US military may be “forced to intervene” if Mexico collapses into civil war

Mexico drugs bust: Mexico lies astride the crucial smuggling routes linking the US with the drug-growing areas of South America Photo: AP

America may be forced to intervene in Mexico to prevent the country’s “rapid and sudden collapse” at the hands of organised crime and drug cartels, according to the US army.

Telegraph | Jan 16, 2009

Mexico in danger of collapse, says US army

By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor

A report on the “Joint Operating Environment”, compiled by the army’s high command, places Mexico alongside Pakistan as a possible failed state of the future. America, which shares a 2,000 mile border with Mexico, would be the obvious destination for massive refugee flows if its neighbour descended into civil war.

President Felipe Calderon has deployed Mexico’s army in a new offensive against organised crime. This battle against four major drug cartels, along with a myriad of local syndicates, claimed the lives of 5,367 members of the security forces or suspected criminals last year alone.

“Two large and important states bear consideration for rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico,” reads the US army’s report.

“The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state.”

Mexico, with a population of 110 million, provides America with more migrants than any other country. It also lies astride the crucial smuggling routes linking the US with the drug-growing areas of South America, notably Colombia, which remains the world’s biggest source of cocaine.

If Mexico became a failed state, millions would flee across the northern border and organised crime gangs would have a secure base from which to penetrate America. This could leave Washington with little choice but to intervene, possibly by military means.

“Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone,” says the report.

Mexico’s crime gangs have retaliated for Mr Calderon’s offensive by targeting members of the security forces for murder. Dozens of soldiers have been beheaded. Many ordinary police officers and security officials accept bribes from the drug rings. This corruption, which may reach into the highest levels of the government itself, is a crucial factor obstructing Mr Calderon’s campaign. Ultimately, it may also have the effect of destroying the state itself.

The US army’s report stresses that countries can collapse very quickly, pointing to the example of Yugoslavia which broke up during the civil wars of 1991 – 95. “The collapse of Yugoslavia into a chaotic tangle of warring nationalities suggests how suddenly and catastrophically state collapse can happen – in this case a state which had hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics at Sarajevo, and which then quickly became the epicentre of the ensuing civil war.”

Mr Calderon won Mexico’s presidency by a tiny margin of less than one per cent during a controversial election held in July 2006. Despite this slender mandate, he has made the fight against organised crime the central goal of his leadership.

Analysts: Dollar collapse would result in ‘amero’

(Designs Computed)

Think deep recession likely regardless of Fed’s actions

WorldNet Daily | Dec 13, 2006

By Jerome R. Corsi

Two analysts who have reconstructed money supply data after the Fed stopped publishing it argue a coming dollar collapse will set the stage for creating the amero as a North American currency to replace the dollar.

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The reconstructed M3 data – the broadest measure of money – published on econometrician Gary Kuever’s website, NowAndFutures.com, shows M3 increased at a rate of 11 percent in May, compared to 9 percent when the Federal Reserve quit publishing M3 data earlier this year.

Asked why the Fed decided to stop publishing M3 data, Kuever told WND, “The Fed probably wants to hide how much liquidity is being pumped into the market, and I expect the trend to keep pumping liquidity into the market will continue, especially since the economy is slowing down.”

Why is this important?

“The trend line in my M3-plus-debt chart is staggering,” Kuever said. “There has been a straight, long-term trend line of M3-plus-credit increasing since 2000. Long-term, we are creating inflation and the dollar has lost almost 98 percent of its value in the past 100 years.”

Kuever, a retired investor, is concerned that with growing budget and trade deficits “the dollar could collapse.”

“Especially if the Fed cannot increase rates, because we have already entered a recession,” he said.

Bob Chapman, who issued a reconstructed M3 estimate to the 100,000 subscribers to his newsletter, “The International Forecaster”, agrees.

“The world is awash in money and credit,” Chapman told WND. “My numbers show M3 increasing at about a 10-percent rate right now.”

Chapman believes the U.S. economy entered a recession in February. In his newsletter of Dec. 9 he predicted the Fed would hold interest rates at 5.25 percent.

“The Fed is in a very tough spot here,” Chapman wrote, “If they raise rates, the real estate market will collapse, and if they lower rates, the dollar will collapse.”

Meeting yesterday, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee voted, as Chapman had predicted, to hold the overnight lending rates between banks steady at 5.25 percent. This was the fourth straight meeting the Fed had voted not to change rates. In its rate announcement, the Fed affirmed the economy had slowed.

