Aftermath News

Washington Post | May 1, 2008

By Joby Warrick

Swelling populations and a global tide of immigration will present new security challenges for the United States by straining resources and stoking extremism and civil unrest in distant corners of the globe, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said in a speech yesterday.

The population surge could undermine the stability of some of the world’s most fragile states, especially in Africa, while in the West, governments will be forced to grapple with ever larger immigrant communities and deepening divisions over ethnicity and race, Hayden said.

Hayden, speaking at Kansas State University, described the projected 33 percent growth in global population over the next 40 years as one of three significant trends that will alter the security landscape in the current century. By 2050, the number of humans on Earth is expected to rise from 6.7 billion to more than 9 billion, he said.

“Most of that growth will occur in countries least able to sustain it, a situation that will likely fuel instability and extremism, both in those countries and beyond,” Hayden said.

With the population of countries such as Niger and Liberia projected to triple in size in 40 years, regional governments will be forced to rapidly find food, shelter and jobs for millions, or deal with restive populations that “could be easily attracted to violence, civil unrest, or extremism,” he said.

European countries, many of which already have large immigrant communities, will see particular growth in their Muslim populations while the number of non-Muslims will shrink as birthrates fall. “Social integration of immigrants will pose a significant challenge to many host nations — again boosting the potential for unrest and extremism,” Hayden said.

The CIA director also predicted a widening gulf between Europe and North America on how to deal with security threats, including terrorism. While U.S. and European officials agree on the urgency of the terrorism threat, there is a fundamental difference — a “transatlantic divide” — over the solution, he said.

While the United States sees the fight against terrorism as a global war, European nations perceive the terrorist threat as a law enforcement problem, he said.

“They tend not to view terrorism as we do, as an overwhelming international challenge. Or if they do, we often differ on what would be effective and appropriate to counter it,” Hayden said. He added that he could not predict “when or if” the two sides could forge a common approach to security.

A third security trend highlighted by Hayden was the emergence of China as a global economic and military powerhouse, pursuing its narrow strategic and political interests. But Hayden said China’s increasing prominence need not be perceived as a direct challenge to the United States.

“If Beijing begins to accept greater responsibility for the health of the international system, as all global powers should, we will remain on a constructive, even if competitive, path,” he said. “If not, the rise of China begins to look more adversarial.”

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“They (The leaders) are doing this without consulting with the American people,” Thomas Anderson, a protester from Texas, told Xinhua, saying that they were calling for transparency from the meeting.

Anderson accused the leaders at the summit of ignoring the concerns of ordinary people and engaging in secrete discussions that violate the U.S. constitution and endanger the sovereignty of the United States.

Xinhua | Apr 22, 2008

NEW ORLEANS, THE UNITED STATES, April 21 (Xinhua) — The fourth annual summit of leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico, dubbed the “Three Amigos summit,” got underway Monday in New Orleans, the city still marred by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, amid tight security and sporadic protests.

During the two-day event, U.S. President George W. Bush will confer with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in promoting integrated trade and security arrangements under the framework of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP).

With street closures and traffic restrictions, security was tightest around in the Central Business District, where the North American leaders will engage in most of their summit-related activities.

But the morning scene inside the Gallier Hall, a historic building which used to serve as New Orleans’ city hall, was messy as workers were still in last-minute preparations for Bush’s arrival later in the day for a meeting with business executives.

Local police and secret service agents lined the streets surrounding the luxury Windsor-Court Hotel, where the three leaders will be staying during the summit, effectively blocking traffic and authorized personnel from getting too close.

Prior to the leaders’ arrival, under the watch of police officers, a small number of protesters gathered in front of the hotel, chanting anti-summit slogans and waving placards that read: “No North American Union”, “U.S. citizens say no to tyranny,” etc.

“They (The leaders) are doing this without consulting with the American people,” Thomas Anderson, a protester from Texas, told Xinhua, saying that they were calling for transparency from the meeting.

