SteveMartin
01-21-2008, 08:00 AM
Consider this:
>
> Subject: SPP 'dead,' says insider
> PREMEDITATED MERGER
> SPP 'dead,' says insider
> 'Bush, Harper, Calderon have punted to line bureaucrats'
> Posted: November 28, 2007
> 1:00 a.m. Eastern
> By Jerome R. Corsi
> © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
> An insider who presented a paper at a recent North American Forum
> meeting in Mexico is concluding that the Security and Prosperity
> Partnership plan has failed.
> "The Security and Prosperity Partnership is dead," reporter John
> Ibbitson of Canada's Globe and Mail told WND in a telephone interview.
> Ibbitson, who was invited to present a paper at the meeting because he
> is a strong proponent of increased international trade, especially
> between Canada and the United States, said he believes public exposure
> has stalled SPP efforts.
> Others disagree with his conclusion, but they do agree that the public's
> awareness of the program and some of its features will trigger changes.
> "The opposition in all three countries has exposed the SPP North
> American integration agenda," wrote Stuart Trew, a researcher and writer
> for the Council of Canadians. "But it is not fair to say the SPP has
> died altogether."
> He said the SPP "as an over-arching project may have suffered from being
> exposed, but progress in North American integration will continue in
> many different areas of public policy as long as the trilateral working
> groups remain in place and the bureaucrats from the three nations keep
> meeting."
> WND has obtained a copy of the North American Forum's secretive annual
> meeting on "North American Cooperation and Community," held this year in
> Mexico from Oct. 12-14
> Several of those who attended have confirmed for WND that public
> exposure has been a hindrance to the progress of the program, while
> opponents continue to hold concerns the efforts are continuing.
> Canadian reporter at meeting
> The North American Forum had given Ibbitson permission to write and talk
> about the otherwise closed meeting, providing he not attribute comments
> to any particular person.
> Ibbitson explained to WND his conclusion that public exposure has
> stalled SPP efforts, noting that bureaucrats have seen efforts in
> trilateral working groups hindered by the growing public awareness and
> opposition to North American integration.
> "Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Canada and President Bush have decided
> to expend no more political capital in the SPP effort," Ibbitson said.
> "As one delegate to last week's North American regional meeting in
> Cancun joked: 'We used to run things, and now we get together to
> complain that the new crew isn't doing as good a job,'" Ibbitson wrote
> in a column in the Globe and Mail.
> "Reaffirming the SPP's goals at the August summit in Montebello, Quebec,
> was mere political butt-covering," Ibbitson wrote.
> "Having failed to make a breakthrough despite two years of trying,
> President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President
> Felipe Calderon punted the mess to some line bureaucrats, who are to
> pretend to work on the file," he wrote. "But in reality, the file is
> closed," he wrote.
> "I told the North American Forum I am increasingly worried that trade
> initiatives between the U.S. and Canada are bogging down and becoming a
> lot stickier and thicker in recent months," Ibbitson told WND.
> He pointed to the U.S. government's determination to implement the
> Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which will require passports to be
> presented by Canadians seeking to enter the United States and by
> Americans returning to the U.S. from Canada.
> Ibbitson dismissed talk of a North American Union as "bosh," yet he
> concedes that political leaders in Canada and the United States are not
> willing to invest the capital needed to keep the SPP moving forward.
> "Mr. Bush was having a hard enough time getting Congress to fund his war
> in Iraq while also approving new trade agreements with Central American
> countries," Ibbitson wrote in the Globe and Mail. "Mr. Harper had no
> intention of risking his minority government over the issue of
> regulatory harmonization. Both men quietly agreed to let SPP die through
> neglect."
> Ibbitson faulted the government strategy of keeping SPP under the radar
> of public opinion in the United States and Canada.
> "If you're going to negotiate freer trade, sing it from the rooftops,"
> he wrote. "Keep the media informed. Make it a Big Deal."
