Thread: U.S. Hiring Hong Kong Co. to Scan Nukes

U.S. Hiring Hong Kong Co. to Scan Nukes

By TED BRIDIS and JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writers 1 hour, 55
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."

"One can conceive legitimate security concerns and would hope either the

Homeland Security Department or the intelligence services of the
United States work very hard to satisfy those concerns," Wortzel said.
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.

"The equipment operates itself," said Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for
the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency
negotiating the contract. "It's not going to be someone standing at
the controls pressing buttons and flipping switches."
A lawmaker who helped lead the opposition to the Dubai ports deal
isn't so confident. Neither are some security experts. They question
whether the U.S. should pay a foreign company with ties to China to
keep radioactive material out of the United States.
"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.

A low-paid employee with access to the screening equipment could
frustrate international security by studying how the equipment works
and which materials set off its alarms, warned a retired U.S. Customs
investigator who specialized in smuggling cases.
"Money buys a lot of things," Robert Sheridan said. "The fact that
foreign workers would have access to how the United States screens
various containers for nuclear material and how this technology
scrutinizes the containers — all those things allow someone with a
nefarious intention to thwart the screening."

Other experts discounted concerns. They cited Hutchison's reputation
as a leading ports company and said the United States inevitably must
rely for some security on large commercial operators in the global
maritime industry.

"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."

A spokesman for Hutchison's ports subsidiary, Anthony Tam, said the
company "is a strong supporter in port security initiatives."
"In the case of the Bahamas, our local personnel are working alongside
with U.S. customs officials to identify and inspect U.S.-bound
containers that could be carrying radioactive materials," Tam said.
However, 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.

"Why would they not accept that?" said Santoli, a former national
security aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (news, bio, voting record),
R-Calif. "There is an interest in the Bahamas and every other country
in the region to make sure the U.S. stays safe and strong. That's how
this should be negotiated."

Flynn, the former Coast Guard commander, agreed the Bahamas would
readily accept such a proposal but said the U.S. is short of trained
customs agents to send overseas.

Contract documents obtained by the AP show at least one other foreign
company is involved in the U.S. radiation-detection program.
A separate, no-bid $4 million contract the Bush administration is
negotiating would pay a Manila-based company, International Container
Terminal Services Inc., to install radiation detectors at the
Philippines' largest port.

The U.S. says the Manila company is not being paid to operate the
radiation monitors once they are installed. But two International
Container executives and a senior official at the government's
Philippine Nuclear Research Institute said the company will run the
detectors on behalf of the institute and the country's customs bureau.
U.S. officials said they will investigate further how the Filipinos
plan to use the equipment.

Associated Press writers Bill Foreman in Hong Kong and Jim Gomez in
Manila contributed to this story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060323/ap_ ... ty_bahamas

Unbelievably stupid in light of 9/11 but what else can one expect from unaccountable, elected officials. For years, I read about billions of dollars being spent to safeguard America. After the terrorists knocked down the World Trade Center buildings, not one public official who was in charge during the attacks was canned for not doing their job!

Completely illogical. Putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. What's next? Hiring the Bin Lahden Group to run the Secret Service.

Something else to inform our public officals about.

It iunbelievable what our government is getting away with!

I have been posting this article all over the place. Where are the congressmen and senators on this one?


Maybe this is connected to it.

U.S. finances China nukes
Taxpayers provide $5 billion in loans to close $8 billion Westinghouse deal

World Net Daily | March 20 2006

WASHINGTON – Here's one that tops the Dubai Ports World deal – but, so far, no one is complaining.

U.S. taxpayers are lending Westinghouse Electric Co. almost $5 billion to build nuclear power plants in China – even though the company, based in Pennsylvania, is about to be sold to Japan's Toshiba Corp., and even though the company is currently owned by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.

And, so far, no one in the U.S. government is showing any interest in scrutinizing the sale over the transfer of nuclear-power technology – or in halting the loan from the Export-Import Bank.

The saga began just over a year ago when the board of directors of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S., a federal agency whose board members are appointed by the president, approved a request from Westinghouse for a combination of guaranteed and direct loans of up to almost $5 billion to support export sales to construct four nuclear power plants at two sites in China.

The Ex-Im Bank, as it is known, boasts of assisting in financing U.S. goods and services to developing markets around the world. It typically finances around $15 billion in U.S. exports annually.