Anderson accused the leaders at the summit of ignoring the concerns of ordinary people and engaging in secrete discussions that violate the U.S. constitution and endanger the sovereignty of the United States.

Jim Stachowiak, a New Orleans native who operates an independent on-line radio station, said that through their protests, they wanted the American people to know that the “real enemies” are not in Iraq, but “in Washington D.C..”

“We are pleading, begging them to listen to the American people,” Stachowiak said.

The protesters demonstrated for several hours outside the hotel and later left peacefully in the afternoon. But elsewhere in the business district, small groups of demonstrators could still be seen sporadically.

Some activists said they expected protests of larger scale to take place on Tuesday when Bush, Harper and Calderon are due to have a more formal meeting before wrapping up the summit.

The Sunday Times | Apr 20, 2008

By David Leppard

THE head of Britain’s race relations watchdog says lack of control over immigration has led to a racial “cold war” among rival ethnic communities.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), believes that the failed policy risks inflaming racism among millions of young mothers and working professionals.

In an address to mark the 40th anniversary of Enoch Powell’s infamous “rivers of blood” speech in which Powell warned of apocalyptic social consequences if the rising tide of immigration were not halted, Phillips will say that the predictions have not come true. But he will warn that mass immigration has caused a different form of “war” that is just as worrying.

“Powell predicted ‘hot’ conflict and violence. However, we have seen the emergence of a kind of cold war in some parts of the country, where very separate communities exist side by side . . . with poor communication across racial or religious lines,” Phillips will say.

“In essence, Powell so discredited any talk of planning or control that it gave rise to a migration policy in which government knew too little about what was going on. Ironically, Powellism and the weakening of control it engendered may have led Britain to admitting more immigrants than fewer.”

Phillips will also warn ministers that they are playing into the hands of antiimmigrant parties such as the British National party by failing to respond to justified concerns among large sections of the “settled” population about the impact of mass immigration on their daily lives.

In a speech - to be delivered in the same Birmingham hotel where Powell polarised the public debate on race in 1968 - Phillips will say: “For every professional woman who is able to go out to work because she has a Polish nanny, there is a young mother who watches her child struggle in a classroom where a harassed teacher faces too many children with too many languages between them.

“Wanting a better deal for her child doesn’t make her antiimmigrant. But if we can’t find a better answer to her despair then she soon will be.

“For every boss whose bacon is saved by the importation of skilled IT professionals or crafts-people or health professionals, there are a thousand people who wonder every morning why they have to put up with the misery of a packed railway carriage or bus - if they can get on in the first place. Wanting an infrastructure that doesn’t make getting to work daily hell doesn’t make someone a natural voter for an antiimmigrant party. But it soon will.”

In a wide-ranging interview ahead of his speech, Phillips emphasised that he did not believe that too many immigrants had come to Britain. But he wanted to highlight that mismanaged policy had raised fears in the resident population about the impact of so many migrants on their daily lives.

Britain is probably the most tolerant country in Europe, he is expected to say. But the legacy of Powell and a “lack of control” over immigration policy by governments of both parties meant that it has gained an unfair reputation as one of the most xeno-phobic.

“It always seems like we’re a country that hates foreign people,” he said in the interview. He said this false image - which he described as a “calumny” - alienated highly qualified and well trained foreign migrants.

“My fear is that because we’ve been gripped [by this image] for 40 years . . . then we are going to miss the boat. Why would immigrants come to Britain if we behave as if we don’t want them?”

Powell’s notorious comments had the effect of making immigration a subject to be avoided by mainstream political parties for fear of being branded racists.

In his speech Phillips will lay out a programme for managed migration and will say: People should not be intimidated from making legitimate criticism of ethnic minorities.

Women should be treated equally and children properly protected in all communities. “Fair treatment” should not be reserved for ethnic minorities. “We need to do more for young white men who are having to compete with clever Polish graduates,” he will say.

