-----Original Message-----
From: MARK THOMASE <MTHOMASE@bmecu.org>
Date: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 9:18 AM
Subject: America sold down the river, uh, canal

As you know, this year the United States turns the Panama Canal over to Panama.   Well, this morning's Investor's Business Daily reports that Panama has contracted the management of the Canal out to a Hong Kong firm "with close ties to the Chinese government."

The implications of this management deal should be obvious. In case of war, it will greatly hamper the ability of the US Navy to get ships from one ocean to another quickly.

Couple this with the fact that China now has a military base on the US mainland.  A couple of years ago, the Clinton administration sold the Long Beach Naval Air Station to the China Overseas Shipping Company (COSCO).  COSCO is using the facility as a port, but anybody who thinks that the Chinese military isn't ready to make the fullest possible use of the base at a moment's notice is living in a fantasy world.

By the way, this past week has witnessed some tumultuous events worldwide.  India and Pakistan are at war, and there were large anti-government riots in Serbia, Iran, and China.  And what dominated the headlines to the exclusion of everything else?   JFK jr's plane crash.

Which tells me that on the day that the Chinese nuke Washington and take over California, that it won't make the front page, unless it disrupts the wedding of Monica Lewinsky to O.J. Simpson . . .

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