Port Security

Having access to your phone lines to illegally listen to your conversations, that's proprietary to the US Government. Protecting you from a nuclear weapon smuggled into the United States through our ports. We'll let the Chinese take care of that. If you wonder what I'm talking about, read on.

In 2003, a subsidiary of a Hong Kong company, Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. attempted to buy the failed telecommunication company Global Crossing Ltd. Not so fast said the Bush administration, who blocked the deal on the grounds of national security. They must not of wanted the Chinese getting in the way of spying on Americans. OK, that's a little bit snarky, I'm sure there are justifications for blocking the deal, like the Chinese being able to shut down the system in the event of a national emergency. (I know this is a Hong Kong based company, but it's chairman Li Ka-Shing is pretty tight with the leaders of China, and Trent Lott once called this company "an arm of the People's Liberation Army.") Anyway, it was probably a good call.

Now, however, the Bush administration is putting the final touches on a no-bid contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. for port security. Their task? They will being doing radiation scanning at the port in Freeport, Bahamas for freight bound for the United States, without the oversight of US customs agents. This will be the first time in history that a foreign firm has been allowed to do this. The administration is also working on a similar contract to do the same thing in the Phillipines with another company.

You can think what you want about foreign entities operating port facilities, but if the administration doesn't consider Hutchison Whampoa Ltd trustworthy enough to badger me about savings on long distance, they certain can't be trustworthy enough to keep nuclear weapons out of our country.

Found via Josh Marshall