Gov. Huntsman's CFR Membership - The Rest of the Story

[This was previously at thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/article_1968.shtml but is no longer available so is reprinted here]

Gov. Huntsman's CFR Membership -- The Rest of the Story
by William Norman Grigg
August 3, 2005

Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., emerging as the focal point of a "solution" to illegal immigration, has an unsettling record where U.S. interests are concerned.

An alert reader of The New American has pointed out that the name of Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. no longer appears on the membership roster for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). In a brief item entitled "Huntsman's Amnesty `Alliance,'" we erroneously reported that Governor Huntsman was a current member of the Council.

Huntsman has been a member of the globalist organization, and has played a significant role in the unfolding campaign to build a system of global governance through the creation of multilateral "free trade" pacts. These facts are significant in light of his emergence as an Establishment-approved point man dealing with the problem of illegal immigration from Mexico and Latin America.

Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. was listed as a member of the CFR from 1993 to 1998. In a mini-essay published in the group's 1996 Annual Report, Huntsman praised the globalist group effusively, extolling the CFR as "America's premier crossroads for those who are internationally minded and experienced...."

From an early age, Huntsman the younger has mingled with "internationally minded" cognoscenti. A 1998 profile recalls: "When John M. Huntsman Jr. was about 11 years old, visiting the White House where his father worked as a special assistant to President Richard Nixon, he happened to run into Henry Kissinger. The boy walked Kissinger out to his car, and the national security adviser mentioned he was leaving on a trip. He was going to China" as part of one of his "secret first treks to China" to open diplomatic relations with the Communist behemoth.

Early in the first term of George W. Bush, the younger, Huntsman (who speaks Mandarin as the result of missionary service in Taiwan) was reportedly "on the short list" to be appointed ambassador to Beijing. (In the administration of Bush the elder, Huntsman served as ambassador to Singapore.) Instead, he was appointed deputy U.S. trade representative and tasked to oversee U.S. trade policy with Asia. At the time he spoke enthusiastically of "fulfilling [President Bush's] vision for America in the area of international trade."

That vision, as The New American has documented, involves the use of "free trade" pacts - both bilateral agreements and regional accords such as the recently enacted Central American Free Trade Agreement - to build a global trade system managed by the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO).

During his Senate confirmation hearings, reported the July 31, 2001 Deseret News, Huntsman specifically mentioned that he would play a role in "China's accession to the World Trade Organization." Just last January, the WTO lifted the worldwide system of national textile import quotas, which effectively turned the world textile market over to China. A year ago, the Christian Science Monitor predicted that this would bring about "a massive transfer of jobs and wealth in the developing world over the next few years" - from the impoverished, textile-producing nations of the CAFTA region to China. This will almost certainly result in another wave of immigration, legal, and illegal, from Latin America northward. And John M. Huntsman Jr. now stands ready to help craft a "solution" to a problem he helped exacerbate.

This brings us back to the so-called "Alliance for Prosperity" Huntsman has proposed with Mexico. During his recent meeting in Mexico with Vicente Fox, Huntsman offered assurances that he would work with other members of the Western Governors' Association to find a "solution" to the problem of illegal immigration. The preferred arrangement, Huntsman said, would be to "work on mobility of the work force" - a perspective that syncs up with the Bush administration's proposed amnesty for illegal aliens.

Governor Huntsman's approach earned plaudits from Joe Reyna, a regional president of Zions Bank of Utah and the incoming chairman of the board of directors of the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "For President Fox to hear the Utah governor is going to push an agenda for immigration reform ... that's music to his ears," he commented.

Mr. Reyna should know. As a member of Mexico's Institute for Mexicans Abroad, he is an official adviser to Vicente Fox. During a February 2004 press conference in Utah's state capitol building, Reyna joined Patricia Deluera, the Mexican consul general in Salt Lake City, to denounce as "racist" a proposed legislative measure that would make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to obtain state driver's licenses. He was also "one of only 40 Hispanic leaders invited to attend the Washington announcement" of George W. Bush's proposed illegal alien amnesty, reported the January 8, 2004 Deseret News.

While Governor Huntsman hasn't offered substantive details about his immigration "solution," it's reasonable to believe that the enchanting "music" he's performing for Vicente Fox's enjoyment is the overture to another sell-out of our national interests.