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Nature Conspiracy in
Southeast ColoradoPart 2 of 2
Monday, July 21, 2008
By Deanna Spingola
NewsWithViews.comIn cooperation with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and others, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund financed The Unfinished Agenda, a societal transformation “eco-totalitarian” blueprint for the U.S. which advocates the following: heavy gasoline taxation, “severe restrictions on the ownership and use of automobiles, population controls, an end to development of nuclear power and regimentation of agriculture and the food supply.” [1] The 274-page report was copyrighted in 2001 by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) which partners with, among others, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) on sustainable solutions. “Sustainable” and “going green” fall into the globalist “newspeak” category. These international enviro groups receive money from the Rockefeller Foundation, Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Alcoa Foundation and others.[2]
Today, the Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA), created by the Rockefeller Family Fund in 1985, represents 225 foundations and is an affinity group of the Council on Foundations.[3] It is described by the American Land Rights Association (ALRA) as “a cartel of eco-money” that “lavishes millions on eco-agitators.” This “cartel,” through its “hundreds of millions” controls the environmental activist movement to carry out Agenda 21. Money is also appropriated through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to government schools to create an “environmentally literate public” to produce “a public that accepts the Green Gospel uncritically.”[4]
These conservation efforts appear noble! To conceal their agenda and gain public approval, corporations sedate the tax-poor public through influential tax-exempt foundations which finance non-profit groups that purportedly promote peace, health and conservation. Some people can see through the conservation charade. On October 13, 2006, Kimmi Lewis, Secretary of the Colorado Independent Cattle Grower’s Association pointed out that the Army and TNC are partners in this land and water seizure. A first step in this partnership is the establishment of buffer zones.[5]
“On December 14, 2000, the Department of the Army and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed a memorandum of understanding” with TNC whose president, Steven McCormick, “has bragged about his organization's partnership with the Pentagon to acquire private land and funding for buffer zones around military bases.”[6] This was the same year (2000) that TNC “received $60,085,455 in contract fees from the federal government, plus $81,925,124 from the sale of private land to federal agencies.” So, just in that year alone, this group received “a total of at least $142,010,579, or a little more than 18% of its total revenue, from the federal government.”[7] That’s tax-payer money – the government produces nothing!
If one looks deeply into some of the environmental groups, one will find big money, big foundations, and big oil. These land-grabbing, resource-grabbing greedy globalists use their money and power to obstruct independent business from simply making a living on their own land, often owned by family for generations.[8] Since 1992, Colorado has lost 2.89 million acres of agricultural land. Continued losses, about 690 acres per day, threaten the state-wide economy and the future of rural Colorado.[9] Ranchers are disappearing – “over the last twenty years, about half a million ranchers sold off their cattle and quit the business.” The remaining ranchers are “fairing poorly.” Some work second jobs, sell their cattle at break-even prices or worse – at a loss. Ranch families who have frugally managed to operate profitably often must sell off “large chunks of land.” This further reduces “productive capacity.”[10]
While condemning environmental degradation, prominent environmental groups have embraced Public-Private Partnerships and have made a noticeable shift to a “market-based approach to conservation.” Many have literally “opened their doors to “transnational corporate leaders,”[11] including TNC. The “benevolent” elite Board of Directors hide behind a façade of sincere activists and local trustworthy managers. The TNC’s Board of Directors is a veritable list of government-friendly, corporate globalists who are quite open about their “governance” goals. “Governance – as opposed to Government means ‘control by rules, restrictions and regulations.’ That is totally opposed to “our elective, representative form of government” where laws are passed by elected officials, allegedly in “pursuance of the Constitution.” [12]
TNC, spawned in 1951, claims that it has protected more than 117 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers, worldwide. It operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally, has more than 1 million members, and works in all 50 states and in more than 30 countries— protecting habitats from grasslands to coral reefs, from Australia to Alaska to Zambia.[13] TNC received funding from the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation between 1966 and 1983.[14]
“TNC is governed as a single, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization by a worldwide, volunteer Board of Directors and is managed from its worldwide office in Arlington, Virginia.”[15]
“TNC says it owns or has under conservation easement 1,177,000 acres in its private preserve system. Good. TNC also says it has protected 10.5 million acres in the United States. Good. If they own only 1.17 million of that 10.5 million, what happened to the other 9.3 million acres? They sold a lot of it to the government. TNC bought private land from private owners who thought it would remain in private hands and sold it to the government. TNC is a conduit for the nationalization of private property – nearly ten million acres so far.” “In fiscal year 1996, TNC spent $419,729 on lobbying. In 1997-98 TNC spent $993,396 on lobbying. TNC spent $3,191,930 on lobbying in 2000.”[16] Remember, that’s the year they teamed up with the Pentagon, the planet’s biggest polluters. This is a must-see, 124-page list of corporate contributors to TNC. This group cares little about conservation or the southeast Colorado ranchers!