Ministers should actively manage the geographical balance of migration. More migrants should be encouraged to settle in Scotland.

McClatchy | Apr 18, 2008

By Franco Ordonez

TEZIUTLAN, Mexico — As the U.S. economy heads south, Mexicans may have to head north.

That’s the fear of many workers here, where the slowdown in the United States already has cut production at manufacturing plants whose output is largely sold in the United States .

“If it’s bad there, it will be worse here,” said Bartolo Juarez , 35, who makes jeans for Levis and Guess at a Teziutlan factory and already has discussed moving to the United States if his job here vanishes. His 12-year-old daughter, Gabriela, has broken down in tears more than once after hearing her parents talk about her father leaving for the States, her mother said.

“It’s a sacrifice. I don’t want to go, but I know I can get a good-paying job in San Antonio ,” even in troubled economic times, Juarez said. It’s always easier to find work in the United States than in Mexico , he added, and for five times more money.

Economists say that U.S. recessions historically are tougher on Mexico than they are on the United States , and that while U.S. officials say that border security measures, such as building a wall along the Mexican border, have reduced illegal immigration in recent months, they won’t hold back the flood of workers that’s likely if Mexican factories close.

The majority of the 72,000 people who live in this rainy town tucked up in the cloud forests of the Sierra Norte mountains in central Mexico work in more than 30 factories that specialize in assembling pants for distribution in the United States .

Rodrigo Martinez , the coordinator of the National Job Service in Teziutlan , estimates that 10 percent of the community already has gone to the United States in search of work after losing jobs here or deciding to find better pay there.

As demand for Mexican-made pants declines in the United States , he expects more workers to go.

“This community is almost 100 percent maquiladora,” he said, using the Spanish word for factories that assemble goods for U.S. consumption. “Closing some of those shops would affect us greatly.”

Manufacturing is by far Mexico’s most vulnerable sector during a U.S. downturn, economists say. More than 80 percent of Mexican exports are destined to go north. A drop in U.S. demand would cut into Mexican production levels and employment.

As the old adage goes, “When Uncle Sam sneezes, Mexico catches a cold.”

Jaime Ros , an economics professor at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at Notre Dame , said the Mexican manufacturing industry already was experiencing a pinch from the U.S. economic downturn. Those who lose their jobs will “certainly add to the supply of immigrants” heading north, he said.

Ros, who formerly taught at Mexico City’s Center of Investigation and Economic Studies , is skeptical that U.S. border-security measures will have a significant impact when so many desperate immigrants see the U.S. as their only option for work.

While the crash of the U.S. housing market has reduced demand for immigrant workers in construction, immigrants are likely to find jobs at hotels, restaurants and other services that won’t be as affected by a U.S. recession.

The U.S. learned how closely Mexico’s fate is tied to its economy in 2001. At the time, Mexico’s maquiladora industry was at its peak, with more than 3,000 companies employing about 1.2 million workers. Then the U.S. went into a recession after the dot-com crash. Hundreds of maquiladora plants closed as a result from 2001 to 2004 and more than 200,000 people lost their jobs.

Maquiladora workers who lose their jobs are more likely than other Mexicans to move north, said Kathy Kopinak , a senior fellow at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at University of California San Diego .

Because many maquiladoras have been set up in border towns, Kopinak said, workers have family members and friends on both sides of the border who can assist in labor migration.

Mexico hasn’t fallen into a recession, but several economists say that’s the direction the country is going if the U.S. recession is deeper than expected.

Mexico’s economy grew 3.3 percent last year. Wachovia Corp. forecasts this year’s growth to slow to 2.5 percent. Others are less optimistic: The Economist Intelligence Unit forecast that Mexico’s growth would be just 1.9 percent this year.

“The risk is that if we have a deeper, darker, longer recession than what we are expecting, then Mexico is going to catch a pretty bad cold and it could pull Mexico into a recession itself,” said Jay Bryson , a global economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte .

