Hillary Clinton Rips Bill's Panama Ports Deal

2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is expanding her complaint about
foreign companies owning U.S. ports - and now says a 1999 deal to let a
Chinese company takeover the ports at each end of the Panama Canal
was a mistake.

Speaking at the 92nd Street YMCA in Manhattan yesterday, Clinton told the Jewish Community Relations Council: "There are those who say we can't [prevent foreign governments from operating U.S. ports] because look what happened in the last 20 years ... You know, we have the Chinese running the Panama Canal. We have other government-controlled entities controlling our ports."

According to the New York Observer, she then declared: "Well, just because it's been happening doesn't mean we should let it continue."

Mrs. Clinton neglected to mention, however, that it was her husband who approved the deal in question, when the Chinese company, Hutchison Whampoa, sought to buy the Panama Canal's ports.

When security concerns arose, then-President Clinton insisted that Chinese ownership posed no threat to canal operations, explaining that Hutchison was "bending over backwards to make sure that they run it in a competent and able and fair manner."