....AND THIS IS NOW!

Like most of my generation, I mourn our collective loss of innocence in the decade since the attacks on New York, Washington and Shankville, Pennsyslvania.  I was born and raised along the border, and I've witness far too frequently just how much the security measures, now common place in the post 9/11 world, complicate and divide lives, friends, commercial enterprises, business relationships and even families.

Within weeks of the September 2001 events, the United-States launched a massive security build-up which is still growing pretty much unabated along our shared border where for centuries people had crossed back and forth to shop, work or visit relatives with only a nod from a friendly Customs Officer.

Windsor - Detroit's Ambassador Bridge

Canadians acknowledge and accept the need for enhanced security in the United-States and that "our" lives will never be quite the way they were. But the disruptions and changes remain a source of frequent frustrations on both sides for residents of the cities, towns, villages and communities which dot our shared 8891 kilometer / 5557 miles  border; the longest (once friendliest) on the planet. There are nightmarish stories recounted by emergency responders (fire and ambulance) on mutual-aid calls held-up by overzealous border agents. Small towns struggling with soured economic conditions: Has anyone been to Van Buren, Caribou or Madawaska, Maine recently? Towns like Ogdensburg, Messina and Watertown, New York reduced to advertising their "economic opportunities" in far off large Canadian city newspapers.

Mindful of our long standing and mutually beneficial economic trading relationships with the United-States; successive Canadian governments, provincial and state authorities, and business, manufacturing and trade organizations (often from both sides)  have sought to ease cross-border passage if not frequent tensions. Mired by paranoid patriotic fervor the Bush Administration, First - (and) - Overwhelmed by economic and political turmoil the Obama Administration, Second - have neither expressed nor entertained any genuine interest in effecting change.  Most recently plans for a new crossing over the Detroit River suffered a crippling setback in the Michigan State Senate, the American federal government re-introduced a $5.50 per person levy on Canadians entering the USA, and President Obama's multi-billion dollar pre-election jobs creation scheme hinges on  "Buy America" provisions. The much touted, ballyhooed and delayed "Perimeter Security Framework" has turned into an irritant for Canadians, and an embarrassment for the Harper government.

Whether it's a matter of how Canada gets routinely sideswiped when the U.S. is really targeting someone else (that has been suggested by some observers) or bad manners and discrimination; the cacophony from our noble friend and ally down south has grown somewhat tedious, irksome and alas, wearisome!

The message may be starting to get through: Since North Americans and the world were turned upside down by terrorism a decade ago, instead of working together as neighbours on common strategies to reduce internal problems and re-build damaged economies we hop from crisis to crisis and Band-Aid solutions. Perhaps out of frustration but always with the political correctness required of his office, Canada's Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, said recently that U.S. politics can sometimes be "dysfunctional." - Someone else remarked: "Once the presidential race fully takes off in January, "dysfunctional" may look like a compliment.

BORDER ACTION PLAN

In this country the Government of Prime Minister Harper has been fixated on affixing the "Action Plan" label to just about everything it's attempted since launching the $50+Billion rescue of the economy in the wake of the 2008 world financial collapse. No surprise then that in the absence of Mr.Harper's grand-vision of an integrated Canada-U.S. "Perimeter Security" deal as announced with fanfare last winter, the government will now take to calling the recently negotiated perimeter security lite - "Canada's Beyond The Border Action Plan."

Doubtless despite intense efforts from Canada's perspective; just about all that's been accomplished since the two sides began meeting in February is the establishment of a "working group" which will attempt to peel away at international layers of bureaucratic red-tape, and re-double efforts to establish better communications on matters relating to Customs levies and procedures, and most important to the United-States: Security issues.

That's a very far cry it seems from the Harper "big-vision" which up until just very recently his Government had hope to implement. And that's also why the Prime Minister's office has failed to convince authorities in Washington to make the President available for any announcement, let alone a signing ceremony of any sort. Just slightly more than a year out of the next Presidential elections in the United States the last thing the Obama Administration wants is to focus his moribund jobs creation record over improving cross-border trading relations with the neighbour north of the 49th parallel.

Fortunately perhaps for Mr. Obama's re-election efforts he's now far more likely to focus his attention on the Mexican neighbour south of the U.S. border in the wake of last week's failed alleged Iranian backed terror plot which Homeland Security claims to have been coordinated down Mexico-way.  On Tuesday last, President Obama himself announced that Iranian Forces had sought to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. by bombing a popular Washington restaurant with the help of Mexican desperadoes. Ay, Caramba! (As is frequently the case in such matters; details are sketchy).

Most Republican Presidential hopefuls in the United-States have seized on the matter to redouble demands that America must secure its southern border by sending more troops to the area, adding predator drone surveillance aircraft,  and building more fencing to separate the U-S border from Mexico. On Saturday Republican candidate and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann signed a a formal pledge committing that as President she will build a double fence across the entire border with Mexico before the end of 2013.

A Raleigh, North-Carolina group called "Americans for Securing the Border"is behind the pledge initiative. It's current focus is on matters related to the problems along the border with Mexico including drug smuggling, illegal immigration, human trafficking and in light of these most recent developments, potential terrorists. But the group's Chair and co-founder, a Washington defense lobbyist named Van D. Hipp, Jr has claimed in the past that the Government of the United-States has been derelict in its duty in defending the "borders".

When the U.S. House of Representatives defeated President Bush's proposed "guest worker programme" for undocumented immigrants in December 2005, the bill the House adopted ordered the Department of Homeland Security to obtain "complete operational control" of borders within 18 months, including studying the feasibility of erecting barriers on the border with Canada.  In follow-up reviews, (most recently in May 2011) the Government Accountability Office (G.A.O.), the U.S. Congressional watchdog, noted that in its opinion just 32 of the nearly 4000 northern border miles had reached an acceptable level of security.

