental travel to provide for "free and open trans-border air travel."
The trilateral transportation ministers are pushing for a North American Open Skies agreement within the next 10 years that would supplement the Open Skies agreement the Bush administration finalized with the European Union in March.
Over the next decade, the Bush administration open skies policy envisions that "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," said a State Department release.
That the meeting was not limited to NAFTA was made clear by Peters' comments about West Coast ports, noting, "We have similar opportunities today to set the framework so ports up and down the West Coast of North America have the flexibility to handle the growing volumes of trade with Asia."
In the Ministerial Declaration posted on the Canadian government's Transport Canada website, the trilateral ministers affirmed their commitment "to developing coordinated, compatible and interconnected national transportation systems" designed to meet "the future of our shared transportation interests in an increasingly globalized world."
The Ministerial Declaration's highlighted goal to "advance seamless air transport systems in North America" is supported by the "2005 Report to Leaders" on the Department of Commerce-maintained SPP government website.
This report notes that since the a North America Wide Area Augmentation agreement was signed with Mexico and Canada in 2004, five WAAS stations were targeted to be built in Canada and Mexico in 2005. The SPP "2006 Report to Leaders" posted on the White House website documented that the five WAAS stations were built in Canada and Mexico as planned.
The U.S. Department of Transportation defines WAAS as "an extremely accurate navigation system for aviation, providing precise navigation and landing guidance to equipped aircraft in any weather." WAAS provides coverage to the entire United States, "overcoming obstacles to ground-based systems, such as mountainous terrain."
According to DOT, WAAS uses a network of precisely located ground reference stations across the U.S. with locations in Canada and Mexico to monitor GPS satellite signals.
The Ministerial Declaration also addressed what are being characterized as "NAFTA superhighways," noting, "We believe that actions to facilitate commerce across our borders in all modes of transport, especially in road transport, will improve supply chain and logistics processes and provide for continued North American competitiveness."
In this regard, the declaration called for "adequate transportation infrastructure and efficient transportation services within and between our countries."
The vision for a North American transportation system suited for world trade was articulated in the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations report entitled, "Building a North American Community."
The CFR task force report made no secret of its intention to "establish a seamless North American market for trade." The task force recommended completely "open skies and open highways" in North American with North American transportation firms, including trucking companies and airlines, having unlimited access to each other's territories.
As the report explained, a Canadian trucker should be able to haul freight not just to and from Canada, but from Chicago to Los Angeles as well. So, too, the report argued, an American airline should be able to carry passengers between Mexico City and Monterrey, even if the flight included no destination in the United States.
American University professor Robert A. Pastor, one of the co-chairs of the CFR task force producing the "Building a North American Community" report, has repeatedly called for "an integrated continental plan for transportation and infrastructure" as part of his stated goal of creating a "North American Community."
The first "North American Transportation Trilateral" held on April 27 in Tucson appears to have gone a long way toward realizing the North American continental transportation vision first articulated by the CFR and Pastor.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56146

KANSAS CITY CUSTOMS PORT CONSIDERED MEXICAN SOIL?

THE NEW WORLD DISORDER
WND investigation finds new evidence U.S. facility to be on foreign territory
Posted: July 5, 20061:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

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 e-mails 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.
To date, the Kansas City Council has voted a $2.5 million loan to KC SmartPort to build the Mexican customs facility in the West Bottoms near Kemper Arena on city-owned land east of Liberty Street and mostly south of Interstate 670.
"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 e-mail 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 e-mail 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 e-mail 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 e-mail 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.
On May 16, Bonner addressed the Chamber of Commerce in Kansas City, saying the Mexican customs facility idea "could be enormously important to Kansas City and the surrounding area, and would – or should – facilitate trade for U.S. exporters by expediting the border clearance process for U.S. goods and products exported to Mexico." Bonner added that "If the Kansas City SmartPort is implemented, Kansas City could become a major new trade link between the U.S. and Mexico."
Among those copied on Gutierrez's e-mail 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.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50918

NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY EXTENDS NORTH

PREMEDITATED MERGER

Plan under way in Texas will extend to Oklahoma, Colorado
Posted: June 21, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

