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Sunday, August 5, 2007

President Bush to Attend Security and Propserity Partnership Summit by Tom Fitton

President Bush to Attend Security and Prosperity Partnership Summit
By Tom Fitton
Aug 3, 2007

Next month, President Bush will join Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Quebec for a Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) summit. (I would include a link to a news story on the summit, but you can’t read about it anywhere in the mainstream press, which has largely ignored the Security and Prosperity Partnership from the very beginning.)

President Bush to Attend Security and Prosperity Partnership Summit

So, what is the purpose of this summit, the third since the partnership was announced in 2005? The State Department claims the purpose is to “develop common approaches to transnational security threats and to expand economic productivity by streamlining trade among the countries.” Critics, however, maintain the true purpose is to develop and implement policies that would ultimately erase the borders between all three nations and form a North American Union, much like the European Union.

So, which is it? Is it an innocent plan to enhance cooperation between the three nations? Or is it a slippery slope to the loss of U.S. national sovereignty?

That is the very question we tackled recently in an educational panel entitled “Security and Prosperity Partnership: Threat or Opportunity?” Joining me on the panel, which was held at the National Press Club, were: Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle Forum; Rosemary Jenks, NumbersUSA; Dr. Robert Pastor, American University; and David Bohigian of the U.S. Department of Commerce. We now have the full video up on our Internet site. If you’ve got the time (about an hour), I suggest you check it out.

While there may be disagreement between the government and its critics with respect to the ultimate mission of the partnership, this much is beyond dispute: Officials from the highest levels of government from all three nations are meeting on important issues that touch on nearly every aspect of the lives of American citizens, including commerce, travel, security, health, energy, and the environment. They’re doing it with no congressional oversight and very little media scrutiny.

From the very beginning, our focus at Judicial Watch has been to make the inner workings of the partnership as transparent as possible. In fact, last week, Judicial Watch filed a notice with Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez that we plan to seek access to meetings and records of the North American Competitiveness Council during the Quebec summit. The council is the SPP’s “private” counterpart and has provided a number of recommendations to the Security and Prosperity Partnership on a range of issues from border security to energy policy.

So far, through our investigation, we have managed to uncover a number of documents that, in our opinion, raise some red flags. Check out our Security and Prosperity Partnership summary page to see what we’ve uncovered thus far. And judge for yourself whether there’s cause for concern.

Tom Fitton is president of Judicial Watch, Inc. a constitutionally conservative, nonpartisan educational foundation that promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law.
http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272615205.shtml

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