Canada's focus remains on trade with our southern partner which is essential to our own economic security. The focus on border relations in the United-States seems to be from an altogether different perspective. I'm not quite sure we will ever see it with the same optic and intensity.

THE GEORGE BUSH DECADE

Muted commemorations this weekend as the United-States marks the 10th anniversary of the start of hostilities in Afghanistan; a conflict which has cost thousands of lives and more than a trillion dollars. Sadly there is a growing list of experts who fear the country could be sliding back towards the kind of civil war which led to the radical Islamic regime of the Taliban after the Russian pull-out of a similar misadventure signalled the ultimate demise of the Soviet Union two decades ago.

It was all so predictable: In "The Daily Telegraph" of London this weekend Britain's former ambassador to Kabul, Sherard Cowper-Coles, says it's a fantasy to think the war in Afghanistan is being won. He writes that military operations will not cure the underlying disease which has hobbled the region. It's pretty well clear that no one, least of all our American allies, have expectations of remaining for another decade, though that may be the stark reality they face. The 'Telegraph' quotes former United-States Commander in Afghanistan, Retired General Stanley McChrystal, who says that America and its allies are a "little better than" halfway towards their goals in the war. Even the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose despicably corrupt regime has been propped-up for years by the United-States and the NATO allies (including Canada), says the mission has done..."terribly badly in providing security to the Afghan people and this is the greatest shortcoming of our government and of our international partners." No wonder that in Afghanistan this weekend the morbid anniversary is passing without commemoration by neither the government nor NATO and saddest of all, nor by the 140,000 foreign ground troops who are still stationed on the front lines. In a published report, "Jane's" the internationally respected defence publisher notes clearly that the future of Afghanistan will still "hang in the balance" after the planned departure of allied combat forces by the end of 2014. That's in sharp contrast to President Obama who yesterday told a gathering at the Whitehouse that the United-States is "responsibly ending today's wars from a position of strength." He made the remarks while honouring the military who've made the ultimate sacrifice since President George W. Bush launched the war against the Taliban regime after the Al-Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001.

In Providence, Rhode-Island meantime, researchers at Brown University say at least 33,877 people - foreign and Afghan troops, civilians, insurgents and others have died as a result of the conflict. The American Pentagon puts the cost of its own operations at $323.2 billion exclusive of costs borne by its NATO partners including Canada. Our Department of National Defence claims the cost so far has been $11.3 billion. Others have claimed that it's (in fact) closer to $22 billion. Canada engaged in the Afghan conflict in February 2002. It took on battle operations in August of 2003 with Operation Athena. History will show that it was a simplistic effort by the Liberal Government of Jean Chretien to abate American anger at our decision to stay out of President Bush's "coalition of the willing" in Iraq.

Buoyed by the initial success of the American military in routing the Taliban extremists from government in Afghanistan, the Bush Administration lost interest and quickly changed its focus to Iraq; leaving the hapless NATO allies (including Canada) to "clean-up" the Taliban's mess in Afghanistan. The problem is (and it continues to be): That while America's virtual carpet bombing of Kabul, Kandahar and other strategic targets in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks crumbled the Taliban regime - It scattered its supporters and fighters into the hills bordering Pakistan where in the decade since they've transformed from a rag-tag group of guerrilla fighters into a well disciplined and very patient militia. The irony is: That the United-States surreptitiously financed the Taliban insurgency against the Soviets two decades ago, and it continues to support (to the tune of billions of dollars each year) the Pakistani overlords who now protect them.

WATER: NOT JUST FOR THE COMMODE

Media personalities, screen actors, winners of the Nobel Prize have been pushing back publicly against the Keystone XL oil pipeline project set for President Obama's final approval any day now.

Demonstrators have recently moved the protests to Ottawa as it has become increasingly obvious that in Washington's politically charged atmosphere, one year out from a Presidential election, green-flagging the pipeline is a "slam-dunk"; or a no-brainer as Stephen Harper described it to Bloomberg News in New York last weekend.

The 2700 Kilometer Keystone XL pipeline will draw unrefined oil from northern Alberta through Saskatchewan to enter the United-States in Montana on its way to the petroleum refineries along the Gulf Coast of southern Texas. The economic impact and the number of jobs created along its multi-states route are simply too overwhelming for the Obama Administration, which is fighting to regain control of America's troubled economy, to ignore.

Moving-on: Every step of the way along the Harper Government's efforts to improve trade relations with the United-States (pipeline included); Canada's strategy for negotiating the enhanced "Perimeter Security" arrangements has butted-heads and been hampered by America's steadfast resolve that homeland security trumps trade. Even when trade is with its neighbourly and overwhelmingly largest international business and trading partner. Though it may be unrelalted, The Government of the United-States has already declared that "water supply" is a national security issue.

A significant element of the problem already affects several states south of our shared 49th parallel. They have now allocated their maximum existing water supplies to farming, industry and urban development. Either they will have to do with less water, or tap large new sources as the North American climate continues to change and erode largely because of our human habits and indiscretions.

Back in 2010, Canada was one of a handful of countries which abstained from a vote at the United-Nations declaring water to be a universal right. Flushed with renewable fresh water resources along with our miniscule population which is less that 0.5% of the planet's, we Canadians are already the world's largest per capita consumers of water. The simmering debate given recent new life by trend spotters, some investment gurus, and conversely little attention by policy makers, seems to suggest: Forget oil and gas -Invest in water! Back in July, the Chief Economist at Citibank, William Buiter, pretty much said so in a memo to investors: "I expect to see in the near future a massive expansion of investment in the water sector, including the production of fresh, clean water from other sources (desalination, purification), storage, shipping and transportation of water. I expect to see pipeline networks that will exceed the capacity of those for oil and gas today." (Quoted from the Alphaville Blog)

An analysis prepared by the Canadian military, and so far (it seems) largely ignored by the escalating level of incompetents responsible for our Department of National Defence, (I digress!) claims that up to 60 countries could fall into a category of water scarcity or stress by 2050. It would place Canada and our abundance of water on the path to "a key source of (political) power" or a "basis for future conflict." Parts of the draft report titled: 'Army 2040 - First Look' were seen by Postmedia News in June, before the Citibank memo was issued by the Chief-Ecnomist.

