* * *
“Wow, Michael, you know so much about criminals and street gangs in Los Angeles. The Mexican Mafia, Russian Mafia, Armenian Power. What is all that, I would never have imagined that you knew so much about all those criminal organizations? I don’t’ know if I should fear you or be ultimately impressed by such knowledge, geez,” said Helena, breaking her silence.
“Well, not many organized criminals here in Fayetteville, I mean―there’s probably some here in Texas, but I wouldn’t know anything about it. Is there such a thing as a Greek Mafia?”
“So I take you have a Geek background? I figured as much…you have Greek features like your eyebrows and your corkscrew hair, and well…your last name sounds Greek, I just didn’t want to ask, you know how sometimes people feel offended if you speculate at their background. It seems like everyone just wants to blend in instead…in the great melting pot of the United States. We seem to be losing our individuality, globalization, a global jolly village with one government and one language. We are in a Brave New World in 1984 being crushed by The Iron Heel.”
“Not me,” said Helena, “I’m proud of my heritage…so I’m Greek and you’re half Russian half Argentinean, and you’re this criminal expert, right? Continue…please.”
“Well, not exactly an expert, but I do fancy myself aware of criminal operations and historical development of underground organizations, that’s me, a criminal buff, if you can call it that. It’s so fascinating―street crime, organized crime, true crime, political crime, corporate crime and everything surrounding it. It’s all connected, it’s all the same. And as a matter of fact, yes, there is such a thing as a Greek Mafia. It’s mostly based out of Philadelphia, but they do operate in New York along with some of the Italian American Mafias, and in Greece, Crete, and Cyprus. They’re a low criminal enterprise, mostly overshadowed by the other criminal organizations, kind of like the Israeli Mafia, which in actuality many members of the Russian Mafia are Jewish. There are some organized criminal groups here in Texas, by the way, such as: the Texas Syndicate, the Dixie Mafia, the Black P. Stones, Hammerskins, Mexikanemi, but the really dangerous ones are the Zetas coming in from Mexico. Narco-traffickers, those are the real organized criminals operating throughout all of Mexico and the Southwestern U.S., and they’re also connecting with some of the Italian Mafias in Naples. But you see, I’ve learned something interesting about politics and business. They’re organized criminals as well, that’s why I wanted to take on this story. The developers, the construction companies, the local city councils, business groups, policy makers…they operate as ruthlessly as organized criminals…making back-end-deals, robbing taxpayer dollars, deceiving the public, operating without transparency, causing ruin to enemies or competition. Assassination, you said it yourself about Jay Jacobs and other whistleblowers, right? I know it sounds a bit far-fetched…cynical in fact, but that’s how I feel about politics, its organized crime. Politicians are simply engaged in publicly sanctioned organized crime. That’s how I’m able to sleep at night, collecting intelligence and information from unclassified and classified sources when following major leads. This is what NAFTA is all about, for me at least.”
“Oh…that reminds me before I forget! Before Jay Jacobs “died” or was murdered, he told me something about this guy…Bill Lester, he’s this PhD from Harvard, an academic who works for the federal government helping to shape foreign and domestic policy. He’s a political consultant for some think tank down in Washington D.C. He used to be a Fulbright professor teaching foreign policy in Mexico City. I guess he coined the term North American Community, something about the regional goals of North America, to strengthen bonds for the continent. He had a few key ideas like a North American Commission, which establishes the agenda for the whole continent. Also, a North American parliamentary group to operate as its legislative branch, a permanent court for trades and tariffs, a common customs agency, and a common currency―the Amero. And it’s all administered by the World Bank, proportionate to its wealth. So we both know what that means for Mexico, more poverty. He mentioned it would take about a century for Mexico to close the gap between the rich and poor, but where does that leave us as well? America’s wealth gap is becoming deeper. I got some contacts from him before he died―Dr. Igor Jáuregi Errazuriz, an ex-Fulbright professor and scholar who also taught foreign policy in Mexico City with Bill Lester, but a staunch critic of the North American Union. I haven’t made contact, but I’m working on it. Oh, and there’s this social activist―Emma Marlowe from Canada, she’s from Nova Scotia. I’ve already spoken to her. She’s a good resource. We should meet with her sometime in the near future.”