Mexican officials say their economy is more resilient now than in it was in 2001. They say that a pickup in automobile exports to Europe and Asia will help offset decreased demand from the United States . Central bank Governor Guillermo Ortiz said last month that Mexican exports to countries other than the U.S were growing by 30 percent a year.

President Felipe Calderon has announced several initiatives intended to weather a U.S. economic slowdown.

Last month, he announced a $5.6 billion stimulus package of tax breaks, discounts and bank loans. Last week, he called for sweeping changes in Pemex , Mexico’s ailing oil company and the country’s largest source of foreign exchange.

Calderon’s initiatives may never be approved, however. Opposition legislators have seized control of Mexico’s Congress , some spending the night in sleeping bags, to protest the bill, which they claim is an effort to privatize the state oil company.

Over drinks after their shift at an auto parts company that feeds the giant Volkswagen plant in Puebla, Mexico , Antonio Paredes , 24, and Jaime Galicia Alonso , 23, were discussing the likelihood of an economic downturn.

Paredes said he’d already talked to his wife about accompanying him to the United States . He’s also talked with a co-worker about getting in touch with his son in Chicago , where Paredes is considering moving.

Galicia said he’d do whatever he could to stay in Mexico , but he acknowledged that it will be tough. Many people from his village already have left for the United States .

“If you lose your job and you can find another job, you stay in Mexico ,” Galicia said. “Otherwise you’re almost obligated to go to the United States .”

State Department talks open borders, EU links

WorldNetDaily | Mar 13, 2008

By Jerome R. Corsi

WASHINGTON — A largely unreported meeting held at the State Department discussed integration of the U.S., Mexico and Canada in concert with a move toward a transatlantic union, linking a North American community with the European Union.

The meeting was held Monday under the auspices of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy, or ACIEP. WND obtained press credentials and attended as an observer. The meeting was held under “Chatham House” rules that prohibit reporters from attributing specific comments to individual participants.

The State Department website noted the meeting was opened by Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Business Affairs Daniel S. Sullivan and ACIEP Chairman Michael Gadbaw, vice president and senior counsel for General Electric’s International Law & Policy group since December 1990.

WND observed about 25 ACIEP members, including U.S. corporations involved in international trade, prominent U.S. business trade groups, law firms involved with international business law, international investment firms and other international trade consultants.

No members of Congress attended the meeting.

The agenda for the ACIEP meeting was not published, and State Department officials in attendance could not give WND permission under Chatham House rules to publish the agenda.

The meeting agenda included topics reviewing the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, and the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Economic Council, or TEC.

The SPP, declared by the U.S., Canada and Mexico at a summit meeting in 2005, has 20 trilateral bureaucratic working groups that seek to “integrate and harmonize” administrative rules and regulations on a continental basis.

Several participants said the premise of the SPP is to create a North American business platform to benefit North America-based multi-national companies the way the European Union benefits its own.

Others noted the premise of the TEC is to create a convergence of administrative rules and regulations between Europe and North America, anticipating the creation of a “Transatlantic Economic Union” between the European Union and North America.

Participants pointed out that transatlantic trade is currently 40 percent of all world trade. They argue that trade and non-trade barriers need to be further reduced to maintain that market share as a framework is put in place to advance transatlantic economic integration.

Still, some participants argued that many corporations in North America already have moved beyond a North American focus to adopt a global perspective that transcends even the Transatlantic market.

“Supply chains and markets are everywhere,” one participant asserted. “What’s to stop global corporations from going after the cheapest labor available globally, wherever they can find it, provided the cost of transporting goods globally can be managed economically?”

Other participants argued regional alliances were still important, if only to put in place the institutional bases that ultimately would lead to global governance on uniform global administrative regulations favorable to multi-national corporations.

