If you thought Dick Cheney's secret Energy Task Force meetings were fun, why not
secret meetings between US, Mexican, and Canadian governmental, military, and business leaders -- especially oil company executives from 12-14 September in an isolated Canadian mountain resort?
..."among the list of attendees were prominent figures such as the US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld; Mexico's Secretary of Public Security, Eduardo Medina Mora; and General Rick Hilliers, Chief of Canadian Forces."..."High executives from the military- industrial complex and from oil companies were present in the forum, including executives of Lockheed Martin, Chevron, Petroleos Mexicanos, Suncor Energy" reported Michel Chossudovsky, a professor at the University of Ottawa..."There were no journalists, there were no press releases, nor bulletins to inform the public, and there in fact was an information shutdown on the part of the news media. The meeting program was as guarded as if it were a State secret."
Interestingly enough a commenter raised on a previous MexiKos a question related to a hypothesized North American Union (also referred to as the
Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, official site linked). At the time I didn't see a lot of documentation backing the particular claims of some articles on the SSP. Yet clearly this is also a subject being covered in Mexico and Canada as a general theme of concern.
On the other hand, this should be seen not as some extraordinary example of governmental / private secrecy; rather it is one of the standard ways which the actual upper classes in nations aim to bring about their desired policies among government officials.
Let's face it -- to a lot of people the strong democratic features of the U.S. (and other governments) are no more than barriers to be understood, navigated, and overcome. This is no "conspiracy" theory -- it's the simple understanding that individuals of great wealth (and their hired representatives such as think tanks or policy groups) do what they can, where they can, and when they can, to tilt the game in their favor. One key ingredient of gaming the system is creating social bonds between high government officials and the business executives and occasionally the wealthy investors they represent.
That's how these people come to think of you and me as "they" and of themselves (the aforesaid governmental, military, and business leaders) as "we." And don't dare underrate them -- they also know when and how to bring aspiring media figures, academics, and non-governmental organizations into 'the loop' as well.
Again, it's not a conspiracy, it's just a process to create a notion of common goals and common identities among elite figures.
The subject of what they call a "North American Union" (echoing their distaste for the European Union) is an issue closely being followed by the conservative press, although usually their perspective is quite different from my own: although NAFTA-type agreements do erode national sovereignty in a harmful rather than a 'helpful' manner (such as when we choose to become part of a larger deliberative body such as the UN but we do not sacrifice our democratic input in the process, unlike investor-favoring trade agreements), it's not something that one-world government liberals are imposing upon a beleaugered U.S. government.
Rather, the kind of national sovereignty destruction being championed by our elites is one in which high government officials work closely with corporate executives and investors to form complex agreements through which it becomes impossible (or, at least, seemingly impossible) for citizens to change the laws of their own Republic to serve their own interests. In fact this was why the environmental and labor "side agreements" discussion regarding NAFTA was such a subterfuge by those who knew better: the very structure of NAFTA allowed for no possible enforcement mechanisms for such 'agreements,' while unelected tribunals of private business representatives are allowed to rule on crucial cases, occasionally reversing national policies on environmental and labor regulations. Q.E.D.
In the Mexican press, the major point taken away was that the attendees also included the 3 major advisers of President-elect Calderón.
In any case, here's a more extended excerpt [my own translation, check the original and make suggestions for any errors] from La Jornada on this matter.
Secret Meeting to "Deepen Integration" of North America
- Included representatives of large corporations and U.S. military leadership
- Talks of seeking a "Secure Zone" of supply of petroleum for Washington economy
by Roberto Gonzalez Amador
Three of the main advisers of president-elect Felipe Calderón two weeks ago took part in a secret meeting taking place in Canada, where representatives of large corporations and of the U.S. military leadership aimed to "deepen the integration of North America" and create a "Secure Zone" of oil supplies for the [U.S.] economy.
Jan Camilo Mouriño, head of Calderón Hinojosa's transition team -- whose family has made a fortune from concessions from Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) [the state-controlled oil company] -- was one of the 17 invited from México to the 2nd North America Forum, carried out between 12 - 14 September in the Banff Springs Hotel, in Alberta, Canada, according to the list of attendees attained by nongovernmental groups worried by the secret setting of a meeting in which military leaders, governmental bureaucrats, and business executives discussed themes of public interest.
The other two Felipe Calderón advisers who attended the event, according to the lists described by Canadian media sources and social activists, were Arturo Sarukhan and Ernesto Cordero, advisers of international policy and economic affairs.
The meeting was co-presided by Pedro Aspe Armella, Finance Minister under Carlos Salinas; George Schultz, former US Secretary of State; and Meter Lougheed, former premier of Alberta. These three figures steered the North America Forum, a body which according to Canadian analysts' reports has no official headquarters. Expenses of the meeting were sponsored by the participants themselves.
The occurence of a forum in a secret environment and without disclosing publicly the deliberations, despite the participation of public figures from México, the U.S., and Canada, has generated criticisms in the discussion and analytical press -- especially in Canada -- which have questioned also the press itself for not having reported what went on in this luxury hotel in the Canadian mountains.
...According to documents escaping the control of the organizers and cited by [Maude] Barlow [president of the Council of Canadians NGO], "among the list of attendees were prominent figures such as the US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld; Mexico's Secretary of Public Security, Eduardo Medina Mora; and General Rik Hilliers, Chief of Canadian Forces."...
..."High executives from the military-industrial complex and from oil companies were present in the forum, including executives of Lockheed Martin, Chevron, Petroleos Mexicanos, Suncor Energy" reported Michel Chossudovsky, a professor at the University of Ottawa, analyst from the Center for Globalization Studies and ex-president of the Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
"Ministers, five star generals, together with high executives from businesses wih North American interests met in the comfortable resort of the hotel Fairmont Banff Springs," he reported. This "secret junta" focused on seeking ways to "deepen the integration" of the subregion, which is to be understood as "ceding national sovereignty in favor of a stronger North America."
"The meeting (in Banff this past 12-14 September) centered on the interrelation of systems of North American defense, militarization, national security, border issues, migration, production of military equipment and control of the energy resources of North America," pointed out Chossudovsky.
"There were no journalists, there were no press releases, nor bulletins to inform the public, and there in fact was an information shutdown on the part of the news media. The meeting program was as guarded as if it were a State secret."