Pg-#8-
Quotable Quotes and Facts of Note:
In his book, Ten Days that Shook The World, 1919, Harvard-educated communist, John Reed recorded the communist plan, "All straits opening into inland seas as well as the Suez and Panama canals are to be neutralized."
In 1996, more than 15,000 ships, (about 42 per day) passed through the Panama Canal. From 1985 to 1995 the number of ships, their tonnage and the amount of tolls collected have been steadily increasing. (Encarta Encyclopedia online)
The Panama Canal was finananced and contructed by the U.S. government between 1903 and its opening in 1914 and was built primarily for military reasons..
Thousands of cargo ships pass through the canal generating hundreds of millions of dollars in tolls each year, $546 million in 1998 alone. (MSNBC Dec 31, 1999)
During a March 19, 1999 press conference, president Bill Clinton stated, "To the best of my knowledge- and you know I try to -not only do i spend a great deal of time every day on national security measures, I try to prepare for these things. To the best of my knowledge, no one has said anything to me about any espionage, which occurred by the Chinese against the labs during my presidency."
HOWEVER, during an interview with ABC This Week's Sam Donaldson (05/16/99), Rep. Christopher Cox, (Chairman of the House Select Committe which studied communist Chinese espionage in the U.S.) stated, "To the contrary, we were told that the president was briefed on this and of course, our report was dated January 3 and we told the president on that date."
Editor's Note: But wait! Doesn't January come before March? Like I've always said - honesty IS important.