That's not the story.
I have noted ths smart wording of the resolution to eliminate UAE (and KSA) from this equation.
However, along with this, and previously almost completely UNREPORTED by a press orgiasticly reporting civil war in Iraq, FISA 'lawlessness' by Bush, incompetence run amok by Bush, Katrina calumnies, lies the story of utter carelessness by CFIUS AND the failure of the press in control of ports by OTHER foreign entities, some of whom we may actually end up in shooting wars with over Taiwan and energy resources.
WHY?
A few editors more interested in whacking Bush than assigning people to work real security concerns?
Chucky? Where are you here? Barbara, Diane ...this is your state we're talking about?
Nancy, you lead the dems, and the repubs are saying nothing ..WHERE ARE YOU?
Where's the Chronicle? Seattle? Washington Senators? I think Mr. Henry Jackson (D) might have had something to say here.
The Nation is doing some caterwauling over PRIVATE ownership of ports (hey, they are 2 sd's to the left of Lenin, what do you want?...BUT THEY ARE REPORTING it ..as long as a repub is in the WH? Oh I forgot, most dems are actually spineless criminals in the Halliburton grinder), but other than this there's just a lack of headlines.
That's not a defense, Sen. Murray it's a description of the critical nature of the problem ..ninny !! But I note you say this about the UAE issue...But those familiar with Hutchison Whampoa's ties to the Chinese military are concerned. "This is a conflict of interest for a non-U.S. company," says Al Santoli, a congressional national-security consultant and director of the Asia Pacific Initiative of the American Foreign Policy Council. Santoli is troubled that Tacoma, Wash., is an initial U.S. port for the program testing.
"The Chinese have been working hard to get into the ports near Seattle. They are among our most vital commercial ports and are home to key U.S. military bases." Those bases are the home port of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft-carrier battle group at Bremerton and a strategic ballistic-missile submarine base in Bangor. "It's a major site for espionage for our rivals and adversaries," he says. "It's absolutely mind-boggling that our national-security leaders would even consider a contract with a company that would at the very least have a questionable national-security status as Hutchison Whampoa."
Sen. Murray defends Hutchison Whampoa's involvement in the pilot program. "They are one of the largest port operators in the world," says Webster. "To ignore Hutchison Whampoa is to ignore some of the largest port facilities in the world that send millions of containers to the United States every year." The company, she says, is not receiving U.S. tax dollars earmarked for the project.
"But while we don't yet know enough about what today's announcement means (UAE tranferring ports to US company) , we do know that there are gaping holes in cargo and port security that need to be plugged."
"America can't afford to outsource the security of our ports. The safety of our citizens and the strength of our economy are the most important responsibility of the United States government. And our government must begin to take that responsibility seriously."
That's just ONE port, there are MORE.
It's not arabs, muslims, or chinese ...no port control should be in the control of any foreign entity in these times.
DUH!
Epaminondas,
ReplyDeleteno port control should be in the control of any foreign entity in these times
I agree!
Ep,
ReplyDeleteThere just seems to be no end to it.
I've heard about the Tacoma/Chinese business, and it's a greater threat than Mt. Rainier around there, and the locals don't even know it.
Where to start? What to do? The threats are so numerous and so serious. Don't forget the Chinese and the Panama Canal, and the Chinese and the deep water port in California - is it Long Beach or Los Angeles? There's so much to try to keep track of these days that I have trouble remembering it all.
We really need to circle the wagons, because we are definitely being surrounded.
BTW, loved the "ninny" part. Murray looks like Gomer Pyle's sister, and where she comes from, she is often referred to as "Miss Mouse." To say nothing of the fact that she is given the "most stupid" title year after year.
ReplyDelete