At the recent high-level confab of the North American Forum in Banff, an assistant U.S. secretary of state chaired a panel that featured a presentation by Prof. Robert Pastor, author of a book promoting the development of a North American union as a regional government and the adoption of the amero as a common monetary currency to replace the dollar and the peso.
State Department spokesman Eric Watnik confirmed to WND that Thomas A. Shannon attended the Sept. 12-14 meeting of the North American Forum in his official capacity as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs.
As WND previously reported, the forum was closed to the press. WND has published the attendee list and the agenda of the conference which was leaked to WND by Canadian writer and publisher Mel Hurtig.
In numerous publications, professional presentations and testimony to Congress, Pastor has called for NAFTA to be evolved into a European Union-like regional government, ultimately complete with a legislative, judicial and executive institutional structure that would have supremacy over the United States.
Pastor is director of the Center for North American Studies at American University in Washington, D.C.
The State Department told WND Shannon was not endorsing Pastor's comments, yet the agency has no intention of making public Shannon's comments on the panel, nor Pastor's speech.
The North American Forum is a shell organization with no officer or business address, consisting of the three individuals who co-chaired the Banff meeting: George Schultz, former secretary of state under President Reagan; Canadian Peter Lougheed, the former Alberta premier and former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta; and Mexico's Pedro Aspe, the former secretary of the Treasury of Mexico.
In the printed agenda for the Banff meeting, the panel chaired by Shannon is listed as follows:
SESSION II: A VISION FOR NORTH AMERICA: ISSUES & OPTIONSThe State Department website documents that Shannon addressed a group of Canadian diplomats, academics and Fulbright scholars in Ottawa Sept.14 in which he discussed the North American Forum conference in Banff.
Location: Alhambra Room
9:30 am PANEL:
Moderator: Dr. Thomas A. Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Panelists:Robert Pastor, Director, Center for North American Studies, American University
Roger Gibbins, President & CEO, Canada West Foundation
Andrés Rozenthal, Mexican Council on Foreign Relations
In the speech, entitled "Why the Americas Matter," Shannon characterized the North American Forum as "a parallel structure to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America." Shannon described SPP as designed to "enhance NAFTA" and again as "an add-on to NAFTA."
Andrés Rozenthal is listed as chairman of the North American Forum on Integration, or NAFINA, an organization of which Pastor also is listed as a member of the board of directors. WND >previously reported on NAFINA's "Triumverate," a model North American parliament annually held for student delegates from the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
Government documents released by a Freedom of Information Act request reveal the Bush administration is running a "shadow government" with Mexico and Canada in which the U.S. is crafting a broad range of policy in conjunction with its neighbors to the north and south, asserts WND columnist and author Jerome R. Corsi.
The documents, a total of about 1,000 pages, are among the first to be released to Corsi through his FOIA request to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, which describes itself as an initiative "to increase security and to enhance prosperity among the three countries through greater cooperation."
"The documents clearly reveal that SPP, working within the U.S. Department of Commerce, is far advanced in putting together a new regional infrastructure, creating a 'shadow' trilateral bureaucracy with Mexico and Canada that is aggressively rewriting a wide range of U.S. administrative law, all without congressional oversight or public disclosure," Corsi said.
Among the initial discoveries, said Corsi, is the existence of an internal Intranet website that never has been revealed to Congress or the public.
"This private internal website," he claims, "undoubtedly contains a wealth of documentation that the FOIA request has so far intentionally excluded."
Corsi told WND the documents reveal hundreds of internal meetings, memoranda of understanding and other referenced agreements that have not been disclosed.
"We have here the beginnings of a whitewash," he said, "in which SPP evidently thinks the public will be hoodwinked by a 'Myths vs. Facts' document posted for public relations purposes on their public website."
Among the documents is an organizational chart accompanied by a listing of trilateral Mexican, Canadian and U.S. administrative officers who report on multiple cabinet level "working groups."
The government watchdog Judicial Watch announced today it has received some of the same documents, including the organizational chart, which can be seen in this pdf file, on page seven.
"There is no specific authorization for this massive administrative-branch integration with Mexico and Canada other than what amounts to a press conference jointly issued by President Bush, Mexico's President Vicente Fox, and Canada's then-Prime Minister Paul Martin on March 23, 2005, at the end of their summit in Waco, Texas," Corsi said.
Corsi added that even the "Myth vs. Facts" blurb on the SPP.gov website admits the SPP is neither a treaty nor a law.
"The Bush administration is trying to create the infrastructure of a new regional North American government in stealth fashion, under the radar and out of public view," Corsi claims. "Where is Congress, asleep at the wheel?"
The SPP organizational chart Corsi obtained shows 13 working groups covering a wide range of public policy issues, including Manufactured Goods; Energy, Food & Agriculture; Rules of Origin' Health; E-Commerce; Transportation; Environment; Financial Services; Business Facilitation; External Threats to North America; Streamlined & Secured Shared Borders; and Prevention/Response within North America.
U.S. administrative-branch officers participating in these working groups are drawn from the U.S. departments of State, Homeland Security, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, Transportation, Energy, Health and Human Services, and the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
The released documents affirm that counterparts from official governmental agencies in Mexico and Canada are combined with the U.S. administrative branch to form new trilateral "working groups" that actively rewrite U.S. administrative law to "harmonize" or "integrate" with administrative law in Mexico and Canada.
"What we have here amounts to an administrative coup d'etat," Corsi told WND. "Where does the Bush administration get the congressional authorization to invite two foreign nations to the table to rewrite U.S. law?"
WASHINGTON - In another example of the way the three nations of North America are being drawn into a federation, or "merger," students from 10 universities in the U.S., Mexico and Canada are participating annually in a simulated "model Parliament."
Under the sponsorship of the Canadian based North American Forum on Integration, students met in the Mexican Senate for five days in May in an event dubbed "Triumvirate," with organizers declaring "A North American Parliament is born."
A similar event took place in the Canadian Senate in 2005.
The intentions of organizers are clear.
"The creation of a North American parliament, such as the one being simulated by these young people, should be considered," explained Raymond Chretien, the president of the Triumvirate and the former Canadian ambassador to both Mexico and the U.S.
Participants discuss draft bills on trade corridors, immigration, provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement and produce a daily newspaper called "The TrilatHerald."
The 10 universities taking part include Harvard, American University, Carlton University, Simon Fraser, Universite de Montreal, Ecole nationale d'administration publique, Monterrey TEC, CIDE, Monterrey University and Instituto Mexicano de la Juventud.
Officials taking part have included James Williams, the former U.S. ambassador to Canada. The North American Forum on Integration says the annual event enjoys the support of the U.S. Embassy in Canada, the Canadian Embassy in Mexico and the North American Development Bank. It also has been supported by at least one U.S. news organization - the Houston Chronicle.