The draft of the Army report concludes that Canada's path into this hazardous and problamic future depends on the policy decisions made by the government today. Haven't seen any. - Sure hope the planned largely discredited "Law and Order" legislation before the House of Commons isn't a sign-post precursor of the road ahead.

TALKING WITH AMERICANS

The problem with the enhanced perimeter security discussions that Prime Minister Harper and President Obama spoke of just about nine months ago is that we perceive things differently. Approaching the ten year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, it's the "security" elements of the discussions which remain the focus of the American agenda. But as banks here on the northern side of the border lower growth forecasts for the Canadian economy, our agenda remains dominated by facilitating trade and easing the flow of goods and services across our "thickened" borders.

Mr. Harper has been mum on the subject since telling the Paris G-8 Summit back last spring that an action plan on this historic overhaul of Canada-U.S. Relations would be forthcoming this summer. In the ensuing months America's economic woes have worsened, the nation's $14+Trillion debt virtually brought the country (and the world) to its knees a few weeks back, and the Obama Administration has already engaged in a de-facto campaign to salvage the Presidential Election of November 2012. A significant measure of the opposition to Obama's agenda is fueled by a "Tea-Party" supported shift to more American protectionism.

Those who claim knowledge of and about the confidential and delayed (if not stalled) talks between our two countries say more than 30 significant files on, and aspects of, the cross-border relationship are being negotiated. And, there's ample anecdotal evidence to suggest that the political and economic climate south of the 49th parallel have slowed the forward movement on the talks. It's not just that everyone recalls Hillary Clinton's outburst: "Security trumps trade" in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Despite expending significant political capital and promises of Canadian Government loans, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder remains unable to convince his Legisture to back the plan to build a second bridge between Detroit and Windsor. Well financed opponents of the bridge project  have said that it..."stands in the way of American capitalism."

Though so far Canada seems to be making little perceivable gains on facilitating trade, just this week it appeared to bend on additional border security aspects. It's creating a new 50 officer RCMP contingent of experts in combatting illicit trade who will be deployed along the St. Lawrence River islands which form the international border east of Lake Ontario. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security already flies stealth un-manned observation aircraft along much of the Great Lakes basin and along the land border west of Ontario. It's believed that radar and sensor feeds along the border are a part of the perimeter security negotiations. With a Presidential election looming,  the Obama Administration is unlikely to acquiesce easily to Canada's trade "wish list" when American politicians back home believe Canada has a porous border which leaves the United-States vulnerable to terrorists slipping across the border to wreak havoc. Lest I digress: Lord knows; Obama had enough of an issue over his Quebec manufactured bus during his recent mid-western tour.

Canada's Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has already made it abundantly clear that these negotiations aren't going to be made in public. But the political vacuum in Parliament as a result of the recent death of Opposition Leader Jack Layton may very well mean that the secretive nature of the entire process undertaken to revamp Canada - U.S. relations by the Harper Government remains "under the radar" far too long.

ALERT AND WEARING YOUR SUNDAY BEST

The grip of winter's cold stubbornly hangs on here in eastern Ontario. The agricultural sector complains that the "planting" season is at least 3 weeks delayed. In the Nation's Capital the spring's bloom of the city's 4-Million or so tulips (I've stopped counting) sputters and shivers much to the dismay of the thousands of tourists who flock here each year for the iconic Canadian Tulip Festival.

There is much hope for more appropriate and welcoming early summer weather by the last week of June; and most especially on June 30 and July 1 when Britain's newlywed "Royals"; the future King William and Kate, arrive the city on a first "official" visit to a Commonwealth Country. Canada was first of now 53 nations to join the modern British Commonwealth. It's a favorite of the Royals and William's grand-mother, Elizabeth II, also toured Canada in 1953 before ascending the Throne. The Queen was in Ottawa last year for the annual July first "Canada Day" celebrations. William and Kate will be here next month.

Billions worldwide watched the couple's wedding a couple of weeks ago; perhaps none more enchanted than our southern neighbours in the USA where the tale of the commoner princess and her handsome prince kept the national media on the story for most of April. - To be knocked-off the front pages only by the assassination of Osama Bin-Laden in Pakistan.

The news of William and Kate's visit to Ottawa, about an hour's drive from the U.S. border, means that thousands of American well-wishers will be flocking to Parliament Hill along with the usual quarter-million Canadians (or so) to celebrate the nation's 144th birthday and the start of America's own July 4th holiday weekend. Major hotels in downtown Ottawa already report full occupancy bookings for that long weekend.

Doubtless on many levels that the visit is a logistical nightmare. And, most likely in the aftermath of the death of Bin-Laden, also an issue of increased threat and security concerns for the authorities responsible for the safety of the Royals and the many thousands of people who will greet their visit to Parliament Hill on July first. In the past both the United-States and the United Kingdom have suffered indiscriminate murderous attacks from the al-Qaida network and though reaction to the assassination in the Muslim world has been muted; supporters of Bin-Laden have vowed revenge on the infidels.

In the United-States the "colour warnings" that became the Government's most visible anti-terrorism program after September 2001, and which were frequently mocked by stand-up comedians, has been quietly abandoned effective two weeks ago, on April 27. A new somewhat classified system now in effect places the American Homeland Security Secretary (Janet Napolitano) in charge of a "National Terrorism Advisory System" with step-by-step procedures in place "behind the scene" when the government believes terrorists may be threatening Americans. Governments have frequently struggled with how much information to share with the public about specific threats largely over concerns about revealing intelligence and/or their efforts to disrupt unfolding plots.