While that deal got almost no notice at the time – despite China's record of spreading nuclear technology throughout the world – last month the British parent company that owns Westinghouse agreed to sell it off to Toshiba, a Japanese conglomerate, for $5.4 billion in cash, a deal that is expected to close later this year.

Undersecretary for Export Administration David McCormick said Wednesday in a speech in Pennsylvania he had no plans to review the bid on the basis of the nuclear-transfer issue.

"The deal is not being formally reviewed," said McCormick, who heads the Commerce Department agency. "It's unclear if this deal required (U.S. government) review or not. Scrutiny would be justified, he said, if "there's a perceived or actual threat to national security."

Congress has not opposed the Westinghouse sale. In fact, the only member to call for scrutiny, Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, recently dropped his concerns. In a letter to Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pennsylvania, whose district includes Monroeville, where Westinghouse is based, Hall called Japan "one of our finest allies."

Meanwhile, Westinghouse, armed with the $5 billion in loans from U.S. taxpayers, may have a better shot at the $8 billion in nuclear contracts bid by China. Its chief competitor for the project, the state-controlled French company Areva SA is considering dropping its bid because of concerns about nuclear-technology transfers to the Chinese. Areva SA has reportedly refused to match the offer from Westinghouse.

Another puzzling aspect of the deal is the fact that China has run massive trade surpluses with the U.S. for many years. In fact, trade statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau demonstrate that China has built up over $1 trillion in surpluses with the U.S. since 1993.

In the last five years, here is the trend on China trade surpluses with the U.S.:


2001 $83 billion

2002 $103 billion

2003 $124 billion

2004 $162 billion

2005 $201 billion

In U.S.-China trade, that's a total of $673 billion in trade surpluses for the Chinese (or trade deficits for America) in just the last five years.

Not only is the U.S. government not questioning the deal to build nuclear reactors in China, it is actively financing it and using political influence at the highest levels to consummate the arrangement.

"The U.S. government has been very supportive of overall China-U.S. nuclear cooperation,'' says Gavin Liu, Westinghouse's representative in Beijing. "It's a very, very critical market for Westinghouse.''

China's nuclear-power market is growing faster than any other in the world. The four planned reactors are the first of more than 20 in a $54 billion push to quadruple Chinese nuclear-power capacity by 2020 – an effort to ease power shortages in an economy that grew 9.5 percent last year.

JP- I dont know whats wrong with them. Its like they are all mental retards.
Its like the port deal. We want islamics from Saudi Arabia to watch over the security of our ports! Does Bush forget 9/11? Werent those people from the same country that FLEW AIRPLANES INTO BUILDINGS, AND KILLING ALMOST 3,000 HUIMAN BEINGS? Forgive me if I want to PROFILE these people, but thats just the way I am.
Then there was the aircraft parts, which I started a thread on several months ago and no one paid attention to it. ARABS FLEW AIRPLANES INTO BUILDINGS INCLUDING THE TWIN TOWERS IN NY, THE PENTAGON, AND A HILLSIDE KILLING HUMAN BEINGS. Does the Bush administration REALLY want them to make our aircraft parts?
Now there is the deal with CHINA. We are offering knowledge on how to build NUCLEAR WEAPONS! NUKES KILL PEOPLE! IT SIMOPLY AMAZES ME WHAT LENGTHS THESE BOOFS WILL GO TO IN ORDER TO MAKE MONEY!
Next time Bush says "trust me" I hope lightening strikes him in the as-!

I saw info on this container-screening contract on Lou Dobbs' show today. It's outrageous!! This company would be completely unsupervised in its actions, and thus, could allow any number of illicit substances to slip into our country "undetected." China is a growing global concern, and the primary challenger to US hegemony. We cannot afford to allow this to happen any more than we could allow MS-13 to run the Border Patrol.

It is outrageous, yet no one is complaining about it like the port deals. I wonder why our nation is bowing to Communist China.

Originally Posted by jp_48504

It is outrageous, yet no one is complaining about it like the port deals. I wonder why our nation is bowing to Communist China.

Has Lou Dobbs talked about this? Maybe he needs to know.

I think he has, but none of the local media is talking aobut it or people just dont seem to care. It boggles the mind.