NAFI says it is "a non-profit organization devoted to developing North American dialogue and networks and at publicizing issues raised by North American integration."
The board of directors of NAFI include Robert A. Pastor, professor and director of the Center for North American Studies at American University and vice chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on North America. He has testified before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on the idea of merging the United States, Mexico and Canada in a North American union stretching from Prudhoe Bay to Guatemala.
"What we need to do," Pastor instructed, "is forge a new North American Community. ... Instead of stopping North Americans on the borders, we ought to provide them with a secure, biometric border pass that would ease transit across the border like an E-Z pass permits our cars to speed through tolls."
Pastor is the author of "Toward a North American Community,"
As vice chairman of the May 2005 CFR task force, he is an architect of the Building a North American Community" plan that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action within the executive branches of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada to transform the current trilateral Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America into a North American union regional government.
The CFR report is a five-year plan for the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common "outer security perimeter." Some see it as the blueprint for merger of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It calls for "a common economic space ... for all people in the region, a space in which trade, capital and people flow freely."
The CFR's strategy calls specifically for "a more open border for the movement of goods and people." It calls for laying "the groundwork for the freer flow of people within North America." It calls for efforts to "harmonize visa and asylum regulations." It calls for efforts to "harmonize entry screening."
In "Building a North American Community," the report states that Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin "committed their governments" to this goal March 23, 2005, at that meeting in Waco, Texas.
Pastor believes the U.S. and Canadian government should divert significant new taxpayer funding to solving the problems of the poor in Mexico.
"If Canada and the United States contributed just 10 percent of what the European Union spends on aid for its poorest member, and if Mexico invested it wisely in infrastructure and education, then Mexico could begin to grow at twice the rate of its northern neighbors, and North America would have found the magic formula to lift developing countries to the level of the industrialized world," he said in 2002.
The next Triumvirate model parliament conference will be in the United States - in either New York or Washington, according to a spokeswoman for the North American Forum.
It's not just the mock "parliament" sessions involving students of the three countries that raises concerns among those suspicious about political and social "inertia" moving the U.S. into a European Union-style merger with its northern and southern neighbors.
Earlier this month, a high-level, top-secret meeting of the North American Forum took place in Banff, Canada - with topics ranging from "A Vision for North America," "Opportunities for Security Cooperation" and "Demographic and Social Dimensions of North American Integration."
Pastor was listed as a confirmed participant in that meeting, along with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Central Intelligence Agency Director R. James Woolsey, former Immigration and Naturalization Services Director Doris Meissner, former Defense Secretary William Perry, former Energy Secretary and Defense Secretary James Schlesinger and top officials of both Mexico and Canada.
Opposition is mounting to such meetings, policy papers and presidential directives leading to what some critics characterize as "NAFTA on steroids." The concerns began in earnest March 31, 2005, when the elected leaders of the U.S., Mexico and Canada agreed to advance the agenda of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.
Perhaps the most blistering criticism came earlier this summer from Lou Dobbs of CNN - a frequent critic of President Bush's immigration policies.
"A regional prosperity and security program?" he asked rhetorically in a recent cablecast. "This is absolute ignorance. And the fact that we are - we reported this, we should point out, when it was signed. But, as we watch this thing progress, these working groups are continuing. They're intensifying. What in the world are these people thinking about? You know, I was asked the other day about whether or not I really thought the American people had the stomach to stand up and stop this nonsense, this direction from a group of elites, an absolute contravention of our law, of our Constitution, every national value. And I hope, I pray that I'm right when I said yes. But this is - I mean, this is beyond belief."
No one seems quite certain what that agenda is because of the vagueness of the official declarations. But among the things the leaders of the three countries agreed to work toward were borders that would allow for easier and faster moving of goods and people between the countries.
Coming as the announcement did in the midst of a raging national debate in the U.S. over borders seen as far too open already, more than a few jaws dropped.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. and the chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus as well as author of the new book, "In Mortal Danger"
Responding to a WND report, Tancredo is demanding the Bush administration fully disclose the activities of the government office implementing the trilateral agreement that has no authorization from Congress.
Tancredo wants to know the membership of the Security and Prosperity Partnership groups along with their various trilateral memoranda of understanding and other agreements reached with counterparts in Mexico and Canada.
Why the secrecy?
Geri Word, who heads the SPP office, told WND the work had not been disclosed because, "We did not want to get the contact people of the working groups distracted by calls from the public."
The concerns about the direction such powerful men could lead Americans without their knowledge is only heightened when interlocking networks are discovered. For instance, one of the components envisioned for this future "North American Union" is a superhighway running from Mexico, through the U.S. and into Canada. It is being promoted by the North American SuperCorridor Coalition, or NASCO, a non-profit group "dedicated to developing the world's first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America."
The president of NASCO is George Blackwood, who earlier launched the North American International Trade Corridor Partnership. In fact, NAITCP later morphed into NASCO. A NAITCP summit meeting in 2004, attended by senior Mexican government officials, heard from American University's Pastor.
A closed-door meeting of high-level government and business leaders that discussed the merger of North America was designed to subvert the democratic process, charged an attendee of the confab in Banff, Canada.
Mel Hurtig, a noted Canadian author and publisher who was the elected leader of the National Party of Canada, provided WND the agenda and attendee list of the North American Forum at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta, Sept. 12-14.
Hurtig said the "secret meeting was designed to undermine the democratic process."
"What is sinister about this meeting is that it involved high level government officials and some of the top and most powerful business leaders of the three countries and the North American Forum in organizing the meeting intentionally did not inform the press in any of the three countries," he said. "It was clear that the intention was to keep this important meeting about integrating the three countries out of the public eye."
As WND reported yesterday, the meeting was closed to the press, and the documents obtained by WND were marked "Internal Document, Not for Public Release."
The motive for U.S. participation, according to Hurtig, was "to gain access and control Canada's extensive natural resources, including oil and water."
As for Canada, he said, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives "wants to make sure that the 150 Canadian top companies who are their members who gain access to the American market and to American capital."
The office of Thomas d'Aquino, president and CEO of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, confirmed d'Aquino attend the Banff meeting.
The North American Forum consists of the three individuals who co-chaired the Banff meeting: George Schultz, former secretary of state under President Reagan; Canadian Peter Lougheed, the former Alberta premier and former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta; and Mexico's Pedro Aspe, the former secretary of the Treasury of Mexico.
The North American Forum has no business office and no business address. Attendees at the Banff meeting contributed funds to cover the organizational expenses. Attendees, including government officials, were responsible for their own travel, lodging and per diem expenses.
