CARGO DEAL Lawmaker worries about pact

Screening for nuclear materials will take place with no government supervision.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee sought assurances Friday over a no-bid contract the Bush administration is finalizing with a Hong Kong conglomerate to help detect nuclear materials inside cargo passing through the Bahamas to the United States and elsewhere.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said he was concerned there will be inadequate oversight in the Bahamas, just 65 miles from Florida's coast. He cited a story published Thursday by The Associated Press describing the $6 million contract involving radiation-scanning at the largest seaport in the Bahamas.
The administration acknowledges its contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. represents the first time a foreign company will be involved in running sophisticated U.S. radiation-detection equipment at an overseas port without American customs agents present.
"I am concerned that under the arrangement detailed, a foreign company is responsible for screening containers for illicit materials without any government involvement," Thompson wrote in a letter to leaders at the Homeland Security Department and the Energy Department.
The Republican chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King of New York, could not be reached Friday for comment.
Radiation scanner
The contract is being negotiated by the National Nuclear Security Administration, part of the Energy Department. It has said employees of Hutchison -- the world's largest ports operator -- will drive the towering, trucklike radiation scanner at the sprawling Freeport Container Port under the direct supervision of Bahamian customs officials.
Any positive reading would set off alarms monitored simultaneously by Bahamian customs inspectors at Freeport and by U.S. customs officials working at an anti-terrorism center in northern Virginia.
A spokesman for the NNSA said the agency had not yet received the letter from Thompson.