Three years ago Bush banned them as a security risk and now they protect us from nukes!! Just who is their lobbyist - Is Jack Abramoff like the Mafia, and running the bribes to the GOP from his jail cell?
FACTOIDS: 1. 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.
..........2. 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.
..........3. There are no and will be no U.S. customs agents checking any cargo containers at the Hutchison port in Freeport.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11991755/U.S. hiring foreign firm for nuclear tests at port
Hong Kong company would manage radiation devices in Bahamas
By Ted Bridis and John Solomon
The Associated Press
Updated: 9:03 a.m. ET March 24, 2006
WASHINGTON - One of Americans’ favorite beach destinations, the Bahamas, is getting a new U.S. arrival — sophisticated equipment to detect radioactive materials in shipping cargo.
But U.S. customs agents won’t be on site to supervise the machine’s use as a nuclear safeguard for the American shoreline that is just 65 miles away from Freeport. Under an unusual arrangement, a Hong Kong company will help operate the detector.
The Bush administration says it is finalizing a no-bid contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. It acknowledged the deal is the first time a foreign company will be involved in running a radiation detector at an overseas port without American customs agents present.
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.<snip>
URL:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11991755/http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1151AP_Port_Security_Bahamas.htmlU.S. to contract foreign co. to scan cargo
By TED BRIDIS AND JOHN SOLOMON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS
This undated photograph provided by the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration shows a specialized radiation detector, known as a "modified straddle carrier," at a port in the Bahamas. The vehicle scans cargo containers at seaports for evidence of radioactive materials. The actual radiation detectors are the white panels mounted vertically on the front of the vehicle. (AP Photo/U.S. Nuclear National Security Administration)
WASHINGTON -- One of Americans' favorite beach destinations, the Bahamas, is getting a new U.S. arrival - sophisticated equipment to detect radioactive materials in shipping cargo. But U.S. customs agents won't be on site to supervise the machine's use as a nuclear safeguard for the American shoreline that is just 65 miles away from Freeport. Under an unusual arrangement, a Hong Kong company will help operate the detector.
The Bush administration says it is finalizing a no-bid contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. It acknowledged the deal is the first time a foreign company will be involved in running a radiation detector at an overseas port without American customs agents present.
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.<snip>
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/6/12/210339.shtmlChinese Company Continues to Encircle the World
Phil Brennan
Wednesday, June 13, 2001
A huge, multibillion-dollar company closely tied to the Chinese army has set up operations in ports all around the world.
From Panama to the Philippines, an arm of Hutchison-Whampoa, Hutchison Port Holding (HPH), has become the world’s largest seaport operator, embedding itself in strategic seaports all across the globe.
Hutchison holds the exclusive contract to operate the Panama Canal.
An animated map on the Hutchison-Whampoa Web site shows the extent of the encircling movement with seaport operations in Africa (Tanzania International Terminal Services Ltd.) in the Western Hemisphere with seaport services in Beunos Aires, Argentina; Freeport, the Bahamas; Veracruz, Mexico; and at both ends of the Panama Canal.<snip>