White House Tipped Lawmakers to Port Story

White House Tipped Lawmakers to Port Story
White House Alerted Republican Lawmakers Day Before Associated Press Port Security Story
By TED BRIDIS

WASHINGTON Mar 31, 2006 (AP)— Anxious to avoid new flare-ups over seaport security, the White House alerted dozens of Republican lawmakers on the eve of a story by The Associated Press on the subject and provided their staffs with an advance briefing.

The March 22 briefing involved between 50 and 100 congressional offices, participants said. It focused, they said, on an AP story being published the next day that disclosed that the Bush administration was hiring a Hong Kong conglomerate to help detect nuclear materials inside cargo passing through the Bahamas.

The no-bid, $6 million contract represents the first time a foreign company will be involved in running sophisticated U.S. radiation-detection equipment at an overseas port without the presence of U.S. Customs agents. The deal involves a company, Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., that some Republicans have cited for national security concerns in the past.

By the time the briefing took place, the AP had conducted numerous interviews with administration officials and they were familiar with the issues that would be raised in the story.
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http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1792371&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

What's with all these no-bid contracts? MAYBE people would be more accepting of a Halliburton or a Blackwater getting a contract if it were done FAIRLY with some honest COMPETITION.

After all isn't that the soul of capitalism, competition?

All these no-bids make it look (correctly) like corruption and "crony capitalism".

And they wonder why they're so unpopular right now.

people would know what was being done. This way, no questions, no answers.

:grr:

nt

:puke:

Most hell-seekers find their own way just fine. Sane people want to go back to some kind of pre=Bush life.

nt