“North America should be a premiere platform to establish continental institutions,” a participant said. “That’s why we need to move the security perimeters to include the whole continent, especially as we open the borders between North American countries for expanding free trade.”

One presentation on the agenda identified four reasons why administrative rules and regulations need to be integrated by SPP in North America and by the Transatlantic Economic Council, bridging together European Union and North American markets:
Standardization – to keep prices low and productivity high;

Investment – for every $1 traded, $4 is invested; right now 75 percent of investment in the U.S. comes from the EU, and 52 percent of the investment in the EU comes from the U.S.;

Productivity Improvements – to lower production costs and stimulate trade; and

Open Borders – to facilitate the free movement of labor to markets where employment opportunities are available.

The discussion pointed out the SPP trilateral working groups and the Transatlantic Economic Council were being supported by top-level Cabinet officers and the heads of state in both the EU and in North America.

Progress in EU-U.S. regulatory integration was noted in financial market coordination, investment rule cohesion, trade security measures and efforts undertaken recently to preserve intellectual property rights.

Before the meeting began, concerns were raised informally by participants worried that the Ohio Democratic Party primary had prompted both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to talk of renegotiating NAFTA.

Participants at the State Department meeting pointed out U.S. political candidates could be expected to argue “protectionist themes opposed to global economic integration” as a tactic, without necessarily being committed to taking aggressive steps once in office.

“The political dialogue misses the point of economic reality,” one participant argued. “There is a J-curve correlation between when a currency like the U.S. dollar depreciates and when exports kick in to increase. We should accelerate the J-curve and our discussion about it, to help the local politics catch up with the international reality.”

Part of the discussion was devoted to concerns that national regulators in North America and Europe were too reluctant to abandon provincial regulatory advantages.

“Regulators by nature are advocates, and they are hard to move,” one participant grumbled. “What we need is more diplomats and negotiators to identify solutions, otherwise the bureaucrats will bog down the progress we need to see coming out of the SPP and TEC.”

“North America is already an integrated continental economy and a continental-wide business platform,” another said. “What we need now is more regulatory convergence. ‘Harmonized’ should mean that once approved, the same set of administrative regulations and procedures ought to be ready throughout NAFTA, SPP and the TEC.”

As WND previously reported, the Transatlantic Economic Council, or TEC, was created by President Bush at an April 30 summit meeting at the White House with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the current president of the European Council, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

WND also reported the Transatlantic Policy Network, a non-governmental organization headquartered in Washington and Brussels and advised by a bi-partisan congressional policy group chaired by Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, has called for the creation of a Transatlantic Common Market between the U.S. and the European Union by 2015.

A complete membership list of the current 60-person Advisory Committee on International Policy is published on the State Department website.

ACIEP members include corporate officers from General Electric, Exxon Mobil, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Archer Daniels Midland, United Parcel Service, Citibank, Proctor & Gamble, Hunt Oil, CMS Energy, Boeing, 3M, Goldman Sachs and Cargill.

The most recent “Summary of Discussions” published on the Department of State website was for the Dec. 18 ACIEP meeting.

A published article on the State Department website includes photographs of the Dec. 18 ACIEP meeting, listing by name several participants who were photographed in attendance.

WorldNetDaily.com | Jan 25, 2008

By Jerome R. Corsi

The Hispanic outreach director for Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign is a dual American-Mexican citizen known for his “Mexico first” declarations to immigrants in the U.S., WND has confirmed.

Word of the appointment, made in November, spread across the Internet last night, sparking reaction from secure-border activists who charge Juan Hernandez’s position in the campaign belies the Republican candidate’s attempt to position himself as an advocate of border security.

McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers emphasized to WND that Hernandez is “a non-paid volunteer to the campaign, and he does not play a policy role.”

“Juan works with us to reach out to the Hispanic community to meet with the folks in the various states,” Rogers said.

Asked if the McCain campaign has repudiated Hernandez’s “Mexico first” declarations, Rogers did not give a direct answer.