> Council of Canadians objects to secret meeting
> Trew and the Council of Canadians are not as ready to declare R.I.P. for
> the SPP.
> Trew told WND in a telephone interview that the North American Forum was
> "far from the private gathering the organizers claim the meeting to be."
> "The North American Forum brings together top policy makers in all three
> countries," Trew stressed, "including top military brass and high-level
> bureaucrats in all three governments to discuss North American
> integration."
> "One of the goals of the North American Forum is to develop a consensus
> among these public officials around important issues of North American
> policy," he said..
> "We at the Council of Canadians think the details of the North American
> Forum should be open for public view," he continued. "It's not enough
> for our public officials to say they attend as private individuals.
> Public officials still have to be accountable to the public, especially
> when they attend a policy meeting."
> Trew has expressed similar sentiments on the Council of Canadians
> website.
> There, he wrote the secrecy imposed on the North American Forum's
> meeting in Puerto Vallarta allowed "high-level civil servants, military
> officials and elected representatives to hang out, come to friendly
> agreements on certain common North American objectives, then go home and
> try their darndest to implement the necessary policy adjustments, 'at
> their own initiative,' without linking them back to the Forum where they
> originated."
> U.S. Ambassador to Canada endorses forum
> Trew noted John Nay, the U.S. general consul in Toronto, earlier told
> the Marie Chamber of Commerce in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, the North
> American Forum is a "sister organization to the SPP."
> The 2006 speech is archived on the website of the U.S. Consulate in
> Toronto, and includes Nay's reference to the SPP, "Recently Banff was
> host to a sister organization, the second meeting of the North American
> Forum."
> "For those of you who are not familiar with the North American Forum,"
> Nay continued, "it is a less official group that sprang up as a parallel
> structure to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America."
> Trew told WND that Ney's speech supported his contention the North
> American Forum was a public policy group that should operate in the
> light of day.
> "There can be no doubt about the amount of secret planning that has gone
> back and forth between the North American Forum and the three
> governments of the United States, Mexico and Canada," Trew told WND.
> "We still have only sketchy information about who attended the Vallarta
> meeting," Trew admitted, "but we know from the Banff meeting that the
> North American Forum is not just an academic meeting."
> Mexican meeting agenda surfaces
> The Council of Canadians also now has published the agenda of the
> Mexican meeting of the North American Forum.
> "We got the agenda from the Canadian Labour Congress," Trew told WND,
> "but so far, the attendee list has not surfaced."
> WND previously obtained and published the agenda and attendee list from
> the North American Forum's 2006 annual meeting, held in Banff, Alberta,
> Canada.
> The North American Forum's three most prominent members were all in
> attendance: former Secretary of State George P. Schultz; former Mexican
> Secretary of Finance Pedro Aspe; and former Alberta Premier Peter
> Lougheed.
> Also in attendance was Robert Pastor, a professor at American University
> who has written actively about building a North American community for
> over a decade.
> In May, WND published an article written by Pastor, entitled "I propose
> a North American Community."
> Pastor chaired a panel at the Vallarta meeting, entitled "NAFTA at 15:
> Where do we go from here? How to 'create a North American Community?'"
> In 2001, Pastor also published a book entitled "Toward a North American
> Community."
> Another prominent attendee was Tom D'Aquino of the Canadian Council of
> Chief Executives, a counterpart organization to the U.S. Chamber of
> Commerce.
> WND has reported the North American Competitiveness Council, a secretive
> group of 30 North American corporations selected to advise the SPP
> trilateral working groups, was created by the respective chambers of
> commerce in the three nations, including the Canadian group.
> Aspe was one of three task force chairs, with Pastor and D'Aquino
> serving as task force vice-chairs for a Council on Foreign Relations
> report called "Building a North American Community," published in May
> 2005.
> This was two months after the Security and Prosperity Partnership of
> North America was first declared at a summit meeting between President
> Bush, then-President of Mexico Vicente Fox, and then-Prime Minister of
> Canada Paul Martin, at Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005.
