As I understand it, the contractor operating the PC for the Panamanian government is a PRC Red Army operation.
When we handed over the canal, I predicted that we would see American lives lost to take it back within my son's lifetime (he's 13), and quite likely within the first decade of the 21st century. I continue to stand by that prediction.
Jimmy Carter is a nice guy, but as a President, he was a disaster. Needless to say, if I think Carter was a disaster, Slick Willie was a train wreck colliding with a jumbo jet crashing into a nuclear plant meltdown.
Go to
World Net Daily, do a search on "panama canal", and read some of the articles. Here's one:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
In 2000, it's China Canal
Clinton admits Beijing to control
crucial waterway through Panama
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By David Kupelian
© 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
President Clinton admitted yesterday that the Communist Chinese will, in fact, run the Panama Canal when the United States pulls all of its troops out and relinquishes control of the vital waterway Jan. 1, 2000.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office before leaving on a trip to the west coast, Clinton addressed the issue of the imminent U.S. surrender of the American-built multi-billion-dollar canal.
"I supported it at the time and I still support it," Clinton said, referring to the controversial 1978 treaties signed by then-President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian dictator Omar Torrijos, requiring U.S. surrender of the Panama Canal to the Central American nation at the century's end.
"I think it's the right thing to do," the president said.
Clinton noted that the United States would be represented in Panama for the year-end change-over by former President Carter, whose administration negotiated the treaties, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Carter "deserves enormous credit" for winning Senate passage of the treaties, which, Clinton added, were "very controversial, immensely unpopular. A lot of the members of the Senate ... had their seats put in peril over it," the Associated Press reported.
As the year end approaches, increasing congressional and military warnings about America's imminent loss of control of the canal have been dismissed and scoffed at consistently by the Clinton administration.
During yesterday's announcement, Clinton, once again, at first brushed off concerns -- voiced most recently by former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Thomas Moorer -- that China is preparing to take over the canal once the United States leaves. Moorer has asserted publicly that China plans to seize control of the canal through a Hong Kong company, Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. -- a firm widely believed to have close links to the Chinese military -- which has won rights to operate ports on both ends of the canal.
But then, in disarmingly unambiguous words, the president openly admitted that China will, indeed, control the Panama Canal after Dec. 31.
"I think the Chinese will in fact be bending over backwards to make sure that they run it in a competent and able and fair manner," Clinton said.
"They'll want to demonstrate to a distant part of the world that they can be a responsible partner," the president said. "And I would be very surprised if any adverse consequences flowed from the Chinese running the canal."
But the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is very concerned about "adverse consequences." "I am appalled," Moorer told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview, "that the president would make such a statement, and that his advisers would mislead him to this degree. If what he says takes place, and the Chinese are allowed to remain and increase their presence, the results will be catastrophic for the U.S."
"If we have to go back in to restore the canal to its previous position," he said, "there will be many casualties, and they won't be confined to the canal area itself. Our inability to move our forces back and forth (through the canal) will result in casualties of our forces in other parts of the world." If the U.S. is prevented from navigating through the Panama Canal, it must travel an extra 9,000 miles around South America.
Moorer added an ominous warning regarding China's strategic use of the canal.
"No one seems to grasp the threat to the U.S. that can be posed by Chinese container ships. When the Russians brought missiles into Cuba, American citizens went into a panic," said Moorer. "But now, following the lead of the president, Americans are practically ignoring" China's ability to do the same.
A Chinese dissident who spoke to WorldNetDaily on condition of anonymity, echoed Moorer's concern.
"The chinese Communists don't have a sufficient number of long-range ICBMs, and those they do have don't have sufficient accuracy," he said, "even though they are drastically improving them, thanks to U.S. technology. But the shortage of ICBMs can be compensated by, one, submarines, and two, an enclave close to the U.S."
Larry Elgin, president and counsel of U.S. Defense-American Victory, commented, "I believe that the game is not over." Regarding his organization's lawsuit challenging the imminent relinquishing of the canal to Panama, Elgin noted: "If the treaties are invalid because they were never fully formed ... then it will be up to Congress. The canal itself may never transfer."
"The Clinton administration is supremely overconfident and arrogant," added Elgin. "This is a deep constitutional issue, and it could go either way. Clinton is confident nothing can be done, but I think he is mistaken."
The former chairman of the InterAmerican Defense Board, Gen. Gordon Sumner, responded to President Clinton's comment about being "very surprised if any adverse consequences flowed from the Chinese running the canal."
"I think he's been surprised repeatedly during his administration," said Sumner. "It's a matter of critical national security importance that we're not surprised. We're taking a risk to allow President Clinton to perform for the money he has received from the Chinese."
"The man is living in a dream world," added Sumner. "He has paid no attention to Latin America. I think it's an obscenity that he said such a thing. He counts China as America's strategic partner, but they have said publicly we are their number one enemy. That is a major disconnect."
See Joseph Farah's exclusive commentary,
"Clinton's Panama Canal admission."
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David Kupelian is managing editor of WorldNetDaily.
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[This message has been edited by JimR (edited June 25, 2000).]
