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Follow TURFGiuliani tied to Trans Texas Corridor
His law firm exclusive legal counsel for Cintra
Monday, May 7, 2007 - Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (or TURF) has learned that one of the top Republican Presidential candidates, Rudolph Giuliani, has ties to both Cintra and Macquarie, two of the major players in public-private infrastructure deals and foreign-direct acquisition deals in Texas, most notably the Trans Texas Corridor NAFTA Superhighway. In fact, both companies are actively involved in bidding on most of the public-private toll contracts currently being negotiated in Texas: Cintra on TTC-35, Hwy 130 bypass around Austin, Hwy 281 & Loop 1604 in San Antonio, Hwy 121 in the Dallas area, and Macquarie bid on Hwy 121, Hwy 281, and Loop 1604. Macquarie is also moving to buy-up community newspapers along the Trans Texas Corridor route. Cintra and Macquarie are partners on the Indiana Toll Road and Chicago Skyway leases. Macquarie also owns a toll road in Virginia.
A freelance reporter, Diana Grassi, does an expose' on Giuliani's ties to the major players who are gobbling up control of America's highways in her article NAFTA Superhighway has Guiliani as key player. Giuliani's law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, is the exclusive legal counsel for Cintra. They negotiated the TTC-35, Hwy 130, and Hwy 121 deals. Giuliani recently sold Giuliani Capital Partners to Macquarie, March 2007, in what could be construed as a way to get campaign cash from a private corporation.
"This could explain why Giuliani has spent so much time fundraising in Texas...the monied proponents of the Trans Texas Corridor, of which there are many, would like to see this man become President," points out Terri Hall, Founder/Director of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF). "The conflicts of interest are nothing short of stunning. It also explains why Cintra keeps popping up as the winning bidder."
A recent CNBC interview notes how Texans seem to be the only citizens who don't have their heads in the sand on the coming toll tidal wave and massive NAFTA Superhighway scheme that edges us closer to a North American Union.
Here's some of the most shocking revelations from Grassi's article:
"Most interesting to the whole story is not only has Mr. Giuliani’s involvement in the NAFTA Superhighway not ever having been publicly addressed, but how a foreign company is awarded the building of a mass highway system, versus maintaining it, for the first time in U.S. history, and negotiated by the law firm of the top Republican candidate running for President of the United States. And truly disturbing is how such will not only have national and homeland security and sovereignty implications but how it is deliberately being kept away from the Halls of Congress.
Giuliani fancies himself as an expert on homeland security issues and a law enforcer. And he has amassed quite the portfolio since 2002, earning $20 million in that year alone, by selling himself as such. He owns Giuliani Partners, Giuliani Safety & Security and Giuliani Capital Advisors. In March 2007 he sold Giuliani Capital Advisors, a former Ernst & Young finance company he purchased in 2002, to Macquerie Infrastructure Consortium. Not coincidentally, it is a partner of Cintra’s in its shared operations of toll roads in both Indiana and Chicago, IL.
Bracewell & Giuliani represents some of the biggest multi-national oil, utility infrastructure and financial corporations both in the U.S. and abroad. With that have come the connections that Giuliani has been able to tap into for campaign donors, essential for his presidential bid, not only in Texas but nationwide, as he has become the consummate globalist. But more troubling than potential conflicts of interest as a public servant is his lack of compunction to secure U.S. borders and then planting himself squarely in the middle of one of the most controversial and historic highway system projects since the 1956 National Federal-Aid Highway Act.
Particularly unnerving, given Guiliani’s personal experience on 9-11, is his defense of open borders at any cost while condoning the NAFTA Superhighway Corridor and by extension the North American Union, without the purview or consent of the U.S. Congress or the will of the American people.