But there is a broader issue that warrants consideration at the highest levels--excessive U.S. reliance on foreign-flagged ships and foreign crews for routine international trade and even for defense work. Foreign-flagged cargo ships now carry better than 97 percent of U.S. commercial imports and exports. Many of these ships are registered in unaccountable flag of convenience countries like Liberia (which has been said to use ship registry revenues to help finance a brutal rebel faction in neighboring Sierra Leone) and Panama (awash in fraudulent seafarer certificates and licenses for sale