A NAFTA superhighway plan under way in Texas will be extended to Oklahoma and Colorado, stretching the four-lane, train-truck-car-pipeline corridor from the Mexican border at Laredo, Texas, to Denver, reports WND columnist Jerome Corsi, whose new investigative book, "The Late Great USA: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada," has just been released.
As WND has reported, the Federal Highway Administration is promoting public-private partnership projects to expand superhighway projects, consistent with extending the Trans-Texas Corridor network north.
The plan is for the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado to apply the TTC toll road concept first developed by the Texas DOT to largely rural areas along the Ports-to-Plains Corridor.
To advance this plan, the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition – sponsored by the consulates of Mexico and Canada along with the Texas and Colorado transportation departments – is co-sponsoring a "Great Plains 2007" international conference Sept. 19-21 at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Denver.
The brochure recommends the conference be attended by real estate developers, transportation planners, highway services business executives, as well as state, local, county and municipal public officials and international trade professionals.
An April Texas DOT study on the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition website documents the tie between the two groups.
The study says the Ports-to-Plains Corridor offers an opportunity to apply the Trans-Texas Corridor technology to NAFTA superhighway development in rural settings. It concludes by recommending new highway construction be undertaken parallel to the existing Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor route in order to apply the superhighway design north through Oklahoma into Colorado.
As WND previously reported, the $180 billion needed to build the 4,000 mile Trans-Texas Corridor network 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 construction is complete.
A press release on the Texas DOT website confirms the agency is looking for a public-private-partnership to help finance the construction of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor.
WND also has reported Texas Gov. Rick Perry has received substantial campaign contributions from Cintra and Zachry Construction Company, the San Antonio-based construction firm selected by the Texas DOT to build the TTC.
The homepage of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor Coalition website proclaims, "Together, the communities along the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor are becoming the Gateway to trade throughout the nation and with Mexico and Canada."
The homepage also links the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor to the millions of containers from China that are planned to enter North America through Mexican ports, commenting, "The Trade Corridor will allow for the development of less congested ports of entry along the Texas/Mexican border."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56287

La Entrada is more than just trade; it’s about the future

Leaders in the U.S., Mexico reaffirm pledges to finish corridor
BY BILL MODISETTbmodisett@oaoa.com

The effort to complete La Entrada al Pacifico is about more than reducing the cost of goods shipped from China and Asia.It is about whether Odessa and Midland are prepared to compete in the world marketplace, said James Beauchamp, president of the Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance.La Entrada is the trade route extending from the Port of Topolobampo, Mexico, through Odessa and Midland and on to Fort Worth.Commitments from the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sinaloa to complete development of the multi-modal trade route were confirmed at MOTRAN’s third corridor conference during January in Odessa.Beauchamp, said those commitments promise completion of a high-quality roadway through Mexico’s treacherous Copper Canyon to the Port of Topolobampo, as well as dredging of the port’s navigation channel and finding new land for container operations there.“What we have to do is market this road to businesses in Mexico that can use this route,” Beauchamp said.On the United States side of the route, Beauchamp said, work on Highway 67 “is the first success story. The State Highway 349 reliever route will be partly contracted this year.”While delays are a way of life when working through state and federal bureaucracies, “We see pieces of progress,” he said.Recommendations that came out of the corridor conference included:

>> Consolidating the La Entrada al Pacifico Committee.

>> Working toward a major highway from La Junta, Chihuahua to Choix, Sinaloa.

>> Implementing an integral strategy for development of the Port of Topolobampo.

>> Promoting growth of present traffic in the section of Chihuahua to Ojinaga.

>> Promoting the multimodal corridor including a rail line from Topolobampo to Presidio and highway from Presidio through Midland to Dallas.

