I just adore Bu$hCo Amalgamated International Sell-out and Trading, LLC. (NYSE – BSTRATR) Always a good investment.

They failed to hand over operation of 22 US shipping ports to the UAE, those folks who helped finance 9/11. (Not six ports as the mullet-brains in the MSM keep trying to gull us into believing.) Now they have a new plan to endanger US security. AP has some of the details, although I’m sure not all of the backroom haggling:

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.

You read that right. Hong Kong, now part of Communist China, (the “enemy” just a few short decades ago,) is now being asked to operate the still-not-in-place-five-years-after-9/11 radiation detectors in the Bahamas. Why, I can remember less than a decade ago when the Republican Party went batshit crazy because the Clinton Administration was thinking of contracting Hutchison Whampoa to operate either or both ends of the Panama Canal. As I remember that great international relations expert Trent Lott called Whampoa an agency of the Peoples’ Liberation Army, or some such paranoia. It’s interesting how your view of who’s an enemy changes when you’re trying to sell out avoid taking responsibility in the WH, eh?

And note that this is a no-bid contract, the kind Bu$hCo favors, because if they overpay the contract they can expect a “return” on their investment.

I see the AP says that after inspection in the Bahamas the “cargo would likely be inspected again.” With what radiation detectors? We still don’t have radiation detectors in US ports, and anyone who says that’s because Halliburton couldn’t hook up with some company that manufactures them is objectively pro-terrorist.

Even if we did have radiation detectors why would we want to inspect the cargo a second time? Are we going to pretend we trust the Chinese to protect us in the Nahamas from Iranian nukes being sent into a port in a CONEX in the Bahamas but not trust the Chinese between Freeport and Miami or New York? What happens if a ship just sails on past the Bahamas?

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.

If someone really believes that Hutchinson Whampoa is completely independent of the government of the Peoples Republic of China, please pass me your wallet. I will hold it for you while you take your daily bath and of course will hand it right back again when you’re done, without looking inside. There is no need for you to look inside afterwards, because I’ve already assured you I won’t touch your money.

As Mr Wortzel says, “One…would hope either DHS or the intelligence services” would work very hard.

One would hope. That would be like “faith-based” security, I suppose. I know Mr Bush keeps insisting he’s a good Christian, so I’m sure he’s aware of these:

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” (Psalm 118:8)

”Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)