A spokesman for the Canadian Council of Chief Executives said the Council of Canadians, which he characterized as a "far left group," was the first to obtain and begin circulating the meeting's agenda and attendee list.
Meera Karunananthan, spokeswoman for the Council of Canadians confirmed to WND the group was responsible for obtaining and releasing the meeting agenda and attendee list. She took exception with the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, preferring to characterize her organization as "a citizens' advocacy group."
Karunananthan said the Council of Canadians released the North American Forum information because it questions the "privacy of a meeting that involves senior ministers of our government meeting with senior government officials in the United States and Mexico."
"The Canadian public has not been adequately informed about the on-going North American integration process, and we believe it is wrong for a meeting that involves top North American business executives and government officials to be held in secret behind closed doors," she said.
Jean-Yzes LeFort, also a spokesman for the Council of Canadians, told WND the group opposes the effort to create a North American Union because "the NAU represents an elite corporate agenda and to us what is being planned would be an unacceptable loss of sovereignty."
Attending the Banff meeting was Robert Pastor, the director of the Center for North American Studies at American University. Pastor is widely known for his extensive writings arguing for the creation of a North American Union, a new super-regional North American government based on the model of the European Union, with the intent of subrogating the sovereignty of the United States.
Pastor was co-chair of the Council of Foreign Relations task force that in May 2005 released a report entitled "Building a North American Community."
About one-third of the listed members of CFR task force attended the Banff conference. One prominent participant in both was Carla A. Hills, who served as U.S. trade representative from 1989 to 1993 and was the primary U.S. negotiator for NAFTA.
On the second day of the conference, a session entitled "A Vision for North America: Issues & Options" was moderated by Thomas A. Shannon, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.
Perrin Beatty, president and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, Canada's largest trade and industry association, also confirmed to WND he attended the Banff North American Forum meeting. Beatty described the meeting as "an opportunity for a small group of people from our three North American countries to get together informally and discuss issues of common interest."
When asked why the meeting was closed to the press, Beatty responded the meeting was not a "decision forum" but a "discussion forum."
Beatty claimed Pastor's views were not universally shared by all attendees.
"My interest in attending the meeting was economic," he told WND. "How do we insure we keep pace with the explosion in competition in the North American industry? It's absolutely critical to the economic growth of our three countries that we stay competitive and successful."
Among the U.S. government participants listed was Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, though WND was told he did not attend. Also listed were U.S. Department of Defense Lt. General Gene Renuart, USAF Senior Military Assistant to Secretary Rumsfeld, and Major Gen. Mark A. Volcheff, director of Plans, Policy, and Strategy for NORAD-NORTHCAM.
In what is apparently intended to be an annual event, the first North American Forum meeting was held last September in Sonoma, Calif., and a meeting for next September is to be held in Mexico.
CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS
Report dated August 31, 2006
Forum Co-Chairs:
Dr. Pedro Aspe
Hon. Peter Lougheed
Hon. George ShultzCanadian Participants Col. Peter Atkinson, Special Advisor to Chief of Defence Staff Hon. Perrin Beatty, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
Mr. Peter M. Boehm, Assistant Deputy Minister, North America, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
Mr. Thomas d'Aquino, Canadian Council of Chief Executives
Hon. Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, Government of Canada
Dr. Wendy Dobson, The Institute for International Business
Mr. N. Murray Edwards, Edco Financial Holdings Ltd.
Mr. Ward Elcock, Deputy Minister of National Defence
Mr. Bill Elliott, Associate Deputy Minister, Public Safety
Dr. John English, The Cdn Centre for International Governance Innovation
Mr. Brian Felesky, Felesky Flynn LLP
Mr. Richard L. George, Suncor Energy Inc.
Dr. Roger Gibbins, Canada West Foundation
Rear Adm Roger Girouard, Commander Joint Task Force Pacific, Cdn Forces
Major Gen Daniel Gosselin, Director General, International Security Policy
Mr. James K. Gray, Canada West Foundation
Mr. Fred Green, Canadian Pacific Railway
Mr. V. Peter Harder, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Paul J. Hill, Harvard Developments Inc.
General Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff
Mr. Pierre Marc Johnston, Heenan Blaikie
Mr. James Kinnear, Pengrowth Corporation
Mr. Harold N. Kvisle, TransCanada Corporation
Hon. John P. Manley, McCarthy Tetrault LLP
Mr. Ron Mannix, Coril Holdings Ltd.
Mr. Ron Mathison, Matco Investments
Hon. Anne McLellan, Senior Counsel, Bennett Jones
Hon. Greg Melchin, Minister of Energy, Government of Alberta
Ms.Sharon Murphy, Chevron Canada
Ms. Sheila O'Brien, President, Corporate Director, Belvedere Investments
Hon. Gordon O'Connor, Minister of Defense, Government of Canada
Mr. Berel Rodal, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict
Mr. Gordon Smith, Chairman, The International Development Research Centre
American Participants
Ms. Deborah Bolton, Political Advisor to Commander, US NorthcomMr. Ron T. Covais, President, The Americas, Lockheed Martin Corporation
Sec. Kenneth W. Dam, Max Pam Professor Emeritus of American & Foreign Law and Senior Lecturer, University of Chicago Law School
Mr. Dan Fisk, Senior Director, Western Hemisphere, National Security Council
Sec. Ryan Henry, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
Ms. Carla A. Hills, Chairman & CEO, Hills & Co.
Ms. Caryn Hollis, DASD (Acting) Western Hemisphere Affairs
Mr. Bill Irwin , Manager - International Government Affairs; Policy, Government and Public Affairs, Chevron Corporation
Mr. Robert G. James, President, Enterprise Asset Management Inc.
Admiral Tim Keating, Commander, US Northern Command
Mr. Floyd Kvamme, Chair, President's Council of Advisors on Science & Technology; Director, Centre for Global Security Res.