“All this sounds like the European Union, or the Union of South American Nations. Mercosur. Yeah, I visited the Mercosur building driving down Las Ramblas in Montevideo in Uruguay a few years back, it’s the headquarters. I mean―the E.U. has one currency, parliament, passport, one single market, free movement of people between borders, you know…it can’t be that bad. The E.U. is progressive and competitive, right?” I asked in a confused state while gasping at a map above my desk.
“Well, it does sound a lot like the European Union, but the United States is planning to annex Mexican and Canadian territory through what they call ‘cross-border regions’ that pose significant threats to agriculture, infrastructure, natural resources, regional development, national identity…and well quite simply, it’s the end of American sovereign territory as we know it. These supercorridors have already been planned…for quite some time now, that’s what this is all about. There’s already the Pan American Highway that stretches from Alaska to Patagonia, from the North Pole to the South Pole. But you know, the American Lung Association has reported that fine particles and pollution are getting worse around highway infrastructure and causing an increase in health problems. I mean―if these types of public works are allowed to be privatized like bridges, roads, highway systems, airports, and other public assets, then private companies don’t have to follow federal, state, or local guidelines in regards to health concerns and regulations. You think I wouldn’t like to get on a motorcycle or something and ride from Alaska to Patagonia, I would love it, but not if it means that hundreds or thousands of people could possibly contract lung damage, or at the expense of someone losing their house, or entire local communities being wiped out.” I wanted to marry her just for saying that. She sounded like quite the humanitarian.
“I couldn’t live with myself Michael. We’ve done, and I’ve read environmental impact reports on pollution, air, water, loss of habitat and open space. There’s going to be a significant reduction of tourism to local towns because motorists will stop at state-owned concessions located along the corridors instead of local communities. That’s what America’s all about. Traveling around like wandering vagabonds and discovering all sorts of hidden towns, that’s America. There isn’t going to be any exits for miles along the corridors, how are they going to provide emergency services on the roads when the roads themselves will be isolated? These no-access roads without on or off-ramps are going to cause more highway accident victims, not to mention lack of protection against radiant heat. These are all public safety and national security concerns. Privatization, screw that! Did you know that Chicago’s Midway Airport is currently being tested under FAA regulation to go through a privatization process? We’re privatizing every aspect of government duty, the United States is up for sale, until there’s nothing left except―,”
I didn’t know how to respond, she was edified with stagnant skepticism, I could almost visualize her through the phone weeping and wailing and teeth-gnashing. Maybe we were both distraught by the bleak future that was awaiting us as a landlocked continent, or maybe we just looked at the future as a dystopian peril of chaos as many films and books have taught us. But whatever it was, I wanted to extend my arm out to her through the phone wires anticipating a crossing of the lines where strange voices or conve
rsations could make your own plight trivial.
She started back up again like the revving of a dormant engine, “Look―alternatives have been suggested instead of supercorridors like reversible lanes, variable speed limits, ramp metering, and how about this…we have suggested they build the supercorridors in metropolitan urban areas where they can actually alleviate traffic, not in rural areas. The supercorridors are being planned and built in rural Texas. You know, there are all these bills in congress trying to scare the citizens about density and traffic increase, but in actuality many federal highway administration reports have suggested the opposite, which is that traffic is decreasing in some metropolitan and rural areas overall because of other factors like people working from home, people using public transportation, and people using alternative methods like cycling. The reports are ambiguous, it just depends on how they skew them. Some representatives have suggested a gas tax or an increase in license and registration fees to pay for roads, that’s better than privatization and creating supercorridors. They need to build roads where we really need them. There’s this new organization, the Dallas Tea Party, like the Boston Tea Party―a taxpayer revolt. You know, they’ve discovered certain Department of Transportation employees were being investigated by the FBI for bribery charges, yeah…they discovered a billion dollar accounting error, and they were making insider deals and bribes to contractors and such. It’s a whole culture of fraud and waste.”
I thought about the slush fund that Jay Jacobs had mentioned a while back and then it made sense, “That’s it! I told you Helena, its organized crime at its best. That’s the connection. See, when I was in Punta Colonet, a source mentioned that Texas congressmen and businessmen were with these Chinese businessmen―from Hudson Port Ltd, that company that owns a lot of the seaports around the world. I told you about that, remember? I didn’t quite understand what they were doing together, but I do now. Doesn’t it all make sense? Here’s what I’m thinking, let me run it by you.”