>
>
>
> Subject: SPP 'dead,' says insider
> PREMEDITATED MERGER
> SPP 'dead,' says insider
> 'Bush, Harper, Calderon have punted to line bureaucrats'
> Posted: November 28, 2007
> 1:00 a.m. Eastern
> By Jerome R. Corsi
> © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
> An insider who presented a paper at a recent North American Forum
> meeting in Mexico is concluding that the Security and Prosperity
> Partnership plan has failed.
> "The Security and Prosperity Partnership is dead," reporter John
> Ibbitson of Canada's Globe and Mail told WND in a telephone interview.
> Ibbitson, who was invited to present a paper at the meeting because he
> is a strong proponent of increased international trade, especially
> between Canada and the United States, said he believes public exposure
> has stalled SPP efforts.
> Others disagree with his conclusion, but they do agree that the public's
> awareness of the program and some of its features will trigger changes.
> "The opposition in all three countries has exposed the SPP North
> American integration agenda," wrote Stuart Trew, a researcher and writer
> for the Council of Canadians. "But it is not fair to say the SPP has
> died altogether."
> He said the SPP "as an over-arching project may have suffered from being
> exposed, but progress in North American integration will continue in
> many different areas of public policy as long as the trilateral working
> groups remain in place and the bureaucrats from the three nations keep
> meeting."
> WND has obtained a copy of the North American Forum's secretive annual
> meeting on "North American Cooperation and Community," held this year in
> Mexico from Oct. 12-14
> Several of those who attended have confirmed for WND that public
> exposure has been a hindrance to the progress of the program, while
> opponents continue to hold concerns the efforts are continuing.
> Canadian reporter at meeting
> The North American Forum had given Ibbitson permission to write and talk
> about the otherwise closed meeting, providing he not attribute comments
> to any particular person.
> Ibbitson explained to WND his conclusion that public exposure has
> stalled SPP efforts, noting that bureaucrats have seen efforts in
> trilateral working groups hindered by the growing public awareness and
> opposition to North American integration.
> "Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Canada and President Bush have decided
> to expend no more political capital in the SPP effort," Ibbitson said.
> "As one delegate to last week's North American regional meeting in
> Cancun joked: 'We used to run things, and now we get together to
> complain that the new crew isn't doing as good a job,'" Ibbitson wrote
> in a column in the Globe and Mail.
> "Reaffirming the SPP's goals at the August summit in Montebello, Quebec,
> was mere political butt-covering," Ibbitson wrote.
> "Having failed to make a breakthrough despite two years of trying,
> President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President
> Felipe Calderon punted the mess to some line bureaucrats, who are to
> pretend to work on the file," he wrote. "But in reality, the file is
> closed," he wrote.
> "I told the North American Forum I am increasingly worried that trade
> initiatives between the U.S. and Canada are bogging down and becoming a
> lot stickier and thicker in recent months," Ibbitson told WND.
> He pointed to the U.S. government's determination to implement the
> Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which will require passports to be
> presented by Canadians seeking to enter the United States and by
> Americans returning to the U.S. from Canada.
> Ibbitson dismissed talk of a North American Union as "bosh," yet he
> concedes that political leaders in Canada and the United States are not
> willing to invest the capital needed to keep the SPP moving forward.
> "Mr. Bush was having a hard enough time getting Congress to fund his war
> in Iraq while also approving new trade agreements with Central American
> countries," Ibbitson wrote in the Globe and Mail. "Mr. Harper had no
> intention of risking his minority government over the issue of
> regulatory harmonization. Both men quietly agreed to let SPP die through
> neglect."
> Ibbitson faulted the government strategy of keeping SPP under the radar
> of public opinion in the United States and Canada.
> "If you're going to negotiate freer trade, sing it from the rooftops,"
> he wrote. "Keep the media informed. Make it a Big Deal."
> Council of Canadians objects to secret meeting
> Trew and the Council of Canadians are not as ready to declare R.I.P. for
> the SPP.
