NAFTA partners extend SPP at "Three Amigos" summit

Submitted by WW4 Report on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 18:54

George Bush, Felipe Calderón and Stephen Harper, in their statement emanating from New Orleans Summit on the Security and Prosperity Partnership Agreeement (dubbed the "Three Amigos" Summit) said they are "committed to democratic government, the rule of law and respect for individual freedoms," and that the US, Mexico and Canada "have shared interests in keeping North America secure, prosperous, and competitive in today’s global environment." The three leaders moved to extend the Security and Prosperity Partnership, as they did at the Montebello summit last year. (PEJ.org, April 24)

Under heavy security, various protests were held against the summit in Jackson Square, including a march by the United Auto Workers. Demonstrations were also held protesting the SPP as the "militarization" of the North American Free Trade Agreement. These protesters seemed to be an amalgam of left and right, with some holding placards that read "US citizens say no to tyranny" and "No North American Union." (Xinhua, April 22; Times-Picayune, April 21)

See our last posts on Mexico, Canada and NAFTA.

Us, paranoid? NAU!

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Fri, 04/25/2008 - 01:38

The latest xenophobe fear fodder about the fictional "North American Union" comes from the relentlessly annoying Kurt Nimmo, writing on the website of the possibly even more annoying Alex Jones. The maddening thing about it is that Nimmo really has stumbled on to something genuinely ominous, but so wildly misinterprets it that his warnings will be dismissed as mere wing-nuttery.

On Alex Jones' (poorly named) TruthNews back in February (the conspirosphere is still abuzz with it), Nimmo notes a visit by former Mexican President "Vincente Fox" (sic) "late last year" to Lynnwood, California, where he was met by protesters. No exact date is given for the visit, nor are we told who was protesting him or why. (Presumably, the usual xenophobe suspects, tho it is possible some anti-NAFTA lefties were involved too, as in New Orleans.) Video footage of the protest is provided (also posted on YouTube), although we are not told who produced it. What the camera records is, once again, genuinely ominous. Nimmo writes:

Mingled in with normal municipal cops sent to force the protesters to "stand down," i.e., abandon their First Amendment right to oppose Fox and creeping globalism, were a few mysterious guys in green military-like uniforms with "Command Center" emblazoned on them along with "Private Security." A private security firm brought in to handle what the local cops should, or rather should not handle? But that's not the half of it.

Actually, that very likely is the whole of it. And it raises the disturbing question of who "Command Center Private Security" is (a Google search reveals little), and whether they were contracted by Fox or the Mexican government or the city of Lynnwood, and whether they were operating with the connivance of municipal authorities or unilaterally. But instead of actually doing some investigative legwork, Nimmo engages in idle speculation, and comes up with a wildly improbable hypothesis:

According to the people who produced and posted the video included here, the guys in green are working for the North American Union. How do they reach this conclusion? It's the logo on their arm patches. It displays a globe.

As WorldNet Daily researcher and writer Jerome Corsi revealed last September, a similar globe appears on the reverse of North Carolina's driver's licenses. William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, provided Corsi and WND with a photo of the hologram logo. "The hologram looks exactly [like] the map of North America that is used as the background for the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America logo on the SPP website," Gheen told WND.

Marge Howell, spokeswoman for the North Carolina DMV, told WND the state was embedding a hologram of North America on the back of its new driver’s licenses. "It's a security element that eventually will be on the back of every driver’s license in North America."

As it turns out, the hologram of the continent was the creation of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization that, according to the AAMVA's website, "develops model programs in motor vehicle administration, law enforcement and highway safety." AAMVA’s programs are designed "to encourage uniformity and reciprocity among the states and provinces" in the United States, Canada, and apparently Mexico.

As Corsi tells it, Missouri State Rep. Jim Guest first saw the logo when he held a seminar in North Carolina to protest the Real ID law. "When Rep. Guest asked participants to take out their driver's license and see what was on it," explained Jim Palmer, press director for ALIPAC [aforementioned Americans for Legal Immigration], "one gentleman was a state employee and on his license there was this hologram with the North American continent on the back. We were all surprised to see that on a North Carolina driver's license. Right there, that stopped the show."

"I thought right then that this was going to be the prototype for the driver's license of the North American Union," Guest said. "When we called the North Carolina DMV, they hedged at first," Guest said, "but finally they admitted that, yes, there was a North American continent hologram on the back of the license."

"This is part of a plan by bureaucrats and trade groups that act like bureaucrats to little by little transform us into a North American Union without any vote being taken and without explaining to the U.S. public what they are doing," Guest told Corsi.

