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 Business News | August 2006 
The Very Real NAFTA Superhighway
 Joseph Farah - worldnetdaily.com
| | There seems to be a concerted effort under way – from Washington to Salina, Kan. – to deny the very well-documented plans of the Bush administration and members of Congress to build a "NAFTA superhighway" from Mexico, through the U.S. heartland, into Canada. |
I'm getting a little tired of know-nothing Washington officials acting like they know something.
Or maybe it's a case of know-something politicians hiding something.
Either way, it's not funny any more. But I'll report, you decide.
There seems to be a concerted effort under way – from Washington to Salina, Kan. – to deny the very well-documented plans of the Bush administration and members of Congress to build a "NAFTA superhighway" from Mexico, through the U.S. heartland, into Canada.
Simple reporting on this plan, as WND alone has done, using the government's own words and documents, continues to result in tongue-in-cheek ridicule from the political class.
For instance, last week, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., was on one of his semi-annual pilgrimages to meet his constituents. One of his stops was a luncheon at the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce. The event was chronicled by the local birdcage liner, which dutifully reported everything the senator said without challenge.
According to the story, Gary Swartzendruber, the Democratic candidate for Saline County commissioner, asked what sounds like a very good question. It is one increasingly being raised by concerned members of the community there – including Democratic congressional candidate Nancy Boyda – and, for that matter, by informed people across the United States.
The question was basically this: What do you, the esteemed chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who has just been lecturing us about the need to be vigilant against domestic terrorism here in the heartland, think about "discussions that are under way for a proposed NAFTA superhighway."
Roberts scoffed.
In fact, he tried to turn the legitimate question into a joke.
In fact, what he did was turn himself into a joke.
He said: "Actually, it's 12 lanes and it goes through K-State on game days so we don't have to mess with the orange barrels."
Now, being a bi-coastal kind of guy, I'm sure that answer makes some sense to the Midwestern sensibility – even if I don't completely understand it myself. But, the point is, Roberts was trying to be funny. Rush Limbaugh he is not.
He went on to add: "There's nothing I'm aware of in any authorization bill. I don't know where these things get started. This is one of those blogosphere things that makes you wonder what's going on."
Now, given that Roberts made an allusion to the Internet in this response, I get the feeling he knows precisely where this thing got started – right here at WND. This is not the blogosphere, however. This is WND, one of the largest news sources on the Net.
This is not a rumor.
This is not conjecture.
This is not conspiracy mongering.
This is simple reporting of what is public information on the public record.
It frightens me that Pat Roberts is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee but doesn't know what's going on right here in the U.S. – in fact, right in his own backyard. Or, scarier still is the distinct possibility he knows very well what is going on but is determined, for whatever reason, to obscure the reality of what it taking place.
Is Roberts just pretending not to know about NASCO – North America's SuperCorridor Coalition? Or could he really be in the dark? Either option – and there are only two – represents a frightening scenario.
Let me take this opportunity to direct the man who oversees intelligence matters for the U.S. Senate to a speech by Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta of April 30, 2004, in Fort Worth, Texas, before North America's Superhighway Coalition. Read these words carefully and tell me if you think the "NAFTA superhighway" is a pipedream of those wearing tinfoil hats.
"President Bush is keeping America on track for a more prosperous future with his commitment also through international trade," he said.
"And it will not be news to anyone in this room that our top two trading partners are our northern and southern neighbors, Canada and Mexico. NAFTA has opened the doors to expanding and flourishing trade across our borders. Since its implementation, total U.S. trade with Mexico has increased almost 200 percent – with 70 percent of the U.S./Mexico trade passing through Texas. There are, however, some things that we still need to do in the United States to fulfill our obligations under the NAFTA treaty. One of them is to finally open the market between Mexico and the United States for trucking and busing.."
"And to our friends from Mexico who are here today, I say, 'Welcome, and get ready.' Opening the border is of mutual benefit. It will bring greater efficiencies in transportation so important in the competitive global environment. And it will bring robust opportunities for American companies, more jobs for American truckers, better deals for American consumers, and expanding activity along our trade corridors."
"I know that the members of NASCO are gearing up. And your efforts are very important not only locally, but also to the national – and global – economies. Indeed, I want to congratulate NASCO President Sandy Jacobs and the Superhighway Coalition for your leadership. You recognized the promise of this expanding trade relationship with our NAFTA partners early on."
"You also recognized that the success of the NAFTA relationship depends on mobility – on the movement of people, of products, and of capital across borders. The people in this room have vision. Thinking ahead, thinking long-term, you began to make aggressive plans to develop the NASCO trade corridor – this vital artery in our national transportation system through which so much of the NAFTA traffic flows. It flows across our nation's busiest southern border crossing in Laredo; over North America's busiest commercial crossing, the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit; and through Duluth, and Pembina, North Dakota, and all the places in between – like the Siouxland. Tuesday, I met with representatives of the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce who were in Washington, D.C., from Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. They shared some of their plans along the I-29 portion of the NASCO corridor."