Almost immediately after the announcement of the Fed’s decision, the dollar weakened to a new 20-month low against the euro, with currency markets reportedly pricing in the expectation the Fed will be forced to lower rates next year to bolster the economy. Following the announcement by the Fed, the U.S. Dollar Index, or USDX, also dropped, with the dollar going below 83.

A dollar collapse is imminent, Chapman declared.

“Technicians studying the USDX think there is a support level for the dollar at 75, but I don’t think so.”

How low could the dollar go?

“If the dollar breaks through 78.33 on the USDX,” Chapman answered, “my guess is the dollar will go through a 35-percent correction, which would put it at 55.”

“The key in how low the dollar goes is the interest rates,” Chapman told WND. “In January, the Fed is going to have to make a decision which way to go. If Fed rates go up, the dollar will hold in the 78.33 range, but the stock market and the economy will tank. If next year the Fed lowers rates to keep the economy from crashing, the bottom will fall out of the dollar, and I see it going as low as 55. Once the dollar hits bottom, it will take the stock market and the economy right with it anyway. The Fed is in a box they can’t get out of.”

As WND reported earlier this week, in an unusual move, the Bush administration is sending virtually the entire economic “A-team” to visit China for a “strategic economic dialogue” in Beijing Thursday and Friday. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are leading the delegation, along with five other cabinet-level officials, including Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez. Also in the delegation will be Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, Energy Secretary Sam Bodman, and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab.

But Chapman doubts the trip will help the Fed to engineer a slow dollar slide.

“The Chinese are going to do what the Chinese want to do, not what we want them to do,” he said. “I believe the Chinese are going to send Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke home packing, with little or nothing to show for the trip.”

How severe will the coming dollar collapse be?

“People in the U.S. are going to be hit hard,” Chapman warned. “In the severe recession we are entering now, Bush will argue that we have to form a North American Union to compete with the Euro.”

“Creating the amero,” Chapman explained, “will be presented to the American public as the administration’s solution for dollar recovery. In the process of creating the amero, the Bush administration just abandons the dollar.”

Integrated transatlantic economy to be set up by 2025

EurActiv| 31 October 2008

By Joseph Quinlan, Bank of America Capital Management

While the “first decade and a half of globalisation was largely driven and shaped by the United States and Europe,” tomorrow’s world will be multipolar, with rising powers posing both opportunities and risks for the transatlantic economy, writes Joseph Quinlan, chief market strategist at Bank of America Capital Management, for the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

His October paper argues that the transatlantic economy will remain “one of the largest and most powerful economic entities in the world in 2025,” but predicts a shift in world economic power as the figures for global output in purchasing power parity terms, currently 60% for the developed world and 40% for developing countries, are reversed.

The US and the EU will both lose ground as global manufacturing output shifts towards emerging nations and their new corporate actors begin to challenge American and European players, Quinlan predicts. Moreover, nations outside the transatlantic structure will seek more influence in multilateral institutions as their increasing capital and natural resources lend them more weight. New international alignments can be expected as a result of the rise of China, India, Russia and Brazil, he observes.

Globalisation is nevertheless not a “zero-sum game,” the paper recalls, warning that trade and investment protectionism would only be to the detriment of global growth. Transatlantic relations must be transformed to embrace the benefits of facilitating integration of developing countries into the global economy.

Quinlan recommends that the EU and the US identify mutual interests with developing countries and step up cooperation, citing climate change, energy security and aging populations as possible areas where joint efforts would be beneficial to all parties. Developed countries should also engage China and other key developing states in multilateral organisations, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation, to coordinate global macroeconomic policies, he adds.

Next, Europe and the US must further strengthen their partnership, as removing the remaining barriers to trade would significantly improve the competitiveness of the transatlantic economy, the paper states.

Finally, both the EU and the US must tackle their own economic issues to build confidence in their economies, Quinlan concludes, suggesting that the US increases its national savings rate and reforms its social security system, while calling on the EU to reform its labour market and implement the Lisbon growth and jobs agenda.

• The German Marshall Fund of the United States: The Shape of the Future: The Transatlantic Economy by 2025

Spreading NAFTA’s Love Across The Atlantic

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso recently said in a speech, “We have to make room at the top table for others, because that is the only way we can consolidate and strengthen a stable, multilateral world, governed by internationally agreed rules.”

