President George Bush and most of the media scoff at any notion that the governments of the United States, Mexico and Canada are moving toward a European Union-style merger with common laws and a common currency. True, they concede, the U.S. is working with these countries through the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), initiated by Bush, former Mexican President Vicente Fox, and former Canadian Premier Paul Martin in 2005, but the goal of this accord is just cooperation, and certainly nothing sinister.

At a meeting of the SPP in Canada last August, Bush told a Fox News reporter that people concerned about a "North American Union" were "conspiracy theorists" who didn't know what they were talking about. And with that, all the Establishment's opinion-makers of press and broadcast hastened to shout "amen."

But something they didn't count on was someone very much in the know, namely Vicente Fox, spilling the frijoles (beans) on what the governments have been up to. An unabashed advocate of a North American Union, he apparently feels that an idea so wonderful should not stay hidden behind shrouds of secrecy.

In point of fact, the ex-Mexican president has felt this way for some time. In his recently published book, Revolution of Hope, Fox relates a statement he made to President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien [Martin's predecessor], "I proposed a . . . plan to . . . move us toward a single continental economic union, modeled on the European example." He then related that "Bush shot the idea down." Was it because he disagreed with it? Apparently not, as more information will show. Fox added that, the White House informed him (in Fox's words) that "life would be easier" if he stopped "raising hackles" by discussing a North American Union.

And just what did Bush and Fox agree upon? During an interview on CNN's Larry King Live, Fox stated, "Long term, very long term, what we proposed together, President Bush and myself, [was] a trade union for all the Americas." King then asked if this union, of not just North America, but presumably South America too, would have a common currency "like the euro" the currency of the European Union. Fox replied, "Well, that would be long, long term." He then added that progress toward that goal would have to be incremental steps.

What Fox described sounds quite similar to the strategy that brought about the European Union. Its proponents at first stressed that they were only seeking more cooperation in trade and other matters. Not until much later did they reveal their agenda for a common parliament and a common currency.

Without a doubt, powerful interests want greater integration of the three countries. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York City accurately describes its membership as leaders in key sectors of American society. In 2005, at almost exactly the same time as the SPP unveiling, the CFR, published a document entitled, "Building a North American Community." In testimony before Congress, a key author of that document, Professor Robert Pastor of American University, stated that the U.S., Canada and Mexico must move beyond "an outdated conception of sovereignty."

One means of doing so, said Pastor, is a "merger of the immigration and refugee policies of the U.S. and Canada." Mexico could come later when the wage gap between it and the others "is narrowed." Just how narrowed, he didn't say. Not surprisingly, Pastor promotes the SPP, but he goes to great lengths to claim that it is a "North American community" rather than a North American Union. The latter, he explained, is not "plausible, necessary or even helpful at this stage." But it might be at some other stage?

Another piece of the puzzle was an article appearing in the May/June issue of the CFR's official journal "Foreign Affairs" by economist Benn Steil. In the article, entitled, "The End of National Currency," Steil asserted that "countries should abandon monetary nationalism" and adopt regional currencies. These would be the prelude to a "one world currency."

Some say the reason that the Bush Administration has been so lax on border control and immigration law enforcement is that its key players envision the day when union of North America (and maybe South America too) will render irrelevant all concerns about immigration and borders by making sovereign countries irrelevant.

It's hard to imagine such treachery on the part of U.S. leaders, but given the evidence, you don't have to be a "conspiracy theorist" to wonder.