There is no question about plans – well-known to the Bush administration and many of Pat Roberts' colleagues in the Congress – for what is sometimes called "the NAFTA superhighway." The secretary of transportation knows about it. Perhaps he could give the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee a special briefing.
Or, alternatively, Pat Roberts could ask what has come to be known as the "NASCO Caucus" in Congress to bring him up to speed. Just check out NASCO's website to see about the meetings between the activists and those they consider to be in their "caucus" last March and in April 2005.
In addition, for Sen. Roberts' sake, I've compiled below some of the reports WND has done on this subject – dating back to 1999. Perhaps he could have a crack member of his intelligence staff peer through them to determine if any error can be found.
Previous stories and commentaries:
NAFTA superhighway to mean Mexican drivers, say Teamsters
Flash: WND is not Newsweek
Super-Corridor to oblivion
U.S.-Mexico merger opposition intensifies
Docs reveal plans for Mexican trucks in U.S.
Kansas City customs port considered Mexican soil?
Southern border blurs for global trade
More money for international highways
Joseph Farah is founder, editor and CEO of WND and a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate. His latest book is "Taking America Back." He also edits the weekly online intelligence newsletter Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, in which he utilizes his sources developed over 30 years in the news business.
NAFTA Superhighway to Mean Mexican Drivers, Say Teamsters
WorldNetDaily.com
The NAFTA superhighway, a north-south interstate trade corridor linking Mexico, Canada and the U.S., would mean U.S. truckers replaced by Mexicans, more unsafe rigs on American roads and more drivers relying on drugs for their long hauls, charges the International Brotherhood of Teamsters – the latest group to weigh in against the Bush administration plan.
The August issue of Teamster magazine features a cover story on the plan for an enlarged I-35 that will reach north from the drug capital border town of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, 1,600 miles to Canada through San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Kansas City, Minneapolis and Duluth, while I-69 originating at the same crossing will shoot north to Michigan and across the Canadian border.
Public proposals for the superhighway calls for each corridor to be 1,200 feet wide with six lanes devoted to cars, four to trucks, with a rail line and utilities in the middle. Most of the goods will come from new Mexican ports being built on the Pacific Coast – ports being run by Chinese state-controlled shipping companies.
"Tens of thousands of unregulated, unsafe Mexican trucks will flow unchecked through out border – a very real threat to the safety of our highways, homeland security and good-paying American jobs," writes Teamster President Jim Hoffa. "The Bush administration hasn't given up on its ridiculous quest to open our border to unsafe Mexican trucking companies. In fact, Bush is quietly moving forward with plans to build the massive network of highways from the Mexican border north through Detroit into Canada that would make cross-border trucking effortless."
So incensed was the union over the plan for the NAFTA superhighway that it sent investigative reporter Charles Bowden to Mexico for its August magazine report on the problems affecting Mexican drivers – problems that could soon come home to Americans with the plans for the new intercontinental highways.
Drivers interviewed for the magazine report say they are exploited by companies that force them to drive 4,500 kilometers alone over the course of five or six nights without sleep. How do they stay awake on such long hauls?
One driver says, "professional secret." Another laughs, "magic dust." Others mention "special chemicals."
"And then they are off, a torrent of words and quips and smiles, and a knowing discussion of that jolt when a line of cocaine locks in," writes Bowden. "They are all family men who run the highways at least 25 days a month and they are adamant about two things – that nobody can run these long hauls without cocaine and crystal meth, and now and then some marijuana to level out the rush. And the biggest danger on their endless runs comes from addicted Mexican truck drivers, which means all truck drivers."
Mexican drivers, of course, earn considerably less than their U.S. counterparts – about $1,100 a month. Hoffa says the NAFTA superhighway plan would "allow global conglomerates to capitalize by exploiting cheap labor and non-existent work rules and avoiding potential security enhancements at U.S. ports."
The drivers interviewed for Teamster magazine say they are completely at the mercy of their employers, the Mexican government and police – who are the first to rob them. All of those interviewed said they have killed people with their trucks on the highways and fled the accident sites.
Hoffa calls NAFTA an "unqualified disaster" up to now – and wonders why the nation continues to pursue the "free trade" agenda. Instead of creating new jobs, he said, it has cost 3 million in manufacturing alone. Instead of creating trade surpluses, America's trade deficit is the worst ever, he says.
"If there's a positive side to the disastrous legacy of NAFTA, it's that it has made it a little harder for the free trade cabal to wrap their lies around subsequent job-killing deals," says Hoffa. "While the White House and Senate still have a majority who continue to support the free trade agenda, their ranks have shrunk over the years – sometimes due to members of Congress changing their minds and sometimes due to voters changing their member of Congress."
He adds: "If the Bush administration succeeds (with the NAFTA superhighway), American drivers and their families will be forced to share the roads with unsafe, uninsured trucks and millions of good-paying American jobs will be lost. And just one weapon of mass destruction in an unchecked container will be too many." |
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