TBR News.org – March 20, 2006
“ When Congress heard the loud protests from the American public about the Dubai people taking over vital East Coast ports, they pressured Bush to drop the contract. Bush did this reluctantly because he does not like to be told what to do and besides, his Secretary of the Treasury had a financial interest in the deal. Dubai retaliated by dumping dollars, a serous matter that has been deliberately ignored by a controlled American press.
Now, it ought to be mentioned that the most vital West Coast port is under the complete control of a Chinese government-run company, China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) that has been involved in gun smuggling into the United States.
From various sources we learn that:
While the
’Empress Phoenix’ gun-running episode has largely been forgotten, as the debate raged over whether Dubai Ports World should be allowed to operate several dozen terminals at 21 U.S. ports.
In 2001, COSCO ships delivered weapons to Cuba, a move that triggered calls in the United States for sanctions against China, according to the Washington Times.
Still, Americans might come to regret giving COSCO the boot from U.S. port operations - a move currently favored by Sen. Hillary Clinton, who wants to ban all foreign ownership of U.S. ports.
In 2001, for instance, COSCO ships carried 434,000 containers to the United States, representing 12.1 percent of all the goods shipped between China and the United States.
Undoubtedly those numbers have increased in the last five years.
In 1998, when COSCO first tried to lease terminal space at the Port of Long Beach formerly used by the U.S. Navy, Congress blocked the deal over national security concerns.
Three years later, however, other tenants at the port vacated space and COSCO was able to build its own terminal.
Art Wong, public information officer for the Port of Long Beach, told the San Francisco Chronicle last week that COSCO now operates terminals in a joint venture with a U.S. company, Stevedoring Services of America, with the Chinese company acting as the majority lease holder with 51 percent control.
By the end of the decade, COSCO plans to expand its Long Beach facility into a giant five terminal operation covering 300 acres, according to the Long Beach Press Telegram.
And back to the Dubai deal, discover that the Bush people, enraged that they were thwarted, are now attempting to sneak through a deal on the ports so that Vice President Dick Cheney’s former company, Halliburton gets the no-bid contract! As is known, Cheney has a huge stock option in this company which means that he can buy the stock when he is safely out of the White House at a very low price. Since he has done everything he can during his tenure in office to get dozens of enormous no-bid government contracts for Halliburton, thus greatly increasing the value of the stock, he is no doubt licking his lips over this even larger opportunity to enrich himself.
It is interesting to note that the controversial company's involvement has already been endorsed by leading ports security critic, Sen. Charles Schumer. "I'd take Halliburton over U.A.E. at this point, if I had to take a choice right now," Schumer told the Fox News Channel on Feb. 20.
Schumer explained that Democats hate Halliburton not for any security reasons, but because "they made large amounts of profit" from what he said were no-bid contracts in the Iraq war.
But if the company "can do the best job and they get the [ports] contract on the merits," Schumer said, "I'd pat them on the back." And no doubt he can pat his newly-bulging wallet.
I have been saying for years now that the Bush administration is utterly corrupt in every aspect and in this, they are mirrored by an equally greedy and thoroughly corrupted Congress. We are not well served by what has proven to be the most corrupt government in American history.
Vote them all out in November. And we have just heard that a certain State Attorney General has been researching the possibility of slapping a state sales tax of 25% on all goods on all Chinese imports. Apparently, according to my source in the Dept of Commerce, his state can do this. They cannot institute a tariff but can put on a sales tax. The Bush administration is hysterical lest the Chinese find out about this and have been pressuring the state’s governor to veto this. However, it is very popular and the governor has indicated that in view of popular support, he will “let the will of the people” be done. Other neighboring states are also looking into the same thing. This ought to fry the tails of Beijing and the Wal-Mart octopus.”
www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a2208.htm#001
See our Inside the White House archive:
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/category.asp?id=41
A Complete Copy of the Voice of the White House from TBR News April 18, 2004- December 29, 2005
Last updated 24/03/2006
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