www.arky.org	Newsletter	News	Panama Canal Giveaway

For the last two years I've been fighting an often lonely battle against Bill Clinton and what could well be the deadliest sellout of America in our history. I feel today as I did on the eve of Pearl Harbor. America is in danger and we could face another Pearl Harbor - only this time it may be a nuclear Pearl Harbor.

I am referring to Bill Clinton's decision to OK the imminent takeover of the Panama Canal by Communist China. For over 80 years, keeping the Canal under the control of the U.S. was properly regarded as vital for the safety of all Americans. Control of the Canal will give China the ability to block vital food and oil shipments to the U.S....prevent deployment of our navy in times of national emergency...and create an enemy beachhead within striking distance of our cities. Red Chinese J-11 attack jets - each of which can drop 13,000 pounds of bombs - launched from Panama can strike our cities.

The notion that a U.S. president and Congress could allow this Canal - built and defended by the U.S. at an incredible cost in treasure and blood - to fall under the control of our avowed enemies, the Red Chinese - without a shot being fired - is incredible. Yet we are just days away from that nightmare becoming reality.

The Canal is Vital for America's Safety.

Strategically the Canal is a "choke-point," one of four places in the world where a small area can block trade for an entire continent. The other three are the Suez Canal, the Straits of Gilbraltar and the Molucca Straits near the Spratly Islands. (In the past year the Clinton administration has allowed the Chinese to seize some of the Spratly Islands, and they are currently building naval facilities there.)

Built and maintained by the United States at a cost of American blood and treasure - over $32 billion, more than 13,000 commercial vessels transit the Panama Canal every year, carrying 190 million long tons of cargo. Every month, over 1,000 ships use the Canal to bring food and oil to millions of Americans. The Canal is also vital for our national defense. In the past year, our naval vessels used the Canal countless times. This 51-mile waterway cuts 8,000 miles off the trip around the southern tip of South America, saving as much as two weeks of transport time. In warfare, time means lives and that much time can mean the difference between defeat and victory. Imagine that there was a crisis over Taiwan, or North Korean troops were invading South Korea - massacring our men there -it would be critical to control the Canal and speedily move naval forces to the area.

Now Bill Clinton wants America to abandoning the Panama Canal. Unless the American people raise a terrific outcry, on December 31, Communist China will take control of the Panama Canal and begin to occupy U.S. military facilities which are now being abandoned by our troops. If you visit Panama today, you'll see ghost towns where just a few months ago there were 10,000 U.S. troops. They're gone and there is no Panamanian army to replace them.

The Clinton administration has been quick to dispatch American troops all over the world, to places like Kosovo, Haiti, and Timor - these are places not vital to American interests. The Panama Canal is vital for us, yet the Clinton administration won't allow any American military presence there. That makes the Panama Canal incredibly vulnerable to attack by groups like the narco terrorists who are allied with Fidel Castro and hate the U.S....communist guerrillas who are operating in the area...and to influence by foreign powers eager to move into the strategic vacuum left by the U.S. withdrawal.

Of greatest concern is the growing Chinese presence and domination of Panama and the Canal. Panama has signed a 50-year lease for two ports at each end of the Canal with a company called "Hutchison Whampoa" run by one Li Ka-Shing. Ka-Shing is a member of China's ruling power elite and Hutchison Whampoa is connected to China's ruling council. Panama's lease with Hutchison Whampoa gives China's Communist Party de facto control over the most strategic waterway in the West. Under Panama's agreement, Hutchison Whampoa will control port facilities at both ends of the Canal...they'll control who is allowed to pilot ships through the canal and can assign their own pilots...and they'll also be able to refuse access to the Canal by any ship for "business reasons."

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has stated that Hutchison Whampoa is "an arm of the People's Liberation Army" and that U.S. naval ships will now be "at the mercy" of Red Chinese.

China's Takeover of the Canal Threatens Your Security

In fact, with our navy blocked from moving through the Canal and Chinese missiles and jets poised to launch from Panama, China could intimidate the U.S. into surrendering Taiwan, Panama, and God knows what else without a shot being fired. If that didn't work, they could just lob a few missiles at our cities.

Communist China Is Our Enemy

This is the same regime that massacred thousands of students at Tiananmen Square and which supplies terrorist regimes in Iran, Syria, Libya and North Korea with missiles and weapons of mass destruction. This is the same regime which "harvests" the organs of political dissidents, burns churches and imprisons millions of its own citizens in concentration camps. This is the same China that stole our most secret nuclear weapons, missile and satellite technology and tried to smuggle into California 100,000 automatic weapons and millions of rounds of ammunition. We still don't know for sure why China was smuggling these weapons into the United States.

This is the same communist government that calls America "the #1 enemy" and threatened to attack Los Angeles with nuclear weapons if we interfere with their planned re-conquest of Taiwan. Thanks to Bill Clinton and China's recent, wholesale acquisition of U.S. military technology, China is now building weapons of mass destruction at breakneck speed and rapidly becoming a global military power. Control of the Panama Canal will give Communist China a beachhead for expanded aggression in Latin America and direct assault on the U.S.

When Taiwan conducts their national elections this spring, less than six months from now, China could make good on its threat of war against the U.S. In fact, with our navy blocked from moving through the Canal and Chinese missiles and jets poised to launch from Panama, China could intimidate the US into surrendering Taiwan, Panama, and God knows what else without a shot being fired. If that didn't work, they could just lob a few missiles at our cities. China has plenty of short-range missiles capable of hitting L.A., Houston, Miami and many other cities. China's impending takeover of the Panama Canal is of utmost significance to the United States, but the Clinton administration and its media friends have turned a blind eye to this dangerous development.

In light of China's massive contributions to the Clinton-Gore campaign and the Democratic National Committee, and President's Clinton's subsequent radical changes of policy to benefit the People's Republic of China, one can only wonder if this is yet another quid pro quo for Chinese cash.

If we allow China to take control of the Panama Canal, we are setting ourselves up for inevitable conflict. We will be forced, as a matter of national survival, at some not too distant point in the future, to go to Panama and win back militarily what we have bought and built, and what is rightfully ours. When that happens, we will have to pay a high price in blood and treasure again, because the alternative will be far worse.

We Can Stop Bill Clinton's Giveaway of the Canal

Until recently, even Republican members of Congress seemed oblivious to the distressing implications of surrendering control of the Panama Canal to Communist China. Finally, however, at the 11th hour, a few in Congress are waking up. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and Dana Rohrbacher of California have both protested the imminent communist takeover. Lott has also requested Congressional hearings into the Canal giveaway. So we now have a small window of opportunity to roll back this disaster. We must do everything we can to encourage them and stop the giveaway of the Panama Canal.

First, inform yourself. You need to understand what's at stake in the Canal giveaway and who is responsible for it. One way you can do that is by going to www.NewsMax.com and clicking on the "Panama Canal" link under Hot Topics.

Second, alert your friends, your neighbors, journalists, and local officials. Call local talk shows, write letters to the editor, get the word out to anyone who will listen.

Third, demand that your representatives in Washington take action to stop the Canal giveaway. Call your Congressman and Senators IMMEDIATELY at 202-225-3121. Tell them you agree with me, that the Panama Canal can not, must not, be turned over to the Chinese, and that the U.S. must continue a military presence in Panama. Please take action now and help stop this betrayal of our country.

From newsmax.com