Global Research | Oct 10, 2008

by Dana Gabriel

Canada and the European Union (EU) are set to begin preliminary discussions on deeper economic integration a mere three days after the election. It has been reported that the proposed trade deal will far exceed NAFTA. Some see this as an opportunity to possibly update the 15 year-old accord. Stephen Harper is busy telling Canadians that only a Conservative majority government will be able to bring confidence back and stabilize the economy. That is why I find it a little strange that this has not become a pillar of the Conservatives economic platform. Harper has decided not to release the full text of the draft proposal until after the election on October 14. The reality is that such an agreement with the EU will be no different than NAFTA in the sense that it will be used to further advance corporate interests.

For the past several months, Canadian officials have been hard at work negotiating with EU representatives. They have compiled a detailed study that will be unveiled after the election. Talks could begin as early as October 17 at a summit in Montreal , with formal negotiations set to begin in 2009. Just as the case with the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) labour, citizen groups and the public at large have been excluded from any discussions. Many support this trade initiative because they wish to lessen Canada’s dependency on the American economy. This agreement has a better chance of succeeding if Harper is re-elected Prime Minister.

There still remains much secrecy surrounding trade talks with the EU, and up to this point, Harper appears to be reluctant to make this an election issue.

French and current rotating EU president Nicolas Sarkozy has said that he wishes economic integration with Canada to be part of his lasting legacy. Europe sees Canada’s energy resources as a possible solution to easing their dependency on Russian oil and gas. In a commentary that appeared in the Globe and Mail, Alan Alexandroff, co-author of the C.D. Howe Institute paper titled Still Amigos, writes, “If the EU and Canada can forge an accord that covers services, government procurement and skilled labour that could well set the table for reviving the original NAFTA.” He went on to say, “If the EU and Canada join hands, the U.S. and Mexico will be eager to join the party.”  Some believe that such an agreement will further advance North American integration while spreading NAFTA to Europe. A Canada-EU trade deal could be used as the model for future bilateral accords and as a way to further renew U.S.-EU relation.

There are calls to further deepen the U.S.-EU partnership with a new sense of multilateralism in areas of trade, climate change, and fighting terrorism, along with others. In April of 2007, it was announced with very little fanfare that the U.S.-EU had reached a deal on a new Trans-Atlantic Economic Partnership. They agreed to set up an economic council and further boost trade and investment by harmonizing services, business takeovers, and intellectual property. They also agreed to continue working towards eliminating non-tariff barriers to trade, which could eventually lead to a U.S.-EU single market.

Economic integration was a first step in the creation of the EU, and a similar stealth approach is being used to advance a North American Union. EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso recently said in a speech, “We have to make room at the top table for others, because that is the only way we can consolidate and strengthen a stable, multilateral world, governed by internationally agreed rules.” He also stated, “the time has come to start thinking of an Atlantic Agenda for Globalisation.” With the further erosion of national sovereignty and continued economic, social, cultural and environmental integration, we are on an undeniable path towards world government.

With the collapse of the WTO talks, more bilateral trade agreements will be used in advancing the New World Order’s agenda. The global elite, pushing for world government, are using the current financial turmoil to acquire more wealth and power. Economic uncertainty could also be used to usher in a North American Union with its own currency. A Canada-EU trade deal is yet another incremental step towards global governance.

Mexicans urged to reclaim a piece of Texas

Telegraph | Jun 26, 2008

By Tom Leonard

Mexicans are being encouraged to reclaim a piece of Texas, more than 150 years after they lost the Lone Star state to the United States.

Texan estate agents are heading south of the border to drum up the interest in buying cut-price land and property in the foreclosure-hit state.

Thanks to a rising Mexican peso and an economy which is growing faster than that of the US, a country that has previously been looked on by America as a source of cheap labour is now seen as a potential source of rich investors.

A “Texas for Sale” sign and cowgirl-clad models greeted visitors to a recent property fair in Monterrey, Mexico, at which hundreds of Mexicans looked over lists of potential investment opportunities. Virgilio Garza, a Monterrey developer, said he and his partners were considering investing $8 million in buying up foreclosed homes in Texas.

He told Bloomberg: “Texas is like our home. We believe there can be some opportunities.”

Marco Ramirez, a Texas estate agent, said that residents of Monterrey, which is 150 miles from the Texas border, were his best hope of buying the 120 foreclosed properties on his books.

“Many of these people have children who are studying in the US. They’ve been renting or leasing and now it’s a great time to buy.”

America annexed Texas in 1845 after Texans gained independence from Mexico nine years earlier following the Battle of the Alamo.