A LITTLE HISTORY
The international effort to create a viable corridor from the Port of Topolobampo, Mexico, to Dallas-Fort Worth and beyond actually began in 1872 when Albert K. Owen, a young civil engineer assigned to do technical studies for a railroad from El Paso to Mexico City, saw Topolobampo Bay for the first time.Owen envisioned that, “In the future, Topolobampo would unite all the ferrous and maritime zones of North America, of Australia and Asia.”At that time in the 19th century, getting goods from the Far East to the United States was a slow and arduous process, and making the agriculture produce of the United States available to the world market was equally daunting.Owen conceived the idea for a railroad over the Sierra Madre to take goods shipped to Topolobampo from the Far East and Asia to Kansas City. By using that route, he said, merchants would be “shortening 600 miles the distance of a gigantic agricultural market of the United States and opening the door … toward the countries of Oceania and Asia.”But Owen was not alone in his vision of a trade route from the Pacific. Arthur E. Stilwell, an industrialist who became better known in Texas for developing the Gulf Coast port city that bears his name, Port Arthur, attempted to take his railroad, the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient, from Kansas City to Topolobampo.However, the ruggedness of the Sierra Madre and the Mexican Revolution of 1910 intervened.Pancho Villa, who was later named a general in the revolutionary army, worked as a contractor for Stilwell on the KCM&O.In a series of articles Stilwell wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in 1927, he stated, “One of the first things Villa did after the revolution had started was to take a band of his nondescript followers on a 60-mile jaunt from the line of the Orient to a point where there was a silver mine of which I was president and blow up the whole thing and practically destroy it.“I had been receiving a large annual income from this mine — a fact which was known to the revolutionary chief,” Stilwell wrote.”Since the fighting in Mexico was centered around the Orient line, Stilwell wrote, “the company was compelled not only to abandon further construction work but was thrown into receivership.”

AND LATER
In 1967, the effort to further develop highway plans for the Odessa-Midland area was taken up by the Highway Committee of the Midland Chamber of Commerce, headed by the late Bill Collyns. That committee proposed a north-south freeway from Denver through Midland to Interstate 10 northwest of Del Rio.According to historical data provided by Beauchamp, the 1967 proposal pre-dates the Ports-to-Plains proposal, the building of Interstate 27 between Amarillo and Lubbock, and the construction of a four-lane divided highway between Lubbock and Lamesa.The information indicated rough-detail maps show a freeway “bypass” looping around northwest Midland, which is probably present-day Loop 250, and back to Highway 349.The Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor is 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 arguments for developing the route are compelling. Promoters say:

>> Congestion of the Panama Canal will reach 100 percent between 2009and 2011, slowing transmission of goods to and from the Far East.

>> Saturation of the United States ports on the Pacific Coast already are resulting in delays of six to 21 days with no improvement expected. By 2010, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are expected to reach the oversaturation point.

>> The La Entrada route is the shortest way for merchants in Asia to reach the West Coast of the United States.

>> On goods shipped one-way between Chihuahua City and Dallas-Fort Worth along La Entrada, $309 in trucking costs can be saved along with three hours of driving time and three hours in port crossing time.

Sometimes people in West Texas say they don’t want the traffic from Mexico coming through the area, Beauchamp noted.“It’s coming,” Beauchamp said of the anticipated increase in traffic through Odessa and Midland. “What we’re trying to do is be pre-emptive.”Yet for all the work toward highways, Beauchamp said the real challenge is rail service. That is why development of the South Orient line is such a priority, he said.“The main thing it all comes down to is making sure we have the infrastructure here that we need,” he said. “This is all about whether we’re going to be able to compete for rail service.”Drew Crutcher, past chairman of MOTRAN, said the very fact Family Dollar located its distribution center in Odessa was a recognition of “the importance of our area from a distribution standpoint.”He said the way goods are being brought into the United States today is growing more congested all the time.“There are many Fortune 500 companies now located in Chihuahua,” Crutcher said. “Even if the Port of Topolobampo is never completed, we still need to develop La Entrada into the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, just to deal with those companies.”

Feds find immigrants hidden in Wal-Mart truck

November 17, 2008 - 7:19 PM
Jeremy Roebuck
The Monitor

McALLEN -- A Wal-Mart truck driver will face federal charges for allegedly trying to sneak illegal immigrants into the country in a company tractor-trailer.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Alejandro Hernandez, 50, after finding four Mexican nationals locked in the back of his 18-wheeler, according to court filings obtained Monday.

Investigators believe Hernandez made at least five similar smuggling trips through the Falfurrias checkpoint in the last year and was working with another known coyote.

"At Wal-Mart we expect our associates to conduct themselves in a lawful and ethical manner," company spokesman Don Fogleman said. "This situation is of deep concern."

ICE agents began following Hernandez on Thursday after receiving a tip about his purported illegal activity, according to the criminal complaint filed in his case.