On July 17, 2008, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2009. Allard is on that committee. It didn’t include an extension on the moratorium, requested by Senator Salazar. He says he is going to check into it.[17] An examination of the stock portfolios of the committee members might prove interesting. Senator Diane Feinstein, a committee member, had to leave her previous position as chairman and ranking member of the Senate Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee in March 2007 when it was discovered that her husband, Richard C. Blum, had been the recipient of “billions of dollars worth of military construction contracts” that she had approved.[18] Decades ago, major conflicts of interest would have resulted in prosecution.
In that same bill (the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2009) Senator Salazar was able to get almost $700 million for key military construction projects and veterans’ priorities for Colorado. Some of the taxpayer’s money will be used to acquire land for a buffer zone. New armories are being built. Fort Carson will get $631 million for “the return of the 4th Infantry Division and the additional brigades we will be hosting.” All of this, according to Salazar, is “vital to our military readiness.”[19]
Will Philipp Holzmann AG, who through the Fort Carson Family Housing Limited Liability Corporation, make additional millions by building even more military housing at Fort Carson to accommodate relocated personnel? The taxpayers paid for the previous construction but Holzmann’s company, not the taxpayers, will collect millions in rents. Read about it here. Congress spends fiat money printed by the Federal Reserve and politically-connected Public-Private Partnerships profit. What a despicable scam against the American citizens, knowingly orchestrated by our Congress!
On July 17, 2008, Keith Eastin, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations and Environment, publicly claimed that the “Army did not feel in any way constrained by a Congressional funding ban.” Jim Herrell, Board member of expansion opposition group Not 1 More Acre!, said “It is an outrage that the Pentagon believes it can flout the clear intent of voters, taxpayers and lawmakers.” Expansion opponents “demanded that Senator Salazar oppose pending legislation that would trigger a 60-day countdown to the military acquisition of property.”[20] Eastin said the Army has already budgeted for land acquisition notwithstanding the current ban on the expansion in the 2008 federal budget. He admitted that congressional approval was also needed to actually buy the land.[21]
After Eastin’s remarks, Rep. Marilyn Musgrave wrote to Army Secretary Pete Geren “requesting a ‘clear and full accounting of any funds allocated towards the intention of purchasing said land’ by July 31.”[22]
Then on July 17, 2008, the Army compromised, allegedly because of opposition from ranchers. Instead of 418,000 acres, they want 100,000 acres. Army Secretary Pete Geren (close Rumsfeld crony) “scaled back” the original request and would like the 100,000 acres south of the existing site.[23] Excuse my skepticism, this appears to be a Hegelian Dialectical tactic (government creates a major crisis to engage the masses; the government compromises; citizens accept the compromise). Eastin said: “We have done a lot of soul-searching, and the upcoming report we will submit to Congress is an honest effort to find common ground on this issue.”[24] This is just round one. The Army will be back to plunder the rest of your land!
Craig J. Walker, a Denver businessman, owns that 100,000 acres south of PCMS.[25] He recently purchased the 60,000-acre River Canyon Ranch and he owns the 40,000-acre Bow & Arrow Ranch. He stated that he isn’t interested in selling to the Army and doesn’t endorse PCMS expansion but “wants to place the land in conservation easements.”[26] In fact, it appears he has already made those arrangements. He said: “It has been a good experience working with the Nature Conservancy and its very capable staff. One of my very important goals has been to put my ranch lands into conservation easements for ‘future generations to enjoy.’”[27]“Future generations to enjoy” is right out of the globalist “newspeak” handbook. A year ago Walker, Piñon Canyon’s largest landowner, said that “I've never spoken to anyone from the Army about my ranches.”[28] So then, it was the Pentagon he must have spoken to, right?
In 1977, Craig J. Walker founded the Walker Component Group, Inc. (WCG), also known as Integrated Electronics Corp. (IEC), a firm that is listed as a supplier in the Department Of Defense Handbook. Previously, he was an OEM buyer for Ball Aerospace Division of Colorado. WCG has 7 locations throughout the U.S. and is one of the “premier distributors of semi-conductors, switches, relays, connectors, passive components and electro-mechanical components.”[29] Walker, who appears to maintain a very low profile, is part owner of First Southwest Bank in Alamosa which received approval to open a de novo bank on December 18, 2003 with other organizers: David Broyles, Robert Hummel, John Smith, and Timothy Gallagher.[30] A de novo bank is a state member bank that has been in operation for five years or less.
