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

I'm a lot more concerned about U.S. Hiring Hong Kong Co. to Scan Nukes than I was about the Dubai Port deal. A company with connections to a rival power who wants to displace the US hired to undertake security scans.

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. (emphasis mine)

As opposed to DPW, which is a company owned by a country which has been a staunch US ally, and had no security responsibilities.

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.

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.

Did anyone else hear circus music running in their heads while they read that?



HOWEVER:

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."

Okay, here's the basic situation as I understand it.



We can have employees of these port operators running the equipment, or we can not have scans at that port. So the US government has no choice as to who does the scans. Furthermore, the equipment is automatic, and the driver does nothing except move it appropriately. So we might pick up a certain percentage of any nuclear surprises before they get here, assuming there's no official cooperation with the shippers of said surprise. This is therefore an improvement, but the fact that it's an improvement says nothing good about our Department of Homeland Security, with which I become more disgusted almost daily. We need to have said containers evaluated by persons selected for their loyalty to the United States. If it costs money, then those are legitimate costs that can be legitimately passed on to the companies looking to import stuff into the U.S. And if this drives prices up a wee bit, consider the damage that would be done by one nuclear or biological bomb on the waterfront of, say, the Port of New York, never mind a coordinated strike on several ports, which is a thought that I'm certain has occurred to our enemies.





Linked to Don Surber