I paused to take a deep breath and continued, “The Trans-Texas Corridor was supposed to be a public infrastructure project proposed by the NAFTA agreement to consolidate continental transportation between Mexico, Canada, and the United States―that’s clear. But because NAFTA doesn’t have the ability to expropriate people’s homes and land that is in the way of this project, state governments were given the project in order for state governments to establish eminent domain throughout the U.S. to avoid responsibility. The pressure would be off of NAFTA and each state would have to facilitate infrastructure through their transportation departments. A few different councils were then created in order to strategize and make recommendations for the best solutions to this North American Union problem, but these councils are these same government officials and corporate businessmen. We need to find out who sits on these councils. I’ll even bet you that Zachary Construction is on one of those councils to represent construction plans for the state of Texas.”
“Yeah, Emma Marlowe from Canada can shed some light there, she has more insight into those councils…continue,” said Helena.
“Most likely, a recommendation was made to prevent the further development of housing in certain areas where the supercorridors would be traveling through, therefore, leaving the American heartland available for land development. In communities like Fair Oaks, developers across the United States were bought out or bankrupted in order to prevent the development from taking shape, so that eminent domain or development of the supercorridors would be facilitated instead. Do you remember Jay Jacobs mentioned the slush fund being used to finance the supercorridor project and something about the Governor being part of the EuroCarril-Zachary merger? Maybe the Governor bought himself onto the board of directors on Zachary Construction, unless he was already on it before, and then he helped broker the merger with EuroCarril. It’s not uncommon for wealthy businessmen to buy themselves onto a corporate board of directors―we know how much influence he has. Most likely EuroCarril was awarded a contract after other companies were probably evaluated, and this one had the most probability of going through as a merger, that makes sense. That would place the Governor as a board of directors on each corporation, and I’m guessing slush fund money was used from the reserve tax fund and corporate donations in order to begin the project. Next―the Kansas City Rail Project, a non-profit created by business and government officials to oversee the development of a new inland port that facilitates transportation from seaports, trucking companies, and railroads. Think hard…they’ve bought out the nationalized railroads in Mexico, they’ve merged some existing railroads here in the U.S., they have a monopoly on some of the trucking companies, and most importantly they’re working with Hudson Port to get shipments into this new port. I mean―there was this big real estate tycoon, a Jewish guy, in the limousine when I met with their spokesperson, and he mentioned something about buying some real estate for businesses around the port. I can almost guarantee that some board members on the merger are the same as on the Kansas City Rail Project. That’s the connection…now let’s prove it. That’s the monopoly. The Governor of Texas and other public officials from Texas are involved…” I caught my breath.
“Wow Michael, that sounds daunting…and very rational. I’m impressed. And get this―just to add to what you’re saying about these public officials. This Texas state senator…John Corona, he’s the CEO of one of the largest property management companies in the whole country, well he’s been charged with being a slumlord because he has hazardous condos all over Texas. He’s being investigated by the FBI for accepting bribes. Oh, and guess what? He also wrote the Texas Residential Property Owner’s Act, and he’s always campaigning under proper business ethics and rights. Whatever…I bet he’s involved. This other lawmaker, Albert Russell, he was arrested for DUI, but get this one. He wrote the ‘Driver Responsibility Program’ which includes a one-thousand dollar fine for a first conviction, but he didn’t get charged and he’s still a lawmaker. These people have top salaries, somewhere in the six digits, I guess you’re right…it’s all organized crime, it goes all the way to the top.”
“It’s not surprising, the federal government magically bailed out Wall Street and all these corporate banks with the snap of a finger, but they can’t come up with monies for highway infrastructure. It doesn’t make sense, you know. The government claims it has significant debt, and that’s why the Chinese are purchasing the debt and U.S. investment funds that buy toll roads and infrastructure. And here lies another concern. Helena, the Chinese are buying key ports around the world, which means…when it’s all said and done, there’ll be a monopoly on ports, railroads, highway infrastructure systems, supercorridors, toll roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, etc…you name it, the selling off of the United States through chunks of public retail as privatization. They’re dividing up the land. Now, we have to find out how Canada’s involved,” and we ended on that note and retired to bed on such thoughts.
8.
The NAFTA Blueprint Page 18