Information obtained by the Associated Press claims the new advisory system is more efficient; involves better intelligence sharing; and aims to address specific areas of concern such as transportation hubs, airlines and airports or public events. Only under what are described as "special circumstances" will a public terror alert be relayed to the public: That would include using social media outlets such as FaceBook and Twitter, "when appropriate."

Though we may quite never know for sure: In effect since just a few days before the demise of Osama Bin-Laden; this is most likely the warning system's first test under fire. I suspect that they are being extra vigilant and alert.

MISSED AFGHANISTAN BY A LONG SHOT!

Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, Algeria - It's been obvious over the past four weeks that people who really want change will find a way (sometimes at great personal danger and cost) to make their wishes or something close to them happen.

On this; Day 3,421 of America's great adventure in Afghanistan, the movement sweeping much of the Muslim world has quite obviously missed inspiring the Afghans by some distant shot. At the very least it seems fair to ask whether North Americans are on their 9th year of involvement in Afghanistan; or perhaps (painfully it seems) just on the same first year for the ninth time?

Much before the onset of this most recent wave of democratic fervor elsewhere in the Muslim world, the annual report of the Berlin based "Transparency International Foundation" last October had already pegged Afghanistan and Iraq among the top four most corrupt countries in the world. (The other two being Somalia and Myanmar.)

I single-out Afghanistan and Iraq in particular as it is painfully obvious that unlike the several other countries recently overtaken by popular internal movements and uprisings favouring the rule of democracy: Those two nations are precisely where our western culture, either driven or encouraged by the United States, has sought to impose "our" notion of democratic rules and principles.

As "Transparency International" noted in its annual report: Corruption itself is an affront to democracy and unacceptable because it allows too many poor and vulnerable people to suffer its consequences.

Shortly after taking office as President more than two years ago, Mr. Obama gave the green light for an American military surge in Afghanistan along with a somewhat cloudy pledge to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from the war zone in July of this year. Canada's own military commitments, though considerably smaller than America's, are pretty much following the same pattern though the Government of Prime-Minister Stephen Harper has been accused of flip-flopping on a previous commitment for Canada's complete unequivocal withdrawal from Afghanistan by this summer. To be fair: It was the Liberal Governments of Jean Chretien, and later Paul Martin who engaged Canada in the Afghan debacle in the first place.

In a speech delivered to the Asia Society in Washington just a few hours ago; American Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton claimed her country is about to embark on a follow-up "diplomatic surge" to end the nine year old war. Mrs. Clinton claims the Taliban's only option will be..."to split from Al-Qaida, accept the Afghan constitution and join peaceful dialogue on the country's future". - Well, it's more eloquent (At least not quite as crude) but it sounds a lot like the American commander in Afghanistan's Hellman province quoted earlier this week in the New York Times: "With the (military) surge are we now beating the Taliban, or will we bargain with the Taliban and then decamp like the bowed British and Russians, confused about how the Stone Age socked modernity?" Either way, surely not the George Bush, Dick Cheney neoconservative vision elaborated in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 2001.

Ultimately while the American, NATO and western alliance's departure from Afghanistan may not be as painful as that of the Vietnam imbroglio; nor hopefully as long lasting as the still unresolved Korean conflict; it bodes increasingly certain that Afghanistan's historic nickname as the "graveyard of empires" will pretty likely remain intact.

SPICE OF LIFE

About 27,000 people have logged-on to this blog site since I posted the very first comment late in 2007. The statistics available through Google's Blogspot confirm that more than 500 have read "The Enigma In Fowler's Mission To Niger", (Feb, 1/2009) about seven times more than the next most popular post.

Canadian Ambassadors Robert Fowler and Louis Guay were kidnapped in the African nation of Niger in December of 2008 by al-Qaeda operatives. They were released several months later, and returned to Canada.

In Africa, perhaps more than anywhere else, it has become a frequent occurrence that foreign travellers, emissaries, and tourists are kidnapped regularly by supporters of AQIM, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb - The North African branch of the radical Islamic group which has been operating with impunity in the vast desert area across Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger where it's been carrying-out attacks, trafficking and the kidnapping of westerners...including high profile foreign Ambassadors Fowler and Guay slightly more than two years ago.

And this month just as Wiki-Leaks released secret documents are seeing the light-of-day; special forces from Canada's elite counter-insurgent JTF-2 are being assigned to a U.S. led mission to train and assist soldiers in North Africa fighting against al-Qaeda.

The Wiki-Leaks released secret cables, transmissions and documents make it abundantly clear that our allies were none too happy about Canada's surreptitious payment of a substantial ransom (Reportedly five-million euros) as well as arranging the release of four jailed "mujaheddin" fighters. Of course all of this contradicts statements made by the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, when Fowler and Guay were released after 130 days in April 2009..."but as you know, the government of Canada's position is clear in these things: We do not pay ransom and we do not release prisoners."

Two years hence sending elite forces into the "heart of the matter" as part of an American led effort dubbed Operation Flintlock clearly is the Harper Government's effort to make amends to its allies who (so it's claimed) were somewhat displeased with Canada's decision at the time regarding measures to secure the release of Ambassadors Guay and Fowler. In light of the Wiki-Leaks documents now available it's obvious that major allies: The United-States and the United-Kingdom were not "on-board" with whatever insight led Canada to follow the secretive ransom payments route.

Obviously, it is unclear what fate would have ultimately awaited Robert Fowler and Louis Guay had the kidnappers' demands not been met. Within the same time frame, the British Government still had a hostage in the hands of the AQIM who was subsequently executed.

The problem for Canada, as I explored in what has turned-out to be the popular post of February 2009, is that Robert Fowler wasn't working for us when he fell victim to his al-Qaeda kidnappers in Niger in December of 2008. He was there on a somewhat nebulous mission as a personal emissary of the Secretary-General of the United-Nations, Ban Ki-Moon. A mission that neither Mr. Fowler nor certainly the Head of the United-Nations have ever explained. At the time, while Secretary Ban Ki-Moon professed many pious concerns for the welfare of the kidnapped Ambassadors; he seemed perfectly happy to dump the entire mess on Canadian laps. And - Mr. Harper's government, anxious to secure a Canadian seat in 2010 on the U.N.'s Security Council, seemed only too happy to oblige. Costs be damned!

