According to a recently published column written by Gerald and Natalie Sirkin, there may be the equivalent of a European Union in our future.
By Gerald and Natalie Sirkin
C2007
The strangest of all the failures of the news media may be their silence on the madness of what could be the biggest story of our time. We have heard mutterings of a United States-Mexico-Canada union, but it took digging on Internet to find out about it. The information is not secret. It just hasn’t been in the news.
On March 23, 2005, President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox, and Prime Minister of Canada Paul Martin, met at the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas, to discuss integrating their countries. They then drove to Baylor University in Waco, where they announced the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) for the integration.
Soon after, the Council on Foreign Relations on May 17, 2005, issued “Creating a North American Community,” a 59-page document proposing a five-year plan for a North American community by 2010 to achieve “the freer flow of people within North America.”
The CFR denies it intends to replicate the European Union or create a supra-national bureaucracy, but that is exactly the sort of statement the developers of the European Union made during its preliminary stages, according to Dennis Behreandt in his article, “Creating the North American Union.”
The European Union advanced by a series of small steps. The coal and steel industries of West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, were merged by a treaty in 1952, establishing the European Coal and Steel Community. The ECSC, with broad powers, resembled a supra-national government. Several years later, another treaty created the European Economic Community, a free-trade arrangement among the European country members. Last came political integration, with a governing body and a bureaucracy forming the European Union.
Some commentators and political analysts see the same kind of small steps leading to a North American Union, beginning with the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA. NAFTA is a trade arrangement, generally approved by economists, which will deliver the economic gains of free international trade to member countries. The initial adjustment to the introduction of free trade imposes hardship on some sectors of the economy, but in the long run the overall gains are substantial. However, political union is a very different matter.
According to the political-union interpretation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, the borders among the three countries will be eliminated. Movement among the countries will be free. In effect, the U.S. will be a unit of the North American Union, ceasing to be an independent country.
The SPP (housed in the Department of Commerce) is secretive about its 20 working groups from the three countries. They are rewriting laws, regulations, and trade agreements that, without requiring congressional approval, ultimately will create a North American Union. When investigator Jerome Corsi asked for the names of the working group members, he was told that they “do not wish to be distracted by calls from the public.”
Blogger Stephen Yates reports that in September, representatives of Mexico, Canada, and, for the U.S., George Schultz, met at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta. The event was co-hosted by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the Canada West Foundation, a think-tank promoting regional integration. The keynote address, “Opportunities for Security Cooperation in North America: Military-to-Military Cooperation,” was delivered by Donald Rumsfeld. Among the subjects discussed was a bill in Congress, the North American Cooperative Security Act of 2005. It is described as a plan to integrate Mexico and Canada into the Department of Homeland Security.
A concrete step toward a North American Union is on the way. A construction industry publication, The International Construction Review, reports the plan for a super highway running from the Mexican port of Lazaro-Cardenas through the United States to a customs facility in Kansas City, Missouri---owned and operated by Mexico---and continuing on to connect with the Canadian highway system at a point north of Duluth, Minnesota. Now referred to as the “NAFTA superhighway,” it will consist of a 10-lane limited access highway, rail lines, and a utility corridor for oil and gas pipelines, electricity lines, and communication cables.
The first segment of the superhighway, the Trans-Texas Corridor, was revealed in hearings before the Texas Department of Transportation. It is scheduled to begin in 2007 on 584,000 acres to be taken by eminent domain.
The future of the SPP is uncertain and controversial. On the one hand is the view of the advocates of SPP, that it is a “myth” that the Partnership is a first step toward a merger of the three countries into the North American Union. The purpose of SPP is only to coordinate security efforts against terrorist threats, to facilitate trade among the three countries, and to enhance cooperation on regulations, safety standards, and health-protection.
On the other hand are the views of the Council of Foreign Relations and Robert A. Pastor, Vice Chairman of CFR’s Task Force on North America. In his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Pastor advised that “incremental steps will no longer solve the security problem or allow us to grasp economic opportunities. What we need to do now is forge a North American community” (meaning union). He recommended, “Instead of stopping North Americans at the borders, we ought to provide them with a secure biometric EZ Pass that permits cars and trucks to speed through tolls.” (What tolls?) The CFR report written by Pastor, Building a North American Community, lays out the steps to be taken. Pastor’s book, “Toward a North American Union” was published in 2001 and is a manual for the countries integration.
The inattention of the media to a North American Union, to our merger with a country like Mexico, and to our surrender of our sovereignty---may be because they seem too preposterous to believe, but there was a time when the European Union and the surrender of European national sovereignties was also too preposterous to believe.
H. Con.Res 487 to halt the North American Union has been introduced by Representatives Virgil Goode, Thomas Tancredo, Ron Paul, and Walter Jones.
