Thread: 3rd SPP summit shrouded in secrecy

PREMEDITATED MERGER
3rd SPP summit shrouded in secrecy
Bush to interrupt Texas vacation to join Mexican, Canadian leaders

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Posted: August 13, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=57128
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


President Bush will interrupt his summer vacation in Crawford, Texas, next week to attend the third summit meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, slated for Aug. 20 and 21 in Montebello, Quebec, at the five-star Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello resort.


President Bush to join leaders of Mexico and Canada at the Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello resort in Quebec next week for the third summit meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America


Bush will meet with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the event.

The meeting has been hidden in a cloud of secrecy until WND obtained from an Access to Information Act request a previously unreleased copy of a government report detailing agenda plans for the third SPP summit.

According to WND reports, as many as 10,000 protesters are expected to be in Quebec to oppose the meeting.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada's national police force, and the Sûreté du Québec, the state police, plan to maintain a 25-kilometer protest-free zone around the Montebello resort where the meeting is to be held.




WND has reported that a multinational business agenda is driving this upcoming SPP summit according to the heavily redacted document obtained from the Canadian government.

The memo clearly states at center stage in the Montebello SPP summit will be recommendations by the North American Competitiveness Council, regarding promoting North American competitiveness for multinational corporations through "integrating" and "harmonizing" regulations between Mexico, Canada and the U.S.

The council, an executive group composed of 10 top multinational corporations from each of the three SPP countries, was constituted under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Commerce to provide guidance to the 20 SPP working groups of U.S., Mexican, and Canadian bureaucrats.

WND has also reported that President Bush will discuss at the summit a plan to send U.S. military assistance to Mexico to assist Mexico's military and civilian law enforcement agencies to combat Mexican narco-criminals and drug lords.

The leaders at the end of their summit are expected to make a statement on U.S. military aid to Mexico, provided their discussions have reached a point of agreement and conclusion.

At issue are questions of how the U.S. military can limit involvement to equipment and training, and how U.S. and Mexican officials can be certain the corruption common to Mexico's drug war does not subvert their effort or provide sophisticated equipment and technology that ends up in the hands of the drug kingpins.

WND has also reported the Montebello SPP summit will create a coordinating body to prepare for the North American response to an outbreak of avian or pandemic influenza.

The three leaders also plan to create a coordinating body on emergency management similar to that set up for avian or pandemic flu.

WND previously reported on National Security Presidential Directive No. 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive No. 20, which allocate to the office of the president the authority to direct all levels of government in any event the president declares to be a national emergency.

WND also has previously reported that under SPP, the military of the U.S. and Canada are turning USNORTHCOM and Canada Command into domestic military command structures, with authority extending to Mexico, even though Mexico has not formally joined with the current U.S. – Canadian USNORTHCOM/Canada Command structure.

WND has also learned the Montebello SPP summit will include discussion of a proposal to provide U.S. military assistance to the government of Mexico to help Mexico's military combat narco-trafficking in Mexico.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America was declared at the first trilateral meeting held at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005.

The second SPP summit meeting was held by President Bush, Mexico's President Vicente Fox and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Fiesta Americana Condesa Cancún Hotel in Cancún, Mexico, on March 31, 2006.

The SPP website, maintained by the U.S. Department of Commerce, lists a "2005 Report to Leaders" dated June 2005 and a "2006 Report to Leaders" dated August 2006, which document over 250 memoranda of understanding and other agreements that have been signed by the SPP working groups.

Most of these SPP memoranda of understanding and other agreements cannot be found on the SPP website or elsewhere on the Internet published in their entirety.

No comparable "2007 Report to Leaders" has yet been published on the SPP website.

WND has applied for press credentials to attend the Montebello SPP summit to report on the proceedings.

PREMEDITATED MERGER
Military aid to Mexico on SPP summit agenda
Violent drug war south of border now a U.S. problem

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Posted: August 13, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=57132
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


The U.S. ambassador to Mexico is concluding discussions with the Mexican government of President Felipe Calderón to provide U.S. military assistance to assist Mexico in combating Mexican drug lords, according to the Democratic congressman from Laredo, Texas.

President Bush is scheduled to discuss the subject at the upcoming Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America third summit meeting at Montebello, Quebec, on Aug. 20-21. An announcement of a final plan may not come until after the SPP summit, depending on the progress of the talks in Montebello.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, told WND Friday he had consulted with U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Antonio O. Garza, Jr., about discussions Garza was having with the Calderón government on behalf of the Bush administration.

(Story continues below)


"I first talked with Ambassador Garza back in April when I was in Mexico with our homeland security committee," Cuellar explained, "and we talked about the campaign Calderón was launching then when he first took office to extradite to the U.S. drug kingpins and started sending troops down to the drug hotspots. This was very different than any other president of Mexico had ever done."

"Ambassador Garza feels we have a window of opportunity right now while Calderón still has political capital in his first year in office where we can help Calderón in this very difficult war against drugs," Cuellar argued. "This is the time we can come in and assist Mexico in a partnership where we provide military assistance to Calderón military that is trying to win this very difficult war."

Cuellar told WND he believed that the subject of military assistance to Mexico to combat the drug cartels would be discussed at the upcoming third summit of the SPP to be held by Bush, Calderón and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"Whether there will be any announcement at the Montebello SPP summit meeting or not," Cuellar said, "will depend on how much progress the leaders make on the subject. An announcement may come a little bit after the meetings. The conversations with Mexico are going on and I do support President Bush on this particular point."