Twice he referred WND to McCain’s immigration position on the campaign presidential website arguing for border security.

In an appearance on ABC’s Nightline in 2001, Hernandez said, referring to Mexican immigrants in the U.S., “I want the third generation, the seventh generation, I want them all to think ‘Mexico first.’”

Hernandez told the Associated Press the same year, “I never knew the border as a limitation. I’d be delighted if all of us could come and go between these two marvelous countries.”

Last August, Hernandez published a book entitled “The New American Pioneers: Why Are We Afraid of Mexican Immigrants?” in which he argued Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal, were at the forefront of establishing a new North American market combining the U.S. with Mexico.

Mark Krikorian, director for the Center for Immigration Studies, asked last night on a National Review Online blog, “Has McCain offered Hernandez, a former high-level foreign government official who presumably swore an oath to uphold the Mexican constitution, a place on a future McCain Administration? That’s not a rhetorical question.”

Columnist Michelle Malkin posted equally critical comments this morning on her blog HotAir.com.

Noting that McCain has attempted to distance himself from the comprehensive immigration reform bill he co-sponsored with Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, Malkin said the appointment of Hernandez “tells me that John McCain is as weak on border security now as he ever was.”

While McCain is now emphasizing border security, the policy posted on his website repeats many of the “flexible labor market” arguments advanced in the Kennedy-McCain comprehensive immigration reform bills, arguing for the necessity of a guest-worker program.

No fence

Hernandez has appeared on various cable news talk shows aggressively arguing against building any fence on the Mexican border, insisting the frontier need to remain wide open so illegal immigrants can easily cross into the U.S.

Hernandez was the first U.S.-born cabinet member to serve President Vicente Fox, operating from Los Pinos, the Mexican White House. Hernandez represented the 24 million Mexicans living abroad whom Fox then called “heroes” for representing Mexico in the foreign nations in which they lived.

In 1996, Hernandez was responsible for inviting Fox, then governor of the Mexican state of Guanajuanto, to speak at the University of Texas, Dallas, where he met George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, for the first time.

Associated Press | Jan 21, 2008

By TIM MARTIN

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Illegal immigrants no longer will be able to get Michigan driver’s licenses starting Tuesday under a policy that requires more documentation to get behind the wheel.

Some who legally are in Michigan but not permanent residents also will be denied licenses unless state law is changed. Legislation to allow those on temporary work or student visas to get licenses is pending in the state Legislature.

Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land made the announcement Monday, aimed at complying with an opinion issued last month by Attorney General Mike Cox. Opinions by the attorney general’s office are legally binding on state agencies and officers unless reversed by the courts.

The new policy applies to first-time applicants for a Michigan driver’s license or identification card. Updated procedures for renewals soon will be released.

New applicants will be asked to show a document showing their Social Security number or show they are ineligible for one. They also will have to document legal and permanent residency in the U.S., as well as Michigan residency, through documents such as a birth certificate, passport and billing statements featuring name and address.

With Michigan changing its policy, seven states still allow undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses or driver’s cards. The practice has come under increasing scrutiny since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“This is one more tool in our initiative to bolster Michigan’s border and document security,” Land said in a statement. “It also puts Michigan’s procedure in line with those of most other states.”

Michigan law prohibits the secretary of state from issuing a driver’s license to a nonresident. Cox, a Republican, said in his opinion that a person who is not a lawful resident of the U.S. cannot be a resident of Michigan for purposes of obtaining a driver’s license. He said the Legislature stated a clear intent that a resident for purposes of Michigan’s vehicle code must be permanent and not temporary or transient.

His decision reversed an early opinion by former Democratic Attorney General Frank Kelley made in 1995. The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan has criticized Cox’s ruling, saying it would drive illegal immigrants further underground and make them a more invisible population.

Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm has said she opposes giving driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, spokeswoman Liz Boyd said Monday.