Dr. Ronald F. Lehman II , Director, Center for Global Security Research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Mr. William W. McIlhenny, Policy Planning Council for Western Hemisphere Affairs
Dr. Peter McPherson , President, National Association of State Universities & Land-Grant Colleges
Ms. Doris Meissner, Senior Fellow, Migration Policy Institute
Dr. George Miller, Director, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Mr. George Nethercutt, Chairman, US Section of the Permanent Joint Board on Defense, US - Canada (Security)
Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Journalist for Wall Street Journal (Area Specialist)
Dr. Robert A. Pastor, Director, Center for North American Studies, American University, Washington, DC
Dr. William Perry, Co-Director, Preventive Defense Project
Lt. Gen. Gene Renuart, USAF Senior Military Assist. to Sec. Rumsfeld
Mr. Eric Ruff, , Department of Defense Press Secretary
Sec. Donald R. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, US Department of Defense
Dr. James Schlesinger, Former Sec. Of Energy & Defense
Mr. William Schneider, President, International Planning Services
Sec. Clay Sell, Deputy Secretary of Energy, US Dept. of Energy
Dr. Thomas A. Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
Dr. David G. Victor, Director, Program on Energy & Sustainable Development, Center for Environmental Science & Policy
Maj. Gen. Mark A Volcheff, Director, Plans, Policy & Strategy, NORAD-NORTHCOM
Ms. Jane Wales, President & CEO, World Affairs Council of Northern California
Mr. R. James Woolsey, Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton
Mexican Participants:
Emb Andrés Rozental, (Mexican Coordinator) - Mexican Council on Foreign RelationsSilvia Hernández, Former Senator and Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on North America
Mario Molina, 1995 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
Fernando Chico Pardo , CEO, Promecap
Juan Gallardo, CEO, Grupo GEUSA
Gerónimo Gutiérrez, Deputy Foreign Minister for North America
Luis de la Calle, Consultant. Former Deputy Minister of Economy
Agustín Barrios Gómez, Solutions Abroad
Vinicio Suro, PEMEX
Eduardo Medina Mora, Secretary of Public Security
Carlos Heredia, State Government of Michoacán
Jaime Zabludowsky, Consultant. Former trade negotiator
Manuel Arango, CEO, Grupo Concord
Jorge Santibañez, President, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte
Luis Rubio, CIDAC
Mónica Serrano, El Colegio de México, Señor Fellow Oxford University
Arturo Sarukhan, Coordinator of Int'l Affairs, Campaign of Felipe Calderon
Juan Camilo Mouriño, General Coordinator of President Elect's transition team
Ernesto Cordero, Coordinator for Public Policy Issues Ambassadors/Consul General
Mr. Carlos de Icaza, Ambassador of Mexico to the United States
Mr. Gaëtan Lavertu, Ambassador of Canada to Mexico
Ms. Maria Teresa Garcia Segovia de Madero, Ambassador of Mexico to Canada
Mr. Thomas Huffaker, U.S. Consul General in Calgary (on DOD's list)
Mr. John Dickson, Deputy Chief of Mission, US Embassy in Ottawa, (representing Ambassador of US to Canada)
Mr. Colin Robertson, Minister & Head, Washington Advocacy Secretariat, (representing Ambassador of Canada to US)
Draft Detailed September 1, 2006 Agenda
Internal Document
North American Forum
Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel
Banff, Alberta
September 12-14, 2006Under the Joint Chairmanship of:
The Hon. George Shultz, Former U.S. Secretary of State
The Hon. Pedro Aspe, Former Finance Minister of Mexico
The Hon. Peter Lougheed, Former Premier of AlbertaContinental Prosperity in the New Security Environment
Session I: Opening comments by Messrs. Aspe, Lougheed and ShultzSession II: A Vision for North America: Issues and Options
Session III: Toward a North American Energy Strategy
Session IV: Opportunities for Security Cooperation in North America (Parts I and II)
Session V: Demographic and Social Dimensions of North American Integration
Session VI: Border Infrastructure and Continental Prosperity
Session VII: Roundtable Conversation with the Co-Chairs
Draft September 1, 2006 Agenda
North American Forum
The Fairmont Banff Springs
Banff, Alberta, Canada
September 12-14, 2006Under the Joint Chairmanship of:
The Hon. George Shultz, Former U.S. Secretary of State
The Hon. Pedro Aspe, Former Finance Minister of Mexico
The Hon. Peter Lougheed, Former Premier of AlbertaContinental Prosperity in the New Security Environment
Tuesday, September 12th3:00 to Advance Registration
4:30 pm Location: Heritage Hall5:00 pm Registration
Location: Oval Room5:45 pm Opening and Welcoming Reception
Location: Conservatory in the Cascade Ballroom6:45 pm Dinner & Keynote Address
Location: Cascade Ballroom8:00 pm Keynote Address - "Energy and Environment: a vision for North America"
Dr. Mario Molina, 1995 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Wednesday, September 13th7:30 am Continental Breakfast & Registration
Location: Alhambra Room8:15 am Keynote Address - Hon. Greg Melchin, Minister of Energy, Government of Alberta
Q & A 8:45 - 9:00 a.m.9:00 am SESSION I: OPENING COMMENTS BY MESSRS. SHULTZ, ASPE AND LOUGHEED
Location: Alhambra RoomSESSION II: A VISION FOR NORTH AMERICA: ISSUES & OPTIONS
Location: Alhambra Room9:30 am PANEL:
Moderator: Dr. Thomas A. Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
Panelists: Robert Pastor, Director, Center for North American Studies, American University
Roger Gibbins, President & CEO, Canada West Foundation
Andrés Rozental, Mexican Council on Foreign Relations10:05 am ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
10:45 am Break
SESSION III: TOWARD A NORTH AMERICAN ENERGY STRATEGY
Location: Alhambra Room11:05 am REMARKS:
Secretary Clay Sell, Deputy Secretary of Energy, U.S. Department of Energy11:25 am PANEL:
Moderator: N. Murray Edwards, Vice Chairman, Canadian Natural Resources LimitedPanelists:
Richard George, President & CEO, Suncor Energy Inc.
David Victor, Director, Program on Energy & Sustainable Development,
Center for Environmental Science & Policy
Vinicio Suro, Planning & Evaluation Subdirector, PEMEX12 noon ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
12:45 pm Break
1:00 pm Lunch
Location: Cascade Ballroom1:30 pm Keynote Address: Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, US Department of Defense
SESSION IV: OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECURITY COOPERATION IN NORTH AMERICA - Military-to-military cooperation
Location: Alhambra Room2:30 pm PANEL:
Moderator: William J. Perry, former US Secretary of DefensePanelists:
Admiral Tim Keating, Commander NORAD/USNORTHCOM
Major General Daniel Gosselin, Director General, International Security Policy
Gerónimo Gutiérrez, Undersecretary for North America, Ministry of Foreign Affairs3:05 pm ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
4:00 pm Break
SESSION IV: OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECURITY COOPERATION IN NORTH AMERICA CONTINUED
Location: Alhambra Room4:15 pm PANEL:
Moderator: William Schneider, President, International Planning Services
Panelists: Ward Elcock, Deputy Minister of National Defence
Eduardo Medina-Mora, Secretary of Public Safety
Ryan Henry, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy4:50 pm ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
5:45 pm Wrap-up of daytime sessions
6:30 pm Reception Location: Conservatory in the Cascade Ballroom
7:00 pm Dinner & Keynote Address
Location: Cascade Ballroom8:10 pm Keynote Address - The Hon. Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, Government of Canada
Thursday, September 14th
7:00 am Breakfast
Location: Alhambra Room7:15 am Keynote Address - Floyd Kvamme, Chairman, President's Council of Advisors on Science & Technology
Q & A - 7:40 to 8:00 a.m.
