Just when you thought it was safe....
</JAWS announcer voice>
But seriously. Dubai is now out of the running for the ports, but whats this? Now, security scanning is being turned over to...communists! Thats right!
I had to use the faux news link first, as they being the most right wing news there is, it's funny to see when even they have a hard time swallowing the bush admins tripe these days.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188979,00.html
WASHINGTON — In the aftermath of the Dubai ports dispute, the Bush administration is hiring a Hong Kong conglomerate to help detect nuclear materials inside cargo passing through the Bahamas to the United States and elsewhere.
The administration acknowledges the no-bid contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. represents the first time a foreign company will be involved in running a sophisticated U.S. radiation detector at an overseas port without American customs agents present.
*snip*
While President Bush recently reassured Congress that foreigners would not manage security at U.S. ports, the Hutchison deal in the Bahamas illustrates how the administration is relying on foreign companies at overseas ports to safeguard cargo headed to the United States.
I like the way they try to gloss over that bush obviously made a direct lie. 'Althought he reassured, this illustrates...' is a nice way of saying 'yeah, he outright lied about this'.
Read also here:
http://www.shortnews.com/shownews.cf...TOKEN=21544035
Chinese Company Given No-Bid Contract to Detect Nuclear Materials Passing Into the United States
The Bush administration is hiring a company based in China to handle the detection of possible nuclear materials that would pass into the United States through the Bahamas and elsewhere.
The no-bid contract with Hitchinson Whampoa Ltd. will be the first time the US has ever left radiation detection to a foreign company without American customs agents being present.
After assurances the President gave to Congress that foreigners wouldn’t manage security at US ports, this no bid contract shows how the Bush administration continues to rely on foreign companies to provide security for cargo headed into the U.S.
But the best most indepth is found here:
China Port Control More Worrisome Than Dubai Deal
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1602576/posts
Because it also points out...
The U.S. ports that Dubai Ports World agreed to take over were previously managed by a British company, and Dubai Ports had to outbid another foreign firm, part of the Singapore government's investment arm, to land the deal.
One terminal in New York is operated by a Hong Kong-based company with close links to China's communist party.
The majority leaseholder of a terminal at the Port of Long Beach in California is part of a company that serves as the merchant marine for the Chinese military.
Some of Hutchison's ports lie near key sea lanes and lines of communication, such as the Suez Canal. Hutchison even controls ports at both ends of the Panama Canal, and in Freeport, the Bahamas, just 60 miles from the United States.
Yeah, before bush starts throwing out those human rights violation reports at China. he might want to take into account they control not only the busiest US ports in America, but also...
Of the eight international regions with choke points labeled by the Department of Defense as "U.S. lifelines and transit regions," Hutchison has ports in six.
The late Admiral Thomas Moorer, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a founding board member of the parent company of NewsMax Magazine, told me repeatedly before he passed that China was using its commercial port facilities to expand its global military reach. A 1999 report by the American Foreign Policy Council determined that Hutchison "has substantial links to the Chinese communist government and the People's Liberation Army."
Of course, it's all relative anyhow because in the most recent report released yesertday
...
Radioactive Matter Gets Into U.S. in Test
http://news.**********/s/ap/20060328/...ltBHNlYwM3MTY-
WASHINGTON - Installing radiation detectors at U.S. entry points is taking too long and costing too much, says a congressional watchdog agency whose undercover investigators breached security by slipping nuclear material into the United States.
In a test last year, the small amounts of cesium-137, which is used in industrial gauges, triggered radiation alarms in Texas and Washington state. The material was enough to make two small "dirty bombs," officials said, yet U.S. customs agents permitted the investigators to enter the United States because they were tricked with counterfeit documents.
*snip*
So yeah, even after 9-11 100% of the nuclear materials the US undercover watched dogs tried to sneak through customs, STILL GOT THROUGH, meaning the BILLIONS they are spending daily to 'scan' all those shipments obviously don't work. This reminds me of when they found out half those sniffer dogs in the airports turned outto be just normal dogs that had no special skills but had been used for over 20 years as bomb squad dogs. Scary to find out all those billions bush gave his cronies in the various defence industries to install those radiactive scanners went striaght out the window and now they have to figure out a way to you know 'really' scan for radioactive stuff.
Anyone else bothered by this? Comments? Anyone think getting worked up over the Chinese deal a bad thing? Anyone else think outside agencies need to not only review the companies that operate the ports but ALSO the machines and technology, especially when the equipment comes directly from a crony of the white house in a no-bid contract?