- The title refers to the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC)
portion of the North American SuperCorridor Coalition (NASCO) project.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) announced that, for now
at least, it nixed this part of the $184 billion scheme calling for:
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- -- a 4000 mile toll road network of transportation corridors;
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- -- 10 lanes or 1200 feet wide;
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- -- two or more trans-Texas corridors being considered;
one paralleling I-35 from Laredo through San Antonio, Austin, Dallas/Fort
Worth to Gainesville; the other an extension following US 59 from Texarkana
through Houston to Laredo or the Rio Grande Valley;
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- -- others would parallel I-45 from Dallas/FortWorth to
Houston and I-10 from El Paso to Orange;
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- -- they'll accommodate car and truck traffic;
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- -- rail lines;
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- -- pipelines and utilities; and
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- -- communication systems.
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- It's planned across Texas from Mexico to Oklahoma, would
have annexed huge private land tracts, and may later on take much of it
anyway. Enough to threaten organizations like the Texas and Southwestern
Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA), Texas Farm Bureau and other rural interests.
Their member property rights are at stake, so they fought it, and for now,
prevailed - at least partly, but the matter is far from settled.
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- On June 10, Executive Director Amadeo Saenz announced
that TxDOT "narrowed the (TTC I-69) study area (to) existing highway
(routes) whenever possible," and "any area (outside) an existing
(one) will not be considered" except for necessary portions. NASCO's
Texas highway remains viable. It's just a little less "Super"
and for now will use mostly existing state highways and connect them to
northern links.
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- The larger project is far more ambitious. It's to develop
an international, integrated, secure superhighway running the length and
breath of the continent for profit. It's to militarize and annex it as
part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) scheme - aka "Deep
Integration" North American Union. If completed, it will extend nearly
everywhere - North, South, East and West along four main cross-border regions:
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- -- an Atlantic Corridor, including: the Canada-US East
Coast; the Champlain-Hudson Corridor; the Appalachian region; and the Gulf
of Mexico;
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- -- a Central Eastern Corridor; an urban one through large
cities and industrial areas; another through the Great Plains to the Canadian
Prairies;
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- -- a Central Western Corridor, including the largest
Mexican maquiladora concentration; and
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- -- a Pacific Corridor linking Fairbanks, Alaska to San
Diego into Tijuana, Ciudad Obrego and Mazatlan, Mexico.
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- From north to south, it will extend from Fairbanks to
Winnipeg, Manitoba; Edmonton, Alberta; and Windsor, Ontario, Canada through
Kansas City, San Antonio and Laredo, Texas into Neuvo Laredo, Monterrey,
Guadalajara, and the ports of Manzanillo, Colima and Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico.
Other links will connect Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto, Canada to New York,
Chicago, Indianapolis, Denver, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Memphis, Dallas,
Houston with still more routes to follow - East to West, North to South
across Canada, the US and Mexico.
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- Canada's plan is called CISCOR - the Canadian Intelligent
SuperCorridor running west from Vancouver and Prince Rupert to Montreal
and Halifax. Its web site explains it as follows: "The Saskatchen-based
CISCOR Smart Inland Port Network will serve as the central logistics and
coordination hub, creating a Canadian east-west land bridge (connecting)
three major North American north-south corridors; North Americas SuperCorridor
(NASCO), Canada America Mexico Corridor (CANAMEX) and River of Trade Corridor
Coalition (ROTCC).
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- ROTCC was created in 2004 to facilitate trade across
3300 miles from Laredo, Texas to Detroit and into Canada. Another route
along I-45 extends from Houston and the I-10 corridor and rail route from
Los Angeles and Long Beach to Dallas/Fort Worth.
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- Overall, it will be a comprehensive energy and commerce-related
transportation artery for trade and strategic resources with DHS and NORTHCOM
in charge. They'll monitor and militarize it through a network of high-tech
sensors and trackers to secure the continent for profit at the expense
of the greater public good the way these schemes always work.
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- Part of the plan involves a proposed arrangement between
NASCO and a company called Savi Networks - a joint venture between Lockheed
Martin and Hutchison Ports Holdings, a Chinese ports management firm. If
instituted, it will generate huge revenues by paying NASCO 25 cents for
each of the millions of "revenue-generating intermodal ocean cargo
container(s)" using the supercorridor as well as along other north-south
routes being planned. The idea is to install an RFID chip network and put
them in containers as well for tracking. They'll monitor them from port
of entry to final destination and make shippers pay tolls in addition to
transportation costs. They'll, in turn, pass on costs to buyers.
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- Lockheed Martin runs a Global Transport Network (GTN)
Command and Control Center for the military that provides electronic tracking.
On its web site, Savi Networks says it "was formed to improve the
efficiency and security of global trade (through its) SaviTrack system."
It "utilizes a reliable network of wireless Automated Identification
and Data Collection (AIDC) equipment and (Enterprise Resource Planning
- ERP) software to provide shippers, logistics service providers, and terminal
operators with precise and actionable information."
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- For now, the Texas artery will be less ambitious but
still part of the grander scheme. For its part, I-69/TTC remains a government-private
partnership whereby new roads will charge tolls for maximum revenue generation
and make the public to pay the tab for their use.
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- Besides the scaled back I-69/TTC, another planned project
is just as worrisome. It's called the TTC-35 600 mile corridor extension
along I-35 from Oklahoma through Dallas/Forth Worth to Laredo to Mexico
and possibly the Gulf Coast. A two-tiered environmental study for it began
in spring 2004 and remains ongoing.
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- Tier One engendered sweeping opposition but not enough
to stop it. Public hearings were held for input on potential corridor locations
and promoted what's called the Preferred Corridor Alternative. Federal
Highway Administration approval comes next, after which a Tier Two phase
would identify proposed highway alignments and other modes and potential
access points. Hearings would follow for further public input and be as
likely to generate hostility as did the I-69/TTC project. It slowed SuperCorridor
momentum, but in Texas and across the country it's very much alive and
ongoing.