SESSION V: DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF NORTH AMERICAN INTEGRATION
Location: Alhambra Room8:00 am PANEL:
Moderator: Andrés Rozental, Mexican Council on Foreign Relations
Panelists : Dr. Wendy Dobson, the Institute for International Business
Carlos Heredia, Chief International Affairs Advisor to the Governor of the State of Michoacán in Mexico
Doris Meissner, Senior Fellow, Migration Policy Institute8:35 am ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
9:30 am Break
SESSION VI: BORDER INFRASTRUCTURE AND CONTINENTAL PROSPERITY
Location: Alhambra Room9:45 am PANEL:
Moderator: Hon. John P. Manley, McCarthy Tetrault LLP
Panelists:
Thomas d'Aquino, Canadian Council of Chief Executives
Carla Hills, Chairman & CEO, Hills & Co.
Luis de la Calle, Consultor10:20 am ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
11:00 am SESSION VII: ROUNDTABLE CONVERSATION WITH THE CO-CHAIRS
Location: Alhambra Room
Moderator: Jane Wales, President and CEO, World Affairs Council of Northern California
Presenters: George Shultz, Co-Chair, North American Forum
Peter Lougheed, Co-Chair, North American Forum
Pedro Aspe, Co-Chair, North American Forum12:00 pm Adjourn
12:30 pm Informal lunch
Location: Alhambra Room
WASHINGTON - Raising more suspicions about plans for the future integration of the U.S., Canada and Mexico, a high-level, top-secret meeting of the North American Forum took place this month in Banff - with topics ranging from "A Vision for North America," "Opportunities for Security Cooperation" and "Demographic and Social Dimensions of North American Integration."
While the conference took place a week ago, only now are documents about participants and agenda items leaking out.
Despite "confirmed" participants including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Central Intelligence Agency Director R. James Woolsey, former Immigration and Naturalization Services Director Doris Meissner, North American Union guru Robert Pastor, former Defense Secretary William Perry, former Energy Secretary and Defense Secretary James Schlesinger and top officials of both Mexico and Canada, there has been no press coverage of the event. The only media member scheduled to appear at the event, according to documents obtained by WND, was the Wall Street Journal's Mary Anastasia O'Grady.
The event was organized by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the Canada West Foundation, an Alberta think-tank that promotes closer economic integration with the United States.
The Canadian event is just the latest of a series of meetings, policy papers and directives that have citizens, officials and members of the media wondering whether these efforts represent some sort of coordinated effort to implement a "merger" some have characterized as "NAFTA on steroids."
Nevertheless, opposition is mounting. And it's not just coming from the tinfoil hat brigade.
Perhaps the most blistering criticism came earlier this summer from Lou Dobbs of CNN - a frequent critic of President Bush's immigration policies.
"A regional prosperity and security program?" he asked rhetorically in a recent cablecast. "This is absolute ignorance. And the fact that we are - we reported this, we should point out, when it was signed. But, as we watch this thing progress, these working groups are continuing. They're intensifying. What in the world are these people thinking about? You know, I was asked the other day about whether or not I really thought the American people had the stomach to stand up and stop this nonsense, this direction from a group of elites, an absolute contravention of our law, of our Constitution, every national value. And I hope, I pray that I'm right when I said yes. But this is - I mean, this is beyond belief."
What has Dobbs and a few other vocal critics bugged began in earnest March 31, 2005, when the elected leaders of the U.S., Mexico and Canada agreed to advance the agenda of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.
No one seems quite certain what that agenda is because of the vagueness of the official declarations. But among the things the leaders of the three countries agreed to work toward were borders that would allow for easier and faster moving of goods and people between the countries.
Coming as the announcement did in the midst of a raging national debate in the U.S. over borders seen as far to open already, more than a few jaws dropped.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. and the chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus as well as author of the new book, "In Mortal Danger"
Responding to a WorldNetDaily report, Tancredo is demanding the Bush administration fully disclose the activities of the government office implementing the trilateral agreement that has no authorization from Congress.
Tancredo wants to know the membership of the Security and Prosperity Partnership groups along with their various trilateral memoranda of understanding and other agreements reached with counterparts in Mexico and Canada.
Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minutemen, welcomed Tancredo's efforts.
"It's time for the Bush administration to come clean," Gilchrist said. "If President Bush's agenda is to establish a new North American union government to supersede the sovereignty of the United States, then the president has an obligation to tell this to the American people directly. The American public has a right to know."
Geri Word, who heads the SPP office, told WND the work had not been disclosed because, "We did not want to get the contact people of the working groups distracted by calls from the public."
WND can find no specific congressional legislation authorizing the SPP working groups nor any congressional committees taking charge of oversight.
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.
Phyllis Schlafly, the woman best known for nearly single-handedly leading the opposition that killed the Equal Rights Amendment, sees a sinister and sweeping agenda behind the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.
"Is the real push behind guest-worker proposals the Bush goal to expand NAFTA into the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, which he signed at Waco, Texas, last year and reaffirmed at Cancun, Mexico, this year?" she asks. "Bush is a globalist at heart and wants to carry out his father's oft-repeated ambition of a 'new world order.'"
She accuses the president and others behind the effort of wanting to obliterate U.S. borders in an effort to increase the Mexican population transfer and lower wages for the benefit of U.S. corporate interests.
"Bush meant what he said, at Waco, Texas, in March 2005, when he announced his plan to convert the United States into a 'Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America' by erasing our borders with Canada and Mexico," she said. "Bush's guest-worker proposal would turn the United States into a boardinghouse for the world's poor, enable employers to import an unlimited number of 'willing workers' at foreign wage levels, and wipe out what's left of the U.S. middle class. Bush lives in a house well protected by a fence and security guards and he associates with rich people who live in gated communities. Yet, for five years, he has refused to protect the property and children of ordinary Arizona citizens from trespassers and criminals."
That's unusually harsh criticism of a Republican president from one of Ronald Reagan's most loyal supporters.
At least one of the nation's daily newspapers has officially weighed in opposition to the mysterious plans for closer cooperation in security, commerce and immigration between the three North American nations.
Recently, the Pittsburgh Tribune Review questioned the unchallenged momentum toward merger.
"Will Americans trade their dead presidents for Ameros?" the newspaper asked in an editorial last month.