Promises, promises – the current promises include (according to Eastin): (1) the creation of 100 or more permanent jobs, (2) it will bring about $50,000 a week into the local economy. Given the state of our depressed-because-of-militarization and never-ending-foreign-war economy, those promises sound like bribery. Oh, and (3) “you won't see us back here for another 15 or 20 years.”[31] Sounds like the same song and dance lies of 1982.
In 1982, the Army promised that (1) PCMS would bring prosperity to the area by using local resources and labor, (2) PCMS would never be expanded, (3) schools would receive payment-in-lieu of taxes to replace family ranches removed from the tax base, (4) there would never be live fire used at PCMS and (5) the Army would be good stewards over the land and natural resources. NONE of these promises were kept![32] There is no reason to believe any past, present or future claims made by the Army. For part one click below.
Click here for part -----> 1
Footnotes:
1, Behind the Environmental Lobby: It May Seem Stranger Than Fiction, but It's a Documentable Fact: The Eco-Socialist Movement Is Financed by the Super-Rich as Part of a Comprehensive Agenda for Global Control by William Norman Grigg, The New American, Vol. 21, April 4, 2005, Page 17
2, International Food Policy Research Institute, sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty
3, The Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA)
4, Behind the Environmental Lobby: It May Seem Stranger Than Fiction, but It's a Documentable Fact: The Eco-Socialist Movement Is Financed by the Super-Rich as Part of a Comprehensive Agenda for Global Control by William Norman Grigg, The New American, Vol. 21, April 4, 2005, Page 17
5, Army Quietly Maneuvers for Massive Colorado Training Site by Cara DeGette, Aug 16, 2006
6, Piñon Canyon Expansion: Plan pits ranchers against Army, Nature Conservancy by Kimmi Clark Lewis, August 6, 2006
7, The Nature Conservancy by Ron Arnold
8, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance by Ron Arnold
9, National Trust's 20th list of America's most endangered historic places
10, Fast Food Nation, the Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser, Harper Perennial, 2002, pp. 133-147
11, Silence Is Beholden; Are corporations hog-tying conservation groups in CAFTA fight? By Liza Grandia, Grist Magazine, June 2, 2005
12, Regionalism: Sneaking America Into World Government by Jackie Patru, December 2000
13, Welcome to The Nature Conservancy
14, Rockefeller Brothers Fund Archives
15, Board of Directors of The Nature Conservancy
16, The Nature Conservancy by Ron Arnold
17, Sen. Salazar's Statement on Piñon Canyon Developments, July 17, 2008
18, Feinstein quits committee under war-profiteer cloud Report documents military contracts for firms owned by senator's husband, March 28, 2007
19, Sen. Salazar Announces Nearly $700M in Funding for Colorado Military Installations and Veterans' Priorities, July 17, 2008
20, Press Release, Not 1 More Acre! Trinidad, Colorado 81082, July 17, 2008
21, Army wants to speed up Piñon Canyon land buy by Peter Roper, The Pueblo Chieftain, July 18, 2008
22, Press Release, Not 1 More Acre! Trinidad, Colorado 81082, July 17, 2008
23, Army wants to speed up Piñon Canyon land buy by Peter Roper, The Pueblo Chieftain, July 18, 2008
24, Army Only Wants 100,000 More Acres At Piñon Canyon, July 17, 2008
25, Army offers to scale back Piñon Canyon expansion by Peter Roper, The Pueblo Chieftain, July 16, 2008
26, Army claims willing Piñon sellers, A county official says some land is for sale, but folks aren't likely to sell to the feds By Cynthia Pasquale, March 7, 2008
27, The Nature Conservancy and Colorado Department of Transportation Partner to Conserve Colorado’s Disappearing Grasslands Cornerstone Easement Second Largest in Colorado Conservancy’s History Pueblo, Colorado, 18 August 2006
28, Ranchers Scoff At Army's Claim Some Want To Sell Neighbors Rally Against Piñon Canyon Expansion, July 2, 2008
29, Walker Component Group
30, For the record, Northwestern Financial Review, Apr 1-Apr 14, 2004
31, Army wants to speed up Piñon Canyon land buy by Peter Roper, The Pueblo Chieftain, July 18, 2008
32, Why is the Pentagon Trying to Take this Land—When is Enough, Enough? The Army’s Broken Promises: Initial Establishment of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site (PCMS) NO Piñon Canyon Expansion, Piñon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition.
Deanna Spingola has been a quilt designer and is the author of two books. She has traveled extensively teaching and lecturing on her unique methods. She has always been an avid reader of non-fiction works designed to educate rather than entertain. She is active in family history research and lectures on that topic. Currently she is the director of the local Family History Center. She has a great interest in politics and the direction of current government policies, particularly as they relate to the Constitution.
web site: www.spingola.com
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