Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Will Congressional Republicans Subject Bush to Criticism That Clinton Received?

host · 03-23-2006, 10:36 PM

When Asian based, corporate conglomerate Hutchinson Whampoa was approved by the Clinton admin., in 1999, to manage port facilities in the Panama Canal zone, 9/11 attacks had not occurred yet, the Dept. of Homeland Security did not yet exist, and the controversy that was created, and loudly protested by prominent congressional republicans, did not match this present day description of events, with the same Asian corporation, as reported today by the AP, in the last quote box, below. Excerpt:

Quote:

.......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.....

Is today's news an indication that the Clinton era decision was unfairly criticized by republicans in 1999? Given the heightened, post 9/11 security "posture" of the U.S., the increaed awareness and sensitivity of the U.S. public regarding the Bush admin.'s frequent award of "no-bid" contracts to Halliburton controlled entities, even when justification for doing this seems difficult to defend, since there is no way to confirm a fair contract price, the reason that competitive bidding was formerly the way a fair contract price was arrived at......and the fact that....

Quote:

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.........

.......it seems to me, after reading Bob Barr's 1999 "reaction" to doing a "port deal" with Hutchinson Whampoa, and comparing it to the 2006 reaction of Sen. Norm Coleman, it seems that Mr. Bush and members of congress who refarin from criticizing this contract, have some expalining to do to the American people. Are they concerned about domestic security or are all issues framed in a partisan political POV, first?

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.........said Sen. Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record), R-Minn., a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. "We must work with these foreign companies."

Quote:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188179,00.html
FOXNEWS.COM HOME > POLITICS
American Shipping Firms Outbid, Outrun by Foreign Cos.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
By Liza Porteus

....In 1999, just before the Chinese company Hutchison Whampoa took control of the shipping yards that line the Panama Canal, retired U.S. admiral and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Thomas H. Moorer warned the Clinton administration of a "nuclear Pearl Harbor.".....

Quote:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...15/ai_55821630
At What Cost Did China Get Canal? - Brief Article
Insight on the News, Sept 13, 1999 by J. Michael Waller

The Clinton administration sees no Communist Chinese threat to the Panama Canal. Senate Majority Leader Lott and other congressional Republican leaders wonder why......

http://www.insightmag.com/ME2/dirmod...Search&level=2
China's Beachhead at Panama Canal

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:...s&ct=clnk&cd=2
At What Cost Did China Get Canal?
By J. Michael Waller

Control of ports on both sides of the Panama Canal by a Chinese shipping company tied to the People's Liberation Army, or PLA, poses no security threat to the United States, the Clinton administration has insisted in coordinated statements by the State Department, the Pentagon and the White House.

But congressional Republicans aren't buying that story. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott sent Insight's report, "China's Beachhead at Panama Canal," to Defense Secretary William Cohen, calling the article "very disturbing" and asking for his response. Some on Capitol Hill are starting to ask whether the Clinton administration, as part of a suspected policy of relaxing vigilance toward China as a result of campaign contributions, has allowed Beijing to dominate the Panama Canal.

"I don't think we're in this situation by happenstance," Rep. Bob Barr, a Georgia Republican, tells Insight. "Two things are at play here. One, the Clinton administration, from a strategic standpoint, doesn't care about the Panama Canal. They don't have an appreciation of its importance or its history. They flat out don't care. There is a connection with other policy goals, namely appeasing the Communist Chinese and getting money for them and, at best, not standing in the way of the Chinese gaining a strategic foothold in Panama - and very possibly assisting them in that effort."......

...... In his Aug. 1 letter to Cohen, Lott was blunt: "Bill, this administration is allowing a scenario to develop where U.S. national-security interests could not be protected without confronting the Chinese Communists in the Americas." He termed Hutchison Whampoa "an arm of the People's Liberation Army."

Before Cohen could reply, administration spinmeisters immediately responded with carefully worded statements coordinated between the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon. Hutchison Whampoa issued a statement denying any connection with the PLA.

"We do not anticipate any problems whatsoever from the result of this - of the port facilities that are owned by a Chinese company," said Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon in response to a Washington Times report on Lott's letter. "We do not see the Chinese-owned port facilities as a military or a national-security threat."......

........." State Department spokesman James Rubin echoed the same line: "We have seen no capability or interest on the part of the People's Republic of China, a major user of the Panama Canal, to disrupt its operations."

"That's baloney," says Al Santoli, a special assistant to Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California, who monitors Beijing's long-term strategy to dominate the Pacific Ocean. "One or two people with a small amount of explosives can disable that canal for a very, very long time." The White House assertion that Beijing lacks the capability to block the Panama Canal, Santoli and other military experts say, is misleading, false or nave........

