Fast on the heels of the scuttled Dubai Ports World deal, the Bush administration is finalizing a no-bid contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. of Hong Kong to help operate sophisticated port radiation detection equipment in the Bahamas, sans any on-site U.S. oversight.
This would be the same Hutchison Whampoa, the world’s largest operator of ports, whose president, Li Ka-Shing, is so close to Communist China’s leaders and the People’s Liberation Army that intelligence sources are convinced the company is a front to aid China’s strategy of world hegemony.
Hutchison Whampoa has long-term leases on port facilities on both sides of the Panama and Suez canals. It monitors traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea. And it’s chummy with the military government of Burma to better keep tabs on the Strait of Malacca.
The United States blocked Hutchison Whampoa from buying a part of the bankrupt Global Crossings telecommunications giant in 2003; national security grounds were cited. A 1999 intelligence report cited Hutchison as a potential risk for smuggling arms and other contraband into and out of the U.S.
The Bahamas deal is part of a program called the “second line of defense.” Given what is known of Hutchison Whampoa, this country’s first line of defense should be to kill the Bahamas deal. Then it must ask what President Bush was thinking — if at all.
Editorial from The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
