Free Republic

<p>PANAMA CITY — A country known for its hats, bananas and dictators has become a battleground for Taiwan and China, wealthy adversaries aggressively bidding for friends and influence a hemisphere away.</p> <p>Panama is one of the few countries that has diplomatic relations with Taiwan. But the presence of the Panama Canal gives China too big a stake to walk away in protest.</p>

Hutchison Whampoa Teams With U.S. Defense Firm for Port Security Li Ka-Shing Seeks U.S. Contract Hutchison Whampoa Teams With U.S. Defense Firm for Port Security Hutchison Whampoa, the firm that currently runs both ends of the Panama Canal, is teaming up with an American technology company in a bid to win tens of millions of dollars in U.S. port security funding. Three companies - Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., PSA Corp. Ltd. of Singapore, and London-based P&O Ports - will test an advanced electronic system manufactured by California-based Savi Technology to ensure the security of cargo entering U.S. ports. Hutchison Whampoa's effort...

<p>Panama City, Panama -- A country known for its hats, bananas and dictators has become an unlikely battleground for Taiwan and China, longtime adversaries waging their civil conflict a hemisphere away.</p> <p>With the aim of strengthening ties, leaders on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have encouraged businesses to invest in Panama. It's a fight that touches the Bay Area, where local investors and international companies that do business here also have interests on the isthmus.</p>

The late actress Jayne Mansfield once said, "A rock garden is better than no rock garden." And former President Jimmy Carter went to Cuba ... Apparently I was smarter than many of my fellow Americans, who overwhelmingly elected little-man Jimmy as the president of this great country. I decided to go to work dressed in black mourning clothes for three days after his election, for what I thought was a terrible mistake. But perhaps many Americans realized the same thing in their collective guts when Jimmy talked to the nation wearing a cardigan and seated by a fireplace. Facing that...

Jimmy Carter is "idiotic" and a "damn menace" for letting Cuban dictator Fidel Castro exploit him, Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told NewsMax.com in an exclusive interview Wednesday night. "He should get the hell out of there!" thundered Moorer, a member of NewsMax.com's board of directors. "He’s trying to justify himself," the retired admiral said. "He has an inferiority complex about what he did and how he left the situation" after his failed one-term presidency. "He had his opportunity, and he really screwed it up." The antics in Cuba don't surprise Moorer, who...

It was bound to happen, sooner or later – threats and lawsuits against the nonprofit, Washington-based National Security Center (NSC) for boldly going into the lion's den and telling the truth – in this case, into the Republic of Panama, jealously coveting its precious new treasure, the Panama Canal, and extremely sensitive to any hint of perceived threat. Exposing the truth is how the NSC operates, and now they've hit pay dirt after all these years and deserve high praise for such courage and perseverance.Panama Wants Blood The president of Panama, Mireya Moscoso, and her foreign minister, Jose Miguel Aleman,...

2002-03-21 RECRUITING CIA AGENTS WAS ONE OF OUR GOALS Question: Mr. Leonov, you are Latin America specialist. To what extent were our special services interested in this continent, since the major cold war opposition was between the USA and America? Answer: The opposition between the two superpowers was exercised in the rivalry for the influence in the countries of the third world. There was a principal in those days: geopolitical victory will be achieved by the party that convinces the third world follow it. The USSR’s positions in the third world were stronger than those of the USA, from both...