A three-year war between the two countries resulted in Mexico losing about half its territory – including what is now Arizona, Nevada and California – to the United States.

Foreclosures in Texas have risen by 29 per cent in a year with one in every 274 households now going through the process.

The peso has risen by 5.9 per cent against the dollar since the beginning of the year.

Texas Corridor detour: Officials nix land grab

Toll plan tossed: ‘Any area that is not along an existing highway will not be considered’

WorldNetDaily | Jun 14, 2008

Opponents of a plan to build a Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) road and rail system from Mexico to Oklahoma received welcome news this week, as Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) officials announced their strategy would no longer include building new highway routes southwest of Houston, a plan that would have annexed huge tracts of private land.

The $184 billion TTC project originally called for a 4,000-mile network of transportation corridors, 1,200 feet wide, to be built across Texas. The plan would have taken about a half million agricultural acres out of private hands, leading to a maelstrom of objections from Texas landowners.

But now TxDOT executive Director Amadeo Saenz says plans have changed. In a conference call with reporters he said TxDOT “had narrowed the study area for TTC I-69″ and that the department “is going to be considering only existing highway” routes, and “any area that is not along an existing highway will not be considered.”

“This is great news for landowners,” said John Means, president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. “TSCRA appreciates the agency’s decision to not build the toll roads through rural lands that would threaten the private property rights of many of our members.”

The TxDOT website states that “the preliminary basis for this decision centers on the review of nearly 28,000 public comments made” on the issue. Saenz added that 47 town hall meetings with Texas residents had further influenced the decision.

Brehham, Tex., State Rep. Lois W. Kolkhorst, who joined in the battle to protect rural lands from the project, told The Huntsville Item, “The real heroes who deserve the credit here are the constituents. I want to thank the thousands of people who joined me in fighting the I-69 TTC for the past 5 years, writing letters, calling and attending meetings to make their voices heard.”

Though opponents of the TTC celebrate victory in this battle, they have been quick to point out that the war is not over.

“This is good news about a retreat from the corridor,” Kolkhorst said, “but the controversy over how we pay for our roads will continue. We need to stay strong against the forces out there who want to sell off our highway infrastructure to foreign sources.”

“This is a great first step,” said Kenneth Dierschke, president of the Texas Farm Bureau. “But we must continue to hold TxDOT’s feet to the fire during the next legislative session to ensure they keep these promises.”

David Stall of the anti-TTC group CorridorWatch is also wary of crying victory too soon. Speaking of TxDOT, Stall told a Houston Community Newspaper, “They’ve never taken the public’s input into consideration before.”

Part of the concern is that the announcement to limit the TTC’s scope only included project proposals south and west of Houston. The announcement did not mention plans for the northern I-35 corridor.

“We want (Saenz) to send the same letter to the Federal Highway Administration for TTC I-35 that he sent about I-69,” Stall said. “There was as much public input about I-35 as there was about 69.”

Stall also worries that TxDOT was motivated largely by “financial ability and political expediency,” warning, “As soon as it becomes fiscally viable, it will come back.”

For now, landowners in southwestern Texas are breathing a sigh of relief and preparing for future battles if necessary.

Last year Amy Klein, a member of CorridorWatch, quoted Stall in the Gainesville Daily Register with words that are just as meaningful now to the group as they were then. “You eat an elephant one bite at a time,” she quoted. Then she added, “I think we’re slowly devouring this elephant.”

North American Union agenda whether Canadians want it, or not, is a top priority for elite interests

Largest gathering of wealth and power ever assembled on American soil off-limits to American media

The Canadian | Jun 15, 2008

by Kurt Aldag, TrineDay Editorial Coordinator

Eugene, OREGON — A press corps recently scourged by former White House Press Secretary, Scott McCellan, as being “too deferential,” have once again bowed to pressures, and decided not to report the largest gathering of corporate, banking, governmental and royal power ever assembled on American soil.

Over 140 of the world’s most elite powerbrokers gathered in a high class hotel in Chantilly, Virgina, June 5-8, not far from this nation’s capital for the annual Bilderberg Conference. First held in 1954, the Bilderberg Group has, until recently, never even acknowledged its own existence and attendees, who even today, will not admit they attended or what they actually discussed.

In a rare moment of public relations, an anonymous group affiliated with the ultra-secretive Bilderbergers, called Friends of Bilderberg, issued a list of power elites invited to this year’s conference. The list included American Secretary of State Rice, Secretary of the Treasury Paulson, National Security Agency Director Alexander, World Bank president Zoellick, Fed Chairman Bernanke, NY Fed President Geithner, along with Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, George Schultz, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, and Richard Holbrooke, as well as major European politicians, bankers and businessmen.

