What is this CAFTA?

[TNOE]

When I turned on CSPAN this morning there was a woman caller really telling it like it was - she was great - but she mentioned CAFTA - and said that you can be arrested for any act "considered" terrorism and your property could be seized - and it would go to John Ashcroft. She kept saying - read the law, read the law. I guess I missed out on this discussion - what's this about - anyone know?

[AllegroRondo]

1. CAFTA is a trade agreement

with Central American countries, similar to NAFTA. I'm not sure where the 'terrorism' and property seizure parts come in from that. Might be worth looking into that more deeply.

[havocmom]

3. Seem to recall there are provisions protecting corporations from local

laws and public dissent.

CAFTA and other 'trade agreements' are the giant sucking sound we hear. Not just jobs, but national security and borders. There trade agreements have tendencies to negate the sovereign rights of nation states to set policies and make laws. If the multi-national corporations are hobbled by a national law, it is void.

One world, at last! Too bad it is one world under greedy corporate dukes and princes. Welcome to the New Dark Ages, fellow serfs.

[liveoaktx]

2. I think that person is thinking about the Real ID act that got slipped

into a military appropriations bill.

http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=9221&Section=Local

Section 102 of the REAL ID Act, which was part of the larger emergency war appropriations bill, gives authority "in the Secretary’s sole discretion, to waive all legal requirements as necessary to ensure expeditious construction of certain barriers and roads at the U.S. border."

While on the surface, this action may seem a sole blow to environmentalists, the language of the law ensures it is much more than that.

Legal professionals agree the wording of the law would allow DHS to seize privately-owned property — possibly without just compensation — in addition to waiving laws.

The heated discourse over eminent domain — which the Cato Institute defines as "the power of government to condemn private property and take title for public use, provided owners receive just compensation" — continues.