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- Powerful forces back it in spite of considerable opposition
in states across the country. In support are organizations like:
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- -- the Council on Foreign Relation and its influential
members; it backed business having "unlimited (cross-border) access
in its 2005 report titled "Building a North American Community; its
Task Force "applauds the announced 'Security and Prosperity Partnership
(SPP)' of North America" - aka North American Union and its SuperCorridor
project; it also sees a step beyond with "a more ambitious vision
of a new community by 2010 (giving) specific recommendations on how to
achieve it."
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- -- the International Mobility & Trade Corridor Project
(IMTC); it bills itself as a US - Canadian government and business coalition
"promot(ing) improvements to mobility and security for the four border
crossings between Whatcom County, Washington and the Lower Mainland of
British Columbia" - combined called the Cascade Gateway;
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- -- the CANAMEX Corridor Coalition for a superhighway
linking Mexico City to Edmonton, Alberta; it supports the "seamless
and efficient transportation of goods, services, people and information
between Canada, Mexico and the US;"
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- -- the Central North American Trade Corridor Association
(CHATCA); it's for a Central North American Trade Corridor fully integrated
in the global economy and refers to "5 T's" as "essential:"
tourism, technology, trade, transportation and training;
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- -- the Ports to Plains Trade (PTP) Corridor; it supports
a multimodal one from Mexico through the four PTP states of Texas, New
Mexico, Colorado and Oklahoma up to Canada and the Pacific Northwest;
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- -- the Champlain-Hudson Trade Corridor and Gateway Coalition
representing trade from Quebec City and Montreal to New York; and
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- -- the I-95 Corridor Coalition alliance of transportation
agencies, toll authorities, and related organizations (including law enforcement)
from Canada to Florida in support of transportation managements and operational
common interest issues favoring business.
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- Nothing so far is finalized, but SuperCorrider momentum
remains viable. It's slowed in Texas, but very much alive and viable.
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- In contrast, opposition groups are numerous, vocal, but
yet to achieve enough critical mass to matter. They include groups like
the "People's Summit" that protested in New Orleans last April
against the recent three-presidential secret summit to plot strategy. Also,
the conservative Coalition to Block the North American Union condemns a
"stealth plan" to erase national borders, merge three nations
into one, end the sovereignty of each, build a SuperCorridor, put Washington
and the military in charge, allow unlimited immigration, and replace the
dollar with the "amero."
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- Still another is a group of citizen-activist Oklahomans
and the organization they formed: Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free Enterprise.
Like similar Texas and other state groups, it's against the SuperCorridor
and its proposed I-35 route through their state. It's a conservative group
believing that "a capitalist economy can regulate itself in a freely
competitive market...with a minimum of governmental intervention and regulation."
It opposes government using the law to facilitate a "corporate takeover"
of society and fund it with public tax dollars. On board as well is an
Oklahoma state senator who says "the NAFTA Superhighway stops here."
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- He'll need other lawmakers with him and on April 29 failed.
Despite vocal opposition, the Oklahoma state legislature authorized the
creation of "Smart (inland) Ports" and SuperCorridor system despite
earlier having passed a resolution urging Congress "to withdraw from
the (SPP - North American Union)" and all activities related to it.
Besides Oklahoma, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) lists 21 other
states that have passed public-private partnership enabling legislation
considered essential for private investment to go forward.
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- At the federal level, there's also congressional opposition
(but not enough to matter) in spite of Rep. Virgil Goode and six co-sponsors
introducing House Concurrent Resolution 40 in January 2007. It expressed
"the sense of (some but not enough in) Congress that the United States
should not engage in (building a NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into
a North American Union with Mexico and Canada."
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- State legislatures as well are against it (in contrast
to others in support) - thus far a dozen or more passing resolutions in
2008 and another 20 in 2007. Well and good but remember Adlai Stevenson's
response to an enthusiastic supporter during his first presidential campaign.
He thanked the woman and replied: "That's not enough madam. I need
a majority."
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- It's no different for the SuperCorridor and North American
Union. They're progressing secretly in spite of activist opposition and
a largely unaware public. A recent poll sheds light. It was conducted by
the American Policy Center that calls itself "a privately funded,
nonprofit, 501 c (4), tax-exempt grassroots action and education foundation
dedicated to the promotion of free enterprise and limited government...."
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- It revealed no widespread public SPP opposition because
most people (58% living along the proposed Texas to Minnesota route) don't
know about it or enough to matter. However, 95% of respondents with awareness
opposed it but unfortunately in answer to biased questions. Their wording
apparently conveyed the idea of "private corporations (having) power
to enforce trade policy that may adversely affect our national sovereignty
and independence."
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- Market researchers know that questions must be neutral
and unbiased to produce reliable results. For example, respondents should
have been asked: From what you know about SPP, do you favor or oppose it?
A follow-up should then ask "why" to get unguided replies. Other
biased questions were also asked and elicited strong opposition to an "amero,"
NAFTA courts superseding state and federal ones, the Bush administration
being allowed to proceed without congressional approval, the US being "harmonized"
or merged with Mexico and Canada, and more.
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- Most important is that public knowledge is sparse. What
is known is incomplete, at times inaccurate, and either way plans (so far)
are proceeding with or without congressional or public approval.
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- It means a corporate coup d'etat is advancing, aided
and abetted by three governments. They plan to unite and become one, militarize
the continent for enforcement, lay ribbons of concrete and rail lines across
it, and hand it over to business for profit. That's where things now stand.
Imagine where they'll end if a way isn't found to stop them.
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- Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre
for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
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- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
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