All the major corporations, the royal houses of Europe, and representatives of the media, such as Donald Graham of the Washington Post and Paul Gigot of PBS, were also invited. Yet, not one photo or word documenting the event showed up in the mainstream media, despite a howling blogosphere rife with rumours that Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama secretly attended.

The Friends of Bilderberg press release also states that the “meeting is private in order to encourage frank and open discussion” and that “all participants attend Bilderberg in a private and not an official capacity.” Under the Logan Act, passed in 1799 and last amended in 1994, it is a felony, punishable under federal law with imprisonment of up to three years, for any U.S. citizen to conduct foreign relations without authority. The attendance of U.S. citizens at annual Bilderberg Group Conference in an unofficial—meaning unauthorized — capacity raises the question of violation of federal law on a rather large scale, which should at the very least draw the mainstream media’s attention.

Daniel Estulin, author of The True Story of the Bilderberg Group (TrineDay; September, 2007), is recognized as the only reliable source of information on the meetings, attendees, and agendas of this secretive group of corporate titans, media moguls and political powers. For years, he has been tracking the movements, speeches, and political webs of Bilderberg members to glean what he can about their plans to re-invent the world in their own image. According to Estulin, and other printed sources, the funds for the first conferences were supplied by intelligence organization interests, and security at these conference are still handled by corresponding government agencies.

“The fact of this sinister conclave, as spooky as any midnight meeting of the KKK in a piney wood, was bound to get known to the world eventually,” says Estulin.” There is a queer parallel between Bilderberg´s secret meeting in Chantilly and a conference on Jekyll Island way back in 1908 in which the currency of the United States and of the world was manipulated — to what effect, whether for good or evil, opinions vary. There have been many excited versions of that secret meeting on Jekyll Island in 1908, but relatively few have ever heard of it at all. Most Americans are not aware of Bilderberg nor understand that the decisions taken at their secret confab affect the lives of the entire planet.”

Underlining the serious nature of the meeting, Estulin reports that Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haas spoke at the Bilderberg Conference Thursday, June 5, calling for the elimination of superpowers and sovereign nation states. Estulin quotes Haas as saying in his speech on International Non-Polarity, “The United States’ unipolar moment is over. International relations in the twenty-first century will be defined by nonpolarity. Power will be diffuse rather than concentrated, and the influence of nation-states will decline as that of non-state actors increases.”

Estulin has reported over the past few years that the true Eugenic-inspired purpose of these “private” and “informal” discussions, under the disguise of solving world problems, such as nuclear arms and terrorism, are in fact organized to:

– Dissolve national hegemonies and create a neo-fascist super state, spanning North America and Europe (in other words, Goodbye Canada);

– Centralize control of the people—eliminate the middle class, leaving only rulers, their helpers and workers;

– De-industrialize industrialized nations (except for computer and service industries) by moving industries to Third World, non-unionized countries;

– Reduce human populations around the globe;

– Centralize control of all education;

– Empower the United Nations to bring nations under a “New World Order”;

– Create and expand the western trading bloc throughout the western hemisphere to establish an “American Union” similar to the European Union (in order words, an American Empire ruling over continental North America, South America, Latin America, and the Caribbean/West Indies);

The True Story of the Bilderberg Group by Daniel Estulin exposes this powerful cabal as no one else can. Estulin spearheads a network of activists and journalists tracking their every move.

For more info, please contact:

Kurt Aldag, (800) 670-4372

kurt@aldag.net
Related

Largest gathering of wealth and power ever assembled on American soil off-limits to American media

‘North American Parliament’ under way

The “Triumvirate” North American Model Parliament, operates well outside of the public media spotlight of all three countries

Some hope exercise of U.S., Canadian, Mexican reps becomes reality

Worldnet Daily | May 28, 2008

By Jerome R. Corsi

A group supporting North American integration is holding its fourth annual “North American Model Parliament” for 100 university students from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The North American Forum on Integration, or NAFI, began is “Triumvirate” sessions Monday in Montreal’s City Hall with a plan to conclude Friday.

According to the NAFI website, “Triumvirate 2008″ brings together the students “to participate in an international negotiation exercise in which they will simulate a parliamentary meeting between North American political actors.”

Participants are assigned to play one of three roles: a legislator, representing a country other than their own; a journalist; or a lobbyist.

