Exclusive: SuperRondo II: New NASCO NAFTA Superhighway Docs Released From MnDOT

Exclusive: SuperRondo II: New NASCO NAFTA Superhighway Docs Released From MnDOT

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These MnDOT documents clearly show that NASCO was set up as a "systems integrator" to oversee NAFTRACS, a project led by Lockheed Martin's subsidiary SAVI Networks to build a complete cargo monitoring and security regime, which would include placing up to 200 RFID truck monitoring stations along Interstates 35 and 94, overseen by "Total Transportation Domain Awareness Centers of Excellence"; this would 'militarize' cargo along I-35, by cloning SAVI's current military shipping tracking system.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The weirdest stuff shows up at my day job. Seemed like just the kind of thing for the ATS crowd, and there's a ton of weird PDF documents to tear through. I wrote this for work; I'm the web editor @ PoliticsInMinnesota.com:

PIM Exclusive: SuperRondo II: New NASCO NAFTA Superhighway Docs Released From MnDOT (if anyone wants to digg the story

The design of transportation systems carries its own ideology: the routes, exit placement, the eminent domain actions, the financing, carpool or toll road lanes; all these issues loom large in Minnesota, especially since no one can agree how to pay for needed work. St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood, the heart of the black community, got split in half by I-94, and many people today fear similar effects from massive new roads. Recently, people on the 'fringes' of the left and right who might be considered hostile to corporate globalization have talked about a 'NAFTA Superhighway' project which would link Mexico, Canada, and the United States, but little hard evidence illustrates how this plan could work. PIM first reported in July that a Twin Cities lawyer, Nathan Hansen, used Data Practices Act requests from MnDOT to get several rounds of documents released regarding NASCO, the North American Super Corridor Coalition, a non-profit organization based in Texas. Hansen has kept at it (Here's his blog), filing a lawsuit to leverage the release of more documents, more of which finally came out recently. We have packaged everything MnDOT released into a ZIP archive of PDFs (60 MB!).

The NASCO/SAVI Letter of Intent clearly states that SAVI, i.e. Lockheed, would have exclusive rights to market the data collected by NASCO's 'Network Infrastructure'. NASCO's intended role as a 'systems integrator,' specified in their application for federal cash, seems a similar setup to the Coast Guard Deepwater arrangement that led to a complete mess, as PIM reported earlier this year.

Continued... www.politicsinminnesota.com...

www.politicsinminneso ta.com
(visit the link for the full news article)