Full Story

The North American Union is being implemented gradually by stealth without the consent of the American people as part of the secret agenda for global government. The North American passcard is essentially the NAU ID.

Passport card with chatty RFID chip draws privacy ire

Computerworld | Jan 8, 2008

New chipped passcards are unencrypted and readable up to 30 feet away

by Jaikumar Vijayan

January 08, 2008  (Computerworld) — A proposed new RFID-enabled passport card intended for use by Americans frequently travelling to Canada, Mexico. Bermuda and the Caribbean poses serious security and privacy risks for users, the Centers for Democracy and Technology (CDT) warned this week.

Among the concerns are the potential for the card to be used for location tracking by government and private entities and the relative ease with which it can be manipulated for identity theft purposes, the CDT said.

The Washington-based think tank’s warning was prompted by a final ruling in the Federal Register from the U.S. Department of State on Dec. 31 calling for the use of so-called “vicinity read” radio frequency identification technology on proposed new passport cards. The department first announced plans to use RFID chips for new passport cards back in October 2006 and has been going through a process of collecting and responding to comments on its plans.

The identification cards would be needed by residents who don’t have passports for verifying their identity at land, air and sea border crossings and are to be issued as part of the Departments of State and Homeland Security’s Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, or WHTI. The credit-card sized passport cards will use vicinity-read RFID technology that allow them to be read from at least 20 to 30 feet away by customs and border-protection officials. The goal is to substantially reduce wait times at the border by allowing officials to access and queue up a border crosser’s information even before they reach the official.

The approach is substantially different from the proximity-read technology being used in U.S. electronic passports, and it offers fewer protections, according to Ari Schwartz, deputy director at the CDT. Electronic passports contain all of the same identification data that appears on the first page of a passport, and includes a digital photograph and a digital signature. But the information on those chips is encrypted at all times and can only be accessed by physically swiping the card through a reader at the border crossing.

In contrast, said Schwartz, the proposed RFID-enabled passport cards can be read from a distance, and without user notice, consent or control over when the information is collected. Additionally, information from the card is transmitted in the clear — that is, without encryption. The RFID technology itself is also more susceptible to electronic eavesdropping and hacking, which makes the cards less tamper resistant compared to electronic passports, he said.

“So you have a situation where you are sending out identity information in the clear over a long distance,” using a less-than-secure technology, Schwartz said.

The State Department itself has said that the passport cards will not contain any identity information such as name, date of birth, social security number, or place of birth.

LA Times | Jan 4, 2008.

MEXICO CITY — Farmers in this country organized scattered protests Tuesday and Wednesday as the final trade barriers on U.S. corn, beans, sugar and milk fell with the full implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement on New Year’s Day.

Corn and beans are staples of the Mexican diet and subsistence crops for millions of farmers. Opponents of NAFTA said the free entry of relatively cheap U.S. corn would devastate rural Mexico and help spur more immigration.

But the government of President Felipe Calderon celebrated the end of the trade barriers, whose gradual elimination began in 1994 when the treaty among the U.S., Mexican and Canadian governments took effect.

Agriculture Secretary Alberto Cardenas said that 90% of the imports affected by the final barriers already entered the country free of tariffs in 2006, and that the effect on local producers would be minimal.

Still, about 100 Mexican farmers partially blocked the border crossing between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, carrying signs that read “Without Corn There Is No Country.”

Protesters blocked several of the traffic lanes entering Mexico for much of Tuesday and part of Wednesday, according to news reports.

Miguel Colunga Martinez, leader of a local peasant group, told the El Paso newspaper El Diario that protesters would “inspect” all trucks crossing the border and stop any carrying farm goods. “Up to now, not a single trailer has passed,” he said.

Mexico’s tortilla producer association said the final implementation of the treaty would reduce the number of Mexican corn producers and could lead to a 20% to 30% increase in the price of tortillas. It gave no details.