Four themes were selected as subjects of the mock parliament’s debate: Fostering Renewable Electricity Markets (in English); Countering North American corporate outsourcing (in French); Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (in English); and NAFTA’s Chapter 11 on investments (in English).

A major goal of the model parliament, according to the NAFI Triumvirate website, is to “develop the participants’ sense of belonging to North America.”

WND contacted the NAFI office in Montreal requesting comment but received no reply.

As WND previously reported, Raymond Chretien, the president of the Triumvirate and the former Canadian ambassador to both Mexico and the U.S., was quoted as claiming the exercise was intended to be more than academic.

“The creation of a North American parliament, such as the one being simulated by these young people, should be considered,” Chretien told WND.

Among the NAFI board of directors are Robert A. Pastor, Ph.D., former director of the Center for North American Studies at American University; and M. Stephen Blank, Ph.D., director of the North American Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University.

Pastor has written extensively on his proposal for the creation of a “North American Community,” while denying he has intended to form a North American Union modeled after the European Union.”

In January, Pastor resigned his position at American University’s Office of International Affairs amid a reorganization. Pastor announced he was taking a one-year sabbatical in which he planned to work as co-director of The Elders, a group of 13 world figures, including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter.

As WND previously reported, Pastor’s 2001 book, “Toward a North American Community,” presents an argument that North American integration should advance through the development of a “North American consciousness” by creating various institutions which include a North American customs union and a North American Development Fund for the economic development of Mexico.

Pastor also was vice chairman of the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force report, “Building a North American Community,” that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action though trilateral “working groups” constituted within the executive branches of the U.S, Mexico and Canada to advance the North American integration agenda.

Stephen Blank is the driving force behind the North America Works conference.

North America Works II, held in Kansas City, Mo., Dec. 1-2, 2006, was organized by the David Rockefeller-created Council of the Americas to discuss “North American Competitiveness and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP).”

Critics contend the working groups are pursuing a stealth process to transform the SPP into a North American regional governmental structure.

WND reported last year’s Triumvirate 2007 was held in Washington, D.C.

The Triumvirate 2006 North American Model Parliament was held in the Mexican Senate, and Triumvirate 2005, the first model parliament, took place in Ottawa, Canada.

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative emerged from the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which requires all travelers to present a passport or other equivalent documents denoting identity and citizenship when entering the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean.

NAFTA Chapter 11 establishes an international tribunal to resolve disputes in which NAFTA investors claim national, state or local laws in the U.S., Canada or Mexico adversely impact NAFTA investments.

NAFTA Chapter 11 tribunals are empowered under NAFTA to overturn U.S. federal, state or local laws or ordinances that are judged to have harmed the interests of investors under NAFTA.

A Canadian government website lists Chapter 11 arbitrations involving Canadian companies and investors.

The U.S. State Department website lists on a sidebar all current NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-state arbitrations.

Related

The North American Model Parliament – homepage

South American nations to seek common currency

UNASUR Flag of South America

Xinhua | May 27, 2008

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 26 (Xinhua) — Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday that South American nations will seek a common currency as part of the region’s integration efforts following the creation of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) last week.

“We are proceeding so as, in the future, we have a common central bank and a common currency,” said Lula in his weekly radio program, noting that this process will “not be fast.”

The president highlighted the importance of helping the group’s more “economically fragile” members, such as Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia.

“We have to help them because the stronger the countries in South America economically are, the more tranquility, peace, democracy, trade, companies, jobs, incomes and development,” he said.

The Brazilian leader said the creation of Unasur will allow cross-nation construction of railroads, highways, bridges and transmission lines connecting the region, while the alliance will make negotiations with other blocs easier.

The president said changes will be made on the proposal to create a regional defense council, which the South American leaders failed to agree during a summit in Brasilia on Friday.

A working group is expected to analyze the revised proposal in August, he said.

Lula plans to visit Colombia in July and meet Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Colombia was the only member that opposed the plan to build the regional defense council designed to resolve regional conflicts, promote military cooperation and possibly coordinate joint weapons production in the region.

Uribe has said Colombia is experiencing a difficult time in its fight against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest rebel group in the country, and such a regional defense body would not offer solutions to Colombia’s problem.

The heads of state of 12 South American countries — Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela — signed a treaty last Friday in Brasilia on the creation of Unasur aimed at boosting economic integration and political cohesion in the region.

“Three Amigos summit” gets under way amid tight security, protests

“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.