The paper chided efforts at replacing the U.S. and Canadian dollars and Mexican peso with "the amero" - a knockoff of the euro - along with the building of "a looming NAFTA-like superstate." Citing the meeting between the three national leaders at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in March 2005, the editorial warned: "Canadians, Mexicans and Americans who value the sovereignty of their respective countries should be concerned."
The Tribune Review editorial saw synergy between the plans of the national leaders and the ambitious agenda of the Council on Foreign Relations - seen by many as a kind of secretive, shadow government of the elite. The CFR issued a bold report in the spring of 2005, shortly after the joint announcements in Waco by Bush and his counterparts.
"The Council on Foreign Relations published a report in May - "Building a North American Community" - calling for, among other things, redefining the borders of the three nations, creating a super-regional governance board and the North American Paramilitary Group to ensure that Congress does not interfere with whatever the trilateral union feels like doing," said the paper. "Must the Bush administration happily sacrifice every shred of American sovereignty for the greater good of the New World Order?"
In fact, the CFR report is a five-year plan for the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common "outer security perimeter."
Some see it as the blueprint for merger of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It calls for "a common economic space ... for all people in the region, a space in which trade, capital and people flow freely."
The CFR's strategy calls specifically for "a more open border for the movement of goods and people." It calls for laying "the groundwork for the freer flow of people within North America." It calls for efforts to "harmonize visa and asylum regulations." It calls for efforts to "harmonize entry screening."
In "Building a North American Community," the report states that Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin "committed their governments" to this goal March 23, 2005, at that meeting in Waco, Texas.
Alan Burkhart, who describes himself as a free-lance political writer, cross-country trucker "and proud citizen of one of the reddest of the Red States - Mississippi," is another critic seething over these plans that seem to have a life of their own - with little or no real public debate.
"As time passes, American corporations will find it unnecessary to move their facilities out of the country," writes Burkhart. "Our already stagnant wages will be just as low as those of Mexico. The cultures of three great nations will be diluted. Our currency will be replaced with the 'Amero.' And, we'll be one giant step closer to the U.N.'s perverse dream of a one-world government."
The Amero is not a new concept. It was first proposed by the Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank, in a monograph titled "The Case for the Amero" in 1999.
In June, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America made one of its most visible and public moves since it was first announced last year. In Washington, June 15, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Mexican Economy Minister Sergio Garcia de Alba and Canadian Minister of Industry Maxime Bernier joined North American business leaders to launch the North American Competitiveness Council. It was a major development that showed the March 2005 meeting was no fluke - and that the plans announced by the three national leaders then were continuing to take shape. The NACC was first announced by Bush, Harper and Fox.
Made up of 10 high-level business leaders from each country, the NACC will meet annually with senior North American government officials "to provide recommendations and help set priorities for promoting regional competitiveness in the global economy."
Officially, the council has the mandate to advise the governments on improving trade in key sectors such as automobiles, transportation, manufacturing and services. The three countries do more than $800 billion in trilateral trade.
Gutierrez said the Bush administration is determined to develop a "border pass" on schedule despite worries about its implementation. The new land pass is to be in effect for Canadians, Americans and Mexicans by Jan. 1, 2008.
The U.S. executives involved in the NACC include: United Parcel Service Inc. Chairman Michael Eskew; Frederick Smith, chairman of FedEx Corp.; Lou Schorsh, chief executive of Mittal Steel USA; Joseph Gilmour, president of New York Life Insurance Co.; William Clay Ford, chairman of Ford Motor Co.; Rick Wagoner, chairman of General Motors Corp.; Raymond Gilmartin, CEO of Merck & Co. Inc.; David O'Reilly, chief executive of Chevron Corp.; Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of General Electric Co.; Lee Scott, president of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.; Robert Stevens, chairman of Lockheed Martin Corp.; Michael Haverty, chairman of Kansas City Southern; Douglas Conant, president of Campbell's Soup Co. and James Kilt, vice-chairman of Gillette Inc.
The concerns about the direction such powerful men could lead Americans without their knowledge is only heightened when interlocking networks are discovered. For instance, one of the components envisioned for this future "North American Union" is a superhighway running from Mexico, through the U.S. and into Canada. It is being promoted by the North American SuperCorridor Coalition, or NASCO, a non-profit group "dedicated to developing the world's first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America."
The president of NASCO is George Blackwood, who earlier launched the North American International Trade Corridor Partnership. In fact, NAITCP later morphed into NASCO. A NAIPC summit meeting in 2004, attended by senior Mexican government officials, heard from Robert Pastor, an American University professor who wrote "Toward a North American Community,"
Pastor also was vice chairman of the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force entitled "Building a North American Community" that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action within the executive branches of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada to transform the current trilateral Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America into a North American union regional government. He was also prominent on the guest list in Banff.
A handful of Banff residents are outraged the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel hosted American political leaders in a series of secret meetings with political and business leaders from Canada, Mexico and the United States.
And they're suggesting the conference included a man some consider to be the most powerful man in America: U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
An internal document obtained by the Banff Crag & Canyon shows that Rumsfeld was scheduled to be a keynote speaker on Wednesday, Sept. 13, although no one at the hotel would confirm or deny that he was in Banff.
Reported sightings of Rumsfeld couldn't be confirmed by the Crag, but his speech was supposed to have been entitled: Opportunities for Security Co-operation in North America -- Military-to-military Co-operation. It was scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
Sgt. Wayne Wiebe of the Banff RCMP said he had heard that internationally protected persons (IPPs) like Rumsfeld may have been coming to Banff last week but increased police security was not requested by the Banff Springs.
The 2006 North American Forum, entitled Continental Prosperity in the New Security Environment, was hosted by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives with help from the Canada West Foundation at the Springs from Sept. 12 to 14. The first North American Forum that happened in October, 2005 in Sonoma, Calif. was also kept secret.
Banff taxi driver Chris Foote said he heard rumblings of Rumsfeld's alleged visit soon after he noticed that a Mexican Flag had been placed atop the Banff Springs.
"People should know if these people are getting together and talking," Foote said. "(Canada, Mexico and America) have three conservative governments now and all of the sudden this is happening."
Foote, a former Green Party candidate in Wild Rose, added that whether or not Rumsfeld was in town, many people in Banff would be appalled that the Springs was supposedly hosting a man he termed a "war criminal," and will protest at the Banff Springs on Monday, Sept. 25 at 3 p.m.
Former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed co-chaired the event alongside former U.S. secretary of state George Shultz and former Mexican finance minister Pedro Aspe. Canadians scheduled to attend included Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day, Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier and Alberta Energy Minister Greg Melchin.
American invitees included Rumsfeld, his assistant, Lt. Gen. Gene Renuart and former secretary of energy and defence James Schlesinger.