In an interview with WND last Thursday, Yolanda Urrabazo, spokeswoman for Cuellar, told WND the discussions with Mexico had included the possibility of utilizing the U.S. military directly in the effort in addition to providing military assistance.

On Friday, Cuellar stressed he favored limiting U.S. military assistance to equipment and training, not troops on the ground.

"We have to be extremely careful because of historical sensitivities that we have to be very aware of," Cuellar pointed out. "Mexico has always been very cautious in working with the United States. As a sovereign nation, Mexico does not want the U.S. to come in and meddle in their internal affairs. We have to be very sensitive about their concern as a sovereign nation."

The U.S. State Department acknowledged to WND that Garza was in serious discussions with the Calderón government about providing Mexico military assistance.

The State Department refused to expand on comments on comments made by spokesman Sean McCormack in an Aug. 8 press briefing.

There, McCormack declined to get into the details of ongoing discussions with Mexico, commenting only that, "We are talking to them about how it is that we might fight this common problem. It is a problem for Mexico, it is a problem for the United States. And inasmuch as it is a problem for both countries, the solution lies both in – with the United States and with Mexico."

McCormack went on to say that, "President Calderón has taken a brave and firm stance in fighting these drug cartels, fighting the – all the activities associated with the production and transit of illicit narcotics. And we want to talk to him about how we can support that effort and that's really the focus of the ongoing discussions."

Cuellar acknowledged that the discussions about providing U.S. military assistance to Mexico in the drug war mark a shift in Mexican policy.

"The Calderón government is now willing to discuss a partnership with the U.S. government involving U.S. military assistance to fight the drug war in Mexico," Cuellar continued. "This is a policy shift based on necessity to address the growing violence we are seeing in Mexico because of the drug war."

"I live on the border and I've seen for years the growing violence from the drug war across the river in Nuevo Laredo and other parts of Mexico," Cuellar told WND. "I've seen how a new police chief in Nuevo Laredo said he was going to take care of the violence and six hours later he was murdered. We've seen how city councilmen and policemen are murdered. We've seen how the media in Nuevo Laredo are pretty much silenced by attempts on their lives."

Cuellar told WND he had spoken to Garza within the past few days and Cuellar could confirm the discussions with Mexico about the U.S. providing military assistance are continuing through Garza's office.

"My understanding is that the military discussions do not include manpower," Cuellar stressed. "We are asking the Mexicans what their capacity and I would assume the Mexican military will want equipment, training, and technology. The Mexican military acknowledges that the drug cartels are superior in weapons and technology."

"One of the top Mexican law enforcement people told me that the only limitation that the drug cartels have is not money, it's imagination," Cuellar continued. "What technology to buy, what weapons to have, that's the only limitation. The drug cartels have all the money they need to buy whatever they decide they want."

Cuellar said the discussions with Mexico include providing the Mexican military and law enforcement with surveillance equipment, airplanes or helicopters, computer software that can be used in tracking ground movements, and extensive training to go with that equipment.

"This is not like Plan Columbia. It's more of a partnership than a foreign assistance package," Cuellar distinguished. "The White House is not saying, 'OK, we'll send you the following military hardware.' In this case, the White House is seeking an ongoing relationship with the Mexican government to know what will work and what will be effective in Mexico as Mexico fights the drug cartels."

Plan Columbia, launched by the Clinton administration in 2000, involved spraying Columbian coca fields in the attempt to eradicate the supply of cocaine. Critics argue the plan failed to limit cocaine production because coca growers merely increased coca cultivation in Peru and Bolivia.

"I am hoping that President Bush will take a more comprehensive approach than just sending Mexico some military equipment," Cuellar explained. "I would like to see us helping Mexico to professionalize their police force and strengthening their prosecutors and judiciary."

"There are 60 missing Americans today in the Nuevo Laredo area," he continued, "and there has not been a single arrest or prosecution that I know of. I am hoping that the president will do more than sending equipment, training, and technology."

America's Most Wanted reported as early as February 2005 that Americans who cross the border into Nuevo Laredo to celebrate birthdays, holidays, have dinner or shop are being kidnapped and held for ransom as the Mexican lawlessness prevalent in the town's drug war has begun to have impact north of the border. Then the number of U.S. citizens reported kidnapped in Mexico was 31.

"I would like to see a more comprehensive approach and I hope we take a look at helping Mexico set up anti-corruption programs for their law enforcement personnel," Cuellar explained. "Our law enforcement officers don't know who to trust in law enforcement in Mexico. We have to be sure that sensitive law enforcement information our law enforcement officers share with their counterparts in Mexico isn't just passed directly into the hands of the drug cartels by corrupt elements in Mexican law enforcement."

In 2005, Cuellar successfully introduced an amendment to create the National Gang Intelligence Center at the FBI.

WND has reported that on Jan. 17, Cuellar filed H.R.502, entitled the "Prosperous and Secure Neighbor Alliance Act of 2007," proposing to send military and economic assistance to Mexico to fight the war on the Mexican drug cartels and to stimulate economic growth in Mexico.

H.R. 502 proposed to spend $90 million to provide Mexican law enforcement with sophisticated military technology, training and equipment from the U.S. military to assist Mexico in fighting the drug war.

The other goal of the bill was to spend another $80 million to provide economic development assistance to Mexico under the premise that combating Mexican poverty would also combat Mexican drugs.

H.R. 502 was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The committee press office told WND no hearings on the bill have been scheduled.

The legislation, however, placed Cuellar at the forefront of the effort to involve the U.S. military in Mexico's war on the drug cartels.