Mercifully, Rabert Fowler and Louis Guay are now safe on Canadian soil. But: Ban Ki-Moon did not deliver. Canada flamed-out to an embarrassing defeat by Portugal at the Security Council. We're left with making amends for the lingering resentment of our allies for caving-in to ransom demands from al-Qaeda.

Me thinks someone has some 'splainin' to do!

SUPPOSE YOUR "WIKI" LEAKS

The Canadian Security intelligence Service (CSIS) has a list of people "permanently bound to secrecy" under the country's Security Information Act. I am not one of them.

In the nation's capital nothing happens quite by accident. All the more so when a "control freak" is at the helm, as others have described the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.

Last fall when a draft communications plan to sell Canadians on a secretive agreement with the Obama Administration titled: "Beyond The Border; A Shared Vision For Perimeter Security And Competitiveness" was leaked to the media, Canada's government went into overdrive to deny the agreement was set for President Obama and Prime Minister Harper signatures in January. It's an omnibus agreement which aims to facilitate the cross-border transfer of goods and services between our two nations in the aftermath of the so-called "thickening of our 5000 mile border" since the savage terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Supporters and proponents of the deal say a North American perimeter security pact is the obvious next logical step. Despite its reluctance to confirm the details of any agreement in the works, the Federal Government has trotted-out a number of high profile public supporters of the "shared vision" including five former Canadian Ambassadors to Washington and several former Government officials involved in the Free-Trade Accord of the 1980's and its subsequent follow-up evolution the "North American Free Trade Accord" (NAFTA.)

Of course the Devil is always in details. Even though the Harper Government has been reluctant to clarify just what is involved in this new tentative deal with the American Government, the widely anticipated "tete-a-tete" between President Obama and Prime Minister Harper has been delayed while officials grapple with the details of the accord. There are a couple of "sticky" issues, and recent seemingly unrelated developments within Canada, may (in fact) be designed to allay American demands and / or concerns. They involve both Canada's northernmost border, as well as our southern border along the United States.

U.S. Homeland Security has identified a serious flaw in the country's strict control over who enters and leaves American soil: It is done at airports and seaports, but there is no way to track who is leaving the United States along the dozens of land-routes which enter into Canada. The fear is that terrorists, extremists and others who would do harm can drive across the border and grab a flight out of Canada without knowledge. As an essential part of the "perimeter" agreement, Homeland Security wants the Canada Border Services Agency's (CBSA) list of who is entering the country from the United States. The issue could be directly related to the Harper Government's adamant rejection of additional landing rights in Canada for the Middle Eastern air carriers "Emirates Airline" and "Etihad Airways." The resulting diplomatic rift has led to the cancellation of Canada's nine-year military lease on a Middle Eastern airfield used to transfer troops and supplies to Afghanistan; as well as unprecedented Visa restrictions for Canadians wishing to enter the United Arab Emirates.

Up at the Arctic border, America's giant Massachusetts based defence contractor Raytheon covets the management contract for the North Warning System (NWS). On 9/11, NORAD lost significant minutes in tracking the five hijacked passenger jets over the United States because it's Radars, like the guns of France's fabled "Maginot Line," were aimed "out of country" rather than inward...I digress. The remotely monitored "North Warning System" Radars built in 1992 are controlled from an underground bunker in North Bay, Ontario, but it's a joint Alberta and first nations (Inuit) firm that holds the maintenance contract. Raytheon has its sights on the contract worth about $70-Million per year of which about 60% is paid by the American Government. It expires in the fall. The 47 automated Radar sites are located on Inuit land, and the Aboriginal have invoked land-claims agreements to kibosh the Harper Government's international tender-call.

The volatility intensifies if you add a potential Canadian Federal election in the not too distant future. Critics and opponents of the proposed "perimeter security" agreement are claiming already that the additional collaboration with Homeland Security and the U.S. Defence establishment poses serious Canadian privacy and sovereignty concerns.

Ultimately improving the flow of goods and services between our two countries is a worthwhile objective. However in its current context, the political cost may be beyond any national party's ability to withstand once the details see the light of day.

CAPPING OF NOVEMBER TWENTY-TEN

Is it just me, or did somehow the world get turned unto its ears during the month just ended?

If you will, ponder these:

IS THE POPE CATHOLIC? - Prelates of the church during inclement weather have surely worn rubbers. But the 265th Bishop of Rome; Benedict XVI struck a whole new meaning to the term when he reversed hundreds of years of dogma suggesting that condoms are okay when used with a view to preventing sexually transmitted maladies. What next, a blessing of the Sheiks ceremony?

MAY BE THE BEST THING TO HAPPEN TO OBAMA: - Whilst shilling her latest tome: "America By Heart - Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag," darling of the tea-party movement, Sarah Palin, reflected to Barbara Walters that she could "beat" Barack Obama for the Presidency in 2012. It's been a miserable year, and Palin's admission may be the best thing yet for the beleaguered President. Just 19% of Republicans support a Sarah Palin bid for their party's nomination.

MAYBE THEY'VE BEEN TRAINED TOO MUCH: Pretty much everyone in Parliament along with our NATO allies have been in self-congratulatory mood over Prime-Minister Harper's decision to extend Canada's military commitment to Afghanistan beyond our "firm" departure date of July 2011. For the foreseeable future, thereafter our Forces will remain on-site to train the Afghan army. Good heavens; just how much training do these folks need? Harking back to Genghis Khan and the Great Mongol Empire; through the battles for the Silk Road routes; the British Expedition to Tibet; the 9 year war with the Soviets; and the current tilt with the Americans and NATO forces these people have just about defeated every military expedition known to man.