The truck driver delivered a load of merchandise to the Wal-Mart location at 2800 W. Nolana in McAllen and then drove his empty 18-wheeler to a truck stop along U.S. 281 in Edinburg.

There, he allegedly loaded the immigrants into his truck and proceeded toward Falfurrias with a 15-passenger van following behind. Authorities detained Hernandez and the van's driver, Leonor Gomez, 29, just south of the checkpoint.

Gomez admitted to smuggling immigrants after her arrest but insisted the Wal-Mart driver had been an unwitting conspirator, according to the complaint.

She said that she snuck the men and women into Hernandez's truck without his knowledge and planned to follow him to his destination and sneak them out.

But her mother, Santos Gomez Moreno, 61, was also arrested and said she had witnessed Hernandez and her daughter make smuggling trips on at least five occasions.

As of late Monday night, Hernandez and the Gomez women remained in federal custody. Each could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Hernandez's attorney Reynaldo Merino said he had not had a chance to meet with his client when reached for comment late Monday night.
Hernandez has been suspended without pay from his job pending the resolution of his case, Fogleman said.

"Wal-Mart has been in full cooperation with the investigation and we will continue to do so," he said.

Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.

http://www.themonitor.com/articles/mcallen_19970___article.html/feds_truck.html

CORNYN & HUTCHISON'S STAND ON THE MEXICAN TRUCKS

Mexican truckers face roadblock in Washington

September 12, 2007 - 10:08 AM
Suzanne Gamboa
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON _ The Senate voted Tuesday to ban Mexican trucks from U.S. roadways, rekindling a more than decade-old trade dispute with Mexico.

By a 74-24 vote, the Senate approved a proposal by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., prohibiting the Transportation Department from spending money on a North American Free Trade Agreement pilot program giving Mexican trucks greater access to U.S. highways. (Watch "Mexican Truckers," a Monitor multimedia video)

The proposal is part of a $106 billion transportation and housing spending bill that the Senate hopes to vote on later this week. The House approved a similar provision to Dorgan's in July as part of its version of the transportation spending bill.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who drafted a Republican alternative to Dorgan's amendment, said the attempt to block the trucks appeared to be about limiting competition and may amount to discrimination against Mexico.

"I would never allow an unsafe truck on our highways, particularly Texas highways," said Cornyn, whose amendment failed, 69-24. Among other things, Cornyn's amendment would have put into law a transporation department rule requiring every truck participating in the pilot project to be checked every time and automatically suspended the program if that requirement was not followed.

Cornyn and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, voted against the Dorgan amendment and for the Cornyn amendment.

Supporters of Dorgan's amendment argued the trucks are not yet proven safe. Opponents said the U.S. is applying tougher standards to Mexican trucks than to Canadian trucks and failing to live up to its NAFTA obligations.

Until last week, Mexican trucks were restricted to a commercial border zone stretching about 20 miles inside the United States, except in Arizona, where it extended 75 miles. One truck has traveled deep into the U.S. interior as part of the pilot program.

Blocking the trucks would help Democrats curry favor with organized labor, an important ally for the 2008 presidential elections.

"Why the urgency? Why not stand up for the (truck) standards that we've created and developed in this country?" Dorgan asked.

Under NAFTA, Mexico can seek retaliation against the U.S. for failing to adhere to the treaty's requirements, including retaining tariffs on goods that the treaty eliminates, said Sidney Weintraub, a professor emeritus at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs in Austin. John Hill, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, decried the vote saying it is "a sad victory for the politics of fear and protectionism."
But Teamsters general president Jim Hoffa, whose union has sued to stop the trucks, cheered the decision. "We don't want to share our highways with dangerous trucks from Mexico," Hoffa said.

The trucking program allows up to 100 Mexican carriers to send their trucks on U.S. roadways for delivery and pickup of cargo. None can carry hazardous material or haul cargo between U.S. points.

So far, the Department of Transportation has granted a single Mexican carrier, Transportes Olympic, access to U.S. roads after a more than decade-long dispute over the NAFTA provision opening up the roadways.
One of the carrier's trucks crossed the border in Laredo, Texas last week and delivered its cargo in North Carolina on Monday and was expected to return to Mexico late this week after a stop in Decatur, Ala.

The transportation bill is S. 1789.

http://www.themonitor.com/news/trucks_5039___article.html/mexican_dorgan.html