The list also includes businessmen such as Roger Gibbins, president and CEO of Canada West Foundation, and Ron T. Covais, president of the Lockheed Martin Corporation, which is the largest weapons manufacturer in the United States.
Topics included "A Vision for North America," "A North American Energy Strategy," "Demographic and Social Dimensions of North American Integration," and "Opportunities for Security Co-operation."
John Larsen, spokesman for the North American Forum, said that the public was not notified of the closed and private meeting and would not confirm or deny that Rumsfeld or anyone else was in attendance. He said he did not know who paid for the forum.
"There are all kinds of conferences going on at the Banff Springs that draw illuminaries and if those conferences are private in nature then I think we also have to respect that these people, by nature of the offices that they hold, still have a right to a certain degree of privacy," Larsen said.
He added that the meetings are not meant to be secret and that individuals are allowed to say if they attended the forum.
"People that are relatively senior in business... if they're going to come to these things and put their open and frank discussions on the table in order for those conversations to be as fruitful as possible they want to think that there's some (confidentiality).
"You can imagine that if this was all televised or open to public scrutiny, the nature of the conversations and ultimately what you would be able to do with those conversations and how far you might be able to advance the solutions around it would be different."
The only media member invited to the event was the Wall Street Journal's Mary Anastasia O'Grady, according to the list of participants provided to the Crag.
Banff resident Aaron Doncaster heard that Rumsfeld may have been coming last week and handed out pamphlets to customers and hotel workers at the Banff Springs soon after the event had ended.
"It disturbs me because he's got a lawsuit against him from the American Civil Liberties Association for the torture and abuse of prisoners of war in U.S. military custody," Doncaster said.
He added that the public should have been notified of the forum regardless of Rumsfeld's presence in Banff.
"Protesters have a right to be heard," Doncaster said. "That's the most democratic way we can show our disapproval of our elected officials."
A peaceful protest will be held outside the Banff Springs Hotel next Monday, Sept.25 at 3 p.m. on the sidewalk of Spray Avenue. The pamphlet advertising says "We are protesting the Banff Springs Hotel's involvement in this crime of treason against Canadian, American and Mexican Citizens."
Banff Springs spokesperson Lori Grant said it's against the hotel's policy to talk about any meetings or guests at the hotel.
"In Canada we have the right to protest, so they can," Grant said.
All documents obtained by the Crag were obtained from Canadian publisher and politician Mel Hurtig.
He's the author of political writings such as The Betrayal of Canada, The Vanishing Country and Rushing to Armageddon.
"It's astonishing that there could be such an important meeting of so many high-level people from government and other organizations where apparently the desire was to not let the public know about these meetings," Hurtig said. "All Canadians had best be concerned about the purpose of this conference and what went on at the conference.
"The fact that they're having these meetings in secret is of even greater concern."
Stockwell Day and Peter Lougheed did not immediately return phone calls but the office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Harper was not in Banff last week.
Rumours circulating in Banff said the hotel's fourth floor was taken up by the conference and that many of its attendees showed up in the middle of the night in buses.
After missing a deadline, the U.S. Department of Commerce finally has granted a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain complete disclosure of a congressionally unauthorized plan to implement a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada that critics say could lead to a EU-style alliance in North America.
The plan is being implemented through an office within the Department of Commerce called the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America," under the direction of Geri Word, who is listed as working in the agency's North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, office.
As WorldNetDaily previously reported, the White House has established executive branch working groups documented on the Commerce website SPP.gov. The Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP, was issued as a joint press statement by President Bush, Mexican President Vincente Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005.
Granting of the FOIA request comes after the Commerce Department missed a statutory requirement to respond within 20 businesses days.
The request was filed by author Jerome R. Corsi on June 19.
Corsi said the Commerce Department's compliance with the request is a major breakthrough.
"We're now going to get the documentary evidence to determine if the working groups in SPP.gov are creating new memoranda of understanding and trilateral agreements that under our Constitution should more appropriately be submitted to Congress as new treaties or laws," he said.
Corsi added that if this turns out to be the case, "we're going to present that evidence to the American people and let them make up their own minds."
Freedom of Information Act Officer Linda Bell mailed the "first interim response" yesterday and promises more response as batches of documents are processed, according to Brenda Dolan, a departmental officer.
Robert McGuire, attorney for Corsi, e-mailed Commerce July17, notifying the agency of the statutory violation in its failure to respond. He then received an e-mail from Dolan indicating the request was being processed. But McGuire asserted the response was unacceptable, saying the department "skipped a deadline required by law."
A congressman is pressing the Department of Commerce to fully disclose a congressionally unauthorized plan to implement a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada that critics say could lead to a North American union.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the Subcommittee on Management, Integration and Oversight of the House Committee on Homeland Security, wrote July 11 to Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez requesting detailed disclosure of working groups in the Security and Prosperity Partnership office within his department.
Referring to an attached letter from a constituent, Rogers wrote to Gutierrez:
Judging by information contained in this letter, a number of legitimate concerns are raised regarding the implementation and operation of the SPP, including the membership and charge of its working groups; potential memoranda of understanding with foreign countries; and whether there has been any Congressional oversight of these working group, to name a few.Rogers concluded by asking Gutierrez for a prompt review of the issues and for a response "as soon as possible."
The attached constituent letter was written by Eunie Smith, president of Eagle Forum of Alabama and by Bob Couch. They posed the following questions to Rogers:
Schlafly was one of the first analysts and commentators to question the purpose of SPP. In her article, she wrote that the Council on Foreign Relations task force report entitled "Building a North American Community" let the "cat out of the bag about what's really behind our trade agreements and security partnerships with the other North American countries."
Schlafly argued the CFR task force report "spells out a five-year plan for the 'establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community' with a common 'outer security perimeter.'"
She commented:
This CFR document, called "Building a North American Community," asserts that George W. Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin 'committed their governments' to this goal when they met at Bush's ranch and at Waco, Texas on March 23, 2005. The three adopted the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America" and assigned "working groups" to fill in the details.Rogers' letter to Gutierrez supports a demand for information made last month by Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo.
Smith, on behalf of Eagle Forum of Alabama, told WND she is "very pleased" with Rogers' commitment to inquire into the SPP operations.
Responding to information from WorldNetDaily, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has taken steps to ensure the Senate will not act on a bill that would further a plan to create a European Union-style alliance in North America.
Cornyn made the decision after WND pointed out Friday the legislation - the North American Investment Fund Act - would constitute an attempt to pass a key piece of American University Professor Robert Pastor's plan to create a "North American Union."
Yesterday, Cornyn's office notified WND the senator had been assured by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that no action will be taken on Senate bill 3622 in the 109th Congress. If the Senate Foreign Relations Committee does not act, the bill will expire at the end of the term in January.