HARD TO FIND A SANE PLACE TO LAND AN AEROPLANE: North Americans are terrified of flying terrorists...so, lets touch their genitals and use scanners that show them naked: That should make em' feel safe; right? As a strategy it's absurd. Fanatics and their followers devise all kinds of bombs for a few hundred dollars, and provoke the world into spasms of security responses costing billions of dollars. When body cavities are perceived as a threat, will passengers be required to submit to MRI's and/or manual probing to board a flight?

BORN AGAIN IN CUBA: A story buzzing around the fringes of the American social media claims that Rapper Tupak Shakur, murdered in Las Vegas in 1996; and pop-icon, Michael Jackson who died last year; are actually alive and living their "golden years" in Castro's Cuba. It may very well be that Elvis invited the two to join him there at Fidel's suggestion.

PREPPED FOR ARMAGEDDON!

At the apogee of the Y2K frenzy exactly ten years ago, many North Americans (perhaps elsewhere as well) prepared for the chaos that would ensue with the arrival of the 21st Century a few seconds past midnight on December 31, 1999.

Now, the world wide hysteria leading to the arrival of the new millennium sounds somewhat trite and ridiculous viewed through the prism of the last decade. No one could have anticipated that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 would so focus the world's attention on an altogether overriding series of concerns, panic and paranoia. Today some might argue with conviction that the worldwide economic crisis which began with the collapse of millions of highly leveraged home mortgages in the United-States in 2008 can be traced back to that country's reaction to the attacks sparked by radical Muslim extremists on New York City and elsewhere.

Whether its the Y2K panics and/or the post September 11 hysteria, for some unclear reason there has existed amongst our cousins south of the 49th parallel a fringe element of survivalists who have been preparing for the disruption of social or political order and the general collapse of society and widespread world chaos. Perhaps in fact from time to time, even ready to kick start their own version of Armageddon - Timothy McVeigh, a U.S. Army Veteran executed for the Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in 1995, amongst the more notorious.

Well: With economic chaos looming from America's massive $14-Trillion debt and its out of control spending; and the forecast of the true "Believers" in the abrupt end of our world foreseen in the 5000 year-old Mayan civilization calendar just before Christmas 2012...They're back:



...This time, "Survivalism" has gone mainstream: I am not making this up! Just in time for the holiday season Cotsco is selling everything needed to serve a feast after "The End"!

I have little need for 5 gallon jars of "Cheez-Whiz", and/or barrel-sized containers of dill pickles. Some years ago I gave-up my Costco membership and I am unlikely to reconsider. But! - Doubtless a sight to behold: The "Shelf Reliance Thrive" now in Costco stores in the United States features more than 5000 servings of freeze-dried or dehydrated rice, winter wheat, green peas, diced onions, sweet corn, sliced apples, raspberries, Lima beans and elbow macaroni with a guaranteed shelf life of 30 years. And there's more; including 30 litres of imitation bacon, beef and chicken: Something the retailer describes as textured vegetable protein apparently "consistent with real meat." Yum...

Allan Abel, who is a Canadian living in Washington, reported recently in an American syndicated publication that the products are marketed to our cousins in America as..."everything you'll need if the world goes to heck in a hand basket."

Major retailers such as Costco are just cashing into the prevailing paranoia, catering to perceptions over our "final days." It wasn't that long ago that in a "blog" post I wrote of the Illinois based promoters of "survival seeds" which were then being shilled by TV Evangelist Jim Bakker. Now you may add neo-con Fox News mouthpiece Glenn Beck amongst the proponents..."A desperate lower class demanding handouts. A rapidly diminishing middle class crippled by police state bureaucracy. An aloof, ruling elite that has introduced us to an emerging totalitarianism which seeks control over every aspect of our lives...if you don't have the ability to grow your own food next year, your life may be in danger."

Never mind that (apparently) no one has ever wondered just how the heck they're going to cook all those red beans, grind the wheat, or know how to make bread over a campfire. Back to the frenzy on over at Costco; as America's Thanksgiving shopping "black" Friday gets set to beckon: For $149.99 (USD) you can get the "Food For Health Extreme Emergency Preparedness Kit," including 25 servings of Western Stew; 25 servings of Potato Soup; 20 servings of Oatmeal; a water filtration system; a crank operated flashlight/Radio/Cellphone charger; a survival knife; emergency blankets; Safety Masks; duct tape; toilet paper. Everything, Costco claims, for up to 4 people to survive in the event of an earthquake, pandemic, wildfire or displacement emergency.

I wish (only) that I was making this up. Fortunately I am comforted knowing that Hamilton born comedian Steve Smith, a.k.a. "Red Green," would consider this amongst his proudest achievements.

FROM THE FILES OF THE "WASHINGTON POST".

In a surprisingly candid and refreshingly forthright admission to a Calgary conference on Monday, U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson, recognized that the reality of the Canada / USA border has been "radically altered" since 9/11.

A native of Illinois, Ambassador Jacobson's conciliatory approach contrasts somewhat with some of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's occasional pronouncements over border security issues. Ms Napolitano is a former Governor of Arizona, which may explain their divergent views.

Ambassador Jacobson admits that there have been "myriad headaches" at the border, including delays and hassles for passengers and commercial traffic in an effort to improve security south of the border.

Canadians are all too familiar with the "thickening" of the world's longest undefended border since the attacks of September 11, 2011 struck at the very fabric of the American psyche. In the ensuing 9 years, it's been an undeniable tribute to our enduring friendship with the United States that Canadians continue to make almost 26,000,000 visits to the U.S. each year injecting more than $12-Billion into the American economy...to say nothing of the $400-Billion annual trade between our two nations. It is a recognized fact that more trade is conducted each year across just one of the dozens of our border crossings (Detroit's Ambassador Bridge), than between the United States and all of Japan.

Whilst everyone surely agrees with the concept and goals of America's secure border initiatives; some in the United States have begun to question the emergence of what's been described as a "national security enterprise" with a widely classified mission, blurred lines of responsibility, and it's being suggested; a poor record of accountability.

