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The administration acknowledges the no-bid contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.

This no-bid contract is a "Sole Source" contract. The Sole Source contract is used when there is only a single person or organization who can perform a particular task.

Since "Hutchison operates the sprawling Freeport Container Port on Grand Bahama Island," if you want your goods inspected at "the sprawling Freeport Container Port on Grand Bahama Island," then Hutchinson will manage the task because "Hutchison operates the sprawling Freeport Container Port on Grand Bahama Island."

The Sole Source contract is appropriately used in this case, because Hutchinson is the only game in town.

As far as that sleazeball senator from New York is concerned, he's still beating his "Bush is incompetent" drum, by lying his ass off.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. lied three times in his quoted statement, "Giving a no-bid contract to a foreign company to carry out the most sensitive security screening for radioactive materials at ports abroad raises many questions."

1. The contract wasn't given, it was awarded according to federal regulations.

2. It's not a no-bid contract it's a properly applied sole source contract.

3. Hutchinson won't be doing any screening of containers or cargo.

"Supervised by Bahamian customs officials, Hutchison employees will drive the towering, truck-like radiation scanner that moves slowly over large cargo containers and scans them for radiation that might be emitted by plutonium or a radiological weapon."

"Any positive reading would set off alarms monitored simultaneously by Bahamian customs inspectors at Freeport and by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials working at an anti-terrorism center 800 miles away in northern Virginia. Any alarm would prompt a closer inspection of the cargo, and there are multiple layers of security to prevent tampering, officials said."

"Any positive reading would set off alarms monitored simultaneously by Bahamian customs inspectors at Freeport and by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials working at an anti-terrorism center 800 miles away in northern Virginia. Any alarm would prompt a closer inspection of the cargo, and there are multiple layers of security to prevent tampering, officials said."

And Hu who is our going to be our next president.

Thanks for the information. I couldn't sleep, so I slipped on the headphones to catch a repeat of the first hour of coast-to-coast. Sheesh! George Noory is just about screaming for the impeachment of President Bush over this - claiming that the President is no longer running the country and that thugs have taken over. I had to run down here and check FR to find out what was really going

Any positive reading would set off alarms monitored simultaneously by Bahamian customs inspectors at Freeport and by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials working at an anti-terrorism center 800 miles away in northern Virginia. Any alarm would prompt a closer inspection of the cargo, and there are multiple layers of security to prevent tampering, officials said.

So all they have to do is make sure a 'certain' container doesn't go through the device. Who's going to know 800 miles away?

What is the guarantee that Beijing would not send covert agents to Hutchison Whampoa's facility for the purpose of determining the weakness of our detection systems?

Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. is closely tied to the Chinese military. China just smuggled missile launchers into Los Angeles last month. They smuggled truck loads of AK-47's into Long Beach in 1998. China is using its commercial operations in the U.S. for spying and stealing high tech secrets.

China is not our friend. Russia is not our friend.