[R-G] Perry's push for super highway raises conspiracy buzz:

[Anthony Fenton]

Copyright 2007 The Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle (Texas)

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News

August 18, 2007 Saturday

SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL NEWS

ACC-NO: 20070818-HO-Perry-s-push-for-super-highway-raises-conspiracy- 
buzz-0818

LENGTH: 1022 words

HEADLINE: Perry's push for super highway raises conspiracy buzz: Some  
say it's part of a plan to create one nation in North America

BYLINE: R.G. Ratcliffe, Houston Chronicle

BODY:


Aug. 18--AUSTIN -- Black helicopters, the Illuminati, Gov. Rick Perry  
and the Trans-Texas Corridor are all now part of the vernacular of  
the global domination conspiracy theorists.

Perry's push for the Trans-Texas Corridor super highway is part of a  
secret plan, the conspiracy theorists say, to create the North  
American Union -- a single nation consisting of Canada, Mexico and  
the United States with a currency called the Amero.

Government denials of the North American Union and descriptions of it  
as a myth seem to add fuel to the fire. A Google search for "North  
American Union" and "Rick Perry" returns about 13,400 Web page results.

"Conspiracy theories abound, and some people have an awful lot of  
time on their hands to come up with such far-fetched notions," said  
Perry spokesman Robert Black.

Perry enhanced the conspiracy buzz earlier this summer by traveling  
to Turkey to attend the secretive Bilderberg conference, which  
conspiracy theorists believe is a cabal of international monied  
interests and power brokers pressing for globalization.

And the conspiracy rhetoric is likely to ratchet up this week as  
President Bush meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and  
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Quebec in their third  
summit to discuss North American relations under the Security and  
Prosperity Partnership.

"There is absolutely a connection with all of it," said Texas Eagle  
Forum President Cathie Adams. The Trans-Texas Corridor "is something  
not being driven by the people of Texas."

The first, and most controversial, leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor  
plan is a proposed 1,200-foot-wide private toll road to run from  
Laredo to the Oklahoma border parallel to Interstate 35. This TTC-35  
would be built by a consortium headed by Spanish owned Cintra S.A.  
and Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio.

The seed of the North American Union controversy rests in the 1992-93  
passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement under Presidents  
George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Under that treaty, Interstate 35  
was designated informally as the NAFTA highway.

'Stealth' attempt

Fast-forward to March 2005 to Crawford, when President Bush, Harper  
and then-Mexican President Vicente Fox agreed to pursue the Security  
and Prosperity Partnership, SPP. The idea was to promote cooperation  
among the countries on economic and security issues.

But conservative author Jerome Corsi -- in his new book: The Late  
Great U.S.A.: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada -- argues the  
SPP is a "stealth" attempt to wipe out the nations' borders and form  
a single economy like the European Union.

With an entire chapter dedicated to Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor  
plan, Corsi says the first step to integrating the economies is to  
integrate the transportation infrastructure.

"His (Perry's) actions have been to fight hard to build this toll  
road and not listen to the objections expressed by the people of  
Texas," Corsi said.

Corsi became nationally known in 2004 as the co-author of Unfit for  
Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry. Corsi said  
extensive research shows the SPP has created working groups on the  
North American Union that answer to presidential Cabinet secretaries.

"This is more of a shadow bureaucracy, a shadow government already in  
effect," Corsi said. "Unless it is stopped, it will turn into a North  
American Union with an Amero."

The official federal Web site for the SPP has a section dedicated to  
busting the North American Union as myth.

"The SPP does not attempt to modify our sovereignty or currency or  
change the American system of government designed by our Founding  
Fathers," the site says.

But that has not stopped a growing opposition to the North American  
Union by groups such as the Eagle Forum, The Conservative Caucus and  
the John Birch Society.

'Wanted' individual

The North American Union also has been fodder for cable television  
commentators: CNN's Lou Dobbs and Fox's Bill O'Reilly.

Perry fueled his role in the debate in June by attending the  
Bilderberg annual conference, a secretive closed-door meeting of  
about 120 business, government and media leaders from Europe and  
North America.

Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Lake  
Jackson was asked about the trip on the syndicated talk radio show of  
Alex Jones in June. Paul said the trip was "a sign that he's involved  
in the international conspiracy."

Jones' Web site features mug shot-like photos of Perry labeled  
"Wanted for Treason." Jones in an interview said Perry's trip and the  
Trans-Texas Corridor show a willingness by the governor to sell out  
Texas' infrastructure to international bankers.

"Perry is actively waging war, economically in the interests of the  
elites and neomercantilism," Jones said.

The 2001 book Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old  
World for the New by Robert A. Pastor, an American University  
professor and director of the Center for Democracy and Election  
Management, is cited by Corsi as the blueprint for the merger.

"I've never proposed a North American Union," Pastor said. "The only  
people who talk about a North American Union are those people who are  
trying to generate fear."

Belief in sovereignty

Pastor said greater cooperation between the three countries makes  
sense for both economics and internal security.

Pastor said those promoting the conspiracy are doing so because of  
"historical xenophobia," "a fear of immigrants, mostly from Mexico"  
and a "traditional isolationism."

Black said there is no way the governor would support merging the  
U.S. with its neighbors.

"The governor is a firm believer in the sovereignty of the United  
States. Too many of our brave men and women have died defending it,"  
Black said.

r.g.ratcliffe at chron.com

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LOAD-DATE: August 18, 2007