“We will not have the weapons to compete with the growers of the United States and Canada, who will sell corn cheaper than it’s produced here,” said Lorenzo Mejia Morales, president of the National Union of Mills and Tortilla Producers.

Mexican agricultural officials say NAFTA benefits their country by allowing Mexican farm products into the United States.

“We have become the principal supplier of fruits and vegetables into the United States,” Cardenas said in a news release, citing onions, avocados, mangoes and watermelons as examples of successful Mexican exports.

At the same time, Mexican imports of U.S. corn have risen from less than 1 million metric tons in 1993 to 9.9 million metric tons in the 2006-07 marketing year that ended in July, according to statistics from the U.S. Agriculture Department.

The majority of the imports are of yellow corn, which is used to feed livestock and to make corn syrup. There are about 1.5 million corn farmers in Mexico and most grow white corn, which is used to make tortillas.

NAFTA critics say Mexican farmers cannot compete with their American counterparts because the government subsidies they receive are paltry compared with those given to U.S. farmers.

Telegraph | Jan 6, 2008

By Michael Leidig in Traiskirchen

Thousands of asylum seekers are on the move across Europe as a result of the relaxation of internal border controls.

A new system intended to make it easier for European Union citizens to move between member countries has led to a dramatic rise in illegal immigrants.

At the Traiskirchen refugee camp in Austria, numbers have more than doubled, from 300 to 770, since the rules were changed just before Christmas.

Many, travelling on foot, in vans and taxis, had started their journeys in the disputed Russian territory of Chechnya.

Elena Gairabeka and her five children walked across the border into Austria from the Czech Republic after initially leaving Russia and entering the EU through Poland.

The group, which included a six-month-old baby, faced night-time temperatures of minus 20C during the journey.

Mrs Gairabeka said they made the trip to join up with her husband Muslim, who had entered Austria illegally five years earlier.

Mrs Gairabeka said they arrived in Poland by train but had been unable to continue their journey until the border rules changed on December 21.

The new rules mean that staff at the internal borders can no longer check passports.

The rules do not apply to Britain and Ireland, which are not part of the so-called Schengen zone.

Last month, The Sunday Telegraph exposed lax controls on the new eastern frontier and fears that many more illegal migrants would be able to enter the EU.

“We were able to get to Poland without a visa, and we applied for asylum - that meant we could stay while the application was processed,” Mrs Gairabeka said.

“Now the borders have opened I have been able to cross to Austria. We hitched a lift in a lorry part of the way and walked the rest. But I am worried they will send us back to Poland.”

Most asylum seekers arriving in Traiskirchen had few possessions and little protections against the bitter cold.

But Mrs Gairabeka said it was worth the discomfort.

“To be honest, we don’t care if we live here or in Poland or Britain,” she said. “The main thing is that after five years we want to be a family again and my children want their father.

” Mr Gairabeka previously had to travel to Poland to meet up with his family.

Almost 2,000 soldiers still patrol Austria’s borders, but they are powerless to check the passports of new arrivals.

With a border that includes the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia, Austria has been the first to experience the wave of new arrivals.

Traiskirchen’s mayor, Franz Gartner, said: “The government held parties to celebrate Schengen but never bothered to evaluate the security situation properly. If it is not going to close these borders it needs more camps.”

Austria’s interior minister, Guenther Platter, pledged that the new arrivals would be sent back to Poland, warning: “Anyone who comes to us from another EU country has no right to asylum here.”

German police, who opposed the opening of the borders, have also reported a sharp increase in the number of illegal migrants entering the country.

Some politicians are demanding the borders once again be closed.

Harald Vilimsky, secretary-general of the Austrian Freedom Party, said there had been an “avalanche of asylum seekers”, mainly from Russian-speaking countries.

Gerald Grosz, of the Alliance for the Future of Austria party, said the government was turning Austria into “an El Dorado for fake asylum applicants and criminals”.