Readers may want to contact their representatives.
By Gerald and Natalie Sirkin
C2007
The strangest of all the failures of the news media may be their silence on the madness of what could be the biggest story of our time. We have heard mutterings of a United States-Mexico-Canada union, but it took digging on Internet to find out about it. The information is not secret. It just hasn’t been in the news.
On March 23, 2005, President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox, and Prime Minister of Canada Paul Martin, met at the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas, to discuss integrating their countries. They then drove to Baylor University in Waco, where they announced the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) for the integration.
Soon after, the Council on Foreign Relations on May 17, 2005, issued “Creating a North American Community,” a 59-page document proposing a five-year plan for a North American community by 2010 to achieve “the freer flow of people within North America.”
The CFR denies it intends to replicate the European Union or create a supra-national bureaucracy, but that is exactly the sort of statement the developers of the European Union made during its preliminary stages, according to Dennis Behreandt in his article, “Creating the North American Union.”
The European Union advanced by a series of small steps. The coal and steel industries of West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, were merged by a treaty in 1952, establishing the European Coal and Steel Community. The ECSC, with broad powers, resembled a supra-national government. Several years later, another treaty created the European Economic Community, a free-trade arrangement among the European country members. Last came political integration, with a governing body and a bureaucracy forming the European Union.
Some commentators and political analysts see the same kind of small steps leading to a North American Union, beginning with the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA. NAFTA is a trade arrangement, generally approved by economists, which will deliver the economic gains of free international trade to member countries. The initial adjustment to the introduction of free trade imposes hardship on some sectors of the economy, but in the long run the overall gains are substantial. However, political union is a very different matter.
According to the political-union interpretation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, the borders among the three countries will be eliminated. Movement among the countries will be free. In effect, the U.S. will be a unit of the North American Union, ceasing to be an independent country.
The SPP (housed in the Department of Commerce) is secretive about its 20 working groups from the three countries. They are rewriting laws, regulations, and trade agreements that, without requiring congressional approval, ultimately will create a North American Union. When investigator Jerome Corsi asked for the names of the working group members, he was told that they “do not wish to be distracted by calls from the public.”
Blogger Stephen Yates reports that in September, representatives of Mexico, Canada, and, for the U.S., George Schultz, met at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta. The event was co-hosted by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the Canada West Foundation, a think-tank promoting regional integration. The keynote address, “Opportunities for Security Cooperation in North America: Military-to-Military Cooperation,” was delivered by Donald Rumsfeld. Among the subjects discussed was a bill in Congress, the North American Cooperative Security Act of 2005. It is described as a plan to integrate Mexico and Canada into the Department of Homeland Security.
A concrete step toward a North American Union is on the way. A construction industry publication, The International Construction Review, reports the plan for a super highway running from the Mexican port of Lazaro-Cardenas through the United States to a customs facility in Kansas City, Missouri---owned and operated by Mexico---and continuing on to connect with the Canadian highway system at a point north of Duluth, Minnesota. Now referred to as the “NAFTA superhighway,” it will consist of a 10-lane limited access highway, rail lines, and a utility corridor for oil and gas pipelines, electricity lines, and communication cables.
The first segment of the superhighway, the Trans-Texas Corridor, was revealed in hearings before the Texas Department of Transportation. It is scheduled to begin in 2007 on 584,000 acres to be taken by eminent domain.
The future of the SPP is uncertain and controversial. On the one hand is the view of the advocates of SPP, that it is a “myth” that the Partnership is a first step toward a merger of the three countries into the North American Union. The purpose of SPP is only to coordinate security efforts against terrorist threats, to facilitate trade among the three countries, and to enhance cooperation on regulations, safety standards, and health-protection.
On the other hand are the views of the Council of Foreign Relations and Robert A. Pastor, Vice Chairman of CFR’s Task Force on North America. In his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Pastor advised that “incremental steps will no longer solve the security problem or allow us to grasp economic opportunities. What we need to do now is forge a North American community” (meaning union). He recommended, “Instead of stopping North Americans at the borders, we ought to provide them with a secure biometric EZ Pass that permits cars and trucks to speed through tolls.” (What tolls?) The CFR report written by Pastor, Building a North American Community, lays out the steps to be taken. Pastor’s book, “Toward a North American Union” was published in 2001 and is a manual for the countries integration.
The inattention of the media to a North American Union, to our merger with a country like Mexico, and to our surrender of our sovereignty---may be because they seem too preposterous to believe, but there was a time when the European Union and the surrender of European national sovereignties was also too preposterous to believe.
H. Con.Res 487 to halt the North American Union has been introduced by Representatives Virgil Goode, Thomas Tancredo, Ron Paul, and Walter Jones.
Readers may want to contact their representatives.
Comments