Is it possible this logo is now appearing on patches donned by a secretive NAU police force, sent in to help local cops force protesters to "stand down" as they demonstrated against one of the best known NAU kingpins, Vicente Fox, who readily admits to being a pimp for the globalists?

Fox admits to being a "pimp"? Do you care to corroborate that, Kurt? We're waiting. But more to the point—a "secretive NAU police force"? Huh? We still haven't seen a shred of evidence that the NAU exists, except in the paranoid fantasies of gringo xenophobes. And does the word "private" (as in "Command Center Private Security") mean anything to you, Kurt? If this was a "secretive police force" of a trans-national government body, why would their outfits indicate a "private" security force? Finally, a comparison of the graphic on the DMV logo provided by Nimmo and the insignia worn by the goon in the video shows they are not identical. The DMV logo shows only North America, while the Command Center insignia shows the entire Western Hemisphere. Undaunted, Nimmo concludes:

Probably just another crazy conspiracy theory of the sort not only neocons rail against, but so-called progressives, too, for instance Joshua Holland of AlterNet who thinks people worried about global government are xenophobic mental cases "that would do the John Birch Society proud."

A final gem. Has it occurred to Kurt that it really is the Birchers who are leading the Quixotic charge against the hallucinatory NAU?

OK, now that all the air has been cleared—does anyone out there have any actual information about this "Command Center Private Security" outfit?

NAU - get with it!

Submitted by BlueSkySunshine (not verified) on Fri, 04/25/2008 - 02:48

North American Union

What Is It?

What is the North American Union? The North American Union is the merger of the United States, Canada and Mexico. It is the integration of our economies, harmonization of laws, open borders and national treatment for foreign businesses and foreign nationals. De facto, integration means disintegration of national sovereignty. Ultimately the North American Union will include all of the countries of North and South America into one big non-descript region.

The concept of the North American Union is exactly the same as the European Union. In Europe it began as the Common Market. Using the ploy of 'free trade' and the promise of increased prosperity, the people of Europe were persuaded to give up economic sovereignty to a higher level authority called the European Union.

Look at the European Union and substitute "North American" for European. Substitute the names of European countries for the states of the United States plus the countries of the Americas.

We are about a decade behind the European Union in consolidating power in the unelected, undemocratic supranational governing body. We're still in the stage of integrating economies through 'free trade', but as soon as that is done, they will name this monster, the North American Union. The dirty deed will be completed when they conclude the 'free trade' agreements to complete the 'Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)'.

In the history of the European Union (link above), it states:

A key activity of the EU is the establishment and administration of a common single market, consisting of a customs union, a single currency (adopted by 12 of the 25 member states), a Common Agricultural Policy and a Common Fisheries Policy. On 29 October 2004, European heads of government signed a Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, which is currently awaiting ratification by individual member states.

[...]

To really understand how all this came about requires that one go back and follow the international agreements and legislation forward. The following is a brief timeline of the most significant events. A more complete timeline is available on the front page of this section of the website.

1972 - Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment This agreement called for cooperation between countries on their border regions. It was following this declaration that Rockefeller initiated the formation of the Trilateral Commission. [More on the Trilateral Commission]

1981 - U.S.-Mexico Binational Commission was established by Ronald Reagan

1983 - Ronald Reagan signed the La Paz Agreement creating an international zone in our border states. The La Paz Agreement was a stepping stone to harmonize laws and to integrate U.S. Government departments with Mexican Government Departments.

1988 - Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA) is signed by Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney.

1994 - North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) becomes effective

2001 - George Bush and Vincente Fox launch the U.S.-Mexico Partnership for Prosperity Joint Statement - September 6, 2001 More - scroll down for dates Sept 4th thru Sept 7th. State Dept: Partnership for Prosperity.

Vincente Fox - Address to Congress on September 6, 2001

Inter-American Agreements, Conventions and Other Documents

[please do read the rest]

Get with what? A mass hallucination?

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Fri, 04/25/2008 - 04:19

Pointing to all these things the EU has done is absolutely irrelevant. The leaders of the NAFTA nations, under several administrations, have all insisted that they will not follow the EU model. It is up to you to provide evidence to the contrary. NAFTA and Euro-unification began simultaneously in the early '90s. Some fifteen years on, there is no sign of NAFTA following the EU's lead on common currency, dropping of internal border controls, etc. On the contrary, the US is building your damn wall to keep Mexicans out. How deluded can you possibly be?

And why should I trust the rigor of your research when you can't even be bothered to spell Vicente Fox's first name correctly?

"NAFTA Superhighway" deconstructed

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Fri, 04/25/2008 - 17:01

In a similar vein—Christopher Hayes does a masterful job of separating facts from fantasy regarding the supposed "NAFTA Superhighway" in The Nation of Aug. 27, 2007.