2007 Hot Issue

HOT CONSPIRACY THEORY: Nafta Superhighway

It's twelve lanes wide and longer than the Great Wall of China. It stretches from Mexico City to Toronto, flanked by a railroad, gas pipelines and fiber-optic cables -- all built and maintained by a murky Spanish multinational. And it will destroy America, merging the United States into a single nation with Mexico and Canada, called the North American Union. It's the NAFTA Superhighway, and according to conspiracy theorists, it's the most dire threat to our freedom since King George levied a stamp tax. Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul says the highway will "erase the borders." Anti-immigrant crusader Lou Dobbs calls it "an attack on national sovereignty." In February, the Montana legislature passed a resolution opposing it. And right-wing radio host Hal Turner claims to have obtained an Amero coin, the currency of the new Evil Empire.

There's only one catch: The highway is a myth. No one is even planning it, let alone building it. The nonexistent road is the unholy offspring of growing anxiety over globalization and the unfettered Internet distribution of a fear-inducing map of existing highways. One White House initiative has even posted a "Myth vs. Fact" FAQ on its Web site that states bluntly: "The U.S. government is not planning a NAFTA Superhighway."

But such denials do nothing to deter the conspiracy-minded. "Of course, they have their angle," Ron Paul tells Rolling Stone. "But you can find the diagrams of it. It's very real!" Indeed, politicians of all stripes are racing to stop the make-believe road: Congress recently took up a measure by Rep. Duncan Hunter, another GOP presidential contender, to ban federal funding for the free-trade highway from hell. The measure passed by a vote of 362-63. --TIM DICKINSON