"Senator Cornyn has no intention of filing the bill again until after we have conducted an internal review and inquiry," a spokesman for Cornyn told WND.
The spokesman clarified Cornyn "is adamantly opposed to any 'North American Union' being formed like the EU has been formed in Europe."
Cornyn's office had no explanation, however, for why the legislation was introduced, except to note the senator "continues to believe that if Mexico would adopt free market principles, it would be in the best interest of the United States."
The spokesman further added that Cornyn will continue "to look for ways to encourage the forces of reform within Mexico."
WND showed Cornyn's office Friday that a content analysis of the bill demonstrated its similarity to some of Pastor's writings. The correlation was so strong, WND told the senator's staff, a conclusion could be reliably drawn that the person drafting and proposing the legislation drew from Pastor's writings and intended to advance his political agenda to create a "North American Union."
Pastor's extensive writings repeatedly have called for the creation of a North American Investment Fund, to develop Mexico, as a key step on a road map to a new regional government.
In his 2001 book "Toward a North American Community,"
Pastor was vice chairman of a May 2005 task force report by the Council on Foreign Relations entitled "Building a North American Community." Creating a North American Investment Fund was a key recommendation of the CFR task force report.
On March 14, 2005, Pastor published a 57 page paper entitled "The Paramount Challenge for North America: Closing the Development Gap."
The paper is Pastor's most comprehensive statement explaining why a North American Investment Fund is central to his plan to integrate North America as a first step in the creation of a continental union.
Pastor presented his recommendation that a North American Development Bank should be created in an address to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the House of Commons in Ottawa, Canada, Feb. 7, 2002.
The three leaders [of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.] should establish a North American Development fund, whose priority would be to connect the U.S.-Mexican border region to central and southern Mexico. If roads were built, investors would come, immigration would decline, and income disparities would narrow. If Mexico's growth rate leaped to twice that of its neighbors, the psychology of the relationship would be changed.The language is similar to Senate bill 3622, which in Section 4, "Projects Funded," states as the first purpose of the fund "to construct roads in Mexico to facilitate trade between Mexico and Canada, and Mexico and the United States."
Section 4, part (b)(2) of the bill further specifies: "PRIORITY - in selecting grantees to carry out projects in subsection (a)(1), priority should be given to projects in the interior and southern regions of Mexico that connect to more developed markets in the United States and Canada."
When Pastor's proposal surfaced in the May 2005 CFR task force report, the name had evolved to the "North American Investment Fund," identical to the title of Senate bill 3622. On page 14, the CFR report says:
The United States and Canada should establish a North American Investment Fund to encourage private capital flow into Mexico. The fund would focus on increasing and improving physical infrastructure linking the less developed parts of Mexico to markets in the north, improving primary and secondary education, and technical training in states and municipalities committed to transparency and institutional development.The Senate bill in Section 4(a)(2) says a secondary purpose of the fund proposed by Cornyn would be "to encourage the development and improve the quality of primary, secondary, and post-secondary education throughout Mexico," a purpose consistent with the intent and language of the CFR task force report.
Cornyn's decision, however, effectively kills the bill or any effort this year by his office to introduce or sponsor legislation to form a North American Investment Fund to develop Mexico.
The U.S. Department of Commerce appears to be stonewalling a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain complete disclosure of a congressionally unauthorized plan to implement a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada that apparently could lead to a North American union.
The plan is being implemented through an office within the Department of Commerce as the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America," under the direction of Geri Word, who is listed as working in the department's North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, office.
As WorldNetDaily previously reported, the White House has established executive branch working groups documented on the Commerce website SPP.gov. The Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP, was issued as a joint press statement by President Bush, Mexican President Vincente Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005.
Commerce has missed a statutory requirement to respond to the FOIA request, filed by author Jerome R. Corsi, within 20 businesses days.
In an e-mail from Bobbie Parsons on behalf of Robert Dolan, the department acknowledged receipt of the FOIA request on June 19. WorldNetDaily first reported Corsi's FOIA request June 20.
Robert McGuire, attorney for Corsi, emailed Commerce Monday, notifying the agency of the statutory violation in their failure to respond.
Yesterday, McGuire received an e-mail response from Brenda Dolan, the departmental Freedom of Information and Privacy Act officer.
Dolan wrote:
The International Trade Administration, which is a bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce, was assigned lead action on your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request number CRRIF 06-376, for information concerning the Prosperity Working Groups. I have contacted Linda Bell, FOIA officer, ITA regarding the status of your pending FOIA request. I will provide the status of your pending request as soon as I receive word from Ms. Bell.McGuire told WND that this response was unacceptable.
"The Department of Commerce skipped a deadline required by law," he explained. "The act's 20-day requirement relates to the department as a whole, not its sub-units."
McGuire also told WND he had copied Bell on his original e-mail copy of the FOIA request.
"I used Linda Bell's e-mail address as listed on the DOC website and her email bounced back," he said. "DOC has especially poor grounds for the delay, especially since DOC sent the request to Ms. Bell internally as well."
Corsi believes the department is stonewalling the FOIA request.
"The Bush administration does not want the American public to know how far along the creation of a new regional government, the North American union, is proceeding behind closed doors," Corsi said. "President Bush is acting as if he believes the U.S. Constitution is nothing more than a meaningless piece of paper. The American public have a right to know what the executive branch is doing with SPP and the FOIA request was designed to get that information released."Attorney McGuire was equally firm.
"We thought we might encounter some recalcitrance," he explained to WND, "but I am frankly shocked that we had received no response at all. The department acknowledged its receipt of our request on June 19. The requirements of the Freedom of Information Act are quite clear: The government is allowed to respond to a FOIA request in many ways, but the complete failure to respond within 20 business days is simply not an option."
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON - Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has quietly introduced a bill to create a "North American Investment Fund" that would tap U.S. and Canadian taxpayers for the development of public works projects in Mexico.
Despite assurances this week from White House press secretary Tony Snow that President Bush opposes the idea of a European Union superstate for North America, the effort, by one of the president's loyal supporters in the Senate, is sure to spark new questions about negotiations between the leaders of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico on issues ranging from security to the economy.
"Currently, a significant development gap exists between Mexico and the United States and Canada," Cornyn said. "I believe it is in our best interests to find creative ways to bridge this development gap."
Cornyn introduced the bill just before the July 4 holiday - admitting in his introductory comments that Congress is not likely to adopt his plan quickly. In fact, Cornyn previously attempted to create the new international fund in legislation he introduced in 2004. It soon thereafter died in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where the latest version is headed.
Senate Bill 3622, co-sponsored by Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., specifically authorizes the president to "negotiate the creation of a North American Inv