Panama Canal project goes on
June 26, 2009—PANAMA CITY - The economic downturn has stalled big construction projects across the globe, but in Panama, smoke-belching steam shovels and dredges work around the clock on what people here call simply la ampliacion or the expansion. Read Article

Clinton warns of Iranian, Chinese gains in Latin America
May 1, 2009—WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that Iran and China are making "quite disturbing" gains in Central and South America. Read Article

U.S. Under Siege from Chinese, Russian Cyber-Attackers
April 8, 2009—WASHINGTON - U.S. concerns about the potential for cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure extended to the American electrical power grid on April 8 and experts pointed the finger anew at Chinese hackers, among others. Read Article

Obama: Ignoring China's Military Buildup
April 3, 2009—The Obama administration came into office looking to "deepen the dialogue" with the People's Republic of China (PRC). On her visit to Beijing in late February, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said "it is essential that the United States and China have a positive, cooperative relationship. Both of us are seeking ways to deepen and broaden that relationship." In reality, she narrowed the discussion by pushing to the margin areas of disagreement. Read Article

Pentagon Questions Growing Chinese Military Power
March 25, 2009—WASHINGTON The Pentagon is questioning how China intends to use its rapidly expanding military power, including what it calls some "disruptive military technologies." Read Article

Concerns Remain as China's String of Pearls Strategy Moves Forward
March 18, 2009—China’s “string of pearls” strategy appears to be taking another step forward as Beijing increases ties with the Sri Lankan government. The strategy, which was the subject of a 2005 U.S. China Commission report to Congress, is driven by China’s need to secure foreign oil and trade routes critical to its development. This has meant establishing an increased level of influence along sea routes through investment, port development and diplomacy. Read Article

U.S. says Chinese vessels harassed Navy ship
March 9, 2009—WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Five Chinese ships including a naval vessel harassed an unarmed U.S. Navy ocean surveillance ship in international waters in the South China Sea March 8, the Pentagon said. Read Article

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed says the Panama Canal is a target
March 15, 2007—WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told a U.S. military tribunal he personally beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002, the Pentagon revealed Thursday. Read article

A view of the Panama Canal from the USS Wisconsin.

Container ship passes through the Miraflores Locks.

Passing through the Panama Canal.

Gatun Locks

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ANALYSIS "China's Stranglehold on the Panama Canal": :A Geopolitical Assessment of the United States’ Legitimate Security Interests and Sovereign Rights in Exercising the Neutrality Treaty to Reassert Authority over the Panama Canal Read article

Panama Needs US Military Presence
As reported on this site, Panama has said 'no' to a US base on its soil. Panama is a sovereign state with the right to make this decision, but given the threats to the Panama Canal one has to wonder at its wisdom. Among the known threats: The mastermind of Al Qaeda's 9/11 attack on the United States, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, admitted to US authorities that the Panama Canal was one of Al Qaeda's list of targets. China effectively controls passage through the Canal through Hutchinson Whampoa's running the large ports at either end, Balboa and Cristobal. China is known to be interested in securing an airbase in the region, and has shown interest in Howard Air Base in Panama and Manta in Ecuador, both built by the United States.

Panama and Washington signed the Panama Canal Treaty in 1977. Article I, Paragraph 4 states: "In view of the special relationship established by this Treaty, the United States of America and the Republic of Panama shall cooperate to assure the uninterrupted and efficient operation of the Panama Canal, that guarantees the free flow of shipping through the Canal." Since Panama has no army, surely a US military presence would be the only way the two countries can "assure the uninterrupted and efficient operation of the Panama Canal."

The Real Cost of Panama's Vote to Expand the Canal
The $5.25 billion price tag the Government of Panama is putting on its expansion of the Panama Canal is highly suspect. Independent estimates have put the figure at $7 billion to $12 billion. And the Undersecretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere, Roger Pardo-Maurer, at a 2005 hearing of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, set the anticipated price range of the work at between $16 and $25 billion. Earning about $500 million a year from canal tolls, Panama will have to borrow heavily to carry out the project.

In 1996 Panama voided two bids won by Bechtel to run the major ports at either end of the canal, Cristobal and Balboa, as part of an ambitious expansion of Panama's role in shipping. It eventually gave a concession for the ports and other former US facilities to Hutchinson Whampoa, a Chinese company close to the government in Beijing. Will Panama once again invite China to play a bigger role in what is undoubtedly a project of enormous strategic importance to America? And if China strengthens its hold on the canal, will it remain a truly neutral waterway fully accessible to US naval vessels in time of war?