Brit Hume
said on the
Fox
News
Sunday program that it is possible that Republican
frontrunner Rudy Giuliani could overcome his convoluted
posturing on abortion and secure the Republican presidential
nomination in 2008. But Giuliani has some other major
problems. These include
foreign clients, one of whom is
constructing part of the 'NAFTA Superhighway' project
that has people in Texas and around
the nation up in arms.
Hume,
the moderator of Tuesday night’s
Republican presidential debate in
South
Carolina,
will be in a position to ask Giuliani
about it. Questions will also
be posed by Fox News
Sunday host Chris Wallace and
White House correspondent Wendell
Goler.
Evidence shows that NAFTA, the North
American Free Trade Agreement involving the U.S., Canada and
Mexico, is being expanded without
congressional approval or oversight as part of a plan to
create an economic and political entity known as the North
American Union (NAU).
Federal documents uncovered by Judicial
Watch quote participants in the scheme as saying that an
“evolution by stealth” strategy is
being used to put the pieces into place. Documents also speak of
developing a common security
perimeter and a common
identification
card
for citizens of the three countries.
With the exception of Lou Dobbs of
CNN, our national media
have ignored not only the process that is well underway but the
growing outcry over what is happening.
Resolutions against the NAU have been introduced in 14 state
legislatures¯and have passed in two¯and thousands of
people have turned out in Texas to protest a Trans-Texas
Corridor (TTC) highway
system,
which will link the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Critics
say the project is being funded by foreign interests,
could run roughshod over private property
rights, and could facilitate illegal activities, such as the
trafficking of people and drugs, from Mexico.
The TTC, which is viewed as being part of
the “NAFTA Superhighway,” is only part of a much larger process
of integrating the three nations. This
writer attended and covered a February 16, 2007,
conference
sponsored by the Center for North American Studies at American
University (AU) that was devoted to an emerging “North American
Community,” which is what conference organizer Robert Pastor, a
former Carter Administration official, prefers to call it.
Academic literature distributed to conference
participants discussed a common legal framework for the U.S.,
Canada and Mexico and
proposals
for a North American Court of Justice (with the authority to
overrule a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court), a North American
Trade Tribunal, and a Charter of Fundamental Human Rights for
North America. One of Pastor’s students at AU suggests that he
even favors a North American Parliament.
The conference organizers and participants
believe NAFTA, which promised economic integration, has to be
expanded into the legal, social, political and even cultural
areas. Pastor, though a Democrat,
succeeded in persuading Texas Republican
Senator John Cornyn to introduce a “North American
Investment
Fund” bill to send more U.S. tax dollars
to Mexico. Both political parties are
seen favoring the process of bringing the three countries
together into an entity like the European Union that now governs
Europe and supersedes the sovereignty of member governments.
One obvious
problem is corruption in and illegal immigration from Mexico.
Public sentiment in the U.S. forced Congress to pass and
President Bush to sign a law creating a fence on the U.S.
southern border. Nevertheless, Bush and the Democrats continue
to press for amnesty for illegal aliens and ways to increase the
flow of foreign workers into the U.S.
The
Giuliani connection to this controversial process is through
Bracewell & Giuliani, a law firm he joined as senior partner in
2005. Bracewell has already come in for criticism because it
represents Citgo, the oil company controlled by Venezuela’s
anti-American and terrorist-supporting ruler Hugo Chavez.
Freelance columnist Dianne M. Grassi broke the story of
Giuliani’s law firm acting as the exclusive legal counsel for
Cintra, the Spanish firm that has been granted the right to
operate a toll road in the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) project.
Grassi comments, “Most interesting to the whole story is not
only has Mr. Giuliani’s involvement in the NAFTA Superhighway
not ever having been publicly addressed, but how a foreign
company is awarded the building of a mass highway system, versus
maintaining it, for the first time in U.S.
history,
and negotiated by the law firm of the top Republican candidate
running for President of the United States. And truly disturbing
is how such will not only have national and
homeland
security
and sovereignty implications but how it is deliberately being
kept away from the Halls of Congress.”
Grassi’s
revelations are easily confirmed by checking the websites of
Bracewell and Cintra. Bracewell calls the deal “the first
privatization of a Texas toll road.”
Terri Hall, founder and director of Texans Uniting for Reform
and Freedom (TURF), notes that Giuliani clients with an interest
in acquiring Texas roads and infrastructure have also invested
in his presidential campaign. She comments, “This could explain
why Giuliani has spent so much time fundraising in Texas. The
monied proponents of the Trans-Texas Corridor, of which there
are many, would like to see this man become President.”
Ironically,
Ryan Sager of the New York Sun reports that Giuliani, before he
became a private businessman with global clients, opposed NAFTA
It turns
out that Cintra is a financial partner with an Australian
company, Macquarie, on a toll-road project in Indiana, and that
Macquarie acquired the business and
assets
of an investment bank known as Giuliani Capital Advisors.
Sunday’s
Washington Post notes that Giuliani Capital Advisors “was sold
for an undisclosed amount as Giuliani was preparing his run for
president.”
The Post
article also discloses that Giuliani’s secretive lobbying firm,
Giuliani Partners, has made more than $100 million over the last
five years and that its clients “are required to sign
confidentiality agreements, so they do not comment about the
work they receive or how much they are paying for it.
Though now running for president, Giuliani
refuses to identify his clients, disclose his compensation or
reveal any details about Giuliani Partners. He
also declined to be interviewed about the firm.” The paper
provided some details, based “on a review of corporate,
government and court records, along with scores of interviews
with clients and government officials who have interacted with
Giuliani Partners.”
Many questions remain about Giuliani’s controversial work for
foreign interests. But his connection to the Trans-Texas
Corridor is already a matter of public record and cries out for
scrutiny. Will Fox News personalities ask him about it on
Tuesday night?
Cliff Kincaid is Editor
of Accuracy in Media.