........ "In essence, we now have a company with strong ties to the Chinese Communist government acting as a gatekeeper of the canal," according to C. Thomas Burke, a member of the State Department's Panama Canal Study Commission from 1990 to 1994. Burke was part of a four-year, $20 million study to explore ways of enhancing the canal after the U.S. pullout. "Our lack of direction is creating a dangerous political vacuum which is being filled right under our noses by forces that in the future might just be hostile to our best interests."

Lott, in his letter to Cohen, was more direct: "U.S. naval ships will be at the mercy of Chinese-controlled pilots, and could even be denied passage. . . . In addition, the Chinese Communist Party will gain an intelligence information advantage by controlling this strategic choke point. It appears that we have given away the farm without a shot being fired."

Quote:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060324/...NlYwN5bmNhdA--
U.S. Hiring Hong Kong Co. to Scan Cargo

By TED BRIDIS and JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writers 1 hour, 41 minutes ago

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.

Freeport in the Bahamas is 65 miles from the U.S. coast, where cargo would be likely to be inspected again. The contract is currently being finalized.

The administration is negotiating a second no-bid contract for a Philippine company to install radiation detectors in its home country, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. At dozens of other overseas ports, foreign governments are primarily responsible for scanning cargo.

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.

Hutchison Whampoa is the world's largest ports operator and among the industry's most-respected companies. It was an early adopter of U.S. anti-terror measures. But its billionaire chairman, Li Ka-Shing, also has substantial business ties to China's government that have raised U.S. concerns over the years.

"Li Ka-Shing is pretty close to a lot of senior leaders of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party," said Larry M. Wortzel, head of a U.S. government commission that studies China security and economic issues. But Wortzel said Hutchison operates independently from Beijing, and he described Li as "a very legitimate international businessman."

Three years ago, the Bush administration effectively blocked a Hutchison subsidiary from buying part of a bankrupt U.S. telecommunications company, Global Crossing Ltd., on national security grounds.

And a U.S. military intelligence report, once marked "secret," cited Hutchison in 1999 as a potential risk for smuggling arms and other prohibited materials into the United States from the Bahamas.

Hutchison's port operations in the Bahamas and Panama "could provide a conduit for illegal shipments of technology or prohibited items from the West to the PRC (People's Republic of China), or facilitate the movement of arms and other prohibited items into the Americas," the now-declassified assessment said.

The
CIA currently has no security concerns about Hutchison's port operations, and the administration believes the pending deal with the foreign company would be safe, officials said.

Supervised by Bahamian customs officials, Hutchison employees will drive the towering, truck-like radiation scanner that moves slowly over large cargo containers and scans them for radiation that might be emitted by plutonium or a radiological weapon.

Any positive reading would set off alarms monitored simultaneously by Bahamian customs inspectors at Freeport and by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials working at an anti-terrorism center 800 miles away in northern Virginia. Any alarm would prompt a closer inspection of the cargo, and there are multiple layers of security to prevent tampering, officials said...

..."Giving a no-bid contract to a foreign company to carry out the most sensitive security screening for radioactive materials at ports abroad raises many questions," said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y.

"We must not allow an unwarranted fear of foreign ownership or involvement in offshore operations to impair our ability to protect against nuclear weapons being smuggled into this country," said Sen. Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record), R-Minn., a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. "We must work with these foreign companies."

A former Coast Guard commander, Stephen Flynn, said foreign companies sometimes prove more trustworthy — and susceptible to U.S. influence — than governments.

"It's a very fragile system," Flynn said. Foreign companies "recognize the U.S. has the capacity and willingness to exercise a kill switch if something goes wrong."

Hutchison's ports subsidiary said in a statement Friday from its headquarters in Hong Kong it was confident that Bahamian customs inspectors will notify U.S. authorities whenever it is appropriate.

There are no U.S. customs agents checking any cargo containers at the Hutchison port in Freeport. Under the contract, no U.S. officials would be stationed permanently in the Bahamas with the radiation scanner.

The administration is finalizing the contract amid a national debate over maritime security sparked by the furor over now-abandoned plans by Dubai-owned DP World to take over significant operations at major U.S. ports.

Hutchison operates the sprawling Freeport Container Port on Grand Bahama Island. Its subsidiary, Hutchison Port Holdings, has operations in more than 20 countries but none in the United States.

Contract documents, obtained by The Associated Press, indicate Hutchison will be paid roughly $6 million. The contract is for one year with options for three years.

The Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration is negotiating the Bahamas contract under a $121 million security program it calls the "second line of defense." Wilkes, the NNSA spokesman, said the Bahamian government dictated that the U.S. give the contract to Hutchison.

"It's their country, their port. The driver of the mobile carrier is the contractor selected by their government. We had no say or no choice," he said. "We are fortunate to have allies who are signing these agreements with us."

Some security experts said that is a weak explanation in the Bahamas, with its close reliance on the United States. The administration could insist that the Bahamas permit U.S. Customs agents to operate at the port, said Albert Santoli, an expert on national security issues in Asia and the Pacific......