Ambassador Jacobson's speech to the Pacific Northwest Economic Region Conference was delivered on the same day the "Washington Post" unveiled its comprehensive and much anticipated report on: "Top Secret America". In mind numbing details, it reveals the billions of dollars in private, for-profit intelligence operations that have emerged since September 11, 2001. The "Post" says that in all, at least 263 organizations have been created or re-organized as a response to 9/11. The pervasive sense of fear, described by some pundits as verging on paranoia; in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks became a springboard for the Administration and Congress to give agencies..."more money than they were capable of responsibly spending".

Top Secret America, the "Washington Post" claims, includes hundreds of Federal Departments and agencies operating out of 1,271 facilities around the United States. They contract with another 1,951 private companies to work on programs related to counter terrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across America. The editor's of the "Washington Post" claim that: "When it comes to national security, all too often no expense is spared and few questions are asked - with the result an enterprise so massive that nobody in government has a full understanding if it."

Others may wish to argue that Iraq and Afghanistan; a $14-Trillion national debt, and a Congress too frequently paralyzed by divisive partisan issues are tangible evidence of America's wayward efforts to confront security threats at home, and before they reach North American soil.

What seems abundantly clear is that the revelations and concerns raised are matters for our American neighbours and partners to debate and resolve before time and money run out.

SIEGE MENTALITY

An outcry this week as debate in Canada's Parliament revealed the staggering Billion Dollar cost of securing the G-8 and G-20 Summit sites next month in southern Ontario.

From every account, the cost of providing security at the two locations: Toronto and Huntsville, June 25-26-27, is the most expensive of "any" summit meeting in history.

Although several summits have been held since the September 11, 2001 calamities in New York and on the Pentagon; the Government of Prime-Minister Stephen Harper cites the terrorist attacks of nine years ago as a primary reason for the unprecedented cost of securing the area and facilities where the heads of the world's most powerful economies will be meeting.

Digressing briefly - In as much as Canada can claim credit for the creation of the G-20 in the late 1990's by the then Minister of Finance, Paul Martin...It's thanks only to the Government of U.S. President Gerald Ford that our country secured a seat at the creation of the G-6 Group of nations at the Paris Summit of 1975.

In North America at least, there is an ongoing palpable vitriolic sense of paranoia and fear created in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001. Each subsequent misguided effort to execute a strike against the American homeland, no matter how minor the attempt or consequences, has only fueled further the apprehensive tensions.

Canada's right of centre Conservative Government, elected in January 2006, seems increasingly to be getting drawn into the same vortex. The unprecedented security measures which will cripple Canada's largest city for three days late next month are only a most recent manifestation. More than 200 American military conscientious objectors to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan await deportation from Canada this summer. The same nation which welcomed thousands of "draft dodgers" during the Viet Nam era.

The political climate here, and to a far greater extent in the United-States, somewhat reflects the Cold War era when many Americans dug backyard fallout shelters. There is in essence a free-floating anxiety in the heart of American suburbia. Worrisome examples include the "open carry" gun debate. So far, 35 American states allow residents to roam openly with guns, while another 12 allow it through permits. Some estimates indicate that "open carry" has as many as 30,000 followers. There are 196 million guns in the United-States. Gun politics in Canada is contentious, but there are at least two groups which actively promote the freedom to openly carry weapons at will: "Right To Keep And Bear Arms" is based in Ottawa; and "Canada Carry" is based in St. Constant on the outskirts of Montreal.

The Canadian government's decision to spend a Billion Dollars securing the two Ontario summit sites next month reflects a perception that ours are fearful times. Some - Perhaps many, in fact - fear that "the end is near!" Doomsday claims are being fueled by recent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, terrorism and predictions of the world's end in 2012 when the ancient Mayan calendar is said to end. In several American states companies are taking money for what they promise will be comfortable "Armageddon" proof bunkers. Promoters of a company called "Vivos" claim to have so far collected deposits on about half of the 132 spaces in an underground bunker they're building under the Mojave Desert in California: $50,000 gets buyers a bunk in a 4-person room - Atrium, gym, jail, and cafeteria meals included. Similar projects are being developed in Oregon and in Kansas where underground $1.75 Million condos are planned.

NOT CRAZY - THESE ARE FEARFUL TIME: When everything is added-up; spending a Billion Dollars on security at the Ontario Summits is just one extreme manifestation of the feverish siege mentality gripping the early decades of the 21st Century. It's still quite unclear if or how this "fever" will break. Hopefully it will before the "open carry" proponents get to carry their weapons into the doomsday bunkers.

WINGNUTS TO THE RIGHT OF ME...WINGNUTS TO THE LEFT

One "wingnut" tendency is to see things as good and evil; right versus wrong - Which keeps them from seeing reality.

Calgary Herald columnist, Don Martin, writes this week..."there's a particularly bizarre analogy in a just-released book on the rising right in Canada where a youth evangelist with strong connections to the federal Conservatives compares her Christian fan club to the Hitler Youth."

The "just-released book" is 'The Armageddon Factor' - A look at rising Christian nationalism in Canada - by Marci McDonald. Ironically it comes on the same day CSIS Director, Richard Fadden told Members of Parliament's Public Safety Committee, that our spy agency is keeping tabs on about 200 Canadians for possible terrorist links.

The CSIS boss described his targets as..."usually second - or third - generation Canadians who are in some ways relatively well-integrated into Canada..." some of whom are playing senior roles in global terrorist organizations overseas.

In the reference to the youth evangelist with the Christian fan club, Don Martin is quoting, Faytene Kryskow (www.faytene.ca) a British Columbia based militant evangelist who, amongst others claims a close relationship with the President of Treasury Board: The Ontario born and Okanagan Valley Member of Parliament, Stockwell Day. Marci McDonald's book - The Armageddon Factor - calls Stockwell Day "God's Anointed Cabinet Minister." (I am not making this up!)