> Trew told WND in a telephone interview that the North American Forum was
> "far from the private gathering the organizers claim the meeting to be."
> "The North American Forum brings together top policy makers in all three
> countries," Trew stressed, "including top military brass and high-level
> bureaucrats in all three governments to discuss North American
> integration."
> "One of the goals of the North American Forum is to develop a consensus
> among these public officials around important issues of North American
> policy," he said..
> "We at the Council of Canadians think the details of the North American
> Forum should be open for public view," he continued. "It's not enough
> for our public officials to say they attend as private individuals.
> Public officials still have to be accountable to the public, especially
> when they attend a policy meeting."
> Trew has expressed similar sentiments on the Council of Canadians
> website.
> There, he wrote the secrecy imposed on the North American Forum's
> meeting in Puerto Vallarta allowed "high-level civil servants, military
> officials and elected representatives to hang out, come to friendly
> agreements on certain common North American objectives, then go home and
> try their darndest to implement the necessary policy adjustments, 'at
> their own initiative,' without linking them back to the Forum where they
> originated."
> U.S. Ambassador to Canada endorses forum
> Trew noted John Nay, the U.S. general consul in Toronto, earlier told
> the Marie Chamber of Commerce in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, the North
> American Forum is a "sister organization to the SPP."
> The 2006 speech is archived on the website of the U.S. Consulate in
> Toronto, and includes Nay's reference to the SPP, "Recently Banff was
> host to a sister organization, the second meeting of the North American
> Forum."
> "For those of you who are not familiar with the North American Forum,"
> Nay continued, "it is a less official group that sprang up as a parallel
> structure to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America."
> Trew told WND that Ney's speech supported his contention the North
> American Forum was a public policy group that should operate in the
> light of day.
> "There can be no doubt about the amount of secret planning that has gone
> back and forth between the North American Forum and the three
> governments of the United States, Mexico and Canada," Trew told WND.
> "We still have only sketchy information about who attended the Vallarta
> meeting," Trew admitted, "but we know from the Banff meeting that the
> North American Forum is not just an academic meeting."
> Mexican meeting agenda surfaces
> The Council of Canadians also now has published the agenda of the
> Mexican meeting of the North American Forum.
> "We got the agenda from the Canadian Labour Congress," Trew told WND,
> "but so far, the attendee list has not surfaced."
> WND previously obtained and published the agenda and attendee list from
> the North American Forum's 2006 annual meeting, held in Banff, Alberta,
> Canada.
> The North American Forum's three most prominent members were all in
> attendance: former Secretary of State George P. Schultz; former Mexican
> Secretary of Finance Pedro Aspe; and former Alberta Premier Peter
> Lougheed.
> Also in attendance was Robert Pastor, a professor at American University
> who has written actively about building a North American community for
> over a decade.
> In May, WND published an article written by Pastor, entitled "I propose
> a North American Community."
> Pastor chaired a panel at the Vallarta meeting, entitled "NAFTA at 15:
> Where do we go from here? How to 'create a North American Community?'"
> In 2001, Pastor also published a book entitled "Toward a North American
> Community."
> Another prominent attendee was Tom D'Aquino of the Canadian Council of
> Chief Executives, a counterpart organization to the U.S. Chamber of
> Commerce.
> WND has reported the North American Competitiveness Council, a secretive
> group of 30 North American corporations selected to advise the SPP
> trilateral working groups, was created by the respective chambers of
> commerce in the three nations, including the Canadian group.
> Aspe was one of three task force chairs, with Pastor and D'Aquino
> serving as task force vice-chairs for a Council on Foreign Relations
> report called "Building a North American Community," published in May
> 2005.
> This was two months after the Security and Prosperity Partnership of
> North America was first declared at a summit meeting between President
> Bush, then-President of Mexico Vicente Fox, and then-Prime Minister of
> Canada Paul Martin, at Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005.
>
>