In an earlier Cabinet post, Mr. Day was Canada's Minister of Public Safety. The CSIS Chief's appearance before Parliament's Public Safety Committee on the same day 'The Armageddon Factor' was published bespeaks a certain delicious irony: To wit Richard Fadden was at the committee to defend how our spy agency has interrogated Afghan detainees to gather information; - Many of whom obviously have radical and perverted religious affiliations. Whether in our Christian Bible's "Garden of Eden" or elsewhere; somehow, sometimes the "nuts" don't seem to gather too far from the tree...

UPDATING THE AFGHAN FILE

The House of Commons seems fixated on whether some of the Rules of Order have been broken over the release of documents related to Afghan detainees. The Government meantime is only happy to oblige, when it so pleases, by laboriously dumping hundreds of pages of paperwork, frequently just a few hours before the next session of an Ottawa Military Police Inquiry over the issue that (quite frankly) matters very little.

That this mindless bureaucratic paper jam is stalling the inquiry into the manner detainees were treated five years ago conveniently distracts from the real issues of our Afghanistan deployment. Frankly this was (and sadly still is) "war" and that is stuff that happens. But the inquiry and the Harper Government's intransigent fashion of releasing mounds of redacted documents and thousands of censored pages of records hides from view a seemingly absolute lack of strategic planning to get the hell out of there by next winter.

Canada's firm commitment to remove our military from harm's way in Afghanistan is less than nine months away. While the American deployment in Iraq was on a much larger scale...it's now taken the U.S. more than 3 years to out-deploy. Our trucks, tanks, assorted other vehicles; and the tons upon tons of supplies, men and equipment...plus the aircraft, drones and almost 7 years of accumulated military odds and ends aren't going to suddenly disappear from Kandahar Province and magically reappear at CFB Petawawa overnight (or wherever they came from). But, obviously "mum's the word" on that front.

There are reasons to be cynical about what all this means: The Americans are clearly focused on the old Taliban Capital of Kandahar City with President Obama's ramped-up deployment of about 130,000 additional forces in Afghanistan. Politicians and military officials in Canada have already conceded that we'll continue to "play a role" in the strategic reconstruction of Hamid Karzai's increasingly despotic country. Just a few days back the Commissioner of the RCMP noted that his police force is ready for an enhanced deployment in Afghanistan. Great! Let's deploy a para-military force in lieu of a real one. Canadian agencies like CIDA and some NGO's say they're standing put. Lest I digress: I guess they'll "stay-put" indoors because it's currently too dangerous for United-Nations personnel to step outside in Kandahar City. I am really not sure our government (hopefully not with the duplicity of the opposition) is being all that candid and sincere about the Afghanistan commitment beyond next February.

South of the border just this week a group of retired U.S. military officers, members of the strategic group - Mission Readiness - reported that American teens are "so fat" that fewer of them can meet the military physical fitness standards. The report says that almost a third of Americans aged 17 to 24 are too overweight to join the military. The report says..."many young Americans are simply too fat to fight"...and that threatens national security by putting military recruitment in jeopardy.

And: - In a sixth annual report from "Active Healthy Kids Canada", the agency assigned an "F" for physical activity levels for most Canadian young people because they don't meet recommended physical activity guidelines....

I am seeing a trend here: Increasingly sedentary behaviours could some day end all global conflict. I can't wait!

GOT YOUR BULLET BARNEY?

FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA: So here am I; having just driven through the country side of North Carolina, being reminded of the iconic 1960's Andy Griffith Show based in the mythical community of Mayberry, North Carolina, USA.

It seems as world leaders and some wannabees (including "ours") gather just 40 miles north of here in Washington D.C. to ponder the future of the planet's nuclear arms proliferation; our Prime-Minister Stephen Harper, on arrival at the conclave has committed Canada's fissionable stock-pile to be delivered to the United-States for decontamination. To the same extent that Mayberry's Deputy Sheriff, Barney Fyfe (aka Don Knotts), was forbidden from loading his pistol: - Surely now the world can rest at peace!

Apparently, it seems that the nation's nuclear bomb-making enriched uranium has been piling-up at the Chalk River, Ontario research laboratory for many years. A result of the medical isotopes produced there for various world wide consumption. Lest I digress; that's the same nuclear facility that's been "closed for repairs" for about a year leaving doctors and hospitals to search far and wide for replacement isotopes: In the process leading the Kanata based MDS Nordion Corporation to the verge of bankruptcy. Never mind the Chalk River security levels.

Probably not since John Diefenbaker (another Tory Prime-Minister) acquired Bomark Missiles from the Americans back in 1959, and then refused to equip them with the nuclear bombs they were designed to carry, has Canada played such a critical, determining role over the future of nuclear proliferation. LOL!

President Obama has gathered in Washington the world's best thinkers and great leaders, with a few missing exceptions, to determine measures which could preclude terrorists from acquiring enriched uranium and build so-called "dirty" bombs. It's a noble cause. But, I can't help but be reminded that here in North America, about one-tenth of one percent of our population is apparently "at war", while the rest of us go on with lives unaffected...except (of course) for the immeasurable costs of waging those "wars".

The Americans have spent trillions of dollars prosecuting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with; as far as Canada is concerned, our acquiescence, support, military commitment, and billions spent propping-up the increasingly despotic Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai. Just days after thousands turned-out in Ottawa and many Canadian cities to mark the passing of Canada's last World War I veteran; I too grieve with the parents of our Afghan war dead who wonder if their sacrifices have been in vain?

The folly in Afghanistan now ranks as the longest war in the history of the United-States; with the Iraq imbroglio a not too distant second. In hindsight it seems all that money spent - (not to mention the lives ruined or lost) - could have been far better targeted on nuclear disarmament, the security of our North American continent, and the gathering of intelligence on the radicals who wish harm against us; then a summit of leaders trying to put that Genie back in a bottle!